Holiday Art Sale

It was fun. Amazing the comments you get when folks don't know you do this...Here are some pictures. Now back to the loom, my joy for me.

What Is In A Name?

Here it is. So much anticipation as I wove it. I put it away for almost a month before I began the tucking and sewing and finishing. It wasn't as perfect as I would have wanted and almost everything is that way with me. I can't figure out what to call it. I like to name my work. it is usually with me when I am weaving, the name that is...I better get out my word book.

It Has Been So Long

I have forgotten how to post. here are my newest for the Block Street ArtSale this weekend at Shirkey''s Goodfolk House in Fayetteville, AR.

It's About this Corn...

What in the world

would I be writing about corn let alone posting pictures of corn? Well this corn is pretty cool. It has inspirational qualities for a color palette for a new rug.

Here's a few of the shots of corn...

Sometimes it is just so right...

You walk outside and you just realize that it is all out of your hands.  That nature is so majestic and unreliable that you just have to go with it and revel in it's beauty.

And another day has begun...

Back At It Again

Things just really don't ever quite turn out the way you try to plan them to.  Take these pictures for instance..the shot with the Buddha is right in front of my office here in the "woods" and the iris is a confused iris that is blooming right here right now in October.  It is hardy and strong and smells divine.

This is the rug that has been on my loom almost too long now.  I have/had big ideas for it and I love the colors, but it is time to get ready for the December Art Sale Show and get the looper rugs back in gear.  This rug does not want me to finish and get on with it.  It keeps changing character, as do a lot of things in my life it seems.  Going with the flow is the hardest thing sometimes. I like to be ready and not too surprised by life theses days, but the tides keep on coming in  and I keep trying to ebb and flow with the rise and fall. 

Everything is New

 Oh the beauty of New Mexico.  The blues skies and blooming desert plants just at the entrance to the road to our property west of the Gorge combined with the glorious sunsets after a late summer rain call me back again and again to the place I can't wait to call home.

Here are the newest creations coming out of my hands this past few weeks. A really cool mix on this simple roll brim hat.  My friend Martie's beautiful handspun wool combined with Manos merino  to make a cozy warm and beautiful hat that kind of looks like snow, spruce and blue sky.  And speaking of blues, do I ever have them.  At least this time the newest rug is going to be a bit of a different  stripe for me combined with some color blocks that aren't traditional anything.  Traditional me, I guess. Green chile and purple  will be the next colors added to this rug.  Speaking of rugs...my funky Ozark Fusion I showed you  last time actually took a second place in Ozark Folkways Fiber Festival this past weekend while a cotton looper rug of mine took third.  Pretty cool, huh?

Another Rug Another Day

I am stuck in this color combination, but I must say this turned out nicely.  I don't think I have enough for a third rug out of this wool, so I am moving on.  I have entered this rug in a fiber competition at Ozark Folkways during their  Second Annual Fiberfest.  I am excited about the prospects.  I just love to put color together.  I already have the next wool rug in my head.

Back In The Groove

Well, it seems to be back to the blues and the greens for me.  I didn't plan it that way...it just happened.  I think all of this green around me here where I live and work has done it to me.

It has never ever in the 35 years I have lived here been this lush and beautiful in September.  We have had more rain than I have seen in all that time in the early fall.  My husband's tomatoes didn't even get enough sun to ripen until this past week.

The first shot is the drive to my office.  How green is that!  The next shot is looking in from the front at the morning glory takeover of the twisted hazelnut or Harry Lauder's Walkingstick at our entryway. You cannot even see the tree.

This third shot is the view looking out from the house to the street You still can't really see the tree.  It is there, trust me.

Just a final mention of my beloved Sallyrae.  Here is her final resting place .  She is just outside my office in a quiet clearing where she can watch over me and guard her yard as she loved to do.

Rest In Peace My Sweet Angel

Sallyrae DuBois.  March 21. 1997-August 28th, 2009.

She was the best friend I ever had.  I knew from the moment I first saw her at the local pound and by the shy way she hid behind her brothers and sisters, I had to make her mine.  There was something about her demeanor, her sweet face, her liquid brown eyes.  There was just something about, her.  Her essence.  I felt I had met a partner on this journey we call life.

I never felt called to have children.  I always have wanted to save every little living animal creature I ever met.  I saved baby bunnies with their eyes glued shut that my cats had raided from bunny nests and released them back to nature.(Boy, was that hard for Sally to watch.  She thought they were going to be an appetizer)  All of my animals companions have been rescues. 

 Sallyrae rescued me.  I was in the beginning of a complete change in my life.  Alone, uncharted waters, a new career that everyone said I would never make it in, middle aged and full of hope that this time it would really work. Making my living at something I loved to do and being able to support myself.  What a concept! And Sally was with me all the way.  At first we worked seven days a week.  She was the greeter and general hospitality queen.  I was just the worker bee. She knew who to stay in crate for because they didn't like dogs and who to greet enthusiastically with a wag of her tail and a bow.  Things changed in our lives and we met my husband and his dog Nellie and moved to the country.  Oh what a treat for Sally to go out and roll in unspeakable things and chase small critters, sometimes the wrong ones who in turn chased her back.  Sometimes she didn't get to work after her outside jaunts because of the beautiful perfume she wore.  She worked with me just last week.  I had an inkling this was her last week after her diagnosis just two weeks previously.  She had some special people she wanted to say so long to and she did.  Bittersweet and sad were those partings, but I knew she nor I wanted it any other way. 

Yesterday morning  Dr. Nicki came  to our home.  Dr. Nicki was gentle and kind and we held Sallyrae  in our arms on the floor and told her how much we loved her.  She finally was  free from the pain she had born.  We made her a special place  to rest just in view of the pod(my office) and she was placed there with many tears and pets along with a new frisbee, a new rawhide chew and her old favorite squeaky.  May your journey be safe Sallyrae.  My sweet angel.  I know you are watching over me. I love you my baby girl.

Off the Loom, In the Box and Out the Door

Here it is.  The second of two wool tapestry rugs I am sending to the EVFAC show in Abiquiu, NM.  I did not like it so much when it first came off of the loom and then after the processing and finishing work it really grew on me.  I have named it Sundog Sally after my faithful

 companion who watched over me this past weekend while I wove it not only once, but twice due to carelessness.

I hurry to much.  I am afraid I will miss something if I don't do it all. I try to put too much into small spaces.  I want to do everything and I can't do it all so I tend to just over do.  This was a lesson.  Take the idea of mindfulness.  Don't make it so full.  Take a hint from my faithful companion who is trying to teach me a lesson on her way out....breathe and let it be here now...

On the Road to New Mexico or what I did with My Vacation Wool

Here it is.  The finished product.  I haven't blocked it yet and done the itsy bitsy work to get it ready to sell.

  I am a member of the Espanola Valley Fiber Arts Co-operative in Espanola, New Mexico.  I am going to put this rug and some of my cotton looper rugs in their annual selling show at the Ghost Ranch Museum in Abiquiu, New Mexico.  I consider myself to be so incredibly fortunate to belong to this group that promotes the fiber art of it's members.

Wake Up Morning Glory!

What glorious morning glories greet me every morning here at the airporch.  Brilliant colors glinting through the greens and other morning colors.  Today it was foggy and oh so beautiful in the mist.

Here are a couple pictures of two of my larger looper rugs I call my "Taos Series".  The one with all of the lighter colors at the top and the greens at the bottom are my "Rio Grande Gorge" visions and the other just plain Taos.  I guess there is no plain "Taos".  It is a special and magical place.  

I Want One!

I know this has absolutely nothing to do with fiber, but my Fibertwin sister sent this to me today and I have to share.  Isn't this absolutely adorable?  

We are always joking around my house about getting a pet for my big dog, BarryWhite.  Named so because he is big, black, and beautiful with a very deep voice.

Someone he can herd around and look after since we don't have enough acreage for an alpaca or two or sheep.  Wouldn't this little horse be fun? Fibertwin named him "Little Burro White".

Fibertwin's child

Fibertwin's cat has come to rest while she is out of town.  He makes himself at home on the deck.  It looks like a picture waiting to be painted or a tapestry waiting to be woven.

This guy was out around the pool with me yesterday I am not sure what he is.

Other amenities are on the deck as well.  A cool pool for these hot afternoons and a hot tub for winter evenings.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Here is the 2nd shawl in those bright clear colors that I showed you a few weeks ago.  It looks better in this close-up than in the other shots previously.  And Hot, Hot , Hot is what this gal in the orange basket weave hat is going to be if she doesn't come in from outside....She may melt.

Here I go, another shawl.  I am on a tear here.  I am loving this Etsy shop thing.  I have hooked up with folks already. Everyone is so nice and I feel so inspired looking at the work of all the other fiber folk out there.  

Pictures of wool in 98 degree weather just seems wrong...but Fall is just around the corner  and I love to plan ahead.

Being Redundant...again

Here we go again with  the tapestry.  As you can see here are the New Mexico colors again.  Can't wait to see the evolution of this.  I started with a cartoon then said what the heck, I would rather free form it any old day...just the way I am.

Inspiration.  Just one of the views from our property last week.  Can't help it.  I am hooked on a feelin'.

Colores de Mexico

Surprise!  All the colors of rug yarn I have purchased on this trip match the  colors at all the places I have been...

Bandelier National Monument, the top picture.  The second picture,on the way to Los Alamos.  

The third picture; the rug yarn...coming home with me.

The fourth picture;  Bandelier  Cholla

blooming.

There are a million more other New Mexico colors. I can't even begin to describe. The sunsets, the dappled light coming in our casita windows in the morning. I am already saddened by having to come home, but I can hardly wait to get on the loom and start weaving what I have in my mind.  What a refreshing rebirth of creativity is awakened when I am here.  I may become a Taosena after all...down the road.

Another Day...Another rug

Another fibonacci rug...that is.  What a great idea it was to use the fibonaccii sequence loosely in determining a pattern for looping the loopers together.

What is fibonacci you might ask?

In mathematics, the Fibonacci numbers are the following sequence of numbers:

By definition, the first two Fibonacci numbers are 0 and 1, and each remaining number is the sum of the previous two. Some sources omit the initial 0, instead beginning the sequence with two 1s.

In mathematical terms, the sequence F_n of Fibonacci numbers is defined by the recurrence relation

with seed values

The Fibonacci sequence is named after Leonardo of Pisa, who was known as Fibonacci (a contraction of filius Bonaccio, "son of Bonaccio".) Fibonacci's 1202 book Liber Abaciintroduced the sequence to Western European mathematics, although the sequence had been previously described in Indian mathematics