Category Archives: Humor

Love a Parade?

We live in the city but we are part of a couple smaller communities whose business district has for the past 11 years held a Halloween parade know as the Boo Parade. It runs down “main street” which really isn’t a main street anymore but rather just one of the most used streets running east to west through our area. The start of the parade is only a couple blocks from our home so we usually walk up and stay for a short time.

mez and lady
My mom and Lady
horse
dachshund horse boo parade
dachshund horse throwing rider boo parade

My favorite part of the parade is when the horses come through but that’s usually toward the end, probably so the marching bands and sirens don’t spook them. I have a romanticized view of horses, maybe because I’m a city girl whose mother’s family owned a blind horse on the farm and I’ve never had to clean out stalls and pick up manure. Anyway, this year I stayed for the entire parade and finally saw horses.However my favorite part of the parade was not actually in the parade at all…
Happy Halloween!

Ornery and a Little Gross

I can be ornery sometimes. I should preface this with a little back story. My husband is a mountain biker and the day before his 60th birthday he (who thinks he is still 29) took a spill (he crashed) on his bike. His injuries looked terrible to me, but he is not one to let anything get him down, not road rash or bruises. Luckily he didn’t break any bones, and now he’s made a full recovery.

The other day when it was about 97 degrees outside, I painted a piece of flour resist fabric. I took the below photos with my phone and later when I looked at them I had a light bulb moment. The fact that the fabric was brown with a reddish tint made it all the better.

I took the phone over to my mister and I said “Honey, when you were sleeping I took photos of your scabs”. I wish I had a picture of his face… he looked a little like he had been violated and a little like “that was a creepy thing to do”. I couldn’t keep my poker face and said “I’m just kidding, it is the flour resist fabric I painted BUT doesn’t look just like scabs?!” Yes, a little gross.

I’m happy with the way the fabric turned out. It is going into a triptych that I will share it in a future post. And I’m happy to say, the mister and I had a good laugh together and he has forgiven me.

flour resist 1
flour resist 2
flour resist 3

A Special Kitty Treat!

This is our ten year old kitty, Kona in her box (which measures 8” x 11”). The box is smack dab in the center of our so called “great” room, on a small area rug. Despite the fact that she has cat beds on just about every piece of furniture in the house she has decided this is her box, her bed, her raft! So it remains there to be kicked and tripped over, every time one of us walk through the room.
kona_box

Today when I revisited this photo I noticed all the texture: the cardboard, the fur, the weave of the rug and the pattern, even the tiny corner of wood… all so tactile and inspiring to a fiber artist.

garden bed
Garden Bed by Ann L. Scott

Many of us have made quilts inspired by our cats. When I think of cats and quilts I can’t help but think of quilt artist Ann Fahl ‘s quilts featuring her cat Oreo.

ann fahl quilt2
Summer Sanctuary by Ann Fahl

Ann Fahl writes “Summer Sanctuary is a quilt when first completed didn’t include Oreo.  She was added later!”

ann fahl quilt1
Under the Giant Coneflowers by Ann Fahl

Another of Ann’s quilts – Under the Giant Coneflowers, is one of my favorites. Ann’s book, A Black and White Tale, includes all of her cat pieces. I hope you will visit Ann Fahl’s website and her blog to read more about her books and to see her incredible body of work.

I own two of Ann Fahl’s free-motion thread play books and have admired her work for a long time. I thank Ann for giving me permission to share her art.

Doggy play day!

Sometimes it is good to just create something for fun – no rules and no deadlines! So I grabbed a greeting card my daughter designed years ago and used it to make a pattern for a little art quilt. Today I’ll post the first three steps and when it is finished I’ll post it again.

I used a piece of my hand painted sky fabric for the background.

slobbery prior to stitching
Fused no stitching (At this stage it looks like a polar bear to me)

I draw outlines on a piece of Sulky Super Solvy water soluble stabilizer and used KK 2000 temp spray adhesive. Then I free motioned sketched stitch the details.

slobbery prior to pastel
Stitched before wax pastel

Then using Caran d’ Ache water-soluble wax pastels, a paint brush and water, I added some highlights and shadows. I think I may hit the eye reflection with a dot of white textile or acrylic for a bit more spark.

My daughter says it’s better than her original but I like it just as much!

Support

I’m fortunate to have a very supportive family. Both of my (adult) kids are visual artists and so there is a lot of art talk flying around here. Even if they aren’t keen on my newest project they chime in and show an interest.

Lenny by Tyler Scott
Lenny by Zoey Scott