Deirdre’s Sloppy Studio

A few days ago Deb R of Red Shoe Ramblings  passed on an award.  And believe it or not - this is the first time I’ve received one of these.  Of course it could have something to do with the fact that I don’t post as often as I would like (or as my readers might like).  But as Deb points out - when I do post - there is usually something fun to share.
 Thank you Deb!  I am thrilled!
First the Rules:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.  It’s right up on top

2. Link to the person you received your award from. (it’s up on top)

You can find Deb at Red Shoe Ramblings

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs. 
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

1. Thread Story
2. The Lone Beader
3. Art & Quilting in Camden
4. Wild Thread Studio
5. An Artist’s Journal
6. Dyed and Gone to Heaven
7. Julie Hopkins Daily Paintings

5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.

I’m off to do that now.  Hope you enjoy these blogs as much as I do!

A cute little piece from JibJab.

In keeping with the last post and making changes for the better, I made a change to my blog.  I can hear you all now - DUH you say!  Well, these things can’t be rushed.

I really like working with wordpress, I think it is much easier than blogger, it definitely works more often, IMHO.  And it goes without saying that its better than the way I used to keep my journal - hand-coding individual entries on my website. 

Today I upgraded to the newest version of wordpress.  I upgraded all the blogs I help manage, all except my own!  Kind of like the shoemakers kids… you know?  And I figured as long as I was changing things, I should take the time to change my template.  I’ve been looking for a while for a different template, the last two I’ve used were Glorious Day by Sadish and MistyLook also by Sadish. 

I saw the template I’m using now when I visited Liz Plummer’s Dreaming Spirals blog.  I love the larger format and the split sidebars.  This one is called Cutline and its by Chris Pearson

So I did get a chance to play a bit tonight, while Morgan is entertaining friends.  (I can sit in my studio and mostly they forget about me, but I can still keep an eye and ear on them.)  I added my own backgrounds and colors and edited my sidebar content.

There’s still more to do but this feels like a good start. 

I just realized there are many different headers on different pages, so I think I’ll be adding more of mine.  Right now the photo on the front page is mine the rest are part of the template.

Hope you stop back again to see what other changes might be happening here!

Let me start by saying that I know I am very lucky to have a studio space, that many people have to work on a kitchen table or grab a space in their living room.  I have also done that in the past.  But since we moved into this house I was lucky enough to claim the loft over our bedrooms for my stuff.  There are definite obstacles with having a space with no walls, and for the most part I’ve worked around this problem.  A much larger problem is the fact that I keep a very Sloppy Studio!  The top photo is my starting point, before I did any cleaning and before I moved the table

A few years ago Tom made me a wonderful sewing table which is one of the best tables I’ve ever had.  for several years I’ve had it placed directly under the roof ridge.  I have tons of Iris drawers under everyplace except where my legs need to be for sewing.  But this table is big and it took up a lot of room, but it was the only way I thought it would fit.  WRONG!  Timi came over several weeks ago and she and I discussed what furniture I needed to get rid of to make the space not as claustrophobic, She suggested I turn the table towards the window wall - this would allow me to watch the tv while I was sitting at the machine, and would free up a lot of floor space.  (this photo of the table is a one-time thing, never to be seen again!)  If you open up this photo you can see how little space there is between the table edges and the bookcase - I had a similar sized space on the near side of the table - with the way the ceiling sloped, if you went too much further you crashed into the ceiling.

This is well into the process, facing the wall-unit which overlooks the living room.

Well, it has taken me quite a bit of time to get everything moved.  I cleaned out the wall unit and dusted (something which hasn’t been done in ages) and tossed and donated and gifted a lot of stuff.  I have almost everything done, the only place left to organize is the credenza… but I’m leaving that for another day.  Here is what the space looks like now - taking the photo from the landing - I wish I had a wide-angle lens because you really can’t see it all and I’m too lazy to photo merge.   The open floor space between the table and the wall unit is 12′ x 7′.  I AM THRILLED!

And here is a photo of my helper, Hunter, who seems exhausted by all the hard work, but he seems very happy with the new arrangement!

Today - I have no excuses for not being creative - So I am off to MAKE ART!  Hope you all have an Art-filled Day!

Meet Howdoyoulikemenow, aka Bob.  Bob is one of the Mustangs involved with the Extreme Mustang Makeover one of the projects of the Mustang Heritage Foundation, and he is being trained by Judy Ballenger.  I’ve working on Judy’s website and have been helping with her blog and thought I’d mention it to anyone who stops to visit here. 

I hope you go and visit Judy and learn more about her daily work with Bob and see more photos and meet some of her other horses.  Oh and you will get a chance to learn why his name is “Bob”.

While you are there, please note that Judy is accepting donations and looking for sponsors to help with Bob’s training.  PayPal is accepted and there is a Donation page tab on the website that lets you make donations from $1 and up  - every little bit helps, so send a donation if you can spare it.  It’s a good cause.  And if you join the Howdoyoulikemenow Club for $25 - you will get a t-shirt from Screaming Ink

I spent most of the day working on websites and blogs.  All the blogs I manage were installed through the webhost I use, so their upgrades are pretty simple.  All except mine.  But I did lots of backups and spent many hours updating things.  Everything looked good - at least until I rebooted my computer. 

 All of the other blogs and websites are fine, but mine was GONE GONE GONE!  It took me a few hours to get it back (thank you Jesus for the good backups).  All is well now and all of the software is updated to the newest and greatest.

So if you missed me while I was offline - you can’t get rid of me that easily.  I’m hoping to have ARTWORK to post soon!

 Happy Summer Solstice!

   eirdre

I’m working on the starting part of an Exquisite Corpse round robin done in fiber, Hosted by Arlee.  This is the 2nd round (my first) and as the rules state I can’t post any photos until it returns home.  So you will all have to wait - although if you would like to see some of the first round pieces you can check out http://exquisitecorpsetextiles.blogspot.com/

I want to wish my father a very Happy Father’s Day!

Here is a photo of Warren with his kids taken last time we were all together.

And while I’m at it - Happy Father’s Day, Tom!

I had the honor of making a quilt in rememberance of Connecticut Serviceman, Army Captain Jason R. Hamill who was killed in Iraq. 

My quilt is being presented today to his family  at the 5th Annual Sikorsky Memorial Tribute.  You can find out more about this project here.

Getting this challenge posted has been a struggle, but recently it was put on the QuiltArt site.  Thanks to Susan North for starting the ball rolling and Heidi for her hard work pushing that ball up and over the hill!  You can see all the entries on the QuiltArt site.  My entry didn’t have the text included so I’ll put it all here. 

‘Woman Are From Venus’
19” width X 24” tall
$250  My inspiration for this quilt were the carvings found in Europe called Sheela-na-Gig’s.  These carvings decorate churches and castles in Ireland and England They are often positioned over doors or windows, presumably to protect these openings. However, their use and meaning seems to inspire its own controversy.  Some of the popular ideas include: The Survival of the Pagan Goddess; A Fertility Symbol; A Warning Against Lust; and Protection Against Evil. It took me a while to get started with this project, I knew I wanted to participate and yet I didn’t really know the direction I wanted to take.  I was looking through a stash of lightly colored hand-dyed fabric.  When I saw the mottled green blue fabric, the book title, ‘Men are from Mars… Woman are from Venus’, sprang to mind, with the image of the Sheela’s and their likeness to modern drawings of space (women).  It seemed I had my inspiration and plan for my quilt. My quilt includes 7 spirals quilted in metallic gold threads.  Gold and 7 are both things associated with the Planet Venus.  The black and gold flecked background fabric was commercially purchased and seemed to suggest the depth of Time and Space.  The Vulva was formed with layers of hand-dyed gauze and the clitoris was an antique bead.

I’ve been making some progress with getting my stuff organized - although it seems like it may be a life-long journey!  And I’ve been pretty good about not adding to my supplies (except for some programs and a few spools of thread).  But how could I pass up a Freecycle notice which said they had a potter’s wheel.  I mean after all I have a kiln - even if it isn’t hooked up - maybe one day it will be!

And Tom was away, so it was FATE that I needed to get it, right? I went yesterday to pick it up…. and it is almost brand new! 

It’s not even really dirty!  And I was shocked to see what the list price was.

So now to find out if there is anyplace local who will do firings, until I can figure out if the kiln has a spot to hook it up!  Maybe I’ll set it up outside for a few months this summer.

 After I finish redecorating/organizing in the studio, of course!