Pisces Moon Studio

Well, not really…

Just not much to say recently, especially art-related. Not to worry, this too shall pass and I will be back in full motor-mouth form before long.

Matthew at defective yeti has a new game for people to play. I’m not going to participate, because I have Firefox set to dump history after 24 hours and I’ve only gone to like six sites in the last day. (I’ve been busy.) But you might have fun with it… and besides, Matthew is a funny guy. Go say Hi.

… and it feels goooooood.

I used to do quilts with dancers in various incarnations. Dancers with wings (here and here), dancers in the water, dancers in the night.

I belonged to a critique group for a while, and once the leader invited an art professor to come and look at our work. She looked over half a dozen of my dancer pieces and said to me quizzically: “Every one of these is about flying or floating. Why is that? Your work is weightless, perhaps?”

Looking back at it now, I think maybe she meant to imply “effortless,” but at the time I took “weightless” to mean “lightweight” or “worthless.” I was disturbed and rather offended, but rather than say anything, I just quit making dancers.

I also quit going to that group.

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We’re picking up on another topic of discussion from QuiltArt today, this time the book SoulCollage, by Seena B. Frost, subtitled “An Intuitive Collage Process for Individuals and Groups.”

I bought this book a couple of years ago, the last time the subject came around on QA, thinking that it would be helpful in both the exploring-the-inner-self and how-to-do-collage areas that I was learning about at the time.

Have you ever read a book that everyone else was delighted with, only to find that it leaves you totally cold? That was my reaction, when I got my copy and read through it. Frost takes a well-known concept, Jungian archetypes, renames it to Neter which rhymes with better (why not spell it “Netter,” then?), and proceeds to muddle the entire idea into something that really doesn’t resemble Jung at all.

That’s her prerogative, of course. I think she would have been better off to start out with a fresh concept instead of trying to tie it to an established and well-known pattern of thought.
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Stealing a page from the very funny Pop’s Bucket, I briefly thought about starting a semi-regular post series featuring Movies I Have No Intention of Seeing.

Then it occurred to me that the last movie I saw, actually paid money and walked into a theater to see, was Maverick. In 1994.

It will be a very short series:

Trying to read the Art Quilters’ webring this morning, and I keep running into problems.

Melody’s latest post has seven comments attached, but when I try to read them, Blogspot says there is no such page.

Sonji’s blog is gone completely. It apparently doesn’t exist.

There have been other glitches, but those are the worst.

Is anyone else having problems, or is Blogspot just punishing me because I am writing with WordPress?

[Update] Now I can’t post comments on Debra’s blog either. It’s official. Blogspot hates me.

[Update #2]: Via the inestimable TBogg: The Blogspot sulkiness appears to have something to do with Firefox. Go to Tools> Options> Cache> Clear to make Sonji’s blog and Melody and Debra’s comments magically reappear.

I’m toying with the idea of having a studio Clean Sweep sale. I’ve sold on eBay off and on since 1998, and I am filled with dismay at the thought of photographing and writing descriptions for all the stuff I am unearthing.

Vintage fabrics. (There are at least two more boxes this size, and this box is the icky stuff that no one is gonna want. I’ve got a four-drawer bureau full of feed sacks and 1940s prints too.)

Tons of quilt books.

Vintage quilt blocks.

Bunches of old quilt tops that I’ve accumulated. (Not ones I made — old ones I’ve collected.)

Vintage table linens, some from the 1950s.

Calendars purchased just for the pictures and never marked in.

Thirty years or more accumulation of quilt magazines, including some of the very early Quilters’ Newsletters.

I’ve even got a one-owner Bernina 1230 in perfect condition that I am about ready to part with, for a suitable price.

Oh yeah… I almost forgot the antique Singer sewing machines back in the corner. No Featherweights, but at least two of them are in good running order and sew a beautiful straight stitch. I think I have a Model 128 and a couple of 202s, though I’d have to go look.

I must be getting old. I don’t feel comforted by having all this stuff anymore — I am almost claustrophobic with the clutter, and I have a big studio space.

Time to clean out and unload. Wish you could all come over!

[Update] The books have a new home. Thanks! :)

I’m making some headway against the chaos. We took three big boxes o’ stuff to Goodwill yesterday, and I am currently filling another box with books and magazines for the library sale.

Does anyone read mysteries? I have some nice hardback Richard Lockridge (Inspector Heimrich), Ellis Peters (Inspector George Felse), Wendy Hornsby (Maggie MacGowan), Carole Nelson Douglas (Midnight Louie), and Colin Dexter (Inspector Morse) in the box waiting for a new home. If you are interested, drop me an email (link in upper right corner) and I’ll send ‘em off to you.

Titles after the jump.
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This is my studio, yesterday afternoon around 5:00 pm.

This drives me nuts. I cannot work in this kind of chaos. I can’t even stand to be in the same room with this kind of chaos.

I spent most of the afternoon and got about three-quarters of the “stuff” pulled out and sorted. My son and I went to the store and bought some wire shelves to go under the big double table in the center, and he put them together for me.

Then my shoulder went kaflooey. Picked up something wrong, I guess. (Debra, I am being very careful with it today, no worries!)

Today I’ve got the table cleaned off and the PFD fabric put away in bins on one of the shelves, sorted by type (cotton in big pieces, cotton in small pieces, silk here, old table linens to be dyed there, lace and odd bits and pieces in that bin).

Fabric waiting to be dyed, neatly stored on the new shelf.
Wonder-Under, Craft Fuse, Decor Bond in the tall box to the left of the bins.
The next thing to tackle is those bins you see under the table at the left, in the top photo. Those hold the African fabrics, some of the vintage stuff, and the Weird Stuff — sparkly organza, tulle, lamé, and sheers of many colors.

I’m considering selling off the vintage fabrics, or most of them. I seriously doubt that I’ll make very many more 1940-ish traditional quilts in my lifetime.

Updates and more pictures later, as the Great Cleaning progresses.

I’m in the midst of a relatively major studio reorganization, and I’ve done something painful to my left shoulder. I, being Dr. Mom, know that I must rest it, take Advil, do the alternate hot-and-cold compress applications, and it will be okay again in a few days.

I, being also Madame Perfectionista, am seriously annoyed that everything is in upheaval and I am too uncomfortable to put it all back together in the proper fashion.

Even worse than that, I can’t sew with a bunged-up shoulder.

Pout.

[Update - Monday morning]: It’s better this morning. Still uncomfortable but at least it doesn’t hurt to move.