Baby Clothes

I had some baby tshirts and a dress blank left over from baby showers I've given recently, and decided to tie dye them using some Dharma greens I just ordered.

Nothing spectacular, but I was able to see the color green I bought.  I used jade and seafoam, along with some of the usual colors in my stash.
Sometimes I feel like there are not enough hours in the day to get done what I want to get done.  I'm making lists because my head is becoming very cluttered. Our son is here for 3 weeks after traveling to South East Asia for 2 months, then he's back to Australia, trying to figure out how to make that his home.  Our 3 daughters will be in and out visiting, and then I'm going to Philadelphia for the SDA/SAQA conference with my friend Paula Chung http://paulachung.blogspot.com/. Any one else going to that?

Moving Along

Here are two more of my series on xray's, MRI's and CT scans.  This first one is from an xray of my friend Lisa Miller's foot.  In the original xray, there are lots of pins in her toes, and I was able to use a piece of rusted nails I made a while ago.  Rust is really difficult to sew over, and I busted a few needles, even on these little bits.

This hip fracture belongs to a friend of Paula's http://paulachung.blogspot.com/, and this woman has had the misfortune of breaking several bones due to severe osteoporosis.

I'm using wool bedspread batting in all of these, which shrinks just enough to add some texture, unlike the wool felting I've used in other pieces, which seems to shrink about 4 inches for every 20 inches of fabric.  I'd love to try that on a larger piece, but I don't think I could ever get it to lay flat.

Lost in Life

There has been a lot going on here in the Rips household, and I haven't had the time to blog. I'll catch you up here briefly.  First, the art.  My friend Paula and I are trying out working on a series involving body images, including MRI's and ultrasounds.   Paula works very large, usually 6-8 feet and she works very quickly, considering the amount of stitching involved.  I tend to work slowly, sometimes leaving a piece of work on the design board for days, so while I'm while doodling along on the first one, I think she's working on the third one now.  This first image is what I put together based on an image of the head and neck.  In my critique group. Loris  pointed out the long blue "spine" was to centered.  Of course she was right, but I had already stitched the whole thing, so there was no way I could move it.

I ended up chopping off some of the left side.  I thought about reattaching it to the right side, but it didn't work.  I also muted the blue down a bit with paint.  The piece is ok, but I'm not really excited about it, so I started another one, this time larger, not so busy. I'm not ready to show it yet, maybe next week.  I'm not so sure why I can look at a friends work and immedietly see if something isn't right, but my own work is so hard to critique, even the obvious stuff.  I do photograph it and look at the image, and sometimes that helps, but showing it to others, whose judgement I trust really makes a difference.

Our son Sam left for Australia last night.  He's planning on being gone about a year, traveling the country, working, and hopefully traveling on to other parts of the world.  A grand adventure for him.

I hope this is the trip of a lifetime.  I hope he does not meet and fall in love with a wonderful Australian girl,  get married and live there forever.  If so, Brenda http://www.brendagaelsmith.com/ will have to become his stepmom!