after the fair is over.......

Recovery from a weekend art show consists of some relaxing with feet elevated.
A rope hammock is best and the shade helps especially when breezes are blowing through.

This is important even if you have 4 feet, that your feet get some air time!!
 Then  to repack after unpacking  the bins and boxes of colorful fabric and hand made treasures, followed  closely by more feet's up and ice tea in hand. Then there is always stuff to catchup on like emails, laundry, and sleep, glorious sleep. so i do a little of this and some of that, retreating to a cool  spot with comfy chair now and then. This takes a few days, these days, to recover.

 I have consistently designed,  made, shown and sold my hearts' fabric gifts since my early twenties, in Hawaii since 1971 and show I  no sign whatsoever of stopping, only slowing down. I make slow art slowly. This last decade I have been very selective  to where and when (time to crank it down again!) to go out to respect the vintage child i find i have become.  She is wiser, funnier, kinder, greyer, shorter,..okay wider and  more easily fatigued and still at first, somewhat annoyed by  rude cluelessness of some people, then i find the humor in it all!

 Mostly, i am amazed and delighted with people that gravitate to my art in its color and style,

my style and that is what helps to feed my soul. i continue to practice my art of art.

 Kurt Vonnegut has a few sensible and quotable words on that.

(this is one of my postcards of fabric and paint and stitch, one of my favorite practices!)

SO,

A huge thank you all who walked through my tent last week end and had taken the time to notice, ask questions, and to purchase gifts for friends and yourself,
and  to express  your wonder and give comments of respect.

I am a gypsy on a life journey of color and fabric and am happy our trails crossed.
Aloha , Sonja

How long did it take you....pinkly sqaures quilt in progress

I don't know how often i am asked, 

How long did that take you to make that?

 They might be looking at a quilt perhaps ,one that i made. 

Today i am working on one, I am calling her "Pinkly Squared! so far.

 here is a shot of the backing using  some my splattered hand painted fabric, pieced

                                   back and  front squared off, showing quilting using variegated threads.

In  block closeup i use random stitching, what comes to mind for that area, quilted .
 No marking, just seat of the pants, on the spot choices.

You have seen this pile of color in other post if you are a reader,

 This is where i start with strips of color painted on cloth that have been trimmed and saved for just such an occasion. i use some batiks but about 90-95 percent are my hand paints.

The squares are trimmed up to 5 and a half inches here.

 i will add a long cabin strips on all  4 sides next

 Here the log cabin surround pairs strips have been added  to
front and back shot of the next quilt in the pipeline of my life.

 For my bindings i often like a fabric like this one, one that has been languishing on the shelf,
as an overall floral decorator type of fabric. i will add color to them.

Now painted in the  pinkish tones in the quilt body, now transformed,

now drying in the sun .

Here we are now watching paint dry....

So how does one answer such a question such as 

How long did that take you to make that?
I don't know how long.

It takes All the time!
I DO know my work takes many decisions and processes, many, many.

I  would prefer to tell you the Why, the story behind the ideas that propelled me to Here!

I don't know how long. I'm not sure it's finished Yet!!

Be well and enjoy  the journey!!

Sonja

Thoughtful Thursday , April orchids and other flowers and critters...

Some wonderful orchids are blooming here today. 

I took a walk this morning and found an abundance of color and gifts of nature in orchid form.

  Two very lovely oncidiums caught my eye this morning;  one a yellow /brown one i call dancing ladies that lives on the side of a huge mango tree. 

and also  the  yellow oncidium with her  many long wands full of many small yellow blossoms waving  in the breeze.  

Then the Dendrobiums took over.

 these two above and below
 are what we  all Hono Hono and they  are very fragrant 

Somewhat like a heavy honey fragrance to me.

  here are 3 dendrobs smiling at us

Don't you love this lime and purple combo on this little one!

Blue skies make me take out the camera!
"nothin but blue skies do i see!"

The Surinam  cherry tree has the blossoms and fruit in various stages of ripe, all at once!

 

They do not taste like cherries tho these lovely pumpkin shaped globes do pack allot of vitamin C.

I snack on them as i don't seem to have the patience to collect enough for a jam or jelly thou i do think the color would be divine.

.

This was my Easter card this year. 

                                                 Hen and chicks resting  in the composting box.
                                                              It must be spring! 
                                                        this is my  Thoughtful Thursday entry.

end of march madness and a string theory

Well, this is a board full of coasters drying in the sun inspired by the berries that form on this palm tree in the colors of all seasons. This paint session  is Autumn and Xmas colors to me. After I sew up a batch of  fabric coasters, I  spray them with water and begin index finger painting the dots  with textile paints until i am happy with  the way colors look to me.

below is the palm tree of inspiration.

Inspiration is Everywhere all around us

  i am a nature nut and go about taking photos of what I see that moves me.

i call this tree "summer fall winter spring" as sometimes berry clusters on the tree show me  color signs of all the seasons at once. When i was a kid there was a princess Summerfall Winterspring on the Howdy Doody show with that name. That name Stuck with me.

 Does that sound familiar to anyone?

Now,  how i play sometimes  with strings of my painted fabrics is to 

first to arrange them in a pleasing manner, a strata of sorts.

Of course any fabric you have and like works . 

I happen to have a wealth of painted cloth.

Then I sew them on a base fabric and trim.

i did a bit of wavy sewing on topside  and you can see on the back of the  waffle like cloth

I will make a composition book cover later.

Then i might do some quilting and hand stitching as well.

It all depends on mood and the materials at hand.

That is my theory.

I find often the composition uses all the colors and recalls a sunset or sunrise.

 Nature is most grand!

When the notebook is full it can be refitted  with a fresh one.

Be well, SEE well, Sonja

wordless wednesday- nature's valentine

Thoughtful Thursday

Clouds before the storm the first week of February 2015
Reminds me of Joni Mitchell singing her song
"Both sides now"  from 1969 album, Clouds.

The new light of a new year

if you don't take down that  little 3 foot tall pencil tree, that little Christmas tree in the corner, a little voice whispered to me the other day, you will have a grand  place to put your bracelets and cuffs and pins and watch upon so that the  dresser drawer does no longer hide them. While i am  mostly an earring wearing  person and feel glasses are quite enough jewerly already for me, i upon occasion i like to don an arty cuff or bracelet or i might need to keep tack of time and as find it was somewhat  fussy for me to haul out my cell phone when half the time the light outside is so bright i cannot even read it. i have a watch with a band of simple brown leather  

reminding me of my days as an equestrian.

The  simple horse ornaments i made this last year speak of horses of our dreams
in colors not usually

 assigned to ponies and horses that we ride or groom or feed and love.

Blues and lavenders and aquas came off my brush and onto the basic muslin shapes of a flying  horse or one that has been freed from its rocker.They are about 6 inches in length, stuffed firmly. After the paint is dried, some ancient embroidery floss is stitched into show flowing manes and tails. a hackamore bridle and saddle blanket come last, that is how i rode in high school. lastly, i added a

hanging loop because i can always park my horse on a door  knob now. 

Today the clouds were amazing, tomorrow i must post them.

wednesday without words

Wednesday without words

This  orchard is a winter bloomer,

The fragrance apparent only after dusk indicates to me the pollinator might just be a moth!

the fragrance is heavenly, clove like spice .

wordless wednseday

Merry Christmouse to all and a good night!

Mmmmm, tasty morsels said Ruby the cat......

These cookies were brought to me by a friend who had all of us in stitches.

 i shared them with those who we partied and feasted with this holiday season. 

Thank you Pat for spreading good cheer with you creative arts!

and i watched as an acquaintance bite one of these tasty morsels in half

with the tail still to go!

May you all

                       be well, see well and taste all the fine flavor of the season!

aloha, Sonja

are you getting ready?

Christmas is coming
 and some of us are getting ready to gift by making things of wonder.

i wonder why i sometimes get ideas so late in the year. i still have some things i started in a Christmas past that i am putting on finishing touches,
 perhaps ideas that had not fully hatched until now.

 Each year for the past 16 years i have given/sent out invitations to my studio to those who have purchased my work along the way, at Haleiwa Arts Festival and other local venues. It goes out by snail mail. hand written hand made like the ornaments i fashion all year long.

i made a painted  fabric cat ornament for a friend's granddaughter.
She gets an ornament each year that mom or daughter or she  picks out. this is based on a black and white cat.. i hope i was able to channel what the cat looks like
all though i can't recall the name of this cat.
 ...we shall see!

Christmas Cactus is starting to bloom just in the nick of time!

 The angel  below

is a re purposed flag from a friend that keeps me in faded glory flags.

 i love this one as the stars are embroidered and old lace looks at home with the faded cotton. 

Mz Liberty has a flannel snowman ornie tucked  up under her arm.

Long may she wave!

the last willie melt snowman pin hand carved by DH is painted 

 wears the other end of the torn strip of RWB fabric.

it is the last one  until i can convince him to make another.  

excuse the blurry  "bullet"  Santas below

 that are standing in tennis shoes while they dry and then go on to the next step

 getting ballast in bottoms before  more paint and then gluing them on a slice of trees from past trees.

This sight  made me laugh as i found shoes a handy way to keep these dudes upright

 while i watched paint dry. 

the recent full moon set.time to get up and greet the day!

 
What are you finishing up beside that cold cup o coffee?
be well, see well,
 sonja