Pink Artist Block Party

I just signed-up for the Pink Artist Block Party. This is a very cool project on the girl gone thread wild blog by Monica Magness. It's pretty straightforward: you create a piece of art by July 31st & submit a picture. Creations are auctioned through Sept 1st to raise money for Susan G Komen for the cure. All the details and sign-up sheet are in the 5/29 post on her blog.

I've been reading Monica's blog for quite awhile and love the work that she & other's have done for this. It's a worthwhile project that hopefully you'll be able to join! Meanwhile I'd better get busy & decide what to make!

Wordle

This is the Wordle I made from this blog. I've been doing them for all my blogs - it's kind of fun!

Unicorn WIP

I decided to finish up some things I've been working on for a long time before I start a new project. I started this Unicorn picture many, many years ago. It's been so long I can't even remember when! Anyway I've been working on it on and off this week and am pretty close to finishing. Many things I've started and abandoned I find I don't like anymore but I still like this one. I was considering using it as birth sampler for one of my nieces but I think with Unicorn written so many times it might distract from the birth information. I don't know - I'll have to think a little more. Anyway I'm very pleased to be so close to finishing! Now do I have to finish something else after this or can I start something new? I think I should get to start something new!

Jasper

I finally finished Jasper. The reason I'm calling this picture Jasper is because I think he looks like my nephew. My nephew Jasper the cat, that is, not the human one! You can see the real Jasper in the 2nd picture. He looks a little sulky but it's because he is shy and I was housesitting with him & I think he missed his Mom & Dad. He's actually a very sweet little cat and (don't tell the others) but kind of my favorite cat nephew.

The picture I stitched is supposed to be a British Shorthair cat so I've decided that Jasper is part British Shorthair. Now that he's finished I can go onto May BJP and find something else to stitch!

Beaded Rings

We are having a party at the end of June for my daughter's 33rd birthday & we are making assorted things as kind of party favors. I found the pattern for these beaded rings in Getting Started with Seed Beads by Dustin Wedekind. I've made 21 so far (probably more than I need) and I'm not sure I can stop - making them is quite addictive! Hopefully my nieces will find them as cute as I do!

April BJP

April's project is based on the poem What Do Women Want by Kim Addonizio. I've been thinking a lot this month about what I want. I'm not sure I've come to any definite conclusion but I know one thing for sure - I want a red dress!


What Do Women Want?

I want a red dress.
I want it flimsy and cheap,
I want it too tight, I want to wear it
until someone tears it off me.
I want it sleeveless and backless,
this dress, so no one has to guess
what's underneath. I want to walk down
the street past Thrifty's and the hardware store
with all those keys glittering in the window,
past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old
donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers
slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly,
hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders.
I want to walk like I'm the only
woman on earth and I can have my pick.
I want that red dress bad.
I want it to confirm your worst fears about me,
to show you how little I care about you
or anything except what
I want. When I find it, I'll pull that garment
from its hanger like I'm choosing a body
to carry me into this world, through
the birth-cries and the love-cries too,
and I'll wear it like bones, like skin,
it'll be the goddamned
dress they bury me in.

March BJP

I think I'm actually caught up now! I've already started April and plan to have it finished by the end of this week.

A short explanation for March: Over the last year I've lost 45 pounds and am still working to lose more weight. I love the Venus of Willendorf figure and she is kind of a symbol for me of, among other things, learning to accept myself as I am even while wanting to change. The following poem is part of Transcendental Etude by Adrienne Rich. It expresses how I feel about a lot of changes taking place in my life right now. I really liked doing this one although it was a little difficult to work on sometimes. I'm not sure the pink outline really goes with the other colors but I couldn't decide what to use so I went with pink since it's my favorite color!

But there come times –perhaps this is one of them—

when we have to take ourselves more seriously or die;

when we have to pull back from the incantations,

rhythms we’ve moved to thoughtlessly,

and disenthrall ourselves, bestow

ourselves to silence, or a severer listening, cleansed

of oratory, formulas, choruses, laments, static

crowding the wires. We cut the wires,

find ourselves in free-fall, as if

our true home were the undimensional

solitudes, the rift

in the Great Nebula.

No one who survives to speak

new language, has avoided this:

the cutting-away of an old force that held her

rooted to an old ground

the pitch of utter loneliness

where she herself and all creation

seem equally dispersed, weightless, her being a cry

to which no echo comes or can ever come.