Breaking silence?

Couldn’t get into blogger yesterday.

Something like an update.
a good thing.  I got the all clear from the hospital that my eyes 👀 have healed fine from the cataract surgeries.
However ... I am still seeing double. Advice: see the optician.
Another good thing. Optician is very thorough with all sorts of tests.
Diagnosis: I can’t remember technical terms, but basically one eye is seeing lower than the other. “Look at the dot.” “There are two of them. One above the other.”
This was consistent throughout. So, she’s had them do some magical things like prisms and other things about astigmatisms.
In the meanwhile...
Seeing double. New glasses ready on the 18th February.

Thus why I have been avoiding the computer. It harder than the phone. But I haven’t worked out how to resize photos on the phone.

But I did help my friend to find buttons from my stash for the new cardigan she knitted!

One colour looked good on its own but not in multiples. The other colour was the same. And only a subtle difference. So we decided to alternate them! And you really can’t tell when looking at the whole cardigan with its lovely stripes. 😄

I am managing the bead project with plenty of lighting and even magnifying glasses. I expect because I’m not looking in one place for a long time. 

So, counting the days to the glasses! 🤓 and also sunglasses 🕶! But she did say it will take some time to get used to the prisms. So it will be a bit longer before I can drive.

Still Life - in the news

Some time back I told you about the Still Life pieces that are to be part of Golden Key Senior Center in Maine in America.

This article was posted in the Lincoln News last week.

Photo: Kathy McIntyre

Here is a photo of the founders of the centre and me when I presented the quilts.

photo: Linda Campbell

And a reminder of the pieces.

Still Life: Feel the Beat and Still Life: Moving On

Still Life update

Some time ago I made work to enter into an exhibition. Two pieces that were my response to the idea of aging. However, they were declined.

Still Life: Feel the Beat and Still Life: Moving On

I had thought before entering, that if they were not accepted, I might donate them to my mother-in-law's care home. But when I said something to her, she was Not Keen on the idea.

Fast forward...my sister has been involved in a project to create a place (where she lives) where seniors can meet for companionship and entertainment. It was part of her work for her degree. It has become very popular and now they have been given a no longer used bank building to house the centre.

So, I mentioned the Still Life pieces to her. She asked one of the managers who works with her. They were both very welcoming as they had been thinking of a wall for art. And since I grew up there, it would be of interest to the clients.

SO...I am getting them ready to send off to the Senior Centre in Lincoln, Maine!

Still Life finished

I got the quilting - heart beat on the yellow piece
and the binding done on both of the Still Life pieces.

And here they are.

Still Life: Feel the Beat and Still Life: Moving On

I am in the process of working on the entry now!

EDIT:
Statements -

Still Life: Feel the Beat
Recent changes for my Mother-in-law have reminded me how often the elderly become marginalised because they depend on assistance of one format or the other. Yet needing equipment doesn’t mean they have stopped living. There is Still Life … often a very vibrant one!


Still Life: Moving On
Recent changes for my Mother-in-law have reminded me how often the elderly are disregarded because things take them longer to accomplish. Perhaps they are slowly moving while the rest of us whiz by, but it is Still Life. Slow down and enjoy it with them!

Still Life quilted

Through one of those thought connection processes that you can't really explain, I found the perfect motif to quilt on the background of the other Still Life piece.

My friend Margaret left a comment and then we had an email conversation after which I somehow remembered her Thin Blue Line piece in which she had used the life line heart beat from an ECG.

So, I realised it would be a perfect motif to say more boldly what I want to say with the group of elderly with wheelchair, walker and hospital bed.

I was going to wait to show it here till Friday, but some of the things I was doing today ended up taking more time than I thought it would. I wasn't ready to show them. So, you get to see the quilting step.

I need to fuse the people down and machine applique.

So hopefully for Friday, we can have both finished with their thin black binding.

I have a few title ideas...not sure which to choose yet.

Still Life with Heartbeat

Still Life: Beating On (as companion with the Still Life: Moving On piece)

Still Life with the Beat (?)

Still Life feel the Beat

Any other ideas?

Still Life: Moving On

Sometime back there was a call for work for an exhibition with the theme Still Life. I had the idea to do something of a social statement about 'disabled' or 'differently abled' people arranged as the focus. I wanted to call it Still Life...as in They still have a life or This is still Life!
However, as a lot of things in the past few years, I had more ideas than time.

So, when the SAQA Metaphors on Aging call for entry came up, I decided this was the time for those ideas to come together.

So, for this piece I took some of the international symbols used on signs for disabled or elderly. Here they are walking across a zebra crossing.

Still Life: Moving On

I thought the stripes in the background made it feel like the rest of life is whizzing by. But also in my mind I thought the parade of people crossing the road alludes (faintly!) to the famous photo of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road.

I haven't done the edge yet. I think I am going to use my satin stitch method using a blind hem foot. But I just need to try a plain black or a variagated black and white thread on one of the trimmed pieces to see which would look best. and now seeing it as a photo on here, I am wondering if it wants a border of sorts. Thin black?

I have another one I am developing - still trying to get the positioning right. Just need to think about the quilting for this. I have a small idea of quilting flowers and call it Still Life with Flowers. But I think that would be too contrived!

Anyway, I'd love your comments on either of these. I am linking to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.
All the silhouettes have been cut from screen printed fabric - the same I used for the cows a few months ago.

Moving on

Starting the quilting for this piece today. Just straightforward lines across. The darker strip will become more obvious tomorrow.

What if Wednesday

Starting to look at ideas for SAQA's Metaphors on Aging.
I have an idea of what I want to do in my head, but just need to find the backgrounds that suit the vision.