it's a lazy sunday around here, with hub watching football and scattered dogs snoozing. i am beginning to think i'm sick because i've been out of bed only to change the laundry and refill my coffee. i've got three different mysteries going right now and am really wondering if my inertia is health-related, weather-related or just pure laziness. hub says i have a fever so i should take it easy, but i think he might just be trying to be sweet. i can't be bothered to find a thermometer.

i have gone through the websites and flickr galleries of everyone who wrote and said they had an interest in the show. i'm so excited at all the interest and the awesome stitchery we'll be able to showcase. it makes me feel especially good to be able to show artists who haven't had a lot of gallery play (yet), but whose work is freaking fantastic. i've had some ideas for the overall theme for the show, but am talking to alex about it to make sure it's true to her vision as well. i'll be sending out a group email before long with all the details.. thanks so much to everyone who has expressed an interest so far.

so that i don't feel like a total lump, here are some goals for the week:

-put together info about show and email everyone
-finish proposal to the graduate committee about my new topic (since i'm officially back in school now!)
-finish two custom orders of bunny paws
-work on folk reveries team stuff
-photos and listings for etsy
-dye some linens with india's techniques
-order some prints of photos
-maybe experiment with idea for lockets

ok, back to my antiquey/cat mystery now. thanks mathyld for reminding me of this series!

Stitchy Peeps: Should we have a Show?

I've done some thinking and some legwork about curating a show of stitching at the Hotel Hadley Studios this Spring - like in April. I've preliminarily got Alex on board with her awesome military portraits, and I think they would be amazing to show. I'm wondering if some of my other fiber artist friends would like to exhibit with her as well.... (actually we don't have to be friends at all, if you do cool stuff!)

The thing is, we're kind of in the middle of nowhere. I couldn't promise anyone a sale. That being said, we have had a ton of people through the Hadley at our openings. At our Grand opening, and then again at Trace's opening, we had at least 200 people each time. And we did sell stuff. But you get what I'm saying - this is a rural community without many people and even less money. So isn't that all the more reason to showcase some awesomely subversive, or subversively awesome - stitchery??

I'm not gonna do the whole professional call-for-work thingy. I am asking for y'alls feedback and to let me know if you have an interest. At least your work is guaranteed to be viewed and it could even cause a riot. It will also give you a line on your cv. And best of all, I'd get to see it and ogle it in person. Depending on who is interested, I'll come up with a theme for the show that makes sense..

Also, please let me know if it would be totally obnoxious to ask for a tiny financial contribution from those who are exhibiting. Not a submission fee, but a donation to offset the costs of putting on a show: food, drink, flashy cards, keeping lights on and some advertising, etc. etc. I can't afford to foot the bill for it by myself. Although, who knows, maybe we will all get rich with it! Anyhoo, let me know what you think and whether this affects your decision on whether to participate...

Oh, and by the Springtime, we're planning to have regular open hours, so the show can be viewed throughout the month rather than people seeing it mostly just at the opening...

Imma post this all over and hope you'll respond if you're interested - you know I'm talking to YOU!

gifts and goals

i was so thrilled and truly touched to receive these original drawings from allyson mellberg - she's an artist i've admired from afar, but i recently learned - when i proposed a trade last month - what an open, generous and sweet person she is..

this one is called "God only knows." she drew it especially for me! and anyone who knows me well will see the extreme personal significance (click to see larger).


this is Frannie, isn't she so tender?


and this is my long-awaited dottie. you probably caught a glimpse of him not long ago.. he has a way of popping up here and there..

i've completely enjoyed my time at mum's, and as they tend to do, many things have sorted themselves out. here in this new year, i'm committing to my vintage endeavors... picking, dealing, re-purposing, etc etc. i don't know why i've resisted it.. i will still stitch, of course, but i am not sure i'll ever make any money with it, or that i even want to. i love the slow cloth philosophy and aesthetic... with thrifting on the other hand, i'm all up in there..

also i'm suddenly fascinated with tumblr! i've started chronicling my vintage finds there - even during the hunt and before i've cleaned things up and prettified them. bloggy friends may have noticed i'm still a bit pre-verbal anyway, and the quick-and-dirty tumblr format is kinda what i've been doing here anyway.. i hope you'll visit me there, but i'll still be blogging here to keep track of my crafty, farmy projects and life goals and all that mucky goodness... speaking of which..

it looks like i will be doing a dissertation after all..although it's possible that i may get distracted again. still, i don't seem to be able to let it go. it's mine to do or not-do, and i want to reclaim that part of my life. plus, with this new topic, i have some new-found support from a professor i've always had a feeling about. so it's going to be on textile-work and grief-work, something many of us have discussed and seems to be a common refrain. i'm going to be taking oral histories - both of the process and experience of stitching and also the histories of the cloths themselves... i don't have all my ducks or red tape yet, but perhaps consider if you'd be willing to share your stories and stashes...

wishing us all sweetness and light in this new year,
dru

i love this bustier

i know nothing of its history. but what i deeply love is the brown fabric which has been added to this vintage piece, and partly sewn by hand. in thinking about my attachment to this garment, i realized that it encompasses much of what i love just now... ladies things (and sometimes gents and children too), romantic and decadent, with the handmade touches bringing it to earth, not too treacly or affected... i wish i knew better words to describe this kind of thing... i can't bear to say "upcycled" or "reused" - talk about reused! anyone have ideas of how to elegantly describe the combination of vintage and craftwork?

knitted gaiter (almost done), modified from an 1885 pattern.

my dad brought my mum this planter when she was in the hospital after she had me.

happy, merry!

hope everyone is having a cosy day full of warmth and love. we are!

mum's earrings

arrived at mum's

isn't tasseography the best word?

Invocation: Midwinter

Welcome to you, Old One
Welcome to the snow and ice,
The bitter cloud of your breath,
The pillow-feathered snow
Welcome you in, this Winter day.

May your blessings hold us,
May your chills avoid us,
May the bright promise
Of each clear day
Remind us of your gifts.

Old One, cold one,
Though we fear your storms,
Yet we welcome you
Into our winter hearts,
With your cleansing breath,
To blow away the old year
And usher in the new.

John Matthews: Invocation to the Old One

after the thaw

so glad that the washer and the kitchen sink have finally thawed out. lots of laundry and dishes. while it was frozen, i learned that a new roller derby is starting in my area!! sarah and i took a field trip to greensboro and skated all over the sports authority, and then the main street of our little town at night. and the last bit of big news is that my hair is now very platinum!! i love it so much that i wish i hadn't waited so long to do it. white skates, hair, and christmas.

by any other name

some of my handmade feather earrings are in my shoppe... and my new dottie friend is by allyson mellberg (i've wanted one for ages!) things are going along pretty well, although i'm cold and tired and so very glad the market is *over*. exhausting!

i'm on a mission now to introspect and regroup, which may last the winter. of course i do my best introspecting via blogging! so i hope you'll join me. i'm actually going to try to come up with a business plan of sorts, although first i need to think of a different name for it that doesn't make me vomitous. and before that even, a clearer vision of the life and work i want, and before that, what really matters to me.. see? lots of navel-gazing forthcoming here..

let me begin with the name thing. i met some people these past weekends who i had first met online, and i identified myself as drucilla. but then there are some older friends around who know me by my birth name. and some people get confused or reactive to a change of name. some can be unsupportive and even disrespectful. i confess that when i had an old friend decide to go by a different, more formal version of her given name, i thought it was a bullshitty move (but then, she was kinda full of it..). and it's easy to laugh at middle-aged divorcees who choose new new-agey monikers. but i am trying to be more full of love and self-love, and less jaded in my own middle age. i'm persuaded by gala darling that

"life is not about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself"

and i have always, always, since the beginning of my memories, wished for a girlie name...

xox
drucilla

doesn't she look purty under glass?

missus fox wanted to say hello again. i've got displayed her in this thrifted end table which was made by bombay company in the 90s' - it's got a glass top that opens for displaying needlework! we think it's nifty!

jam at the holiday market

the handmade holiday market last weekend at the hotel was incredibly fun. some of the biggest hits were joan's jams, shelly's bracelets, and pam's soaps. it started snowing (our first of the season!) on saturday afternoon, which seemed to send shoppers scurrying home... but then on sunday, travis and scottie brought in some instruments, and barbara lent her amazing voice for some soulful impromptu harmonizing... for a few moments it was like we were in a craft club time machine, back in the 70s.. or what i imagine the 70s must have been like (i was kind of small to remember much..)














anyway, it's starting to feel like a real community around here... after sitting together and drinking tea and crafting all day, people feel like family. so we are excited for the market redux next weekend, when temps are supposed to be back up in the 50s!

this week, along with trying to stay warm and well, i'm listing some new pretties in my shoppe, and marking down some things that need to get on to their new homes..

Hestia, help me

O Hestia, Goddess of hearth and home,

I am afraid that Winter is upon us. I've had a miserable cold and our old farmhouse is now about 49 degrees. Please help me to keep the fire burning and keep my family warm this Winter.

Help me wake up in the night and the wee hours before the fire burns out. Give me strength to carry wood day and night. Protect our dogs and farm animals and keep them comfy. Please keep friends (like Dana and Cal) warm too. And if it's not too much to ask, please don't let my indoor plants die.

"Hestia full of Blessings" 44 x 53 inches Egypt, 6th century (click to biggify)

thank you, Hestia, for this season which puts me in closer touch with our survival. i am so grateful for the cast iron behemoth that is the Source and center of our home. thank you too for the sheep and wool that insulates better than any plastic byproduct. and come Spring, i will be really, really, really grateful.
xox
dru

excuse me, i've been in a crafting fog

friends, i've missed you! i feel like my real life has rudely infringed on my online one... but much crafting has been accomplished in preparation for our first handmade market at the hotel. i love some of the new things i came up with, including a use for all those feathers i've gathered all summer! the market finally started today and it's been great fun getting ready and meeting new folks. makes me even wonder if i might like being a shoplady, although i still wonder..



more pics soon.. i need to go and catch up with your blogs now!!