Some of the Current Projects in The Voodoo Cafe

Slowly, slowly, the energy is coming back. I'm still sleeping a gazillion hours a day, it feels like. I take Nyquil at night so 1) I can breathe and 2) I won't cough all night long, keeping everyone in the house awake. So I sleep heavily and dream a lot. Last night a guy in a navy blue polo shirt and a bishop's mitre leaned over and told me, sotto voce, that he was on assignment from Catherine de Medici. Fascinating dreams, but I wish I'd dream things that were more closely related to projects, you know? Like I'd see fabric stuff and solve problems involving, oh, lining and gores, maybe, while I was sleeping. Talking to badly dressed assassins isn't providing me with tons of ideas for the studio. Or, maybe--maybe it is! Hmmmmmm. . .

Anyway, I thought I'd show y'all some of the things I'm working on. I've almost finished Jest #4 and hope to get photos of that soon--they don't look like much unless I'm wearing them, so I'll get The EGE to take some shots. Today's the last day of school, so he'll be hanging out with me for the next 3 months--yay! Well, not hanging out in the studio--he does stuff in the house and yard, and I do what I always do. Still, I love having him around for coffee breaks and photo shoots.

Here's the current stitching project: Rain. I wrote a Prayer to Mama Goode on it, so when I finish the last stitch, it should start to rain. I was very specific, though, keeping in mind that adage to "beware what you wish for." I hoped to have it finished during the road trip, so we could bring Rain back with us from Dallas, but I was too exhausted even to do that. It threw my plans off a little, but we'll see what we can do.

Then there's this dress from one of the thrift stores. Wish I'd thought to take a photo before I dyed it--I put it in a golden yellow dye bath. When you over-dye a print, you have to take into account all the colors in the print. If it had had, say, purple in it, the golden yellow wouldn't have worked. Orange wouldn't work because of the green. It was pale yellow, some pink-ish, and some green, so I did the golden yellow. Now I'm going to cut it off--probably just below the knee. This whole baggy-mid-calf look just makes me tired. The reason it's so wrinkled is that it's been wadded up in various piles for about a month, waiting on me to do something with it.

Then there's this cool thing. It's a vest, I think. I bought it because it intrigued me. It's cotton knit, which I usually avoid. And it's very oddly shaped. It's open on the sides except for the tie, and that's not going to work for me. I wondered what it would look like with lots of various colors of floss sewn onto it, funky, with the knots showing, maybe. I want to sew up the sides some and then add more stitching and, maybe, some beads. I don't know--it will depend on how much I like it once the sides are sewn.

I came home from a short walk filled with energy and set up the ironing board and took these photos, but now I'm tired again, so who knows how much I'll actually accomplish. Check back, though--I'll do my best to remember to take photos as I go. Or at least as I finish stuff.

And what are your plans for the long weekend? Got something exciting to work on? I hope so--I'd love to hear what you're making! XO