Stained Glass XXVI and Ancestors

(Above: Ancestors, detail. Wooden spools, painted, wrapped, and stitched with thumbnail images from vintage family and assorted found photographs. Click on image to enlarge.)

It's holiday framing season even at a severely downsized Mouse House, Inc. ... the business I have with my husband Steve. I haven't done a thing with the amazing photos from our long weekend in Seattle, but I will soon ... maybe on Christmas day! In the meantime, I've been framing various 2D gifts and earning the money for future travel. (I'm not really complaining....ten years ago I would have been spending every waking hour at my mat cutter ... from before Halloween until Christmas eve!)


(Above: Me with two of the kittens!)

We've also been very busy with a litter of kittens and the feral mama cat who deposited her family in the shed attached to our garage. My mentor Stephen Chesley has talents beyond painting. He's an expert cat catcher ... has his own cat trap and a pair of heavy welding gloves. He caught the kittens by hand. Mama Cat was in the trap by the next morning. I took her to our veterinarian, Shawn Verbrick at The Cat Clinic. $232 later, Mama was spayed, given rabies shots, tested for feline leukemia and then released. She's more than capable of survival in our neighborhood; we've seen her on an off for over two years. She can now hunt squirrels without the worry of another pregnancy. Yet, we still had three kittens ... until posting them on Facebook. The amazing power of the Internet found loving homes for all three.


(The little black and white kitten's photo for Facebook!)

My blogging and correspondence time has suffered through all these activities ... but I refuse to cut into my studio time. Therefore, I can share Stained Glass XXVI and Ancestors.


(Above: Stained Glass XXVI. Polyester stretch velvets, previously painted heat activated adhesive/Wonder Under, metallic foiling, chiffon scarves, free motion machine embroidery using 100% black cotton quilting thread, melting. Unframed: 58" x 18"; Framed: 64 1/2" x 24 1/2". Click on image to enlarge.)


(Above: Top of Stained Glass XXVI. Click on image to enlarge.)


(Above: Middle portion of Stained Glass XXVI. Click on image to enlarge.)


(Above: Bottom of Stained Glass XXVI. Click on image to enlarge.)



Scale is often a difficult thing to visualize when surfing the web. Sure, I post dimensions ... frequently "framed" and "unframed" ... but sometimes a photo with something for "reference", like our cat Shadow, is helpful. These three pieces are stitched to over-sized linen mat board and already in black linen liners. They will soon be put into frames with Plexi-Glas between the liner and the moulding ... which will bring them to the 64 1/2" x 24 1/2" total size.


(Above: Ancestors with fiber vessel. Click on image to enlarge.)

Most evenings I stitch by hand while Steve watches television. (I'm supposedly watching too but I often can't even remember what was showing!) Recently I've been stitching into the yarn wound around the sanded and painted wooden spools created a week or so ago. Each one includes a thumbnail image from a vintage family or collected photograph. I took photos with and without the fiber vessel. I'm not sure which is "better" or "why". Vessels are created after zigzagging several strands of old yarn together and then zigzagging the cord into a three dimensional form. It is very meditative to do!