I'll show you mine.....

Hello again!  It felt good to take a break from the blog for a little while.  I've been on a break from the studio for the last part of August, fighting back a cold and taking in the last few weeks of summer.  The kitchen has been busy, with an ever present pot of steaming water for sterilizing and sealing jars of preserves.  Peach Butter, Dilly Beans, Pickled Beets, Tomato Jam, Pickled Carrots and Radishes, and Tomato Paste are filling up the cupboards for winter.  At the risk of sounding like a jam blogger rather than a studio artist blogger, let me just say; I love canning.  It really appeals to the squirreller in me, just like thrifting for fabric does. 

While I was away from the blog I thought a lot about what I might talk about upon my return.  There's lots of new stuff in the works for the studio and the blog this fall.  One of the things I am most excited about right now is bright, loud, crazy intense fabric patterns.  For a long time, my artwork was pretty white.  I used found embroidery and stitched back into it, creating a new narrative.  While I am still excited about that work, and still collecting found embroidery, I am really interested in a much more saturated color pallete these days.  A lot of the work for Red Sky at Night was really bright (and even fluorescent), but I am finding myself wanting even more lately. 

These are some pictures of the fabric that I've been working with this summer.  I found all four of them at once, at a thrift store in Chicago a few years ago.  They were in the arms of someone else.   My heart sank, and then I decided to use pure will to get that person to put the fabric back on the rack.  I pictured it going back up where it belonged, and it worked!  I sound like a crazy loon just writing this, but it really worked.  Put it back, put it back!  I just stared into the back of this woman's head and then all of a sudden she did just what I hoped she would- and I swooped in and scooped up all four hangers of fabric.  Most of them are at least three yards of brand new, 1960's?  polyester screen-prints. I'm sure I didn't pay more than 2 dollars each.   I love them so much.   Chicago thrifts really are the absolute best.  I miss them so much.

In deciding to show you all four piles of fabric yardage, it struck me that it makes so much sense in relationship to the name of this blog and business.  I came up with the name based on the cloths that I lay down before I print fabric- the thing that protects the padded table.  But I also think of dropcloth as a way of talking about my studio practice; picking stuff up off the floor and piecing it back together into a new composition and story.  Today it's about dropping the fabric that I'm most excited about and photographing it to show you.  

I showed you mine, will you show me yours?  Leave a link to your favorite fabric- I'd love to see your wild patterns and bright colors.  Whatever you are excited about- show me what you've got!