Cleopatra
Hi Friends,
Last week was rough. I left a cone of cotton yarn unattended, and unbeknownst to me, Cleopatra ate a whole lot of it. She has an oral fixation, and everything goes into her mouth. She also eats silk scarves, houseplants, plastic, and anything else of interest she can find.
I didn’t know about the yarn eating until the following morning when she threw up a huge wad of it. She wouldn’t eat breakfast, and I figured her stomach was irritated. Then she wouldn’t eat dinner, and I knew there was a problem.
It was the weekend, and all of the regular vets were closed. Long story short, I waited until Monday, then took her to an urgent care clinic where they wanted to do exploratory surgery.
I said “no,” and spent an agonizing week waiting to see if she would poop out the yarn and trying to soothe her irritated digestive tract. As a result I didn’t have much time for art, but I do have a couple of small pieces to show you.
And yes, it took eight days, but Cleo did finally poop out all of the yarn and didn’t require surgery. Thank you homeopathy and Dr. Todd Cooney for helping to keep her comfortable.
I started on this Boro-inspired piece using a cut-up leaf and rust print on canvas with various solids and plaids from upcycled worn out clothing. As I was doing the top stitching, I decided that I hated it, and set it aside. It’s about 24 x 24 inches.
Later it occurred to me that I could crop it into smaller pieces that might look better and be more manageable. I cut four 9 x 9 inch pieces from the larger whole and added some small bright highlights to jazz them up a bit.
Then I mounted two of them on 14 x 14 inch pieces of blue denim and did some topstitching.
I like this better as a small piece, but I may have gotten carried away with the stitching.
The denim I used for the second piece is a slightly different color, and the stitching on it doesn’t show up at all. The color of the thread is too similar to the color of the fabric, but it’s still an interesting piece.
I used more restraint when stitching this one!
How has your week been? I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts. You can share them with us in the comments section below.
With love and appreciation,
Cassandra