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Busy, Busy

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

I have not done much cutting but I have folded and placed my building fabric to construct a cityscape. Isn’t that sky fabric cool? I have been wanting to use that and I think a Portland sunset is perfect. I have some tweaking to do on this, but I think it is coming together.  I hope to get it fused and start the quilting after STASH meeting tomorrow.

I have been dorking around so much this winter that I have forgotten how productive I can be when the need arises. This morning I knew it was time to make a list!

I had an appointment with the eye doctor to talk about cataract surgery. She said mine are not drastic, but because of the problem with night vision, I probably should pursue it because it is inevitable. So, now, I have to meet with a surgeon for the next step.

I shipped Klee’s Castles to the SAQA auction and mailed a Twelve X Twelve book to Montreal, Canada. I started the work to get a quilt show entry done with a deadline of Friday. I also got my inventory for the Artist’s Among Us art show done and e-mailed.

Tonight, we had to leave early for dinner and class at Trinity so that we could pick up my car which has been in the shop since last Friday. They needed a part; when it came in, it was defective so we had to wait until today for the right part to get installed. Fortunately, I got an extra burst of energy when we arrived home and was able to get some work done in the studio and on the computer.

I have a cool new app for my iPhone called Pano which allows you to take panoramic photos. I took these at the Rhodie Garden a couple of days ago.

This is the bridge that is the entrance into the garden. Click these to see them larger.

Shameless promotion: If you are a member of the Alliance for American Quilts, you can go to their website and vote for my quilt which is #110, Pearls of Wisdom.

 

Posted in Alliance for American Quilts, My creations, This and that | 6 Comments »

Klee Castle Progress

Saturday, March 26th, 2011

I made a bit of progress on the background for my castles. I had several household tasks to accomplish today plus a sinus headache. I finally got down to the studio for a bit this afternoon.

You can see that I have a drawing under the teflon sheet that I am using as a guide, but I do not adhere strictly to it.

I think I have not mentioned that I am a candidate for cataract surgery. I will see the eye doctor next month to get scheduled. I failed the depth of vision test because of the cataracts so I guess it is time to face the music.

Funny story. Someone said I should get my home thoroughly cleaned before the surgery because I would suddenly be able to see cobwebs and dust. I related this story at dinner last night. Mia was very offended by this. She said, “Grandma, you do not have dust and cobwebs. Your house is very clean!”  Mr C and I  enjoyed that remark!

Just heard on the news that we will break the record for number of consecutive days in March with rain. We might break the temperature record, with the average being in the low 40s. We have not had one day at 60° which usually happens several days in March. This too shall pass, and before we know it, we will be complaining about how hot it is!

Hope you are having a great week-end.

Posted in Fusing, My creations, This and that | 10 Comments »

Changing Direction

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

Before the triple disasters hit Japan,  I pretty much had the next 3 1/2 weeks reserved for getting ready to travel there and two weeks there and a few days to get back in the swing here at home.

Yesterday, I was pretty much useless. I couldn’t get my mind around doing much and I was glued to the TV. I finally went to my studio late in the day and started putting away the fabrics I had used in the river piece. It was a big job because I had used lots and lots of fabrics. I finally finished that today.

Tonight, I made 4 fiber post cards to send to those who are buying books through my website. One is up at the beginning. Here are the others. I repurposed an older piece that was not working as a larger piece. They are all silk.

This morning, I went to Fabric Depot, the mega fabric store in Portland, to see a demonstration of the fairly new product deColourant. It is a product which discharges dye as it deposits a new color and it is relatively non-toxic. I had used the product and had some problems with the color washing out. The demonstrator was Nick Coman, a fiber artist from LA.

Here are some of the samples he brought with him. I was very impressed with the brightness of the colors in these pieces. He said they had all been washed.

This is a neat t-shirt.

 

This was a batik rayon scarf. The ginkgo leaves were added with de Colourant.

Here is Nick at work. The t-shirt he is wearing was done with de Colourant and had survived many washings.

OK, here is the secret. See that heat gun? It is very important to get the de Colourant very dry and then heat set at a high temperature. The heat gun does that very quickly for small areas. We watched that green de Colourant become brighter and more vibrant as he hit it with the heat gun.

And so, I had a pretty good and creative day. We had buckets of rain and thunderstorms and a brief tornado warning. I had to go out to pick up my organic veggies and I got soaked.

I want to do something for earthquake relief. I am planning on putting some work on Ebay. You can designate that some or all of the proceeds go to the Japan Earthquake Relief. I will let you know when I do that.

 

 

Posted in Discharging fabric, Japan, Postcards, This and that | 7 Comments »

Not Much Down Time

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

It has been another busy day. We are refinancing our mortgage and there was a ton of paperwork involved today. I had to scan documents and get them e-mailed to the lender.

We had the Back to Nature show opening tonight. It was well attended and the show really looks beautiful. Some people gasped when they walked into the hall. You can see photos on our blog – click here.

I did manage to get some work done on the bridge piece. I did some remedial quilting and trimming of threads. I also measured at least twice and then trimmed the edges to size. I did so much quilting on it that it shrunk more than I expected. I think I am going to do the zigzag/satin edging on it or maybe facings. That decision comes tomorrow as well as fusing the bridges and stitching them.

On Saturday, I am taking an encaustic class at Trinity. I am so excited. It is taught by Serena Barton, who teaches for Art & Soul. So, if I don’t check in tomorrow, I hope to have something great to show you on Saturday.

Posted in High Fiber Diet, Juried Shows, My creations, This and that | 3 Comments »

Treading Water

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

I have been playing around with my organza water squares. I did not have quite enough to cover the required size for the SDA member’s show – 12″ X 28″. So I had to whip up a few more tonight.

I need to get this finished so that I can work on a couple of other pieces that I need to have done before we leave for Japan in the middle of March. I am trying to stay calm and not work so fast that I make stupid mistakes!!

Today, I picked up my CSA veggies and found these – pomme d’or squashes. They are about the size of apples. I hear they have a really tough skin so it will be an adventure to cook them, but aren’t they cute?

Every Portland third grade class puts on a musical about Portland’s history. We enjoyed it so much two years ago when Mia’s class did it. Tomorrow night, Miles’ class will perform this show. I am really looking forward to it. Miles is playing the part of FDR.  Steph is coordinating all of the costumes.

I have had a long period of time free of sinus headaches and congestion. The regime of saline rinses and cortisone nasal spray seemed to be very effective. We are having cold windy weather, sunny, but very windy, and I have vertigo and a sinus headache tonight. This does not make me happy. So I am off to bed and hope I will feel better in the morning.

Posted in Flowers and plants, My creations, Surface Design Association, This and that | 5 Comments »

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