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Archive for the ‘This and that’ Category

A Little of This and a Little of That

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

My days are so full; there is no time to just put my feet up and chill. I am, however, feeling some withdrawals from the studio time. I keep thinking I need to get down there and get to work. But,  one look at these photos and you can see I need to do some clean up.

studiomess1

studiomess2

Look at this poster I received from Lisa for Christmas.

keepcalmposter

I love this. It was first produced and used in England at the beginning of World War II to offer the public reassurance in the dark days which lay ahead.

I have just about finished the first round of SDA conference workshop assignments and every one has received and e-mail or snail mail confirmation. Monday, I will start working on the next batch.

I took a break yesterday to attend my crit group. I didn’t have anything new so I took the reworked Urban Sunlight. Got some excellent comments and possible problems. It is what it is. I can’t change anything on it now. But will keep the comments for future work.

Today, I have been getting ready for tomorrow’s reception for my show at the cathedral. I am having an assortment of middle eastern treats, like dates, almonds and baklava!! I picked this up at a Greek deli – just baked. It is so good, you can see that we gave it a taste test.

baklava

I have lime green cups and some coordinating napkins.

limegreencups receptionnapkins

I also made some business cards, just in case someone wants to get in touch with me.

businesscard

I have to get up early in the morning. I am doing a gallery walk/talk at 9 am, followed by church. We will hang out and set up for the 1 am reception. If you are in the Portland area, I hope you will come by.

Finally, look what we received in the mail today:

barackinvite

There is no way I am going to DC for the inauguration, but this will be a nice keepsake.

I hope to get some good photos at the reception and will post tomorrow.

Hurry Up and Wait

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

Today, Mr C and I ventured out in the Jeep with 4 wheel drive to get lots of errands done before the next storm arrives. I had a coupon for 40% off at Paper Zone and they had 30% off all holiday stuff. We got Christmas cards, mailing envelopes for Christmas presents (everyone is getting a copy of Stephanie’s Book!!), ledger size card stock for journal pages for my show and wrapping paper and ribbon. Mr C needed something from the hardware store, and I needed to pick up some more food to get us through the next few days. We had yummy roasted salmon and potatoes with broccoli for dinner – mmmm good. We are ready for the next storm due to arrive in the morning. It is still in the 20s so it will mean more ice and slip sliding. The main roads are pretty clear, but the side streets and neighborhood streets are sheets of ice.

I have finished What If? I also thought I could call it No Road to the Inn.

whatiffinished

I decided it needed some sheep!

whatifdetail

I made a stencil for the star and stenciled some foiling glue. Then I ironed on silver foil.

starstencil

I have enjoyed working on this piece probably because it fits the season so nicely.

Today was a day for out with the old and in with the new. Last night the UPS guys delivered several large packages. I had ordered a new Cuisinart with my Amex points. They were on special. So out with the really old and in with the streamlined new. Ha, the new one has a funny face – see it?

oldcuisinart newcuisinart

We have had these lights on the front porch:

oldlight

Mr C found these lights on line. Four of these arrived – 2 for the porch and 2 for the garage. Aren’t they much more fitting for our 50s house?

newlight

Mr C is getting cabin fever so he installed the lights even though it was freezing. He kept running back into the house to warm his hands! I am going to get him busy making hanging rods for my quilts, very soon.

I have noticed that a lot of the blogs I read have received a “Kreativ Blogger award”. (I guess the spelling is creative!) What do you think makes a blog creative — the writing, the photos, the work done by the blogger or a combination. I love some blogs for their photography – ie: 3191 and Jane Dunnewald. I love some for their thoughtful writing about art— ie:  Elizabeth Barton and Jeanne Williamson. I love some for their ability to communicate with me about  their lives, from the mundane to the special — ie: my good friends Terry and Kristin. I love some for their humor — my friend Dee and From Down the Well. And some for their gorgeous work— ie: Constance Rose and Joanie San Chirico. Those are my creative blog awards for tonight.

Baby, It IS Cold Outside

Sunday, December 14th, 2008

Tonight it will be in the teens and tomorrow, it will not get above the high 20s F. We had about 4-5 inches of snow. It has been very windy so the snow is blowing and drifting. Essentially, Portland is closed. If you live in a climate where snow is de rigueur for this time of year, you probably don’t understand why most every thing is shut down.

I still can’t find a way to post photos. I have an SOS into my web guys in London. I guess I have to wait for them to start their work day tomorrow, in 2 or 3 hours. You can see what I have been up to and some views of the snow by going to my Flickr site.

Since we couldn’t get to church this morning, I took the time to clean up from the decorating frenzy of yesterday. I let Miles set up several of the nativities – Ha!! I want to set them up in a more orderly way and yet, it makes me happy to see how he did it. For now, they are staying in the manner of Miles!

This afternoon, I worked on organizing the layout for the What If piece by selecting and cutting the landscape pieces. I am going for a story book look, and I also want to give an idea of how the security wall takes over the landscape where it exists.

Hopefully, my photo issues will be resolved tomorrow.

Thanks for checking in.

Bindings and Facings and Sleeves, Oh My

Friday, December 5th, 2008

I find that I have to keep busy at all times. I do not want a lot of handwork left to do , two days before my show is hung!! So, I am trying to keep up with all the finishing things. Then, I can do hand sewing when I am tired and watching TV or a movie, as I am, tonight.

Here is the binding, with mitered corner ready to stitch on the Jerusalem Cross quilt.

And the top and bottom facings on the urn quilts have been stitched and ready for hand work. The sides were done last evening.

And, I cut sleeves for all of the quilts that I have finished. I need to do the machine work and then I will hand sew them to the quilts.

Yesterday, I went out to have a final fitting for my new bras and spent some time shopping for some new winter clothes. I found some incredible bargains. Today, I did my Friday WW weigh in (lost my turkey day gain!!) and got my hair cut this afternoon. I have not had any quality time in the studio to start my new pieces, but I have ideas!! I stopped at Mill Ends and bought some gorgeous gray silk organza and dupioni silk. These will be used for a couple of Israel security wall pieces. I also bought some interesting black organza with a very loose weave.

Olivier has been very busy with rehearsals. The first performance is tomorrow night and he has tomorrow free. He loves to go antiquing so we are taking him out to lunch and antiquing in Sellwood. He has one more concert on Sunday afternoon and then he leaves on Monday morning.

NEWS FLASH: KathieB, who comments often on my blog, attended Lisa’s show opening in Milwaukee, WI. Go to her blog and you can see the amazing installation that Lisa did, titled, Life on Wonder Mountain.

A Gory, Yet Funny Story

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

This morning, I got out of bed and jumped into the shower. I use a color enhancing shampoo. It is red. As I was rinsing my hair, I looked down and the water coming off my head was really red and the more I rinsed, the redder it got. What the? My first thought was I had a cut on my head, but no, I had the mother of all nose bleeds. I turned off the water and grabbed one of the brand spanking clean white towels and pressed it against my nose. Dripping wet I walked out to the bedroom to summon Mr C to come to my aid. He toweled me off and still holding the towel tight against my nose, I put on my robe and got in a prone position on the bed. Mr C went for a bag of ice. I usually get one of these every winter and sometimes it takes hours to get them to stop. They are caused by extremely dry conditions combined with my sinus problems.

Fortunately, it was over fairly quickly. I went back into the bathroom, and I kid you not, it looked like someone had been attacked by an axe murderer. There was blood on the shower walls and the base, on the floor and the rugs and in my sink. We finally got it all cleaned up. I have made it through the day without another one, thanks to some petroleum jelly lining my nasal passages.

Our guest, Olivier, arrived last night, in his very classy duds and his violin. He is really a sweet guy. Mr C and I are ready to adopt him. He is the single father of a little boy. His young wife got bored and left him to go back to the city. He lives in the country north of Montreal. He is French Canadian and speaks with a lovely accent. he declared my messy studio to be a happy place!! he saw my two sewing machines set up side by side and wondered if I had them going at the same time! He has been at rehearsal most of the day. Mr C just left to pick him up.

I am getting nervous. I think my quilt on the SAQA auction may not sell. They go down to $150 tomorrow and $75 on Friday. I hope I don’t have the embarrassment of being sent to the bargain basement.

I wanted to do a piece about Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in old urns in caves. In my UFO pile, I had a quilt with urns that I started in a Robbi Eklow class. So I got it out and did the quilting on it. I love the background fabric. It is one I bought from Judy Robinson.

I need to cut and stitch the binding for the cross quilt. Then I will clean up my stuff again and start on the collage pieces.