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Archive for the ‘This and that’ Category

Not Resting on My Laurels

Tuesday, January 6th, 2015

I am trying to manage my life – my job, my art and my household duties. I spent time doing SDA work this morning and then went to the dentist to get my new night guard fitted. I got a quick trip in to Millends where I bought batting and hot pink cotton for the kid quilts. I have been cutting green sashing strips for one of them. Back at home, I walked Scooter, packed up the Christmas decor and then spent the afternoon working on SDA stuff. I am so excited because we have gone over our needed amount of money needed to keep going.

Tonight, I met a friend at Trinity where we made a proposal to the arts committee for a special exhibit next year. More about that later. We are still waiting for our proposal to make its way through channels.

I hoped to spend some time on this knitting project I am doing for my daughter in law, Clay. She saw the pattern at Dharma Trading and liked it and picked out some yarn. It is a fun pattern.

Tomorrow night, I am starting a 6 week drawing class at Trinity. One of our fine artists is teaching the classical method of drawing. We will be using charcoal. It is a multi-generational class so I am not going to be intimidated! I am looking forward to it.

Posted in knitting, This and that | Comments Off on Not Resting on My Laurels

Ch-ch-changes

Thursday, January 1st, 2015

That was 2014 for me.

January: We finished purging and cleaning the big house in Eastmoreland. This is what my studio looked like, ready for the looky loos. Gosh, how I miss that space! We sold our house very quickly and then had the angst of not finding a new place to buy.

February: I finished this quilt for Paige, using Lisa’s line of fabrics.

I also tried my hand at snow dyeing and got some great and serendipitous results.

March: This was a month of good news, family celebration and hard work. Prairie Fields was installed at the Portland Airport in a special exhibit for six months.

We found The Congdo, where we now reside. We packed up all of our worldly goods and I had lots of aches and pains.

We traveled to California for Paige’s second birthday and I gave her the quilt that I made.

April: I spent most of this month getting The Congdo organized and settling into my new studio.

The Congdo now looks great, but my little studio still looks a lot like the above photo.

May: I took a fantastic dyeing class with Judy Robertson down in Eugene. I came home with lots of great fabric.

I made this piece for the annual SAQA auction. It sold, but not as early as other pieces I have done in the past.

The Congdo began to take shape.

June: I took on a new job with SDA which has been time consuming. Another change.

We discovered that we could walk to the gorgeous Portland Rose Gardens. We enjoyed many walks through the rose gardens.

I decided to do something really different for the High Fiber Diet show, What’s Blue to You. I created this enormous Blue Picasso Woman.

We traveled to Seattle to see the Sacred Threads Show.

July: We enjoyed weekly trips to the Portland Farmer’s Market on the streetcar.

Lisa and Clay came for a few days over the fourth of July and we had a family gathering here.

I took Mia and her Mom to Seattle on the train as a graduation present for Mia. We had a great time. I finished another quilt for the blue show.

August: We made another trip to San Francisco to hang out with the CA peeps.

Lisa’s new book, Art Inc. came out and I was honored to find this dedication.

My art quilt daughter, Kristin LaFlamme came to town for an exhibit she was in and to attend the Quilt, Knit, Stitch show. Here we are, helping to set up the SAQA booth.

September: We traveled to California again, to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary with the family. It was loads of fun for me to have everyone together.

Our friend, Heidi Rose, made this macaron tower for out celebration at Trinity.

Then, Rayna came to town to teach for my guild. Had so much fun with her and got some nice fabrics from her workshop.

Found out that Kelp Dance sold while at the American Art Company exhibit in Tacoma.

October: I became another year older. I worked on rehabilitating the leaf quilt.

Lisa and Clay came to Portland for some talks that Lisa was giving during Portland Design Week.

November: I started work on a couple of kid quilts which I hoped to have finished by Christmas. Didn’t happen.

Stephanie hosted Thanksgiving dinner. Big change for me there.

December: Steph and I drove to Seattle to take care of Paige while Jayme had an interview at Children’s Hospital for her residency. We had a great time and she kept us on our toes.

I was excited to be part of the What’s Blue to You exhibit installed at the Portland airport. It will be there for 6 months.

We did minimalist Christmas decorations in The Congdo. Another change. It was fun to see many of my ornaments hanging on Paige’s tree. We traveled there on Christmas day and arrived home today.

I will post some pictures from the California trip tomorrow.

As I have reviewed my year, I realize that I have not been very productive. I am grateful for the participation in The Printed Fabric Bee. I did something every month and it was fun and challenging. I also noticed that my blogging waned as my creativity waned. I plan to do something about that. I am going to try to blog something every day.

I have a solo show coming up in May so I have to get cracking on those pieces. I need to work on getting my studio better organized.

Stay tuned, as I try to rediscover my inner artist.

Happy New Year to all of you. Wishing you creativity in the new year.

Posted in Holidays, This and that | Comments Off on Ch-ch-changes

Checking In Before Checking Out

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2014

Can’t believe that tomorrow is Christmas eve. I am rather organized this year, trying to keep things simple. It is easier here in The Congdo. Not much entertaining going on or decorating. We didn’t have room for a Christmas tree so I have divested myself of all the ornaments and tree skirt. Instead, we have this lovely bare limbed tree which is covered with little lights. We also have two smaller ones on the buffet with some of my creches.

Up at the top is a beautiful felted scarf gifted to me by one of the SDA reps that I work with. Ellen is the rep for Connecticut and is a new Rep. She puts together really newsy e-mails for the CT members which I format in Constant Contact and send out for her. She gave the scarf to me for my help this year. It was not necessary, but I sure do love it. She said when she saw a photo of me with my red hair, she knew that this one had been made for me.

Today, I made peppermint stick ice cream to go with Christmas cookies for Christmas eve. The Portland peeps will come over for supper and gift opening with us. We are going to have Dungeness crab and salad and bread. Very simple. On Christmas morning, Mr C and I are leaving on a jet plane to spend a week in San Francisco with the California contingent of the family. I was excited to see this weather forecast.

While walking Scooter in the neighborhood yesterday, I found a new store that sells beads and a large variety of wood printing blocks in different sizes. That was exciting.

Wishing you all a lovely holiday with your favorite peeps. I will probably check in from San Francisco with some Paige cuteness.

Posted in Holidays, My neighborhood, Surface Design Association, This and that | 1 Comment »

Moving On

Monday, November 24th, 2014

I am somewhat in limbo because I can’t start dyeing the fabric for my solo show until January when I can have a larger space to work. I have been putting off making a couple of kid quilts for my great nieces, using the fabric line from my daughter, Lisa. I have a huge pile!!

I went looking on the internet for a quick and easy pattern that would work with the 9 different fabrics I have. I found this quilt which is designed to use a Moda fabric pack. I am going to modify it for my use.

I am going to make mine a bit larger. I have cut enough rectangles to get started on the first quilt. You can see them up at the top. I have two rows stitched.

I think this is going to work great and be easy to stitch together and quilt. I might have them done by Christmas.

Stephanie is going to do the Thanksgiving dinner this year. I am taking a couple of dishes and wine. It feels weird not to be in charge of the whole thing. But I think I can do this.

On Sunday, she and I are driving to Seattle to meet up with Jayme and Paige. Jayme has an interview for her residency at U of W Children’s Hospital. Steph and I are going to entertain Paige on Monday, or vice versa! It should be fun. An all Congdon girl party.

I found out from my friend, Mary, that she finally got a letter from the church and she has the commission. I asked her about their desire for a sculptural piece with uneven edges. She has done a piece like this that they liked. I am happy she got this. Doing sculptural quilts is not in my wheel house.

Posted in baby and bed quilts, This and that | Comments Off on Moving On

Busy, Having Fun and a Year Older

Monday, October 13th, 2014

On Thursday, Lisa and Clay arrived from San Francisco while I was having fun with my STASH group – it is the first time that all six of us have been together in so long. In the afternoon, the girls and I headed down to Pioneer Square where Design Week Portland had set up a display and geodesic domes. In one of the domes, she was interviewed by Namita Wiggers, former Director and Chief Curator for the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, and now freelance curator and writer. Coincidentally, Namita will be the keynote speaker for the SAQA conference in Portland next year. I always enjoy hearing Lisa talk about her path to success as an artist. Two people brought their college students to her talk — pretty cool.

On Friday, I got my new teeth “installed.” They look really good! After that, I picked up Steph and Mia and we went to another event where Lisa was the featured speaker. She talked about her evolution as a sketchbook user and how important it is to her work, now. She had her two latest books there for sale and after the talk, she signed books. When I left there was a huge line and she sold out of all her books. I think there were over 200 people there for the event.

On Saturday, I got to go shopping with Mr C and pick out some birthday presents for myself. We all went out to dinner on Saturday night because the girls were leaving on Sunday, my actual birthday. We has a wonderful meal at a restaurant in our new neighborhood. This is me ogling my birthday cheesecake.

On Sunday, after church, we went out to brunch with a group of friends who had gone on the trip to Israel with us. One couple was visiting from Iowa. So I feel as if I had a wonderful 4 days of fun and good food and great company.

I managed to get a little studio work done. I painted some organza for leaves for the quilt I am trying to rehabilitate.

I then fused pieces of organza together to give more depth and character to the fabric.

I need to find time to cut and stitch the leaves and finish redoing the quilt before my crit group next Saturday. But, first, I have to finish the guild newsletter!

Posted in Family, Fusing, My Brilliant Daughters, My creations, painting fabric, This and that | 4 Comments »

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