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Archive for the ‘You bought it so use it’ Category

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Monday Mixture

Monday, January 31st, 2011

This is a snippet of the background fabric for the water piece. Isn’t it luscious? I am almost finished stitching the organza pockets.

We had a nice week-end. On Saturday, we did some decluttering and cleaning of the house which made us both feel better. On Saturday night, I invited Mr C to go to the movies. I wanted to see The King’s Speech in the theater. We had some yummy Mexican food and made a night of it. That is such a fantastic movie. I was surprised at how much I was sitting on the edge of my seat for a movie that was not really and action thriller. It was beautifully cast and acted.

Yesterday, we picked up M & M after church and brought them home with us. Steph was having her hair cut and colored and Jack needed to work. She is going out of town next week for a super exciting job. So we are all gearing up to handle every thing while she is gone.

While the kids played games on the computer and watched Word Girl on TV, I sat and stitched on the orange woven piece. It is taking me longer than I anticipated so I hope I get to another one of my purchases that I need to use before too long!!

I am doing some handstitching to make some well defined marks.

Here is an overview of how it is looking. I am really having fun with this.

I have a huge pile of quilts in my living room. They are entries from High Fiber Diet members for our Back to Nature quilt show which will be hung at Trinity in March and April. We are doing the jurying next week.

I saw daffodils in bloom today. It may hit 60° later this week. Life is pretty good here in Portlandia.

Posted in handstitching, My creations, Surface Design Association, You bought it so use it | 3 Comments »

Another One of Those Days

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

I had another one of those days where I was running from this to that. I had to check in with my Dr. this morning to see how I am doing on the ACE inhibitor that I am now taking for my blood pressure. I was so nervous that I was sure my BP was through the roof, but it was normal, and I almost did a cartwheel!

I came home and finished up a Constant Contact mailing for an SDA state rep. After walking the dog and eating lunch, I was about to head to my studio when Mr C asked me to go to the AT&T store with him to get an iPhone!! Done.

Got down to the studio at 4 pm and did some stitching for the organza piece. I went back down after dinner and did some more. I now have a nice little pile of organza squares.

I have been wanting to pick up the orange woven piece and do some more stitching, but that has not happened, but I really do like that lime green yarn which I plan to use to hand stitch some lines.

This arrived in the mail today. It is a large vinyl print of my  Decision Portrait from Susan Lenz’s show in South Carolina. She sent it to me as a memento. It hung outside the original show venue in Charleston.

So maybe tomorrow I will have a whole day in the studio!

Posted in My creations, Uncategorized, You bought it so use it | 2 Comments »

Attention Deficit Disorder

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

I am being pulled in too many directions or maybe I just can’t focus. I talked to Steph on the phone today,  and she is having the same problem, but she has two children to tend to so I think she is being too hard on herself.

I have had a lot of little website things to do. I always feel compelled to do them as soon as they come in. It has been a constant string of interruptions today. I had planned some studio time, but I never made it until tonight.

Oh, here is another thing. I know that someplace in my studio, I have a piece of hand-dyed cheesecloth in browns and oranges. I think that Kristin sent it to me with some other hand-dyed fabrics. I wanted to use it as another layer for the orange and brown woven background. I have wasted so much time looking for it. Now, I am trying to remember if I used it on another piece.

So, I was looking around and saw an onion bag that I had been using for surface design. I cut some strips and pinned it to the background. I also cut up some green painted lutradur which I glued down. I started handstitching it with the perle cotton that is in the photo.

I think it is a good exercise for me to keep working on this and find ways to make it more interesting.

In the meantime, I am really anxious to get to work on the organza water piece. I am just in love with the way the painted organza looks. I started cutting strips to piece for my little pockets. The due date has been changed to March 1st – which is part of the reason I was busy updating the website today. However, I have other deadlines so I am going to get this done as soon as I can.


Yesterday, I went to my first Palates class. I can walk today, but I sure am feeling it. I really enjoyed the camaraderie with the other women who were essentially in my age division. I am going back tomorrow morning.

Today, on my walk with Scooter, I took some photos of the rain forest effect that we have going on here with all the rain and the mild temperatures.

A mossy walkway.

A mossy stone wall.

Ferns growing in trees.

Posted in Inspiration, My creations, photography, Surface Design Association, You bought it so use it | 3 Comments »

A Good Day

Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

It was a great day. First and foremost, the sun was shining and it felt good on our bodies as we walked Scooter around the neighborhood. And then, Steph came over for some dyeing fun. And to top it all off, the whole family went out for dinner to celebrate Mr C’s birthday. We ate like Tuscans at his favorite restaurant, Nostrana.

Steph and her 3191 partner, Maria, put out a Quarterly magazine of recipes and how tos. Steph wanted to do scarf dyeing that would be approachable for the average person. I suggested using the instant setting Colorhue dyes that I use in my workshops. They are now available at Dharma Trading. She ordered gorgeous large square blanks that are a silk/wool blend from Dharma.

We played around with mixing the colors to get some neutral shades for the overall dyeing. We did a pale blue, a pale mauve and sort of “griege”. I decided that a fold and dip shibori would be easier for beginners to do than pole wrapped shibori.

This is the blueish scarf. this was accordion folded and dipped in true blue. You can see it in the top photo.

This is the purple scarf. This was folded in triangles and dipped in purple. I didn’t get a photo of it.

This was the grayish scarf which was for me. I started folding it and was having trouble so instead I squished it into a bundle and just squirted it with red, yellow and orange dyes. We loved the water color effect of it. It is in the top photo. Mr C said it looked like camouflage!

To warm up, I did this chiffon scarf with citron and turquoise. It looked much better before it dried. As I told Steph, this can be very serendipitous.

Here is a photo of one of my experiments from earlier in the week, after the paint dried. It is looking much more interesting.


I just discovered that one of the women going on the Japan trip is from Portland. She lives on a floating houseboat on the Columbia River. We are going to go meet her tomorrow. We are due to have several days of sunny weather and warm temps. The daffodils are 6 inches high and the aromatic Daphne and hellebores are starting to bloom. I think I might have spring fever.

Posted in Dyeing, Family, You bought it so use it | 8 Comments »

Studio Play Time

Thursday, January 20th, 2011


The next exercise in the Drawn to Stitch book is to add a layer of marks with variety in sharpness, width, shape, etc. I used some red paint and made marks on the black and white woven piece. Then, I almost obliterated the brown and yellow piece.  I am going to cut this one up and reassemble it. The paint was still wet when I took this photo – messy fun.

I also printed on the organza water with metallic paints using bubble wrap, a stamp with tiny dots, a sponge and even a fish.The yellow in this photo is really more green than this. Metallic paint is hard to photograph.

The second piece of organza has more white space which helps when I layer it.

I am anxious to start cutting and piecing this.

I also worked on a panel for the Dream Rocket project.

The Dream Rocket Team is collecting nearly 8,000 artworks from participants around the globe. The artwork will be assembled together to create a massive cover in which will wrap a 37 story Saturn V Moon Rocket at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. We will also be displaying submitted artwork in dozens of national venues prior to the wrapping of the Saturn V.

The panel has to be 2 ft by 2 ft. I had a quilt that I made for an online challenge last year — a black hole. I mounted it on felt that I covered with gold metallic organza to make it the correct size.

I did some stitching on the organza and added some copper foiling to blend with the quilt. I then covered it with Golden Matte Medium. It ended up looking more gray than gold, but it still works. It will be outside in the elements so I wanted to do something to protect it. Definitely not a great work of art, but it was fun and is going to a fun project. Maybe when the matte medium is completely dry, it will look gold again.

With our health care, we get membership in an exercise program called Silver and Fit. You have a choice of facilities. Mr C goes to 24 hour Fitness. I just don’t like the mega gyms. So today, I went to the local swim and racquet club which has just started a program. I can take Pilates and yoga and work out on the machines. In the summer, I can use the pool.

I feel as if I am getting back into the swing of things. My energy level is greater and I am having a good time. If I keep throwing paint at stuff, something is bound to stick!!

Posted in Flowers and plants, foiling, Just for Fun, painting fabric, You bought it so use it | 5 Comments »

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