M & M | Crazy for Fiber

January 2025
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

Archive for the ‘M & M’ Category

The Pause That Refreshes

Monday, July 23rd, 2007

Today was a great Monday and the start of a creative week for me. I did some more work on the Winter Bamboo Fence. I have the fabrics glued down and now I need to do some stitching to integrate the piece. I think I will do some hand stitching and some by machine. I wanted to add some red and just now, I decided that I had too much red and so made a final change.

I had to take a break in my studio work because Steph had to take Miles to see the doctor this afternoon. Miss Mia came over to spend the afternoon with me. We started work on a quilt for her American Girl doll, Kirsten. I bought a bed for her for Christmas last year. We were missing one square and Mia said she would like to do some embroidery. She is also learning cursive writing so she is embroidering Kirsten’s name in red. I love this photo of her:

Last week when we went shopping, I bought her a Kathy Kruse German doll. She looks sort of like this one, but she has 4 braids in light brown.

Steph says she takes her every place with her. So while Mia stitched, I made Melissa a nightie. Sorry, no picture. Steph came to retrieve my sewing partner before I could get a photo.

Tomorrow, I am taking Mia to an Art Adventure at our church. We are going to make Chinese puppets and possibly go on an urban letter boxing adventure.

On Wednesday, I start a 5 day shibori class at the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts. I am so excited about that class. I am going to have to weigh in at Weight Watchers in the evening. Hope that won’t be too depressing.

Posted in M & M, My creations | 3 Comments »

Bamboo Fence 3 Ways and Ginkgo Leaves

Friday, July 20th, 2007

I decided that I want to make another Bamboo Fence piece. I took the photo (in my previous post) of the fence that my son took at the garden and made a screen. It was not very successful. I did have great success printing it on silk. This is after posterizing it in Photoshop. You can see it here with the background fabric I am auditioning and the bamboo that will be used to construct a fence on the piece.

So I found another bamboo fence that I played with in Photoshop and made another thermofax screen. This is much more successful. You can see the screenprint in two different colors on the top. The unsuccessful screen is on the bottom.

So I will use that on the back ground fabric with the photo collaged on top and construct a bamboo fence. Bamboo fence – 3 ways.

This morning while we were walking between the rain storms, I found a Ginkgo tree. I grabbed a little branch and brought it home. I taped the leaves to paper and scanned them.

After playing with it in Photoshop, I had this image:

I made a screen with the thermofax and here are my screen printed leaves. I have an idea percolating in my brain for using this image for another piece.

I hear that a lot of you are enjoying the wild rice salad recipe that I posted. Hi! Mary Lou in Massachusetts. She is the is the sister of my good friend Pat, in Santa Rosa. They are not only sisters; they are best friends. They talk to each other almost every day. They are both quilters and enjoy getting together for vacations. Anyway, Pat told me today, that she had talked to Mary Lou, who had made the salad and gave it her seal of approval. Now Pat is going to make it for her wine tasting group.

I had a great time with Mia yesterday. We shopped locally at the book store and toy store in Sellwood. Then she accompanied me on my shopping trip to Trader Joe’s. She is great company. I am always so impressed when I introduce her to adult friends. She is very polite and talkative — a real charmer!

Posted in M & M, My creations, screenprinting, Surface Design Techniques, thermofax | 4 Comments »

Happily Exhausted

Sunday, July 8th, 2007

Lisa left this afternoon to go back to San Francisco. I am very tired, but a good kind of tired. I realize that I do not have the stamina of a thirty-something!!

Today, on the way to the airport, we stopped at a couple of up and coming neighborhoods on the north side of Portland — Mississippi Street and Alberta Street. We had lunch at Grand Central Baking, thank goodness they don’t just serve sandwiches on their great bread. I was able to get a salad with chicken. Steph and M & M came along for the outing, too.

We stopped in at Bolt, and some reddish brown burlap caught my eye. I bought some as a possible background for the bamboo fence quilt. I think it works, but now I have to decide how to finish it. My inclination is to stretch it around foam core.

Yesterday, we had a girls day out. We went to Oregon City to take Mia to the Museum of the Oregon Territory. She loves anything about pioneer life. Here she is in her sunbonnet, bravely getting weighed in front of everyone.

I loved the reproduction of the pharmacy with walls of bottles and tins.

There were several quilts at the museum. Some were displayed on beds and they looked good enough to crawl in to for a nap.

These log cabin quilts were my favorite. The bottom was made from silk scraps.

We also did lots of antiquing and thrift shopping. In the afternoon, Lisa and I checked out NW 23rd. She loves all the trendy little boutiques. Last night, Steph made fish tacos for all of us. It was a delicious end to the day.

It was great having Lisa in the house. She took lots of walks with Maggie and I. We sat on the sofa and watched HGTV and read our favorite blogs together. She even dieted with me. I don’t know why she thinks she needs to lose weight, but I guess that when I was that age and weight, I always felt like I needed to lose 15 pounds. I am going to drag my tired old body off to bed.

Posted in Eating out, M & M, My Brilliant Daughters, My creations, Quilting Purchases, Stuff I Buy | 3 Comments »

A Quiet Day in the Studio

Friday, July 6th, 2007

Today, Lisa took M & M to the zoo. Mr C went to the Cathedral to man the pantry — handing out lunches to the homeless. After a nice long walk with Maggie, I settled down in the studio with one of my ufo’s. I started this in Rayna’s class at Art Quilt Claremont. The background fabric and some of the pieces are screen-printed. The others are African batiks. I want to finish this for the wabi sabi show at the Japanese Garden, so I thought that adding some bamboo might look interesting. First, I did some hand stitching with Perle cotton.

I would love to keep the frayed edge of the background fabric, but am not sure how I can do that. I have thought of attaching it to painted canvas. I could cut back the batting and then stitch it to the canvas. What do you think?

Yesterday, I walked to Westmoreland to the Haggus McBaggus shoe store and bought a new pair of red Keen’s.

M and M were going to spend the night so that their parents could go out with Lisa, but Mia got a tummy ache so Miles came to stay with us by himself. He was so happy to come and stay by himself. Look at what I found for him at the Harbor Freight store. He is going to help Grandpa do some work around the house tomorrow while the girls have a day out on their own. Here is builder Milo.

Posted in M & M, My creations, Stuff I Buy, Surface Design Techniques | 7 Comments »

Bon Voyage

Wednesday, June 27th, 2007

M and M and their parents are leaving on a jet plane in the morning — off to visit the other grandparents in North Carolina. Mia told me that it is hot there – really hot. I told her that I knew this to be true from personal experience.

This morning, I turned my self in to Weight Watchers. I get a really good deal through Kaiser Permanente so thought I would give it 12 weeks. I am saying this out loud to all of you as I need your support. I am not going to tell you how much I weigh, but I will report my weekly loss or gain, right here for you all to see. We also get a free health club membership, so that is next on my list to do.

I came home, had lunch and headed to Westmoreland for a hair cut. Hi, Tonya!! I ran into Tonya, the daughter of the owner, who looked at me as if she knew me and she did — at least the blog me. Turns out she is one of those crafty young women who follow my daughters’ blogs and so checks in on me occasionally.

I offered to help Steph get ready for her trip by entertaining M & M this afternoon and making dinner. She dropped them off mid-afternoon. Miles hung out with Grandpa while Mia and I went to the farmer’s market and the grocery store to shop for dinner.

Here are our baked goods: apricot tart, mini chocolate bundt cake, two kinds of bread.

Mia selected the veggies: green beans and carrots.

This lettuce was so fresh and lovely – 3 heads for $3.

Mia couldn’t wait to chomp on the carrots. She ate four, before dinner.

For dinner we had, linguine with shrimp, arugula and lemon oil, green beans, fruit salad with raspberries and blueberries from the farmer’s market, and bread and dessert from the farmer’s market. Yummm!

Thank you all for the good wishes for surviving my latest allergy attack. I am still suffering from vertigo in the morning. By later in the day, I feel much better.

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, Family, M & M, Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

Categories

Recent Posts

Archives

Meta