My Brilliant Daughters | Crazy for Fiber

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Archive for the ‘My Brilliant Daughters’ Category

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 »

Excuses, Excuses

Sunday, July 20th, 2014

That lovely girl in the photo with me is my lovely granddaughter, Mia. Those who have been following my blog for low these many years know that we moved to Portland 8 years ago when she was just finishing Kindergarden. And, just like that, she is taller than me and graduated from Junior High. Her gift from me was a trip to Seattle on the train and a night in a posh hotel.

We took the trip last Friday and Saturday. Prior to that, I was busy with meetings — Guild board on Monday, finishing quilts to turn in to High Fiber Diet on Tuesday and SAQA at Terry Grant’s home on Wednesday. It was a busy week.

Early on Thursday, I met Mia and Steph at the Portland Union Station to board our train to Seattle. I love trains and train travel. This is the ceiling of the Union ‘Station.

By lunch time, we were in Seattle at the King Street Station.

We packed very lightly so that we could carry our stuff easily until we got to the Hotel Sorrento which is way up on First Hill – nine blocks up from the touristy area of the city. The station is near Pioneer Square, a lovely older area of Seattle with lots of galleries and parks. Steph knew of a restaurant there that she wanted to try — London Plane. The food was quite avant garde and very delicious. They also had a lovely selection of things for the stylish home.

I had to really hustle to keep up with my ectomorph daughter and granddaughter.

After stopping in a few shops, chosen by Miss Mia, we actually walked up to our hotel, stopping to rest at the beautifully designed Seattle Library.

The room was magically ready and so we were able to get settled. Mia loved the big king size bed so much that I thought we might never get her out of the room.

I slept in the sitting room on a pull out bed which they made up for me with a ton of pillows and comforter.

I always love going to Seattle to discover new things. On this trip, we found out about this small park which has a waterfall.

Steph caught me Instagramming.

I love the variety of architecture.

We loved the small Finnish shop near Pike Place. They had a beautiful assortment of Marimekko fabric.

I took this shot of Mia on the train, coming home. I can’t believe how grown up and beautiful she is. In the fall, she is going to St Mary’s Acadamy – a highschool for girls.

We saw the start of the sun setting as we arrived back in Oregon.

Don’t forget to check out the Monday Creative Blog Tours for Helen Conway and Susan Lenz.

Posted in Family, M & M, My Brilliant Daughters, Travels | 3 Comments »

Life in the Fast Lane

Thursday, July 10th, 2014

My life is full, fun and fantastic, but time gets away from me. The main reason I am a bit distracted this week is the visit from my two Oakland girls, Lisa and Clay and they brought Wilfredo!

Four adults and two dogs are getting along just fine in our condo. My son in law, Jack, has named it The Congdo! We have had such a good time with them, and they love our neighborhood. This week, Lisa is participating in an ICON conference and tonight is a meet and greet at the Portland Art Museum. She has her books to and some prints of her work to sell and examples of all the work she does. Saturday, she is doing a workshop session on the business of illustration.

Every one gathered here for the 4th of July. We had great food and it was fun to have every one here. We could watch fireworks from our windows. We had some great salads and kabobs.

These photos were taken by Steph for her 3191 blog.

I have been working frantically to get my two big quilts done for the High Fiber Diet “What’s Blue to You” exhibit.

Lisa took this photo of me with my blue picasso woman and posted it on Instagram.

I got 760 likes and 72 comments. The comments cracked me up.

This is the Sky Blue Pink quilt as of today. I think it might need something more. I am disappointed with the wonkiness of the bottom. Not sure what to do. The photo at the top is a detail shot of the hand stitching on the cheesecloth section.

Today was STASH day at Gale’s home. I just love spending a morning with my friends, chatting and eating. Reva brought her vintage t-shirt quilt At our next meeting, we are going to help her tie it. It is to unwieldy to do machine quilting.

So that is a bit of what I have been up to. The other part of my life is so left brained. I am helping SDA with membership and database issues on the website. There have been some problems with work done by some previous employees. We are slowly getting it under control. We have about 4000 members and people join and renew in various ways – phone, mail, and online. I get a real sense of satisfaction as I troubleshoot issues.

Posted in Condo Life, Family, handstitching, High Fiber Diet, My Brilliant Daughters, Quilting Friends, Surface Design Association | 2 Comments »

Beautiful Day

Friday, October 18th, 2013

We are having glorious fall weather. After several days of unending rain, we have been having unending days of delightful sunny weather.

I got my pet postcards in the mail today and whipped up this one to send to someone as a thank you. Can’t say who just yet. The background looks bluer than it is.

I had a piece of gray silk organza on which I have been doing test printing.

It seemed too good to just discard so I used it as the background for the postcard. I think I will use the rest for another collage with graffiti.

I pulled fabrics and sorted them by season as I have a piece planned where I want to have a wash of color in the background showing the Portland seasonal colors.

I am trying to decide whether I want to mix in some batiks for variety.

I now am under a gag order regarding Lisa’s situation. I can say that two more companies have withdrawn goods from this company on their shelves and website. If there is good press, I can share it. This has gotten big, very quickly.

I am going to my Oregon critique group tomorrow. I am looking forward to that. Have a great week-end!

Posted in My Brilliant Daughters, My creations, Postcards | 1 Comment »

Pet Postcards in the Mail

Thursday, October 17th, 2013

I have been going to meetings and working on the guild newsletter, but I did finish the pet postcards. The look so much better when they are quilted, trimmed and edged. I printed custom backs for them.