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Archive for the ‘My Brilliant Daughters’ Category

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Hi!

Friday, March 13th, 2009

maxine

Just when I think I am getting my head above water, I get another website update or more registration stuff to take care of. We are getting close to the cut off date  – March 31 – so the conference coordinators want daily updates of workshop enrollment.

Today, I took a bit of a break and did some house stuff. We are having our Sojourners group at our home for dinner tomorrow night. Mr C washed the windows, which is always more scary for me than him. He gets up on a ladder with a squeegee on a pole to wash our floor to ceiling windows in the living and dining rooms. Since the daylight part of the basement is below, it is like washing windows on a second floor.

I did my marketing for the main course, which I am cooking. I am making beef bourguignon which I have not made in ages. I am using Ina Garten’s recipe. Tomorrow, we have to finish cleaning the house and I will do my magic with some lowly chuck and turn it into a thing of beauty.

By the way, it was a beautiful day, almost 60 and sunny. Tomorrow, the rain and snow in the hills will return. Such is life in Portland.

Lisa called from Boston where she met with an agent and her staff. She will now be reped by this firm. The woman is a real mentor to her clients. She has given Lisa some homework to do before she gets her portfolio on line. Very exciting!!

Posted in My Brilliant Daughters, This and that | 4 Comments »

You’ve Gotta Have Heart

Saturday, January 17th, 2009

I am slogging through life. I can’t seem to get my energy back. I think I might have a sinus infection. I did manage to get down to the studio and do some class samples for the fabric valentine collage class that I am teaching at the end of the month at the cathedral. I don’t really like to teach, but they wanted me to do something to tie in with my show.

To warm up, I played with some Angelina fibers and some cute flowers that I found at Michael’s.

angelinaflowers

I cut a piece which I glued to white organza using this fantastic valentine glitter glue.

valentineglue

I stamped some hearts on a blank card.

stampedhearts

I collaged some of the Angelina fibers and other Valentine ephemera and stamped and glittered, etc. I call this the Glitzy Valentine.

valentineglitzycollage

Here is a detail:

glitzdetail

Here is a more sedate Valentine postcard with vintage Japanese textiles and hand stitching.

kyotohearts

And this is my favorite that I call my Mod Valentine collage –

modvalentinecollage

This is hand stitched and mounted on velum Bristol board with gel medium.

moddetail

It sort of felt good to get back in the studio, but now I am feeling blah again. I did get to the paint store to select paint colors for my office. Mr C is done with the dry wall. We are going to paint the red brick fireplace and the wainscoting a lighter color and I selected a pretty green for the walls. He got the fireplace primed this afternoon.

Today is my darling Lisa’s birthday. I am so happy that she has a wonderful new lady friend in her life who is treating her very well today. Happy birthday, sweetie! I remember on the day she was born, it warmed up to 20° in Schenectady, NY. It had been 15 below for days.

I am off to make a salad for dinner. Mr C is picking up cracked crab and sour dough bread.

Posted in Collage, House and home stuff, My Brilliant Daughters | 6 Comments »

The Party’s Over

Friday, December 26th, 2008

I am a little late catching up on Christmas Day around here. First the gratuitous Wilfredo photo. I think he is waiting for a text message to come in on his I-Phone. Or maybe he is just dressed and ready for the party.

wilfredowaiting

We had a delicious brunch at Steph’s house and enjoyed seeing all the loot the grandkids received from Santa and other relatives.

Back at home, I prepared roasted Cornish game hens, Jacques Pepin braised potatoes, green beans, and a broccoli cheese dish. I love setting the table with the family china. I wanted to fold the napkins into elf shoes ala Brenda. But it was a bit complicated for me (I needed Miles!), so I opted for the elegant candle fold.

candlenapkins

That is where the photos of the Christmas dinner ended. I was too busy to pick up my camera. Oh, I did get this photo proving that the party is over, especially for these two.

partysover

Today, Lisa and I designed a postcard for my show. I am very late getting this done and she saved my rear. It has been sent off to Overnight Prints and should arrive early next week. At least it won’t go out in the Christmas Rush.

congdonfront

congdonback

Tonight, Lisa is staying with Amy Ruppel and catching up on artsy things. Tomorrow, we are taking the patient Miss Mia out for her birthday shopping trip — only a week and a half late. I am sure it will be more fun with Aunt Lisa joining us.

Posted in Family, Holidays, My Brilliant Daughters, Postcards, Solo Show | 7 Comments »

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.

Posted in Finishing touches, My Brilliant Daughters, This and that, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Better

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

I did the unquilting on the hillside housing. It was a bear. I love my Janome 6600, but when you use the thread cutter, it makes a nice little knot that is very difficult to remove. I found some Superior variegate blue thread in lighter colors. I also bought some new batting, I am running low. It was 25% off at Fabric Depot today.

I went down to the studio to quilt it and rethreaded every thing. I still had snarls. I cleaned out the bobbin case and changed the needle. I still had snarls. I have been using the Superior prewound Bottomline bobbins which are heavy paper. I switched to a regular bobbin and voila! problem solved. These have been working fine for me. I love them because you can get an assortment of colors. Anyway, the quilting is finished, a couple of days later than I planned.

I am feeling better, too. Headache is gone. I wasn’t a bit grumpy today.

I have nothing to show you so I stole these photos from Steph’s blog. These will be for sale in her shop tomorrow. Aren’t they phenomenal. They are made from wool. Each petal of the pinecone is lined. I have such talented children.

Posted in Machine Quilting, My Brilliant Daughters, My creations | 5 Comments »

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