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Archive for the ‘Out and About in Portland’ Category

Oregon Flock and Fiber

Sunday, September 23rd, 2012

Yesterday was busy with more Quilt Expo hob nobbing and getting some errands done – like buying groceries, picking tomatoes and roasting them and preparing a home cooked meal. Mr C and I went back to the Expo Center at the end of the show and met Terry. With Mr C’s help, we were able to get the quilts down and ready to pack up, but whoops, they lost our boxes and specially labeled bags. So, we had to wait while someone went to Office Depot and bought us new boxes. I had special boxes for shipping the quilts. I will have to prepare some more bags for the Colorplay quilts which are going on to Australia in November.

Today, after church, I decided I wanted to make a quick trip to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Fest. It is an array of eye candy — colorful yarns and roving — and beautiful sheep, goats, alpacas and llamas.

A member of the Columbia Fiberarts Guild was one of the featured artists and I wanted to see her work. She is a weaver. I was disappointed that there were only a couple of pieces of hers in the gallery. Here is one.

I ran into several friends during my short visit, and I took lots of fun photos. So here we go:

A felted wall hanging.

Creative packaging!

These rugs were hooked using roving. Here is the maker.

These rugs were woven – so pretty.

I loved this indigo dyed roving and I really should have bought some.

The artisan grows her own indigo and dyes using the leaves and she also used Rit color remover and gets all these luscious colors.

Many women were spinning or knitting. There was a spinning contest going on out on the lawn.

Loved these little felted sheep.

Before I drove home, I had to visit the animals in the barn.

Apparently you do not have to shear these sheep; you just pull the wool off as it grows. It was very soft.

Tomorrow, I have to get back to my studio. I have 12 x 20 piece to get finished by Oct. 1 and I need to finish quilting the kelp. Not to mention the 3 x 3’s.

 

A Beautiful Summer Week-end

Sunday, September 2nd, 2012

We are having a lazy last week-end before the busy fall season of meetings and events start up. Yesterday, we went to Art in the Pearl, the annual festival in downtown Portland. I collected business cards from artists who live in or near Portland so that I can invite them to apply for Artists Among Us.

I took a few photos. This chair was so lovely. It had a footstool with it. The other furniture made by this artist, Victor DiNovi, was exquisite.

This glass artist, Morgan Madison, does some beautiful work. I loved every thing in his booth.

Here is my friend Teresa Rusch, in her both. She dye paints wool yarn and weaves gorgeous scarves and shawls.

I saw these collages and was struck by how similar the elements are to those used by fellow twelve, Deborah Boschart. The artist is Marcy Baker.

We sat down to have a cold drink and saw the top of The Henry, a building with cool condominiums. Mr C said he would like to live in the pent house condo at the top! It is a little out or our price range.

I also liked the canopy of leaves above us.

Here is today’s red-orange 3 x 3.

I also cut some batting and backs for the 3 x 3’s.

Tomorrow, we will have a BBQ with the family. M and M go back to school on Wednesday. I have a full schedule of activities coming up this month. Where did summer go?

Week-end Fun

Sunday, June 17th, 2012

I am one tired little old lady, but it sure has been a fun week. We finished class on Friday with some show and tell. These are my screenprints, before washing with Kerr in front. I did a lot of red black and tangerine, hoping to get some raw material for a piece with a fire theme.

I will post more about the last day of class tomorrow.

Yesterday, I took Kerr out to Bonnie Bucknam’s house so that she could see and possibly purchase some of Bonnie’s vintage linens. I think two boxes are on the way to Mississippi. Then, we were off to Portland for some fun. We had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant – yum.

Then, we checked out Cargo, a store with stuff, large and small, from all over the world. They  just got a shipment of fabulous stuff from Japan. Kerr bought a huge, sturdy and well used paper bag that was once used for carrying silk. It is beautiful. It was too big to take a photo. There were antique mulberry stencils.

I bought some vintage anime and manga magazines for Mia and Miles and a set of lovely illustrated number cards for Paige.

You can’t visit Portland and miss a trip to Powell’s Book Store which fills a whole city block. No books went home with her — no room in the suitcases!!

Our next stop was the Museum of Contemporary Craft. We enjoyed the exhibit of Betty Feve’s work in clay. I have long been an admirer of her work in the permanent collection. In the lab, at the back of the exhibit, was a community participation project.

There was clay and other stuff where visitors could make a sculpture for this display. Here is mine:

And, Kerr’s:

On the way home, we picked up some fresh salmon for dinner and enjoyed a lovely evening on the deck.

I dropped Kerr off at the airport this morning. I will miss her. It has been so much fun to have her around for the past few days. Hope she will come back, again.

Tonight, we had a nice family dinner. Here are some photos.

Artichoke hearts before and after being attacked

Scooter found a comfy place next to Steph in her cool blue and white shoes.

Mia was in her usual spot with sketchbook and pencil in hand.

She is officially 2 inches taller than me!!

Miles got his Mom to play Scrabble Slam.

Since it is father’s day, I should have gotten a photo of the two dads. What was I thinking? Steph brought this for dessert – yummy goodness.

Now, I am off to bed to catch up on my sleep.

Art in the Pearl 2011

Saturday, September 3rd, 2011

Mr. C, Scooter and I went downtown to check out the Art in the Pearl. These are necklaces made by iber/metal artist, Trisha Hassler. Click her name to see her larger works. She made these miniature pieces because people had asked for something smaller and more affordable.

As an anniversary gift, Mr C let me pick out something to take home. I came home with on of her necklaces.

Here is a detail. You can see the fiber background with a bit of metal attached to it, similar to her larger work.

We notice that there were a lot fewer jewelry artists this year, but a whole lot more fiber/felted clothing artists. Here are a few glimpses.

It was very crowded so I was limited in the photography area. After a time, it was like seeing the same thing over and over!

Here is a new take on fiber. This woman crochets paper on which she has made marks with a pen or a pencil. She then cuts the roll of paper into long strips.

There was a young woman creating this sculpture from twigs. It was very cool.

Here is some random art that caught my eye.

These are encaustics with embellishments. He adds elements that make the work 3-D.

I love fused glass. These had beautiful colorways.

These glass whirligigs always gather an audience.

Painted metal pieces, that look a lot like quilt art, don’t you think?

This week-end is our 47th wedding anniversary. We were married on Labor Day week-end so we always celebrate all week-end. Our actual anniversary is on Monday. We are going out to dinner tonight. We were supposed to go out on our friends’ boat tomorrow, but the wife is not feeling well so that will happen next week. On Monday, we will have the annual family Labor Day barbecue. We have hot weather, finally. The wind is blowing from the east, bringing us hot air and smoke from the fires.

You can still leave a comment on my August 31 post for a chance to win Masters Art Quilts, Vol. 2. The drawing will be on Tuesday.

The Color Purple

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

All of my studio work is stuff I can’t show you so instead, you will see photos of pretty flora from my neighborhood walk with Scooter and Mr. C. There seems to be an abundance of purple flowers.

I had a glitch with one of the pieces I am working on, today. I was fusing organza to a piece of silk and a little purple thread got stuck under the organza. Amazingly, I was able to use tweezers to pull the thread out with out it showing any damage to the organza – whew!

We are having such a chilly summer. The sun does not come out until the afternoon. It is great sleeping weather, but not weather for tomatoes or dyeing!!