12X12 challenge | Crazy for Fiber

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Archive for the ‘12X12 challenge’ Category

Got My Mojo Back

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

Monday night, I had a deep and restful sleep. I now have energy, clarity and joy. I have just about finished my illumination piece for the 12 X 12 challenge. The reveal will be August 1. Here is a sneak peek.

I cut up some of the silk scraps from that piece and auditioned them for the SAQA auction piece. This does not look too tasteful, at all.

Yesterday, our cabinet maker started installing the storage units for the bathroom. They are rift sawn oak with no stain — au naturel. The boxes are installed, but now drawers or doors, yet. Today, Mr C and I went to the coolest hardware store in Portland, Chown. We were totally in sync, and it took very little time to find the drawer pulls and door knobs for the cabinets. We also got the toilet tissue holder, a magnifying mirror for me, some robe hooks and hardware for the closet pocket drawer.

Wednesday is weigh-in day and Farmer’s market. I was relieved that I had no weight gain after a week of eating out. For dinner, we had albacore tuna, rainbow chard and green beans, all scored at the Farmer’s market. So fresh, healthy and tasty.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Bathroom Renovation, My creations, Out and About in Portland, weight loss/gain | 2 Comments »

Accomplishments

Friday, July 18th, 2008

Sometimes, I get to the end of a day, and I think I have not accomplished much of anything. I try to think back over the day — what did I do? Today, was one of those days. After breakfast, coffee, the newspaper and some blog reading, I prepared Indigo Construction for the trip to the APNQ show. I had a sleeve, but not the legal type of label. Once the label was done, I had to cover it with muslin for the judging – ugh – I don’t like to have my work picked apart by judges. I then prepared it for the FedEx shipping tube, printed out the shipping label and Mr C took it off to the shipping store.

I also washed all my silk fabric and hung it to air dry. This is all going to Coupeville with me. There is organza, habotai, charmeuse, peau de soie and noil. I also have some charmeuse and chiffon scarves.

After a nice walk with Maggie and lunch, I worked a bit on my Illumination challenge for the 12 X 12 group. Here is a sneak peak.

Then it was off to do some shopping for supplies for the trip and some bread and peaches for family dinner tonight. M & M were at day camp this week and I missed my day with them. They had a wonderful time in the great out-of -doors. They didn’t want it to end. He had wild berry juice on his cheeks. I wanted to photograph him. This is what I got:

We had a nice dinner of grilled chicken (marinated in zin, olive oil, dijon mustard, garlic and thyme), roasted new potatoes, grilled zucchini, caprese salad with heirlooms tomatoes, bread and ice cream with peaches and balsamic syrup. There was a nice bottle of Alderbrook zin as an accompaniment.

Now, we are watching Sweeney Todd — a bloody good movie! I love the music, anyway. I can watch Johnny Depp do just about anything. Speaking of movies, we saw Wall-E the other night and loved it.

So, I guess that I did accomplish some things today. I leave you with the lovely table of Mediterranean barley salad that Terry served us yesterday at the STASH meeting. Delicious.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Cooking and Recipes, Family, M & M, Quilt Shows, This and that | 3 Comments »

Fun in the Studio

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

Today, I printed and squiggled on fabric as I tried to come up with some accent fabrics for the SAQA auction quilt.

I used some bubble wrap and a vinyl gripper for printing metallic dots.

I also added some black squiggles with a syringe. I did a round sponge stamp in metallic paint on the background fabric.

This was my first not so successful design. The white on the organza was not working for me.

I then used some brass Dyna-flow paint on the organza fabric. I liked this much better. I also decided I had too much orange. (I am trying not to be too tasteful!!!) I have circles and X’s – hugs and kisses. I have been thinking of naming this Summer Love. What do you think? I also thought about Circle Play.

I am stitching the organza with a variegated Perle cotton that is just the perfect color.

I also pulled some luminous hand-dyed silk for my illumination challenge.

I have the pieces drawn for the main design. I have not found the right background fabric — I might have to make a trip to Fabric Depot, but I don’t know when. Tomorrow, I start my screen printing class. I hope my surge of energy stays with me so that I can get some work done in the evening. My studio is in the basement and is nice and cool.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, My creations, painting fabric, Surface Design Techniques | 3 Comments »

A Mellow Monday

Monday, July 7th, 2008

This is a hydrangea that I planted on my studio patio last year. It has just bloomed. I love the lacy blossoms.

I spent some time designing my quilt for the next 12 X 12 challenge — illumination. I am having fun with my idea, but I can’t share anything yet.

I painted some of the fabric that I printed last week — the brown circles. I used a limey green Setacolor. I am going to use this for the SAQA 12 inch auction donation.

I also played with some options for the construction piece that I have been redoing. I am auditioning some design elements, and they may get the parts!!

Today a big truck rolled up with all the fixtures for our bathroom — two sinks with chrome stands, the shower fixture with the rain shower head, and the swanky La Cava shower base. Everything is sitting in the garage. There will apparently be a frenzy of activity tomorrow.

I think summer is here to stay. It was a mellow day today. I did a big edit for the SDA auction pages. I also spent some time ordering supplies from Prochem and Thai Silk.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Bathroom Renovation, Construction series, Flowers and plants, painting fabric, Quilting Purchases, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Sun Breaks and Rainbows

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

The Twelve by Twelve challenge this time around has the theme of water. Living in Portland, Oregon, my mind immediately went to rain. The best part of rain in Portland are the frequent sun breaks (an actual weather term) and subsequent rainbows. Because of my trip in May, I had to come up with an expedited plan to have my quilt done and ready to post on June 1. I printed a photo of a rainbow in a landscape on cotton. I then printed a very faded version of the same photo on organza. I did not think to get photos of these before I got into the project too far.

I cut the organza into strips of varying widths. These were fused to the background photo. I overlapped the strips to give a more watery, misty look to represent the rain. I left parts of the background without the organza overlay to represent the sun breaks. Here it is with black borders, sandwiched and ready to quilt.

This is my first version with a detail. I quilted vertical lines to represent rain. In the sun break areas, I used a neutral thread. I added some rainbow fabric to the binding to keep it from being too boring.

I thought I was done. But, no, the sun break areas just didn’t read properly for me. While I was walking the dog, I realized what I needed to do. I pulled the neutral thread from those areas and did random lines of yellow/orange thread. What I mean by random is that I did not quilt one line of thread from top to bottom as I did for the rain sections.