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Archive for the ‘12X12 challenge’ Category

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In a Blue Mood

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

Well, not really, but I am working with blue fabrics this month.  March will be yellow. Feb 1 is a felted piece.

Today’s 3 X3 just had to have some indigo.

I spent a good deal of time yesterday morning reorganizing the fabric in my studio — putting away the red stash, pulling some blues, folding and sorting my hand-dyes. It was good to take an accounting of what I have.

Then, I started in earnest working on the next Twelve by Twelve which is really Twelve by Twenty! I cut a piece of batting and was able to figure out how to put it together. I am making fused blocks of different sizes. I have two more small one before I can get every thing fused to the batting and start quilting.

This morning, I went to the airport to pick up Lisa who is here to hang a show with another artist friend. The opening is tomorrow night.  I made a delicious lentil/sweet potato stew for supper tonight — vegan, of course.

Lisa has lots of work to do so we are both going to be down in my studio and office working tomorrow, There will be one diversion — someone who does a style blog here in Portland is coming by to photograph Lisa for her blog. That should be fun.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, 3 x 3, My Brilliant Daughters | 4 Comments »

Working on Values

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

I am selecting fabrics for the next Twelve by Twelve challenge which is to be revealed on Feb 12th. It is the result of one of my exercises in Elizabeth Barton’s class. One of the things we are working on right now is value. I have done several value exercises, and I do know how important it is. The above colorway in silk is one that I am considering. Here is the grayscale showing the nice value variation:

I really want to use this beautiful fabric that I bought from my friend Judy at the APWQ show in August, but I can’t work out the values.

I need another color to work with this cotton/silk blend. That blue gray is just not doing it. I tried painting some silk charmeuse, but didn’t get the color I wanted.

Here are the latest 3 X 3s

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The above is painted silk with some free motion quilting fun.

I found some Japanese fabric with reds in my stash and did an applique with some zigzag free motion quilting.

We went to see The Descendants tonight. An excellent film. I cried. Much of it was filmed on Kauai, a favorite place of ours. I think George Clooney could win an Oscar for this.

Hope you are having a great week-end.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, 3 x 3 | 2 Comments »

Saving Bits and Pieces

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

Now,  I know why I have been saving all those bits and pieces of fused art cloth. It is just so much fun to dig them out of a bin and cut and snip and create a little composition. This base of this is red silk organza with black misty fuse over red felt. The strips of fabric are silk with a black spatter design – not sure if it was dye or paint. The dots are black silk.

I have had one of those days away from home for most of the day, that sort of exhaust me. First, I went to the dentist for a check up and cleaning, however, they were running late and couldn’t do the cleaning today, if I was going to make my 12:30 lunch meeting in downtown Portland. So, I have to go back in a month for cleaning. The good news is, my teeth and gums are in great condition for my age.

I am part of a steering committee for our annual Artists Among Us at Trinity. It is a fine arts show and sale for one long week-end in May. We have about 50 – 60 artists. It is a lot of work. It has been run by one person for the past 10 years. She retired from our committee and it is taking 3 of us to do the planning. We are making some major changes and I am really excited about it. We had a very long and intense meeting today involving decisions about a lot of the work I will be doing so I came home exhausted.

I decided I needed a change of pace so I took Scooter for a half hour late afternoon walk. It helped to get some of the cobwebs out of my brain.

I have another recent gift to share. This is a beautiful journal made my Nikki Wheeler, one of the Twelves. It is so beautiful, I am afraid to use it , but I do plan to do something great with it.

Each one of these was different. I love the details of the 12 insignia and the beaded  spine, not to mention the beautiful paper. Such a treasure.

Mr C is going to be going down to Corvallis for the next 3 days so Scooter and I will be on our own. I have a couple of appointments, but hope to have some good studio time.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, 3 x 3, Scrap art | 1 Comment »

Coasting

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

I couldn’t quite get myself together for most of the day and so I didn’t accomplish much, except for doing laundry. Then, I got a spurt of energy this afternoon and headed to the studio to do some class homework and to make my daily 3 X 3.

I tried doing some discharge, but this is a commercial red fabric and it did not discharge very much.

I used a sequin waste stencil and plain DeColourant.

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When I took the heat gun to it, it looked like I was going to get some nice white dots.

But after I washed it, the dots were very subtle.

I have a box of number stamps that I rarely use.

Since this is red #19, I added a 19 with the stamps.

Here is another Twelve gift to share. This one is by Deborah Boschart. She chose the theme chairs and made us each a mini-version of her chair piece. I love all of the little elements that Deborah adds to her work.

We are getting dangerous amounts of rain here in Western Oregon. There are floods in many areas of the Willamette Valley. When we took Scooter for a short walk in the pouring rain, I wore my new thigh high red rubber boots. One puddle I stepped into almost came up to the top of the boots. More rain is due over the next week.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, 3 x 3, Discharging fabric, Quilting Friends | 2 Comments »

Reflecting and Anticipating

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

I saw this post on Facebook and thought it would be a good thing for me to do:

Take the time today, on the last day of 2011, to write down what you accomplished. Don’t reflect on what you didn’t do – focus on the good. Make it happen next year if you didn’t accomplish all you wanted. No excuses!

I had some heartbreaks last year — the two invasive burglaries and the cancellation of our trip to Japan. All happened in the first few months, and in some ways, informed how I handled the year, creatively. I went back over my blog posts, and see that I was sick too often, which was part of the whole depression that I was feeling. It was also enlightening to see the positive things during the past year. Here are my highlights:

Did lots of experimental work. I did new things like felting, more hand stitching, made more of the organza pocket pieces.

Twelve book published. The Twelve by Twelve group successfully published our book about the project and it received lots of great reviews.

 My Daughters’ accomplishments. I have reveled in the successes of my two daughters. Their work will continue to grow and inspire in the next year. 

 Trip to Southern California. Mr C and I enjoyed a road trip to California in May, culminating in a trip to the Disney Theater in LA, which I enjoyed, immensely. The trip was rife with lots of creative inspiration. 

Artistic Accomplishments: Klee’s Castles sold for $350 in the SAQA auction. I had quilts accepted into venues where I had previously not had success: Art Quilts Lowell, La Conner Quiltfest, and a SAQA juried show, Layers of Meaning. I also had work accepted into local High Fiber Diet and  SAQA Oregon shows. My work was also seen in the PAQA South show and the Chandler’s Art Quilts Year XVI: Something to Say. Not too bad, really!!

New York Trip We enjoyed a short, but sweet visit to NYC and then a grand time with my family as we celebrated the wedding of my niece, Becky, in upstate New York.

New Deck Our new deck, designed by my son in law and built by my son is a welcome addition to our comfort and the beauty of our home. We really love it.

Cataract Surgery I can see! I can see! This has been a highlight — I had no idea how much the cataracts had influenced my color sight. I love spending much of the day without glasses at all.

Twelve off to Houston The trip to Houston IQF with 8 of the Twelve group and all 288 of our quilts has to be the highlight of the year for me — on so many levels. Meeting many of the twelves for the first time, meeting many online friends in person, hearing the accolades for the work we had done — it was all so lovely.

Thanksgiving and Core Family Time I know now why my MIL and my mom cherished the times with all the kids and grandkids. These get-togethers and visits were high points in my year.  And knowing that their will be a new grandchild in March is just frosting on this cake.

It is nice to put the year in the proper perspective. 2012 is a clean slate. I am wondering where it will take this grateful old lady!!

 

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Family, Japan, Juried Shows, This and that | 5 Comments »

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