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Archive for the ‘studio’ Category

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Saturday, June 9th, 2012

Last month, someone from Janome e-mailed me and said that they would like to feature me on their website since I am a happy Janome owner. I agreed and I was asked me to answer the following questions:

1. How did you learn to sew?

 2. How did you discover quilting/fabric art, and what do you enjoy most about it?

 3. How did you end up choosing the Janome 7700QCP, and what do you like about the machine?

 This morning, I checked on their site, and there I was. You can read the article here. I was very pleased when I read it.

I am feeling like a huge weight has been lifted from life as I remove excess stuff from my studio. Here is the pile of stuff to be donated:

Here is the stuff going in to the trash.

And here is my pile of scraps to be saved and sorted by color.

Here is another orange 3 X 3.

 

Purging, Folding, Sorting, Etc.

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012

I am making progress in my studio reorganization. I feel that it is really helping me to go through all the stuff and rid myself of things that I accumulated and will never use. Some of it is fabric that people have given me because I am a fiber artist — but said fabric is not ever going to be used by me!! It is all going into a pile to go to SCRAP,the creative reuse center.

I have emptied enough wire rack bins to move my backing fabric and pfd fabric to those bins where they are more accessible. Tonight, I went through my batting bin and sorted and folded by sizes.

As is the case when you do something like this, the mess gets bigger before it goes away, but I am excited to get this done and get back to some creativity!

On another note, I am so excited that the ugly tree in our front yard is going bye bye. I have hated it since we moved in. The problem is that it sits right on the property line and our neighbors have never removed or cut back a plant  ever in their overgrown yard. She comes out once a spring and plants a ring of annuals around the tree and then we don’t see her again for another year. (exaggerating a bit, he he) Here is the tree and a very cute dog.

Another view:

And don’t leave me a comment that you don’t think it is an ugly tree!!

Our new landscape guy says the tree is ruining our lawn as the root system is sucking all the moisture from the soil.

If we pay for it, (ahem) they are willing to let us take out the tree and put in a new one. They get to approve or disapprove of what we choose. She wants a magnolia — of course she does — they drop nasty leaves and flower petals everywhere. It will not be a magnolia. Our arborist was here today and gave us some suggestions which we have run by our family landscape guru, Mark. I will keep you posted.

And to finish, I want to say how very proud I am of my daughter Lisa. She and her partner,Clay, are doing the 7 day Aids ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. They have completed 3 days and are doing really well. Lisa was sick with bronchitis for 2 weeks before the ride, but she has recovered and feels really well.

Fabric Frenzy

Monday, January 30th, 2012

Wow, only one more day in January and then I move on to another color. I still haven’t decided what it will be. Here is today’s 3 X3:

I am having so much fun doing zigzag free motion quilting. Yesterday’s and today’s are kind of two sides of my quilting life — organized and contained and exuberant free for all.

I have a totally messy studio because I am auditioning fabrics for the 12 X 20 metamorphosis challenge:

As usual, I am having a problem with light fabrics. I will be off to the fabric store tomorrow to see what I can find I have to get this done and move on to the next deadline.

Best Laid Plans

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

I was going to accomplish a whole lot more today than I did. However, I don’t want to beat myself up over it. I do feel that I am doing a whole lot of procrastinating, and I really need to get busy creating some new work.

I was able to fit all my paints and inks and other media into the new storage system. I really like it. I have another day at home so maybe I will make some more progress in rearranging and organizing my creative space.

Here is my 3 x3 for today. I followed my heart – yuk yuk. I really don’t know how I got here. I was doing a freezer paper circle applique and decided to machine stitch it. And then it looked boring so since I am working with red, a heart appeared. The heart is painted using a freezer paper stencil. I guess having the paint on my radar was involved, too.

 

Monday Mash UP

Monday, January 9th, 2012

Today was a mixed bag for me. I had a meeting at Trinity at 12:30 which means getting my rear in gear and walking the dog early so that I can eat lunch early and then hit the road. Just before I left, the mail arrived with bad news. Allstate canceled our homeowner’s insurance because of the two thefts last year. Argh!! Mr C got on the phone and started tracking down some other insurance with no good results — we are damaged goods!

While I was at my meeting, he went over to our Wells Fargo Office. They hold our mortgage. A very nice employee did some research and found a company that may do business with us. This just makes me so furious. I hate that this saga seems to have no end.

Anyway, the meeting was great. I am part of the three amigos who are coordinating the annual Artists Among Us Fine Art Show and Sale at Trinity which happens in May. I am doing all of the computer work. Our resident graphic artist did a fabulous poster for us. We met with all of our other committee chairs and we are on the way to a successful event.

On the way home, I stopped at Office Depot to pick up some sheet protectors and a new binder for a class I am taking. (More about that later.) While there, I checked out their storage items. I found something that is perfect for my paints, inks and other printing supplies. I brought it home and after giving up on the instructions, which were drawings, I used my intuition and got it assembled.

The bins can be pulled out and taken to my print table, plus, I can easily see what is in the bins.

Oh and the 3 x 3 for today is fused and stitched.