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Archive for the ‘studio’ Category

A Slow Week-end

Sunday, March 14th, 2010

I am still pacing myself after the frenetic work I had to accomplish earlier this year. I can hardly remember what I did yesterday!! I leaned my desk, trying to find a missing credit card bill – no luck. I guess the USPS has missed delivery once again. Our postal carrier retired and now we have had a variety of people, never the same one. We have also had lots of missing mail.

Last night, we went to a wonderful service at church  — a Eucharist liturgy set to Bruce Springsteen music. It was very well attended. I enjoyed it immensely. He is a poet and a champion of the downtrodden.

Today, I did some neatening of my studio. Stephanie is coming over tomorrow to help me take some studio photos for the Twelve X Twelve book. She is very good at staging and has a great eye for the interesting shot.

I folded some fabrics to neaten my wire basket storage. I found that I have quite a bit of dupioni silk in many colors — two wire baskets full. I used to use a lot of silk dupioni before I started dyeing my own fabric. I am thinking of washing it and making a quilt for our bedroom. But some of those colors will not work.

I took this photo of my print table before I put a clean sheet over it. I just love it.

I do a lot of fusing and while I was in the cleaning up mode, I cleaned the soles of all my irons. I have lots of options! I love my Panasonic with the titanium sole. It takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’. I can’t tell you how many times I have dropped it.

I was itching to do some more small roots/weeds pieces, but never got to it. I have a few deadlines looming. I need to make a couple of new pieces for our Japanese Garden show. I want to use some of my vintage textiles. I need to make a 15 X 15 piece for the Quilt Art @15 online show. I want to make some smaller pieces for the Artists Among Us show. I did not get into Visions, so I have two more pieces that will be available for that show.

I am getting excited about going to SF next week for the SDA/SAQA conference and to spend some time with my children. Life is good.

On the Move

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

leafycompplexcloth

My studio, that is. I have been frustrated that I was having a hard time getting any surface design work done. Earlier this year, Mr C was working on hiding the heating ducts in my office and studio. I had changed the configuration of the space at that time. I came to the realization that the layout was not at all conducive to doing the stuff that I love to do in that space. So, today, I moved everything and put my tables back in the middle of the room. I am already so much happier in the space. Maybe it si just that I need change!!

While sorting stuff, I found some things I had forgotten about. Like the leafy art cloth up there. It is a rayon piece that I did in a class with Jane Dunnewold. It was dyed and over dyed and then I printed and foiled with a leaf stencil that I made. I think I was going to make a pillow cover. Here is a detail:

leafyfabricdetail

I also found this radiant sun left over from a class I took with Cara Gulati, ages ago. It is sandwiched and partially quilted. It would make a nice pillow cover, too.

radiantsun

I had such a good experience today when I went to my local shopping area to do some errands. When I had my colonoscopy, they made me take my wedding ring off. Then, I couldn’t get it back on!! There is still an indent on my ring finger almost 4 weeks later. I took to the local jewelry store to have it made larger. Saturday is our 45th wedding anniversary and I thought it might be nice to wear it. Problem is, it needs new prongs and they said it would take until next week. They were so nice and told me they would have it done by Saturday.

Then, I went to the Post Office to mail the 3 Aspen quilts. Again, great service. Two of them had to be mailed to Canada, and she kindly showed my the best and least expensive way to ship them.

And now, for something completely different, here is a photo of my two favorite people.

mrcandscooter

Looking for Inspiration

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

designwall

This is my design wall. I was cleaning up from the Aspen fest and at the same time I was pulling fabric for my next project. It is nice to have the art cloth on the wall and I can audition partners and plan some additional surface design to add to the mix.

I have had this Perle cotton thread nest sitting on a table in my studio begging to be straightened out. I can’t put it away the way it is.

perlecottonmess

I cut some pieces of cardboard, and it will be my evening TV watching project until they all look like this.

perlecottonneatTonight, I also added bamboo hanging rods to the other two aspen pieces.

bamboohangers

And so that was pretty much my day.

Feeling Loopy

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

quiltshangwardrobe

I am so wanting to be done with this clear liquid diet. I could eat a ham sandwich, and I don’t even like ham. I did manage to get some things done, like walking the dogs and making a fresh, clean bed for Lisa, who arrives tomorrow. I corralled the chaos in my office/playroom, putting legos away and returning books to the bookshelf, etc.I also worked on the quilt storage system.Here are some of the quilts hanging with their cute little hang tags.

Here is my system for hanging them. I bought child size plastic hangers. I use bulldog clips on the folded quilts. Then, I use yarn to create a loops to go through the clips and over the hooks on the hangers.

quiltstoragehanger

My quilts are fairly light so I am not having a problem hanging or with the wardrobe collapsing. I am quite thrilled with this and the access to my quilts when needed.

Mr C has been working so hard to get the guest bathroom done before Lisa arrives. A while ago I posted about how much I love this vintage bathroom, but hated the bronzy brown paint on the cabinets and woodwork. Plus, the renovators used beaded board trim around the mirrors that just looked weird. The bones of the bathroom are right out of the fifties — pink fixtures and pink and turquoise tile — all in perfect condition. Here is how it looked when we bought it.

formerpinkbathroom

Here is the after (so far):

pinkbathroomredo

He painted the woodwork white. I selected a wall paint that has just a hint of a grayed green. It looks really good with the turquoise green tile. We also changed the hardware on the cabinets. So far so good.

I have to get up at 6 am in the morning to drink my final concoction and nothing after 8 am. I check in at ambulatory surgery at 12 noon. I can’t wait to eat some real food tomorrow night. My after colonoscopy orders say not to make any important decisions, drive a car, operate machinery or drink alcohol for 24 hours. What fun is that going to be?

Karen has some insurance information regarding the loss from the flooding. As soon as she knows how much of her stuff will be covered, she will let me know how we can help her. Thanks to every one who has let me now you want to help.

Getting My Act Together

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

clothwardrobe

It is amazing what can get you off your duff and doing stuff. Number one is the weather. It is so nice here in Portland — perfect summer weather. Then, yesterday when I was shopping with M & M at Bi-mart, this cloth wardrobe was sitting there next to the toy department. I suddenly realized that I had found the solution to storing my growing quilt collection. This makes for a dust free and mostly light free storage area. Here you can see into the wardrobe and the rod and hangers that I bought.

wardrobehangers

I am making hang tags for each quilt that will have a photo, dimensions, etc. I will attach one to each quilt and rig up a method to attach them to the hangers. If I run out of room, I can buy another. It only cost $24 and was easy to assemble.

quilthangtags

The first thing I did this morning was to make a nice to do list of things that have been running around in my brain. It feels good to get started on this.

I found this piece that I started over a year ago. It is linen fabrics that I created in the indigo shibori class. It is all hand stitched. I lost interest in it because it really is rather boring. I am wondering if it can be saved.

linenwip

Tonight, I went out on the deck and saw this beautiful moon.

moonoverportland

Life is feeling pretty good tonight. Tomorrow, I am seeing Kevin for a much needed cut and color.