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Archive for the ‘Fusing’ Category

OOXX

Thursday, April 18th, 2013

CongdonXXOOFull

 

I can finally show you the quilt that I was working on  and only showed sneak peeks. It was for the Dinner at Eight invitational show which will debut at IQF Long Beach and then go to Houston. The theme this year was “An Exquisite Moment.”  That theme threw me for awhile, and then I thought of hugs and kisses from my grandchildren. Those are most definitely exquisite moments.

I had in my mind that I wanted the piece to be luminous and full of vibrant color. I ordered hand-dyed silk from Frieda Anderson. I used Mistyfuse because it hardly changes the hand of the silk. I created X and O blocks in different sizes and worked them into a layout to fit the required size of 24 inches by 60 inches. I decided that diagonal machine quilting would work best to tie it all together. I used silk thread in 6 different colors and randomly changed the color as I stitched. Here is a detail.

CongdonXXOOdetail

 

I love this quilt. It made me happy to make it. You can see all the artists who were juried into the show on the Dinner at Eight blog.

I am in the vortex that I knew would happen about now. Two important events for which I have a lot of responsibility are requiring lots of my attention. I am trying to stay calm and carry on. One is the SDA conference registration. Right now, I am dealing with workshops that had to be canceled for low registration, notifying people, issuing refunds, etc. Registration fee goes up on May 1 so there is also an influx of people registering before then.

I am also setting up the Artists Among Us database. Our event is May 17-19. I have a PC laptop that was donated to the Arts commission. The PC and I are not really getting along very well. I did manage to get all the artists into the database. Now I have to enter all of their art work inventory.

So that is my life right now. It is not forever. I will survive. I may not blog as often.

Skinny Bits

Monday, April 1st, 2013

skinnybits3

 

I finished fusing the silk quilt tonight. I felt I needed a little more variety so I created some blocks with skinny bits. I really like them.

skinnybits1

skinnybits2

 

Tomorrow, I will add the back and start the quilting.

Mondays are always very busy for me. I usually spend most of the morning sending out Constant Contact e-mails for SDA reps, and I have reports and e-mails to do for the SDA Conference registration. I didn’t get down to my studio until afternoon. Working on this quilt has been such a joy — very spontaneous and I love the colors. I have to have it done and photographed by Friday.

Here is my progress with the 3 x 3s. I know some people think I am nuts, but I love stitching them together, taking my time.

beaded3x3s4-1

Tomorrow, I have a lunch date with a friend. I am looking forward to it. I have been sort of a hermit lately.

No sketches. Maybe tomorrow.

Where Was I?

Sunday, March 31st, 2013

fusingiron

 

On Wednesday, I came down with a nasty gastroenteritis bug and was not up to doing much of anything until today. I managed to make a delicious Easter dinner and spend some time in the studio. I am so happy with the piece I am currently fusing into place.  I think I can start quilting it tomorrow.

Yesterday was Stephanie’s birthday. She and her family went down to Astoria for a couple of days for some R & R for her birthday. Today, I gave her this gift which I tried to wrap in the best Stephanie manner!! It is a piece of stitched shibori and hemp twine.

stephpresent

 

paigesweaterback

I managed to finish quilting (you see where my mind is) knitting the back of Paige’s sweater. Will start on the fronts later tonight. Should be easier now that I have the pattern down.

I was able to get on a pair of pants that I could not wear last year. You are probably wondering why I bought them? They sort of fit when I bought them, but I never wore them because they were just too tight. On a whim, I tried them on today. Voila!

easter2013

 

My hope is that in another month, they will be too big – well, maybe, two months.

Hope your week-end was great. We had glorious warm and sunny weather, in the 70’s. We spent some time on the deck and it was such a treat.

 

Night and Day

Thursday, March 7th, 2013

xandoparts

 

Yesterday was one of those days. The weather was atrocious — dark, dreary, cold and persistent rain. I had a lot of work to do sitting at my computer and I got the headache of all headaches — the one I get occasionally. I don’t know what brings them on — a change in air pressure, allergies, stress? I just know that by 7 pm all I wanted to do was go to bed. I gave in for an hour or so and didn’t really sleep. So I got up and watched a couple of episodes of House of Cards with Mr C.

Today? I woke up to delicious sunshine. Headache almost gone. Energy level was back. I had a great day. Like night and day.

I am making progress on making the parts for my big quilt.

morefusedparts

 

I am also making better progress on stitching the 3 x 3s together now that I have a better assortment of beads and thread. I am only on the second row, but this row is moving along much faster.

3x3stitchingrow2

 

I only have one sketch tonight. It is of my Bernina. I love it. I think this style of sketching suits me better than trying to be so literal.

 

 

drawing 3-7-13

 

I have made some pretty good process on knitting Paige’s sweater. The pattern is so complicated, but I think I have finally got it down.

paigesweaterprogress

 

Just call me the multi-tasking queen!!

 

 

 

 

Left Brain, Right Brain Day

Monday, March 4th, 2013

morequiltparts

I had to spend  the morning doing left brain work, and it was great to spend some time in my studio this afternoon. I made some more “parts” for my next quilt. I love the colors. Here are my scraps which will find their way into the piece, too.

silkscraps

 

I did 3 drawings this afternoon.

drawing 3-3-13

 

I tried to draw Scooter while he was chewing a raw hide. It is sort of cartoonish, but I think I will try more of these.

 

drawingscooter

 

I drew my hand again. This one is better!!

drawing 3-4-13

 

We had a nice day today – a bit cold, but nice and sunny. Tomorrow is not going to be so nice, cold and rainy. That is March in Portland.