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Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

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Sunday, January 25th, 2015

onefootfigure

It has been a busy week! I had a SAQA meeting on Wednesday and lots of SDA work. Here is an update on the drawing class. We had our last session this week and he showed us how to draw the whole body and show different postures. Drawing a skellie first can help you get the right angles on the body parts. For instance, the above drawing was taken from this skellie.

skellie

Did you know that the perfect proportioned body is 8 heads tall, but most of us are 7 – 7 1/2. The torso is two heads, the pelic area is one head and the legs are 4 heads. So you can take a piece of paper and divide it into 8 portions to draw your pefect human specimen. The photo’s perspective is off because the drawing was on the table.

8headfigure2

Another interesting fact is that an infant is 3 heads tall. Many paintings of babies have the head too small. As a child grows, the number of heads change. We also practiced other figure positions. This one is supposed to be standing on his right foot.

leaningfigure

Here is another figure that I did.

8headstall

I doubt that I will be doing a lot of figure drawing, but I so enjoyed this process.  It has made me look at figures in paintings with a whole new eye. Next week, we start reduction printing. I am going to assist the teacher. I hope I get to participate, too.

I was able to get to the studio one day and made a lot of progress getting the fabric stash under control. I also painted some silk samples. I think I am going to paint silk for my solo show instead of dyeing. I worry about the cool weather and getting the depth of color that I want. I used Jacquard’s Dynaflow paint on silk charmeuse and silk/cotton blend. I decided that I like the heavier weight charmeuse best. It is on the second fabric, below.

silkpainttest1

wilkpainttest2

So, today, I ordered 15 yards of silk charmeuse from Dharma and copious amounts of Dynaflow paint. I can’t wait until it gets here.

Thursday was Mr C’s 75th birthday. On Friday night we went out with Jack and Steph to a marvelous French restaurant in our neighborhood where we had a most excellent meal. Then we had birthday cheesecake back at The Congdo with M & M. It is always fun to catch up with these two and hear how well they are doing in school and life.

My new glasses came in early and I must say, they have really made a difference. So  happy to be done with the eye strain and headaches. Who knew?? LOL

Yesterday, Terry Grant and I drove south about an hour and so to see the Stitches in Bloom show at the Oregon Garden. We both had work in the show. It was an interesting show with art quilts and traditional quilts sharing the same crowded space. There were quite a few vendors selling quilt fabric and notions. We had a nice lunch at the resort restaurant and then listened to a lecture by Cynthia Corbin from the Seattle area. I so love her work. Click here for a look at her website, if you are not familiar with her work. She has great sense of humor, too. I am looking forward to her workshop with the guild in March.

Here is a blurry photo of my leaf quilt at the show.

blurryleafphoto

It was a beautiful day to drive through the bucolic Oregon countryside. We saw Mt. Hood showing itself in all different directions.

mtHoodjan15

My goal for tomorrow is to do some more work in the studio and quilt my January EB piece.

 

Photos of Our San Francisco Week

Saturday, January 3rd, 2015

paigelistening

I promise – this will not be only pictures of Paige. She is, however, very photogenic and adorable. She chooses her outfits and usually has a tutu on or at least under her dress. Very girly and very strong willed. She is 2 1/2 and carries a tune perfectly. She knows all the words to let it go and several Christmas songs. She is just something special. As are all my grandchildren!! I am prejudiced!!

We arrived on Christmas day and enjoyed a seafood meal caught and prepared by my son.

markcooking

Jayme and her mom made an assortment of Christmas cookies. One batch was gluten free which I enjoyed. Paige did the sprinkles.

xmascookies

We stayed at an AirBnB which was a ten minute walk from Mark’s home. It was very simple and cold. We did not spend much time there. We slept there, ate our breakfast and spent the rest of the day with family.

On Friday, we drove to downtown SF to see the big tree in Union Square and the ice skaters. Then, we walked up, up, up a steep hill to the Fairmont Hotel to see the gingerbread house. I was quite proud of my ability to keep up with the youngun’s. The house is full size. You can click on it for a better look.

fairmontgingerbreadhouse

Here is a gingerbread doghouse – full-size.

gingerbreaddoghouse

Loved this view into an Asian shop at the hotel.

asianstore

We had a late lunch/early dinner at a seafood restaurant. Jayme’s mom’s husband was leaving the next day to go back to Denver and he wanted some more seafood.

On Saturday, Lisa, Clay, Mr C and I took Bart to the Ferry Building Farmer’s market where I bought food to make dinner. Jayme took Paige on her bike and met us there.

ferrybuilding

The photo of Paige in the orange tutu was take there. She was entranced by a string quartet that was playing. We had a delicious lunch at a Mexican eatery.

On Sunday, we took it easy and played with Paige. Mark made soup from all the leftovers in their fridge. They live in the Mission and there are so many wonderful visual delights. We saw this door on one of our walks.

bottlecapdoors

Here is a close-up so you can see it is created with bottle caps.

bottlecaps

On Monday, Lisa, Clay and I went to Marin. I wanted to stop by the Dharma Trading retail store to touch some fabric so that I could decide what I want to purchase to dye or paint for my solo show. I bought some samples to run some tests. Clay bought some yarn and a pattern so that I can knit her a button cowl scarf. We had a delicious lunch in San Anselmo and did some looky loo walking around Mill Valley. I forgot my phone. No photos!!

On Tuesday, Karyn, Jayme’s Mom, Mr C and I took Paige to the California Academy of Sciences. I love that place. Mark has a membership so he takes Paige there quite often. I must say that keeping up with a two year old, makes the visit a bit more challenging. I snapped this photo while waiting in line to get into the rainforest exhibit.

CASciences

There are so many beautiful photo ops. Here is a pitcher plant.

pitcherplant

I love the colorful little frogs.

twinfrogs

I caught one in a whoosh of a jump.

jumpingfrog

CASfrog

I had fun playing with the jellyfish in photoshop.

jellyfish

And here is Paige, queen of the Galapagos, on her throne.

queenofgalapagos

And checking out the touch area.

paigetidepool

 

We moved over to Oakland to stay with Lisa and Clay for New Year’s eve. It gets a little wild in the Mission and our AirBnB was next to a park. They prepared a delicious meal and we had a lovely evening with them. Here is Wilfredo wishing for some cheese to jump into his mouth.

wilfredonye

On New Year’s Day, I got this great selfie with Paige. I hated to say good-bye. It was so much fun.

gramandpaige

So, I missed getting this done yesterday, but I had my hands full getting caught up on SDA work and doing laundry, and all the little things you have to do when you come home from a trip.

 

Crazy Busy and Shooting Quilts

Thursday, December 18th, 2014

leafofmysenses

Today, I did something I have not done before, I had two quilts professionally photographed. All I can say is, I should have done it long ago. My problem is, I rarely have work done early enough to get it photographed before I need to enter it so I had my own set up. Now, I don’t have the space to do it myself so I am going to have to get my act together. Here are detail shots of Taking Leaf of My Seasons.

leafquiltdetail

leafdetail2

Looks so good. Here is Flying Through Sky Blue Pink.

flyskybluepink

Details:

skybluedetail

skybluedetail3

A better camera and knowing how to set it makes a big difference. I get it now.

I have been incredibly busy. SDA is having an important and huge fundraiser. The organization may have to disband if we don’t get an infusion of cash by the end of the year. It has added a great deal to my work load. If you read this blog and are an SDA member, I would appreciate it if you could make a pledge. The money does not have to be paid until next hear and can be spread out in payments. Click here to check it out.

Then, to add to the craziness – it is December! Managed to get cards out, finished shopping, shipped some packages, attended to Christmas concerts and several holiday festivities. And this lovely girl turned 15, yesterday. We met the family for Thai street food, one of Mia’s favorites, followed by cheesecake back at their house.

miafifteen

At Miles’ school they get to chose a short class for the last week before they are off for the holidays. He chose metal working and one of the things he has made is this unicorn. Isn’t it fantastic?

milesunicorn

So, today, I finally had some breathing room and did some more sewing on the two kid quilts which are not going to get done by Christmas. Tomorrow, I am getting a much needed haircut and hope to work on the kid quilts.

The Barnes family is coming over for Christmas eve; I am keeping it simple – fresh dungeness crab, salad, sourdough bread, Christmas cookies and homemade peppermint candy ice cream. On Christmas morning, we are heading to California to see the rest of the family. I love this photo that Jayme’s mom e-mailed me.

M,J,P

There is a new store down on NW 23rd called Arcteryx. They sell high end outdoor wear. We were in there with Scooter and they took his photo for their Instagram site, Barcteryx. He was the first dog photographed. Now, when we go in, they say “It’s Scooter!”

scooteresixI hope to be back in the next week, really!

Fun in Seattle

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014

paigeataquarium

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was in Seattle for 3 days with Stephanie, Jayme and the precocious Paige. Jayme had a long day of interviews and touring the U of W Children’s hospital. It is one of many interviews she is having this month for her residency in pediatrics which will start next July. She will rank the hospitals and they will rank the med students. On March 20th, she will get her assignment. Tomorrow, she is off to Stanford for her next interview. She has several in Southern California and a couple more in the bay area. We would love to have her come to Seattle – so much closer to us, but it would be difficult for my son to change jobs.

Anyway, Steph and I were there to spend time with Paige who is an inquisitive, talkative and adorable child. Jayme was recovering from the flu and needed to rest so on our first day there, we took her out to lunch. Just look at that face.

pandsteph

On Monday, we took her to the Seattle Aquarium and it just happened to be Toddler Time with some fun activities for children her age.

paigeaquarium2

She enjoyed touching the anemones and sea cucumbers and followed the instructions of one finger touching.

paigeanenome

I love going to an aquarium. I find the colors and markings of the sea creatures and coral so inspiring. I took a few photos, but my phone battery got low so I had to stop. I brought my portable charger, but forgot the cord – duh! Here is some of what I enjoyed.

seahorse

A Sea Horse – such an interesting creature.

purplecolor

Fluorescent coral.

mussels

Giant mussels.

jellies

Angelic jelly fish.

redcoral

Coral and anemones.

starfish

Star fish.

anenomes

More anemones

greenanenomes

Loved these green anemones.

moreanemomes

And more anemones – love them!

We managed to fit in a little shopping in downtown Seattle before heading back to the hotel. The whole time we were there, the sun was so bright and the sky so blue. It was very, very cold, but manageable because of the sunshine.

Back at the hotel, Steph did an art project with Paige which she loved.

2014-12-02 08.57.04

We bought her some Japanese washi tape which she put all over her paper Paige.

We drove home today after dropping Jayme and Paige off at the airport. I am exhausted but so happy to have spent the time with Paige and Jayme.

Deconstructed Sunflower Print

Sunday, November 30th, 2014

deconstructedsunflowersusan

Here it is the last day of November, so soon. Where did the month go? For The Printed Fabric Bee this month, Susan Purney Mark was the Queen Bee. She asked for sunflowers. I tried coming up with various sunflower motifs and they all looked like ordinary sunflowers. I decided that what would suit my artistic sensibility would be to deconstruct the sunflower into its essential parts.

I started with printing a leafy background on a pale green hand-dyed cotton. I used a real leaf that looked like a miniature of an actual sunflower leaf.

greenleafprint

After doing some random leaf prints, I cut a couple of petal shapes from a piece of foam and started printing petals in various shades of yellow and yellow/orange.

petalspongeprints

morepetalprinting

For the sunflower seeds, I used some sequin waste to print random dots of brown.

sunflowerseedsprint

Susan requested that her piece be 6 inches by 24 inches. Here is the piece that will go into the giveaway:

deconstructedsunflower6

When we get the collage of all the pieces put together and we are ready for the drawing for the fabric collection, I will post it here.

We had a great Thanksgiving at Stephanie’s home. She cooked a whole turkey for the first time and it was delicious. I brought cranberry chutney, roasted squash and gluten free pumpkin pie.We enjoyed a walk in the neighborhood between dinner and dessert. Miles is really bonding with Scooter now, but he still is not ready to pick up the poop

TDay walk

I spent Friday and Saturday getting end of the month SDA work completed. This morning, Steph and I headed to Seattle, where I am right now. This is what greeted me in our hotel room.paigeinseattle

Paige’s Mom is having an all day interview at U of W Children’s Hospital tomorrow and so Steph and I are going to entertain this little charmer. The weather here is very cold, but with bright sun so it was a nice drive and nice to be out walking around in the University Village area.

Maybe I will check in tomorrow after our day in Seattle with Paige.