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Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

Life in the Fast Lane

Thursday, July 10th, 2014

My life is full, fun and fantastic, but time gets away from me. The main reason I am a bit distracted this week is the visit from my two Oakland girls, Lisa and Clay and they brought Wilfredo!

Four adults and two dogs are getting along just fine in our condo. My son in law, Jack, has named it The Congdo! We have had such a good time with them, and they love our neighborhood. This week, Lisa is participating in an ICON conference and tonight is a meet and greet at the Portland Art Museum. She has her books to and some prints of her work to sell and examples of all the work she does. Saturday, she is doing a workshop session on the business of illustration.

Every one gathered here for the 4th of July. We had great food and it was fun to have every one here. We could watch fireworks from our windows. We had some great salads and kabobs.

These photos were taken by Steph for her 3191 blog.

I have been working frantically to get my two big quilts done for the High Fiber Diet “What’s Blue to You” exhibit.

Lisa took this photo of me with my blue picasso woman and posted it on Instagram.

I got 760 likes and 72 comments. The comments cracked me up.

This is the Sky Blue Pink quilt as of today. I think it might need something more. I am disappointed with the wonkiness of the bottom. Not sure what to do. The photo at the top is a detail shot of the hand stitching on the cheesecloth section.

Today was STASH day at Gale’s home. I just love spending a morning with my friends, chatting and eating. Reva brought her vintage t-shirt quilt At our next meeting, we are going to help her tie it. It is to unwieldy to do machine quilting.

So that is a bit of what I have been up to. The other part of my life is so left brained. I am helping SDA with membership and database issues on the website. There have been some problems with work done by some previous employees. We are slowly getting it under control. We have about 4000 members and people join and renew in various ways – phone, mail, and online. I get a real sense of satisfaction as I troubleshoot issues.

Posted in Condo Life, Family, handstitching, High Fiber Diet, My Brilliant Daughters, Quilting Friends, Surface Design Association | 2 Comments »

Putzing Along

Sunday, June 15th, 2014

So much good stuff going on here. Enjoying our new place and neighborhood so much.

Last Wednesday was Mia’s graduation from Junior High School. Here she is with the flowers I gave her. We are so proud of her and the confidence and maturity that she has gained over the past year. We are excited to see what she will do in high school. Her gift from us is a trip to Seattle on the train with her Mom and I. Probably won’t get to it until July. After the ceremony, we all went out to a late dinner at Mia’s favorite restaurant. It was great to have time with them before they took off for NC to visit Jack’s parents.

I have been quilting away on the Picasso woman. I was worried about how to quilt the face and body, but decided on straight lines that sort of follow the contours. There have been a lot of thread ends to deal with.

One of our new adventures was to take the street car to the Portland Farmer’s Market on the Portland State campus. Wow, what a fabulous weekly event. It is considered the best farmer’s market in the country, I was told. I think we will make this a weekly event, when we are here and able.

I hope to finish Picasso woman in the nest couple of days and get started on a larger version of Sky Blue Pink.

Posted in Family, M & M, Machine Quilting, My creations, Out and About in Portland | 1 Comment »

Would Picasso Approve?

Tuesday, June 10th, 2014

I got the blue picasso woman fused and ready for quilting. I debated and made a mess of my studio looking for the right background fabric. This has been really fun to put together. I don’t think the quilting is going to be easy, but it has to be done!!

I needed a large workspace to fuse this so I worked at home on the dining room table. I think I need to make her rosy cheek larger. Need to go back to the studio and find the right fabric.

I used an old drop cloth for the back. I think Picasso would approve.

We have been enjoying our walks around the neighborhood. There is front yard across the street from us with the most amazing poppies.

I am venturing out of my comfort zone tomorrow and going to a new person to get my hair cut. Tomorrow night is Mia’s Middle School graduation. Can’t believe she is off to high school in the fall.

How cute is this little girl. I am missing her so much. Might have to head down to CA soon.

Posted in Family, Fusing, My creations, My hair, Paige Ada | Comments Off on Would Picasso Approve?

A Peek at Our New Home

Sunday, May 11th, 2014

We had our first guests today. Stephanie, Jack and M & M came over a Mom’s day meal prepared by Mr C. He grilled skewers of marinated meat and purchased salads and appetizers. I was not allowed to participate and he got mad when I changed the napkins on the table – couldn’t help myself!! Stephanie made strawberry shortcake and made special gluten free biscuits for me. It was delish.

While we had the house looking spiffy, I took some photos. Above is the view towards the fireplace from the dining area. Below is the view in the other direction. I love all the windows in the dining area – this is where we get the view of Mt. St. Helens. (Click on photos to see them larger.)

Here is the table set for dinner.

And Mr C, slaving in the kitchen. You can see that we live in a very compact area, but it works.

This is the room that I call the multi-purpose room.

I have my Janome set up here, the sofa pulls out to a queen size bed. The TV is onthe left and on the right is a credenza with my printer, thermofax and old carbon based copier that I used to make the screens. There is a big closet to the left of the Janome that is holding a lot of my sewing stuff and current quilts. I have not hung any art in here. That is next on my to do list.

Here are two views of our deck.

The door at the end of the deck is our bedroom.

This is looking up our hallway towards the kitchen and living area with Lisa’s painting of birches. We still have lots of room in the hallway, bedroom and entryway to hang more art – going to hang some quilts.

This little plaque is in the entry way. It has graced the entrance to every house we have ever lived in.

I made some progress on my studio. Mr C is going to hang some simple shelves on brackets for me. I need to make more floor room. I am anxious to get to work.

Posted in Condo Life, Family, Holidays, House and home stuff | 11 Comments »

Window Seat @PDX

Monday, March 31st, 2014

I am so pleased to be part of a special exhibit at Portland International Airport.

Title: Window Seat

Location: Portland International Airport, post-security Concourse A

Date: April 2014 through October 2014

Subject: The exhibit is built around an essay written by Jim Earl, a literature professor at U of O. In the essay, Earl uses images taken from Google Earth to educate people about the land below them as they fly. Click Here to read the essay and see the images that he used. For the exhibit, the quilts are next to text for which each is visually appropriate.

Since it is in an area past security, I suggested to Mr C that we need to go on a trip so that I can get in to see the exhibit!! After I read Mr Earl’s essay, I could see how well my Prairie Fields quilt worked with his essay and photos. Here are the other two art quilts in the exhibit.

This is High Desert Colors by Elizabeth Bamberger.

This is 30,000 Feet Above Somewhere by Shirley MacGregor.

On a personal note the bedlam, where we currently live, continues. To add to the chaos, I came down with one of those debilitating crappy viruses and was not much help for several days. We did get most of my studio stuff moved. Steph came over on Thursday with M & M and packed up a lot of stuff and then she came back with Jack on Saturday and did a whole lot more. These shelves used to hold our wine glasses.

So, progress is being made in spite of me!! Yesterday, I spent most of the day in my jammies changing our address online in as many places as I could. It was Steph’s birthday and we took her out to a seafood restaurant. She wanted mussels and fries. Here is the cool decor in the restaurant, Block and Tackle.

I think I feel well enough to get back in the thick of things, today. I will check back in a couple of days.

Posted in Family, High Fiber Diet, House and home stuff, Juried Shows | 1 Comment »

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