Just a quick post to give a sneak peak of some of the work I have been doing. I am so tired. I must get to bed. Last night just as I was going to bed, I got the worst nosebleed after I used my nasal inhaler. As the Kaiser hand book says – it is messy, but not life threatening. It took until 3 am to get it to stop – three t-shirts later. The hand book said to call the doctor after 30 minutes, but I was determined to get it under control without going to the emergency room in the middle of the night.

So here is a photo of some postcards and wall hangings that I am finishing up. I thought I had to have work turned in for the Cathedral Art Show on Saturday, but it is next Saturday so Wheeee!, time to make more stuff and get to work on a fish quilt and start dying fabric for the commission piece.

I am doing some hand stitching on the indigo blue art cloth postcards. I have finished machine quilting the three pieces in the back. I foiled a motif on one. I may do some beading on one, except that they are fused and that is hard to do. Maybe I will fuse some beads!!

Today, Mr C said, "I am going to install your new lights." And he did and they are awesome. They are just industrial fixtures with T8 full spectrum florescent bulbs. There are two eight foot fixtures. This photo looks dark because I took it with out a flash, but believe me the light in the studio is fantastic now.

I spent  most of the day unpacking stuff and attempting to get organized. I am going to have to work in chaos for awhile because I have some deadlines and no time to make the studio perfect right now. So, here is  my sewing space for today:

To celebrate, I made this postcard!!

The background fabric is some art cloth I made in Jane’s class. It is shibori dyed and discharged. I cut the circles from sheer silk fabrics. I actually remembered how to use the sewing machine. I was sewing on my Bernie and for a moment, I forgot how to set the needle down position. I think I will do another one of these and do some hand stitching.

Happy Easter!!

The weather was lousy, but we managed to have  a lovely Easter here in Portland. Lisa arrived on Friday night. On Saturday morning I got to go bargain shopping with Lisa and Steph at the Goodwill. I found a blender to use for mixing dyes and Mia helped me select several books for them to have at our house – 49 cents each.

This morning Steph made brunch at her house; cinnamon rolls and a yummy frittata with artichoke hearts. We were greeted by the Mia Duck; the mask was a gift from Aunt Lisa.

The kids table; oh my gosh don’t they look so well-behaved, but they haven’t had that  much candy yet ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù just wait!

After brunch Grandpa attack:

Later everyone came to our house. We started with an Easter egg hunt in the front yard. Just minutes before it was hailing and then the sun came out and in between it was rainy – brings to mind the old adage – If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute!

Here is my Easter Basket center piece with Lisa’s mod birds looking on:

After dinner, we were treated to an Easter ballet by Mia, Milo and Maggie.

Click on any image for a larger view. 

A great time was had by all ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù especially M & M. Steve took Lisa to the airport. She was due to fly home at 8 am. She just called to say that her flight was canceled due to some mechanical problem and she won’t leave Portland until 11 pm. She will have to get a taxi home because Bart does not run that late. I feel so bad for her.

OK! Tomorrow I will start working on my studio. I’m going to the container store to find a fabric storage system. I feel the need to play with fabric and do some free-motion quilting.

I had a severe case of spring fever today. It was an open the windows, go outside, stop and smell the flowers, kind of day. This morning we took Maggie for a walk in the Rhodie garden. Every time I go, there are more Rhodies coming in to bloom in luscious colors that I have never seen before. In addition to the Rhodies, there are many other flowering plants that have bolted in to bloom.

I found an article from the Food Network website on dyeing eggs with natural dyes. Normally, I would have put it out of my mind because I would have no one to share the activity. BUT, now I have Steph and M & M to share my crazy ideas. So this morning after breakfast, I cooked up several dye concoctions: spinach, red cabbage, paprika, pomegranate juice and cranberry juice. Each had to be boiled with vinegar for 20 minutes and then strained and cooled. Here are the red cabbage and paprika mixtures:

This afternoon my invitees showed up and we arranged hard cooked eggs in bowls and poured the concoctions over. We then put them in the fridge to give them a nice long time to take the color. I was so busy orchestrating the activity that I forgot to take pictures!!

Then the four of us went back to the Rhodie Gardens to feed the ducks and enjoy the beautiful day some more. There is a Japanese Maple that takes my breath away. The colors go from deep red at the bottom and gradate to a softer value at the top. We found a carefully made nest with several eggs along the path. I am afraid that it was made too close to the humans and has been abandoned.

Tonight I took the eggs out of the dye bath and here they are. I think they are quite beautiful. Tomorrow, I will deliver these to M & M.

Left to right: cranberry juice mixed with red cabbage (the cranberry didn’t work on its own), spinach, paprika, paprika mixed with cranberry, pomegranate juice, red cabbage.

Oh, almost forgot to mention that Sharon Rexroad, one of my frequent blog visitors, was the first to see the acronym for the Second Tuesday at Somebody’s House – STASH! So she is getting a little something in the mail.

I had such a good time tonight. Terry Grant invited me to a meeting of an art quilter’s group that she has been part of for about 10 years. They are not affiliated with any guild. I love their name: Second Tuesday at Somebody’s House. I had such a good time with Teri, Gail, Beth, Linda and of course, Terry. They made me feel so welcome. They are currently working through the Color and Composition Book and they are almost to where I stopped, so I guess I can pick that up again.

Today we got our Oregon Driver’s licenses; after two trips to the DMV. We thought our new checks would serve as proof of our new address, but, no, we needed something that had been mailed to the house. We  had to drive home and back. We also stopped at Kaiser to get a prescription filled. The pharmacy tech made my day when she asked me if I was an artist. I said , yes. She said I looked like one because of my jewelry and the colors I was wearing. I told her she had made my day! Last week when I checked in at Southwest to fly to Oakland, the clerk didn’t believe I was eligible for the senior discount and asked for my license back to look at my birth date again. She made my day, too! It doesn’t take much to make me happy!!

On Sunday, between church and Cirque du Soleil (which was fabulous), I sorted all the art work which was piled against a wall in the living room. I put pieces in rooms to be hung and took a bunch of stuff to the basement for dealing with later – maybe a garage sale. On Monday, we started hanging stuff.

Today, I finished hanging my religious art collection. I have it in the entry way with the church pew which we acquired in North Carolina. So here is how it looks:

Now I have to get the other guest bedroom done for Lisa’s visit this week-end. She has never seen the house before. I am hoping to get to the studio next week. We are going to put in full spectrum florescent lights. Right now it has track lighting with halogen lights that just doesn’t do it for me.