Month: July 2007 | Crazy for Fiber

July 2007
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Archive for July, 2007

Bamboo Fence 3 Ways and Ginkgo Leaves

Friday, July 20th, 2007

I decided that I want to make another Bamboo Fence piece. I took the photo (in my previous post) of the fence that my son took at the garden and made a screen. It was not very successful. I did have great success printing it on silk. This is after posterizing it in Photoshop. You can see it here with the background fabric I am auditioning and the bamboo that will be used to construct a fence on the piece.

So I found another bamboo fence that I played with in Photoshop and made another thermofax screen. This is much more successful. You can see the screenprint in two different colors on the top. The unsuccessful screen is on the bottom.

So I will use that on the back ground fabric with the photo collaged on top and construct a bamboo fence. Bamboo fence – 3 ways.

This morning while we were walking between the rain storms, I found a Ginkgo tree. I grabbed a little branch and brought it home. I taped the leaves to paper and scanned them.

After playing with it in Photoshop, I had this image:

I made a screen with the thermofax and here are my screen printed leaves. I have an idea percolating in my brain for using this image for another piece.

I hear that a lot of you are enjoying the wild rice salad recipe that I posted. Hi! Mary Lou in Massachusetts. She is the is the sister of my good friend Pat, in Santa Rosa. They are not only sisters; they are best friends. They talk to each other almost every day. They are both quilters and enjoy getting together for vacations. Anyway, Pat told me today, that she had talked to Mary Lou, who had made the salad and gave it her seal of approval. Now Pat is going to make it for her wine tasting group.

I had a great time with Mia yesterday. We shopped locally at the book store and toy store in Sellwood. Then she accompanied me on my shopping trip to Trader Joe’s. She is great company. I am always so impressed when I introduce her to adult friends. She is very polite and talkative — a real charmer!

Posted in M & M, My creations, screenprinting, Surface Design Techniques, thermofax | 4 Comments »

Wednesday This and That

Wednesday, July 18th, 2007

How cool is this? Cindy Sheehan autographed one of my bumper stickers for Ellen, who lives in NC. She sent me this photo. She told me that Cindy was there to speak and there were lots of protests and threats against Cindy. Her husband went to take photos and got this autograph. I had some photoshop fun with some photos and have received some new photos which are on the Virtual Iraq War Protest Flickr site. You can get there by clicking on the bumper sticker in my side bar.

I could really go on a rant right now. I am so glad that the Dem’s forced the debate last night. I feel that momentum is on the side of moving faster towards bringing our troops home. I am saving the rant for another day.

I had an art date with Mr C today. It was a rainy, summer day. A perfect day to head downtown and spend the afternoon at the Portland Art Museum. The current exhibit is Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art. We have been her over a year and have been remiss in joining the museum, which we did today. When we lived in Santa Rosa, we belonged to the fine arts museums which is collective, including the De Young, Palace of Legion of Honor and the Asian Art Museum, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I am very happy to have a husband who enjoys the arts with me.

One of the paintings that struck my funny bone was of a group of Dutch young people, in full 1600’s fancy dress. They were having a party — quite a scene of debauchery. A puritanical couple was looking on in disdain. The listener’s guide said that people of that time would have had a fascination with how these folks led their lives. I was thinking that it was the People Magazine or Access Hollywood of it’s day!

We stopped at the Farmer’s Market on the way home which made dinner very wonderful. I bought baby beets and roasted them and served them on the sauteed beet greens with a little red wine vinegar. Mr C does not like beets so they were all mine. I only lost a pound this past week for a total of 6 1/2 pounds. I think it is more than that, but it was cold and I wore heavier pants. (Excuses, excuses!)

Last night I attended a High Fiber Diet planning session for the Japanese Garden show. Some of us brought our work to show. It is interesting to see the variety of ways people are interpreting wabi sabi. apparently, the garden has a consultant who has written a book on wabi sabi, and she is a bit concerned about our using this as a theme. Our show coordinator is meeting with her next week.

I think my Bamboo fence piece was very well received so I am thinking of doing another. Look what I found — this photo of a bamboo fence taken by my son at the garden last year.

I played around with this in photoshop and am going to make a thermofax screen and print it on fabric, too. Lately, I have more ideas for work that I can keep up with. This is a good thing.

Tomorrow morning, Miss Mia is coming over to play with me while Miles is at school and Steph meets some friends for coffee. I am looking forward to some solo time with her.

Posted in Out and About in Portland, Quilting Organizations, This and that, Virtual Iraq War Protest | 2 Comments »

Pink Shibori and Copper Bamboo

Monday, July 16th, 2007

These are the working titles for my latest pieces. I finally had an epiphany for the binding of the ink shibori piece. I had just barely enough pink shibori left to piece a very narrow binding. I think it really works. Thank you to those who e-mailed me privately that you like this piece. I don’t ordinarily work with pink, but here is the think about me and fabric and color. When I find a combination of colors and fabrics that just work together, I get excited and off I go. I think thee is someone out there who would love this piece in their home. I stained a piece of bamboo with green paint which I will use for hanging this. Here is a closeup of the binding.

Here is the full piece:

At our STASH meeting, Gale had a great idea to use a motif from the small print fabric on the bamboo section, which is what I did. I have fused this piece to felt so that I would not have to do a lot of quilting. I used one of my fancy machine stitches where the fabrics come together. Here is a closeup.

Here is the piece which I have cropped. It still needs to be squared up and the edge satin stitched.

Once the edge is done, I am going to do some Japanese fabric collages and post cards. I also need to get cracking on my Journal Quilt for the IQF show in Houston. I think it needs to be done by September. Then I need to start work on a piece for an invitational show, titled, It’s Good to be Green. That will be done in recycled green Japanese textiles.

Yesterday, we had family dinner. We grilled chicken sausages from New Season’s market with sweet corn and wild rice salad. Steph has a great way to serve sweet corn. Cook the corn, melt some butter, pour it in to a plastic bag with some fresh squeezed lime juice, add the corn and shake — voila, instant buttered corn. I had mine with a spritz of fake butter and lime juice.

This is the second time that I have made this wild rice salad. It is so good and so healthy. Here are the green beans sauteing in olive oil and garlic.

Here is the recipe:

3/4 cup wild rice cooked according to package directions.
1 cup green beans, cut in two inch lengths
1 clove chopped garlic
1 tbs. olive oil
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup red pepper, diced
1/2 cup cucumber, diced
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley
1/2 cup pistachios
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tbs. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Cook rice. Cool to room temperature.

Saute garlic in olive oil for 1 minute. Add green beans and cover and cook until tender. Cool to room temperature.

Mix cranberries, red pepper, cucumber, basil, parsley and pistachios in a bowl. Add rice and green beans. Mix in olive oil and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. (You may use more olive oil, but I like the lighter taste of lemon juice.)

Here is the salad before adding rice and green beans.

And finished:

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, My creations | 8 Comments »

I Love a Parade

Saturday, July 14th, 2007

We live in the Eastmoreland Neighborhood, but are adjacent to the Woodstock neighborhood, where we do a lot of our shopping. Today was the annual Woodstock Festival, complete with parade, entertainment, food and street fair.

Maggie and I walked up the hill to the Woodstock neighborhood while Mr C worked in the yard. I arrived just in time for the beginning of the parade. It was the total small town/neighborhood parade. Lots of kids, a couple of bands, some dogs, antique cars, bikes and dedicated neighborhood souls. Here are a few pics. You can see more on my Flickr set.

Steve worked on planting the area outside my studio. This is the view from my studio, through the sliding glass doors.

It is still a little barren, but at least we have a good start. Here is how it looks from above, taken from the deck — yellow bird bath and Japanese Maple.

Here are close-ups of my new lacy Hydrangea and a gorgeous Begonia. Clickable to see larger.

Mr C and I have been spending the last couple of days planning a driving trip in August. We are driving to the Olympic Peninsula and staying one night, with a day and a half to explore. Then we stay in Port Orchard and catch the ferry to Victoria the next day. We will stay there for two nights. Then we are driving to Seattle for an overnight stay so that we can take in the new sculpture park and art museum renovation. I am really looking forward to this. I love to hit the road with Mr C!

Posted in Flowers and plants, House and home stuff, Landscaping, Travels | 4 Comments »

It is Good to Be Green

Friday, July 13th, 2007

It is the mantra of many of us and a very big deal in Portland (the greenest city) — Go Green!

Two of my quilting friends, Terry and Robin, have posted patterns for cloth bags to replace the plastic ones for grocery shopping. Robin even sent me fabric, which I will make in to a bag one of these days, I promise.

One thing I have decided to do to go green, is to reduce the amount of junk mail and catalogs coming to my home. I found the organization, Green Dimes, which for a nominal membership fee will handle the paper work for you and plant a tree every month. I think we have seen a reduction, and I am sure that our new mailman will be very happy.

Here is some green that we picked up today:

This area outside my studio is waiting for some shade plants:

I also came home with this fabulous post in which I will plant geraniums.

We had a nice, cool day in Astoria yesterday. I took almost the same pictures that Terry took so I will only post this one of Terry, Reva and Linda at the Astoria Column.

I has a bit of a panic attack because Gale’s low cal lunch was spinach, sundried tomatoes and goat cheese baked in phyllo — delicious, but a lot of Weight Watcher points. She did have a lovely green salad which I chowed down. Dessert was the STASH requisite food when we are on the coast — Tillamook Ice Cream. I has a bit of that, too. That is the great thing about WW, you can have anything — in moderation.

Today, I spent most of the day playing with some SDA photos in photoshop and updated the store page on the site. I also auditioned some fabric for binding the Japanese pink quilt. The first is a striped Japanese fabric:

The second is the backing fabric. As I was playing with different fabrics, I looked at the backing fabric and wow, I think it works. My problem is to find something that works that is not too dark with the delicate colors that I have used.

I must get myself upstairs and cleaned up to go out to dinner. We are going back to Nostrana where Mr C will have a pizza and I will have a salad with some kind of protein. The salads there are phenomenal. I will take my camera so that I can show you all.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

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