Month: October 2008 | Crazy for Fiber

October 2008
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Archive for October, 2008

Melancholy

Friday, October 24th, 2008

Well, you knew that my happy high would not last. Got some news today that has me in tears and worrying for someone. Perhaps at some point I can share the details, but, for now, we are in the stages of discovery and coping. Don’t worry about Mr C or I — we are just fine — just sad.

I spent the morning at WW and shopping. I am at an impasse with my diet. I gained over the celebration time and now I just can’t get back with the program and losing. I switched meetings and am happier with the leader and group so I hope I can get motivated. I have to start journaling my food intake again, which I just finished doing. I had a good day.

M & M had no school today and Steph needed to do a Trader Joe’s run so she dropped them off to spend some time with us.

Miles and Mr C found a paper airplane site on the web and started folding.

Mia came down to the studio with me and decorated a t-shirt with T-Juice markers. I forgot to get a photo. I kept working on the Galilee Sunrise.

This is what I did today. For the mountains: the top reddish fabric is one that Jeanne gave me for my birthday. That glowing bit in the center was perfect to be under the sun.

I am covering this with organza to tone it down.

I have this delicious piece of shibori silk that will be the base of the sky. I am covering parts of it with organza to give it that reddish/golden glow.

So here are my fabrics laid out on the cutting table. I think I am making progress. I apologize for the photography. I had to take these photos from overhead the piece is on my cutting table and the light is not that great.

Tomorrow, I am going to the Oregon critque group. We meet twice a year. This time, we are meeting in Eugene, a couple of hours away. Terry is picking me up at 7:30 am. I have my quilts packed and my outfit selected. I am not very good in the early morning. I have to be organized. I guess I better set the alarm, too.

Posted in M & M, Solo Show, weight loss/gain | 7 Comments »

Sunrise

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

This is a photo of the sun rising on the Sea of Galilee. It was taken by one of the photographers who accompanied us on our trip. I want to interpret this with fabric.

I painted this silk shantung organza last summer.

I rotary cut it into strips which I laid over a reddish orange dupioni silk. I want some of the dupioni to show through and look like the sun reflected on the water.

I then laid a layer of green tulle over the fabric pieces.

Then, the tulle gets pinned down. I am running out of pins. I bought a new package, but I can’t find them!!

Once the whole piece is assembled, I will stitch the heck out of it. This piece will be about 28″ X 38″.

Posted in My creations, Solo Show | 11 Comments »

So Happy

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

Have you ever been in that zone where every thing is cool. You feel healthy. The errands are done. There is food in the house. You are caught up on your gotta dos. And you are having a heck of a good time playing with your fabric. The weather is just perfect. Your fave candidate is up in the polls. And if you stop and think about it, you start to worry that life should not be this good. I don’t deserve it. You just have to shake it off, go with the flow and enjoy the good times.

It feels so good to wake up in the morning and think about what I am going to do in the studio. I have gone back to working in the evening, doing some quilting and cutting squares. I have been working out the next few pieces in my mind. I realized I needed some hand-dyed browns. It was such nice weather — in the 60s — so I thought I would do some dyeing, but I didn’t have the right dyes so I made a Dharma order. They usually get things to me in a day or two. I hope the good weather holds.

I finished my Cast Your Nets piece. It is not a wow piece of art, but it definitely works for the theme of my show, which is to interpret in fabric, my impressions of Israel.

Tonight, I started cutting color batiks. I may have to go to Fabric Depot to fill in some colors unless I mix in some of my other commercial fabrics. I am truly enjoying the process of finding the right color mix and cutting my little squares.

Tomorrow, I am going to start on Galilee Sunrise.

Posted in My creations, Solo Show | 4 Comments »

Monday, Monday

Monday, October 20th, 2008

Where did the week-end go? It was a non-eventful work week-end for me, with some timeout for walks around the neighborhood, dinner out with Mr C and church on Sunday morning.

I got some advise from two friends whose work I really admire to make my Galilee boat more abstract, but it wasn’t working for me. In the end, I had to create the vision I had in my head. I used a piece of silk shantung organza in an off-white and sketched the boat details with free-motion stitching on my sewing machine. I wanted a ghost like image of a boat — to reference something in the past. So here it is.

i am going to balance the white boat with some off-white stitching in the bottom right that looks like a fish net. So I have been looking at photos of nets.

I have been practicing the stitching. I am going to use Perle cotton in the bottom and stitch the net from the back side. It looks great.

I have also been cutting three and a half inch squares of black and white fabric.

I am going to do one traditional quilt. Here is my sketch of the Jerusalem Cross quilt.

The cross and outer border will be of black and white fabric. The rest of the quilt will be batik fabrics cascading across the quilt in a rainbow. This will be 51 inches square. I think working on this will calm my brain and keep me focused. I hope!!

I got some good mail today. Almost 2 months ago, I gave a donation to the Obama-Biden campaign and was supposed to receive a t-shirt, car magnet, yard sign and some buttons. The stuff finally arrived today.

I wore it most of the day. I took my extra buttons and bumper stickers to EFM class tonight and spread the Obama love!! Eek! Only 2 more week of waiting. We received our ballots on Friday. We filled them out and mailed them today. I wanted to join the throngs of early voters. Gobama!!

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Back in the Studio

Friday, October 17th, 2008

I finally finished reorganizing my studio and was getting ready to get down to work when I was rudely interrupted by this:

Mr C needs a project. It is our plan to paint the basement rooms that I use. Before doing that, he has decided to redo the heating ducts since they are exposed in my office and are an eyesore. We have put in a new furnace that heats the upstairs so some of the duct work is redundant. The furnace room is off my studio, next to the fireplace, so the work has to start there. I had to move my sewing area down into the other part of my studio to avoid the dust and mess. I am used to being alone and in my zone, so I am a little bit off kilter, but trying to accommodate the man!!

The piece that I am working on is titled “Cast Your Nets.” It is related to the Sea of Galilee, where we stayed on our first week in Israel. The main food fish caught in the Sea of Galilee is Tilapia. They cannot be caught with a fishing rod. They can only be caught with nets. When we sailed on the Sea of Galilee, we were given a demonstration of casting nets.

I had a beautiful piece of fabric that I discharged this past summer. I used netting and grids. I decided to use this as a base for this piece.

I wanted to have a ghostly image of a boat that might have been used in the time of Jesus.I made a screen from a drawing and printed it on organza. In the above photo, I am auditioning a grayish organza. I am not really happy with that so I have another organza to try tomorrow.