home
about the artist
gallery
blog
links
contact

Archive for July, 2009

Nostalgia

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

frankloveirma

Tonight, I spent a couple of hours going through boxes and albums of old photos, looking for inspiration for an art piece I want to create. My emotions ran the gamut. It is especially mind boggling to see the younger, thinner, more attractive me. I can’t remember where I took this photo, I think it might have been in North Carolina. I wonder if Frank still loves Irma.

I found this photo taken at a conference in Hawaii. The first person to guess who is hugging me, might get a prize. I loved this photo when I developed it. I had a friend take the photo and I had no idea that Mr C was walking up on the love fest. There was a slight crease in the photo so I look as if I have a slash through my face.

whoisit

I don’t have a lot of photos of my dad. This one was taken near the end of his life. He loved his hats.

jake

Maggie, our JR, is getting along in years. She is almost 15 and is deaf and almost blind. She is very gray. She was so beautiful as a young dog with great markings. She was so tiny that my son could hold her in the palm of his hand. That is Stephanie and Steve with them. You can see that it was December 1994 when this was taken.

babymaggie

The heat has dissipated a bit. It did not hit triple digits today, but it was so hot all night that I felt out of sorts most of the day. In fact, there was a lot of just lieing about today. Miles and Steph came over while Mia was at arts camp.

milesprone

Scooter, who is recovering from his minor surgery and is wearing the cone of shame, spent most of the day like this. Poor baby.

scooterinlampshade

I found some photos that will work for what I want to do. I have to scan them, manipulate them in Photoshop and then make some thermofax screens. I am hoping for a return of energy!!!

Heat Wave

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

scrap072809

We are having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave… Thank goodness for my air conditioned studio! I have not been keeping up with my project to use up my fabric and batting scraps. Tonight, I felt compelled to memorialize the weather we are having by interpreting a heat wave with fabric and thread.

We took the dogs for a walk fairly early. Mr C is doing enough better that he went for the walk with us. I felt miserable when I got home. After a cold shower, I was able to get on with the day. Mia is at art camp, so Miles came over to hang out with us. We watched the Tale of Despareaux while I packed up my Day of the Dead quilt to be shipped to Scranton, PA. I also did a major cleaning and decluttering of my computer desk and made room for my new scanner.

Tonight, we went out to have dinner in an air conditioned restaurant. I had a nice ahi tuna nicoise salad and a glass of rose wine. It was good. The heat wave is due to continue until the week-end. I wonder if I can get a meal out every night!!

Passion Sneak Peek

Monday, July 27th, 2009

passionpeek

I finished my piece for the next 12 x 12 theme — Passion. Here is a sneak peek. I showed it to my daughter, Steph; after I told her the title, she totally got it. This made me feel a little more confident. It will be posted on the blog on August 1.

nextproject

I have these shibori pieces on my design wall. I have an idea percolating about how to add more dye or some paint to these. They were created by using wooden blocks as a clamped resist.

I was really upset today when I found that my HP scanner does not work with the Leopard OS on my Mac so I ordered a new Canon today – only $79 and free shipping.

We got fairly good news today that Mr C’s problem is kidney stones and not a more dire prospect based on his symptoms. He still has a wait to get in to see the Urologist and have them disintegrated – at least we hope that is what they can do.

Look at this — a rare moment of peace in our household, today. I think it was too hot to do anything else but be tolerant. Scooter is going to lose his manhood on Wednesday; but we have no desire for him to sire more puppies.

peace

It is so darned hot that they are canceling the local Farmer’s market on Wednesday. fortunately, I have my own farm that yields something new every day.

Catch-up Time

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

kingofthehill

Here is Scooter at the top of our garden stairs which we have finally finished landscaping. Here are some other views:

gardenstairs

gardenstairs2

staircloseup

My guys, Mark and Mr C, constructed the steps from blue stone slabs and pavers. When my friend Reva asked what held them together, Mark said, gravity and friction. I am still hoping for a hand rail as I am not getting any younger. Here is what the pavers look like:

paver

My tomatoes are coming along nicely:

ripetomato

moretomatoes

Remember the funny little bird? I found out that it is a baby green heron. They apparently nest in the maple trees on the edge of  Reed College across the street from the Rhodie Garden and the reservoir.

strangelittlebird

We are having a bit of a situation here. Mr C has what we hope is a minor medical situation. He had some tests last week and now we are spending the week-end wondering what the results will be. We had to cancel our trip to New York for the family reunions next week and so I will not be delivering the little girl quilt in person, but I am so happy that I have it almost finished.

I have had to do a lot of dog walking. This morning, Steph, Jack and M & M came over to spell me and took Scooter for a long walk around the Reed Canyon.

It is getting very hot so tonight, I picked up some take out and we ate on the deck. It was quite pleasant. I also grabbed a bouquet of Zinneas, one of my favorite flowers.

zinneas

Today, I tidied up the studio from the little girl quilt escapade. I found something that I purchased on a whim and had forgotten about. It is an all in one tool that has several little tools. I think it will be great for taking with me to retreats, etc.

allinonetool

One end has a needle threader, tweezers, safety pin and magnafier.

needlethreaderend

The other end has several different little tools such as a seam ripper.

multitoolend

The center has a measuring tape. I think this is made by Fiskers.

tapemeasure

Sorry for the blurry photos! OK, I think I am caught up with stuff. Hope you are having a nice week-end.

KK’s Windows

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

windowpanes

I finished quilting this by stitching window panes in the center panels. As I was quilting, I decided to name it KK’s Windows. KK is the nickname given to my great niece, Kaelyn.

I couldn’t decide on a border and then remembered that I have a whole lot of purple hand-dyed fabric. I don’t even know where I got it. Since purple was the central color and the color of the walls in her bedroom, I decided to use some of the purple. It doesn’t look that purple in the photo, but it is!

purplebinding

I am now hand sewing the binding. I am hoping to deliver this in person at then end of this month!