home
about the artist
gallery
blog
links
contact

Archive for December, 2010

Newer Entries »

Too Tired to Post

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

But, here I am. These are beautiful felted ornaments that I won in the guild silent auction, yesterday. I think they will go to M & M for their tree. Yesterday was a whirlwind with two meetings during the day -Columbia Fiberarts Guild and Oregon SAQA. We had a very productive SAQA meeting, talking about how we can keep our momentum going. We have grown from 60 members to over 100 – almost double – in the past year.

Last night, the Leonard Cohen concert was like a spiritual and religious experience for me. I love the man. What can I say. All of his musicians are incredible. His lyrics are poetry to me. The man gave me so much energy and desire to be all that I can be. This 76 year old man skipped, every time he went on or off the stage. It was magical.

Today, I awoke to a very sad posting on Facebook by my sister. She said: “God give me strength to get through this.” My brother-in-law is slipping away, and we continue to sit on the edge of our seats wondering when he will leave us.

I almost stayed home, but did join my STASH friends for lunch. They really cheered me up – such a wonderful group of friends.

From left, going around the table: Terry, me, Suzy, Gale, Reva, Linda (who used to be in the group) and Beth, who also had a birthday today.

I got some photos of some of the scrumptious desserts.

Creme Brulee.

Pear bread pudding. (so delish)

The bonus dessert was for Beth’s birthday – a Chocolate cream puff filled with chocolate goodness on a plate of caramel and whipped cream. We also had a peanut butter/chocolate concoction and something called Sin which had multi-layers of chocolate stuff.

I came home and crashed. Need a good night’s sleep. It is dark and gloomy with monsoon rains. We found a leak in the roof in the laundry room lavatory.  It looks like it is going to rain for a week. Ack! Calgon.take me away.

Posted in Eating out, Quilting Friends, Stuff I Buy | 2 Comments »

This Was Fun

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

Sometimes, I wonder where my day goes. I didn’t get to work in the studio until this afternoon. What did I do this morning besides walk the dog? Then, I remember that I entered 3 quilts using an online entry form which required artist statements for each in 25 words or less. I worked out all the wording ahead of time. spent an hour getting images just right. So, there went my morning, but important artist work.

So this is my latest coaster work. I used some of my left over scraps of printed fabric. I had so much fun pulling off this combination of colors and prints. You can click to see a close up. I had a nice heavy quilting thread with those colors. I ran out of old denim pieces so I used black canvas for this.

Here are the resulting coasters. I think I need to get purple or magenta felt for these.

Tomorrow is a busy and exciting day. I have guild meeting in the morning, followed by a local SAQA meeting. Tomorrow night, we have tickets to see Leonard Cohen in concert. Thursday is STASH holiday party day. We are meeting for lunch at the top of Big Pink, which you might remember from my first color play Twelve X Twelve quilt.

So, I may not be back for a couple of days!

Posted in My creations, This and that | 6 Comments »

Random Stuff

Monday, December 6th, 2010

Today, Mr C and I took Scooter out to the country to cut down our Christmas tree. We love Noble Firs and we have a favorite place to find them. This is our third year to go back to the Allen Tree Farm. We started out to search for the perfect tree, armed with the hand saw.

It is a bit hard to see the trees for the forest!

Mr C does a height check.

A young kid working there offered to take it down with a chain saw. Mr C went to find him. Meanwhile, I found a tree I liked better. This could have gone on for hours.

Scooter had a good time off leash running around the tree farm.

And so, we headed back to the front of the farm.

Seen on the path.

After a good shaking, the tree was wrapped in plastic and loaded on to the roof of the Jeep and home we went. It probably won’t get brought in the house and decorated until later in the week. Mia asked to come and help me.

I had a busy week-end. On Saturday, we prepared the house and a meal for our church dinner group. Groups of 8 are randomly organized in the fall and the group meets together in each other’s homes through out the year. We were so excited to get to know six people we had not known before. Several are new to the area.

Yesterday, I went to church early with Mr C as he was auditioning to be a reader. I went to an advent talk and discussion. Then, last night we went back for Lessons and Carols, a very Anglican Advent service. The music and readings were beautiful.

This morning, I had a chat with the SDA conference chair and agreed to handle the housing reservations for the University of Minn dorms. I have to set up a web page with information before the end of the year.

Tonight, I finally got down to my studio and cut out the felt that I bought for the base of my coasters. I really like the touch of the felt around the edges.

Tonight, I made a batch with indigo shibori and a linen napkin that I dyed orange. I used orange felt for the base.

I am finally feeling pretty good again. I was beginning to feel my age, and that is not a good thing. I have a busy week, socially, so am not sure how much studio time I will have. I have to get moving on the deadlines that are looming.

Posted in Holidays, House and home stuff, My creations, Scooter, Spiritual Life | 3 Comments »

Coasting

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010

:to act or make progress without making much effort.

That is what I am doing. I have gotten into a routine with the coaster production. I can go down to the studio and whip out a set in an hour after dinner.  The rest of the day is a mish mosh of stuff that is necessary, but eating up time that I’d rather spend some other way. I had to go out to the Kaiser Pharmacy this morning to pick up a new prescription for my blood pressure, which has been misbehaving.

Then I cleaned the refrigerator before I took Scooter for a walk.  I was impressed that I did not have any science experiments in the fridge.

This afternoon, Miles came to spend some time with us while his Mom did some errands. He has pneumonia and has been out of school all week. He is so much better today. Then off to the grocery store and you know how it goes. Tomorrow, I have a guild committee meeting and then M & M are coming to spend the night with us. I have to prepare main course for 8 for dinner on Saturday. I am making a Honey-mustard glazed pork loin wrapped in bacon, butternut squash polenta and roasted brussels sprouts.

So I think it will be Monday before I get back to the studio again.

Here is a detail of tonight’s coasters.

I am trying to organize my studio and my life to get started on some looming projects. One of them is the next Twelve X Twelve colorplay challenge — eggplant, wine and emerald green. I rummaged around in my stash tonight and found these dupioni silks that might work. I was thinking of doing something with silk organzas. Perhaps I will paint some fabric.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, My creations, This and that | 2 Comments »

Indigo Scraps Find a New Use

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

If you know me at all, you know that I can not throw out my scraps that are generated from making a larger piece. They usually have Mistyfuse on the back and are very  handy for creating little treasures. So, last night it occurred to me that my indigo scraps would look cool on the old denim. I added some red linen for a punch. This time, I did not completely cover the denim. I also did not do the free motion quilting under the tulle. I just topped the piece with tulle and did grid stitching.

I think I might fuse these to a base of red felt.

Yesterday, Mr C and I went to the nursery and bought a wreath for the front door. We had a bit of a disagreement on style, but settled on this one.

I had good news from my ENT this morning, he says my sinuses are quite clear and the saline rinses and steroid nasal spray will prevent a need for sinus surgery.

Are you a knitter, a friend of mine, Lori Beitler, just launched a beautiful and comprehensive online yarn shop, Stitchuary. Check it out. Lori is from New Jersey. I met her and some of her friends at the SDA conference last year. They kept me in stitches. (Pun intended!)

Posted in Collage, Flowers and plants, My creations, This and that | 3 Comments »

Newer Entries »