Month: April 2013 | Crazy for Fiber

April 2013
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Archive for April, 2013

Honey, I Shrank the Quilt!

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

I decided that before I got to far into this experiment, I should do a sample to see what might happen. I love the results. Nice organic texture and it shrank up quite a bit. First, I just rinsed it in hot water and threw it in the dryer with a towel. It shrank a bit, but not enough. Next, I washed it in the washer with a towel, in hot water and then put it in the dryer and Voila! – just want I was hoping for.

I have finished the stitching in one direction, now I have to stitch vertically. I hope to get that done tomorrow.

I have to be at the hospital at 7:30 in the morning for an ultrasound of my gall bladder. I am wondering what they will find. I have been feeling icky all day — hives on my legs again and abdominal pain. There is something going on.

I had a nice week-end. I met one of my blog readers for lunch on Saturday. Kaylin is from Seattle and is going to start classes at Oregon College of Art and Craft in the fall, with a fibers major. She was here for orientation. We had a great time over lunch with her friend, Carol.

I have been busy with SDA work and getting the Artists Among Us database done. I have 60 artists with an average of 12 pieces of art to be coded and entered. I am going to train someone else to help me. I am hoping that this is the last year that I will be doing this job. I am trying to keep on top of things, just in case I have to take time out for gall bladder surgery.

Posted in Felting, My creations | 3 Comments »

Some Studio Fun

Friday, April 19th, 2013

I used a torn newspaper as a resist today to do some discharging on this piece of black silk. This is before I washed out the discharge paste and this is after.

I was hoping to get some undulating organic shapes. My plan with this is to layer it over black wool prefelt, do some stitching and then throw it in the wash to shrink it. My Twelve buddy, Karen Rips, does a lot of this kind of work and I have been enamored with it. I have not taken a class or seen a tutorial – I am just experimenting on this. Hopefully, I will have time to do some stitching tomorrow.

Today, I took some time to go get my hair cut. I went to a new place and got it really chopped off. Not sure if I like it or not, but the great thing about hair is that it grows back fairly fast. I also got the nice news that one of my Aspen quilts was juried into Sacred Threads.

I am so proud of my granddaughter, Mia. She and her friend, Devin created this book of illustrated quotes from the videos at itgetsbetter.org. They are for sale at sunnysideitgetsbetter.bigcartel.com. All proceeds benefit itgetsbetter.org!

On another note, it is nest watch time. I love watching the Great Blue Heron nest at Sapsucker Woods on the Cornell Campus. Here is a screen shot I took a couple of days ago. Today, there are 3 eggs.

I didn’t sleep well last night. I happened to discover the craziness going on in the Boston area and watched too much of it and never really fell soundly asleep. I am so happy that tonight, the other perpetrator was captured alive. I hope that we can get some answers as to why they did this horrific act.

Tomorrow, I am meeting one of my blog readers for lunch. She is from Seattle and is down for orientation at Oregon College of Arts & Crafts where she is going to start studies. Tomorrow night, Mr C and I will be off to the symphony. Next week is looking great, sun wise. Maybe I will get my garden planted.

Posted in Discharging fabric, Juried Shows, M & M | 3 Comments »

OOXX

Thursday, April 18th, 2013

I can finally show you the quilt that I was working on and only showed sneak peeks. It was for the Dinner at Eight invitational show which will debut at IQF Long Beach and then go to Houston. The theme this year was “An Exquisite Moment.” That theme threw me for awhile, and then I thought of hugs and kisses from my grandchildren. Those are most definitely exquisite moments.

I had in my mind that I wanted the piece to be luminous and full of vibrant color. I ordered hand-dyed silk from Frieda Anderson. I used Mistyfuse because it hardly changes the hand of the silk. I created X and O blocks in different sizes and worked them into a layout to fit the required size of 24 inches by 60 inches. I decided that diagonal machine quilting would work best to tie it all together. I used silk thread in 6 different colors and randomly changed the color as I stitched. Here is a detail.

I love this quilt. It made me happy to make it. You can see all the artists who were juried into the show on the Dinner at Eight blog.

I am in the vortex that I knew would happen about now. Two important events for which I have a lot of responsibility are requiring lots of my attention. I am trying to stay calm and carry on. One is the SDA conference registration. Right now, I am dealing with workshops that had to be canceled for low registration, notifying people, issuing refunds, etc. Registration fee goes up on May 1 so there is also an influx of people registering before then.

I am also setting up the Artists Among Us database. Our event is May 17-19. I have a PC laptop that was donated to the Arts commission. The PC and I are not really getting along very well. I did manage to get all the artists into the database. Now I have to enter all of their art work inventory.

So that is my life right now. It is not forever. I will survive. I may not blog as often.

Posted in Fusing, Juried Shows, My creations | 7 Comments »

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, April 17th, 2013

Posted in Wordless Wednesday | Comments Off on Wordless Wednesday

Ready to Crash

Monday, April 15th, 2013

We are home, arriving at lunch time. I had to hit the ground running as I have mucho work to get done — an updated report for the SDA conference, Guild newsletter and many e-mails to answer. I realized when I got home that I had left the power cord for my laptop in the hotel this morning. Even if I get them to mail it to me, I can’t wait. So off to the Apple store. I didn’t quite finish the guild newsletter. I hope to have a clearer head in the morning. Before I crash, I thought I would do a quick post.

So, back to Paige’s birthday. There she is up above on the morning of her party. She loves to be outside and she was waiting patiently for someone to take her.

We went to the backyard and played in the sandbox.

I decided it was a bit chilly so I went in and found a sweater for her. She continued to amuse herself and watched her daddy cleaning up the grill and the patio to get ready for the party.

Later, everyone got in the act of preparing food. Her Grammy Karyn made two cakes — a gorgeous carrot cake for the adults and a healthy baby cake with no sugar for the kids. My son grilled pork loin. I prepared slaw and asparagus for grilling.

Here she is with her Daddy ready for guests.

Here is Paige enjoying her cake.

She is just learning to use utensils and often likes to have two of them.

Later, she opened all of her presents — sort of — she has not quite gotten the whole present opening excitement, yet.

Her parents gave her a shiny red piano. I have an hysterical video of her playing it.

It was a wonderful week-end with plenty of Paige time. I got to see Lisa and Clay’s new home in Oakland, and we also stopped by the venue for the wedding in Mill Valley on our way back to Oregon, yesterday.

I am gearing up for a month and a half of lots on my plate as I continue with SDA conference registration and helping with Artists Among Us at Trinity. I need to get some small works done for the Trinity show and sale. I need the balance of some creative work.

My heart is saddened over the bombings in Boston. I am sending out good thoughts and prayers to all the victims.

Posted in Family, Paige Ada, traveling quilts | Comments Off on Ready to Crash

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