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Archive for August, 2013

Making Lemonade

Thursday, August 29th, 2013

defuzzedindigomoon

I went to work on this piece which looked like a piece of wool felt after I had blocked it and it was dry. I removed lots of blue felt fuzz from the surface.

feltfuzz

I had this tool with my felting supplies. I am not sure what it is for, but it worked perfectly to remove the fuzz from this.

feltingtool

defuzzing

You can now see the organza. I stitched the rows a little close together. I won’t do that next time. I am now doing some beading with seed beads. My first task was to bead around the moon shape.

moonbeading

Now, I need to get creative with the beads. I am hoping to get a more organic pattern going on the moon. I will do some stitching with perle cotton, too.

We had a great dinner on Tuesday night with two couples from our neighborhood. I did some great cooking. We enjoyed a nice evening on the deck, great wine and intelligent conversation.

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, August 28th, 2013

ww08-28-13

Oops!

Monday, August 26th, 2013

bkuemoonready2shrink

I finally got the blue moon quilt stitched to the pre-felt and ready to shrink. But, oops, it really shrunk. I should have tested a small piece of organza to know what was going to happen.

bluemoonshrunkThe blue pre-felt totally felted through to the front. I think this can be saved, but will not be what I imagined. I stretched it on my ironing table and blocked it by pinning it as I stretched it. I decided not to put it in the dryer.

bluemoonblocked

Tomorrow, I am going to test a small piece of organza by just getting it wet and wringing it out and then put it in the dryer.

I think I will have time to do that. We have dinner guests, friends from our neighborhood so I have some cooking and cleaning to do. We enjoyed some time with the Portland contingent of family last night over pizza and ice cream.

Here is the progress on the chemo cap I am knitting. I am loving these colors. I have just 4 rows done on the pattern so it is hard to see how it will look. It is not just stockinette!

judyhat

And Then the Lights Went Out

Sunday, August 25th, 2013

sumptuousindigoorganza

I had a fairly productive day yesterday. I took some photos to share and was ready to blog about my progress after dinner. In the middle of dinner prep, the lights went out. This is a rare occurrence. We have lived here for more than 7 years and we have had very few power interrupts. Apparently, a tree was down in the neighborhood. First it was to be back at 9 and then 11. We finally went to bed at 10:30. I think it came back on at 1:30 this morning.

Anyway, I went back to stitching the organza to the wool pre-felt. It has such a luxurious tactility. I just love touching it. This is why I work in textiles.

stitchingbluemoon

I think I can finish stitching it today and do the shrinking. The Barnes’ are coming over for pizza so I may not get totally done.

I also made a quick trip to Mill Ends to get some yarn to make a chemo hat for my friend Judy who starts chemo this week for breast cancer. She is so upbeat and positive about this whole experience — she makes me smile when I want to cry about it. I promised her a chartreuse hat and I found this yummy mohair:

chartreusemohair

But, in the end, she is such a colorful person, I had to go with this:

judyhatyarn

It is really soft. I think it will look great. I was going to start knitting last night, but that didn’t happen!!

While I was at Mill Ends, I saw this colorful burlap. Have been wondering what I could do with some of this.

colorfulburlap

Such a Good Day

Thursday, August 22nd, 2013

moonstitch2

Some days are like that, you know. The stars align or your karma is on the upside. I did some SDA work in the morning and then hit the studio. I want to get started on another moonstruck quilt with the indigo organza. The first thing I do is get the organza pinned to the wool pre-felt. Then I stitch around the moon shape to define it.

moonstitch1

Then I do the stitching vertical and horizontal for the texture when it is shrunk. I am using a  blue to white to yellow variegated thread. I think it will give some nice color to the moon.

Tonight was the opening reception for the Sur(face) Forward juried show at the Corvallis Art Center. It is housed in a sweet building, a former Episcopal Church. This photo is a bit blurry, but it was raining and I was afraid of melting.

corvallisartcenter

There was a large turnout for the show, many of the artists were there as well as local art lovers.

surfaceforwardreception

My piece, Kelp Dance, was at the far end of the room on the stage area. It was very well lit and I was happy with how it hung. It is the one on the right.

kelpdance atsurfaceforward

There were many pieces juried into this show, all of high quality and such a wide variety of textile work. It was exciting  to see. I do love being in a show of this caliber, meeting the other artists and feeling so good about it all.

Here are three of my friends with work in the show: Jae, Barbara and Janet. That big piece behind them is a weaving.

3friendssurfaceforward

And here are two good friends from Portland, Bonnie and Jill.

bonnieandjillsurfaceforward

Here is Bonnie talking about her work with the delightful juror, Barbara Pickett.

bonnieandbpickett

After the reception, Mr C and I went out for a nice dinner before our hour and a half drive back to Portland. When we left the restaurant, we were treated to this beautiful sunset.

corvallissunset