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Archive for January, 2014

Back in the Saddle, er, Studio

Thursday, January 30th, 2014

graffitiredone

I am slowly getting back into my studio routine and getting past the grief of losing out on the new home that I really wanted. There is still nothing much for us to look at. We are just hoping that something that fits us becomes available soon.

In the meantime, I am having some fun working in my stripped down studio. I have not moved to the new one yet, because it is too far away from where we currently live. Last fall, when I went to my Oregon Critique group, the guest critiquer was surprised that the same person had done the graffiti piece and the moon pieces. She really liked the graffiti piece, but thought the purple which I had used was too flat. I decided to change it to neon pink. Little more shocking, don’t you think. Here is what it looked like before.

graffitiweb

The moon pieces have been weighing on my mind. I was not happy with the hand stitching I had done. So I have been working on this one to see if I can resurrect it.

BlueMoon1

I removed all the hand stitching except on the surface of the moon. I used a blue fabric pen to make the perle cotton all dark blue instead of variegated.

indigomoonredux

Where I had the little white circles, I covered them with a variegated silk ribbon, which is more subtle and adds a bit of interest to the surface. If you click on the image, you can see the detail better.

I have also been doing some therapy sewing.making a quilt for Paige, using Lisa’s fabric line. I am doing the disappearing nine patch which is so easy and you end up with blocks that belie the simplicity.

paigequiltmaking

paigequiltblock

And,  so there you have it. You knew I couldn’t stay maudlin for long, right!!

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, January 29th, 2014

ww1-29

Coping

Monday, January 27th, 2014

tranquilitySAQAtrunkshow

I finished the hand stitching on this piece for the SAQA 2014 trunk show. The edges needed to be finished so I fused it to a piece of black felt and did a simple hand stitched edge with the same perle cotton. I have named it Tranquility because it has given me some peace to work on  it during a turbulent time.

Here is a detail.

tranquilitypeek

Most days, we have someone here poking around the house as the buyers decide what to ask for as a result of the inspection. It is mostly minor stuff. And we are happy to have the radon test come back negative.

We did not get the townhouse we made an offer on. It sat on the market for a couple of months. I think the price was dropped a couple of times. We thought we were golden. The great thing was, there was a large space at the end of the garage that we could turn into a studio for me with heat and plumbing. I was so excited. We were blindsided as two other offers came in when we made ours. So, I have been pretty unhappy for several days, now. Not sure what we are going to do as there is nothing, NOTHING, out there that fits our needs, physically and economically. Guess I just have to be patient.

I have decided that I need a mindless project – therapy sewing.  There are yards of each of these fabrics that Lisa designed for Cloud 9. She gave me the whole lot when I was in CA in November.

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I washed the whole pile and now I have to iron them. I think I will make a couple of kid quilts for Paige and my great niece, Abigail.

basketlisafabrics

I also washed the Jay McCarroll fat quarters that she gave me last year. I love the colors and patterns in these. I will make a small quilt for someone special. Jay was the first Project Runway winner who is also a quilter.

JayMcfabrics

This should help me take my mind off the stalled house hunting.

Stitching Again

Thursday, January 23rd, 2014

saqatrunkshow

I am feeling a bit overwhelmed and exhausted from our selling and buying ordeal. The good news is that we are under contract. We met the buyers when they came to see the house because they came before it went on the market. They absolutely love our house and I am thrilled for them to be the new owners. Tomorrow, we have to leave the house for most of the day for all the inspections to take place. It means taking Scooter and finding something to do with him. For the open house, we took him with us to do errands and then to the dog park, but it was not as long. Stephane and family are in LA for a photo shoot that she is doing and we do not have the key to their house so we can’t go there.

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The deadline for the SAQA trunk show is coming up and I didn’t think I would have time to do anything. Then, I remembered that I had a remnant of one of my discharged and shrunk pieces. It has to be 7 X 10, finished which I was able to find. It helped to sit and do some slow stitching to take my mind off things. Here is a detail.

saqatrunkdetail

So, now we have to find a place. We hope we have, but it is complicated. More about that later.

I have to be up early to neaten the house for the new owners to come again for the inspection.

 

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2014

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