Month: November 2016 | Crazy for Fiber

November 2016
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Archive for November, 2016

A Good Thing

Sunday, November 27th, 2016

Some of my longtime readers know that I have two brilliant and talented daughters. Stephanie, who is mom to Mia and Miles, and her online partner, Maria, have written another book. This is the best one yet. A Year Between Friends is chock full of goodness. Yes, I am a biased Mom, but it is reall wonderful. It has crafts and recipes plus inspirational commentary via stories and letters that they have written to each other.

They are also both great photographers and their original claim to fame was the photo diptychs that they posted every day. The book has lots of beautiful full color photos, all done on film, not digital. (Click on photo for larger version.)

They are both really good cooks. They share many of their favorite recipes.

There are lots of doable crafts with great directions and photos. The yellow napkin above is a waxed napkin for wrapping brown bag items and is reusable. Directions are in the book. Steph is well known for her gorgeous wool and silk pine cones. She finally shares the directions.

There are natural dye instructions.

This would be a beautiful holiday gift for someone. You can order it HERE.

Posted in My Brilliant Daughters | 1 Comment »

Persevering

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016

It is sometimes hard for me to get out of bed, get dressed and put on a happy face. I am still grieving the current political situation. I don’t see much ahead for so many folks in this country but doom and gloom. But, we have to carry on, don’t we.

For my long time readers, you may find this hard to believe, but that is my grandson, Miles, who turned 15 on Sunday. He has grown into such a fine and brainy young man. He is getting straight A’s in highschool. We all got together for dinner at a ramen restaurant and then that delicious mud pie, made by his Mom.

Before that, Mr C and I headed down to Oregon Wine Country for a benefit for Quilts for Empowerment to help Kenyan women who are getting their lives back together after surgery for fistula, a complication of child birth. You may remember that I took some of their embroideries and made quilts which were in a silent auction.

I finally finished my jellyfish stitching for my SAQA trunk show entry.

I also finished the one that I did in the wrong orientation.

I am feeling ready to dig in at the studio and to make some quilts to send out in the world. High Fiber Diet has a theme called, Heat Wave. The main color is to be orange. I pulled some fabrics today and I have an idea. I am almost excited about it, but have a little fear and trepidation as it has been a while since I have done a large piece for a show.

I did some major food shopping and tomorrow, I will get some pies and cranberry chutney made for dinner at Steph’s on Thursday. I am also doing the turkey. I keep thinking it is the last year for me to do the big bird, but no one wants to take it on!!

So, we keep on keeping on and wait to see what happens.

Posted in Family, M & M, My creations | 5 Comments »

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, November 16th, 2016

Posted in photography, Wordless Wednesday | Comments Off on Wordless Wednesday

What is Normal?

Tuesday, November 15th, 2016

I was finally able to get my studio ready for some major creativity to happen. We were able to assemble a large double sided design wall. But…..

As many of my long time readers know, I am very vested in politics and I am an unapologetic progressive. I have been spending a lot of time over the past month following the presidential campaign and found the ugliness disturbing. I believed the polls and thought for sure Hillary would be the first woma n president. My hopes were dashed a week ago today, and I spent much of the week wavering between panic attacks and sobbing. Yesterday, I decided I needed to get back to some sort of normal and because I have meetings almost every day this week, I needed to buck up. So that explains why I have been mostly missing.

While I have been keeping track of politics, I have been doing some slow stitching. I wanted to make a 7 x 10 piece for the SAQA trunk show. I cut up some shibori circles to use as jelly fish bodies and made the piece up above. Then, I reread the prospective and realized all the pieces had to be a portrait orientation so I started over!!! I am seed stitching the back ground right now.

Mr C finally figured out all the parts we would need to make a portable design wall that I had seen on the internet. It requires pvc pipe and fittings, U-bolts and foam insulation. Here are photos of the assemblage.

This is my daughter cutting the felt to fit the insulation. So glad to have her help.

This is a U-bolt!

The felt still needs to have some spray glued to attach it better to the insulation.

There is felt on both sides. It is 6 x6 so that it fits easily in the space I have to store it. It is very light, yet sturdy so I can pull it out for working. I am so happy with this. It was something I really missed in my closet studio! Next week, I hope to start on something big.

On Sunday, Mr C and I decided to get out of the house for an art date. We went to see the Warhol exhibit at the Portland Art Museum. Here are some images from that.

So, what is normal. My life has been so topsy turvy for a year, that I am not sure. I do know that I am feeling so much better. Getting my energy back. Working on the lower back problem. I want to be strong for the times ahead of us. I will end with this: