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This and That

February 22nd, 2016

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It has been an interesting few days since I last posted. I had all good intentions of celebrating my 11th blogiversary, but life got in the way. On Friday morning, Mr C had a TIA or mini-stroke and I spent a couple of days running back and forth from the ER and the hospital. It was minor and he recovered very quickly, but it was scary for a time.

Up above is a snippet of an old piece that I did for my Israel trip solo show, a few years ago. It is about the graffiti on the Palestinian side of the security wall. I thought it would work well for the SAQA turmoil show, but it was not quite big enough so I am mounting it on black dupioni silk. I quite like it. I think it gives it more presence.

Last night, Mr C and I had the fun experience of attending a chocolate tasting party with our friends who took a chocolate class at the London Cordon Bleu when they were living there. We had six different chocolates, 3 from France and 3 from Portland. They had varying amounts of cacao.

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We were given sheets to keep notes on aroma, taste, texture and finish.

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There was only one chocolate from Portland that we liked: Moonstruck. All of the French chocolates were divine.

After the tasting adventure, we got to dip our own truffles in tempered chocolate. Here is the tempering machine with the luscious chocolate.

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Here are my truffles. I like the little swirls I got on the tops.

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Cheryl packaged them up for us to take home.

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Paige wants a purple sweater with Winnie the Pooh. I found a pattern and picked up the yarn, yesterday.

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Week One of Printing on Fabric

February 18th, 2016

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Last night was week one of a printing on fabric workshop that my friend, Allan Oliver, and I are teaching at Trinity. We have two wonderful assistants, both named Liz!! Mr C and I went down in the afternoon and raised two tables on pvc pipe. Then, I covered the tables with plastic, two layers of felt and muslin. I set up tubs for water to wash screens and stencils.

I also set up a sample for a demo to show how to layer designs with paint. I sponge painted a background.

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We had a full house, many of the participants were men! I think everyone had a good time.

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We have a big empty bulletin board where we hung work to dry.

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Here are samples of some of the best work.

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Today, I am just plain pooped. It has been a busy week so I am taking it easy.

An Oldie But Goodie Gets a Chance

February 16th, 2016

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One of the favorite quilts that I have ever made, XXOO, was accepted into Fantastic Fibers at the Yeiser Art Center in Paducah, KY. I entered it on a whim last month thinking that it was time for it to get out in the world again. I am so excited to be in the prestigious fiber art show. Wish I could go to the opening, but that is about when I will be having knee replacement — April 9 through June 4th.

I am having a busy week and trying to pace myself. I had High Fiber Diet meeting this afternoon, SAQA in the morning and then I start teaching a printing on textiles class at Trinity for 5 weeks, tomorrow night. I hope to have some fun pictures to post.

Periwinkle Blue Dyeing Attempt

February 13th, 2016

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I went back to the dyes to try to get that purply blue that I call periwinkle blue.

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It is the blues that you see as 2 and 3 in the top row.

I overdyed a light blue and medium blue with fuchsia and I also mixed up a blue and fuchsia which I used to dye white fabric. I didn’t quite make it so I will go back and try again. I do love that purple that I got.

That is all I have for today.

Dyeing Results

February 11th, 2016

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I am quite happy with the colors that I mixed to dye specific colors. I find that this is something I love doing.

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I was thrilled with my citron/chartreuse pieces. I used yellow with just a smidge of black. The blue is not quite where I want it. I need to add a bit more fuchsia to get a cooler blue. As a reminder, here are the colors I was going for. The fabrics in the photo below were already in my stash.

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I finished my Fuzzy Wuzzy cowl, but not without a bit of a problem. I didn’t leave enough yarn to bind off so I had to pull out a couple of rows.

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I have been pretty busy with SDA work for the last few days. Not much time for other stuff! My knee is behaving so that is good.