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Archive for the ‘Surface Design Association’ Category

Day 21

Monday, December 21st, 2015

Irene Latham winter solstice poem

Oops! I missed two days, but I have good excuses. First, I just had to say that I am always happy when the winter solstice rolls around. We even had some nice sunshine today.

I got a huge amount of SDA work to do on Saturday. We have many institutions, libraries, colleges, etc who have institution accounts with us through a subscription service. I was sent almost 100 of them on Saturday. Since we are coming up on the holidays and the end of the month, I had to get them done and it took all week-end long with some time off for riding the exercycle and walking with Scooter and Mr C. As I finished each one, I scribbled on it with a sharpie and threw it on the floor.

ebscopile

On Saturday, when we took our walk, it was pretty cold and I mentioned that I would like a hat to match the teal scarf Mr C gave me for my birthday. So we went to the store where he bought it and I cam home with this:

newhat

Today, we walked while it was still drizzling and stopped at the pet store and bought Scooter a raincoat. I think he looks quite dapper! And, he won’t be quite as wet after walking in the incessant rain that we have day after day after day.

scooterraincoat

I did manage to get some more quilting done on the lost edges piece. I hope to finish it tomorrow.

 

Quilt Knit Stitch- See the Quilts I Loved

Monday, August 17th, 2015

qksredapplequilt

I know I have been missing in action, but for a good cause. I helped to coordinate an information table at Quilt Knit Stitch 2015 for Surface Design Association. We set it up on Wednesday and the show ran Thursday – Saturday. We had a display of swatches of samples of surface design techniques by our members and lots of journals to peruse.

QKSSDAtable

 

The opening quilt up above was in the red quilt show that debuted in Houston. I liked the more modern versions of the red quilts. That one was made by Betty Hahn, an artist that I really admire.

qksredapplemaker

Here is another innovative red quilt.

qksredquilt

qksredquiltmaker

We were next to an exhibit of work by students in Jane Dunnewold’s master class. Some of these pieces were my favorites in the show. Here are some I especially liked.

qkspoppies

This piece was so gorgeous – hand dyed and discharged and some applique of poppy heads.

qkspoppymaker

qksstoryhasholes

The hand stitching on this is really lovely. It has sections of hand-dyed gauze laminated to the surface. It needs to be seen up close.

qksherstoryhasholessign

qksjanefeatherstudy

This is one of Jane’s pieces that is digitally manipulated and printed by Spoonflower and then quilted.

qksjaneduunewoldsign

qksuntitled3qksuntitled2qksuntitled1

These 3 pieces had such gorgeous surface design.

qksuntitledmaker

qksgraffiti

Another gorgeous piece with surface treatment.

qksgraffitimaker

Here are some other random pieces in the traveling special exhibits.

qksdennisleaf

Sue Dennis of Australia makes such lovely quilts using leaves. She does rubbings, printing and applique.

qksleafmaker

qkssafeharbor

Another fabulous quilt by Betty Hahn. It is painted!

qkssafeharbormaker

qksbigpink

This is a small modern quilt with Big Pink, our iconic building here in Portland.

qksbigpinkmaker

I always love a Betty Busby quilt. This one was in the SAQA Redirecting the Ordinary exhibit.

qksbusbycorrosionsigh

qksbusbycorrosion

My regular readers may recognize this as the big sister to a SAQA auction quilt that I purchased.

qksbeyondwords

qksbeyondwordsmaker

 

And here is the little sister.

 

 

Lombrozo

Hope you enjoyed this sampling of quilts from Quilt Knit Stitch.

Checking In Before Checking Out

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2014

ellenscarf

Can’t believe that tomorrow is Christmas eve. I am rather organized this year, trying to keep things simple. It is easier here in The Congdo. Not much entertaining going on or decorating. We didn’t have room for a Christmas tree so I have divested myself of all the ornaments and tree skirt. Instead, we have this lovely bare limbed tree which is covered with little lights. We also have two smaller ones on the buffet with some of my creches.

2014tree

Up at the top is a beautiful felted scarf gifted to me by one of the SDA reps that I work with. Ellen is the rep for Connecticut and is a new Rep. She puts together really newsy e-mails for the CT members which I format in Constant Contact and send out for her. She gave the scarf to me for my help this year. It was not necessary, but I sure do love it. She said when she saw a photo of me with my red hair, she knew that this one had been made for me.

Today, I made peppermint stick ice cream to go with Christmas cookies for Christmas eve. The Portland peeps will come over for supper and gift opening with us. We are going to have Dungeness crab and salad and bread. Very simple. On Christmas morning, Mr C and I are leaving on a jet plane to spend a week in San Francisco with the California contingent of the family. I was excited to see this weather forecast.

goodweatherforecast

While walking Scooter in the neighborhood yesterday, I found a new store that sells beads and a large variety of wood printing blocks in different sizes. That was exciting.

woodprintblocks

23rdbeadstore

Wishing you all a lovely holiday with your favorite peeps. I will probably check in from San Francisco with some Paige cuteness.

Life in the Fast Lane

Thursday, July 10th, 2014

skybluepinkstotchdetail

My life is full, fun and fantastic, but time gets away from me. The main reason I am a bit distracted this week is the visit from my two Oakland girls, Lisa and Clay and they brought Wilfredo!

wilfredo

Four adults and two dogs are getting along just fine in our condo. My son in law, Jack, has named it The Congdo! We have had such a good time with them, and they love our neighborhood. This week, Lisa is participating in an ICON conference and tonight is a meet and greet at the Portland Art Museum. She has her books to and some prints of her work to sell and examples of all the work she does. Saturday, she is doing a workshop session on the business of illustration.

Every one gathered here for the 4th of July. We had great food and it was fun to have every one here. We could watch fireworks from our windows. We had some great salads and kabobs.

5july05

 

5july06

 

These photos were taken by Steph for her 3191 blog.

I have been working frantically to get my two big quilts done for the High Fiber Diet “What’s Blue to You” exhibit.

Lisa took this photo of me with my blue picasso woman and posted it on Instagram.

instagramphoto

I got 760 likes and 72 comments. The comments cracked me up.

This is the Sky Blue Pink quilt as of today. I think it might need something more. I am disappointed with the wonkiness of the bottom. Not sure what to do. The photo at the top is a detail shot of the hand stitching on the cheesecloth section.

skybluepinkdoneyorn

Today was STASH day at Gale’s home. I just love spending a morning with my friends, chatting and eating. Reva brought her vintage t-shirt quilt At our next meeting, we are going to help her tie it. It is to unwieldy to do machine quilting.

revatshirtquilt

So that is a bit of what I have been up to. The other part of my life is so left brained. I am helping SDA with membership and database issues on the website. There have been some problems with work done by some previous employees. We are slowly getting it under control. We have about 4000 members and people join and renew in various ways – phone, mail, and online. I get a real sense of satisfaction as I troubleshoot issues.

 

Recap of the Last 3 Days

Saturday, September 14th, 2013

BundlefromJane

My three days with Jane Dunnewold were fantastic. She left this little bundle of luscious complex cloth bits as a thank you.

janelucious

On Wednesday, she gave a lecture to my guild on Making and Meaning. Jane is such a thoughtful and caring person as well as being an artist. I think she touched many people with her admonition to keep making, stay centered and find joy in your work. On Wednesday night, we had an SDA dinner out with Marci Rae McDade, the SDA journal editor and Amanda Melbostad, our area rep.

On Thursday and Friday, 20 of us had a workshop with Jane on Making Art, Strategies for Transformation. We alternated between arty exercises and writing exercises.  It was very intense and emotional for many of the participants. Tears were shed and secrets revealed as we shared our artistic journey and quests.

On Thursday, we dumped funky supplies on a big table to share. Our task was to create a container for our artist. I grabbed these supplies to start.

artistcontainersupplies

The copper scouring pad became the basis for my container. I began by collaging the insides with bits of ephemera abd adding sparkly purple yarn. Then, we stopped for lunch. I came back to the table and felt uncomfortable with my container. I needed it to be more comfortable and organized.

artistcontainer

I lined it with soothing fabric and made little parts out of beads and sequin waste.

artistcontainersideview

Here are some of the other containers:

artistcontainers

It became very clear, as we discussed our containers that they revealed a lot about our selves. I realized that my chaotic container did not work because of the decisions Mr C and I are currently making about changing our living arrangement and I needed an orderly container to put my mind at rest.

On Friday, we did more writing about our work: history, process, content, things we love to do, things we are good at, if we were to be the optimum artist that exists in our mind, what would our work look like.

We also took some time to make marks with india ink and brushed on paper. It was amazing to look around the room and see the difference in the personal marks.

markmaingSept2013

As I said earlier, it was emotional and tears were shed as we faced our fears.

I took Jane to Ann Johnston‘s home for her last night. I had fun seeing her gorgeous studio and newest work which will debut at the Baylor University Art Center in October. You can visit her site and order her new dvd, Color by Accident.

Today, I spent most of the day reformatting and updating my artist statement and resume for High Fiber Diet. It is supposed to be only 2 pages, but I am well over that. Some things will have to go, I guess.