home
about the artist
gallery
blog
links
contact

Archive for the ‘M & M’ Category

December Reflections 2016 – Five Years Ago

Saturday, December 17th, 2016

It is Mia’s birthday. This is her birthday five years ago when she turned 12. Today, I can’t believe that she is 17.

Persevering

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016

milesbirdy

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.

img_3539

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

_dsc7692

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

_dsc7693

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.

heatwavefabrics

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.

Crazy Busy and Shooting Quilts

Thursday, December 18th, 2014

leafofmysenses

Today, I did something I have not done before, I had two quilts professionally photographed. All I can say is, I should have done it long ago. My problem is, I rarely have work done early enough to get it photographed before I need to enter it so I had my own set up. Now, I don’t have the space to do it myself so I am going to have to get my act together. Here are detail shots of Taking Leaf of My Seasons.

leafquiltdetail

leafdetail2

Looks so good. Here is Flying Through Sky Blue Pink.

flyskybluepink

Details:

skybluedetail

skybluedetail3

A better camera and knowing how to set it makes a big difference. I get it now.

I have been incredibly busy. SDA is having an important and huge fundraiser. The organization may have to disband if we don’t get an infusion of cash by the end of the year. It has added a great deal to my work load. If you read this blog and are an SDA member, I would appreciate it if you could make a pledge. The money does not have to be paid until next hear and can be spread out in payments. Click here to check it out.

Then, to add to the craziness – it is December! Managed to get cards out, finished shopping, shipped some packages, attended to Christmas concerts and several holiday festivities. And this lovely girl turned 15, yesterday. We met the family for Thai street food, one of Mia’s favorites, followed by cheesecake back at their house.

miafifteen

At Miles’ school they get to chose a short class for the last week before they are off for the holidays. He chose metal working and one of the things he has made is this unicorn. Isn’t it fantastic?

milesunicorn

So, today, I finally had some breathing room and did some more sewing on the two kid quilts which are not going to get done by Christmas. Tomorrow, I am getting a much needed haircut and hope to work on the kid quilts.

The Barnes family is coming over for Christmas eve; I am keeping it simple – fresh dungeness crab, salad, sourdough bread, Christmas cookies and homemade peppermint candy ice cream. On Christmas morning, we are heading to California to see the rest of the family. I love this photo that Jayme’s mom e-mailed me.

M,J,P

There is a new store down on NW 23rd called Arcteryx. They sell high end outdoor wear. We were in there with Scooter and they took his photo for their Instagram site, Barcteryx. He was the first dog photographed. Now, when we go in, they say “It’s Scooter!”

scooteresixI hope to be back in the next week, really!

Falling Leaves

Sunday, September 21st, 2014

falllingleaves

In my quest to re-energize my creative life, I decided to start by rehabilitating a couple of quilts that didn’t make the cut.

seamripperleaves

I made Taking Leaf of My Seasons for the SAQA Oregon Layers show and it did not get in. I was not surprised.

takingleafpreview

There were too many leaves, and they were too realistic for the abstract background. It was one of those last minute things and I didn’t have time to redo it for the show. So I am now removing them. It is really quite relazing and cathartic. Then, I have to figure out what to do. I really love the painted organza background so I want to do something that will work with it. Maybe fewer organza leaves that are fused or maybe thermofax prints. To be decided.

At any rate, I am still feeling under the weather and I have my two teen-age grandchildren here for a few days while Mom and Dad are in Portland, Maine. They are such great kids – so quiet and polite. We took them to the Farmer’s Market yesterday. Here they are walking back – notice the baguette of French Bread that Mia asked me to buy. It did not last long.

m&m9-14

Tomorrow will be a test for Mr C and I. We have to roust Mia at 6 am – get her breakfast, make lunch and walk her to the street car by 7 am. Her highschool is right on the streetcar line. Then, we have to get Miles moving and drive him back across the river to his neighborhood school by 8:45.  Wish us luck!!

 

 

Excuses, Excuses

Sunday, July 20th, 2014

Processed with VSCOcam with f2 preset

That lovely girl in the photo with me is my lovely granddaughter, Mia. Those who have been following my blog for low these many years know that we moved to Portland 8 years ago when she was just finishing Kindergarden. And, just like that, she is taller than me and graduated from Junior High. Her gift from me was a trip to Seattle on the train and a night in a posh hotel.

We took the trip last Friday and Saturday. Prior to that, I was busy with meetings — Guild board on Monday, finishing quilts to turn in to High Fiber Diet on Tuesday and SAQA at Terry Grant’s home on Wednesday. It was a busy week.

Early on Thursday, I met Mia and Steph at the Portland Union Station to board our train to Seattle. I love trains and train travel. This is the ceiling of the Union ‘Station.

unionstation ceiling

By lunch time, we were in Seattle at the King Street Station.

kingstreetstation

We packed very lightly so that we could carry our stuff easily until we got to the Hotel Sorrento which is way up on First Hill – nine blocks up from the touristy area of the city. The station is near Pioneer Square, a lovely older area of Seattle with lots of galleries and parks. Steph knew of a restaurant there that she wanted to try — London Plane. The food was quite avant garde and very delicious. They also had a lovely selection of things for the stylish home.

I had to really hustle to keep up with my ectomorph daughter and granddaughter.

longleggedfamily

After stopping in a few shops, chosen by Miss Mia, we actually walked up to our hotel, stopping to rest at the beautifully designed Seattle Library.

seattlelibrary

The room was magically ready and so we were able to get settled. Mia loved the big king size bed so much that I thought we might never get her out of the room.

miahotelbed

I slept in the sitting room on a pull out bed which they made up for me with a ton of pillows and comforter.

I always love going to Seattle to discover new things. On this trip, we found out about this small park which has a waterfall.

waterfall

Steph caught me Instagramming.grammagramming

I love the variety of architecture.

seattlearchitecture

We loved the small Finnish shop near Pike Place. They had a beautiful assortment of Marimekko fabric.

merimekkofabric

I took this shot of Mia on the train, coming home. I can’t believe how grown up and beautiful she is. In the fall, she is going to St Mary’s Acadamy – a highschool for girls.

miaontrain

We saw the start of the sun setting as we arrived back in Oregon.

sunsetfromtrain

Don’t forget to check out the Monday Creative Blog Tours for Helen Conway and Susan Lenz.