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Archive for the ‘House and home stuff’ Category

I am Dyeing to Show You

Thursday, January 14th, 2016

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I think I mentioned that I am taking Elizabeth Barton’s online Basic dyeing class. Her method is new to me. You mix up a lot of dye concentrate to have on hand — we have done 6 colors. The soda ash is not added until the fabric has been in the dye for at least 30 minutes and you can wait until the next day. So, this week we mixed up our concentrates and then did a gray to black gradation. I think I like this method of having dye concentrate on hand, but I have to refrigerate it so I have ordered a cute little desk top fridge for my studio.

Here is my fabric batching:

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And here are my results. It is so hard to get grays and blacks that do not have purple or blue casts to them.

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I also would like to get more even coloring and not have the mottled effect – things to work on.

The other thing that has kept me busy is purchasing a new car. Mr C and I have made lots of changes in our life to bring down the cost of living on the planet to have more discretionary income in our retirement. Getting the Prius was part of that, but to be honest, we never fell in love with the Prius, for many reasons. So it is leaving us and we now have a beautiful small Class C Mercedes Benz. It was a loaner at the dealership and has very few miles on it and all the bells and whistles. We just love driving it.

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We decided we needed just one little splurge.

We also got a new mattress hoping it would help my sleep problems caused by my bum knees. I found this duvet cover which I love. It is reversible. Really looks great and suits our design aesthetic.

 

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A Peek at Our New Home

Sunday, May 11th, 2014

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We had our first guests today. Stephanie, Jack and M & M came over a Mom’s day meal prepared by Mr C. He grilled skewers of marinated meat and purchased salads and appetizers. I was not allowed to participate and he got mad when I changed the napkins on the table – couldn’t help myself!! Stephanie made strawberry shortcake and made special gluten free biscuits for me. It was delish.

While we had the house looking spiffy, I took some photos. Above is the view towards the fireplace from the dining area. Below is the view in the other direction. I love all the windows in the dining area – this is where we get the view of Mt. St. Helens. (Click on photos to see them larger.)

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Here is the table set for dinner.

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And Mr C, slaving in the kitchen. You can see that we live in a very compact area, but it works.

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This is the room that I call the multi-purpose room.

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I have my Janome set up here, the sofa pulls out to a queen size bed. The TV is onthe left and on the right is a credenza with my printer, thermofax and old carbon based copier that I used to make the screens. There is a big closet to the left of the Janome that is holding a lot of my sewing stuff and current quilts. I have not hung any art in here. That is next on my to do list.

Here are two views of our deck.

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The door at the end of the deck is our bedroom.

 

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This is looking up our hallway towards the kitchen and living area with Lisa’s painting of birches. We still have lots of room in the hallway, bedroom and entryway to hang more art – going to hang some quilts.

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This little plaque is in the entry way. It has graced the entrance to every house we have ever lived in.

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I made some progress on my studio. Mr C is going to hang some simple shelves on brackets for me. I need to make more floor room. I am anxious to get to work.

Window Seat @PDX

Monday, March 31st, 2014

Prairie Circles

I am so pleased to be part of a special exhibit at Portland International Airport.

 

Title:  Window Seat
Location:  Portland International Airport,  post-security Concourse A
Date:  April  2014 through October 2014
Subject: The exhibit is built around an essay written by Jim Earl, a literature professor at U of O. In the essay, Earl uses images taken from Google Earth to educate people about the land below them as they fly. Click Here to read the essay and see the images that he used.  For the exhibit, the quilts are next to text for which each is visually appropriate.
Since it is in an area past security, I suggested to Mr C that we need to go on a trip so that I can get in to see the exhibit!! After I read Mr Earl’s essay, I could see how well my Prairie Fields quilt worked with his essay and photos. Here are the other two art quilts in the exhibit.
This is High Desert Colors by Elizabeth Bamberger.
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This is 30,000 Feet Above Somewhere by Shirley MacGregor.
Shirley MacGregor
On a personal note the bedlam, where we currently live, continues. To add to the chaos, I came down with one of those debilitating crappy viruses and was not much help for several days. We did get most of my studio stuff moved. Steph came over on Thursday with M & M and packed up a lot of stuff and then she came back with Jack on Saturday and did a whole lot more. These shelves used to hold our wine glasses.
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So, progress is being made in spite of me!! Yesterday, I spent most of the day in my jammies changing our address online in as many places as I could. It was Steph’s birthday and we took her out to a seafood restaurant. She wanted mussels and fries. Here is the cool decor in the restaurant, Block and Tackle.
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I think I feel well enough to get back in the thick of things, today. I will check back in a couple of days.

A Crazy, Busy Time

Sunday, March 23rd, 2014

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I have so much going on right now. There is very little down time. Tomorrow, at 5 pm, we get the keys and garage door opener for the condo and we no longer will need to be escorted every time we want to go there – yippee! On Tuesday, we are meeting the condo manager to go over some things and I also have an appointment with a decorator to pick out window treatments.

Today, as started moving my stuff to the new studio. The first to go were my Ikea cabinets. They are the heaviest and most difficult of all the stuff to go so it was a relief to get that done.

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Just as we were leaving the studio, I looked up and saw this shadow of trees on the wall. A very good omen, I think.

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For the last couple of days, I have been trying to get ahead of the game and get my printing done for the Printed Fabric Bee because I am going to be otherwise occupied at the end of the month. The Queen Bee has asked for a woodland/forest motif. We have had a couple of sunny days so I decided to do some sunprinting.

My first attempt looked like this when I put it in the sun.

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I didn’t get a photo of the result – only a detail shot.

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I thought it needed another layer so I decided to do some printing with fern leaves. First, I painted the fern.

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Then I lay it on the fabric and press with tissue paper.

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Voila!

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I decided that I had a hot mess. It doesn’t look too bad in this photo, but I decided to do another.

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I wanted to do a more foresty color scheme. I mixed blue and orange paint to make brown and added some yellow to the green. The brown was sort of purple so I added yellow.

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The resulting sun print is up at the top. I think I will leave it as is! I have to cut a 12 inch square and a 6 inch square. I am happy to have that behind me.

Life in the Fast Lane! (And some winners)

Tuesday, March 18th, 2014

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It has been a busy time since I last checked in here. We had a quick trip to the CA bay area to spend time with family and to attend Paige’s second birthday party. She was basically ambivalent about her quilt, but Mom and Dad liked it! She is two, after all. We enjoyed the drive in our very efficient Prius. We would fill it up with 12 gallons of gas and then be able to drive for over 500 miles. We enjoyed the satellite radio in the areas of Oregon and California where the reception is not very good. The voice activated navigation is having a hard time understanding us. Have to work on that.

We came back yesterday because we have so much to do to get ready for our move. I did the random number generator for my art giveaway.

#26 – Fitzy gets first choice of the 3 pieces. Let me know soon and send me your snail mail address.

#34 – Diane English gets second choice. I will let you know which two are available as soon as Fitzy makes a selection.

#21 – Jen Page, my niece gets the third piece. I will send you whatever is left!!

The night before we left on our trip, Mr C and I had dinner with two of the Twelves. Deborah Boschart and her family spent spring break here in the northwest and Terry and her husband joined all of us for a fun night.

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Here are some photos from our trip.

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A pile of Lisa’s latest book, Whatever You are, Be a Good One, a compilation of hand lettered and illustrated quotes. I got to bring one home with me.

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Here is Paige with her handsome Daddy.

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A daredevil on the swings!

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Lighting the candles on the cake. She had a joint party with her buddy, Clark, who lives on their street.

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On the drive home, we saw a rainbow, but didn’t find the pot of gold.

crayontrucksI did manage to get a photo of the crayon trucks on i-5 in Northern California. I usually see them too late and am not ready with the camera, but this time, I did it.

We are not able to put in hardwood floors in the condo because of noise issues. So, today, we ventured out to look at carpet options. We found a new type, SmartStrand, which is made from corn and is very durable and soft and cleans up with plain water. It has no off-gassing and is great for people with allergies. We decided to go with this and are now trying to decide on what color.

I really can’t think too much about all that has to be done. I am just taking one day at a time.