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Archive for the ‘Finishing touches’ Category

A Hectic, Satisfying Day

Thursday, January 7th, 2016

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When I took this quilt (without the tree) to my critique session last fall, the critic said it was not finished, it needed something else. I had always thought about putting a California Oak on it because you often see a lone Oak on the golden hills. I thought it might be too realistic for the overall tone of the quilt. But, today I did it. And, I am still not sure, but I sure love the tree.

I took off for the studio this morning to get this done. I cut a trunk.

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I auditioned some green fabrics and ended up using this batik. I think it worked well.

I fused the tree together on a teflon sheet.

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Then, I auditioned it in different spots on the landscape and fused it down.

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I took it home and quilted it.

I also finished this little quilt. I scattered a few more leaves on it before I added the facing.

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Tonight, we took the street car down to the Pearl to the opening of an art exhibit that 3 friends are in. I also retrieved my Blue Picasso Woman and brought it home. It has been traveling for a year and a half.

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I took all 3 of these quilts to Kristin LaFlamme who is taking them to Seattle with her tomorrow to be photographed by Mark Frey, who is a great photographer of textiles and art objects. Kristin has a 3-D piece that needs to be photographed for a catalog for a SAQA exhibit at the Textile Museum, Migration Stories. Here she is photographing it in our condo hallway for a video she plans to make of it in various sites.

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And so, I am feeling pretty good tonight. Got a lot accomplished. Tomorrow, I start an online dyeing class with Elizabeth Barton. While I was at the studio, I checked on my supplies. In this workshop she promises:

If you’ve never dyed before, this is the class to take. If you have taken a class but ended up feeling confused about the whole process, this is the class to take. If you have taken a class, and felt like it was all too much work, this is the class to take! If you have taken a class and had wimpy or muddy results, this is the class to take! If you have read about a class where you had to dye thousands of little square samples before you could even think about what you needed to make that quilt you have in mind, this is the class to take! If you want to be able to dye a reasonable approximation of any color you see anywhere, this is the class to take! In five lessons, I explain the process of hand dyeing in simple, safe, clear, easy to remember terms. We make enough dye concentrate in the first class to last us through the whole course – and beyond! You really don’t need to be mixing up dye every single time! There are only a few key factors to successful dyeing and I’ll explain them very clearly, so failure just simply is not an option! We will cover: dye mixing, gradation dyeing, pure versus mixed colors, how to derive your own recipes, how to dye neutrals and why you need them and the benefits of overdyeing. In the last class, working from a color inspiration source, we dye the fabric for your next quilt!

 

 

Making a Mark

Sunday, July 19th, 2015

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I know that I have been missing from the blogisphere, but I have had a lot going on. I lost two days earlier in the week because I had a colonoscopy on Thursday and Wednesday was prep day – stayed close to home. The good news is that it was all clear and I don’t have to go back for another, ever.

And, I have been working to get three quilts finished and ready to photograph tomorrow. One, I can’t show you, as it is for a special project and I have been asked to keep it under wraps.

The other two are for the annual High Fiber Diet show. This year, our theme is Making Our Mark, done in neutral colors, with minimal other colors.

The mark that needs to be on or part of every piece is that little square up there. I want to submit this quilt:

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I made it in one of the sizes that the committee asked for, but what to do about that mark. Up above, you can see that I stitched the mark down in the lower left corner so that it sort of looks like a chop mark.

The piece I have been working on all week is photographs of our trip to Glacier National Park. I played with them in photoship and printed them on Jacquard Extravorganza. I fused them to grey cotton and then to gray felt and I have been obsessively stitching on them all week.

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Here they are organized for stitching together. you can see that each segment is a different part of the square so that together, they make the mark.

 

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We also had my daughter’s chihuahua for a week while she was in San Francisco taping an illustration workshop for Creative Bug. He is really not much trouble and is very loving. He spent the week on the sofa, behind me while I stitched and recovered from anesthesia.

wilfredodogwalkI still have to do facings on two of the quilts in the morning before I photograph them.

Making Progress

Thursday, October 16th, 2014

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Yes, I am! I am making progress and I like how this is coming along.

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I love the ethereal look of these leaves compared to the previous leaves that I printed on silk.

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I am almost done stitching the leaves down. Then, I will work on the other quilt that I want to rehab for my crit group on Saturday.

That is all I have for tonight. Ta ta!

This, That and The Other Thing

Sunday, July 27th, 2014

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It was a beautiful day today and so, after church and some mega grocery shopping, I headed to the studio to print some fabric for a special project. (seen above)  I don’t have AC there and it is too hot to work there on most summer days.

I found a piece of fabric on which I had done some previous printing – think if was discharged. I used one of my stencils and daubed on some red paint.

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Then, just for fun, I spatter painted with white paint.

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It was fun to spend some time in my studio. I sort of cleaned up from the quilting frenzy for the blue show.

Speaking of the blue show,  the Blue Picasso Woman was juried in but not the sky blue pink piece. I was not surprised. I rushed that and I knew that the dyed cheese cloth was too centered. So, here is my plan. When I get it back I am going to do a major crop on the top and also some on the bottom and redo the flying geese. I think I can get it ready to enter into a different show.

Before

Before

 

After

After

On Friday, Mr C and I drove my 3 quilts up to Tacoma to The American Art Company for the exhibit which opens on August 16th. I had to add sleeves to the bottom with slats so that they will hang better, I guess. It was kind of a pain.

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I hope I can get up for the reception on the 16th. The gallery  is very spacious, and I have seen the show in the past and it looked great. Quilt Knit Stitch is happening that week and Kristin LaFlamme, one of the Twelves and my art quilt daughter is coming for the week. She has one of her Army Wife Aprons in a show here in Portland. It was curated by Marci McDade, the SDA Journal editor. Just before that, we are going to CA to hang out with Paige for a few days.

I have 3 exhibit receptions in August! The Simply Red show is opening in Newport down on the Oregon Coast, the Columbia Fiber Arts exhibit, Fiber Inspirations, is opening here in town at the ArtReach gallery and then the exhibit in Tacoma. Pretty cool!

 

 

Back in the Saddle, er, Studio

Thursday, January 30th, 2014

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I am slowly getting back into my studio routine and getting past the grief of losing out on the new home that I really wanted. There is still nothing much for us to look at. We are just hoping that something that fits us becomes available soon.

In the meantime, I am having some fun working in my stripped down studio. I have not moved to the new one yet, because it is too far away from where we currently live. Last fall, when I went to my Oregon Critique group, the guest critiquer was surprised that the same person had done the graffiti piece and the moon pieces. She really liked the graffiti piece, but thought the purple which I had used was too flat. I decided to change it to neon pink. Little more shocking, don’t you think. Here is what it looked like before.

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The moon pieces have been weighing on my mind. I was not happy with the hand stitching I had done. So I have been working on this one to see if I can resurrect it.

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I removed all the hand stitching except on the surface of the moon. I used a blue fabric pen to make the perle cotton all dark blue instead of variegated.

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Where I had the little white circles, I covered them with a variegated silk ribbon, which is more subtle and adds a bit of interest to the surface. If you click on the image, you can see the detail better.

I have also been doing some therapy sewing.making a quilt for Paige, using Lisa’s fabric line. I am doing the disappearing nine patch which is so easy and you end up with blocks that belie the simplicity.

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And,  so there you have it. You knew I couldn’t stay maudlin for long, right!!