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Archive for June, 2005

It is a Special Day

Thursday, June 30th, 2005

M and M arrived today with their Mom. We drove to the Sacramento airport to meet them. This was a new venture, but the flight on Southwest was so cheap we decided to try it. It was very nice. The airport is new and spacious and we got parking just across the street from baggage claim. The drive is not much longer than going to Oakland and getting stuck in traffic and shorter than going to SFO and also getting stuck in traffic!!

I don’t know if there is anything that can make this old lady’s heart soar like the sight of my grandchildren catching sight of me as they make their way to the exit and they run exuberantly with arms outstretched into mine. Pure unadulterated love!!

After getting the baggage and checking out the art in the terminal, we got in the car and headed for Old Sacramento, which is in downtown Sacramento where there are museums and it looks like it did back in the days of the gold rush. It was hot, I mean really hot! Our goal was to find a picnic spot, which we did, next to the discovery museum which had a little gift shop.

Here are Mia and Milo at our picnic:

Mia is really into Little House on the Prairie now. So she was wondering if there was anything “pioneer” in the gift shop. Was she ever happy when we found this Sunbonnet – something she has wanted for a long time!

And Miles selected a train engineer’s cap:

They fell asleep on the drive to our house and were ready for a dip in the pool. Unfortunately, Grandma missed that because I have a really bad allergy flare up with clogged sinuses and an earache. I took a little nap and then we went to the Cafe Citti for Pesto Pasta and a little Chianti for me. I told you – it is a special day!

Pointless Sister’s Crit Group

Tuesday, June 28th, 2005

Today was the monthly meeting of our critique group. Thought I would show you some of the great work some of the members are doing.

Pat did a blended photo quilt for our current challenge where we exchanged bags with an object in it that was to be an inspiration. Hers had a shell and a poem about the sea among other things. ( I got three pinch clothes pins -yikes!)

This is Ruth’s piece from a class with Jane Sassaman. I love the way she used the gradated dotted fabric for the flowers.

This is Virginia’s version of the Freddy dot com quilt. She is donating it to the new children’s home.

I love this gift that Linda made for her daughter who is heading off to college. On the front is a photo of a lily printed on silk that has been cut into nine sections.

When each section is lifted it reveals two photos from her daughter’s childhood.

Linda took Phil Beaver’s fabric painting and quilt class and produced this beautiful piece of sunflowers and coneflowers.

Marjorie did these two pieces by dye painting on fabric and then machine stitching to enhance the design. They are both whole cloth pieces. I was blown away by how realistic the water looks in this first piece.

It was so exciting to see this fantastic work.

Fishing for a Background

Monday, June 27th, 2005

I finally found the right water for my tropical fish. I have had so much fun fussy cutting fabric to make underwater tropical plants. I have it sandwiched and am now quilting which is fun, but tedious. I took two photos because it was on the table and I didn’t have a chair to stand on to photograph the full length.


I love my Monday’s in the studio. I get one every other week because I work at SDA on the other Mondays. Because of that, I don’t have stuff to do on Mondays. Today, however, I was the official photographer for Vacation Bible School. I took photos of 52 kids and printed them out. They will get them in a frame on the last day. They were all so darn cute – it was lots of fun.

Tomorrow is Pointless Sisters. Debra is coming up. I am taking in some screens and textile paints and we will have some fun screen printing in the afternoon.

This and That

Saturday, June 25th, 2005

Day Twenty of Twenty Days of Virtue I made it. I celebrated by having a Mojito before dinner tonight and some Mason Sauvignon Blanc with dinner. The meal was very virtuous. I think I’m down about 5 pounds which is about what is recommended for average weight-loss. It is just going to take soooo long to get where I want to be. So this is what I am going to do – I am going to be virtuous on Monday through Friday and allow myself some latitude on Saturday, Sunday and Special Days.

Count Down to M & M Five days. M & M is Mia and Milo my super fantastic grandchildren. They are coming to visit for a week with their mom and my daughter, Stephanie, the best Mom in the universe. I am stocking up on healthy, but delicious treats, new crayons and other crafty items, new pool towels and bubbles for entertaining Maggie in the backyard. Here they are dressed for a pirate party.

You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.

Cultural Creative

94%

Idealist

81%

Existentialist

75%

Materialist

56%

Postmodernist

56%

Modernist

50%

Romanticist

31%

Fundamentalist

25%

What is Your World View? (updated)
created with QuizFarm.com

Results of the Pole Dyeing

Friday, June 24th, 2005

Mrs. Mel was right. These dyed pieces did not need batching. They came out of the wash looking just wonderful. I had such a good time doing this. Now I hope I can put them to good use! These first two photos are of the silk scraps that I threw into the dye soup that is collected after pouring the dye over the fabric. I just love these little gems. They are a variety of silk fabrics – habotai, charmeuse and raw silk. Joy Stocksdale who is the Executive Director of Surface Design Association does work with silk and she gave me a bag of her scraps.

This was the largest of the scraps that was thrown into dye soup. It is raw silk. It is folded over, but the other side is pretty much the same design. It is large enough to make a gorgeous scarf.

The next two pieces are silk charmeuse. These are both so yummy – especially this one with the chartreuse and purple!

These pieces are all pfd pima cotton. It has a very nice hand. The one with bronze and yellow and orchid is my favorite, but they are all quite spectacular.

This piece is scoured muslin that I died to use for backs of quilts. Even this is just fantastic.