Month: August 2007 | Crazy for Fiber

August 2007
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Archive for August, 2007

A Fine Day

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

Mark ad Jayme arrived yesterday, after spending a couple of days camping with M & M ad their mom and dad. I made shrimp and scallop skewers marinated in a soy wasabi sauce, Asian slaw and brown rice. It was enjoyed by all.

This morning, they went off to see Body World at OMSI. Jayme is planning on attending medical school, and she had not seen it yet. Mr C reported for jury duty at 8 am and was excused by lunch time.

I went to WW for my weekly weigh-in and meeting. Woo hoo! I lost 1.1 lbs. ad am closing in on a 12 pound weight loss. I then went across town to the Japanese Garden to pick up our postcards and posters for the show next month. Here is the poster:

Now, I have to put stamps and labels on postcards to be sent to our mailing list. Then I have to figure out how to dole them out to the troops for mailing to their personal list.

When I arrived home, I found some great mail. The super fantastic Sonji sent me a copy of Textural Rhythms: Quilting the Jazz Tradition — an exhibition curated by Carolyn Mazloomi.

Here are Sonji’s pages with her autograph:

I know the names of many of the quilters so I am very happy to have this in my possession. Thank you, dear heart!!

This afternoon, the house guests went for a 25 mile bike ride. I tried to get me studio cleaned up from the last creativity episode. I started making plans for my journal quilt and a quilt for an invitational show. I made reservations to go to Tacoma in October for the Contemporary Quiltart Association symposium and to see the Gee’s Bend Quilts. There are going to be some interesting speakers, including Robert Shaw, best known for that huge book, The Art Quilt.

Mark and Jayme have gone out with a former neighbor who moved up here. Mr C and I went to the Farmer’s market and spent every cent I had on some delicious veggies for the week plus some Albacore tuna, just off the boat. It was delicious with cannellini beans and heirloom tomatoes.

Hope you had a fine day, too.

Posted in Family, Good mail, Quilting Friends, Quilting Organizations, This and that | 5 Comments »

Its Raining, Its Pouring

Monday, August 20th, 2007

Yep, we had lots of rain in Portland, today. But I didn’t care. I have been making a mess in my studio and I produced another work using some of my art cloth from my summer classes. This one is titled Indigo Moons (what else).

I needed to make the piece a little larger than the dimensions of the art cloth that I started with. So I cut it and auditioned some fabric that would work in the insert as a background for more moons. Here are two that didn’t work for me. Clickable to see larger. The first one is the same fabric before the indigo treatment. The second is a piece of indigo cotton from my workshop.

I decided that I needed more punch so I went with a more colorful fabric.

I like how the brighter colors are in the main piece in a very light value. This has a satin stitched edge.

I am so excited because I get to sleep in my own bed tonight. Mr C finished the painting. Now I am busy doing laundry and getting the guest areas ready for Mark and Jayme. They are down in the Sisters area camping with M & M and their parents. I think the rain stayed in the north so hopefully they have had a nice dry time. Everyone is coming back to Portland tomorrow. I have to plan a big family dinner for tomorrow night.

I just have to add that I love, love how the new paint looks in our bedroom. I need to get busy and get the new curtains made to finish it off. I am also looking for a new duvet cover to go with the new decor. I have one I bought at IKEA ages ago, and it looks pretty good.

Posted in Dyeing, indigo, My creations, shibori, Surface Design Techniques, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Keeping Busy

Sunday, August 19th, 2007

Whew! It has been rather busy around our house. We have not slept in our bed for several nights as the bedroom has been torn apart while Mr C paints and puts up the new woodwork trim. He says that we are spending just one more night in the guest bedroom. This better be true because Mark and Jayme are getting here on Tuesday!! I need to launder duvet covers and get everything cleaned up.

One of our friends from Santa Rosa was in town. We took her and her host to church with us and brought them back to our house for lunch. It was great to see Melinda and catch up on all the Santa Rosa gossip. Her host, Jack, works for the Architectural Heritage Center, and we had previously met him as he did the Mid-century Modern house tour that we took part in a couple of months ago. We have always been curious about the style of our house as it seemed to be a mix of art deco and mid-century ranch. He said that it is Art Moderne. He also was pretty sure who the architect was. This was very interesting information for us.

While he has been redecorating, I have been off on an art quilt tangent. I took two of the fabrics that I created in classes over the past several months and made this piece that I call Global Warming:

Here is a closeup:

I did fairly simple quilting on this so that the fabric could speak for itself. I am trying to figure out how to use some of the complex cloth that I have created in classes. I used the hand-dyed greens to anchor this piece and to give the eyes a place to rest.

I really enjoyed doing this and have already started on another.

I want to take some time to brag about my daughters. Lisa has just made the big announcement that she and her friend Rena are opening a gallery/shop in San Francisco. You can read about it here. I am so happy for her and proud of her for following her dreams and her passion.

Stephanie makes the most wonderful soft sculptures. Her latest creations are this polar bear and this swan. They are just beautiful, don’t you agree?

So that is what I have been up to. What have you been doing? Oh, I am sorry to tell all of you suffering in the rest of the country that it has been quite cool and a little drizzly, and I have quite enjoyed it!!

Posted in Family, House and home stuff, My Brilliant Daughters, My creations | 6 Comments »

Good Things

Friday, August 17th, 2007

Yesterday, I weighed in for the first time since my vacation and I lost .6 pounds. I am so happy with that. It was great to know that I can be in control of my eating, even when I am eating all of my meals out. Even better, is the way my clothes are fitting. I have a few things left from the last time I lost 10 pounds, but once I get to the next ten pounds – look out – ’cause I am going shopping!!

On my way home from WW, I stopped at Mill Ends to buy fabric for curtains for the bedroom because Mr C was anxious to get started with the painting. Here is what I picked out. Isn’t this a cool and modern print?

Yesterday, he finished painting my chairs. If only I had time to sit out there and read!

In the afternoon, Steph, M & M and I went to IKEA. It is a little overwhelming to take everything in, but the cool Swedish design is just wonderful. Suits my aesthetic to a tee. Miles helped me find ice cream dishes. He wanted the tall sundae dishes, but I opted for something smaller and more simple. Mia was getting a kick out of the Swedish names for things. I was excited to fnd these bag clips which is what I was using in my shibori class last month.

After a trip to the Farmer’s Market, I came home with lots of wonderful fresh and organic fruits and veggies and these zinneas.

Under the zinneas are my new kitchen placemats from Target. They are a knock-off of the much more pricey Chilewich mats that I have been coveting. Plus, the color is perfect for my kitchen color scheme.

Another good thing is this little saying that I find in the cap of my Sobe Green Tea at lunch.

Last night I panicked when I realized that there were two quilt show deadlines in the next two days. I scratched one of them, since A Thin Place is going to IQF and it was the only fit that I had. Today, I managed to get organized and e-mail and entry to Art Quilts XII, Current. I love it when I don’t have to deal with slides and Fedexing an entry.

This morning was the monthly STASH meeting at Beth’s home. Before Reva picked me up, I had to run to the paint store with Mr C to pick out the paint. We have cocoa brown for the curtain wall and something called reflection which is the bluegreen in the fabric. And sand for the woodwork. I had to make a decision on the fabric, but I don’t think there will be any curtains made for awhile!! Fortunately there are fabric shades there for now.

It wasn’t ideal weather, but we did enjoy sitting in Beth’s beautiful backyard. Click on an image to see it larger.

She had challenged us all to get something finished to bring for show and tell. I was too enthralled to take pictures, sorry!! She served us a great lunch of sesame noodles, veggies from her garden and blueberry tartlets. Yumm!

I got some paper work done this afternoon and had hoped to get some studio work done. Tomorrow morning is critique with June and Terry — always a great time.

Posted in Flowers and plants, House and home stuff, Landscaping, M & M, Quilting Friends, Stuff I Buy, This and that | 1 Comment »

Moonraking and Mole Wrangling

Tuesday, August 14th, 2007

I finally got my little butt down in the studio today and started work on a piece that has been percolating since I took the indigo shibori class. The fabric is all linen. I bought some red linen which I really like with the indigo. I have started doing some stitching with red perle cotton. I am going to leave the linen pieces with raw edges. The working title is Indigo Moons.

Here is a closeup.

My friend, Dee, called our mole escapade, mole wrangling. We have had some success. Kelly, the mole lady, came by today and we have one less mole to contend with. She thinks it may be the only one. It seemed unbelievable to us that one mole could make the mess in our yard. She says that they eat their weight in worms and grubs every day so they have to cover a lot of territory.

Tomorrow, after I do my post vacation weigh in at Weight Watchers, Steph and M & M and I are going to check out the new IKEA. I have a shopping list ready.

Posted in indigo, Landscaping, My creations | 7 Comments »

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