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Archive for September, 2010

Indian Summer Glorious Day

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

Today, four members of STASH, drove out through the Columbia Gorge and across the river to the Washington side to visit the Maryhill Museum of Art. It sits up on a bluff above the river with nothing else around. This was my second visit. It has an eclectic collection of things ranging from incredible chess sets to French Fashion Dolls an every thing inbetween.

The drive was gorgeous – not a cloud in the sky – everything was sparkling.

After passing through the verdant gorge, on the eastern side, you are suddenly in the high desert landscape dotted with windmills. I love the juxtaposition of the windmills and the natural sculpture of the hills.

We are usually greeted by the peacocks in the parking lot, but we didn’t see one until we sat down to have lunch.

I will show you a bit from each of my favorite exhibits. They have an extensive collection of Native American crafts and utilitarian objects. These are storage cases made from painted rawhide.

There are lots of gorgeous baskets.

There are several vignettes of 1/4 size fashion dolls dressed in outfits designed by french fashion designers.

I think my favorite place is the sculpture garden:

I have a ton more photos which I will upload to Flickr some time when I have a moment.

Here is my thrown together fiber sketch made from scraps from the discharged crows. I finished the crow which I need to adhere to the canvas. I want to paint it black, first. I couldn’t decide how to made a berry for his mouth. I ended up felting one.

For now, I am a tired old lady and am off to bed.

Discharging Crows

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

I am working on a small 6 X 6 inch piece for a fund raiser for the Portland Audubon Society. Around 100 artists sign up and get a 6 x 6 canvas from Art Media and then create a work of art with a bird theme. They are for sale at the  Wild at Art show in November.

I got this idea to do a crow by blocking out the crow with a freezer paper cut out on black fabric and then discharging the color around it. I used a chlorine based gel cleanser.

I now have to sandwich and quilt it. I want to put a bright colored berry in his mouth – not sure what color.

Here is my fiber sketch for today. I call it leftovers because I made it from leftover scraps. (Editors note: blogging late last night, I forgot the photo!!)

I forgot to mention that I bought a piece from the SAQA auction by Sue Dennis from Australia. It is monoprinted on whole cloth. It was selected for the Quilter’s Guild of NSW 2010 Calendar and appears as the quilt for July. I can’t wait until it arrives.

Yes, I Did

Monday, September 27th, 2010

I bought an iPad. I had a couple of unexpected checks show up in the mail – sale of a quilt and a check from Lark for the book. (See the link in my sidebar – you can preorder the book from Amazon!!!) So, I succumbed to the lure of another cool Apple product. It really is cool. I think I will use it a lot for reading stuff on line and for Kindle books. I also can travel with it and still keep up with my online work. It is so slick and fast and lightweight. It is very easy to read test and photos and videos are amazing.

I had fun at the quilt show on Friday. I met up with Terry Grant before our participation in the panel discussion about Finding Your Artistic Voice. We were joined by Jill Hoddick and I think we did a great job. You can read about it on Terry’s blog. Terry and I walked through the show; then, I bought lots of Superior thread and came home.

I think our show looked great. I forgot my camera so I didn’t get photos. Terry put together a Blurb book about the show which we are selling. Here is the cover. I love the piece on the cover by Catherine Beard.

Here is my page:

On Saturday night, we had M & M for an overnight. They are getting so grown up. We were remembering what it was like 4 years ago when they were 4 and 6 and how much more energy it took.

It is very warm here – not as warm as California, but even so, when we took our walk this afternoon, there was definitely a hint of fall.

Apparently, there are lots of big spiders and webs this year. I know that I keep running into them

We walked down to the area where the road is closed. It is supposed to reopen at the end of this week. They have piles of stuff as they do the cleanup. I wanted to help myself to some of this rusty stuff, but was afraid of getting yelled at.

I realized that I have not post photos of Mr Scooter, lately. Here he is in a rare moment of tranquility.

And, here is my fiber sketch for the day, titled “Intersections.”

I have some great ideas for some upcoming shows. I want to get started on them. I have been avoiding the studio, but I think I am ready to get back there tomorrow. Today, I spent too much time setting up my iPad.

Just One of Those Days

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

This is the extent of my studio work — another composition from my screen printed fabrics, called Cityscape.

Today, I planned a lot of time in the kitchen using the fruit I bought at the farmer’s market, yesterday. My dang nose had other plans. I am back on cortisone nose spray and the heat is on because it has been cold so my nasal passages are very dry. This morning, I blew my nose and a fountain of blood poured forth for what seemed forever. I finally collected myself and got on with the day, but I was not happy with the situation.

I did manage to make a batch of peach freezer jam, a batch of plum chutney which we had with grilled pork tonight (yummilicious) and I roasted copious numbers of cherry tomatoes to use for pasta and pizza. I will have a lot more tomatoes by the week-end.

I finished the cooking just in time to get cleaned up and head to the eye doctor. I have had some blurriness which he says is the start of cataracts. I knew that was coming sooner or later. Not bad enough to deal with, yet. I have to go in for a field of vision test, whatever that is!!

Good news! My Entwined Roots in the SAQA auction sold today so I don’t have to worry about that. It is a fun thing to do, but you don’t want to have it sitting there with no one buying.

I have been asked to be a last minute substitute for a panel discussion at the SAQA show at the NW Quilt Expo. It is about Finding Your Artistic Voice. Terry Grant was already scheduled plus one other member from Portland. I think it will be fun.

A Day for Dallying

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

Today was one of those days that is broken up into bits and pieces. You know, an errand here, a dog walk there. So, I didn’t have much time for studio work.

This morning I had to go back to have more blood drawn because they forgot one of my important follow-up tests. Then, I went to pick up a quilt from a patron. It is having some fading problems. It is this piece. I used a dye-painted silk for the water. I cut it in strips and then put tulle over it and quilted it. The fading is in certain spots on the water. I think there were too many white areas and so I colored in those areas with fabric pens. I am not sure, but it is the only way I can explain the fading. Anyway, I am going to touch it up with fabric paint and then spray it with a UV protectant.

Scooter is having an intestinal problem so I have had to deal with that. I cooked up some plain chicken and white rice for him. He seems to be better today.

I slipped down to the studio and screen printed some fabric. Tonight, I cut the fabric up and made the fiber sketch at the top. I quite like it.

I also unwrapped and washed out the turquoise silk that I rust dyed.

Here is a detail:

Then, I ran off to the farmer’s market and bought copious amounts of peaches and Italian plums and strawberries and a few veggies. This is my favorite. It is so beautiful, I may just look at it instead of cooking and eating it. It is a Romanesco cauliflower. One of my FB friends named it: fibonnacioccoliflower!