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Archive for November, 2010

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The Storm Before The Calm

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

I am in multi-tasking mode. Doing this and that and nothing is close to being finished. So far I am coping.

I decided it was time to do a major purge of stuff from my office. I have stuff from my year as guild president that can be tossed. I have a box of registrations for the SDA conference from almost two years ago. I needed to shred the registrations because they contain personal information and credit card numbers. My shredder is old and very primitive. I fried it about 1/4th of the way into the job. I have a new one that can do 12 sheets at a time and cross cuts. Now, I have boxes of lovely packing shreds. However, it will go into our recycling bin. It may take a couple of weeks to get rid of all of it.

Remember this piece that I made last spring? The Old Growth Forest?

It has some redeeming value – really! I have an idea to cut it up and create a more complex piece. Amazingly, I bought a gorgeous piece of hand-dyed muslin at PIQF which just looks beautiful with this.

When I want to cut something like this up, I print a photo of it on paper and play with it that way.

I think it has possibilities!

I ironed the two scarves that I used the deColourant on yesterday. The scarf with green and blue in it was done with Colorhue Dyes. I was wondering if they would discharge. It looks like they did. The proof will be in the wash out which I will do tomorrow.

Poor Scooter! He is having cabin fever. We have had lots of heavy rain showers so our walks have been much shorter. Here he is doing the Downward Dog in the studio tonight.

I was mistaken, I have one more page in my sketchbook. Tonight’s piece is playing with lines and titled, Fissure.

Posted in Discharging fabric, My creations, Sketchbook Project | 5 Comments »

Disappointments, Challenges, Opportunities

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

I didn’t post last night. I had a High Fiber Diet meeting. I came home with a headache because of an incident at the meeting. I also came home to find that Allegro did not make it into the SAQA Beyond Comfort show and was very disappointed.

Then, a member of High Fiber Diet e-mailed me with great news that our Bird’s Eye View show was accepted for the Maude Kerns Art Center in Eugene. The bad news was that they wanted it when I had scheduled it at Trinity Cathedral in March and April. Eek!

So there you have my disappointment and my challenge.

Now that I am seeing some of the work that was chosen for Beyond Comfort, I think it would not have played nicely in the show. I have another show to enter that is looking for:

Quilt artists are encouraged to present works where they are reaching outside the terminology of a quilt. Surface Design artists are asked to show works that use various materials in a fiber technique (i.e. weaving with wire) or to stretch their fiber techniques to new boundaries.

So, back to the Bird’s Eye View show. What to do? Well, amazingly, last night at the meeting, we discussed trying to do more than one show — possibly finding a venue and mounting a show. So, that is what I am doing. Bird’s Eye View will go to Maud Kern’s and we will have a new show titled, Back to Nature. I invited members to bring me work that references the natural world – abstract or representational. We will jury a small show to go to Trinity. I am really excited about this and have gotten great response from members today.

So, there you have my opportunities.I feel energized and invigorated.

In a comment to my post on the experiment with deColourant, my friend Judy said they had experimented with it in Jane Dunnewold’s studio last week, and they found it worked best to let it dry for a day or so. I hate to wait, but that is what I am doing with a couple of scarves I treated today.

They will probably get another layer of something. Here they are on my drying rack:

I used this piece of corrugated cardboard to print. I love it.

I have one more page in my fiber sketchbook. The one up there is deconstructed windows.

Posted in Bird's Eye View, Discharging fabric, High Fiber Diet, Juried Shows | 3 Comments »

Time’s A Wastin’

Monday, November 15th, 2010

That is how I feel most days of late. I get up thinking I will really accomplish something today. By the time I get my mundane tasks done, catch up on SDA web work, read blogs and Facebook, it seems as if the day is gone. Part of this dallying is due to my constant worry about those I love who are dealing with problems.  I can’t seem to get into a real creative groove.

Tonight, Mia and Miles are spending the night so that Steph and Jack can hear their friend, Tift Merritt sing. She was Steph’s maid of honor back in North Carolina. Scooter was so happy to see them. He kept sneaking down the hallway to their bedrooms. He usually never goes back there.

After I got them settled for the night, I went down to finish my experiment with deColourant – a discharge agent with added color.

I cut some shapes with freezer paper and added the stuff. The blue is a spray, the copper is a metallic and I used a clear spray on the right side.

Here is is after it dried (with some help from the hair dryer) and was ironed.

Here is the back side.

However, here it is after I washed it. Whoops! What happened to the blue? I wonder if I should have let it dry longer?

I like the effect that the spray gives. I think I need to do some more research and experiments.

I have only two pages left in my fiber sketchbook. I am going to come up with another regular practice. I like that I can come down to the studio and accomplish something in short period of time. It is nice to have something done!!

Posted in Discharging fabric, Sketchbook Project | 6 Comments »

Sunset Walk in the Neighborhood

Friday, November 12th, 2010

I get so much inspiration from my late afternoon walks with Scooter. I took my camera today and captured some of the lovely reflections and sights. The sun came out this afternoon. We live on the east side of Portland, across the Willamette. I love this time of day when the sun is low in the sky and about to disappear behind the west hills.

This is the beginning of my walk as I look across the golf course down to the Crystal Springs Reservoir.

The entrance of the Rhodie Garden still presents a delightful array of fall colors.

The sun goes down and there is the half-moon.

The ducks were lining up, hoping for a snack from me. I had to disappoint them.

Isn’t this tree trunk gorgeous?

Even the ivy was showing fall colors.

You can see all the photos on my Flickr site.

An update on my leaf lamination. It is looking really good today. It feels like a piece of fabric. I might have to do some more.

Posted in Flowers and plants, My neighborhood | 2 Comments »

Chillaxing

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

I had a very nice and relaxing day. My STASH group met at Terry’s and she made us a yummy lunch of Beer Cheese soup, homemade bread and salad. I got to see her beautiful Twelve X Twelve piece with the real leaf. Click here to see it. Terry said she thought it was a Cottonwood leaf. The back story is that she said she could not get gel medium or glue to stick to it to preserve it. I had heard someone say they used Golden gel medium to preserve leaves.

For my fiber sketch, I decided to give it a try. I grabbed a leaf from my studio patio and used gel medium to attach it to fabric and then globbed it over the leaf. I think it worked quite well. I sprinkled it with some gold glitter for a finishing touch. Before I send the sketchbook back to Brooklyn, I will make sure it is not falling apart.

I have been stitching away on my parallel universe piece.

I am stitching the largest planet in rainbow perle cotton. So, I am getting close to having half of the hand stitching finished. Then, I have to select embroidery thread for the parallel universe.

I also made some progress on straightening up my studio so that I can find space to create some new cloth to play with.

Posted in Quilting Friends, Sketchbook Project | 3 Comments »

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