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Archive for January, 2013

Fractured Synapses

Thursday, January 31st, 2013

fracturedsynapsequilted

 

Today the temperature went above 50° here in Portland, and I emerged from hibernation!! Seriously! I have been feeling really good, but lacking much incentive to do more than I needed to do.

So, this afternoon, after a busy morning, I headed down to the studio and cleaned up the messes from my not to happen quilt. I needed to do something. My Guild has challenged the members to make a quilt for Ami Simm’s Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative. She hopes to reach or exceed $1 million in funding for research.

I did some research on what happens in the brain with Alzheimer’s. I had this idea of fracturing some fabric and inserting colors. I selected a hand-dyed batik and did the slashing and fusing.

fracturedsynapsefused

For the quilting, I did echo quilting using a free motion zig zag stitch. I have not finished the edges, yet. I am calling it fractured synapses.

I have been doing a special elimination diet for 4 weeks. No soy, dairy, eggs, peanuts, gluten, corn or sugar, including popular artificial sweeteners. Today, I am testing one thing – gluten. I had whole wheat pasta for dinner and I have a bad belly ache. I think I will continue without the gluten for a while. I have lost 10 pounds and more importantly, I have lost 3 inches around my tummy. Next week, I am going to test eggs.

In two weeks, we are flying to San Diego so that I can see the Visions Quilt show before it closes and then on to the desert to take in some events at the Palm Springs Modernism week and visit Steve’s brother and his wife, Ann.  It will be a challenge for me to keep up the special diet, but what I do eat is readily available – lean meats, veggies, low glycemic fruits, brown rice, quinoa and nuts.

Here are my drawings from the past few days.

1-29-13 drawing

1-30-13 drawing

1-31-13 drawing

 

 

 

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, January 30th, 2013

WW 01-30

Reality Check

Monday, January 28th, 2013

url-1

I had an idea. I sketched it out. It seemed doable. I have spent some time on it every day for the last few days, but I was not excited about it. It was like work and not like being creative. I faced the music tonight and threw in the towel. I am moving on. I have many other things to do and there will be other shows to enter.

I think I will work on getting my 3 x3’s rearranged so that I can stitch them together. I also want to seal the edges of each one with paint or gel medium. Maybe that will get my creative juices going.

Registration for the SDA conference had flattened for awhile. We get a burst of people who are clamoring for certain workshops. Then, it slows down until the 15th of February when people can register for workshops if they are not going to the conference.

My next big job is getting photos into a slide show for the jurying for our annual Artists Among Us exhibit at Trinity.

And here are my first 3 drawings in the larger sketch book.

1-26-13 drawing

 

1-27-13 drawing

 

1-28-13 drawing

 

 

 

You Are Here, Again

Friday, January 25th, 2013

redarrow

 

 

I made a positive start on this art quilt that has been going around in my head. I have the start of a layout that is supposed to look like a “You are here” sign at a shopping center. I have the streets and some water and the arrow. I just need to fill in with the buildings. It is not going to be a real shopping center. All shall be revealed, later.

I didn’t have a lot of time in the studio because I got stuck in work mode once again. Plus, I spent some time doing a special newsletter for my guild. We have issued a challenge to help Ami Simms reach the million dollar mark with her Alzheimer Art Quilt Initiative. This will be the last year so that she can get her life back. But what a monumental achievement!

My sketch for today is the last one in my mini-Moleskine. It is the worst one I have done, but I had to do it at the end of my studio time.

1-25-13 drawing

 

I am moving to a larger sketchbook, the one that Twelve member, Nikki Wheeler made for me.

nikkijournal

 

nikkijournal2

 

I think I will be adding some color, but have to investigate ways to do that. Or maybe I will just move on to a pen rather than a pencil.

Kristin La Flamme is at the PAQA South conference and sent me this photo of Kelp Dance hanging in the show. Makes me happy to see it.

kelpdanceinshow

In Spread Sheet H*ll

Thursday, January 24th, 2013

printironingtable

My left brain has been taxed for a couple of days. I have been consumed by spreadsheets —spreadsheets from the SDA registration site of workshop attendees, reports of every thing that people have selected to do or purchase, Paypal orders that have to be reconciled with the website spreadsheets. I think I am caught up for a bit.

I didn’t make it to the studio until tonight, but I have a print out of a plan for a quilt I want to do. I took a photo of some of the fabrics, but it didn’t make it to my Dropbox. I am still not able to upload photos to the laptop and I don’t think I will have time to do that for awhile. So the office computer will suffice.

I like to chronicle the clean surfaces in my studio, as it happens so seldom. I washed the old sheets that cover my print and ironing tables, above. I put a new layer of felt on my print table a few weeks ago. It is already getting some color.

printtablefelt

 

 

Here is my neat and tidy cutting table.

cleancuttingtable

How many sizes of teflon sheets does a fusing fiber artist need? Apparently, many!

teflonsheets

 

And, here are my latest sketches.

1-23-13 drawing

 

1-24-13 drawing

 

Not that happy or excited with these. I was watching Project Runway and a bit distracted. I thought the team concept created a nicer environment. However, I am not sure it will last. Such egos these artists have!!