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Archive for September, 2013

New Work Finished

Monday, September 30th, 2013

indigomoonweb

This is the third in my moon series. I have named it Indigo Moon. I did a little bit of hand stitching on this every day for the last two weeks and finally called it done. Here is a detail:

indigomoondetailweb

I ran out to Mill Ends to find a backing fabric that was sturdy and found this bark cloth. The combo of the organza and prefelt makes this very light and soft so I needed a backing that would give it some body.

1375217_10200981835527298_1488370398_n

I also finished this piece which is titled, Graffiti. I accomplished my goal of creating something a little more interesting with an edge. I feel I took it from a pretty collage to something that would invite the viewer in to see what is happening.

 

graffitiweb

Here is a detail shot:

graffitidetailweb

We have had incessant rain and wind and gloomy weather. It was nice to have my daughter, Lisa, here for a week to bring us some sunshine! She left today. The girl has so much illustration work that she had to keep working while she was here. We had the whole family here for dinner last night. Did some talking about passing on some of our stuff to them when we move. It is good to know what they are interested in and what they don’t give a darn about!

So, I think life is returning to normal, at least for a week or so. I have a big birthday coming up this month. I am ready for it!

Do Your Own Thing

Saturday, September 28th, 2013

gericongrafitti

This is my very own graffiti tag. I drew it on my iPad ProSketch app. I was having problems with the graffiti images I was using. I felt I needed something created by me, but how? I did some research on line about how to draw your own graffiti images. Then, I found a free graffiti font. I decided to do my own tag — My quilt, my rules.

myquiltgrafitti

I made a screen and tested it.

 

myquiltpaint

Still not working for me. Didn’t seem authentic. Last night I realized what I needed to do. I have an abstracted architectural background. I needed to do something that was not so literal. I got out the iPad sketch app and came up with these.

grafittiidea

grafittiidea2

I made new screens and tested them and I finally screened the actual quilt.

 

mygrafittione

mygrafittitwo

I still have to add my personal tag – waiting for the last screenprint to dry. It is now becoming what my vision was. At least it has a focal point – LOL!

We are having wind and torrents of rain as the remnants of a Pacific typhoon has made its way to the Northwest. We canceled plans to go to the symphony tonight. We have lost power three times for short periods. I have flashlights and a camping lantern at the ready.

Enjoy the rest of your week-end.

What is Normal?

Thursday, September 26th, 2013

laboyprint2

Yes, what is normal, I ask? I am yearning for some days – maybe a whole week – when I can just stay home and do my magic with thread, cloth, dye and paint. It seems as if I am constantly grabbing a few minutes here and there and spending the rest of my time in meetings, entertaining guests (which I love), doing errands, you know – all that stuff that gets in the way of our creativity.

I had an SDA staff conference call at 8 am. Then, I snuck down stairs to make a larger thermofax screen of one of the grafittis. Back upstairs, got cleaned up and headed downtown with Mr C to look at condos. Home in the early afternoon, had a late lunch, went grocery shopping and fabric paint shopping, walked the dog and made dinner. Back to the studio to do some test prints and then settled down to some stitching on the second blue moon piece.

I found a better green for the printing I want to do. The test print is up there. I tried an electric blue for the other one.

bluegraffiti

I am going to sleep on these and decide on printing the actual quilt tomorrow.

Here is my progress on the moon stitching

secondbluemoonstitching

The condo looking was very informative. Just to be clear, we are not putting our home on the market until January and after we sell it, we will decide on our next move. I know I am not ready for the senior housing with the scrabble at 4 pm and a bus ride to the concert.

We do want to be down town where we spend a lot of our time. We want to rely less on  a car and be near public transportation. We looked at 3 different areas of Portland — the south waterfront and the waterfront near the trend Pearl District, both of which are near the trolley. Then we drove to the west side of the city and looked at an older condo on the hillside above a very nice area of Portland which is very near Trinity. We just wanted to wak into some and imaging ourselves living there.

We did not like the townhouse in the south waterfront area. It is a huge area of condo buildings and office buildings with not much ambiance and pretty far from the places we like to frequent. We really like the buildings neat the Pearl. They were new and nicely appointed and seemed to have the accommodations we are looking for. It would be a short trolley ride to the place I plan to have a studio. They are very sound proof condos. There is also a nice fitness area.

The condo on the west side is a great location. We love it up there. There is a patio that backs up to a lovely wooded hillside. The downside is older and grimy bathrooms and a kitchen that I would need to update. There is carpeting which I can’t live with because of my dust allergies. We would need to get a great deal so that we had money to make the improvements. This is all moot because who knows what will be available in four months from now. But, it was educational.

A Fun Day with the Brilliant Daughters

Wednesday, September 25th, 2013

StJohnsBridge

Lisa wanted to go on a day trip to some place she had never visited so we picked up Steph this morning and drove west to the charming town of Astoria where we enjoyed the ambiance of the shops and a great meal along with many cruise ship adventurers. I have never seen Astoria so bustling with activity.

That is the beautiful St. John’s bridge which we passed as we drove west. It is such a pretty bridge. We had lunch at the Astoria Coffee House and Bistro — I had great fish tacos. The place has some really interesting decor. A shelf up near the ceiling had globes lining the whole room.

bistroglobes

I loved these whimsical folk art animal heads.

animalheads

After lunch we wandered into shops and managed not to spend any money, but enjoyed looking. A vintage hardware store was especially interesting.

vintagehardware2

vintagehardware

This sign tickled me.

shutThen we wandered down to the edge of The Mighty Columbia where Lewis and Clark ended their trek west.

themightyclumbia

columbiaclouds

It was so much fun spending the day with the girls and having great conversation. I am so lucky to have them both.

While we were there, I got a text from my friend Judy. She had already received the package that I sent yesterday. FedEx is fast. So she texted me photos as she opened it. So, now I can share the other chemo wrap that I made for her. It is actually called a Chemo Bandana. I used hand-dyed fabric and some really soft flannel.

chemobandana

Here I am modeling it.

chemohatmodelTomorrow, we have appointments to look at condos in three different areas of Portland so that we can begin to decide if that is the route we want to take.

Will It Work?

Tuesday, September 24th, 2013

twopaintyscreens

 

If  you are willing to do something that might not work, you are closer to being an artist. — Seth Godin

 

When I saw that quote on Facebook, I thought, oh wow, that is me! I am always trying something and hoping it works.

 

This time, my target is this piece:

 

graffititarget

 

I entered it in the Simply Red show for High Fiber Diet. It did not make the cut. I put it up on my design wall so that I could stare at it and figure out what it needed. I decided it needed a focal point. I am not sure where I got the idea, but I thought perhaps I would do something crazy like screen some graffiti on it. It kind of resembles an architectural structure and so I thought graffiti might in a wild color might make it edgier and more interesting.

 

When Jane Dunnewold was here, I showed it to her. She agreed that it looked unfinished and she like my idea of the graffiti and felt a contrasting color would add some interest.

 

On the concrete retaining wall behind our neighbor’s home there is some graffiti which I have photographed.

 

puapgraffiti  laboygraffiti

 

I turned them into thermofax screens and did some test printing on some silk organza that I have been using to test printing for this piece.

 

graffitithermofax

 

Here are my results.

 

laboyprint

 

puapprint

 

I really want to use a lime green and the one I tested isn’t quite strong enough. Not sure which other color I will use, but I am going ahead with this.

 

Lisa is here, sleeping and getting some exercise and working on some illustrations in my office while she indulges in non-stop HGTV shows. Tomorrow, we are going to pick up Stephanie and drive over to Astoria for the day.

 

I was looking for wrapping for Judy’s hat, which I finished.

 

598544_10200931858677908_1000618833_n

 

I found one of my bags that I printed last year and used that and sent it off to her. She has already lost her lovely red hair.

 

artbag