My Crazy Life

May 13th, 2013

Xmarks

 

I knew I was entering a nexus of my obligations for May and June. It is here. And, well, really it is not that bad. Only when Word decided not to recognize any of our printers. Or, when the Epson printers wouldn’t feed the card stock for the gallery labels for  Artists Among Us.  Solutions: import the labels into Apple’s Pages software and use Mr. C’s Canon printer.

I did take time out to have dinner with the Portland Peeps. Mr C and Jack put on a nice meal for Stephanie and I. It was a welcome break from my database work for the art show.

I got 4 pieces of work ready for the show. I forgot to photograph Undulations. I will get a photo when I go back to Trinity tomorrow. I have several pieces of felted work that I have beaded and hand stitched. I put 3 of them together in a frame:

rainbowfrippery

 

I titled it Rainbow Frippery. I love this meaning of the word:  something showy, frivolous, or nonessential. I think it fits these pieces. I have others that I mounted on 8 X 10 mat boards, suitable for a frame or shadow box. They are in acid free bags and will be for sale as bin art.

fripperybinart

 

I painted a gallery wrapped frame black for the Cruciform piece.

cruciformsframed

 

And, another piece, that I made last year, got a chartreuse gallery wrapped frame.

Xmarks

 

I spent most of today at Trinity, checking in art and prepping labels.  I got home at 8:30 after stopping at Traders Joe’s where I picked up some chicken, guacamole, fruity salsa, brown rice tortillas and refried black beans. I made myself a delicious gluten/dairy free burrito for dinner with a nice glass of Viognier wine.

I have some repair labels to print and some name tags to finish and then, I have to go back to Trinity to work on the labels for our featured artist who makes gorgeous pottery. He had 60 plus pieces of art that need labels. He is not delivering it until tomorrow. That will all get done in the morning. I am taking the night off!

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A Good Day

May 9th, 2013

Cruciformfini

The cruciform piece is finished except for the edges. I am thinking of framing it so I am holding off on the final edge finish until I see if that is feasible.

I started adding some beads to the Undulations piece. I found some very organic beads that would integrate well with the piece and not really stand out. However, now that I look at the charcoal beads, I don’t like them so they are coming off and I am going to stick with the dusty pink ones.

undulationbeading

 

Today was a good day because I finally got to hang out with my STASH friends (Second Thursday at Someone’s House). I have missed at least 3 meetings because of my crazy life. I made 3 delicious salads for lunch and some almond bread. It is a non-gluten bread with almond flour, eggs and a bit of honey. It is very dense and moist, but was enjoyed by all. For dessert, I made parfaits in wine glasses, layering fresh berries with Balsamic syrup and culture coconut milk. It was an experiment and very good.

I received this thank you post card in the mail today.

seedpostcard

It is from one of the young fiber artists here in Portland who needed some help funding a residency. I contributed to her Indie request. The postcard is embedded with clover and poppy seeds so it can be planted. I have some room in the center of one of my raised beds behind he house so I am going to plant it there. I’ll let you know how it does. If you click on the photo, you can see the little seed bumps.

When I was shopping yesterday, I saw these lilacs in the flower shop. I brought them home and our home is filled with their aroma. It brings back such good memories of my childhood and the lilac bushes that always signified the coming of summer.

lilacs

I have some busy days coming up as I finish my own work for the Artists Among Us exhibit. I got a good start on name badges tonight. Next, I have to print labels and bar code stickers for all the art. Monday is check in day. The producer of the Quilt Show.com called me today and wanted me to do a segment for the show on my stitching and shrinking project, but they are filming next week-end when Quilt Market is in town and I am too busy to fit into their schedule. They are going to keep me in mind for future shows. She was interested in my 3×3 project, too. Interesting fact, the producer lives here in the Portland area, and she is not a quilter.

 

 

 

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Wordless Wednesday

May 8th, 2013

ww5-8-13

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Beads, Quilting and an Opening Reception

May 7th, 2013

cruciformsfused

That pretty much sums up my day. A trip to the bead store for beads for one of the textured pieces I am working on. I will post photos of those tomorrow. I am happy with what I found.

I got the cruciform piece fused and started the quilting. Then I ran out of black thread so I will be off to Mill Ends tomorrow morning. I am doing simple straight line stitching in a grid on this.

cruciformquilting

 

 

Tonight was the opening reception of our High Fiber Diet Show. It was in Hillsboro — way out yonder from where I live. So I drove across the river to Terry’s house and she drove out to Hillsboro. We took a back road and it was a really beautiful drive.

hillsborosign

 

Here is my soaring piece in the show.

waltersgalleryshow

 

The show has been traveling for several months and so by this time in the year we are pretty much blase about the show and when there are not many people showing up, it is not that much fun. Still, it was nice to see this lovely arts center. The quilts were hung very nicely in two galleries — one upstairs and one down.

I am running out of time to get my work ready for Artists Among Us. I might have to scale back my plans.

 

 

Posted in High Fiber Diet, My creations | 1 Comment »

Productive Week-end

May 6th, 2013

cruciformlayout

 

Wow! What gorgeous weather we have been having. I was able to finish planting my veggie gardens, but it has been so hot that I have had to water them copiously because we don’t have the sprinklers and drip system going yet.

On Friday, I got a package in the mail of a second possible dress to wear to Lisa’s wedding. It was the same make and size as the dress I bought in California, but in a jade color instead of black. I tried it on and it was too big. So I tried on the other dress and it was too big. I have not lost that much weight since we were in CA, but I guess I have lost lots of inches. These were both 0X which is the smallest of the plus sizes. I was in a panic. With every thing I have to do between now and June 1, I didn’t want to be hunting for a dress.

So, I Saturday morning, Mr C and I went off to Washington Square Mall which has some of the nicer shops. I went to Nordstroms and knowing that I was no longer a plus size, I wandered aimlessly from department to department. I was about to leave and head out into the mall when a clerk came up to me and said that I looked great in the color I was wearing. It was a new Eileen Fisher top and pants. I realized that I was in the Eileen Fisher department. Next thing I know, I am bearing my soul to this poor woman. She took me over to a rack of just in silk summer dresses. Wow! I found something I loved. I tried it on and that was it. It was the type of thing I had always had in mind to wear. Here it is and the jacket that goes with it.

OBC-D2283-SAPPHIRE2

Screen shot 2013-05-04 at 11.32.30 AM

 

I got a large, not an extra-large, a large! I am not sure if I need to shorten it or not. I am going to wait until a week before the wedding because if I lose some more, it may make it longer. But I am so happy with this.

I spent a lot of time this week-end getting the Artists Among Us database done. I got the bar code font to work and the scanner to operate with the Arts PC laptop. That was a big relief. Today, I finished inputting the artists inventories and sent them out for approval.

And so, tonight, I was able to get back to the studio. I made a few more of the cruciforms. I fused them together in 4 different blocks. You can see them up at the top. My idea was to then fuse them to black silk which would form a larger criciform.

cruciformsonblack

 

I like what is happening with the black setting off the cruciforms so I will get this finished and quilt it tomorrow.

 

Posted in My creations, Stuff I Buy, Trinity Arts | 7 Comments »

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