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Archive for the ‘Quilting Organizations’ Category

Wednesday This and That

Wednesday, July 18th, 2007

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How cool is this? Cindy Sheehan autographed one of my bumper stickers for Ellen, who lives in NC. She sent me this photo. She told me that Cindy was there to speak and there were lots of protests and threats against Cindy. Her husband went to take photos and got this autograph. I had some photoshop fun with some photos and have received some new photos which are on the Virtual Iraq War Protest Flickr site. You can get there by clicking on the bumper sticker in my side bar.

I could really go on a rant right now. I am so glad that the Dem’s forced the debate last night. I feel that momentum is on the side of moving faster towards bringing our troops home. I am saving the rant for another day.

I had an art date with Mr C today. It was a rainy, summer day. A perfect day to head downtown and spend the afternoon at the Portland Art Museum. The current exhibit is Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art. We have been her over a year and have been remiss in joining the museum, which we did today. When we lived in Santa Rosa, we belonged to the fine arts museums which is collective, including the De Young, Palace of Legion of Honor and the Asian Art Museum, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I am very happy to have a husband who enjoys the arts with me.

One of the paintings that struck my funny bone was of a group of Dutch young people, in full 1600’s fancy dress. They were having a party — quite a scene of debauchery. A puritanical couple was looking on in disdain. The listener’s guide said that people of that time would have had a fascination with how these folks led their lives. I was thinking that it was the People Magazine or Access Hollywood of it’s day!

We stopped at the Farmer’s Market on the way home which made dinner very wonderful. I bought baby beets and roasted them and served them on the sauteed beet greens with a little red wine vinegar. Mr C does not like beets so they were all mine. I only lost a pound this past week for a total of 6 1/2 pounds. I think it is more than that, but it was cold and I wore heavier pants. (Excuses, excuses!)

Last night I attended a High Fiber Diet planning session for the Japanese Garden show. Some of us brought our work to show. It is interesting to see the variety of ways people are interpreting wabi sabi. apparently, the garden has a consultant who has written a book on wabi sabi, and she is a bit concerned about our using this as a theme. Our show coordinator is meeting with her next week.

I think my Bamboo fence piece was very well received so I am thinking of doing another. Look what I found — this photo of a bamboo fence taken by my son at the garden last year.

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I played around with this in photoshop and am going to make a thermofax screen and print it on fabric, too. Lately, I have more ideas for work that I can keep up with. This is a good thing.

Tomorrow morning, Miss Mia is coming over to play with me while Miles is at school and Steph meets some friends for coffee. I am looking forward to some solo time with her.

Embroidered Ethnic Textiles

Wednesday, March 21st, 2007

Today, I attended the Columbia Stitchery Guild. Our guest speaker was Michele Wipplinger . She is an expert in natural dyes and travels extensively to theird world countries where she lives and works with artisans, sharing her knowledge of dyes, color and design, to help them produce goods that are marketable. We saw a wonderful slide show of beautifully dressed people from several different countries. Then we got see and touch some textiles she brought with her. With her permission, I am sharing some photos of these. To see the full set, you can find them on my Flickr page.

Here is a sampling:

This is the sleeve of a top. The dark blue is pounded indigo and the cicle designis batik. The red section is embroidery.

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This is a section of a sari from India. The section on the right is exquisite emboidery and on the left, is block printing.

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The next two pieces are quilts with wonderful hand stitching which has really inspired me.

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The next two pieces are examples of very fine embroidery. The second one looks like printed fabric from a distance, but the design is all from exquiste embroidery.

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Michele is teacching a 3 day workshop which I did not get in to. She will cover the natural dyeing andsurface design markings.

We had informal show and tell before the meeting. Those with work to show put it on tables for others to see, up close and personal. I almost didn’t take anything. Then, I almost didn’t put mine out. Then, I did. So glad I did because i got such wonderful feedback o Fragments and The Thin Place. People were most interested in Fragments.

We are going to have a show in a gallery from mid-May to mid-June. This is the first time that they have done a show like this. I think it will be lots of fun. We are going to have an artists’ tea on one Saturday with demonstrations. I am going to do Altered Trading Cards and Postcards.

After the guild meeting, High Fiber Diet met to work on plans for the Japanese Garden Show and Sale in SEptember – with a Wabi Sabi theme. We also have a couple of leads on pther places where we might have shows. I guess I better get to work and make more stuff!!