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Archive for the ‘Quilting Friends’ Category

Mixed Feelings

Thursday, February 2nd, 2017

I finished this and entered it in the SAQA poster call for entry. I don’t know if it will make the cut,  but I am happy with it. It was totally inspired by last month’s political mess. I often post doom and gloom on facebook, but intersperse it with messages of hope. So, it is a very personal piece. I named it after the Emily Dickinson poem, Hope is the thing with feathers. I think I wrote a very good artist statement about it.

Here is a detail:

I used a lot of bright pink as an homage to women everywhere. It is the women leading the resistance movement.

My daughter, Lisa, won some beautiful yarn at an event and gifted me with it. I will have lots of beautiful knitting in my future.

Here is where I am in the silk stitch along.

This is my practice piece with the background stitching done.

I have just started the background on this one.

Today we finally had our STASH Christmas luncheon. So, now I can show you the gifts I made back in December. One of my high school friends gifted me with a microwave cozy when I was home last summer. I have really enjoyed using it when I heat up a mug of water or a bowl of soup. I started by choosing some batiks and complementary solids from my stash.

 

I cut 1o inch squares and sandwiched with 100% cotton batting. Here they are,waiting to be stitched.

 

Voila!

If you want to make some, just google Microwave Cozy and several tutorials will show up in your search.

When we left the restaurant, I said good-bye to everyone and went to my car. Someone had parked so close that I could not get in the driver’s side. I was beside myself. I got in the passenger’s seat and tried to hoist myself over, but was unsuccessful. It was a shopping center so I had no idea where the other driver was or how long they would be. I was so upset. Called Mr C to whine. I had on thick soled shoes so I thought if I took of my shoes, I might have enough room to get my legs over the console and slide into the passenger seat. It worked! How is that for a rather chunky 78 year old?

I have mixed feelings because I have so much goodness in my personal life and yet I feel so despondent over what is happening to our country.

The 70273 Project

Monday, October 17th, 2016

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I don’t remember where I first heard about this project, but I was immediately drawn in. It was founded by Jeanne Hewell-Chambers. You can followalong and find out more on her blog. Here is what she has to say about how she came to start this:

Between January 1940 and August 1941 (before the Holocaust began), 70,273 physically and mentally disabled people – men, women, teens, boys, and girls – were murdered by the Nazis. Though they never even laid eyes on the disabled person they were evaluating, the Nazi doctors read the medical files and, if from the words on the page, the person was deemed “unfit” or an “economic burden on society”, the doctor placed a red X at the bottom of the form. Three doctors were to read each medical file, and when two of them made a red X on the page, the disabled person’s fate was sealed. Most were murdered within 1-2 hours.

I will commemorate these 70,273 voiceless, powerless people who were so callously and casually murdered by gathering 70,273 blocks of white fabric (representing innocence and the paper the doctors read), each bearing two red X’s (representing one person), and I will stitch them together into quilts. 

She soon realized she could not accomplish this alone so she reached out to the world via the internet for help. She has specific dimensions and some instructions, but how you make the red x’s is up to the maker. Here are my first 3 in the 3 different sizes. I fused some red linen x’s to white cotton.

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I then stitched them down.

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Here is one of the quilts that Jeanne has made.

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This is a big deal and a lot of work. I do hope that some of my readers will jump in and help with this. Just go to her blog. In the sidebar, you will find every thing you need to know.

I have finished one HRC hat and am working on the second one.

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I am busy cleaning, packing, purging and moving my studio. Most every thing but the furniture has been moved. The furniture will get moved on Sunday. Then Mr C and I have to clean and paint the old studio so that I can get my deposit back.

 

A Hectic, Satisfying Day

Thursday, January 7th, 2016

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When I took this quilt (without the tree) to my critique session last fall, the critic said it was not finished, it needed something else. I had always thought about putting a California Oak on it because you often see a lone Oak on the golden hills. I thought it might be too realistic for the overall tone of the quilt. But, today I did it. And, I am still not sure, but I sure love the tree.

I took off for the studio this morning to get this done. I cut a trunk.

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I auditioned some green fabrics and ended up using this batik. I think it worked well.

I fused the tree together on a teflon sheet.

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Then, I auditioned it in different spots on the landscape and fused it down.

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I took it home and quilted it.

I also finished this little quilt. I scattered a few more leaves on it before I added the facing.

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Tonight, we took the street car down to the Pearl to the opening of an art exhibit that 3 friends are in. I also retrieved my Blue Picasso Woman and brought it home. It has been traveling for a year and a half.

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I took all 3 of these quilts to Kristin LaFlamme who is taking them to Seattle with her tomorrow to be photographed by Mark Frey, who is a great photographer of textiles and art objects. Kristin has a 3-D piece that needs to be photographed for a catalog for a SAQA exhibit at the Textile Museum, Migration Stories. Here she is photographing it in our condo hallway for a video she plans to make of it in various sites.

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And so, I am feeling pretty good tonight. Got a lot accomplished. Tomorrow, I start an online dyeing class with Elizabeth Barton. While I was at the studio, I checked on my supplies. In this workshop she promises:

If you’ve never dyed before, this is the class to take. If you have taken a class but ended up feeling confused about the whole process, this is the class to take. If you have taken a class, and felt like it was all too much work, this is the class to take! If you have taken a class and had wimpy or muddy results, this is the class to take! If you have read about a class where you had to dye thousands of little square samples before you could even think about what you needed to make that quilt you have in mind, this is the class to take! If you want to be able to dye a reasonable approximation of any color you see anywhere, this is the class to take! In five lessons, I explain the process of hand dyeing in simple, safe, clear, easy to remember terms. We make enough dye concentrate in the first class to last us through the whole course – and beyond! You really don’t need to be mixing up dye every single time! There are only a few key factors to successful dyeing and I’ll explain them very clearly, so failure just simply is not an option! We will cover: dye mixing, gradation dyeing, pure versus mixed colors, how to derive your own recipes, how to dye neutrals and why you need them and the benefits of overdyeing. In the last class, working from a color inspiration source, we dye the fabric for your next quilt!

 

 

Day 15

Tuesday, December 15th, 2015

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It has been a pretty good day despite the gloom hanging over Portland. I had lunch with Amy Frazer, who I met through SDA. She used to work in the sock division of Nike and traveled a lot meeting with athletes regarding their sock needs, I guess. She was doing fiber art work, mainly embroidery, on the side. Now, she no longer works for Nike and is pursuing a more artistic life.

Here we are enjoying our decadent desserts at Papa Haydn’s, known for their desserts. That is my cheesecake with a toffee crust (so good). She had the Buche de Noel. We both took half home to our significant others.

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I wore my bionic brace for more than four hours today. I find that if I wear it during my most active time, it saves my knee from getting enraged and screaming at me.

Tonight, we toodled over the hill to Kristin La Flamme’s home and had some munchies and then went to hear her daughter, Katja, play bass with the Wilson High School Jazz band. Such fun and good memories for me of the days when I was a band, orchestra and choir member in high school. Plus, I adopted Kristin several years ago as my art quilt daughter, so Katja is sort of my grandchild!!

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The other good thing is that I got to miss the republican debate!!

So, it has been a good day.

Printed Fabric Bee – April Edition

Sunday, May 3rd, 2015

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I was Queen Bee this month and it was a good thing. I have been so busy I would have had a hard time printing fabric for someone else. I chose geometry as my theme and I can’t wait to see how my friends interpret this.  If you would like to win the giveaway set, leave a comment here on my blog and on the Printed Fabric Bee Blog. I will select a winner on May 15th. Good luck!