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Archive for the ‘workshop’ Category

Back Home and Busy

Friday, May 22nd, 2015

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We arrived home on Wednesday, mid-day, just in time to get my self organized to teach another art quilt class at Trinity. I am so proud of my students, who range in age from 8 to 70. Wednesday night, I introduced them to the serenity of slow cloth. We sat and did hand stitching on our little art quilts. Here are some examples of what they are doing. The piece above is done by my oldest student. We had to do some engineering to get the elements off the space to be sturdy.

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Adea is a budding abstract artist. Love the colors that she is using.

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This piece is the four seasons.

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Her Mom is doing a wonderful still life.

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This is my youngest student. She has a lot of stitching to do; I hope she can stick with it and finish.

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This piece was started by  the Dad of the family and is getting finished by Mom. It is an homage to their camping experiences.

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This is a bit blurry, but the daughter in this family is doing a beautiful multi-colored leaf tree.

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A fun landscape by her Mom.

Here are some photos from Jayme’s graduation. It was a very exciting evening. She graduated with an MD with distinction.

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This is a very blurry photo of Mark and Paige hooding Jayme.

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It was a great few days in the bay area with Mark, Jayme, Paige and Jayme’s family.

Decision Time

Tuesday, May 12th, 2015

 

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This month for the master class, we are doing landscapes. Our assignment was to find or take 3 landscape photos and distill them down and change the arrangement and create 3 sketches. Above is a photo looking up at the cathedral grove of Redwoods in John Muir park in CA.

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This is a photo of a stand of Aspens that I took at Black Butte Ranch in Central Oregon.

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And these are Joshua Trees taken in Southern CA in Joshua Tree National Park. (I love trees.)

Here are my sketches which still need to be tweaked.

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E liked all of them. She usually points me in a direction, but this time, she left if up to me to chose. Lisa and Clay think I should try the Redwood piece. The sketch is very unfinished because drawing all those branches and needles – couldn’t do that. If I do this one, I am thinking of doing the confetti technique where small pieces of fabric are captured under tulle and stitched.

Do you have an opinion? Let me know.

Lisa had a “moment” on NBC nightly news last night. She was interviewed about the coloring books she designs for adults. They posted the whole taped segment with her on their facebook page. Click here to watch.

Oops! Missing in Action

Sunday, April 19th, 2015

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This may be a record for me! Seventeen days since my last post. I don’t have any exciting reason. I got a really nasty sinus infection with the worst vertigo. Ended up in bed for a few days. Then, this past week, I had a hectic schedule. On Monday, Mr C and I helped to hang the SAQA Oregon Exploring Layers show at the AIR Gallery in Pioneer Place, downtown Portland. It will be there through May 17th. The Gallery is open Thursday – Sunday, noon to 6 pm. That is Walking with Scooter and Mr C hanging at the show.

On Tuesday, I got caught up with some SDA work. On Wednesday, I joined a large group of SAQA members for a docent tour at the Portland Art Museum of Italian Style, a comprehensive look at Italian fashion from the end of the Second World War to the present day.  It was fantastic. I had lunch with friends and then took the street car back home.

On Wednesday night, I went to Trinity for the latest art short course. This month, we are screen printing. I could, of course, teach this class, but it is fun to be a participant. We used torn and cut paper to make our designs. First, I cut craft paper into rectangles in a pattern. by folding and cutting.

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Then, I cut circles in freezer paper.

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Her is my first print from the rectangles.

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Then, I printed magenta circles.

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We printed on paper. I am quite happy with this.

On Thursday, I got my neglected hair cut an colored. I felt so much better. Mr C and I took the street car downtown to a symphony concert. It was a one hour free concert for donors, educators and other community folks. It was at 6 pm and and then we stopped at one of the breweries for supper.

On Friday, I got lots of errands done. I found some steel rods to use for my 3-D construction and have started work. Hopefully, I can share some progress tomorrow. I also produced the Constant Contact newsetter for Columbia FiberArts Guild and got it sent Friday night. Whew!

On Saturday, I met a friend at 8:30 in the morning and we drove down to Silverton for our Oregon Critique group meeting. This was the beautiful view of the Silver Lake reservoir from Carol’s deck. So pretty and peaceful.

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Our critic was an artist from Salem. I thought she was a bit too complimentary of our work. Didn’t really get much out of it. I did enjoy seeing the work the others have done.

Betty and I left, Silverton and then went to Pioneer Place to set up for the opening reception of the exhibit. Hung out there until 9 pm, when Mr C came and picked me up. Today, I have been trying to recover from the week and to get caught up on SDA work! Here is a shot from the show. It looks great.

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So, now we are all caught up. I hope I can get back to my regular blogging schedule again.

Ta Da!

Tuesday, March 31st, 2015

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This thing has taken over my life and is all finished but the facings. It received a very favorable critque from EB. I was very frustrated with the quilting. I thought I might have the patience to do evenly spaced quilting lines, but it quickly became apparent that I am not OCD enough to do that. EB thinks it looks better with my wonky lines, anyway. So I am relieved and happy.  Let’s just say, there were a lot of threads to bury! It is 24 X 42 inches.

I thought I would turn this 180° to see how it looks, but I think the top one is better. Now I need a title.

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Great news! Lisa and Clay made the drive from Oakland today with two angry cats and Wilfredo, their dog. They had to stop half way and get a second cat carrier. They are settled into a temporary rental while they look for their Portland home. It will be so great having them here. I am a happy Mom.

Piecing Progress

Friday, March 27th, 2015

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Here is the result of several days of frustration. A few days ago, I finished piecing the skinny lines.

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Then, I made the decision to piece it all together and then quilt rather than qulting each piece and then putting it together. You piecers out there probably know that when you take a piece of fabric and start slashing and inserting lines, you get a very wonky thing when you are done. Some of the pieces were way off in shape and size and I had to add some fabric and lines and do some fudging to get them to work. I am working on the bias in some of the pieces, too. So now, it is ready to be quilted into submission. I need to go get some thread, first.

I am also working on the next Printed Fabric Bee piece which is due in a couple of days. The theme is Mola. Here is what I used to make thermofax screens.

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Reveal will be in a couple of days.

Wednesday, we were able to pick up our ceramic objects that had been glazed and fired. Love my zombie foot and hand!

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I got a bit carried away with the metallic wash on the plate, but all in all, I am happy with my first attempt at something like this. Those are delicious black currant macarons on the plate, a gift from my friend who makes these in many flavors and colors.

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And this is the reason that I am moving and feeling like a slug right now. POLLEN!! I have a mean sinus headache and vertigo, my seasonal malady.

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