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Archive for the ‘High Fiber Diet’ Category

This and That

Tuesday, August 4th, 2015

EBhomeworkJuly

I promised an update on what has been going on in my life. First of all, lots of good things. Mr C and I got to take a preview ride on the new Orange light rail line that crosses the Willamette on a brand new bridge and goes out through our old neighborhood. We watched it all being built for the last few years. So that was fun.

My art quilt daughter, Kristin La Flamme and her family, have made the move to Portland. I am so excited to have them here. There worldly goods are not arriving until the end of this week and so I had them over for dinner in our air conditioned condo on a 100° plus day. The highlight was the homemade peach ice cream that I made.

We also had a double date with Lisa and Clay and saw the very funny Amy Schumer movie, Train Wreck.

Icing on the cake was a visit with my long time interwebs friend, Mary Manahan from Philadelphia, whose daughter is starting law school at Lewis and Clark.

My disappointment last week was not getting into the High Fiber Diet Making Our Mark show. It is the first time I have not had a piece in the annual show. Such a bummer. I was really despondent and had a crisis of confidence regarding my work. Here are thumbnails of the the two entries:

MarGECfinalGNPweb

I will be interested to see the pieces that did make it in. Some were given alternate status, meaning they would get an airing when the venue was large enough. I’m sure glad I am not an alternate – that would tie up two pieces for over a year with no guarantee of being in an exhibit.

I did, get great news a couple of days ago. Ode to a Tree made it into the Oregon SAQA show and if I had a choice of shows to be in, it would be this one. They have quite a few venues lined up already. Here is a thumbnail of Ode to a Tree:

Ode-to-a-Tree

There was one other fail which I can’t discuss at this point. I might show the piece at some point.

The piece up at the top is almost finished for my July master class – late because I had a heck of a busy end of July. The theme was rhythm. I have to finish quilting it when I get home. I really like it

I am currently on the coast in Lincoln City in a cabin with Mr C and Scooter. We arrived last night.We are staying in a cabin at this funky motel on a cliff looking out over the Pacific Ocean.

seahorseinn

We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning.

morninglincolncitybeach

Today was day one of a mixed media/encaustic/fiber workshop with Lorraine Glessner at the Sitka Art and Ecology Center. It was awesome. I felt so refreshed and relaxed and happy when I came back to the cabin tonight.

Here is Lorraine getting ready to lecture.

lorrIaine Glessner

Our first task was to learn about how she rusts fabric and do some of our own. Here is a sample of her rusted silk.

Lorrainesrustedsilk

Here is my salt water soaked fabric with rusty bits doing their thing. I have a piece of dyed cheese cloth that and a couple of pieces of cotton.

rustingbag

Here are some of the goodies that we are working with.

encaustictools

pigmentedwaxpots

We started out just learning how to use the wax and to scrape it to expose layers. She made us get up and move to another persons piece and add a mark and some wax and we kept moving around the room. It was very liberating to leave our precious piece to others and to them work on someone else’s piece. I really liked what had happened to mine when I came back to it.

Here it is:

encaustic1

Here is how I left it tonight: (iPhone photo is a quite blurry, but I really love it.)

encasutic1final

So, there we go. I have such a great life. I have to move on and not let one disappointment take me down.

Just took this at the end of our street.

lincolncitysunset

Making a Mark

Sunday, July 19th, 2015

stitchedmark

I know that I have been missing from the blogisphere, but I have had a lot going on. I lost two days earlier in the week because I had a colonoscopy on Thursday and Wednesday was prep day – stayed close to home. The good news is that it was all clear and I don’t have to go back for another, ever.

And, I have been working to get three quilts finished and ready to photograph tomorrow. One, I can’t show you, as it is for a special project and I have been asked to keep it under wraps.

The other two are for the annual High Fiber Diet show. This year, our theme is Making Our Mark, done in neutral colors, with minimal other colors.

The mark that needs to be on or part of every piece is that little square up there. I want to submit this quilt:

MarGECfinal

I made it in one of the sizes that the committee asked for, but what to do about that mark. Up above, you can see that I stitched the mark down in the lower left corner so that it sort of looks like a chop mark.

The piece I have been working on all week is photographs of our trip to Glacier National Park. I played with them in photoship and printed them on Jacquard Extravorganza. I fused them to grey cotton and then to gray felt and I have been obsessively stitching on them all week.

aspenstitching

glacierparts

Here they are organized for stitching together. you can see that each segment is a different part of the square so that together, they make the mark.

 

glaciersneakpeek

We also had my daughter’s chihuahua for a week while she was in San Francisco taping an illustration workshop for Creative Bug. He is really not much trouble and is very loving. He spent the week on the sofa, behind me while I stitched and recovered from anesthesia.

wilfredodogwalkI still have to do facings on two of the quilts in the morning before I photograph them.

Blue Exhibit Opening and Current Work

Tuesday, July 7th, 2015

hhfdblues

This afternoon, Mr C and I braved the traffic on I-5 and drove up to Longview, WA to see the High Fiber Diet exhibit, What’s Blue to You, at the Lower Columbia College Art Center. The gallery was quite lovely and the show looked fantastic. I loved how they hung the blue and orange pieces together. You can see Blue Picasso Woman in this shot.

hfdblues4

We drove home on a different route, more back roads and it was lovely. We stopped at Burgerville for supper so that I could have Walla Walla onion rings.

I have been working on a neutrals piece for the next HFD show. It is composed of black and white photos from our trip to Glacier National Park. I printed them on Jacquard Extravorganza.

glacierphotos

I created pdfs of the photos and printed them poster style and fused them together to make them larger for the piece I am doing. I created a thermofax to print the title.

glacierprinting

I am doing some handstitching on each photo.

glacierstitching

glacierstiching2

Our hot, hot weather has finally abated and it was quite lovely today. What a relief.

What’s Blue to You

Friday, December 5th, 2014

bluepdxpicassowoman

Today, a few of us who have art quilts hanging at the Portland Airport, Concourse B, were escorted through a side door to view the exhibit. I must say that having the quilts all the same size made a big impact as you come upon it.

bluepdx1

bluepdx2

 

Here I am standing next to Blue Picasso Woman to give you an idea of the size.

gericonbluewomanpdx

Here is a view looking at the quilts from the other end.

bluepdx3

 

Here are some of my favorite quilts.

pdxblueheist

This is by Carol Heist, titled Schooling Around. The bit of red she used is a wonderful accent and she has a wonderful s curve going on in the overall design. She has a talent for incorporating unusual fabrics.

pdxbluekimberly

This is Kimberly Connelly with her piece. I always love blues and oranges together. This has a pleasing design and great use of value as an important design element. Kimberly was on her way to Palm Springs and just happened to show up when we were there!

pdxblueTerry

This is Terry Grant’s quilt titled First Day of School based on a memory of a new blue dress for the first day. So charming and evoking of a memory many of us have.

 

Across the hall from our exhibit are a group of art quilts representing Portland Bridges made by the Modern Quilt Guild.

 

pdxbluebridges

This was one of my favorites.

pdxbluebridges1

So, there you have it. A report from my fun field trip for the day.

This, That and The Other Thing

Sunday, July 27th, 2014

printforpokey

It was a beautiful day today and so, after church and some mega grocery shopping, I headed to the studio to print some fabric for a special project. (seen above)  I don’t have AC there and it is too hot to work there on most summer days.

I found a piece of fabric on which I had done some previous printing – think if was discharged. I used one of my stencils and daubed on some red paint.

pokeyprinting

Then, just for fun, I spatter painted with white paint.

pokeypaintspatter

It was fun to spend some time in my studio. I sort of cleaned up from the quilting frenzy for the blue show.

Speaking of the blue show,  the Blue Picasso Woman was juried in but not the sky blue pink piece. I was not surprised. I rushed that and I knew that the dyed cheese cloth was too centered. So, here is my plan. When I get it back I am going to do a major crop on the top and also some on the bottom and redo the flying geese. I think I can get it ready to enter into a different show.

Before

Before

 

After

After

On Friday, Mr C and I drove my 3 quilts up to Tacoma to The American Art Company for the exhibit which opens on August 16th. I had to add sleeves to the bottom with slats so that they will hang better, I guess. It was kind of a pain.

tacomaquilts

 

americanartcompany

I hope I can get up for the reception on the 16th. The gallery  is very spacious, and I have seen the show in the past and it looked great. Quilt Knit Stitch is happening that week and Kristin LaFlamme, one of the Twelves and my art quilt daughter is coming for the week. She has one of her Army Wife Aprons in a show here in Portland. It was curated by Marci McDade, the SDA Journal editor. Just before that, we are going to CA to hang out with Paige for a few days.

I have 3 exhibit receptions in August! The Simply Red show is opening in Newport down on the Oregon Coast, the Columbia Fiber Arts exhibit, Fiber Inspirations, is opening here in town at the ArtReach gallery and then the exhibit in Tacoma. Pretty cool!