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Archive for the ‘knitting’ Category

Here I Am!!

Monday, April 11th, 2016

Not sure if time is flying or time is dragging by, but anyway, I am in waiting mode for my new knee. I am trying to keep busy. My SDA job has been keeping me very busy. In the evening, I have been slow stitching and knitting. I am making progress on the piece for the SAQA auction. I am about half done with the front of the Winnie the Pooh sweater:

On Saturday, I went to my Oregon critique group in Eugene. Here are two of my quilts waiting to be discussed:

I have always felt that my Blue Picasso Woman needed something and she helped me realize what it is – she does not have enough space around her. I am thinking about cutting her up and redoing her as a more complicated Picassoesque piece:

Today, I spent the afternoon at the hospital getting poked and prodded to make sure I am fit for the surgery. Hopefully, I am. I have seen folks in worse shape than me come through it ok!!

Posted in critiques, handstitching, knitting, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Slow Stitching

Tuesday, April 5th, 2016

Well, I made a decision about using this fabric. None of my hand-dyes were playing well with it. Since the piece only needed to be 12 inches square, I thought it best to use just the two fabrics I purchased from Elin. I tried several different layouts and settled on a centered layout.

I walked down to the needlework shop on my street and found some embroidery threads to use. I also have some hand-dyed perle cotton from Laura Wasilowski.

I have been very busy with SDA database and spreadsheet work. I finally finished today and so started doing some stitching. I have also made progress on the Pooh Bear sweater. I am working on the front, now.

We had a fun local SDA meeting on Sunday. One of our members did a presentation on natural dyeing. Yesterday, my condo art quilters met for sharing and talking and then out to lunch. The condo we went to is at the other end of the street car line from me. So I have been busy, but it still feels like April is taking so long!

Posted in Condo Life, handstitching, knitting, My creations | Comments Off on Slow Stitching

Feeling Motivated

Monday, March 28th, 2016

We had a really nice Easter week-end and I am feeling pretty good, right now. I am managing my pain quite well, sleeping all night and looking forward to May and a new knee. I am also feeling some creative mojo creeping into my brain. I stopped in at my studio and picked up these fabrics last week. I want to make my SAQA 12 x 12 donation quilt using the fabrics I bought from Elin Noble mixed with some of my hand dyes. I have a preliminary layout:

I also have a great idea for a larger quilt that I would like to get done before my surgery. The plan I have would allow me to do a lot of the work while sitting at my work table here at home, in my ergonomic chair. Standing for even short periods is very difficult for me.

Yesterday was a great family day. We had Easter brunch at Stephanie’s. She made her traditional cinnamon rolls shaped like a lamb, quiche, salad and bacon. Then the whole family showed up here for dinner. I planned a menu that would not require me to be on my feet a lot. I made roasted salmon, potatoes and asparagus. Clay made a salad. Since Steph’s birthday is later this week, we decided to celebrate yesterday. I made her a special cake with all her favorite flavors in it – a butternut squash spice cake.

It was Paige’s 4th birthday on Saturday and we were sorry to miss spending it with her. I stole this photo from her mom’s instagram feed. Isn’t she adorable? I did get to facetime with her and sing happy birthday.

Her present isn’t quite done. I have the back of the Pooh sweater done and am starting the front.

So, life goes on here and it is not too bad.

Posted in Family, knitting, My creations, Paige Ada, SAQA | 2 Comments »

Searching for Periwinkle Blue

Monday, February 29th, 2016

I have been on a quest to get a periwinkle blue fabric. This is the closest I have gotten. At least the darker piece is close to what I have been wanting. I added the tiniest bit of fuchsia to blue dye.

I also squirted a melange of dye on some cheesecloth, just to see what I would get. And, I love it.

I am still feeling mopey and having good and bad days of pain. If I go to the studio and take a walk, it seems to be too much for my knee. I then have to spend the next day, doing as little as possible. I have gotten this much done on the sleeves for Paige’s Winnie the Pooh sweater.

I am going to work on doing a stitched collaged, using some of the demo fabrics I did for our printing class at Trinity. I want to give the students an idea of how to use their fabrics. Maybe I will have something to show tomorrow. I spent leap year day doing very little.

Posted in Dyeing, knitting, This and that | 1 Comment »

This and That

Monday, February 22nd, 2016

It has been an interesting few days since I last posted. I had all good intentions of celebrating my 11th blogiversary, but life got in the way. On Friday morning, Mr C had a TIA or mini-stroke and I spent a couple of days running back and forth from the ER and the hospital. It was minor and he recovered very quickly, but it was scary for a time.

Up above is a snippet of an old piece that I did for my Israel trip solo show, a few years ago. It is about the graffiti on the Palestinian side of the security wall. I thought it would work well for the SAQA turmoil show, but it was not quite big enough so I am mounting it on black dupioni silk. I quite like it. I think it gives it more presence.

Last night, Mr C and I had the fun experience of attending a chocolate tasting party with our friends who took a chocolate class at the London Cordon Bleu when they were living there. We had six different chocolates, 3 from France and 3 from Portland. They had varying amounts of cacao.