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Archive for October, 2006

Trick or Treat

Tuesday, October 31st, 2006

No doubt about it, these two are a treat and just too cute for their own good.

Aliceinwonderland_1

Alice in Wonderland

Milotheviking

Milo the Viking

I got my Art Quilt Tahoe supplies packed up and sent off. I am currently working on scanning and printing, on fabric, art work from the children in Milo’s pre-school. Steph and I are making a quilt to be auctioned at the annual Puddletown Pre-school Art Show and Sale.

I am taking a couple of days off to play with Lisa, Steph and M & M, tomorrow, and June and Terry on Thursday. I have so many deadlines looming – it will be a very busy November and December.

Anticipation

Monday, October 30th, 2006

I have so much to look forward to in the coming weeks and months.

Wednesday, Lisa is coming to spend a few days with us.

Thursday, I am taking the train to Tacoma with June and Terry to see the American Art Company’s exhibit that opened last week ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù 9th Northwest Art Quilt Invitational. June is reviewing it for the Art Quilt Reviews Blog.

Sunday, I am heading for Art Quilt Tahoe where I will see Liz, Kristin and Teri and many other cool art quilters. I am taking two sessions. The first session is with Jeanette Meyer, who is from Portland. She is teaching a design class. The next session, I am taking a studio class with Charlotte Yde.

I have to ship my supplies tomorrow and I am having a hard time getting my s— together, if you know what I mean. Here is the pile that I need to organize and pack and take to FedEx tomorrow.

Packingfortahoe

Larkin Van Horn, who lives on Whidby Island, is curating a show for the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center in Tilamook and has invited me to make a piece. The theme is “It’s Good to be Green”. I am
using a double meaning for green ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù using recycled textiles that are green. Today, I received these Japanese Kimono sleeves. The quilt dimensions have to be 18″ wide and 45 ” long. I am hoping to get a good start on this in the studio class with Charlotte.

Kimonosleeves

I also received this in the mail and am looking forward to wearing it at Tahoe. It was dyed and screenprinted by Debra with a thermofax screen that I made for her. You, too, can own one. Go to her blog and see all the cool shirts she has made.

Tshirt

It is pretty chilly here in Portland so I have enjoyed wearing the hat and gloves that Mr C gave me for my birthday and that makes him happy.

Hopefully, tomorrow, I can post photos of M & M dressed for Halloween.

Unexpected Color Surprise

Saturday, October 28th, 2006

We never visited Oregon in October before we moved here.We were here in early September and late November and often in December. So It is an unexpected and delightful surprise to find glorious fall color in our neighborhood. Eastmoreland had an abundance of old and stately trees. Even the elms, which have been wiped out in much of the US, abound in our neighborhood. I think I love them most. The are very tall and the leaves are yellow. Yesterday afternoon, Mr C, Maggie and I took a walk in the late afternoon sunshine and got these photos.

Here are some of the elms:

Yellowelms

Yellowelms2

Yellowelms3

Yellowelms4

Eastmorelandfallcolor

Here are some other beautiful fall sites in the neighborhood.

Eastmorelandfallcolor2

Redberries_1

Eastmorelandfallcolor3

Eastmorelandfallcolor4

These are a couple of shots of the Reed College Campus. I love how the sun is making the elms glow in the background.

Reedcollegefallcolor

Reedcollegefallcolor2

Here are some shots of the landscaping, Phase 1.

This is the bluestone walkway. the rest of the walk will be done next year. You can see that my lime green Japanese Maples have gotten their fall color, too.

Bluestonewalkway

Landscapefrontofhouse

Landscapegarageside

Tomorrow night, we are having our first non-family dinner party. Our church has a program called Sojourners. Groups of eight meet together for a year. Some go out to restaurants, but we have a group that likes to entertain at home. I am making the main course, and the rest of the meal will be brought by other members of the group. I’m making pork with figs in a balsamic vinegar sauce and polenta with roasted butternut squash.

Round Robin Collage Phase 4

Wednesday, October 25th, 2006

It is that time of month again. The latest piece in the Round Robin Collage needed to be played with and sent on its way to the next person. This piece was the most difficult for me, so far. Here it is as I received it. I am the fourth person to work on it.

Rr4dz

It had a shiny painted background. There was a collage of paper pieces in the center section. The top section has a bone wired to the center. In the upper left is a very complex postcard with Angelina fibers, tyvek and beads. There are beads scattered across the piece with some clusters on the tight side. I didn’t know what to do until I saw a post on Mrs Mel’s blog. She showed an in progress painting with a paper towel as part of the background.

Here is a paper towel that I painted with colors complementary to the piece.

Rrpaintedpapertowel

While it was still damp, I tore holes in it and tore the edges so that they were not straight. I collaged it to the piece and added some ribbon strips that complemented the colors, but had nice texture. I placed the holes in the napkin so that bead clusters would show through.

Rrpaptowelcollaged

I took some of the torn strips and placed them on the left side of the piece.

Rrpaptowelcollaged2

I then found some words that fit the emotion of this piece: surreal, enigma, wild earth and creativity, and collaged them.

Rrwordcollage

I used a marker to color over the words to make them fit into the background.

Here is the result.

Rr4dzfini

This was a difficult challenge, but I really enjoyed working outside my box. I’m having a lot of fun doing these.

A Long Over Due Rant

Tuesday, October 24th, 2006

I just voted. It’s true. I live in a state where we vote in the privacy of our home and stick our ballot in an envelope and mail it in. I heard on the news today that the sooner you send it in, the less likely your chances of being bugged by those annoying political phone calls. I am very happy to be living in such a forward thinking state and the greenest city in the country. A state where it is legal to have your doctor assist you in ending your life. I live in a neighborhood where political signs embracing liberal measures and candidates abound. It can give you a false sense of security.

This election is so critical. We are losing our moral fiber as a country. Quoting Molly Ivans: With
a smug stroke of his pen, President Bush has wiped out a safeguard
against illegal imprisonment that has endured as a cornerstone of legal
justice since the Magna Carta.
This is only one of the outrageous acts of an administration hell bent on turning us toward fascism. Those in power are perfect examples of how power corrupts. And don’t you just love the spin they are now putting on the war in Iraq, now that they realize how more and more of the country is no longer under their spell?

Mr C and I are news junkies. I love listening to Air America, the left wing radio station. Mr C keeps up with all of the news blogs and checks the polling data. It is nail biting time. The Democrats need to pick up 15 seats in the House and 6 seats in the Senate to bring some sanity back to Washington. One minute I hear that there will be huge losses for the Republicans and the next that the Republicans will sneak by and maintain control.

I can’t imagine how that could happen. I’ve said this before ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù If you are not outraged, you are not paying attention. If this country allows the Republicans to stay in control or if the Democrats can’t win back Congress, then not only are we screwed as a country, but we probably deserve what we will get. That is really sad to think about.

My advice to all of you: VOTE, VOTE, VOTE!!! Be part of the 2007 voting revolution.

SAD update. My Happy Light and Rise and Shine Light arrived today.I have the Happy Light on my computer desk. I was sitting by it for a while this afternoon when I decided I should read the brochure. It warns that you should use it in the morning for no more than 30 minutes otherwise it can cause sleeplessness and I read on-line that too much of the light can cause manic episodes in some people. Oh, oh ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù I better be careful I am feeling quite energetic tonight – yee hah! I have the rise and shine light all set up to start at 6:30 and to take 30 minutes to reach full light. I will report on that next time.

What have I been doing? I finished work on another Round Robin collage. Pictures tomorrow. I am also working on a piece for the Making Her Mark show. More on that later.