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Archive for September, 2007

Japanese Garden Show

Friday, September 14th, 2007

This afternoon, I worked at our Japanese Garden Show. Look at this lovely banner that one of our member’s made:

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Here is a shot of the interior of the pavilion. We are not supposed to take photos, but I thought one long shot of the room would be ok.

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On one side of the pavilion, you can look out and see Mt Hood in the distance. I would have taken a photo, but you wouldn’t be able to see Mt. Hood, today. One gentleman told me he had come all the way from Germany for that view — he was very disappointed. On the other side is this zen garden. It was fun to watch as this gardener raked in the design of the day.

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I am very happy to say that I have sold two items so far. One of my shibori scarves, and the Winter Bamboo Fence.

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It is going to reside on Central Park West in NYC. I am so excited. It was such a thrill to be present. The woman and her husband were here to visit their son who is a student at Reed College. I watched as she stared at this piece for a long time. Then she would walk away and then come back. I went to the storage room to find a new piece to hang for someone else. I was told that the woman wanted the business card of the artist and they told her that I was there. So I went out and talked to her. I explained all of the processes — as this piece has a lot going on. She looked at my other work. Then she went and got her husband, and they bought it. So, it is gone. In this show, we let folks take the work home, and we put up new work.
I am putting the satin stitch edging on the Journal Quilt, and I am quite happy with it now.

Thursday This and That

Thursday, September 13th, 2007

I am starting with a bit of a rant, tonight. At 9 pm EDT, what were you doing? I was not watching our pig-headed president once again try to scare us into believing that leaving our troops in harm’s way is a good thing. Mr C and I could not bear to listen and so we watched an HGTV re-run. Does anyone believe the report that was given to Congress? I feel so sad for the Iraqis who have been killed and who now live in terror — captives in their homes, if they have not fled where they now live as refugees in another country. Most of the time I just don’t want to deal with this. I want to pretend that this chaos is not continuing in the name of operation Iraqi Freedom. Is it best to sit idly, waiting for the end of Bush’s term? Or should we start hitting the streets, as we did during the Vietnam war?

Next on my list is a report in on my weight. I lost almost a pound during the last two weeks. I missed a weigh-in last week because I was partying with Mr C. It is slow, but going in the right direction.

I am so behind in answering e-mails and comments on my blog. I have had a very busy week. I also am having a major sinus allergy attack this week.

This morning was STASH, the small group that I meet with once a month. We met at Reva’s, and she made us an incredible lunch of grilled veggies, a garbanzo/kidney bean salad and a pasta salad with shrimp. This was finished off with a plum crisp , made with plums from the tree in her backyard.

In between meetings and other things, I have been working away on the Journal Quilt. I was so depressed with it last night when I went to bed. This morning, I came down to pack up stuff to take to the meeting and thought maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought. My quilty friends gave it a thumbs up and made me feel a little better about it.

Tonight, I finished the quilting and I think that has helped pull the piece together. Here are a couple of more sneak peaks. I was looking through some of my fabrics and found some grids that I had screen printed in Rayna’s class. I thought they referenced the high rise windows in the skyline of Seattle.

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Here is the reflection of the space needle in a high rise, printed on organza and quilted. I love how it looks.

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Tomorrow, I am going to work the show at the Japanese Garden in the afternoon. Congrats to Terry who had sold two pieces as of yesterday. I am going to try to sneak some photos of the show. We are not supposed to take photos of the work, but I think some long shots will be ok.

Happy Christmas and Other Good Stuff

Tuesday, September 11th, 2007

Yesterday, while I was at the Japanese Garden, the mail arrived. Mr C didn’t hear the mail carrier and so a slip of paper was left saying a package could not be delivered and could be picked up today at the post office. After a quick trip back to the Japanese Garden to take care of a couple of things, Mr C and I stopped to pick up the mysterious package which had come through customs.

I digress. I just want to say that the show at the Japanese Garden looks wonderful and the pavilion was full of folks when we got there. And a sale was in progress.

Back to the package. When I saw who it was from, I got really excited. Once home, I opened the package and found this lovely box.

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Inside, wrapped in tissue was the soft sculpture creche set that Kristin made for me. I set them up on the mantle right away. I wanted to get out my whole collection so that they could meet each other and have an early Christmas party — even if it was almost 90° today.

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Each piece is so exquisite, with wonderful fabrics and embroidered features. Here they all are; you can click on them to see them larger.

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Now, I have to finish an Aspen quilt for her. I hope I can make something as lovely as this.

Oh! And there was fabric, too! I am so in love with the hand-dyed cheese cloth — I can hardly stand it!!

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This afternoon I got back to work on the Journal Quilt. I am feeling less stressed and enjoying the process of putting this together, which is as it should be!!

I wasn’t happy with the other screen that I made and so I selected a different photo of the Seattle Library grids and fiddled with it in Photoshop.

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Here are a couple of prints that I made using brass paint. The top is on a hand-dyed cotton and the bottom is on gold metal mesh. This photo is a little blurry, but you can see that it is a much better print.

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I don’t know which will work in the jq.

Tomorrow is Columbia Stitchery Guild meeting. Larkin Van Horn is our guest speaker. I can’t wait to meet her.

Making Progress

Saturday, September 8th, 2007

I finally got the big Epson printer to work. This printer takes 7 ink cartridges. When I print on fabric, I like to use the matte black instead of the photo black. Sometimes, the printer does not get the message that I have made a change and that I wanted to make a change. It will not recognize the new cartridge and keeps telling me that I have to change the settings, which I have already done. It finally worked and then I didn’t like the result and had to start over.

I can not show you the final journal quilt, which has to be 17 X 22 inches. But I will show you the parts! The theme is architectural grids – particularly, Seattle. I am using this discharged fabric and the other fabric is a painted fabric.

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I took a photo of the skyline of Seattle from the ferry which I played with in Photoshop and printed on fabric. The first print was too washed out so I printed it again on a tighter weave cotton and pumped up the color saturation.

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I had a photo of the space needle reflected in a high rise which I took on our trip last summer. I played with the color of this and printed it on organza.

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Last summer when we were in Seattle, we toured the new library. I love the grids in the architecture and took some photos with plans to create some thermofax screens. Here is the original photo.

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I made a screen of this and I am not totally happy with it. Maybe because of my attempt to screen on copper mesh!

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Well, that is all I can share with you. I had to take some time out today to run down to Trinity with some tablecloths and stuff to set up the Arts Commission tables for sampler Sunday, tomorrow. I might get a little bit of work time tomorrow, but I have a few things to finish for the Japanese Garden show. Then I have to get everything ready to take up to the Garden for set up on Monday morning. Then it is back home to get ready for our EFM group to come for a dinner get-together to kick off our fall season.

Today, I remembered to take my camera when I took Maggie for a walk. These were taken on the Reed College campus. This is an installation with large hot pin letters on the front lawn.

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This is the second time and the second place that I have seen this bunny — wonder what this is about?

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Frantic Friday

Friday, September 7th, 2007

I am a bit frantic because I can’t get back in the groove in the studio. I have to get my journal quilt done and I am getting frantic. I had to drive home yesterday because Mr C’s knee is really bothering him. I also am doing all the dog walking. I volunteered to work on the youth website for Trinity and I needed to send the pages this morning. I am having a problem with my big Epson printer. I need to print a photo on cotton for the journal quilt and the printer is not cooperating. I did get screens made for the journal quilt. I also printed a photo on organza. More on that in my next post. I will get it done!!!!

Yesterday, when we arrived home, I found something wonderful in the mail. A couple of weeks ago, Christine, who comments on my blog quite often, made a request on the Quilt Art list. She needed a black bead for the eye of a crow on her journal quilt. I e-mailed her and said that I would send her an assortment of black beads to chose from.

I received such a nice gift in return. It really seems out of proportion, it is so cool. With the help of Terry, she looked at some photos of me and made these two pieced blocks — the young Gerrie and the current Gerrie. Actually, the current Gerrie is a little more svelte than I now am, but I hope to look like that soon. Mr C was so amused at the lime green shoes.

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I must put these in to a little art quilt that I can hang in my office. Thank you so much, Christine!!

I took this photo of Ruby the dog at the Willows Lodge. She is an adorable laid back dog. Notice the sign next to her bed which is sort of a throne.

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I am hoping for a better day tomorrow. Right now I am going to do some searching on line for Epson support.