Month: March 2008 | Crazy for Fiber

March 2008
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Archive for March, 2008

Finally…

Saturday, March 8th, 2008

I am going to show you all Indigo Construction which is in the Good to be Green show. Larkin’s husband did the photography and I think has shown the quilt in its best light, so to speak. My take on the good to be green is tied to the indigo dyeing procedure. With indigo dyeing, you must dip the fabric in the dye vat, take it out, let it oxidize, dip it again, etc. When it first comes out of the dye, it is green and then after oxidation, it turns blue – so, it is good to be green.

It has been a busy day around here. Milo wanted pancakes for breakfast.

Here is Milo in his new glasses. Didn’t I tell you he was really cute?

After lunch, Steph and Jack came and picked them up. I took Maggie for a walk and then made a mad dash to the grocery store to get the fixings for dinner. I made beef, brown rice and cremini mushroom stew, rosemary roasted potatoes, spinach, grapefruit and avocado salad. Steph made a delicious lemon cheese cake with a ginger crust, served with raspberry coulis.

Here are the girls who have been having a great time together in Portland. They are all Indie designer/artists and it is so much fun to hang out with them.

Left to right: My daughter Stephanie, my daughter Lisa, Lisa’s friend, Lorena, and slightly hidden by the flowers, Trish, who lives here in Portland. Lorena is from Argentina. Her husband is a clothes designer for Gap – boys. She is such a lovely young woman – I could adopt her!! Trish is an untrained artist who has amazing drawing skills. She moved here from Texas and started painting and has made a great life for herself as an artist. She brought her chihuahua, Pablo, and Maggie was not too happy.

Now, I must get to sleep early so that I will get to Tillamook on time for my video interview. I will post photos tomorrow night.

Posted in Construction series, Dyeing, Family, indigo, M & M, My Brilliant Daughters, My creations, shibori | 6 Comments »

This and That

Friday, March 7th, 2008

The Kimono Collage is getting there. I finished the circle layer and am now playing with the red lines. I need to do some more work on this.

This afternoon, Mr C and I went shopping. First, we checked out some bathroom sinks and cabinets at a couple of showrooms. I am liking this simple look.

Or something like this:

We then did some clothes shopping, and we each got some cool stuff for the changing seasons. I love Eileen Fisher clothes as they are very forgiving to the aging body. I was able to select some items in smaller sizes that fit a bit snug, but that will fit for a while as I continue to lose the lbs.

Then it was off to the reception for Lisa’s mixed media show. I took my camera, but did I take any photos? No! We brought M & M home with us. After they got into their jammies, they had some ice cream and a bed time story.

Miles now wears glasses for reading. I will try to get a photo of him tomorrow. They are blue wire rims, from France. He looks so darn cute.

Posted in Bathroom Renovation, Family, House and home stuff, M & M, My Brilliant Daughters, My creations, This and that | 4 Comments »

Kimono Collage

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

You all know that I am finishing a six week class with Liz Berg. I am currently working on my final project and I find that Liz has taken over my brain. I am working in a much more intentional way. I have always worked very intuitively — sort of throwing bits of fabric at the design wall to see what sticks. I knew what I liked and didn’t like, but I didn’t always understand why. I often finished a piece too soon, only to discover later that it could have been better, if only…

Now that I have worked through the design principles with Liz, I feel empowered. I know that I can figure out how to make a design better. So, I am really having a good time reworking the Kimono Collage. I do some work. Take a photo. Upload it to the computer. Look at it. Change it to grey scale to take the color out of the equation. Print it out. Look some more. Go back to the design wall and make changes.

Even though this is a fused quilt, I do not totally fuse it down until I am done designing. I sort of tack things with my little iron. Then, it is easy to remove pieces and replace them.

So, here is the latest incarnation:

I think I am about ready to add the red weaving and finish it. Oops, I just noticed something that I want to change. It never ends.

Lisa arrived today and is off with her arty friends from Portland, doing first Thursday in the Pearl. Tomorrow, she hangs her show. Tomorrow night, we will go to the opening and then bring M & M home with us to spend the night. Saturday, we will have a family dinner and celebrate Jack’s birthday, which is today. And so is my handsome son’s. He and Jayme are coming for Easter so we will do some celebrating with them then.

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Another Opening, Another Show

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

Tomorrow, my daughter Lisa and her friend, Lorena, are arriving from San Francisco for the week-end. Lisa has a show opening here on Friday night.

On Sunday, I am heading over to Tillamook, on the coast of Oregon, for the opening of “It’s Good to be Green!”

I have to be there at 11 am to be videotaped for a little film that will run throughout the duration of the show. It will feature interviews with some of the artists. Terry will be there, too. Then, I will be able to show you the piece that I did. A CD catalog is available here.

I managed to get a bit more work done on the kimono collage. I forgot to get a photo of the background. So, you will just have to imagine what it looked like. Once that is fused down, I started cutting circles of various sizes from the fabrics. I have one of those handy, dandy Olfa circle cutters.

My mission is to blur the background grid so that it no longer looks like a grid!

Here it is a little further along with some red strips which I will add to the piece and hopefully make them look as if they are weaving in and out of the fabric pieces.

I am not sure how much time I will have to work on this until Monday – which is frustrating because I am having so much fun.

Oops, almost forgot to mention. I was back up .2 of a pound today. This is getting old!! But I will hangeth in.

Posted in Family, Fusing, My creations, Quilt Shows | 5 Comments »

Primary Fatigue

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

As you know, if you read this blog often, I am a political nut. I loves me some good political discussion, but tonight, I have to admit to being so over Hillary Clinton and the primary. I wanted it to be over tonight and it didn’t happen. I believe that Obama will be the candidate, but we are going to have to endure months of scaring, religion bias, “you like him better” whining and bad pant suits. Enough said.

On with the creative side of my blog. Just a reminder, when I started my blog back in 2005, the header said: “The artful creations of a high fiber grandma with occasional political rants.”

Here are 3 little pieces I did for the class with Liz. The assignment was to do 3 compositions where the focal point changes from far to near, using the same design idea. I did a lunar eclipse with indigo aspens.

I started on a vintage Japanese fabric collage composition today. It will also be my final composition for Liz’s class.

The first step is to put a large piece of Teflon on my pressing table, followed by a layer of Misty Fuse. Misty Fuse has no paper backing. I love that it does not change the hand of the fabric significantly. I then layer the pieces of vintage kimono fabric over the Misty Fuse.