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Archive for August, 2009

Iraqi Bundle of Love

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

scootersupervises

I know, most quilters have cats who help them pack their IBOLs (Iraqi Bundles of Love), but I have Scooter. He was very curious about what I was doing.

I got such a kick out of Art LaFlamme’s instructions; they are very engineering sounding, but effective. He ends up with a bundle of goodies ready to be given away; it is really brilliant.

Today, I ran over to the Mill Ends store near me and picked up some nice large remnants to put in my box. I wanted to send some pieces large enough that they could be used for something in Iraq.

The first thing to do is lay some twill tape, or ribbon or yarn crisscrossed in the box.

apoboxprep

Then you lay a large piece of fabric over the ties and form a pouch for placing the goodies.

apofabricliner

Then fill it with fabric and notions. I threw in some yarn, too.

apoboxfilled

Tie the bundle up.

apoboxtiedbundle

Scooter checks and rechecks.

apoboxscootercheck

As I was checking out, I saw this box of mints which I placed on top for Art. I should have made him cookies or brownies, but then that would limit the fabric.

forart

If you want to participate in this, but don’t have the stash or the time to put a bundle together, here is a great opportunity. Sew Mama Sew has this wonderful offer.

For your contribution of fifteen dollars we will send one Iraqi Bundle of Love to US soldiers who will distribute the bundles to Iraqi families and sewing co-ops. One bundle will include:

  • 5 yards of new fabric
  • 16 sewing needles in a case
  • 32 pearlized pins on a wheel
  • 1 tomato pincushion
  • 1 pair folding scissors
  • 1 150 yd spool white thread

The cost of shipping is included in the price!

What a deal.

Good Mail Day

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

sunsetcomposition

Sunset Composition arrived home from Kansas City where it was part of the SDA Member’s Show. I had forgotten about it. I am excited because it is a piece that I can enter in PAQA South’s Illumination show. Do you think it will fit the theme?

I also received the DVD’s of the conference and technique sharing. Because of my schedule, I missed some of the talks so will enjoy watching these.

sdavideos

And, I also received this wonderful piece of jewelry from Broken Plate Pendant Company. The wonderful artist and friend of our family, Diana Fayt, had these wonderful pendants made from shards of a broken pot. If you click on the link, you will see the pot before it broke and read about the good cause that it supports. I love it.

brkendishespendent

Today, I decided to clean and organize the laundry room/mud room/dog feeding room/put it here if you don’t know where it belongs room. I purged, found lost things and reorganized. It took me all day because I took lots of breaks to walk the dog, eat lunch and think about things.

We are having the big family get-together in mid September so I am trying to keep on top of things. I think the caterers may want to use that room for some staging. Speaking of which, I finalized the menu —

  • Bruschetta – topped with house made mozzarella & three pestos – classic basil, oven-dried tomato and kalamata olive.
  • Chicken Romabreast of chicken wrapped with proscuitto di Parma and sage leaves.  Brushed with extra virgin-olive oil and hardwood grilled.
  • Organic Field Greens – with Mountain gorgonzola, pears and Oregon hazelnuts in a balsamic vinaigrette.
  • Orchid Noodle Salad – snow peas, red peppers and carrots tossed in a soy-balsamic vinaigrette with linguine.
  • Rice Pilaf – a savory blend of wild rices, mushrooms and spices.
  • Wood-oven Roasted Vegetables – fresh seasonal vegetables roasted with extra virgin olive oil
  • Whole Grilled Salmon – marinated in asian plum sauce or lemon and herbs, wrapped with banana leaves and finished on the hardwood grill. Served with a Thai basil dipping sauce.
  • Braised Short Ribs – boneless beef short ribs braised with red wine and aromatics.
  • Freshly baked Grand Central breads – Served with Smoked Garlic butter
  • Cassata – kahlua soaked sponge cake with a sweetened ricotta and chopped chocolate filling. Garnished with Chantilly cream.
  • Boccone Dolceswiss meringues drizzled with semisweet chocolate and layered with whipped cream and fresh fruit. A classic northern Italian dessert.
  • Cheesecakesclassic New York style poached cheesecake made with cream cheese and sour cream. Ask about our seasonal varieties.
  • Caramel Nut Tart walnut shortbread crust filled with caramel, walnuts and pecans. Finished with rich chocolate ganache.

Papa Haydn, known for their desserts, is doing the catering so a plethora of goodies is included. The Cassata is a cake, the others are miniatures.

We watched The Reader tonight — fabulous movie. I am tired. G’ night.

A Great Summer Day

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

aspenbackground

I had a fabulous day with my grandchildren and Mr C and still managed to work in the studio. This is a temporary layout for a fused background for the next aspen landscape. I fuse the fabric to parchment paper and then I lift the whole thing off and fuse it as one piece to the batting. This way, I can rearrange pieces. Once it is fused to the batting, I will add the backing and quilt it. The aspens get added after that.

This morning Mia and Miles arrived early. I have been promising to take Mia to the Escher exhibit at the Portland Art Museum. Miles did not want to go, but Mr C wanted to go and promised him a visit to the gift shop.Here is Mia with Abe Lincoln on our way into the museum

miaandabe

We really enjoyed the Escher exhibit. It was so neat to see his preliminary drawings and sketches. The Metamorphose which was a continuous changing and morphing design was awesome.

We also enjoyed the tattoo exhibit and watched a slide show of tattoo art on people from Portland. You can see them at this Flickr site. You will be warned about this site because it shows body parts!

Here is a shot of the Sculpture Garden as we were leaving. I am quite fond of these horses. There are 3 or 4 on the entrance to PDX airport.

sculpturegarden

We bought some goodies for M & M and some jewelry for me. I love glass rings because I am allergic to some metals so I picked up a couple. Here is Mia’s choice — The Pocket Guide to Girl Stuff. She read this instead of eating lunch!!

miaspocketguide

Miles scored a book of fake Geek Tattoos. I put one on his arm and forgot to get a photo.

geektatoos

Miles was adamant that he wanted sushi for lunch so we headed back to our neighborhood sushi restaurant, Tani’s.

tanidecor

Mr C and Miles were trying to decide what drinks to order.

milesandmrc

Because Mia was reading, Miles ate both California rolls. She did eat her miso soup.

It was a great day and then I got to watch 3 hours of Project Runway. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Fabric Audition

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

dyepaintedorganza

I am in the process of auditioning fabrics for another Aspen landscape. One of the best parts of being a fiber artist is auditioning fabric for a piece. I get so excited when I make a discovery in my stash of art cloth such as this dye painted organza. I realized that if I cut it in strips, it would make perfect Aspens or Birches.

organzaaspens

I went to High Fiber Diet tonight, my art quilt group. I met Terry at the Mexican restaurant next door for dinner. I had a fabulous Pozole soup. We talked about our Line Dancing show and possible venues and our next show which will be View from the Top. I hope we change the name to View from Above.

For a little levity, here is my silly Scooter hanging out in the studio with me. He is always on the move when he is not prone so the photo is sort of blurry. He is such a good boy, learning new commands every day. He loves to play fetch, and I think he sometimes wishes he had younger humans.

scootersillyface

Just Another Not So Manic Monday

Monday, August 17th, 2009

spoonerlakeaspens

Today was a nice normal, yet busy Monday. A welcome relief from the end of last week! This is my 994th blog post. I plan to have a drawing when I do my 1000th post and this little Spooner Lake Aspens quilt could be available to the winner.

Yesterday (Sunday), I decided to look for exterminators to rid us of our yellow jacket infestation. I found someone in our neighborhood who works 7 days a week and specializes in bee, wasp and hornet extermination. We called and he was here in less than an hour. He had nothing nice to say about yellow jackets. We are happy to have them gone.

waspexterminator

Yesterday morning, we finally had our family gathering for breakfast at a local restaurant. The walls were decorated with delightful children’s drawings.

toastdrawings

Mia did this one to add to the mix.

miadrawing

We took Lisa to the airport in the late afternoon. All that is left is her paint palette, on a piece of glass, which I found in my studio today.

lisapaintpallette

Earlier this month, I made a to do list with some large projects that had been nagging at the back of my mind. I am so pleased with the progress that I have made. I have inventoried and safely stored all of my quilts. I updated my website. I have made some great progress getting organized for the big family to do next month. One thing that I started on tonight and am having doubts about, is applying for Professional Artist Membership in SAQA.

I hope to get back into the studio tomorrow. I have creative work to do!!