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Archive for May, 2010

Artist’s Remorse?

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

The leaves are attached, and of course, I now have that sinking feeling that the leaves are not working. But, then, of course this is my vision of an aspen landscape. Tonight, at High Fiber Diet meeting, we were asked to describe our work in one or two sentences as we’d like to read in a review. I said that I distill the essence of a landscape down to a few elegant details. That is what I have tried to do here. We shall see if it is good enough to get into the Oregon SAQA show.

I pinned the leaves in place on my design wall and rearranged until I thought it looked right. I used basting glue to tack each one in place. I then machine stitched each one through the center. I didn’t care for the really floppy look of the leaves, so I used some Misty fuse to tack them down a bit more.

I am going to put a facing on this and try to get one more piece done. It will be about trees, and there may be felting involved!!

Aspen Leaves

Monday, May 17th, 2010

I decided that I did not want to fuse the Aspen leaves to the quilt. I want to give them some definition.

Here is my solution. First, I fused the leaves to the same or coordinating fabric.

With tear away stabilizer underneath, I free motion quilted the veins of the leaves.

Now, I am in the process of cutting them out. Tear away stabilizer is very functional, but so messy. Next, I will find a way to attach them to the quilt so that they have some dimension.

I was the ENT today. She was an intern and was reluctant to do more than tell me that I had inflamed sinuses (duh!). She wants me to try cortisone nasal spray again for a month with the daily saline rinses. If I do not get some relief or if I have a flare up, they will revisit my situation and order a cat scan.

She numbed the inside of my nose and then put a very skinny camera up each nostril. What a weird feeling that was.

Our balmy weather is over for a while. We are back to chilly rainy weather.

Aspen Progress

Sunday, May 16th, 2010

It took me most of the day to get my act together and get down to the studio. We were runningĀ  out of leftovers so I had to do some grocery shopping and walk the dog and tend to my gardens.

This afternoon, I fused the trees to some off white dupioni silk. Then I recut them with the rotary cutter.

I machine appliqued the trees to the background and did some free motion stitching on them. You can see the photo above.

I really enjoyed having Lisa and Clay here for a few days. Scooter was especially happy to have the extra attention.

Tomorrow, I am seeing an ENT doctor about my chronic sinusitis and the possibility of surgery. Hope to get some relief!

Wonderful Weekend

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

What gorgeous weather. Great house guests!

I have been busy entertaining and enjoying the great out of doors, but I have managed to get in a little more studio time. I played with aspen trunk and leaf placement this afternoon. Everything is pinned in place. I can see that the one set of leaves is a little clumpy, might want to work on that.

Last night, we had our first party on the deck. We had the family and two of Lisa’s artist friends here for dinner. I had vegan fare of chicken seitan and mushroom kabobs and lamb kabobs for the carnivores. We also had lavash and tzatziki, roasted potatoes and couple of fabulous salads. I made blackberry/apricot puff pastry tarts for dessert with coconut bliss vanilla ice cream. Here are some photos.

Pensive Miles. So handsome!

Lisa and Pablo, her friend, Trish’s. chi.

Steph and Mia with Pablo.

And Scooter, being a good boy! He got his summer do yesterday.

Tonight we are off to our monthly Sojourners dinner. I am taking salad. Better get to it and make myself look presentable.

Feeling Groovy

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Yesterday, I recovered from what ever was ailing me and I was able to get all my housework done. I went to the market and picked up some special provisions for the visiting vegans. I made some bodacious hummus. Life is good when you are feeling healthy!!

This morning, Lisa and Clay took off with my car to do some shopping and to hang out with Steph and pick the kids up from school. I got down to the studio and started wrangling the big quilt with the painted background. My first quilting attempt, in a vertical direction, just didn’t work. So I ripped that out. This time, I quilted horizontally. I think that I might have done something a little more organic, but this piece is so big and heavy, this seemed like the best solution. Here is a detail:

I am making dinner for the girls and two of their artist friends who live in Portland. M & M and their parents will come also. The weather is great. We can sit on the deck. I love it. I love the light as the day is ending in the summer time.

If I am lucky, I might have time to start adding the trees and leaves tomorrow!