home
about the artist
gallery
blog
links
contact

Archive for September, 2011

Quilt Rehab

Thursday, September 15th, 2011


Remember this piece? Beautiful bits of painted organza — total mess of a composition. It now is dismantled and lying in the heap you see above.

I realized when it was done that the proportions of my little pockets were off. I think they need to be square to get the kind of flow that I have in the other 2 pieces:

So I took it apart and trimmed the pockets and will now reassemble the piece. I am going to change the dimensions a bit, too.

I went to Fabric Depot today to buy a quilt basting gun for attaching the Twelve by Twelve quilts to the felt panels that Terry and I have been working on. She is sick today, but if she is well enough, we will get to work on them tomorrow.

While I was there, I started looking at fabric for a quilt for my great niece Gwen. She has orange, yellow and green in her room. I decided to do polka dots and stripes. The backing will be the white with multicolored dots in flannel.

Not sure when I will fit it in, but, sometimes doing mindless piecing is a stress reduce for me.

Art Collection Acquisition

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

I am so happy that I was able to purchase this lovely piece, String Poetry, by Wen Redmond from the SAQA auction. I have admired her work for a long time.

I was at guild this morning and then realised that I needed to ship a quilt to LaConner Quilt and Textile Museum by Saturday — oops. I had lost the e-mail with instructions, but Kathleen, the curator, sent me every thing I needed, and I dropped it off at Fedex and went to the Farmer’s market. When I got home, I checked in on the auction and saw Wen’s quilt sitting there without a buyer. I was thrilled to have a chance to purchase it. I hope to pick up one more this year.

I have put my text quilt on hold for a bit and am rehabilitating another piece. I will share what I am doing tomorrow.

Jumping Back In

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

I have such a bad studio habit and time is getting away from me. I have so many deadlines and I am afraid of missing most of them. I know that if I just get to work, I won’t want to stop. I have an idea for a piece using text and handwritten words.

I tested different discharge methods on the background fabric and decided to use the metallic gold de Coulourant.

I taped the fabric to the table.

Then stenciled the letters –

The top photo is after I have almost finished heat setting the discharge. The words form the same sentence over and over with no spaces. Next time, I may reveal what comes next or maybe not!!

I have  a guild meeting tomorrow, and I really would rather be home working. That is a good thing.

Family Creativity

Monday, September 12th, 2011

This is a gorgeous necklace made from yarn, designed by my daughter, Stephanie. Isn’t it gorgeous?

She and her creative partner, Maria, have designed a new little, limited edition book of two projects and how to illustrations. It features the beautiful yarns of Quince & Co.

You can read more about their collaboration on their blog, 3191 Miles Apart. The book, Interwoven, is available here.

I had a busy week-end. I have volunteered to be a helper a couple of Sundays a month for our Sunday School program — in the art activity room, of course. We had the open house yesterday. I also was helping with the Trinity Art’s Committee table during coffee hour. Every activity had a table — er, half a table to display their programs for the coming year. I created a poster for the workshops I am coordinating and a take away bookmark of all our events for the year.

Today, I have been working on labels for my Twelve by Twelve colorplay quilts for their trip to Houston. I ordered large plastic bags for each of the complete mosaics. The label has a photo of the mosaic and a label to identify it’s order when they are hung.

 

Terry is coming over later this week and we will get them all attached to the felt panels, packaged and ship them to Houston. Time is flying by.

True Colors

Friday, September 9th, 2011

But I see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors,
True colors, are beautiful,
Like a rainbow.

I had my first cataract surgery yesterday and wow!, I was not prepared for the difference in how I would see my world. Driving home from the hospital, with my sunglasses on, I closed my non-surgical eye and with my new eye, I saw a beautiful blue sky and white clouds as in the first photo. When I closed my new eye and looked at the sky with my old eye, I saw a gray-blue sky and gray clouds.

Mr C thought I had gone nuts, but it was so dramatic. When I got home, I felt as if new brighter light bulb had been put in every room of our home. I was told it would be dramatic, but I had no idea.

The whole procedure was quite painless and seamless. Kaiser Permanente, our health care provider, has a wonderful system for their ambulatory surgery. Everyone has a job and does  it well. I left home at 10:30 and was back home at 1 pm. I have had no scratchiness or pain in the eye.

When I went in for my post-op visit today, I had 20/2o vision already. He told me that I was a star patient.

Today, I did some research about artists and cataracts. It seems that many of the impressionists suffered from them. Mary Cassatt stopped painting. Monet even had cataract surgery done with many complications. Imagine what it must have been like back then. Here is a link to his story. More information about how cataracts affect vision and art, here is a link.

I am noticing things I have done in the house since we moved here that are interesting to see with my new eyes. Most of it is good. I realize the kitchen tile is not as green as I thought it was and am not sure it goes with paint color. Mr C says that we can change that. I would like to do red, green and black glass tiles.

I went downstairs to look at my quilts. That was a trip, as I checked each one with my new and old eye.

I can no longer wear my bi-focals. Everything is blurry when I wear them. I went out and bought some magnifiers for reading and computer work. My vision is supposed to improve as the week progresses, but so far I am very happy even though I have to put 3 different drops in my eyes 4 times a day and have to shampoo my hair without letting any water get in my eyes!!