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Archive for March, 2014

Window Seat @PDX

Monday, March 31st, 2014

Prairie Circles

I am so pleased to be part of a special exhibit at Portland International Airport.

 

Title:  Window Seat
Location:  Portland International Airport,  post-security Concourse A
Date:  April  2014 through October 2014
Subject: The exhibit is built around an essay written by Jim Earl, a literature professor at U of O. In the essay, Earl uses images taken from Google Earth to educate people about the land below them as they fly. Click Here to read the essay and see the images that he used.  For the exhibit, the quilts are next to text for which each is visually appropriate.
Since it is in an area past security, I suggested to Mr C that we need to go on a trip so that I can get in to see the exhibit!! After I read Mr Earl’s essay, I could see how well my Prairie Fields quilt worked with his essay and photos. Here are the other two art quilts in the exhibit.
This is High Desert Colors by Elizabeth Bamberger.
BambergerE_High Desert Colors_full
This is 30,000 Feet Above Somewhere by Shirley MacGregor.
Shirley MacGregor
On a personal note the bedlam, where we currently live, continues. To add to the chaos, I came down with one of those debilitating crappy viruses and was not much help for several days. We did get most of my studio stuff moved. Steph came over on Thursday with M & M and packed up a lot of stuff and then she came back with Jack on Saturday and did a whole lot more. These shelves used to hold our wine glasses.
emptyshelves
So, progress is being made in spite of me!! Yesterday, I spent most of the day in my jammies changing our address online in as many places as I could. It was Steph’s birthday and we took her out to a seafood restaurant. She wanted mussels and fries. Here is the cool decor in the restaurant, Block and Tackle.
blocktackle
I think I feel well enough to get back in the thick of things, today. I will check back in a couple of days.

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, March 26th, 2014

WW 03-26

A Crazy, Busy Time

Sunday, March 23rd, 2014

secondresult

I have so much going on right now. There is very little down time. Tomorrow, at 5 pm, we get the keys and garage door opener for the condo and we no longer will need to be escorted every time we want to go there – yippee! On Tuesday, we are meeting the condo manager to go over some things and I also have an appointment with a decorator to pick out window treatments.

Today, as started moving my stuff to the new studio. The first to go were my Ikea cabinets. They are the heaviest and most difficult of all the stuff to go so it was a relief to get that done.

ikeamove

Just as we were leaving the studio, I looked up and saw this shadow of trees on the wall. A very good omen, I think.

studioshadow

For the last couple of days, I have been trying to get ahead of the game and get my printing done for the Printed Fabric Bee because I am going to be otherwise occupied at the end of the month. The Queen Bee has asked for a woodland/forest motif. We have had a couple of sunny days so I decided to do some sunprinting.

My first attempt looked like this when I put it in the sun.

firstsunprint

I didn’t get a photo of the result – only a detail shot.

firstdunprintresult

I thought it needed another layer so I decided to do some printing with fern leaves. First, I painted the fern.

paintedfern

Then I lay it on the fabric and press with tissue paper.

tissuepaperpress

Voila!

fernprint

I decided that I had a hot mess. It doesn’t look too bad in this photo, but I decided to do another.

muckedupfirstsunprint

I wanted to do a more foresty color scheme. I mixed blue and orange paint to make brown and added some yellow to the green. The brown was sort of purple so I added yellow.

secondsunprint

The resulting sun print is up at the top. I think I will leave it as is! I have to cut a 12 inch square and a 6 inch square. I am happy to have that behind me.

Life in the Fast Lane! (And some winners)

Tuesday, March 18th, 2014

paigequiltfinal

It has been a busy time since I last checked in here. We had a quick trip to the CA bay area to spend time with family and to attend Paige’s second birthday party. She was basically ambivalent about her quilt, but Mom and Dad liked it! She is two, after all. We enjoyed the drive in our very efficient Prius. We would fill it up with 12 gallons of gas and then be able to drive for over 500 miles. We enjoyed the satellite radio in the areas of Oregon and California where the reception is not very good. The voice activated navigation is having a hard time understanding us. Have to work on that.

We came back yesterday because we have so much to do to get ready for our move. I did the random number generator for my art giveaway.

#26 – Fitzy gets first choice of the 3 pieces. Let me know soon and send me your snail mail address.

#34 – Diane English gets second choice. I will let you know which two are available as soon as Fitzy makes a selection.

#21 – Jen Page, my niece gets the third piece. I will send you whatever is left!!

The night before we left on our trip, Mr C and I had dinner with two of the Twelves. Deborah Boschart and her family spent spring break here in the northwest and Terry and her husband joined all of us for a fun night.

2014-03-12 20.14.44

Here are some photos from our trip.

2014-03-14 15.15.59-1

A pile of Lisa’s latest book, Whatever You are, Be a Good One, a compilation of hand lettered and illustrated quotes. I got to bring one home with me.

2014-03-15 11.01.22

Here is Paige with her handsome Daddy.

paigeinswing

A daredevil on the swings!

paigeclarkcake

Lighting the candles on the cake. She had a joint party with her buddy, Clark, who lives on their street.

2014-03-17 08.17.51

On the drive home, we saw a rainbow, but didn’t find the pot of gold.

crayontrucksI did manage to get a photo of the crayon trucks on i-5 in Northern California. I usually see them too late and am not ready with the camera, but this time, I did it.

We are not able to put in hardwood floors in the condo because of noise issues. So, today, we ventured out to look at carpet options. We found a new type, SmartStrand, which is made from corn and is very durable and soft and cleans up with plain water. It has no off-gassing and is great for people with allergies. We decided to go with this and are now trying to decide on what color.

I really can’t think too much about all that has to be done. I am just taking one day at a time.

 

A Celebration

Tuesday, March 11th, 2014

westover

We found our new home. Life has been very crazy around here since I last posted. I had a great time at the SAQA Oregon conference and got some nice feedback on my talk. On Friday, the condo we have been waiting for popped up on our RLMS feed. We got an appointment to see it on Saturday and made our offer which was presented to the seller on Tuesday along with two other offers. We were very aggressive in our offer because this was the one we had been waiting for.  See the arrow up there? Our new home is on the fourth floor, not the top. There is a nice sized deck on the back which overlooks the hillside. We have a view from the dining room area bay windows down to the Willamette river which is east of us.

diningroom

Those draperies and the chandelier have gone with the seller, thank goodness! The place is decorated in a much more formal manner than we  like. We will be ripping out the carpet and putting in hardwoods for the sake of my allergies. The kitchen appears to be recently redone. It is very stylish and modern.

newkitchenThe seller was moving out yesterday and today so it will be a fast turnover. We get to go in for the inspection tomorrow and will do some measuring and have a chance to see it without all the furniture. It has two bedrooms and two baths, a laundry/utility room with a sink and great room adjacent to the kitchen plus a separate storage area. It has a walking score of 94 which was one thing we were looking for. The condo has a gym, meeting/party room which you can reserve free of charge and a library/reading room. We also have two primo parking spots.

Needless to say, we are very happy! So, I have an additional reason to celebrate.

Leave me a comment and have a chance to win a piece of Gericon art. I will select 3 names. First name gets first choice, etc. Here is the art.

Aspens.

blogiversaryaspens

Northwest Winter

NWWinterblogiversary

X Marks the Spot.

blogiversarygiveaway1

I will randomly select names after we get back from our trip to California for Paige’s 2nd birthday. I am finishing her quilt today – stitching the binding. This afternoon, we are going back to see Dan at Toyota for some instruction on all the extras on our Prius. Tomorrow, I have guild meeting in the morning and the home inspection in the afternoon and then dinner with Deborah Boschert, one of the Twelves, who is visiting Portland with her family. On Thursday, we are off to California.

Busy, busy!