Eucalyptus Road

One of the projects I worked on last week at the ranch retreat was this small abstract landscape.  I applied a layer of tulle over it, machine quilted it, and applied a facing finish.

So it SHOULD be finished...and yet I'm feeling that this needs something more.  I think what is bugging me is that the values are not quite right -- there needs to be some lighter light somewhere, maybe?  Maybe the judicious application of neocolor crayon or colored pencil?  I'm not sure, so it is sitting on my wall where I can comtemplate.

Any suggestions?  Why does this seem not-quite-right to me?  How would you fix this?

Something to make you smile

I am busy as a bee (well, I will be when I walk away from the computer) tidying my spaces and purging junk and otherwise trying to whittle down the STUFF that seems to surround us in this house.  So on this breezy Saturday, you can picture me rummaging through drawers with a big trash bag at my side.

But in case that doesn't cheer you, I thought I'd pass on this wonderful blog that always makes me smile:

That is Priceless, subtitled "Art's Greatest Masterpieces, Made Slightly Funnier." It's written by Steve Melcher, a Hollywood comedy writer, and he applies captions to great paintings ... and those captions are always spot-on funny.

Okay, back to my trash bag!

Return to Normal

I am back home after 4 days of delirious fun at the ranch retreat.  Pictured above is the main house at the ranch.  We used to sew there, but now there's a gorgeous new pavilion that can hold all of us, our machines, irons, lights and cutting tables, so we are there.   Some of the attendees still stay overnight in this gorgeous old building.

It is hard to describe the utter delight of a retreat with women you adore.  We chattered, sewed, laughed, showed-and-told, and ate delicious food.  There was much hilarity, many hugs, and I am already looking forward to October's retreat.

Each April, we do a challenge where someone chooses a fabric which the participants must incorporate in any way they like into a quilt.  This April's challenge involved two fabrics-- a black and white print, and a red tone on tone.  Here is my entry:

I used Susan Carlson's "Free Style Quilting" method to make this fellow and had a very good time.  The lettering, you might remember, wasn't the smoothest process but the result was okay.  And, remarkably, the resident artist at the ranch, the very very talented Lisa Thorpe, wanted this guy so we arranged for an artwork trade! 

Oh -- Hello to Elaine!  Elaine is a blog reader who attended the retreat for the first time and, I hope, will return for more fun in the future.  It was great to meet you!

Now -- off to unpack and make some sense of my sewing room...

Off Again

I promised you recently that I'd show you how far I got on my smaller piece in the workshop with Patty Hawkins.  Here it is so far -- needs some work, but I like it.

Now, I'm off for another fun time!  It's April, and that means I'm off to Bishop's Ranch for a fun, fabric and friend filled retreat for 4 whole days.  I've packed up a bunch of projects and I know I'll have a grand time.

Hope you have a fun week!

Simply A Mess

So I'm working on this challenge project -- can't show it here until the challenge is revealed on my retreat next week -- and I decided I wanted to add some words.  I thought about all of the different ways I could get them onto fabric, and then remembered a fabric spray paint I'd found while roaming the aisles at a craft store some time ago.  It says it's made to be used on fabric, preferably cotton, and that it works like airbrushing.

"Simply Spray," it's called.  I thought might be useful at some point, and yesterday I decided to give it a whirl.

I printed out the words on the computer, then made a stencil by cutting the letter shapes out of freezer paper.  I ironed the stencil firmly to the background fabric I was using.  And, following the directions of the spray, I tested a tiny bit first and it seemed like it would work fine.  I sprayed, waited for it to dry, and peeled away the stencil.  And here's what I got:

Aarrgh!  A total mess!  Look at how it bled!  It totally ruined the background fabric and made the lettering look like huge black blobs.  As far as I'm concerned, makes this product unusable UNLESS you want to just fill in a big area of color and don't need to worry about edges.  AARRGH!

Luckily, I'd bought the background fabric (which was perfect for my purposes) at the shop in town, so I hopped into the car and bought another piece.  And, while I was driving and seething, I realized I could just apply wonder-under to the mess and cut out the letters.

So, that's what I did, which led to this:

When I was cutting the stencil out of freezer paper, it had crossed my mind that I could just be cutting the individual letters out of wonder-undered black fabric, instead of using stencils and paint.  But the stencil and paint idea seemed so much better! And then I had to cut them individually anyway.

The good news is that I was able to rescue the project and get it to be where I wanted it with only a few hours' extra work.

But I chucked that "Simply Spray" into the trash and won't be buying THAT again.

Consider yourself warned!

Patty Hawkins

I have just finished a three-day workshop with master quilt artist Patty Hawkins.  What a wonderful, wonderful experience it was!  I am tired but energized and I really learned a lot.  If you don't know Patty, go check out her work on her website.  She makes the most gorgeous abstracted landscapes, and is most well known for her aspen scenes.  I can now verify that she is just the loveliest woman -- an excellent and encouraging teacher, too.  I was repeatedly struck at how clearly she gave feedback, but with constant positivity and generosity.  (Here is Patty with my friend Diana in the background.)

She had some wonderful exercises to help us with abstractions, one of which was to compose a mock-up of our chosen image using 5 values of ugly colors of construction paper.  We were to focus on value and shape, not color ... and using that paper was very freeing because had we been working in fabric, we would have been so distracted by the fabric color and pattern.  Here are some of the results:

(You can see mine on the top right, next to the waterfall one -- it was a scene of Eucalyptus trees and a curving road.)

Then we moved on to making smaller pieces in fabric, working in part from our value studies.  I was having such a good time that I didn't take many pictures, and totally forgot to take a picture of my own!  So here is my friend Marion's, which was turning out beautifully...

I came away with a small piece ready to be quilted, and a larger piece started.  I never used my "ruby beholder" and my reducing glass so much!

So, it was a very fun time.  I've yet to unload the car, but I'll take pictures of my results when I get them inside.  Now it's catch up time for laundry and household chores, not to mention tidying my studio from the mess I made when I was pulling stuff out to take to the workshop.

I just can't recommend Patty enough as a teacher.  If you ever get the chance to take a class, DO it.  Just meeting her and spending time with her and her sweet, generous, and funny person is worth the price of admission.

Too Much, All the Time

Many of you know that my daughter has Asperger's Syndrome.  This was diagnosed when she was about 10 years old, and although we've had some years to learn and understand how this affects her, we are always seeking ways to understand how she experiences the world and how we can help her learn to negotiate the world in a way that is comfortable for her.  We know that Miss C has some extreme sensitivities -- super-sensitive hearing, so that someone grating a fork against a plate in a restaurant will make her jump, or the high pitched, dog-whistle like ping of fluorescent lights will make a setting unbearable; high sensitivity to smells, so that eating in a cafeteria and smelling everyone's lunch smells mixed together could make her gag; extreme reactions to light flashes, so that someone taking flash pictures across the room in a restaurant can bring on a migraine... It's got to make the world a pretty unfriendly place at times.  When Miss C was younger (and we didn't know better), we thought that she was being sulky or rude or just tantrumy about being somewhere she didn't want to be.  Now we understand that certain settings -- which might seem perfectly lovely and tolerable to everyone else -- can be extremely overwhelming and/or downright painful for her.

You may well know someone who is on the autistic spectrum, and chances are they experience the world with some of those sorts of sensory sensitivities.  This short video provides an interesting example of what sensory overload feels like to someone on the autistic spectrum.



 Now, when I see a kid acting tantrum-y in a store (knowing, now, how malls with all of their smells and lights and sounds and echoy noises, are torture for Miss C) I think that maybe the child is just overwhelmed and can't cope.

It makes you wonder how you would cope if you had to experience the world this way, doesn't it?

Saying Goodbye and Letting Go

We are having a family excursion, mainly to come to Southern California to attend a memorial service honoring my mother-in-law Beverly who died in February.  Her passing was sudden, although not unexpected, and we have all found great comfort in knowing that she went exactly as she wanted to -- very quickly, with no pain.  What more can one ask, really?

So.  We headed south from our home and stopped about half-way, in San Luis Obispo.  We stayed at an amazing and famous old hotel called The Madonna Inn.  It's built in an over-the-top victorian style, and until recently the whole building was painted a vivid pink, with tons of white gingerbread trim.  We were surprised to find that it is all white now, looking a touch more sedate than it used to.  Each room has its own theme --we stayed in the China Flower room, which was decorated with a lot of (shall we say, tacky?) asian furniture and the walls and ceilings were painted gold.  The heart of the place is its restaurant featuring steaks.  The whole place was vivid, vivid, pink.  Pink floral patterned carpets.  Lush banquette seating upholstered in pepto-bismal pink naugahyde.  Fake flowers and sparkly lights everywhere.  A lot of pink food, in fact.  We were fascinated by their Madonna Cake (which we couldn't bring ourselves to eat but boy, was it PINK) -- white cake with pink tinted bavarian cream inside, we were told.  The restaurant was also full of old photographs from the place's hey-day-- John Wayne was apparently a business partner with the Madonna owner in the cattle business (hence the steak house, I guess) so his face was evident in lots of pictures.  If you are passing along highway 101 in California and want a kitschy but fun stop, this is THE place.

So, now we are with Roger's siblings and going through those mixed emotions of dealing with my mother in law's house and belongings.  Much laughter as old photos are found and stories are told, and of course tears as she is missed.  I am hearing stories that I've never heard about her.  This makes me think that we should have life celebrations for our loved ones while they are alive and can join in --- I've learned so many things about Beverly this week that I wish I'd known and could have talked to her about.

In the midst of this sad time, we are entertained by our new niece Buitumelo (from South Africa, you might recall).  She is thriving and growing and her english is highly entertaining.  She's quite insistent on shaking your hand and whispering "Pleased to meet you" each time you enter the room.  Buitumelo came into the family just after a nephew died suddenly, and her presence at Christmas boosted everyone over what could have been a very hard holiday.  Once again, her being here has given all of us a reason to laugh and chase balls around the backyard.  You should of seen all of us run outside when we heard the tinkling music of the ice cream truck approaching up the street!

There is a definite strangeness to sorting through someone's belongings after they are gone.  It makes me wonder what someone would think looking through my closets and drawers.

I think I'd better do some cleaning when I get home.

What's been on my nightstand

What with this bad headcold and a resulting lack of energy, I've been reading a lot lately.  What have I been reading?  Nothing serious or heavy, but a lot of entertainment and light reading:

The Last Time I was Me by Cathy Lamb. The funny but moving story of a woman assigned by court order to an anger management class (because of a little incident involving superglue, a condom, and her cheating ex-boyfriend), and the relationships that develop among the class members.  I love this author's writing.

A Year on Ladybug Farm by Donna Ball.  Pure, fun escapist reading, about three women who pool their resources and buy a dilapidated farm and mansion in Virginia.  Made me want to move to the country to bake scones, plant green beans and raise sheep.

Brain Storm by Richard Dooling (which I pulled off of the shelf at the library because of the colorful cover and spine -- repeated images of brain scans on a black background!)  A legal thriller with cutting edge brain research thrown in.  Interesting and entertaining, if a bit macho at times.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman.  Sort of like Harry Potter for grown-ups -- actually, the story wove together aspects of magic in fiction that connected Harry Potter's Hogwarts world and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe but from a cynical realistic view of a depressed 17 year old kid.  Definitely unusual and worth reading, with some thought-provoking ideas about what role magic plays in the world.

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake.  The story of three women whose lives intersect, alternating between WWII in London and small town American life in the present.  Enjoyable but not devastatingly great.  If you can find it at the library, go for it.

The Opposite of Me by Sarah Pekkanen. A better-than-average chick lit novel about two sisters, and how the childhood roles they'd had (the smart one, the pretty one) follow them and affect then in adulthood.  Easy entertainment.

Earthly Pleasures by Karen Neches.  A chick lit version of heaven where God is female (and sounds just like Bette Midler), this story follows a new Heaven "greeter" and what happens when she falls in love with an Earth-bound guy.  Charming and light.

First Class Killing by Lynne Heitman.  One in a series of mysteries in which our heroine is a former airline manager turned private detective.  Well-written, with interesting inside glimpses of airport life.  Better than average mystery/thriller.

What have you read lately?

Code in my node

I'm in the middle of the worst head cold I've had in years, and my head feels like I've taken every scrap of batting in the house and crammed it into my skull.  A lovely feeling, let me tell you.  So I've been doing a lot of napping and reading and dozing and watching mindless tv.  One of these days I might be able to hear again and breathe through both nostrils at the same time!  I can hardly wait!  In the meantime, I've got my kleenex and a glass of grapefruit juice at my side at all times and I'm getting by.

In the meantime, I've been using this forced down-time to make some  progress on another City and Guilds activity on English paper piecing...  which is another thing I never thought I'd do. It just seemed  pointless, frankly. The exercise involved choosing a photo (above), then translating it into blocks of color, like so:

 

A great abstraction technique, yes?   Coloring triangles was a perfect afternoon activity for stuffy-headed me.  And then the trick was sewing the pieces:

This is as far as I've gotten, because in my usual "Can I possibly make this harder on myself?" style, I made the triangles quite small and it makes for dang fussy sewing. Still, it was rather enjoyable and good tv sewing.  I can actually see myself using this technique on something someday.  With bigger pieces, that is.

Time for my mid-afternoon nap now.

100 Things -- How Many Have You Done?

Here's a fun list of Life Stuff that I found on Dawn's blog, D'Blogala... You bold the ones you've done. I feel a sudden urge to travel to Europe to see Paris, and the Mona Lisa, and to go to Venice....

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelos David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Read an entire book in one day

Ups and downs, bits and pieces

Lately I have been working on my City & Guilds activities, trying to catch up after a long period of not making any progress at all.  It's the blessing and curse of self-paced programs -- flexibility, but the dangerous possibility of letting thing go.  Deciding whether to resume made me think about why I signed up in the first place: to expose myself to some new techniques, to learn from artists I admire tremendously (I'm in the course offered by Linda and Laura Kemshall), and to work more specifically on design.  The program is helping me do what I wanted to do.

Plus, there is the huge benefit of having discrete, small tasks to accomplish AND, even better, a check list to mark off when I've completed each activity.  This is enormously satisfying to me right now, when life feels a bit scattered and I'm not in the mood to start a massive new project.  Small and achieveable feels quite good!

The picture above is hand-sewn reverse applique, in case you were wondering.   The activity involved taking design inspiration from a photo and developing it into a reverse applique sample.  I'm thinking this would make a very cool border, if I were inclined to tackle that hand-sewing...

*Yawn*

Monday was such a beautiful sunny day that Caroline and I took an impromptu field trip to the zoo in San Francisco. The zoo sits right on the coast -- a block from the beach - and it is usually foggy and cool there, even on the hottest of summer days. To our delight, even there at the zoo the sun was shining and the air was balmy and full of springtime.  And we could tell that the animals were happy to be basking in the spring sunshine, too.

No, he's not dead.  He's just dead to the world.

Gosh, I sort of feel like a nap now.

Sunday Morning ramblings

The sun is shining, the sky is blue -- it's enough to make me want to get out into the backyard to do some spring planting.  And then I remember that the soil is solid clay that makes digging a hole to plant anything so hard and miserable that I want to cry.  So maybe I won't do that today.

Waffles or pancakes this morning?  The sunday morning breakfast ritual is in swing and today is waffles.  With bacon.  And real maple syrup.  Perfect. 

I woke up early, or so I thought, and enjoyed an hour on the living room couch, sitting in a patch of sunlight and enjoying my coffee and reading on the beloved Kindle, when I realized that it was move-the-clocks-forward last night.  So I wasn't early after all.  But I still enjoyed the quiet and sunshine.  

We're thinking about a trip to the zoo tomorrow... a homeschooling field trip!  Watch -- it'll be rainy.

The middle finger of my left hand is chewed up and sore because I've been doing some needle-turn applique and hand-quilting (gasp!) for an assignment in the City and Guilds course.  My tender, machine-operating fingers aren't used to getting poked, especially that finger that sits underneath the fabric and pushes the needle back in.  Maybe I'm not doing it right, or maybe I need another thimble for that finger.  But sore finger aside, I'm surprised at how much I've enjoyed the hand-sewing.

We watched "The Informant" last night, starting Matt Damon.  Definitely entertaining.  We were going to watch The Hurt Locker but couldn't handle the drama.

Big thoughts going on here, eh?!  Hope your Sunday is full of pleasant little surprises!

Show and Tell

I was reading something recently about blogging, and referring to blogging as a modern day show-and-tell for grown-ups.  I think that's just about right.  No wonder I like blogging and reading blogs -- I always loved show and tell as a kid.

So here's my show and tell for the day:  I've been playing with Shiva painstiks this afternoon.  Actually, some time ago I bought a bargain bunch of the british Markal paintstiks on Ebay for a bargainous price, so I was using those.  They're strange items, those paintstiks---especially that tough outer skin.  But I'm getting the hang of using them, and today's assignment was to use a design inspired by a leaf shape, make a freezer paper stencil, and apply in some repetitive design on fabric. 

Here is my inspiration photo, of some tiny weed I photographed this weekend -- something about those whimsical leaf shapes appeals to me:

I made mirror image stencils:

And this was the result:

I'm not sure what I'll do with this from here ... Maybe I'll figure that out on another play day!

Strip pieced line study

Yesterday I spent some time working on a line study assignment for a course.  The assignment was to choose a photograph that featured line as a strong element.  Here's my photo:

Then, we were to use strip piecing to construct a design from the image; I did this:



And from there, I used reverse applique and machine quilting to get to this:

It was a fun assignment, and satisfying to get it done.  It's funny -- I never thought I would find a realistic style of art an easy one, but it is the place I tend to go first -- it is stretching the realistic image into something abstract that is the challenge for me.  Maybe I should try to take this and stretch it to something more abstract for my next mini-project...

The New Digital Frontier

My sister was just telling me about an episode of Frontline that she watched, called "Digital Nation," and I've just tracked it down online and watched it myself.  It explores the way technology is changing how we interact with the world, and whether it's changing our brains as well.  It looks at the internet, blackberries, texting, ipods, googling for research, online games, blogging and video-casting, virtual reality, even military applications.  I was especially interested in how it looked at how technology encourages multi-tasking, and what that means for how kids learn and need to learn.  It's fascinating, and raises a lot of issues about the advantages and disadvantages of technology in our lives. 

The show is online and will stream live on your computer for free, here.  (I watched it via computer while multi-tasking and tidying my office!)  Definitely a thought-provoking ninety minutes.

Teen Time

We are officially in Teen world, and I have discovered that I am suddenly no longer my favorite daughter's person in the whole world.  Evidence Miss C's description of the movie "Up" to a friend of ours recently:

Judy:  So, did you like it?

Miss C:  It was horrible.  Boring and horrible.

Judy: I thought you'd like it!  What was horrible about it?

Miss C:  Mom kept laughing!

Judy: What was she laughing at?

Miss C:  Oh, I don't know, parts that weren't even FUNNY.  And she would gasp at parts that weren't even surprising.  It was (said with big Teen glower) really really annoying.

Me (unable to resist defending myself): But there were funny parts!  LIke how that funny bird kept hissing at the guy he didn't like!  That was funny!  And it was just like Jasmine (Miss C's cat) and how she loves you and hisses at me.

Miss C: Well, that WAS like Jasmine.  And it was kind of funny.  But YOU (said accusingly) were so annoying!

Judy: So  it wasn't the movie you didn't like, it was that your mom was being annoying  by laughing at it?

Miss C.  YES.

*** Sigh.***  I guess Roger and I will be watching our movies alone now...

Web Therapy

In the car yesterday, I was listening to an interview with Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe, from "Friends") and she talked about a web series she's been doing, called "Web Therapy."  She plays a narcissistic therapist who does 3-minute counseling sessions with clients via the internet.  So I had to go  and watch ... and it's hilarious.
Each episode is short (3-7 minutes) so it's the perfect little comedy vignette if you need a break.  (I just love her intro to the show, and how she says "Web THERapy" in that syrupy announcer voice.)

Check it out!

Wonder-full fun

 

  This past weekend, I was in the mood to just play in my studio, so I did something I've been wanting to try.  I painted Wonder-Under!  It was fast and fun and only slightly messy.  I painted one side of Wonder-under with watered down acrylic paint, spreading it around and blending colors right on the surface of the W-U as I went.  Once it dried, I cut shapes out of it (paper and all) and ironed them to a piece of fabric I'd dyed some time ago.  The stripes just appear as the W-U dries and shrinks up a bit, causing the backing paper to wrinkle a bit.

The effect was quite different than I thought it'd be.  Once I peeled up the W-U backing paper (which was far easier when the shapes had cooled completely), the colors were vibrant.  And there's no sticky residue at all.  I just have to remember not to iron this with some parchment paper over the top.  

Stitching was fun and free and kept me going through the closing ceremonies of the Olympics. 

 

Hmmm, I'm going to have to play more with this.  By the way, I've not come up with a name for this yet, so if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!