Ah, Merry Christmas

The festivities are winding down and all are happy and satiated.  There is that wonderful feeling of contentment and relaxation that happens as everyone sits and talks after Christmas dinner.  I always wish we could find this feeling more oftern during the year.  Maybe what makes it so special is its rarity.  Anyway, I'm not sure I'm in the mood to be so analytical.  I hope the day has been equally as fulfilling for all my friends and family.

Ready to Roll

All packed up and ready to head North. We're spending the next few days with family on Whidbey Island.  Cleaning the studio will have to wait for my return.  It's full of last minute projects and Christmas wrappings.  It's nice to have a door to close on the mess but I'll have to deal with it when I get home.
  No worries today.  We're off to play! 

More Small Pleasures

 
Here are two more of the Small Pleasures pieces.  I decided to keep this series to just four.  I think they will look really cheerful all hanging together in the gallery.  I actually made the above scene twice.  In the first attempt, I made the tablecloth tip too sharply to one side and the vase and pear looked like they were sliding off the table.  This one works much better.  I really like the blue print for the tall vase, too.  I am calling this one The Last Pear.  The piece below is titled Plum Dandy.

Deliverance Quilt Shop

On the way to Southern Oregon for the opening reception for the 'Text Us' show, we pulled over to change drivers.  We managed to pick a spot with a ... guess ... quilt shop sign!  However, this has to be one of the few times I decided to pass.  Would you take a chance at shopping here?  I can almost here the screeching music tempo going on in the background.  If any quilters go missing in Oregon, I know where they might start looking.

The Second of Small Pleasures

Too bad having a job gets in the way of quilting time.  Bringing work home is a slippery slope, too.  However, I have managed to finish a second Small Pleasures piece.  I like this one better than the first.  I think the first one was just a warm-up.  I felt looser doing this one and I think it shows.  I'm not sure of my titles yet but this one just might be simply, Red Carnations.  They were my maternal Grandmother's favorite flower.

Oh, here's the first piece finished as well.  I changed the rim of the bowl to a print.  I think it added a little more pizazz to the whole scene.

All Hallow's Eve

KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THE SACRED AND PROFANE FOR THIS DAY COMES BUT ONCE A YEAR.

The First of Small Pleasures

It's time to start sewing on my pieces for an invitational show, Small Pleasures, at the Jacobs Gallery here in Eugene.  The show will run through December and no piece can be larger than 12" on any side.  I'm planning on 6 pieces, two series of three pieces each.  This is the almost finished first piece of the first series of small still lifes.  Here's my construction process:

First I made the background by piecing a selection of off-white strips.  By seaming them on a right angle and then placing it on an angle, it seems to give some depth to the scene.  I gave the edge between the  table and the wall a slight curve to suggest a table edge.

I usually make a rough sketch, to size, of where I want to go with a piece.  It helps me get proportions right and I use it as a reference as I proceed.  From this drawing I made a pattern of the bowl using tracing paper over the three basic pieces of the bowl.  I wanted to give the bowl some light, medium and dark areas to make it look more 3-dimensional.

Here are the three pieces laid out on a piece of blue fabric that had a lot of color gradations all within the same print.  I cut the rim piece from the lightest part and the bottom from the darkest part.

Here are the three pieces after having been cut out.  I have adhered paper-backed fusible web to the back of each piece so they can be slightly overlapped and "glued" together.  By pressing on a Teflon sheet, I can then peel the whole piece up and off the sheet as a single unit, but it can still be ironed to another piece of fabric and fuse it in place.

Here's the bowl out together but not trimmed to shape yet.

Okay, done.  It can now be laid on the background and ironed down once I'm ready.

First, I needed to add the fruit pieces.  They are all assembled in the same way as the bowl, so each one is it's own little unit.  Each one is also backed with the fusible web and can be ironed in place once everything is placed to my liking, which is what it looks like in the top photo.  I just need to finish quilting all the pieces in place since the fusing process is not permanent.

La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum

There are always great shows at the La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum in La Conner, Washington.  I just saw the show that features Ann Fahl's work.  There are so many of her pieces that is was fun to see how prolific she is.  Many of the pieces have been shown in her two books but seeing them in person is a real treat.  Her thread work is amazing!  Check out this close up.

Here's another close up of how she uses multi-colored threads and some of her patterning.  Very cool!

I liked this one with the vase as well.  Having done a piece with a vase, ans now starting a new one, it was interesting to see how she handled the subject using a sheer fabric.

New travel inspirations

I know there is plenty of artistic inspiration close to home but it seems that I have a harder time "seeing" until I leave my familiar surroundings.  My recent trip to Whidbey Island was full of wonderful eye, and camera, candy.  The Deception Pass Bridge was half enveloped in fog the day I was there.  I loved these two images that make it look like a "bridge to nowhere".

It was that time of year when the sun would be out in one place but then not only a few hundred yards away.  There was that sort of cloudy bright lighting that made everything look more dramatic.  I took a couple pictures of fields that seem like they could be good quilt inspiration some day. 

Of course, the madrone trees, which grow so well there, always add drama with their peeling bark and warm colors.

Finished at Last

Well, it seems it took an eternity equal to the entire sea, but my ocean piece is done.  I really got hung up on the foreground for a long time.  The greens I used were too bright and the eye would just get stuck there.  I wanted the horizon to be the focal point and the foreground took that away.  I finally dulled all the colors down using Shiva paintsticks in dark navy, brown and various greens.  I also wanted lots of small yellow flowers amidst the grasses.  They had to go.  Again, they were too bright and pulled the eye to the foreground.  I dulled the large rock on the left, as well.  

I'm pretty happy with the end result mostly because I had a September 30 deadline to get it done.  It has been entered in the Oregon SAQA show Oregon: Sate of Diversity.  As one of the organizers of the show, it would look embarrassing to not even get my entry finished.  So, we'll see if the jurors pick it or not.   Here's a detail shot of some of the stitching.