Mary's Art Musings

She's Baaaaack!

2012-01-10T20:49:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am indeed back. My blogging ability is quite curtailed, however. My mini computer was stolen and our internet provider went belly-up so I am using my daughter's ancient desktop once a week when I visit. I sent my antique laptop to be repaired and should have it back in a few days. Then will have to find a reasonably priced internet service provider, I looked at ads for Clear 4. Has anyone heard of that company? It seems to be reasonably priced and have the service I want. There is also an office for them in the next town over so it is pretty convenient. Am going to check it out when my computer comes home.

No pictures for this blog as they were on my computer. Also, my yahoo password seems to have been changed because I can't get in with any of the passwords I use. Probably the skinny bums who stole it. I say they are skinny because they got into the truck (where I had stupidly left my computer) through the shell window which is only about ten or twelve inches wide.

We had really nice holidays. Spent Christmas with our NoCal family and New Years with our SoCal family. Everyone is well and seems happy. A nice thing this year is that gifts were not excessive. I was glad to see moderation abound!

Our puppy has a hot spot so The Big Guy got a cone for her so she wouldn't lick it. She hates it. Refuses to walk around. When I left to pick up the grandson today I realized I had forgotten something and went back home. The Big Guy gave in and took her cone off. :(

The grandson gave me a sketchbook for Christmas. It is my favorite kind - black hardbound with acid free paper. I painted the front cover and spine and have started applying gesso to the pages. I plan on painting in it and the gesso will keep the paper from falling apart. It feels like painting. Anybody remember the artist who paints everything white? His name is not on the tip of my tongue but I remember seeing his work at SFMOMA years ago.

Well, it is late and I have to make the 82 mile trek back to the Central Valley so I will sign off. Will try to blog again soon and will hopefully have sketchbook pictures to show you (not all white!:})

Little Red Dog - my new granddog!

2011-11-19T15:02:00.000-08:00

As posted a few months ago, my favorite (plug your ears Roxy, Bob and Cloe) dog in the whole world, Red Dog, moved on to that great dog park in the sky. I know he is chasing pregnant angel mini-horses to his heart's content with Truman at his side!

So, my daughter, who now only had two dogs, and VERY old dogs at that, adopted a little pit puppy. After much debate on face book she decided to change Thelma's name to Jayne. Jayne came home from the SPCA in San Francisco with aspiration pneumonia as the SPCA insisted on spaying her (at 6 weeks!!!!) before she could be brought home.

She was an instant hit with the boy!

Cloe decided she was the mother! And the real mother made sure Jayne had plenty of toys!

The big old dogs taught her how to escape and then come back in and redecorate the kitchen with a kitschy faux dog print theme! I wonder what the carpeting looks like? :(

I am looking forward to meeting Jayne, hopefully before she reaches her weight limit!

This 'n That

2011-11-11T11:01:00.000-08:00

Have been wanting to post a blog for several days but have just now found the time to sit down and do it. Today I had planned on, with the help of my talented, handsome and strong grandson, moving some furniture out of storage. But, alas and hurrah, it is raining so that odious activity has been cancelled. This leaves me at my daughters, in a quiet and peaceful atmosphere conducive to writing.

I have been home almost a week from a two week trip to SoCal where I visited my darling mom. We generally and thoroughly wore ourselves out doing important stuff and fun stuff! All that activity left me no time to write.

So now I have been home almost a week. My bags are unpacked, but the laundry isn't done because it has been so cold the clothes don't get dry. I have been hanging one load every day and a half in the house. So the accumulation of the Big Guy's dirties and the few I brought home isn't going down very fast! Oh well, it isn't going anywhere, either!

Tuesday the Big Guy woke up in the early morning hours with a swollen knee. We spent the afternoon at the VA getting that looked at - pure torture for him as the Rheumatologist did a needle biopsy without anesthesia. He held really still but bellowed like an R rated, gored bull. I watched without passing out. Diagnosis is pseudo-gout. His second bout, the first one was four years ago and through misdiagnosis and lackadaisical care landed him in the hospital for nine weeks with MERSA. So, we didn't wait this time. Hopefully the outcome will be better. He researched gout in his extensive medical book collection and is convinced cherries will cure him. A trip to Trader Joe's for dried cherries is in order on the way home. At least they won't hurt him!

I finally finished the top of William's food quilt and sent it off to my friend Judy to be quilted. I'm hoping I get it back in time for his birthday the end of the month. In the meantime I took out a repair I've had for several years and plan on finishing that. It is an old quilt which belongs to our friend Hugh. Hugh and his wife, Consuelo, live in Brentwood. We are going to that area next month for the second of the Big Guy's Santa gigs and I would like to deliver the quilt then. But in the meantime I also have to make a Santa jacket for the Big Guy.

On a final, and exciting (for me) note, one day last week I was poster child for the Munsell Color facebook page! They saw my Sept. 19 blog post "Color Obsession Using Color Theory" and anointed me poster child. Woo Hoo!

Machine Quilting

2011-10-09T20:00:00.000-07:00

I finished the top for Food Quilt #2 and got it basted. I am going to quilt it myself as my favorite long-arm quilter is not available right now. And if she can't do it I may as well be unhappy with my work as pay someone to do a job I will be unhappy with. Colleen at Sew Little Time Quilting is the absolute BEST long-arm quilter ever. She does awesome work. Understands what I like and will even free-hand drawings that I give her.

But, anyway, she can't quilt right now so I am going to do it myself. Setting up the Flynn Frame was a bust as I don't have room so I will do it on my Featherweight.

Checking the stitch length

Artquiltmaker.com, as I recently mentioned, gave me a gift certificate for New Pieces, a great quilt shop in Berkeley. One of the goodies I got was "Machine Quilting Made Easy" by Maurine Nobel. SewCalGal had recommended it on her blog just the day before I went to New Pieces. Anyway......in e-mailing SewCalGal back and forth we discussed actually doing the exercises in the book in order to improve our free motion quilting. So, today, in between working on the food quilt, reading and eating (no chocolate tho :( ) I did the first exercise in the book. In addition to checking the stitch length and practicing tying off and stitching I did some stars. I even labeled the practice patch so that in five years when I pull this out I won't have to rack my brain to figure out what it is! I can see the benefit of this practice. I am confident now that I will be able to quilt this using straight line quilting. Will post the results when I finish the quilt.

Surprise!

2011-10-06T23:55:00.000-07:00

Today was a really busy day. I picked up and dropped off quilts for artquiltmaker and one of my stops, New Pieces at 4th and Gilman in Berkeley, I was handed a birthday card from artquiltmaker (my daughter)! It had a generous gift certificate in it which I proceeded to totally use up! The picture above shows the goodies I selected.

I found some 120" wide fabric for the back of my grandson's food quilt. I got two quilt hanger thingies (I've misplaced one already!) and the Machine Quilting book by Maurine Noble. This book was recommended to me by SewCalGal and is timely because I am endeavoring to set up the Flynn Frame I purchased recently.

When I got to artquiltmaker's house I gathered the food I had asked her to get and made two pots of soup and a pan of lasagna for her larder.

I make a really easy and delicious soup. Take a boneless chuck roast and cut it in large chunks. Cut up vegetables, including an onion, of your choice, also in large chunks. When I make a chicken soup I cut up a whole chicken, use the back, neck and wings for the soup and save the meaty portions (breast, drumsticks and thighs) for another meal of baked or fried chicken. Put enough oil in the bottom of a cast iron dutch oven and heat it. Dump in the meat and vegetables. When they start to sizzle (about five minutes) put them into a 350 degree preheated oven and bake for thirty minutes. After thirty minutes remove the dutch oven from the oven and place on the stove. Add broth, water or fruit juice to cover the meat and veggies. Bring to a boil and simmer for thirty minutes. You can add a bay leaf when you add the liquid but add any other spices about 25 minutes into the simmering so they don't loose their flavor. With chicken soup, after the simmer, I remove the chicken pieces, let them cool, then remove the skin and bones and put the meat back in the soup. Some poultry seasoning is nice in the chicken soup.

In a beef soup some small new potatoes are nice. Or in either beef or chicken soup you can put rice in your individual serving bowl and then add the soup. I don't put rice in my soup when cooking because it soaks up all the liquid.

So I hope you enjoy this easy soup recipe as much as I am going to enjoy my birthday presents!

A visit to Columbia State Park

2011-10-05T17:55:00.000-07:00

Our 20th wedding anniversary was the tenth of August and we decided to go see Columbia State Park and have lunch there. While Strolling around the town we came to the Native Sons Museum and hall. Our Son-in-law is a member of this worthy organization.

We were quite surprised and proud to see the campaign button he used when he last ran for an office in the museum! (The blue button, top center) What a small world

These are the two lead horses of the four-horse stagecoach team. Rides were offered with discounts for senior citizens. We enjoyed looking at the horses and the stagecoach. We have, however both taken rides on stagecoaches and do not wish to repeat the experience! Did you know a stage coach can go twenty miles a day? It is about 60 miles to Yosemite from Columbia which means it took three days to travel by stage from Columbia (which is near Sonora) to Yosemite Park when that was the common way to travel? Hard to believe!

The Wells Fargo office desk

The other thing that amazed me is there was a charge by Wells Fargo (the mail carrier) when a letter was posted and another charge, depending on weight and how much the recipient appeared to want the letter, when it was picked up at its destination.

We had a good day, it was quite fun. We ended it at the ice cream parlor/theater with some delicious dessert!

Vacation post cards

2011-10-04T17:36:00.000-07:00

I started blogging again yesterday. This morning I decided to edit my blogs and found some drafts I had never finished. So, today I am finishing them and posting.

While on vacation in Oregon I did the send everyone I know postcard thing. The difference is I drew on USPS postcards instead of buying the premade kind. Here are two of the ones I remembered to photograph.

It is always fun for me to draw postcards. It would be even more fun to remember to photograph all of them. I wonder if the loved ones I send them to save them?

Flynn Frame

2011-10-03T10:55:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I bought a used Flynn Frame from Amazon. I had been thinking about getting one for quite some time and finally bit the bullet and ordered it.

When the device arrived I opened it up, read the directions, put it back in the box and stashed it under my drafting board.

On my regular Thursday visit to artquiltmaker we talked about quilting (as usual) and bemoaned the fact that our favorite long-arm quilter, Colleen Granger of So Little Time Quilting is currently unavailable. Which, of course led to my stashed Flynn Frame. We talked about practicing, what kind of fabric to use and ways to embellish the practice quilt.

So, yesterday I spent the better part of the day putting the thing together. I had to go to OSH to buy round tubes to roll on. They didn't have the exact size I need so jerry-rigged the height with four drawing boards!

I got the thing all set up and started rolling it around without the machine running to get the feel of it. I found it to be quite awkward and also found that I do not have enough room, even for a twenty inch quilt! So I'm looking to expand into the spare bedroom.

The other thing I found out by this dry run was that I need, at least at first, to have lines to follow on the blank quilt sandwich. Also, the throat on the machine I planned to use only gives me five inches of quilting space.

Well, after all that the mounted Flynn frame, when taken off the sewing machine, fits perfectly behind the door of my studio.

Guess I'll get back to the food quilt. More on that later.

Color Obsession using color theory

2011-09-19T10:40:00.000-07:00

The other day I posted "Color Obsession and Movies" commenting that I used every color I had. Then I challenged myself to do a second "Color Obsession" using some kind of color theory. The above drawing is the result. Once again I used the Munsell System, with red and aqua as complements (the closest I had to blue-green) and orange and violet as discords. I also used a 'color trail' with the discords. Color trails lead the eye of the viewer from the center of interest through the drawing and back to the center of interest.

In looking at the completed drawing here I can see that I need to add a little violet in the top aqua. Which, because the drawing is done with markers, will be very easy to do!

With the addition of some violet on the top of this drawing the viewer's eye is led around the center of interest which is the 'box-like' structure in the top third of the drawing. In looking once again at the drawing on the screen I'm going to make one more change.

A totally different look to it! This view is quite dramatic - I don't know, yet, which way will be right side up.

I've included here the original drawing. I loved it when I finished it but now find it flat and dull. The latest iteration I find bright and lively.

Comments, anyone?

Color obsession and movies

2011-09-17T12:51:00.000-07:00

I've been receiving the Illustration Friday notices since May. The above drawing is only the fifth one I've completed and I thought I would share it here because I really need to blog about something! The word for that day was Obsession and the quote, from Claude Monet, is "Color is my day-long obsession, joy, and torment."

The color in this piece follows no theory. I just drew away with the pens I have. Often when I draw spontaneously I use every color I own. For a first draft that is fine. It would be a good exercise for me to re-do this using some color sense. Use all the same shapes but with organised color choices. Stay tuned! That actually sounds exciting.

I was in So Cal for three weeks, staying with my nephew and visiting my mother. I drove 2500 miles in those three weeks - you're welcome, BP!

Made it home last Monday night and spent a good part of Tuesday asleep! That must have been what I needed because by Wednesday I was myself again.

The bad news is somehow my washing machine died while I was gone! How can something that was not used, break? It is a fancy, front loading Whirlpool that I just love. It is one of my favorite possessions! How sick is that? LOL The control button - one of many on the thing - says 'control locked'. So, Monday, I have to call a washer repair guy. I guess worse things could happen!

Last night the Big Guy and I went out to dinner and a movie. We ate at a new (for us) place called Rooster Juice. BG had prepared to order with no slat fajitas and I had a fajita salad bowl in a corn tortilla bowl! First time I have ever seen a corn bowl. They are usually flour, which I cannot eat. So that is on our list of places to go back to.

The movie we saw was that last Harry Potter one. I really enjoyed it. BG found it confusing. It has been a long time since part one and BG didn't read the books so I can see how it would be confusing. I wondered if they filmed the sequence with Dumbledore at the very beginning? Or did they use some movie magic to recreate him?

My favorite thing to do is watch movies and this past week was a bonus. We also went on Wednesday, during the day because we were so hot and the theater has AC. We saw "Cowboys and Aliens". It was quite entertaining, too. Well worth the $3 ticket!

Well, my poor old truck needs some attention so I am taking it for an oil change. Will try the new mechanic first but if he can't see me today, then SpeeDee will get my business.

Creative Prompt #116 - Breakfast

2011-08-05T16:21:00.000-07:00

BLUE PLATE SPECIAL -

ONE COFFEE

TWO EGGS

THREE RASPBERRIES

Thank you, thank you, thank you Toni for the book "Where Women Create" and to Artquiltmaker for Creative Prompt # 116 and to SB daughter for her beautiful and prolific art.

I'm doing art! Yeah! Happy me.

creativity : (

2011-08-05T00:23:00.000-07:00

...or lack thereof.
                         ..
                           ...
                              .........................

As you probably have noticed I have not blogged in a while. Have hit a creative wall. Maybe a life wall? I have neither sewn, made art nor done a lick of housework since I got home from vacation. In theory, vacation should have left me rested and refreshed. But I came home exhausted, sore and grumpy. Bummer! I'm not taking me on vacation again!

Tonight I had dinner with my girls and the boys (grandson and son-in-law). SB daughter brought over the paintings she has done. They are so creative! She is an inspiration. When she left to go back to her hotel I went up to artquiltmaker's studio and we talked about sewing and shopping and life. It was a good evening. Even the 82 mile drive home didn't bother me and seemed to be over in a flash (perhaps it was the fries I picked up at McPoison's on the way home?).

So, when I did finally get home and unload the truck I actually did a little artsy thing. Months ago the girls treated me to an evening at A Work of Heart in San Jose. We made some cool winged hearts wearing crowns.

I really like mine but felt it was missing something - like an eye. I have been thinking about putting an eye on the heart for some time but didn't follow through.

Yesterday I received a copy of the magazine "Where Women Create" from a friend I hadn't seen in over a year. It was such a thoughtful gesture! And it came with a card that made me feel like I really do have friends even if they are 'in absentia' currently. The envelope the card came in was pretty close to the same color I had painted the canvas to which the heart was mounted. So last night I drew an eye on the envelope, kind of practicing for the 'real' one I was going to paint on the heart. When I got settled here tonight I cut out the eye and was going to glue it on but decided I would just use tape so I could decide if I liked it or not.

I'm glad I did. My first reaction is to not like it. Maybe I like it a little now. But maybe also it would look better drawn directly on the heart. Or on a different color paper and glued on. Or maybe I should paint it on paper and glue it on. I think it needs to be darker. And the paper it is on looks jaundiced! Kind of like my current outlook on life?

So what do (all two of my readers) you think?

Vacation!

2011-07-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

The Big Guy and I are on vacation in central Oregon, east of the city of Eugene. This is a lovely farm on the road in to the resort where we are staying. As you can see from the view of the sky, the weather is typical for Oregon. We have been here a week. The first two days were sunny and warm - perfect. Friday afternoon I picked our 'dinner and dominoes every Tuesday' friends up at the airport. It began to rain in the middle of the night Friday. Of course, all the rain keeps the area green and beautiful.

On Tuesday we went to a yoga class - my first in eight years! I was surprised at how flexible I still am! I also really enjoyed the class and will go again tonight. And maybe I will even go to yoga when I get home!

Yesterday the weather was cloudy in the morning but beautiful in the afternoon. The grounds here are beautiful and the Big Guy and Roxy are enjoying all the trails. This area is also rich in fallen branches which he uses for his new hobby, making walking sticks. He has made about eight since we arrived and they are beautiful! Some of the wood has blue streaks in it which are highlighted by his wood butter (last years hobby).

The other spa class available is water aerobics. I went both yesterday and today. Yesterday it wiped me out but today I did much better. What a fun way to get in shape! Maybe I'll move our pool repair higher up on the looooong list of stuff left to do on the house! Or it might be easier to find a class somewhere!

The resort we are at has beautiful gardens but the foxglove in the above pictures grow wild all around! They are droopy because of the rain.

It would be nice for the sun to come out so I could lay by the pool but even if it doesn' it is really good to get away, meet new people and relax!

4th of July rant

2011-07-05T12:15:00.000-07:00

In celebration of the Fourth of July Lathrop sounded like war had erupted! The town sold (un)safe and (in)sane fireworks for seven days before the holiday. So, for the past seven days, fireworks have been disturbing our peace and quiet and Roxy's nerves. I've given her benedril so many days in a row that it no longer works to calm her down. One night she was shaking so hard I felt like I had put a quarter in the box by the bed to make it vibrate!

Sunday night, after returning from the family BBQ about seven p.m., to an hysterical dog, we put her in the car and drove out past Oakdale in search of a fireworks free space. Rox calmed down pretty much so we headed home a little before nine. Unfortunately, all the towns from Oakdale to Lathrop started their commercial fireworks displays at nine p.m. and that turned the vibrating dog on again!

But last night was the worst. Many people in the neighborhood had purchased the previously mentioned unsafe and insane products and set them off for more than four hours!

So, again, I took her out for a ride. The Big Guy stayed home as he had worked at Rail Town all day and was wiped out. Roxy and I drove out to the country towards the Stanislaus river. Once out of the city limits of Manteca it got pretty quiet. I made an interesting observation while going through town, though... many of the home fireworks displays were presided over and viewed by men! No women or children - well unless the men were really just big children?!

Once again the drive calmed her down until we got back to Lathrop - land of the free and home of the stupid - oh, I meant brave :={)

Back at home Roxy hunkered down in the master bath where it was quiet (relatively as I had closed up the house) and fairly cool. We all survived. I hope the fools have used up their stash of trash.

Anniversary

2011-06-26T07:20:00.000-07:00

Artquiltmaker Has her Creative Prompt Project up and running again. One of her prompts for this year is 'Anniversary'. This one rang a bell with me because in August The Big Guy and I will celebrate our twentieth! Quite an accomplishment for us and indeed for many in this day and age of easy divorce and failure of commitment.

So, in keeping with my Zentangle drawing theme to which I am currently addicted, I submit this drawing.

An interesting thing happened when I photographed the first iteration of the drawing, photographed it, and looked at it on screen. I could tell it needed work!

Can you see the difference?

One thing that I often forget but that is important in critically viewing my work is to look at it in another format - in this case a photo onscreen. Years ago, when I was in art school and before Al Gore invented the internet (just a little joke - LOL) I was taught to stand up and step away from my work and look at it. Then to turn it upside down and look at it. An lastly, to hold it in front of a mirror and look at it. These are all good ways to check for design flaws, contrast or lack thereof, and generally whether I needed to do more or to take away something in my drawing.

Give it a try. It is a simple thing which can only improve your work.

Speaking of art, the grandchild gave me his art portfolio. It contains his work from second through eighth grade. I was thrilled. Look for a future post with photos of all his work.

I have to go now and slap the Big Guy silly as he is whistling Christmas Carols aaarrrgggghhhh!!!!

Visiting Galleries

2011-06-21T16:35:00.000-07:00

I'M MELTINGGGGGG!!! And I'm not even a witch (good or bad)! First day of summer came in like a blast furnace. And to think I wanted it to stop raining! What was I thinking? 101 degrees today in lovely Lathrop.

But that isn't what I want to blog about, just a little complaint while I drip on my computer.

As I mentioned in my last blog a couple of days ago, I went to the Madrone gallery on Saturday to see the 2011 Sketchbook tour. For inspiration, there is nothing like looking at actual pieces of art. Very different from seeing the same pieces in a book or online. No matter how well the copy is, it is never the same as the original.

I remember visiting the Smithsonian when the grandson was a tiny, portable child. one of the exhibits I saw as Mary Cassatt's work. Her early work realistic portraits. One of the paintings, done before her Impressionist style developed was of two women. It was quite detailed and when I got close to it I could see that all of her amazing DETAIL was done with a two inch brush! I had seen that painting in books and on slides before but had never been able to see the actual brushstrokes until I saw it in person.

So, as soon as you can, go look at paintings.

The Red Sketchbook (last entry on this subject - I promise!)

2011-06-19T13:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to San Francisco to the Madrone Gallery to see the 2011 Sketchbook Tour. I checked out several, including my own and artquiltmakers . It was so great to have my sketchbook in my hands!

I remember from an art history class I took in college a story about the modern artist, Clyfford Still. He disliked having his art on display and out of his control. He would paint over works that had been viewed because he said he felt as tho the work had been 'raped'.

I now understand the part about disliking one's art being out of one's direct control. I really miss my sketchbook. Wanted to add to it and subtract from it when I had it again in my hands but of course I couldn't!

Other than that, it was a good feeling to know my work is in a gallery. The show was very well attended and there was a line of people waiting to get in. Once inside getting a 'library' card and checking out the books went very smoothly.

I tried to find a link so you could go directly to the digitized images of my sketchbook. However the Library is still building the website so in order to find my work one has to just slog through it. I looked through the first 14 pages and gave up. Maybe in a few weeks they will have finished with the website and it will be easier to navigate. In the meantime. It is fun to look at other sketchbooks. Go to this link www.arthousecoop.com/users? to see the sketchbooks.

I wish I were able to do the project again this year even though I agonized over the project last year.

Red Dog

2011-05-28T18:01:00.000-07:00

My favorite dog in the whole world, my granddog, Red Dog, is spending his last weekend at home doing all the stuff he loves to do. His visit to the vet today was bad news.........he has cancer and is terminal. The dog psychic said he wanted one last weekend at home so SB daughter is doing all the stuff he loves to do with him. He got to hang his head out the window of the car, eat ice cream and go to the beach without a leash. She didn't let him run on the freeway or chase pregnant miniature horses though. I think he should have red jello - isn't that the best when one is sick?

Beginner

2011-05-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

Artquiltmaker suggested a website the other day called Illustration Friday which I managed (after my usual futzing around the web) to get into.

It is similar to Artquiltmaker's Creative Prompt Project. The website puts out a word each Friday and artists send in their illustrations. I haven't figured that part out yet.

Last Friday's word was beginner. As my main art form is drawing I came up with the illustration below.

I have many empty sketchbooks so I choose one and am dedicating it to Illustration Friday projects.

On the home front, I returned from ten days in SB, spent with my nephew, last Saturday. I drove Super G and JJ up with me. Planted them at the local Comfort Inn as we are still fixing up our fixer upper. Also JJ wanted to watch the basketball playoffs. (Weren't the Lakers sad on Sunday?)

On Sunday, Mother's day, we went to Daly City for the grandchild's confirmation. The boys took BART and Gma and I drove (the boys don't fit in Gma's Focus!). Except that Gma disappeared during the mass it was a lovely day. It turns out Gma was kidnapped by a nun and made to sit in the handicapped section. But it was scary because none of us witnessed the kidnapping. My son-in-law found her when he ushered during the collection (does your church have the ushers pass the basket three times?).

The party afterwards was fun. The kids trampolined and the adults chatted.


The family matriarchs

One of the nice things about the day was that it was Mother's Day. All my family moms were together.

Well I'd better get back to blundering around the internet to figure out how to post to Illustration Friday. Belated Happy Mother's Day - you know who you are!

P.S. Finished editing the medical book!

Inspiration deficit

2011-05-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

I am back in Santa Barbara with the nephew. Sad news - I am totally uninspired! So decided to upload some of my 'inspiration' pictures to see if that will jump start the process.

So, here goes.....

AAARGGGG!!! I'm not on my computer! Have to go look for my thumb drive, but think I do not have the inspiration file on it. Bummer!

I know! I will web cam the Zentangles I have been drawing!

Well, that took almost an hour! I actually have four thumb drives with me. One has 1300+ photos on it! And still has room for more!

The above ZT was totally off the wall! I had been on the wildflower train at Railtown 1897 and one of the places it stopped to let folks off to photograph the train was prime rattlesnake territory, Yours truly did NOT get off the train! No snakes were sighted, thankfully. But they lodged in my head and came out my fingers in this tangle.

This tangle is called a 'Bud' by the Zentangle website and is a new design out of their newsletter. I have a hard time with them as my hands are not very steady anymore. This one turned out well and I like it. These are even more beautiful with color.

What do you see in this one?

I love doing these in pencil although the books and website want one to use black Micron pens. Haven't come across my micron pens recently so am using a variety of media. The pencil doesn't photograph very well.

I started this one with pink highlighter and then enhanced it with black pen. Pretty retro!

This was inspired by the big wedding on Friday. Wasn't Kate's gown perfect? I loved it. She looked every bit the princess. I wish them well.

These are copied out of the books. Good exercises and references for later drawings. Also handy when inspiration is lacking.

Lack of inspiration is plaguing me currently. I have two quilts I can work on, a medical book to edit, a journal to write in and my Zentangle sketchbook. Nothing appeals. No passion inside bursting to come out. Artist block, I guess. So I will have to give myself some assignments and force me to do them. Perhaps the passion will sneak in when I least expect it!

Railtown 1897

2011-04-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, Jamestown, California

The Big Guy has a new hobby - volunteering at Railtown! I have gone up there the past two weekends with him. Two weeks ago I went because I had been in Santa Barbara for three weeks and wanted to spend as much time as I could with him.

The Big Guy is a Car Host - a storyteller - the ideal job for him!

Also the park was running a wildflower train and that sounded like fun.

This past Saturday our grandson visited and The Big Guy wanted to take him up. It is a long day, starting with a drive of over an hour, then seven hours at the park.


The Big Guy and Grandson in the caboose

We rode the first train at 11:00 a.m., went on the caboose tour, had lunch in the picnic area with The Big Guy and then ran out of stuff to do at the park. So grandson and I went into Jamestown and walked around. Neither of us likes to shop and as we passed the (it seemed like) the hundredth antique shop we looked at each other and asked who had thought this was a good idea? We stopped at a place for drinks (coffee and a smoothie) that had been owned by the same family for four generations and was the biggest antique store in town. I think the drinks business was keeping it afloat! The coffee was really good. They made each cup when it was ordered.

Reinactors at Railtown 1897

It was a long day. The last hour seemed as though it would never end.

We did finally say good-bye to Railtown.

It's been a year!

2011-04-22T11:00:00.000-07:00

This week it has been a year since Super G fell and since the oil well in the Gulf caught fire. Two life changing events, Super G for me and the oil well for the Southern Coastal states.

Super G was released from the doctor last week and declared healed! She has lots of exercised she is supposed to do everyday. I hope she is better than me in keeping up with that but I'm afraid she is who I inherited my ability to sit for long periods of time without exerting any energy!


Mom (Super G) and her friend Bill

So that was last year. This year, I am helping SB Daughter (http://apaperaddict.com/) with her ward and cousin, my nephew, Jim. SB has to go out of the country for work (she is the worlds best Personal Assistant) and Jim needs a ride to school, food cooked, constant nagging (he is 16) and company in ambulances (that truly happened last month!).

Jim leaving for Europe via LAX

In addition to Jim, SB has three dogs - my beloved granddogs - who need to be fed and cleaned up after when they dump the trash. So next week I am driving down to Santa Barbara again to stay with Jim. I'm looking forward to hearing about his Europe trip (he returns from London and Paris tonight), and interacting with him again.


Nixon, Red Dog, and Cherri

Do you think Jim gets his penchant for hats from his Uncle Buck (AKA the Big Guy)?

Inspired by strange things (or the Brothel Blog!)

2011-04-20T10:56:00.000-07:00

Went to a wonderful panel discussion on Sunday at the San Francisco Main Library sponsored by Contemporary Quilt and Fiber Artists (CQFA). The title was "Primal Green: Environmental Art Quilts" and was held in conjunction with the library's Earth Day programs. There was also a display of CQFA's quilts and fiber art on the fifth floor in the Wallace Stegner Gallery.

The four women on the panel were Jaye Lapachet ( http://artquiltmaker.com/blog), Julie Stiller (http://jzs.homestead.com/), Nancy Riffle (http://www.linkedin.com/in/nancyriffle) and Soyoung Lee (killerhobbies.blogspot.com/2011/03/primal-green.html) and the panel was moderated by Delores Miller.

So what does all this have to do with the Brothel Blog? And strange inspiration? One of the members of CQFA, Bronwen, gave Julie Stiller a lovely piece of fabric, it was sheer and iridescent and changed color, from green to orange, with movement. After the program we were sitting around chatting and the subject of what to do with such fabric came up. Someone suggested it would go well in a brothel! Another mentioned the (former) brothel in Mountain View and how interesting the building is (apparently tours are given?) and another mentioned that prostitution is now legal in New Zealand! (who knew? who cares?) We talked about how the fabric would be used in a brothel and the discussion segued, with much laughter, into other topics as such chats do.

Anyway, if you have the opportunity, go see CQFA's exhibit at the San Francisco Main Library (http://sfpl.org/), it was thoughtfully hung in a wonderful space.

Sorry, no pictures - copyrights, you know :).

Television and movies

2011-04-06T10:34:00.000-07:00

I haven't really watched much TV in the past 20 years. Staying with my nephew in Santa Barbara has changed that! When he is home the TV is on.

One of the things he enjoys are old movies. Understand that he is 16 so old is from his perspective, not mine!

His choice of movies is really good. The other night we watched The Shawshank Redemption. And throughout, discussed what was going on.

Adults think teens are toughtless and shallow. I have not found that in my experiences with teens of my acquaintance. Particularly my nephew and my teen friend in San Anselmo. Nephew asks good questions, and thinks deeply about things.

Last night we watched Se7en with Morgan Freeman and a young man I don't know. The theme was the 7 deadly sins. I was surprised that nephew even was aware of the 7 deadly sins as he has no religious background to speak of.

Again, his comments and questions were excellent and watching this movie with him was a good experience.

Last week we went to see The Adjustment Bureau, another excellent movie. It had action, romance and a message. We have discussed it off and on ever since seeing it. I recommend it.

Zentangles!

2011-04-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

I love zentangles!

Several weeks ago artquiltmaker told me about a drawing/meditation technique called 'Zentangles'. When I packed to come down to Santa Barbara and stay with the nephew I forgot my cutting mat so cannot cut out the quilt squares I had planned to do. artquiltmaker had sent nephew a 'Zentangles' book for Christmas and he happened to show it to me. I was fascinated and began working on some zentangles of my own. Am now totally tangled!

This kind of drawing is mesmerising and a truly Zen experience. artquiltmaker sent the nephew two more zentangle books, numbers 2 & 3, and we are both off and running! I bought (I know! I already have several...) two moleskine sketchbooks and a square format recycled sketchbook to do tangles in. The square one is dedicated to tangles. Haven't started anything in the other two but think one will be dogs and the other an art journal.

I particularly like this tangle. Reminds me of a futuristic plane.

Doing them in color is cool, too.

The Munsell Color theory and the not lost dogs

2011-03-26T11:50:00.000-07:00

As you may know, I've come down to Santa Barbara to stay with my nephew while my SB daughter, his guardian, works in Florida and the Bahamas. Isn't he photogenic!

SB daughter also shares custody of three dogs with her ex. You may have seen pictures of the granddogs in the 'Red Sketchbook' area of this blog. We picked them up Thursday night in my truck. It now smells like a dog house! Good thing I like dogs. Was sunny yesterday so I left the back open all day to air it out. The sun was really nice. We sat outside a lot.


Red and Cherry spooning doggy fashion

Red is the biggest and Cherry the smallest. Nixon was still asleep when I took this photo earlier today. Because of all the rain, caring for the dogs in a house with white carpeting has been a challenge. I've found it easiest to dunk each paw in water, swish, and wipe. I close off the kitchen and let them in, one at a time. Washing towels twice a day!

While drawing the neutrals chart, below, I realized a little info on warm and cool colors would be helpful. While looking at your color wheel, with red at the top, all the right hand colors down to teal (B-G) are warm. All the left hand side through teal (B-G) are cool. I know I know - I said teal is both warm and cool! It is, and that depends on what colors it is next to and across from! Another tough aspect of color theory.


Two Neutrals (center colors)

Neutrals are hues (colors) achieved by mixing opposites (complements). Neutrals calm and bring harmony to your design. Neutrals allow high-contrast and intense colors to draw attention to the focal point.

Using your preferred medium, make a complete neutrals chart (all ten colors on the Munsell color wheel). You will have five lines of color because the warms will be on one side and their opposites, usually cools, will on the other side. For clarity (not like I did above!) put the warm colors on the right and cool colors on the left to correspond to your color wheel. Have fun!

This and that from Santa Barbara

2011-03-25T08:45:00.000-07:00

Wednesday afternoon I drove down to Santa Barbara. My favorite nephew lives with my daughter here. The SB daughter has to go out of town for work for about a week so here I am, spending time with the nephew.

Last night in the rain and mud the four dogs came home. What fun! Two of them, the oldest (my favorite) and the youngest are huge. The oldest is a Rhodesian Ridgeback mix and the youngest is a Newfoundland. There is also the biggest 14 inch standard beagle known to man and the smallest is Cherry, a Maltese (she's the boss).

They woke all of us up at least once during the night. We each got up to take them out. Needless to say, we are a tired and grumpy group this morning. But the nephew showered, ate breakfast and got to school on time.

In my next post I will discuss tints, shades and neutrals.

No pictures today as I am not on my personal computer.

The sun is shining!

Color theory again and more food quilt

2011-03-17T11:46:00.000-07:00

Have had a couple of comments about 'dischord' - oops! Misspelled discord. Tried to correct that but couldn't find the misspelling in either previous post. Sorry. I don't know why Munsell uses the word, discord. I think it is because the discord colors are not ones normally used with the dominant and its opposite in color theory. But for the purposes of this system, don't think about the dictionary meaning of the word. It is just a label for the color's position on the color wheel and for it's use in the color theory.

Roxy really wants to learn to sew!

Got together Tuesday with Domino Sharon to sew. We usually get together to make dinner and play dominoes. We told the husbands it was their turn to cook and do the dishes! (BTW they made a great dinner - fresh salmon, salad, steamed carrots, asparagus and brown rice.)

Borders are not sewn on yet but you get the idea

Sharon and I worked on projects we had been stuck on. She had a rain cape almost done, only had to top stitch and put snaps on and I had to cut my meager stash of Michael Miller's Apple Stripy fabric and sew it on. Together we both managed to do that! But I didn't have fabric for the outside borders so I went shopping in Sharon's stash! She gave me about 15 yards of black fabric she had. So now I have enough for the borders and the back and several more quilts! I wasn't going to make the back black but WTH, with such abundance how can I not!!!!

WARNING: There is no color theory used in this quilt!

Food quilts

2011-03-13T22:17:00.000-07:00

As you may remember I am working on food quilts for both the grands. The above is the first iteration of the first quilt. When I saw it up on my design wall (the hallway with me standing in the middle bedroom to get far enough back!) I realized it should be titled 'indigestion'! I took the first border off and searched through my stash for another fabric.

I found this cool fabric that I used on MY VERY FIRST QUILT!!!! It has strips of apples alternating with strips of apple seeds. I only have a yard of it.

I really like the way it looks surrounding the food blocks. But I am unable to cut the fabric! I'm afraid that I will mess it up and not have enough fabric !( Am totally blocked! So I made a date with my girlfriend, Domino Sharon, who is also at a standstill on a project (a cute raincape that she could really use right now) and we are going to sew together and hopefully get these projects going!

In the meantime I am thinking about starting the second grands food quilt. Artquiltmaker sent me an e-mail with Marcus' pattern 'patch-it'. As it happens I had seen that pattern on another website and liked it. So was going to use that for the second quilt. Artquiltmaker suggested I do a test first. That is so totally unlike me! I usually just jump in and commit to whatever I decide and outcome be darned! Well when I replied to AQ with that she gave me a big LOL! So I decided to do a test. What could it hurt?

The pattern requires a template ($20). I am in a 'use what I have' mode and will not buy any quilting stuff (today). So I studied the picture of the template and read the description and made my own out of matboard (remember the days when we made our own cardboard templates? Neither do I! But I had heard about doing that.

I have a mat cutter that I use to cut mats when I frame pictures and that worked great! Nice straight edges with one cut. The template is about 3 1/4 " square. And it worked perfectly. I didn't even slice it up when I was cutting!

The pattern I had seen a week or so ago ( which I can't find on the internet again :( ) suggested putting a black border around the colored squares so I did.

I could tell as I put this together that it wouldn't work for this quilt. The food fabric isn't showcased so what is the point of using it? The black border, however, does work with this pattern.

This did go together fairly quickly, I finished it in about two hours. Too bad I messed up the upper right corner. But I'n not taking it out! This is going in my bag of orphan blocks, along with the template!

The other reason (besides not showcasing the fabric) is that it wastes a lot of fabric. The finished block is about half the size of the original from which the template-cut pieces were taken.

The good thing is that this is an easy pattern that looks hard. The negatives are that it wastes fabric and isn't a good choice for (my favorite) novelty fabrics.

More Munsell Color Theory

2011-03-10T10:13:00.000-08:00


A version of the Munsell Color System Wheel

The Munsell Color System is quite complicated in its entirety. Here I am presenting a simplified version - only what we as artists and quilters, knitters and weavers need to make lovely color choices.
The painting was done with gouache in an Aquabee 'Super Deluxe' sketchbook.
As I mentioned in my last post, with the Munsell System we have five 'principal colors' (the ones in the squares, above), five 'opposites' in the circles and 'discords'. A successful composition contains a dominant color (may be a principal or an opposite), the complement of the dominant color and two discords (the third color away from the dominant on each side). The majority of the composition is the dominant color. A moderate amount of the complement (more if the color is grayed). And small, equal amounts of the discords.


A drawing using the Munsell System

The dominant color in this drawing is blue.

Its complement is orange.

Green round, purple swirl - sorry it is fuzzy!

The discords are green and purple.

These drawings were done in a Moleskine sketchbook with a variety of color pencils. It would be an interesting exercise to do them in the Aquabee sketchbook with gouache and do the color wheel in the Moleskine sketchbook. Next post, perhaps?

Color theory - The Munsell System

2011-03-01T23:10:00.000-08:00

This quilt was quite stunning but I wonder what the result would be if a little of red's opposite, teal and it's discords, yellow-green and blue-purple had been added......

Artquiltmaker and I went to the San Francisco Quilt Guild show on Saturday at the Concourse in San Francisco. The venue was great as there was plenty of room and it did not feel overcrowded. The quilts, for the most part, were really nice. Lots of inspiration. It was also the first show I've been to in forever. We had a very good time.

This is a better example of the Munsell System. Teal as dominant, red, its opposite and yellow and purple the discords.

But one of the things that always happens when we go look at quilts together is our differences in seeing color. I, of course, am sure that my color vision is the correct one and Artquiltmaker feels the same way! I have often discussed with her the Munsell System color theory. That is the system I use when I think about color for my quilts or drawings. She suggested I discuss the theory here so those interested could learn the system and perhaps integrate it into their work.

I first learned about this system about ten years ago from the book "Harley Brown's eternal truths for every artist" (no caps after the name in the title!). The Munsell System was developed between 1898 and 1905 by Professor Albert H. Munsell, an artist. It is a 'rational' and 'scientific' approach to color. He updated and significantly improved his 1905 publication in 1929 and the system was again updated by the Optical Society of America in the 1940s. The system is still used today in forensics, dentistry and the brewing of beer as well as developing colors for fabric and yarn. The Munsell system is used by the U.S. Bureau of Standards.

The difference between the Munsell System and the three primary system is in the relationship between colors. The Munsell System uses five 'principal' colors (red, yellow, green, blue, and purple). As the principal colors are closer on the color wheel to each other and because there are more of them, it shifts the color complements. The Munsell System uses the term 'opposites' instead of complement. In the Munsell System red and teal are opposites, yellow and purple-blue are opposites, green and violet are opposites, blue and orange are opposites and purple and yellow-green are opposites

The theory continues with the color distribution of a composition, whether it is a quilt, painting or your choice of an outfit to wear to the races! With the Munsell System every successful composition has a dominant value - making it either warm or cool. The composition could be left monochromatic - only one color - but will be more interesting with the addition of a modest amount of the dominant color's opposite.

The last component of the Munsell System is the use of discords. Discords are located on the Munsell System color wheel by skipping one color each side of that color's opposite. For instance, if our principal color is red, the opposite is teal. To the right of teal is green - skip it - and go to yellow-green for the first discord. To the immediate left of teal is blue - skip blue - and go to blue-purple for the second discord. Use BOTH discords subtly and in EQUAL amounts, grouped near the center of interest, if possible.

To draw your own Munsell System color wheel, draw or trace a circle. Put red at 12 o'clock, teal at six o'clock. Place the other four warm colors, orange, yellow, yellow-green and green, spaced equally to the right of and between red and teal. To the left place the remaining four cool colors, violet, purple, blue-purple and blue spaced equally between red and teal.

In summary, the Munsell System color wheel has ten colors. The five principal colors are red, yellow, green, blue and purple. The five opposites of the principal colors are orange, yellow-green, teal, blue-purple, and violet. In a Munsell System composition one uses a dominant color, its complement and its two discords. This is a very simplified description of the Munsell System but sufficient for use in quilting and drawing. Once you learn it and it becomes intuitive, you will notice excellent results in your color choices. More detailed accounts of this system are available by searching the web.

For an illustration of the Munsell System color wheel go to this link .

Abundance

2011-02-25T13:27:00.000-08:00

Artquiltmaker does a creative prompt almost daily. Yesterday when I was whining about being unproductive she (very strongly) suggested I do the creative prompts. So, when I saw 'abundance' was the prompt today, this is what popped into my head!
What I want to know is - can the donuts join in?

The Red Sketchbook and other ramblings

2011-02-24T10:31:00.000-08:00

I met the mailing deadline for the Red Sketchbook. Before I sent it off I decided to scan all the pages into my computer. Unfortunately I didn't look at the scans before I sent it! They are pretty bad! I think the book was too thick and skewed the light. Or something. But I did pay for digitizing once the book arrived at the Brooklyn Art Library, so I will have a record of it. I miss having to draw all the time to fill up the book! For all my complaining, it kept me drawing.

Sadie - Roxy's cousin

I have another project - a drawing of Sadie, Roxy's doggy cousin. Can't seem to get started. Although I did print the picture I am going to use, I guess that's a start.

Drawing of Sadie from The Red Sketchbook

This week I got out my WIPs (works-in-progress) I have four (!) tops ready to be quilted. One of my friends is a long arm quilter and we did an exchange last fall, I did some work for her and she will long-arm a quilt for me. She is moving to Colorado soon so I want to get this to her to do before she leaves. She told me the last thing she will pack and the first thing she will unpack is the long-arm machine!

Sampler quilt top - ready to quilt

The other day, while quilting the border of Ozzy's quilt I wished for a long-arm of some kind. Remembered the Flynn system and looked it up on the internet. It is reasonably priced and designed to work with a home sewing machine. I have tried this system out at quilt shows and found it easy to use. Looking at the pictures on the internet I wondered if the throat on my Featherweight is deep enough to successfully use this system? So I e-mailed the website and asked but have gotten no response so far. In February Artquiltmaker and I are going to the SF Quilt Guild show. Perhaps Flynn will be there and I can ask. Perhaps they will have a show special and I can get a deal. At least avoid shipping charges. I will measure the throat of the Featherweight and of my Emdeko machine (which may be bigger that the Singer) so I have that information when I look at the system.

The next thing to think about is the size of the system. I currently have my Featherweight set up on the table designed for it that Artquiltmaker gave me for my birthday, and that is surrounded by boxes not yet unpacked. Sounds to me like it is time to unpack a box!

Current WIP Food Quilt - indigestion, anyone?

Works in progress!

2011-02-16T09:55:00.000-08:00

I've been whining about all my works in progress (WIPS) since last summer when artquiltmaker artqultmaker.com/blog helped me pack them up when I moved last summer. She pretty much ordered me to photograph them and blog about them in order to prod me into working on them. So I have and here they are!

The first one, The Food Quilt, has actually morphed into two quilts. One was way too big and a (the) grandchild expressed a desire for a food quilt so now the nephew and grandchild will both get a food quilt.

The next is a picture of all the paper pieced parts for a double wedding ring quilt. I was going great guns on it but had to put it aside while waiting for Tap plastics to cut templates for the rest of the quilt. Also, changed my mind about who would be the recipient.

Sampler Quilt

Doggy Love

The next two are completed tops I did but never got quilted. I had forgotten about Doggy Love! The sampler was made in a great class taught by Susan Bradford at College of Marin in 2003 (?). We drafted the patterns and did most of the squares by hand.

Natalie's Quilt Top

My friend Natalie purchased this quilt top at the last Marin Needle Arts Show in Marin and asked me to quilt it. I think I better get busy as I've had it eight years!

Magic Top

This is a quilt top that mysteriously appeared in my stash. With a couple of borders this will be a whole top and ready to quilt. I love the funky 60s fabric! My friends Sharon and Becky and I are talking about getting a Flynn Quilt System together. This will be a good quilt for the first one quilted on it.

Hugh's quilt

This is an old quilt which belongs to our friend Hugh. I have been repairing it and am almost done. Then I will quilt it and return it to Hugh. I've had this one about four years. I really need to get busy!

Doggy Dreams

This is a wall hanging which I designed two or three years ago. All the pieces are cut, just waiting for me to attach them! It is based on a drawing and was supposed to be the first in a series. May still be!

Love Catcher

This is a panel I did in a fabric painting class with Susan Shie. I was going to be a purse but I have changed my mind. I did it with SB daughter in mind. I'm sure she wouldn't mind getting another quilt!

Mystery Kitty

This is one of three kitties who rest outside my studio. This guy is bigger than Roxy and not frightened off when I open the shades. I call him Big Red.

Retro

I started Retro in a class with Marion Nathan-Roberts at the Marin Needle Arts Guild. I love this small beginning and really want to finish it. I hand dyed the solid fabrics before I knew anything about dyeing. I used Rit dyes, mason jars and hung the wet fabric in the trees outside the trailer we used to live in. Perhaps it should be higher on my list?

Christmas Tree

Don't remember this and don't much like it. The scrap heap is it's destination, perhaps? Anybody want it?

Laurel Birch flannel back for some lucky quilt!

I love this fabric and have made it into a king size back for some lucky quilt! It will have to be a quilt I keep because I like it so much.

Garden Quilt

This is fabric I collected to make a quilt for a friend. I've only had it a year! Still want to get a solid or small tone on tone to go with it. Should be an easy quilt to make as I am going to fussy cut the center fabric and use the resulting blocks for most of the top.

Kim's collection

This is fabric My daughter gave me after unsuccessfully trying to start a quilt. I made her some cloth napkins out of it (there is A LOT) for Christmas. Eventually it will be a quilt. I think. I hope.

Princess Quilt

Here is another collection of fabric for a princess quilt. I already made one but, as usual, purchased too much fabric! So any little princessy girls out there want a quilt?

These last pieces are leftovers from classes I have taken. They are either bound for the scrap heap or for a scrap quilt. For now they are at the bottom of the WIP bin.

So There you have it. All my Works in Progress! What do you think?

Quilting

2011-02-09T21:46:00.000-08:00

I finally finished repairing Ozzy's quilt! He was very happy with the job I did. Now on to the next thing....

Detail of Ozzy's quilt

Today's stars. New fabric is the yellow on the right.

I made two blocks for San Bruno Stars today. That makes five in the last two weeks. I'll take them to Artquiltmaker tomorrow.

As I was searching for fabric I realized that my shelves were poorly organized. I had an unpacked box on the bottom shelf where I could reach it and a good part of my fabric on the top shelves where I can't reach. So I opened up the box and cleaned it out. Only one thing in it went back on my shelves and I think it will get moved into the closet soon. Unless one counts the light that was in the box - that is now clipped to the shelves and shining on my sewing machine. Much easier to sew with light! Aren't the shelves The Big Guy built great! They are just what I needed.

While rearranging my fabric I came across NINE (!!!!#@%@#) WIPs (works in progress)! Not one of which is in the LARGE bin with my 11 previously discovered WIPs. Geeze, I have a lot of quilting to do.

Went to Thimble Creek in Concord yesterday with my friends Sharon and Becky. And yes, I did buy fabric! I just NEEDED 1/4 yard of yellow for a San Bruno Star. And of course I had to buy a Quilter's Home mag that was 50% off because I pulled out a page as I was flipping through it! Just love that magazine. It is so cheerful. Got into a conversation with one of the lovely clerks at Thimble Creek and got on the subject of teaching and I went into teacher mode around the color class I teach! It has been on my mind lately as I would like to teach again. I guess I haven't lost it as the theory and all just came spewing out! I do love to teach.

Also found my die cut red hearts while going through the fabric on my shelves. And found an unopened pack of cool postcards. So pulled out my gel medium and made valentines! Hope I manage to get them written on and mailed :)

Roxy enjoying the sunshine.

The weather has been lovely. Sunshine and relatively warm all day. Have been able to hang laundry outside and it gets DRY! POE, my orchid is loving the weather! Her leaves are standing up and I think she is growing. Considering my black thumb this is nothing short of miraculous! I've been giving her orchid food every month so maybe she'll bloom.

Our grandchild came over Saturday and spent the night. He made his first trip by himself on BART. I picked him up at the end of the line and brought him home. As usual, grandchild and The Big Guy had a great time!

The Big Guy was in the hospital, taken there by paramedics from his appointment at the VA, last week. So having grandchild visit was especially nice. Big Guy has developed congestive heart failure! It is under control and as long as he follows orders he should be OK. Need to keep him around to build shelves and play with grandchildren and nephews! On his new salt free diet I have lost two pounds since Saturday. Better scarf down some GF goodies so I don't loose my grandmotherly figure! :-))

SUNSHINE!

2011-01-31T11:17:00.000-08:00

Woke up to sunshine this morning! It is the first time in almost six weeks the sun has been out first thing in the morning. What a treat.

As you can see, we have one orange on our tree! Hate to pick it as it is so pretty.

Yesterday our friend dsfingers came over and helped The Big Guy clear tools and building material out of the Great Room (living room? den?). It is really nice to see the floor and get to the couch to sit down! I can reach the window blinds, too. And, guess what? They are OPEN! The guys also taped the drywall on the ceiling and in the process dropped a scattering of plaster or something white all over the carpet. So now The Big Guy is trying to find the bolt that holds the filter to the shop vac so that stuff can be vacuumed up. In the process he punctured his hand with a spiky thing. Luckily, I'm home, know where the peroxide, antibiotic ointment and bandages are. So I took a little break from blogging to do the Florence Nightingale wifely duty.

I have been making "Stars for San Bruno", a project Artquiltmaker and I are sponsoring to make quilts for a family (friends of the grandchild) who lost their house in the San Bruno gas explosion last fall. I made three friendship stars (the theme is yellow stars on a dark blue field) and wanted to try a different pattern. I looked on the internet for free patterns and found a compass star that looked like fun to do. It was a paper pieced pattern. I enlarged it to 8" and picked fabric and pieced away. Here is my result.

Imagine my surprise - this no way looks like a star! I went back to the website and realized this patch is a border piece for the stars. But that is not what it said. Bummer. So, only a little daunted, I went to my 1000 Blocks reference book, found another star pattern (Interlaced Star) and drafted that into an 8" block. But by then it was late and I was tired so I haven't sewn it yet. We would appreciate donation of blocks from you for this three quilt project. E-mail me at peggycrrll@yahoo.com for directions to get your donation to us.

On the quilt repair front, all the blocks have been patched as have the posts. I decided not to replace the sashing. I have started quilting it and realized that while heavy quilting will likely keep the fabric from wearing, it totally changes the feel of the quilt. It is not as soft and cuddly. When I realized this I had completed the outside border. I have done most of the blocks, but not as heavily and still have the posts and sashing to do. I think Ozzy will be on my list of people to make quilts for. This repair has almost been a new quilt!

The New Year

2011-01-27T23:27:00.000-08:00

The tree is down, the gifts put away and the new resolutions have already gone by the wayside. It is time to tackle the house again.

But first I have come down to SoCal to visit my mom, Super Granny. With the price of gas being so high I decided to check out train travel. What a delight! Not only was it pleasant but it was also interesting. I took the "San Joaquin" which travels from Sacramento to Bakersfield. I boarded in Stockton, twelve miles north of our home. By the next stop, Modesto, I was very glad I had not driven. The Valley was rife with the notorious January tule fog. Until Fresno, about an hour and a half south, I had a four person table to myself. But at each stop the train loaded more passengers and I Fresno a young attorney sat down opposite me. At the next stop, two released prisoners from the local state prison boarded (with many other people) and sat at the table on the other side of the aisle. It was fascinating to talk to the successful young attorney and at the same time listen to the released prisoners. The younger of the two discussed the crime he went to prison for (grand theft of a cell phone, his second strike) and how he didn't understand why they make him serve two years because his first strike was a juvenile offense. He didn't seem to get it that theft was wrong. He was mostly sorry that his mother was upset. The older parolee had been "saved" and seemed to be mentoring the younger one. Will keep both of them in my good thoughts with hope for their success in their lives.
What a contrast and how lucky we are who have taken the high road for whatever reason we have (good families, enough money, fear, religious training or luck or...?)

The train terminated in Bakersfield and I transffered to an Amtrak thruway bus which brought me the rest of the way, dropping me in Newhall. I had asked Super Granny to wait at home for me to call as I got close to Newhall. When I phoned, there was no answer. I phoned several times more hoping she just missed the call but there was still no answer. When I got to the station I called Homer's dogmother and Super G's neighbor, Marge but her line was busy. So I called another of Mom's friends and found that Mom had gone for lunch at the Senior Center, which is just up the street from the depot, and had been seen walking around the station. So I went in search of Mom's car. I hauled my b--- and all my luggage around two parking lots without luck. Went back to the station and stood there in a quandary. What now? Then I noticed a little old lady with a book in her hand. Viola! Super G!

I am ashamed to say I gave her a tongue lashing for not doing what I asked. So she got mad and wouldn't talk to me! That was old behavior from when I was a teen which I recognized right off! (Growth for me) So I told her how worried I had been when she didn't answer the phone and then when her friend had seen her at the station but I couldn't find her and I apologized for yelling. Worked out much better than pouting.

We had a nice evening and she beat me at Upwords.

After enjoying the week with Mom I traveled home again on the train. A little excitement in Madera when a car full of youngsters tried to (and actually did) beat the train across the tracks! The train barely scrapped the car. The engineer stopped to check for damage. There was none, thankfully and so we kept going.

I arrived in Stockton right on time but no Big Guy and Pup to pick me up! I had called from Modesto so I knew he knew I would be arriving. There were three other passengers whose rides didn't show, too. We all laughed about it. After waiting about a half an hour Big Guy and Pup arrived and I got to drive my big truck home.

Train travel is my new mode of transportation! I loved it.

Quilt Repair

2011-01-04T12:28:00.000-08:00

Ozzy's quilt.

I'm in the middle of repairing, for the second time, the beloved quilt of a dear friend. Our friend lives at the Community Housing associated with the Livermore Veterans Administration. More than four years ago the quilt was among a group donated to the vets by unknown (to me), generous quilters.

An original block with two red patches from the last repair.

In my quilting life, I too, have made quilts to be donated to various organizations. As I worked on Ozzy's quilt I realized that, had the maker known how treasured the quilt would become, she would have done as good a job with the quilting as she did with the piecing. The blocks and sashing were hand-pieced with beautifully small stitching. Had the quilting been done as meticulously, this quilt would have lasted much longer than it did.

The sad state of the sashing.

As I mentioned, this is the second time I have repaired this quilt. Had it originally been quilted densely, instead of quickly, the fabric would not have worn out. I can see from the wear patterns that light quilting allowed the fabric to move which created friction and eventually holes and tears on the top.

Two blocks I replaced previously with the added X quilt lines.

The last time I fixed Ozzy's quilt I quilted an X on each block. That bit of quilting kept the new blocks from wearing. But the original blocks continued their downward spiral, even with the X quilting.

I did not, last time, quilt any of the sashing. This time much of the sashing needs repair.

So, you might be thinking, why don't I just make him a new quilt? There are three reasons: he loves this quilt, it is faster to repair, and I have fourteen WIPs* in my line-up. The good thing, for me, is that I know, next time I make a quilt to be donated, I will do a better job of quilting. Sometimes donation quilts are our personal rejects and we don't spend the time on them we should. But think of the recipients, often they are children who may have lost everything in a fire, or have been abused and are being removed from their home and all they are familiar with. Or, like Ozzy, live in a nursing home environment where few personal possessions are allowed. These donated quilts mean a lot to people, are well loved and much used. The quilts and their recipients deserve our best as our quilt gifts are valued by their new owners.

Patching an existing block

I replaced most of this block. The upper right corner is original.

It is awaiting quilting.

*WIP: Work in progress; replaces the negative connotation of UFO, unfinished objects.

Necktie Christmas Tree Skirt

2010-12-27T20:45:00.000-08:00

A couple of months before Christmas I was reading a magazine and saw a pattern for a tree skirt made from men's neckties. I didn't keep the pattern or remember where I saw it. But how hard could it be, I thought. I have tons of neckties, a good little sewing machine and ingenuity soooooo.....

I started by cutting a circle about an inch and a half wide out of tag board. I folded the ties around the circle and pinned them. When the circle was full I sewed the neckties to the tag board. It got quite clumsy as more ties were added. Additionally, the ties wouldn't stay straight!

But I did get them together and laid the circle over the tree base (and stuck the tree top in the base). My favorite critic, Roxy, contemplated the result.

After a few minutes, she decided that it looked O.K. I thought that it needed more ties but didn't feel like grappling with the mess anymore.

We finished putting the tree together and you can see the results of this little experiment below.

We sit and look at the tree all the time and discuss ways to improve on this (pathetic) tree skirt! Stay tuned, more to come - next Christmas!

Decorating for Christmas

2010-12-13T21:09:00.000-08:00

Quite by accident we found this lovely 8 foot artificial tree at the Salvation Army store. As is usually the case, we weren't shopping for a tree. But it was there, The Big Guy talked the clerk down to $38 and we went home with my pick-up bed full of greenery.

It was relatively easy to put together. The only problem was that we couldn't find our decorations! I lent them to the grandchild's household last year but didn't leave them there. I made a(nother 82 mile, $11 in tolls) trip to storage to look there. After going through about 20 boxes, I found two that said 'xmas decs' and took them home. Roxy and I posed in front of the tree when Big Guy finished getting it up.

In those boxes were some of my candlesticks, which I put up on the mantle.
I had previously found my two Christmas lego sets - Santa and four reindeer (no Rudolph!) and the Nativity scene. There was also a little, wind-up train set. I drug out an old chest and covered it with red felt and set up the legos there. SB daughter came by for dinner and brought flowers. I put them on the chest, too.

I really enjoyed decorating the tree this year. It has been eight years since we have had a tree. We were going to put the train around it, may still - it is only the 13th after all!

I think beginning my Christmas shopping would be a good idea, now!

The newspaper and other thoughts

2010-11-19T17:12:00.000-08:00

The Big Guy recently subscribed to the local newspaper for me. I enjoy reading the paper and the one I had subscribed to didn't really include enough local news to satisfy me. The Bulletin is almost totally local news. It drives me crazy! Not the local news part but the writing. The Managing Editor is the king of run-on sentences and misplaced modifiers! Doesn't he have grammar check on his computer????? I want to sit with a red pen when I read the paper! And then I want to mail the corrections back to him! Maybe I could get a job at the editorial desk.

It's raining again. The difference this time is we finally got everything that is still outside covered up today, before the rain started. It is supposed to rain through Monday. Can you say 'grim', anyone?

Speaking of raining, The "It's Raining Dogz and Catz" (aka The Red) sketchbook is well on its way to being done. I am all the way to the perforated pages.

Best Buds and Cherry - more granddogs

2010-11-09T11:38:00.001-08:00

BEST BUDS - REDDOG AND NIXON

Red is now my oldest granddog, and, don't tell the others, my favorite. His best friend is Nix a VERY LARGE 14" Standard Beagle (with papers). He surpassed 14" at about six months! I used two photos to draw this because the dogs wouldn't pose for me - what a surprise! Again I did a light drawing with pencil and went over it with colored pencils. Wanted to use gouache but because my studio is in the throes of moving (e.g. a total mess!) I couldn't find them.

CHERRY

Cherry is the smallest of my granddogs. She is a feisty Maltese who loves to get in my daughter's purse and go shopping. Black and/or white dogs are very difficult to draw. I really like the line drawing I have done of Cherry. I think it catches her personality and my feelings for her. I sketched the drawing lightly in pencil first and then went over it with a silver watercolor pencil. The darks are graphite pencil.

I only have ten pages left in The Red Sketchbook unless I want to go back and draw on the backs of pages. I don''t really like to do that as it damages the drawings on the front, especially with the paper in this sketchbook. I am thinking about decorating the cover but that is the last the last thing I will do. Possibly use my dog and cat rubber stamps. Will see........

Catching up

2010-11-01T23:16:00.000-07:00

LINCECUM, POSEY AND THE POES

I haven't posted in a while. Have been obsessed with the baseball playoffs and the World Series (Hurray Giants!) and of course, still trying to get all our stuff moved :(

The other day I unpacked some of my art stuff and found my plaster hand and my wooden hand models. So I named them! The plaster hand with the ball is Lincecum and the wooden hand is Posey! The POES are all of apaperaddicts plants which are visiting me for a couple of weeks. There is also a really cool mirror frame (I broke the mirror moving it) on the upper right that she made, too. Hard to see as the light is bad.

HOUSES ABOVE WILLIE THE CLOWN

This wonderful painting was done by apaperaddict earlier this year (pardon me but am having trouble with color/fonts tonight!). It is also visiting me for a while and I thought the safest place for it was on the wall. Besides, I like to look at it! The Willie the clown doll is a character of Emmett Kelly, a famous 1950's clown. I won the doll when I was about 12 at our church fiesta!

SHARON AND AURORA

I have been drawing and will catch you up on all of the ones I have done. This is my good friend, Sharon and her cat Aurora. Aurora wouldn't cooperate with the photography so Sharon had to hold her. Aurora and Roxy are pals. Roxy loves to visit and play in Aurora's large backyard.

RUBY BLUE EYE

This is a picture of the last dog I had before Roxy. I had her in the eighties. She was so much fun and she had a sense of humor! If you want a fun and challenging, energetic dog get a Basset Hound! Bassets are really good with children, too.
Ruby had one blue eye and one brown eye, a fault in dog show circles but a talking point in the world of pets. She also had the longest tongue in the world! I couldn't leave anything on the table or counters unless I wanted her to have it!

MARSHMALLOW KITTIES AND A CANDY KISS DOG

I watched a program on TV with the grandchild where an artist encouraged kids to draw and gave them an assignment. The assignment was to draw marshmallows. I adapted it to fit into my sketchbook. (can't turn off the italics!)

JUST SKETCHING

This is a page of messing around. What a sketchbook is about, after all.

???

I call this blue tongue for lack of a better name. I was still messing around and came up with this wonky dog.

R.I.P. COOCHIE

This is my late granddog, Coochie. He was an old, black Newf who had had lots of hip trouble and finally got to the point where he couldn't manage anymore. His doggy brothers and sisters miss him as do his human companions.

Another view of Lincecum, Posey and the POEs. This space is the top of my dresser and is usually a serene altar.

I took all these pictures with my webcam as my camera is out of commission currently. I am trying to ignore my desire for a new phone that has a camera in it. It would be less to carry around and maybe I could get one with a real keyboard. Looked at them today and saw two that I might like... That should go on the bottom of my list but it just doesn't want to!

NO RED SKETCHBOOK!!!

2010-10-18T00:52:00.000-07:00

Red Dog and Nixon - best buds!

I forgot my red sketchbook! I am feeling drawing deprived. Not that there is much time to draw because Mom has so many things which need to be done while I'm here. But I can't even fondle the thing ;(
So, I'm going to go to sleep now and leaving you with an image of two of my granddogs.

Out of my head

2010-10-06T13:56:00.000-07:00

Was visiting the grandchild last week and he challenged me to draw something original (as opposed to copying a picture) in the red sketchbook. So I did and I surprised myself! Will do more of these.

More sites have been added to the sketchbook tour next spring. Check out the Art Co-op website for places and dates.

I am actually hopeful that I will finish this sketchbook! Although I haven't drawn for a week. The move and the Big Guy (who has bronchitis) have taken up all my time. The Big Guy built huge shelves for my studio and I have spent a lot of time loading them up. To move I combined all the fabric I have into big bins. So one thing I had to do was separate it into colors. That took half a day, it seems. The color bins shared the bed with sleeping sicko Big Guy and Roxy. Those bins are shelved along with lots of art supplies, the printer, radio, and lots of books. I sure do have a plethora of stuff. The box with stuff I don't want has three things in it! Artquiltmaker says I have to do a lot of big art in a hurry to get rid of some of my supplies. Sounds like FUN to me!
It is now a week later...didn't get the above posted in a timely manner but am slogging on anyway. The house keeps me really busy. I have lost ten pounds since I moved in in August. I think, in addition to toting furniture and boxes, just the walk from the kitchen to the master bedroom is a lot more exercise than I have gotten in recent years! Plus we ride our bikes a lot and walk the dog every day. Yahoo - no dieting.

Mom lives close to a Whole Foods market so I splurged and bought four gluten free chocolate cupcakes! They are the BEST! Have eaten two, one a day (oops, is that the lost ten pounds sneaking up behind me?!!!)

Have been working on the food quilt and finished several nine patches. They are 18" square and cover over half of our king size bed. Looks like I will have some patches left ove as I only want it to be a double size. Otherwise it will be too big for me to afford to quilt it!

Well, it is late so I'd better get to bed. We have a big day tomorrow.

More Red Sketchbook

2010-09-29T16:36:00.000-07:00

Got home from Mom's really late Monday night but the 40 oz. iced coffee I had been sipping for the previous three hours kept me awake - what a surprise! So out came the Red Sketchbook and this picture from one of artquiltmakers friends. There is something to be said for sleep deprivation and turning off the left brain/ I did this in about forty minutes! Used blue, purple, and silver for the Newf. Black would not have given him any character, in my opinion! I am very happy with how this turned out.

OOPS - forgot to turn this before I uploaded it! Anyway, this kitty took me about three hours and, though I like it, I don't think it is nearly as good as the Newf and child. I used a grid and was very painstaking with it. Sometimes too much thinking (actually, usually) doesn't help artwork.

Keep drawing! I have to stop as The Big Guy is building shelves in my studio and I escaped to Starbucks for the WiFi. Need to go home and help!

Moving and the Red Sketchbook

2010-09-26T18:20:00.000-07:00

We are still in the process of moving and last week the boxes I brought out of storage were a lot of fun to go through. Some of the things we found were our high school year books and photos we hadn't seen in eight years! The drawing below in the red sketchbook and is of SB daughter and her old, now deceased dog, Willie. Willie was a real sweetie of a dog unless you threatened my daughter. He was also my nephew's babysitter! He was a BIG black lab mix and my daughter had him for about fifteen years. When her sister saw this drawing she said "Wow, you look like Dad!". I hadn't seen that at first but when artquiltmaker pointed it out, I did see it.

The Red Sketchbook is coming right along and I have hopes of it being ready in time to include it in the tour the books will be going on. I am enjoying doing the drawings, too. It is especially nice to draw in my new (but very crowded and unorganized) studio. My drafting table is in the studio but it is still in pieces. If the Big Guy doesn't get it put together soon I am going to do it! He has great plans for shelves and stuff for my studio which sound great but he has so many other things to do around the house still that I don't think those plans will come to fruition any time soon!

This kitty is one of the ones friends of artquitmaker sent me. I kept really bad records, though, and don't know whose it is. So if it is yours, let me know and I will e-mail you a copy of it so you can print it out. May do more work on it, haven't decided yet. Sometimes I have to look at a drawing for a while before I see what it needs to be truly finished.

I saw my nephew yesterday. He is taking a painting class at school and I was able to give him a couple of art tips. That was fun for me and I hope the tips help him. I would love to see him develop as an artist. I know his mom loved to have him draw and was proud of his art.

Doggie Drawing

2010-09-16T09:04:00.000-07:00

Roxy, the best dog in the world, is one of my favorite subjects to draw. She was laying, asleep, on the floor in my studio (yeah! I have a studio!) the other day and I did a line drawing. Indicated in the drawing the light and shadow of her black coat and later I filled in the body. Of course, she didn't hold still so I drew her head again in the new position. I love the way this came out.

The Red Sketchbook - Roxy's cousin, Sadie and miscellaneous other stuff

2010-09-09T17:18:00.000-07:00

We have started to have a real life! The Big Guys cousin and her husband and puppy came to visit the other day! First time they have visited us in eight years - we always go to visit them as we had no room for visitors in the trailer at Sequoians.

As I am doing the dogz and catz sketchbook I took a picture of Roxy's cousin, Sadie the pretty lady, a seven year old cocker spaniel and then drew her. There will eventually be a picture of my drawing but for some reason the program won't take me to picture uploads! Artquilltmaker is home and she showed me that once again, it is operator error! As you can see, pictures are included. Anyway, after I took this photo I worked on it some more and now don't like it. Oh, well.

Welcome to the 18th century!

We also went to the Highland Games in Pleasanton last weekend. I went Saturday and the Big Guy went Saturday and Sunday. We joined our old regiment, Montgomeries 77th Highlanders, at their encampment. It was a lot of fun. In the 17 years we have been reinacting the French and Indian War at the different Highland Games I have never had the chance to see the sheep dog trials. Last weekend our encampment was just beyond the trials so I spent a good part of the day watching the dogs. What fun! The dogs were beautiful, mostly well-trained and appeared to love moving the sheep around. They had a difficult time because it was extremely noisy with the bagpipe bands, other loud music and noisy crowds. I saw about 30 dogs run and I think only about four of them completed the course. Some of them got the sheep so excited that the beasts jumped the fence back in to their enclosure!

This is one of the successful dogs. He did a good job getting the sheep to do what he wanted and he finished in plenty of time. The dogs have five minutes to do the run. I enjoyed this so much I thought to myself 'I can do that and would like to!' then my other self said ' Idiot! Those dogs must cost a thousand dollars, need a flock of sheep to practice on and several acres to run.' Sure was fun to watch!

The Red Sketchbook - looking like one's pet and more blathering about my life

2010-09-02T15:54:00.000-07:00

Person Who Looks Like His Dog

I have been taking BART over to visit the grandchild every Thursday since I've been home (after driving to Castro Valley to check the PO Box) and decided to draw the people who were on the train with me. While drawing I realized that this was not a portrait sketchbook but a dog and cat sketchbook. So I imagined what this guy's dog would look like and here is what I came up with.

Have done a little work in my studio, I can at least walk in there now! The other day I set up my sewing machine on the new antique table artquiltmaker gave me for my anniversary/birthday/christmas/mother's day and all. I worked on the food quilt and finished 41 patches completely and another about 30 sewn together but not trimmed or pressed. Am pretty proud of myself! Think I can actually finish it in time for artquiltmaker to quilt it the end of next month. Talking about it makes me want to go home and sew (I am at Starbucks using their WiFi).

The Big Guy and I are being earth friendly. He attached a box to my bike rack and we went to the grocery store on bikes this morning! Then after recovering I rode my bike the three blocks to Starbucks! This little town is quite convenient. The Senior Center, Post office, Taco Truck (GREAT fish tacos) Wahlgreens and Mexican restaurant are all within bike riding distance. We may save some gas! And possibly get in better shape!

Moving day

2010-08-29T20:22:00.000-07:00

Dawn at our new home

Last weekend we finally moved out of the club. A large group of our friends showed up to help us clean up the site and load our possessions. What a job it was! We pretty much left the organization of the work to each person and the group worked really well together! I had rented, courtesy of daughter number two's credit card, a 24' box truck to haul the stuff to our new home. I was flabbergasted when I saw how BIG the truck was! We could have driven the trailer into it, it seemed! As I rented it I had to drive it. When I was inside I was eye level with 18 wheelers! And the thing had air brakes, a first for me. I did fine except for sideswiping one tree on the very narrow road out and skipping over a curb in the first five minutes I drove it! But I had purchased the insurance that was available so no foul to me!

The Big Guy and I worked on Saturday and the crew came on Sunday. One of our friends (a couple) provided a sumptuous repast, including gluten-free food for me. Another couldn't help so she gave us a check! Everyone there worked very very hard and we really appreciate that.

Another good note - another couple who were there helping bought the trailer for exactly what we paid for it six years ago! What a great relief to be rid of that! They have property near Santa Cruz where they want to keep it.

Two of the crew came over to the house and along with our great-nephew, Patrick, unloaded the truck. That was so nice. The Big Guy was spent by then. The only part of him still working was his mouth!

Monday we had to get up at five-thirty to return the truck. I got on the freeway, behind a semi, and toodled back to the barn. That made Monday pretty much a wasted day as neither of us had the energy to do anything else.

Between our daughters and our friends the whole operation went smoothly, was a lot of work, but is finally done! Thanks to everyone!

Now we are faced with putting all this stuff away! What a challenge. Where did it all come from? Where will we put it. We haven't even brought the furniture over yet - where will that go? Yikes!

The Red Sketchbook (and some blathering about my life)

2010-08-19T19:17:00.000-07:00

WAGS

Greetings from moving-land. I think I have toted the equivalent of an elephant in the last two weeks! Where did all this stuff come from? Do we really need it? Oh well.

Chaos is our middle name today. We were informed Tuesday that the rest of our stuff was going to be disposed of because we had abandoned the site! Boy, did that tic me off. I have been out there every other day loading up my truck (one day to load, one day to unload - I'm OLD!!). The coop which owns the land is quite unreasonable and hard to deal with. I am at the end of my rope with them. But we have arranged for Sunday to be the final day of moving. Will be so glad when that phase is over! Then we have our single car garage sized storage to empty. We will have furniture instead of only boxes in the house. Oh boy!

NIXON

Did a couple of Red Sketchbook drawings. One is of Wags, my Mom's late dog and the other is of Nixon one of my granddogs. The Nixon one is done in oil pastel and the Wags is done in dry pastels. I found them in the move! Boy did I find art materials! My studio room is wall to wall two and three boxes high! Some organizing to do there!

The Red Sketchbook - Owl

2010-08-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

Owl was inspired by a piece of bark from the huge sycamore tree in our new front yard. The bark is decoupaged onto the page and then watercolor and some shiny paste was applied injudiciously (!) over it. Am a little concerned about the bark staying on the page but can't do anything about that now.

The new house is coming along. The Big Guy and the Landlord are working hard. Well, not in this picture! They did a lot of prep for putting up drywall (on the ceiling - shouldn't it be called ceiling wall - or something?) and today will start putting that up.

One thing the Big Guy had to do was take down the ceiling fixture. We've all heard of plumber's crack..well I got a great shot of electrician's crack! But in deference to delicate sensibilities, I'm not posting it. It does trump plumber;s crack, however! He had to put on suspenders 'cause his pants wouldn't stay up!

I'm typing this blog entry and yesterdays blog entry on notepad. Storing it until I get over to Starbucks to use their WiFi. We don't have the utilities in our name yet and think I may not get any wireless or TV. Have heard that we can get TV with digital rabbit ears where we are (because it is FLAT and mountainless!) Starbucks is free and within walking distance. It would keep me from spending hours on the net and I can use that time to paint. A win-win. With texting and my cell I can keep in touch with everyone.

Home again!

2010-08-10T13:29:00.000-07:00

KITCHEN FLOOR - WON'T IT MAKE A GREAT QUILT?!!

I am back in NoCal! Slept better last night than I have in four months. It was great. And in honor of my return it has been lovely and cool, only about 78 degrees! I was actually cold when I got up this a.m. The other great thing is The Big Guy and my dog are deliriously happy to have me home. The dog has not left my side/lap/feet since I arrived. Another perk is that the house is two hours closer to Mom's and only two blocks from Starbucks and a grocery store. So I'm happy. Still have to make the trip to the grandchild's, which I plan to do on public transportation, to see how that goes. Stay tuned!

HOMER, MOM'S DOG

ADDED MORE PAINT TO HOMER'S FACE

Artquiltmaker chastised me about keeping it too precious so I am working on giving that up. I drew/painted Homer, Mom's formerly rotten dog (he greatly improved with Mean Mary living with him for 4 months!). I am happy with how it came out as it looks exactly like him!

MOM AND BILL

HANNAH AND FRAN

RALPH AND LILA

JANE

Also took photos of the Sunday Lunch Gang. Banana splits were the dessert of choice on this day! I feel like SoCal is another dimension where I am a different person. In charge, mean, responsible and not even able to use my real name as Mom uses my childhood nickname :(. In NoCal I am an equal partner and not totally responsible to make sure everything gets done. It is a real relief.

Well, it is time to get to work on our new house - which is a definite fixer upper with lots of potential! More later.

Drawing questions

2010-07-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

While sitting in the car waiting for Super G (Mom) to conduct her business at the post office I sketched up this ATC. For some reason none of the pictures I took of it were in focus! But this is the best of the lot.

I enjoy drawing like this but for some reason can't get myself to do it in the infamous Red Sketchbook. Can't wait for December when I have to send it back. I'm ordering a different color next time! So what do you think...is this cartoony type of drawing OK?

Speaking of Mom going into the post office by herself we had excellent news at her Monday neurosurgeon visit. Instead of seeing Anne, the physician's assistant, we saw Dr. Handsome (name changed to protect the innocent and describe the doctor!). He took off the neck brace! So Mom is well on the road to recovery. We signed her up for Dial-a-ride and are soliciting friends to drive her to various activities which are integral to a happy life for her. Getting her to ask for help is a huge hurdle. She has agreed to online grocery shopping. I know what she likes so that will make it easier.

The limitations set by Dr. Handsome were only two: no lifting anything weighing more than five pounds (did some serious culling in her purse!) and no driving until evaluated at her next appointment in October.

Mom's good news is also good news for me. I am anticipating going home early in a August.

The Big Guy has started moving boxes over to the new house. We can't move too much because the building inspector has to approve the new electrical first. But the boxes are in the bedroom half of the house which wasn't damaged in the fire.

I have been dreaming about decorating the new house. Want to put bead board half way up one wall in the master bedroom and paint it a shade of green with a lighter green above. Want to get one of those beds that is a top bunk with a work space instead of a bottom bunk for my studio so the grandchild will always have a place to sleep. Want to put my antique sleigh bed in the front bedroom for mom when she visits along with the dresser that holds a TV. The middle bedroom will be a dedicated guest room for the landlord's mom who visits from Mexico (she is going to teach me Spanish and I am going to teach her English!). I want to get a rectangular table for the kitchen but will probably settle for the round one we have already. Hope to be able to set-up my drafting board in my studio, too. It may be too big.

So, I am looking forward to the end of this adventure with mom and starting over in the new place. I'll keep you posted.

THE TENNESSEE QUILTS

I finally finished the blocks for Anna Maria Horner's project making quilts for people who suffered losses in the recent floods in TN. They are wrapped and ready to be mailed later today. Look at Anna Maria's blogspot for info on this worthy project. If I weren't measuring challenged this would have been a snap. I'm sure it will be really easy for you!

I'm on a roll with the food quilt. I think I have cut enough squares and I purchased the buttercup Kona cotton I want for the corners (not a jellyroll :( - couldn't find one I could touch!). Now all I have to do is cut the buttercup (after I decide what size it should be) and start sewing. Maybe today? After Sunday lunch with the Mom's gang, and games and desert with her gentleman friend.

The Red Sketchbook - Red Dog

2010-07-18T23:10:00.000-07:00

Page Two!
Red is my favorite (don't tell the other three) granddog. I couldn't find an actual picture of him to draw from so improvised. He is Rhodesian Ridgeback and Boxer. If he weren't trained so well he would chase, catch and eat cats. But there is always at least one in the house so he has to mind his manners. We were privileged to have him (and his Akita big brother, Truman) live with us for three months when we lived in the Twinkie (a 20' antique Corvair RV). It was quite cozy but we got to know the dogs very well and came to really love them. Truman bonded with the Big Guy and Red with me. He is always very happy to see me and I am happy to see him, too.

Maybe I am over artist's block with this sketchbook. Two pages is a good start and I am actually looking forward to doing one of the cats you have sent me. I also need to find a picture of my late cat, Bear. She was a beautiful mix of Siamese and calico. She looked like chocolate drink powder in milk which had not been stirred enough. She was right up there with Roxy as the best animal friend in the world. She was 19 when she died. Like Roxy I had gotten her at 4 weeks old. She came home in Artquiltmaker's sweatshirt pocket.

It is really hot here at Super G's. In the triple digits the past three days. I'm melting!

The red Sketchbook - Baby Roxy

2010-07-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

Going thru my 'edit blog' page I found that I had never posted this drawing! Or this post...so some of it is outdated, for example, I did make squares for the TN flood victims, JJ suffered mightily from his sunburn but WLs T-shirt protected him and I peeled but had no pain from the sunburn (give me ten years and I'll get some ugly bumps on my skin :( .....)

Didn't fix the thumbnail but may yet do that. Baby Roxy has grown up and is shivering from cold lying on my lap in her G-ma's Flower Garden crocheted coat. So read on for an early summer blog...........

This is The Best Dog in the World at four weeks old. She is the first drawing in the red sketchbook.

BTW, thanks for all the great dog and cat pictures! We sure have some handsome 'animal companions', don't we?

Once again, looking at this drawing in the photo shows me a glaring defect! The thumbnail needs to be toned down! My eye just zeros in on it. So I guess this is just iteration number two and not the final!

I was looking at The lazy Quilter's blog this a.m. and saw that she is also (along with artquiltmaker) making 12 1/2 inch squares for the flood victims in Tennessee. I guess I'd better get my act in gear and do it, too. I really want to so should just sign off and get myself in gear!

Had quite a day yesterday at Hurricane Harbor with the best boys in the world. They went on the scary slides, I just floated the river with them and went in the wave pool. When I was a kid we had a place called Pop's Willow Lake. It was a series of concrete pools of all different depths, very shady with grass all around. HH reminded me of that on steroids! The tag line all the workers say instead of 'have a nice day' is 'have a Magic Mountain day'. I figured out what that means: Spend every red cent you brought with you today! It has been almost twenty years since I have been to a theme park and I had forgotten how expensive it can be. Luckily I couldn't get the amount I thought I would need from the ATM so got $50 more. Came home with $19.75 and feel lucky to have that. Cost almost as much as Mom and me flying home on Monday! Hope the boys took away some good memories! Have no pictures as the camera isn't waterproof. Did I mention we are all sunburned? Bad Aunt Gramma! Did I mention walking on concrete threw my knee out (again!)? Oh the price of fun!

Better pull out fabric for that 12 1/2" square!

ATC Fauna from my house

2010-07-09T08:27:00.001-07:00

Did a quick little sketch of the animals who live with and around me in the place we are leaving. The Big Guy found us a house to live in so a lot of the stress of the past few weeks has been alleviated.

The main character in this cast is Roxy - the best dog in the world. Orangey is the "Easy Street Cat". He lives at the club and only allowed us to feed him while we were there. He is the rat master. And then we also have the wild ones, deer, snakes, birds, squirrels, skunks, racoons from hell (the dog's biggest challenge_, mice etc. If it weren't for the Board of Directors mismanagement the place would be paradise to live in. But we did enjoy being there.

Now it is on to the next phase in our lives. Stay tuned!

http://creativelive.com/courses/watercolor101/

Cat ABC I mean ATC!

2010-07-08T08:39:00.000-07:00

Another Atc created while thinking about the infamous red sketchbook. Didn't work on "red" yesterday as the boys have come to visit! That is the human boys - grandchild and nephew - the best boys in the world!

Anyway, perhaps this little alphabet cat will turn into the whole alphabet of animals, or specifically, catz and dogz. The title page of the red sketchbook has a "D" dog I may expand on.

Have to go now - Super G needs a shower.

The Red Sketchbook

2010-07-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

THE INFAMOUS RED SKETCHBOOK!

Have I groused recently about the red sketchbook project I have been unable to start? Guess what? I actually started it. Perhaps artist's block is gone.

Had a venti latte on my way home from 4th of July BBQ with Mom at SBdaughter's (apaperaddict.com) yesterday so of course I couldn't go to sleep. Set up a makeshift desk on my bed - the one with the brand new mattress that is soooo comfy - and started drawing away!

Am using the webcam as the cord for the camera still hasn't turned up so you get a little bit of background in the picture :[. This is the title page. May color it in later but it's a start anyway. See the D for Dog?

And here is the author page. Love the cat icon after my name!

Have you ever tried to hold something to get a straight picture with a webcam? Everything has to move backwards or perhaps it is mirror image....... A bit of a mind bend for me.

And here is the first layer of the first drawing. It isn't done but I have a good start. This is my beloved dog Roxy when she was just four weeks old!

Stay tuned for the final version.

Calling all dog and cat lovers!

Help me fill all 80 pages!

If you have a picture of your dog or cat I am collecting them to draw and put in my book. Send them to me via the comment section of this blog and I will send you a photo of the final drawing. And your furry friend's drawing will go into a museum with art house co-op.

Bulldog

2010-07-03T20:04:00.001-07:00

Sitting at Starbucks the other day I drew this in my pursebook (a sketchbook which also has lists, phone numbers, and other ephemera) without much thought. Now I wish I had drawn it in my 'raining dogz and catz' book. I may still.

Going to see my granddogs tomorrow and will take my camera. Want to draw them in my book. My granddogs also have a kitten, Reagan, who looks like a baby version of the Easy Street Cat, Orangey. So he will get his picture taken and sometime I will draw him in the sketchbook, too.

I did the title page and have started a drawing on the first page of Roxy as a baby lying in my hands. I hope it turns out well. I have printed up several pictures of the cats and dogs I love or have loved to draw. Bulldog, above, is my interpretation of a dog from a magazine.

Now I'm worrying that I am doing too much 'fine' art drawing. But it doesn't matter right now anyway cause Mom came over to the table to play solitaire and I can't draw because that shakes the table. So I'll just blog for a while.

I have misplaced the cord for my camera which transfers pictures to the computer. The Big Guy says I can get one at any Radio Shack, probably Circuit City or Best Buy, too. In the meantime I took the above picture with my webcam. That worked but isn't as accurate as the camera.

Hopefully, my next post will be out of the 'catz and dogz'. Keep your fingers crossed.

Home is where the heart is

2010-06-24T09:06:00.000-07:00

This is a view from my friend's deck. We had dinner in his "Tree House" Monday night. It was so refreshing to be home in the woods. I could really breathe in the cool, fresh air!

Mom and I tootled up to CV in her little car. It was so good to be home. The only problem (besides the impending move and having to pack up eight years of stuff and no where to move to) was that I got sick! Haven't been sick in years and this sick was a doozy. We went up Thursday. I got up Friday and had no voice. Mom is 80% deaf and talking to her with laryngitis was quite challenging! Saturday bloody nose, achy muscles and sore throat. But Sunday was the worst! Headache, barfing, coughing and all the previous complaints! YUK!

I'm back to my healthy self today! And while I was home I just powered through and did what needed to be done.

Artquiltmaker came over Sunday with my grandchild (who is now TALLER than me!) and did tons of work for me. She went through all my fabric and condensed it and took home my UFOs. We found three (count them, three) quilt tops ready to be quilted! One I knew about but two I had totally forgotten!

She went through my clothes and I told her what to put in the Thrifttown bag (there was a lot!). And, of course she visited her Gramma.

It was so good to see both my daughter and my grandchild. This is the longest period of time I have ever gone without seeing the grandchild and I was sorely missing that.

We are back at Mom's now and she thinks she is helping by doing stuff she shouldn't - laundry, going in her closet, walking without her cane and other stuff I haven't discovered yet! I have to remind her that if she falls again she won't be able to stay home! So I just had a little firm talk with her about doing stuff she hasn't been cleared to do and what would happen if she fell again (nursing home). Will she remember? Did she listen? Who knows?

Raining cats and dogs

2010-06-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

This is definitely Northern California! Probably my hills in the East Bay! The rain goddess is preparing to send cat and dog weather to the hills.

Again, I am practicing for starting the sketchbook project I signed up for last month. I thought I would paint all the pages with the new metallic watercolors I bought but after doing that in some pages of my current moleskine sketchbook, I'm not so sure.

This page looks pretty good, I think it is the color that I like.

But these two are really bad. Looking at them in photographs, as I've mentioned before, gives me a whole different perspective. I think red tones are not what I want. And I just had an idea for the cover! I saw some cat and dog fabric at the store the other day (but I was good and didn't buy it) and it would look pretty cool woven and glued to the cover! Will go back and see if they still have any. Or go online and look for some.

Well, I'm off! Driving home today, dragging mom along. Hope she does OK. Dreamt about packing to move last night!

Flag Day

2010-06-17T07:01:00.000-07:00

Flag Day was last Monday and I was inspired to sketch flags. The above is flagus interuptus. The rest of the drawing lost in space as I needed to stop and help Mom. Perhaps inspiration will slap me in the face at some future time and this will get finished (like on the fourth of July? :} ).

Left Mom at the Senior Center eating a gluten filled lunch and I went and sat at Starbucks. Had a lovely conversation with a total stranger whose political leanings matched mine - a rare find in this area of California.

This flag is a perfect example of failure to pay attention - not always a bad thing. I noticed when I posted this that the stripes are wonky. I guess it goes with the Starbucks logo which I intentionally made wonky (notice the Vulcan hands?).

I looked up info on Flag Day as I had forgotten my grade school history on the origin. I did remember that Betsy Ross is credited with the design of the first flag. She changed the stars from six-pointed ones to five pointed ones. According to Wikipedia she did this for two reasons - the five pointed star was easier to cut out (there is a trick to it that I used to know) and it is also easier to recognize a five pointed star from a distance.

Here is a quite old project (a purse) I did as part of a challenge when I was in the Marin Needle Arts Guild in the good old days (2001, I think). The star was cut out using Betsy Ross's method. I was a new quilter at the time and didn't know much. In order to satin stitch the star down I put scotch tape on the edges at a stabilizer! LOL! But it worked! Not only did it stabilize the edges, but it also held the star in place. Was kind of icky to remove, however!

This is the only other flag related project I have done. It is a lap quilt that I made for my mother's (late) husband in 2004. He loved Coca Cola loge products and when I saw this fabric I knew I had to make him a quilt.

I had recently taken a machine quilting class and the stars were a manifestation of my new-found skill (?!).

Here is a good view of the logo fabric.

This is the back, which I love because it showcases lots of fabrics that I have used on other quilts. My Mom has this on her couch and I love sitting with it over my lap when it is cold (about four days a year!)

That is the extent of my flag day offering. Kuddos to Betsy Ross. I think Flag Day should be called "Betsy Ross Flag Day" to celebrate contributions women's sewing has made.

Creative Prompt - Eye

2010-06-16T08:54:00.000-07:00

I loved all the responses to Artquiltmakers creative prompt "Eye". It always takes me a couple of days to be creatively prompted to respond. All the good positive responses had been listed so here is my negative response! Really like the drawing, if not the sentiment.

I used Crayola watercolors, the new metallic watercolors I got last week and a Micron pen I found in my sewing box. One of the neat things about the Micron pen is that it is waterproof and the tip on this one is very small.

Well, Mom's spoiled dog is standing at his dish barking so I have to go and feed him (and Mom, too, I guess).

Keep drawing.

Sketchbooking

2010-06-11T09:53:00.000-07:00

I got time off last night from Momcare. She and her WONDERFUL neighbor, MB, went to the HOA potluck and meeting. I dropped them off, and scooted over to the scrap booking store where, after spending too much money, I sat and painted and drew. I was given a 15% discount because I was working at their table!

So today I am showing off the fruits of my labor. I purchased some 'typewriter' alphabet stamps, some really neat metallic watercolor paint and a puppy paw rubber stamp (which it turns out I don't like).

Then I did a bunch of sketching in preparation for working on my Artist Co-op sketchbook. Found I like my painting much better! Think I will do this type of thing as background in my Artist Co-op sketchbook.

Spot, the dog.

Raining dogs and cats. Like the dogs and cats but not the drawing. Plan to re-do this in paint.

Catty raindrops.

Doggy raindrops.

Puddles!

Keep drawing

Sketchbook project

2010-06-10T13:03:00.000-07:00

I may have mentioned that I joined the sketchbook project with Art House Co-op. Participants select a theme from a long list, I choose "It's Raining Cats and Dogs", and buys the sketchbook. One can also elect to have the completed sketchbook digitized for an additional $20 fee (the sketchbook fee is $25). I did go the whole nine yards and paid to have my book digitized. I must return it by Jan. 2011. The Co-op sends participants a bar coded sketchbook, info on the project, and a library card for the Brooklyn Art Library. The completed books will go on tour and afterwards, be available for the general public to look at.

When I graduated fro CCAC (now CCA :() my artistic goal was to have one of my pieces in The Whitney Museum of Art in NYC. This is cool as it will be in a museum in New York!

The problem is ......... it is a brand new EMPTY sketchbook. The first drawing is always the hardest. Plus, I want it to be spectacular. I have always told my students to "just draw!" and now I don't seem to be able to.

I have been practicing in my current sketchbook which feels pretty lame. Artquiltmaker suggested I make lists of what I want in the book and I have done that, too. Still not inspired. But I have heard, and just remembered that art is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. In other words (thanks Nike) JUST DO IT!

My favorite drawing/watercolor teacher at CCAC (now retired), Richard Gayton, gave me some hints on how to start a new sketchbook. One was to leave a few of the front pages blank so you didn't have to look at a crappy (my word, not his!) first drawing. A trick I do too, is to start on the very back page as one must improve as on goes forward, right?

Well, after all this sniveling I am going to go back and read the Art House Co-op info on the project and see if that inspires me.

Pretty cool dog drawing, above, I think. Maybe I can do this.........

Columbine

2010-06-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

Artquiltmaker recently posted a report on her visit to the SF Decorator Showcase house in the Presidio Heights district of San Francisco. In the garden she photographed this columbine blossom. She had been discussing how different aspects of the house (floor, table, etc.) would make interesting quilt blocks and when I saw this flower I was inspired to design a quilt block.

I got out my trusty water soluble oil pastels and moleskine sketchbook and started drawing. I'm pretty happy with the results but will need to refine it to actually use it as a quilt block. Wish I had my 1000 quilt blocks book here :(. Anyway, here it is. What doyou think?

It is interesting to look at a sketch in a place other than the original. Design flaws and needed fixes are much more obvious. One of the techniques (tricks?) artists use is to look at a piece in a mirror. It is very helpful in refining one's design. Looking at a photo does the same thing.

I am going back to the drawing board (er, kitchen table) and do another version of this.

City Rain Goddess

2010-06-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

I saw a young woman with wonderful hair and she inspired this ATC. Love pen and ink. The black and white is so dramatic.

This is short and sweet so I can go buy a buttercup jellyroll online before I have to make dinner!

Swimming upstream

2010-06-05T18:02:00.000-07:00

This drawing is in response to Artquiltmaker's creative prompt, salmon. I thought about it for a long time because salmon fishing has lots of negative connotations for me and I didn't want to go there.

This is kind of how my life feels right now, swimming upstream. The better my mom feels the harder she is to deal with. She still doesn't think before she acts and that portends problems for later when and if she gets to live alone.

The big guy is trying to pack the trailer up so we can move but he is such a pack rat that it is a monumental job. And I have forms to fill out for senior housing but all my records are in the trailer where big guy is packing up!

I guess this is where let go and let god comes in. Riiiiiiiight.

Water soluble oil pastels

2010-06-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

I thought this image was really cool when I drew it but seeing it posted here makes it look quite different! And weird.

Once again I used my new water soluble oil pastels but this time I did not wet them. Maybe I should since I don't like the way this image looks. It also might look better if the photo was better. But when I took it the batteries in my camera were dead so I used the webcam on Mini Mommy (my HP notebook) with the ATC taped to my chest so the background has wrinkles and lumps and bumps. And it is green.

There is some ethos in the face of this guy. Hmmmm....

Waiting at the Airport for Jimmy

2010-06-03T08:32:00.001-07:00

My nephew is coming to town and Super G and I are so excited. We got to the airport early and were sitting in Starbucks. I took the time to do some drawing.

2010-06-03T08:05:00.000-07:00

My SBdaughter, see A Paper Addict, came to visit and brought me oodles of ATC supplies. So I dragged out my (new) art supplies and we made ATCs. This is a kitchen stool rendered with water soluble oil pastels.

The pastels are kind of chunky so doing fine work is difficult. But after going over it with a brush and water I found I liked the loose effect I got.

The picture is weird because I ran out of batteries for my camera so I used the webcam on my HP Mini Mommy.

BTB, Red Vines candy company is having a drawing contest. Check it out!

Quilting supplies

2010-06-02T07:51:00.000-07:00

Well, the quilting virus has hit again and I made a stop at the quilt shop next to the park where Mom lives. Don't usually go there as one of the owners is less than friendly or helpful. Would put the name of it here but have only had half a cuppa so far this a.m. and CRS is full blown.

I have always used the rulers with the yellow lines but Creative Grids is the only brand carried next door so I got this one. It is really cool! It has the inches and half inches numbered! And it has both white and black marks on all the lines so it doesn't matter what color my fabric is I can still see the markings, AND it has sticky stuff on the bottom so the ruler doesn't move (you already knew that?). So I got busy and cut some squares.

I still messed up! But only on one set of two patches. Measuring has never been my strong suit. Did I tell you about trying to find a heater register for Mom's floor? ..........oh, well, never mind:]

quirky

2010-05-31T16:22:00.000-07:00

The creative prompt at Artquiltmaker's blog this week is 'quirky'. Quirky has been on my mind for a couple of days and this is what came of it! I was reading a Lee Child novel - just started it - and set it down somewhere not obvious so pulled out my art supplies and quirked. Done now. I'm going in search of my novel and a cool place to sit!

'Remember' pendant

2010-05-30T08:16:00.000-07:00

I realized when I looked through my blog posts that I have referred to the 'Remember' pendant while never having posted it! So here it is. I made this at "a Work of Heart" in San Jose with my SBdaughter the week before coming down to take care of Mom.

The picture reminded me of pictures of myself when I was very young. The picture is the first layer, the word - remember - is the second layer and resin is the third layer. I drew on the dress with a sparkly pen (don't remember the kind, sorry) and that shows through the resin. I am glad it shows up in the picture, too.

A Work of Heart has all kinds of great classes. If you live in the bay area, check it out.

fabric fabric fabric

2010-05-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

I did in fact go to Beverly's on my day off today. I purchased about sixteen pieces of fabric in quarter yard cuts! That should give me a leg up on the food quilt. Am going to cut at least four patches from each piece and possibly more, depending on how well I can fussy cut some of them.

For instance, I picked some really nice black with limes, lemons and oranges on it and I can probably get six from that one. The black has white polka dots too.

Two of the pieces are half yards because they are panel prints with several different images. That will be fun to fussy cut.

I also purchased a new cutting mat which is purple! Probably could have talked myself out of it if I weren't so tired. But the mat I brought with me is one of those 6x7 inch ones. Couldn't face cutting all that fabric on such a small mat. And anyway, its purple!

There were pink ones, too but how many mats does one quilter need? I wonder if there are purple ergonomic rotary cutters? Then I would have a coordinated set!

What once was lost...

2010-05-28T07:25:00.001-07:00

YEAH!!! I found the ATCs that I thought I had lost. I am so happy. The Big Guy is visiting me and Mom here in SoCal and he dropped something between the mattress and the bed. In the process of retrieving that I saw a little pack of ATCs! Sure started my day off well!

You may notice the drawing on the lower left is quite different from my usual style. The grandchild did a super hero for me. When I have access to my printer again I am going to print that one and see if I can make a pendant like "Remember" that I made at A Work of Heart. It will be my talisman and good luck piece.

The other good thing is that The Big Guy is going to give me a day off. He has been here three days so pretty much knows Mom's routine. I think I will call my girlfriend and see if she wants a visitor.

This is one of the ATCs I really didn't want to lose. I like pen and ink, especially when it works well. This image is of Mom while she was still in the hospital and pretty out of it on morphine. If you look at her facebook fan page - The Adventures of Super G - you will see how much better she is. Two more months in the brace and she will be re-evaluated by the neuro surgeon.

The Big Guy brought me my Singer Featherweight and two of my UFOs. I have been collaborating with Artquiltmaker on the food quilt and may go to the quilt store today (or - don't tell die hard quilters) Beverly's (I have coupons) and get a charm pack of a solid color, buttercup, and start working on that one. I only have 63 6 1/2 inch blocks cut so need some more food prints. Saw tons of them on the internet yesterday. Wonder what the smallest piece is Beverly's will cut? I only want two of each print. Artquiltmaker says I need 238 blocks! So I still need 88 other prints. Geez, are there 88 more food prints out there? Maybe I need four of each print? With four of each I'd only need 60 prints. That's still pretty daunting! I think this might have been a good thing to do BEFORE I started cutting blocks! Oh well, onward and upward! Stay tuned.

New ATCs

2010-05-27T15:33:00.000-07:00

Four ATCs at one blow! The book I got at Aaron Bros. last week is inspiring. This is an example of one of the exercises. The instructions said to drop blobs of watercolor onto the card and then find images and outline or highlight them. From upper left around to lower left here is what I call them: Seahorses, Stroke, Fungi, and Goddess Carrying Purple with Elephant.

Went online and perused ATC trading sites but am not ready to let go of any of my cards yet, even with the promise of receiving a card in return. May post some when I get my big pack of them from home. Hopefully I will get to go home for the weekend the first weekend of June.

The kindness of strangers

2010-05-23T09:37:00.000-07:00

O.K. I admit it. I am pretty grumpy and whiny lately. Also tired, short-tempered and probably some other negative trait I can't think of right now. So if you are looking for Little Mary Sunshine don't come to me!

That being said, I got a short break yesterday from Mom Care due to the good graces of a great neighbor, and I went (TAA DAA) grocery shopping. o_o

First to Whole Foods where I saw a woman from a caretakers group I went to Friday (didn't like the group but will go back) who, quite sweetly, listened to me rant for about twenty minutes. She was saved by my husband phoning.

I was standing in the gluten free aisle of WF and got about $50 worth of GF snacks (oh the belly and hips will suffer for this but the psyche will love it). Finally pulled myself away, finished shopping (got sushi and a fizzy mango drink for my lunch) and sat in the car, by myself, in almost total quiet, and ate. Then I drew an ATC! Second one in five weeks, I think. =(

Before going to Trader Joe's I went into Aaron Bros. - Santa Clarita's idea of a great art supply store - and looked at stuff. Gathered up about $100 of stuff which duplicated stuff I have at home as well as a book on ATCs. Then I went around and put everything back except the watercolor brush and the book and went on to TJs.

Picked up what I needed (they have great blueberries!) and when I got to the cashier (a young man about 18) he asked me how I was and I said "fine" (no one really wants to know how one is, it's a polite rhetorical question) and I asked him how he was and he said "great, I get off in half an hour. But I'm tired and I have to go to my second job so I guess I'm not so great." I said I would trade his day for mine and he asked me why so I told him about Mom falling and me taking care of her 24/7, being here for over 5 weeks, getting fired from our job, facing homelessness and being impatient and exhausted. He said "you win the bad day!" He finished checking me out and asked me what kind of flowers I like. I said sunflowers. He gave me a bouquet of sunflowers!

The kindness of strangers is a sweet thing. I'm still smiling. })

A work in progress, part two.

2010-05-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I posted an image from my camera that I said I was going to make into a quilt block. Well, I didn't get that far yet (the fabric is on Mom's kitchen table) but I did get the drawing done. This is going to be 6.5"x6.5" which includes the quarter inch seam allowance. Ir may go into the food quilt I'm cutting patches for except how edible is this?

I think the triangle will be bias tape or appliqued down. The circles will be on top, raw edge appliqued to the base square. Or maybe the triangle will be stitch painting. As you can see, a work in progress. Also, need to do it by hand as I don't have my trusty featherweight with me and really dislike my Mom's machine.

Drawing inspiration from strange places

2010-05-18T08:03:00.000-07:00

Housework seems to be my major occupation while I am taking care of Super G after her nosedive off the arm of the swivel rocker. But my creative brain still seems to work. We have no errands or appointments today so I am going to use this photo to design a quilt block.

Stay tuned!

Artquiltmaker's creative prompt - LEAF

2010-05-17T16:49:00.000-07:00

Artquiltmaker's creative prompt recently was "leaf". Today was run all over creation morning (and afternoon) but in the process I saw this tree with the two leaves growing out of a colorful trunk and the bushy leaves behind it. So, for the creative prompt, I am sharing this with you!

Dog tag

2010-05-15T17:40:00.000-07:00

I made this at a work of heart the same evening that I made the Mothers Day gift blogged about
earlier this month. When the class projects were described I had only negative connotations for dogtags. That is because I have so many friends and my husband who were in the Vietnam Conflict and are suffering still because of it.

Anyway, my solution for that was to make a happy dogtag! I thnk it is a success. Have further plans for this piece but haven't gotten around to it yet. Stay tuned!

Original cupholder

2010-05-13T08:01:00.000-07:00

I recently lost my perfect travel coffee cup. I left it in a rental car! (Left a bra in it too, but that is another story!) In my search for another perfect travel mug I went to Starbucks, oh, yeah, I got coffee, too!

I found a really cool looking ceramic mug and shelled out the exorbitant price they asked, had it filled with coffee and found that it got really HOT! So one afternoon while waiting for my husband to be ready to go out with me I whipped up my own version of the cardboard sleeve.

It is three layers, backing, batt, and front and I embellished it (my husband is a little poky sometimes). It serves it's purpose well and I enjoy using it. Can't say as much for the cup and am still on the lookout for my perfect travel mug.

Quilting again, kind of.

2010-05-12T16:11:00.000-07:00

Am still at my Mom's helping her recover from THE FALL as you can tell from the spacious kitchen behind me. Last week I succumbed to a bout of retail therapy and one of the things that I purchased was a copy of "The Quilter Magazine" May 2010. The article in it that attracted me is called "Floral Waves" because it uses curved piecing. I took a class in curved piecing from Jeanette Meyer at EBHQ last year but have never used what I learned. This article isn't as specific as Ms. Meyer's wonderful class but it does refresh my memory. I haven't got much in the way of supplies here at Mom's but women quilted long before all our wonderful goodies were invented (rulers, mats, rotary cutters, sewing machines - yes, I left all four of them home!, etc., etc.) so I got out a pencil, small cup and my shears and hand sewed this in about 20 minutes.

With a little border added it will fit on the food quilt I have started cutting out at home. If I had planned better it would be the right sized patch. Oh well. It did what I hoped, got me started quilting. The urge has been growing over the three and a half weeks I have been in SoCal. Mom has a ton of fabric - gee, is that hereditary - and I have separated it into cotton and other junky stuff - oh sorry I mean polyester!

Oh! A little tidbit of very exciting news! I got a message on my facebook page (look for Peggy Carroll on FB if you are interested) from Mark Lipinski! He wished me a Happy Mother's Day and told me I had done a good job with my daughter, Artquiltmaker. He complemented her work. I am thrilled!

Pollenate your art!

2010-05-10T22:27:00.000-07:00

This is a fuzzy image of a cool idea. I am staying in SoCal currently taking care of my 86 yo mom after she fell and broke C4, a vertebra in her neck! She received many boquets of flowers
while in the hospital and shortly after coming home. One contained some violet lillies with tons of pollen. My SBdaughter said one could paint with the pollen so I did! Just messed around and found it fascinating. All the colors above are from the same batch of pollen wet with plain water. Try it sometime!
By the way, I've lost a pack of ATCs! If you see them, send them to me. I'll buy you a cuppa coffee!

ATC - My pup - Drawing familiar objects

2010-05-05T13:34:00.000-07:00

Our dog, Roxy, is a continuing source of joy and inspiration to me. As you can see, she is the most beautiful dog in the world! Also, she is well behaved, friendly and smart.

She enjoys curling up on my lap and the other day I felt like drawing when she was in my lap I drew her.

I started out with pencil, then rubbed some oil pastels in - blue and black - and highlighted it with india ink (great medium, it's waterproof!) and some color pencil for her collar.

The phrase is of course a messed up form of let sleeping dogs lie. Don't know where that came from (the messed up version, I mean).

So, use familiar (pets) objects as your art subjects. It is much easier to draw something familiar than it is new, unfamiliar ones. And the practice with familiar objects will make drawing unfamiliar ones easier.

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

Well, thanks a bunch Hallmark! Mother's Day is coming up and the gift I made at A Work of Heart what seems like months ago, still sits at the shop because I am down at my mother's taking care of her after her fall (see April 21 blog entry).

Mom needs constant attention to prevent another fall. She is actually doing very well with an occasional lapse. But it is the lapses we have to watch out for. She has always done so much at the fastest speed possible that relearning her behavior is hard.

Anyway, on to the picture above. Mom has always loved word games - crossword puzzles, Scrabble, and Upwords among others. This bauble is an "F" (for her first name) Scrabble tile.

On the back of the tile I inked and stamped the design and after it dried, poured clear acrylic (?) on the top. The reason this piece is still at the shop is because it then had to set overnight. The shop is in San Jose, CA 45 miles from where I live.

So, for this Hallmark holiday, I have no gift for my mom!

Adding Passion to a Design

2010-05-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

This a a perfectly acceptable drawing. After looking at it for a few days I got really tired of it and sat down to analyze this drawing to figure out why.

First of all, there is no value shift - all the colors are basically the same, no variation of dark and light.

Secondly, the green and brown are half the page and the blue is the other half. In art there is a "rule of thirds" which tells the artist to divide the page into third horizontally and vertically and place interest points on the intersections of the horizontals and verticals. That wasn't done in this drawing, to its detriment.

So, I got busy and doodled on this drawing to try and make it interesting to look at.

What do you think?

Super Granny

2010-04-21T14:05:00.000-07:00

Well, I've had quite a different week. My mother fell (she hurried to answer the phone and sat down on the arm of her swivel-rocker!) and broke a bone in her neck - C-4 - and was taken to emergency. My SBdaughter called me and told me. I left the office and raced home, threw a few things in a suitcase and was driving out of the complex when my husband stopped me. My daughter made a plane reservation for me. So I went back to the house and found someone to take me to BART so I could get to the airport. I re-packed and raced off. Made it to the hospital while Mom was still in emergency. they kept her until Monday and then we brought her home. Check out her facebook page under "Super G".

Anyway, taking care of a disable adult is twice as hard as ataking care of a newborn! Good thing I love my mom. I can't see doing this for a stranger!

OMMs

2010-04-15T02:00:00.000-07:00

No, its not a yogic mantra! OMM is a (quilting?) term introduced to me this week in a comment on my blog by artquiltmmaker.com. I had mentioned what I called a UFO, my potential rick-rack quilt. Artquiltmaker said quilts weren't UFOs until one seam had been sewn. Actually, I think if one patch has been cut that makes a ufo but that is splitting seams. So today I am going to show you some OMMs.

This photo really inspires me. The color combos and the circles on straight lines is so cool... Think I'll leave the sneaker toes out, though! Ever notice how many quilt pictures have feet?

Wouldn't this be a great border for a quilt?

I can see this as a 3D quilt or patch on a quilt. There would be lot of beads, especially in the center and shiny fafric in the outside border.

It is fun to take a picture and then analyze it for an OMM. A quiet pasttime when you haven't got time or energy to actually sew.

Molas

2010-04-14T12:27:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege of making a bedspread for a retired military couple out of their collection of molas from the San Blas Islands off Panama. They were really pleased with the result and I was happy to be given two by this lovely couple.

Hecate

2010-04-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

Recently I was asked to do some drawings of a goddess/witch for a Pagan convention. My drawings didn't get chosen for use but I had a good time doing them. I put info a the bottom of this post on her so you can understand the drawings.

I used dogs I love as models for the three-headed dog. Roxy, my dog is on the left, Red, my
granddog, is in the middle and the right had dog is from my imagination.
In this version the dog on the right is my cousin's dog, Sadie - a pretty little cocker spaniel.

Here is info from goddessgift.com about Hecate, a Greek goddess.

Hecate, Greek goddess of the three paths, guardian of the household, protector of everything newly born, and the goddess of witchcraft -- once a widely revered and influential goddess, the reputation of Hecate has been tarnished over the centuries. In current times, she is usually depicted as a "hag" or old witch stirring the cauldron.

But nothing could be further from the image of Hecate's original glory.

A beautiful and powerful goddess in her own right, the Greek goddess Hecate was the only one of the ancient Titans who Zeus allowed to retain their authority once the Olympians seized control. Zeus shared with Hecate, and only her, the awesome power of giving humanity anything she wished (or withholding it if she pleased).

Hecate was usually depicted with her sacred dogs, although Hecate and even her animals, were sometimes said to have three heads and that they could see in all directions. Although usually depicted as a beautiful woman having three human heads, some images are fearsome indeed (one with a snake's head, one with a horse's, and the third a boar's head).

This farsightedness, the ability to see in several directions at once (even the past, present, and future) featured largely in her most famous myth, the abduction of Persephone. For it was the goddess Hecate who "saw" and told the frantic Demeter what had become of her daughter.

The goddess Hecate continued to play an important role in the life of Persephone, becoming her confidante when she was in the Underworld. Hades, thankful for their friendship, was more than hospitable, honoring Hecate as a prominent and permanent guest in the spirit world. Surely this had the effect of enhancing her reputation as a spirit of black magic with the power to conjure up dreams, prophecies, and phantoms.

So a little lesson on Greek mythology, illustrated by me.

Where's Little Red?

2010-04-12T17:30:00.000-07:00

Aren't Grandpas fun?

Original designs

2010-04-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of pictures of my interpretation of coneflowers that I did on fabric for patches
in a wedding shower (? -or baby shower?) quilt.

I was quite pleased and surprised at how well they turned out. Someone suggested that I design fabric so I went to a lecture by a fabric designer. Sounded like way too much work for
me (as I am basically a lazy slug!). But I do enjoy making one-of-a-kind wonders.

I used Pigma 0.1 markers for this drawing with lots of layers to make it dark. They are great for small, fine work. Anything bigger and I would use fabric dyes and paintbrushes. Have fun - try it!

Granny's Garden

2010-04-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

Early in my quilting career I took a hand quilting, sampler class from Susan Bradford at the College of Marin. I made many 12" patches for the quilt. The center panel of "Granny's Garden" was one of the patches but it was larger than 12" and so didn't fit in the sampler quilt (which is one of my UFO's - top and back done, not quilted!).

At the time I was a member of MNAG in San Rafael. One of the projects put forth was a round robin. I had this ready to go so put it in and this is what I got back. I just loved it! Because of the name, I gave it to my mom.

Last week, when I was visiting my mom, I got to sit under it. I found it comforting to use a quilt I had had a hand in making.

Snails, snail's trail, and starry nights make a nice design. I was lucky, some of the final results of the other projects did not turn out so well.

Second and final wearable art piece

2010-04-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

A British DJ was referred to me as a quilter who was open to making quilts, etc. for others. This guy wanted pants like The Who (?) wore in the 60's. He picked the fabric and gave me a pair of pants as a template.

I took apart the inseam to flatten the pants and proceeded to sew on the patches. I started at the top, laid the fabric face down at the bottom of the waistband, folded it over and continued in that manner down the legs.

I quilted them with a darning foot, free motion. It was a lot of fun. Can you imagine wearing these?

At the farm and other quilting musings

2010-04-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

"At the Farm" is my first wonky quilt done at a MNAG seminal with Gwen Marsten. It is small, about 20"x20". It was quilted by Colleen Granger of So Little Time Quilting in San Rafael. Colleen did a great job on this quilt. She quilted a cow jumping over the moon (I drew the cow), a farmer and family, the farm pick-up truck, a horse, pig and other farmy things. It is great fun to look at.

I worked at a Real Estate Office for a while and this little quilt hung in the office there.

Then I worked at another place and had my own office so I hanged it behind me on the wall. The first quilt I ever quilted was pieced by my Daly City daughter. It is on the left in the above photo. I quilted all the patches and entered it in a show.

The judges commented that the border should have been quilted, too. So I started doing that, got really carried away and then pretty bored with the quilting and put it away. I guess that I should add it to my list of UFO's!

The vest I have on is the first of only two wearable art pieces I have done. It is a tribute to my late cat, Bear. It, too was entered in a show. The judges hated the rick-rack on it. I started collecting rick-rack after that and have always intended to make a rick-rack quilt or piece of wearable art. Does that count as a UFO? Another to add to the list!

Two of my four granddogs

2010-04-07T12:00:00.000-07:00

I have a special place in my heart for Beagles and Boxers. Had a Beagle who loved me a lot when my children were little and a Boxer for years when I was a girl.

Red Dog and Nixon are two of my daughter's four dogs. Haven't bonded with her other two, a black Newf and a white Maltese. But Red and Nixon are great.

Red dog lived with me for three months six or so years ago. He loved our hills and really muscled up running them when he got loose. Our neighbor ranch raises miniature horses which are about the same size as Red. He once got loose and ran over to chase the pregnant ones! That was great fun for Red Dog but didn't make the rancher too happy. We worked really hard to prevent another incident of that type.

Nixon, the Beagle, was the most beautiful puppy! He is a pedigreed 15" standard Beagle who has grown to be the size of a foxhound! He is the peacemaker of the four dog pack at SBdtr's. A real sweet dog. He and Red are great buddies. Red took him over when he was a pup and the connection has stuck.

Red Dog's name origin is pretty straightforward. He is a big, red dog.

Nixon's name is less obvious. The top dog when Nix joined the family was named Truman. So a dead president name was chosen. Later they got a cat who they named Reagan - the cat is red so I guess that works as when former pres Reagan was younger his hair was (dyed?) kind of red.

So, I suppose, if she gets more animal companions who are not already named there will be a whole cadre of dead presidents at her house!