Art Institute Inmate

Killing the alien with Beams of Light!

2009-11-13T11:02:00.000-08:00

I had my first radiation treatment yesterday. It was scary being bolted to the table and trapped in the mask. It was very tight. I was pinned down for 30 min. Then they beamed in the radiation, loud noises and 100s of bright beams of light. I felt warmth and visualized the light evacuating the alien. KILLING the alien.

I thought a hat was appropriate for the cancer patient.

Here's the big machine and the mask waiting for me.

"The Mask"

Here they are bolting me to the table. There are 11 points where they are aiming the radiation. The machine turns then I see a bright bright light when it shines near my nose and eyes. The are radiating my neck as well and I dont see the bright light those times. It was 100s of loud turns then the LIGHT.

Afterwards.... Waffle Face!!!

Strawberry Wine Adventures

2009-07-25T14:36:00.000-07:00

Today I started a batch of strawberry wine.
I used About 10 lbs of Strawberries

Puree in the blender.

Add 5lbs of sugar - put in a straining bag inside a fermenting bucket.
Smells like strawberry jam mmmm.

Add the juice of 4 or 5 limes, and a cup of strong tea (4 tea bags)

Add the other ingredients, (except the yeast) and about 2 gallons of boiling water.
Looks nasty now! Those are a million strawberry seeds floating on top.
Cover and stir for 24 hours and add the yeast. Ferment!! Ferment!!
Check out the 2 berries I didn't puree! I switched to the blender as soon as I realized how long it would take to chop them all up.

Padded Wine Bottle or Glass Pipe Bag

2009-06-04T09:31:00.000-07:00

This week I worked on a customized bag to carry your delicate glassware items, such as a wine bottle or a glass pipe. It has an ultra padded interior lining that is completely removable and washable (in case you crash your bike and break the bottle , in which case YOU will need washing up as well) . It holds a big bottle of wine or 16" pipe and will stand up on its own.

This is made from a pair of recycled jeans, appliqued with batik. It comes with a cute decorated back pocket and has an adjustable strap made from the waistband.. The lining has a drawstring and button to keep your wine safe and secure. Round padded bottom as well. The lining is 100% cotton double filled with hi loft poly batting.

Fractured Rose

2009-05-20T14:46:00.001-07:00

The Art Quilt group at CCQ is doing a challenge with fractured photos.
We selected from a big bunch of photos, and in the end chose 2. 1 is a rose, which happened to be a photo I took at the Portland Rose Garden.

First I printed it the finished size, and drew around the petals to use them as a pattern.

Then I painted each petal on white muslin using acrylic paints.
I cut them out and assembled them on parchment paper, and fused them together

I fused the whole shebang to a piece of green fabric 17" square. Then I stitched around the petals with about 5 different pink threads.
We are going to cut them up later today, pass out the pieces and make a fractured flower from the pieces of everybody's work. FUN!!!

Reorganized Workroom

2009-02-04T09:22:00.000-08:00

It took weeks. Larry said it had reached 'critical mass'. Every corner was crammed with junk. I relieved the pressure by throwing the bulky junk in the hall (batting scraps, upholstry fabric, quilting samples) Then mom went to the hospital and we stepped over it (and on it) for at least a week. I decided it needed a serious reconstruction so I got drawers, bins, pegboard, tubs for the art supplies, and I actually (gasp) vacuumed. (OK OK- I didnt vacuum, my daughter Josie did - what a babe!) Larry mounted stuff on the wall for me. Ian organized the pegboard! Here's the finished product.

Under the quilting machine table: art bin project boxes, drawers with batik FQs, tubs with scraps, tub-O-art supplies. Upper shelves - more unfinished quilts and dolls

Upper shelves - scraps & FQs (not batik) UFOs orphan blocks & novelty fabrics in the lower drawers. Rulers, thread & tools on the wall. YAY!!! Look! I can work at the desk.

Lil gadget bags

2008-12-27T13:24:00.000-08:00

I started making these and they are FUN! Thanks MaryAnn for the idea.

These are made from a 7" X 9"rectangle of fabric (embellished or not),

a 7" zipper and some fusible batting.

Fuse the fabric to a piece of fusible batting. (I love that stuff!) quilt if desired.

Sew the zipper to the short side. stick a little strap at the top of the zipper. (I made them from 2" wide fabric turned twice to make 1/2" straps.

Sew the 2 ends wonky from each other, turn right side out and viola!

2 cousins and a half

2008-12-10T18:50:00.000-08:00

Look at these 2 artsy funny boys.

Autumn in My Neighborhood

2008-11-05T14:29:00.000-08:00

It stopped raining for a minute, the sun came out and lit up the beautiful leaves! The light was awesome so I snapped a bunch of pictures for posterity........ its raining heavily today so the leaves will be gone soon. Click the slide show on the right to see all the pictures bigger. Its about 1 minute.

Jungle Mania - For Koben

2008-08-26T15:12:00.000-07:00

Quilt for Grandson. Sorta Kinda matches his brother's.
Jungle fun! 72 X 72 - good for bunks & camping. Its brighter than this in person and the back is scorching hot yellow flannel!

Here's big bro with his quilt. They share a room so maybe it will be fun. The back of this is crosscut black corduroy. I got it dirt cheap a few years back in Canada, like $3 a meter and it is 60" wide. Too bad I didn't have an extra suitcase to buy the whole bolt!

HFD T-Shirt Quilt

2008-08-24T23:40:00.001-07:00

I just finished this T-Shirt quilt for Marc my sorta son in law who is a firefighter paramedic search & rescue etc guy in Hawaii. He's donating it to the Sayer Foundation - they have a fund-raiser every year to purchase rescue equipment for the HFD. His HFD t-shirts are sashed with a batik denim (who ever heard of such a thing?)

Here's the helicopter. The blades are stitched in and don't show up as well as I would like.

Ginny & her Jacket

2008-07-26T18:33:00.000-07:00

Here's Mom in her fun jacket! It fits all right but pokes her in the neck I think.

Ginny's Jacket

2008-07-22T17:07:00.000-07:00

I few months ago I decided to make Mom a sweatshirt jacket. She is always complaining about being cold. I got this sweatshirt & 2 pairs of sweat pants to match (pink & purple) and proceded to chop up the sweatshirt to Beautify it.

I appliqued roses & leaves, and added a collar I purchases years ago for 10c at the Daisy Kingdom remnant room. It was fun, a little challenging and as usual - when the fun part is done (sewing on roses & collar) it went into a TBF pile - aka UFO pile, or P.I.G.S (project in grocery sack)

I thought I should finish it for her birthday. She was 88 on July 17. I am only a few days late. Here's the jacket. I'll get a shot of her wearing it on Thursday and add it here.

Here's the roses - fussy cut from some rose fabric + batik leaves. Fused & stitched.

Woman is a Tree of Life

2008-06-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

Finally I am posting my piece for the SOST Challenge.

(Sisterhood of Sagging T**S) Everyone had a blast with this subject and the results were really amazing, and soon to be posted on the QuiltArt site.

http://www.quiltart.com/

I got the idea from a photo of a fountain I saw surfing. It had a tree growing from the center, and it just said ZING! My first thought was "Old Woman Willow" But I wanted my woman to be lithe and sophisticated, a classy and contemporary of Old Man Willow. I decided she wasn't ancient enough (yet) to be Old Woman Willow. Commercial batiks, (fussy cut boobies - I didnt paint those, honest) hand dyed binding, machine embroidery & quilting.

When I cut out the shapes of the roots, one was definately needing a shoe.

The label was fun so I posted its picture here too.

Cat Face - Positive & Negative Space

2008-06-02T13:36:00.000-07:00

I just completed this little exercise having to do with positive & negative space. I attempted to make a cougar face, but I didnt get the chunky jawline that cougars have so its just a cat after all. Batiks, FME, some razzle dazzle threads couched for the whiskers & eye. I rushed the binding just so I would complete it, so thats a tad sloppy but otherwise I am satisfied with the fun result.

The back is about as fun as the front.

Northwest Rain Flower

2008-03-19T05:05:00.000-07:00

Not Quite a Sunflower... rain drops for petals.
Not the best image but its given away so...

5 X 7

Doll and Bird House

2008-03-17T22:30:00.000-07:00

A while back another Granddaughter requested a shelf for her Bratz dolls, and Larry told her he'd make her a doll house. She and her brother were here Saturday and Larry started building the shelf/house. It evolved into something with a balcony & front porch. The kids wanted to paint it the same colors as our house (they helped paint a bit last summer) so we got out the paint cans and let them have at it. I decided it needed some flowers to spiff it up.

Click this one to see the flowers up close and personal.

While I was at it, I hunted down an old battered bird house that has always hung on our front porch. I gave it a paint job. The chirping of many families of sparrows have given me cause to smile over the years.

Tea Party Chairsies

2008-03-17T21:45:00.000-07:00

Some Little Ladies came to visit and we had a Tea Party. They don't really want tea. They just want to pour into the cute cups, spoon in lots of sugar, stir and stir. Then they are done.
Our itsy chairsies are perfect for tiny tea parties.

2 granddaughters (on the left) and a friend.

After pouring, stirring, sipping & spilling, bed jumping was just the ticket.

Little Chairsies At Home

2008-03-12T13:09:00.000-07:00

Here's the Little Ducky Chairsies
At home in their places.

front porch

Bathroom

TV room keeping Mini Me company

Parlor

Old Newspapers

2008-03-08T21:31:00.001-08:00

Some pieces of newspaper from 1942. These were used for insulation under our living room floor. I am contemplating how to use these. I don't want to just throw them away.

Click the pics to see some detail.

Water stained, cut, crumbling and dirty, but oh so cool!

Itsy Chairsies - Just Ducky

2008-03-07T00:05:00.000-08:00

My girlfriend rescued 8 of these little chairs from the church dumpster. I've had them around for 10 years or so, painted various colors. They were in a sad state of disrepair, having used them in the yard to hold plants and I even left some of them out in the weather. It was time to give them little face lifts. Larry patched and glued them back together, getting them all straight and sturdy, and I painted them some bright colors that match the new colors we painted inside and out.

The red is for the parlor, to sit beside my Victorian Settee & love seat which are upholstered in red, gold & cream. The lavender goes in the spring green & lavender bathroom. The cocoa chair goes in the TV room which is 3 shades of cookie & cocoa brown, with my "Thinking of Chocolate" quilt on the wall. The final bright berry chair goes on the front porch next to my berry door (they are different berries but fun and bright) to hold a bowl of pansies.

Cyber Fyber Postcard Exchange

2008-02-21T14:46:00.000-08:00

I had the Happy occasion to exchange a fiber postcard with Susan Lenz.

These fiber postcards will be on display at CYBER FYBER, an international exhibition scheduled for January 8th through 20th, 2009 at Gallery 80808, 808 Lady Street in downtown Columbia, South Carolina.

You can see all the fabulous postcards that she made, and the exchanges on her blog -Here- .

Here's the postcard I received from her.

And here's the one she recieved from me. (Its one of my recent Sunflower series)

Sunflowers for the Postcard Exchange

2008-01-12T21:46:00.001-08:00

Last Fall I joined a Postcard Exchange.
Click the title "Sunflowers... " above to view the whole gallery.
There you can click the images
To view each one individually .
Enjoy!!

My Piano Adventure

2008-01-08T22:46:00.000-08:00

Last chance to Play :

Katharine Hepburn hands and Old Keys

In 1997 I inherited a 100 yr old Steinway grand piano. She belonged to my grandfather who was a musician all his life. He played at the Bohemian Club back in the 20's and 30's. My grandmother was a radio singer in the San Francisco Bay Area also. When my grandmother passed away, my dad got this piano. It's been in disrepair since the late 1960's. When Dad passed, the piano came to me.

I love the old gal, and agonized for these past 10 years about restoring her. She had a lovely voice even though she was in wretched shape. I pretty much stopped playing piano. I didnt have something to play and couldn't really afford to restore the Steinway.

Finally this year I was pressed to decide. We are putting new floors in the entire house and the piano had to go somewhere, it might as well go to the repair shop. I had a technician come look at it and give me an estimate. They wanted $18,000 for a complete restoration. Just the works would be $12K. Well. Never mind. I can't afford that.

At last Classic Piano in Portland gave me an offer to trade it in on another piano. I was so sad to let the Steinway go, but stoked at the new piano I traded for. A brand new Yamaha baby grand.

Here's some pictures of my Lovely Lady. There is even an old signature inside.

Porch Transformation

2007-12-01T13:56:00.000-08:00

Our crooked porch has been transformed to a lovely welcome.

New Mailbox, and cute old doorbell ringer to be added.

Also refinishing my park bench! woohoo. Life is good.

Before & After:

Large Scale Cookie House

2007-09-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

Here's the gingerbread fan at the top of my 1890's victorian house. It's been rebuilt and primed and is ready for paint. What a huge project.

It took my husband all last summer and most of this summer to get the major repairs done. He replaced rotten siding, rebuilt the victorian trimwork that adorns 3 gable ends. He made siding and gingerbread for the back of the house which was a 2 story blank wall. He's jacked up the house to get rooms level, dug out a pile of rubble to find there was a floor in the cellar. I can't list it all here because It's a book!

It took a year to pick colors. We painted big patches on the house and left them for months. There is a high level of detail on this little old victorian house!! We looked at so many houses that we liked. The final result is 6 colors of paint.

In order to come up with the colors for the gingerbread on the gable, I painted a dozen or more samples with the actual house paints.

I climbed up the scaffold with my little bag of paints. I felt shakey at first but you get used to it after a few minutes.

Six colors!!!

JoJo's Island Nightfall

2007-09-17T22:21:00.000-07:00

This is quilt is made from denim batik. Who ever heard of such a thing? It was 60" wide and wonderful. I made this with Ricky Tim's convergence method, only about twice as big.

It's about 80" square

Cooter Lives!!

2007-09-13T22:32:00.001-07:00

click the pics to see a bigger view.

August 2007. I spent a couple of weeks in Hilo, HI visiting my niece who was having a baby. While I was there, I did a bunch of sewing projects. We were going to recover the couch even!!! One of the fun projects was creating a doll for Levi. He's not really interested in dolls (not remotely) but I had fun doing it anyway. (not remotely means: he can tell you every kind of truck and heavy equipment- garbage truck, container truck, excavator etc. but he never hugged his doll like a girl would)

I sketched a pattern on paper, cut the torso & limbs out of flannel, and stuffed the parts.

When I would show Levi the doll parts, he wouldn't touch it, but run away. I guess the stray arm or leg gave him the creeps. I showed this picture to my husband and he said, "No wonder he was scared, that looks like a freak doll!!"

Anyway I got his arms & legs sewn on and started embroidering his face. After the face was on Levi was fine with the doll. Next I put on hair. I stitched in a piece of yarn about 6" long, then knotted it several times.

I decided on some Farmer Johns for pants. We toyed with the idea of tying the hair in lots of knots and making it kind of a Rasta Kid. Finally I just thought he should be a free spirit, no shirt, no shoes. I used the legs from an old pair of jeans and put together some overalls. I had red buttons, but Levi lost them.

I wanted to name him something silly. I thought he was kind of a Napoleon Dynamite baby only cuter and possibly cuddly. So I called him Scooter. But guess what? Yup. Now he is officially Cooter.

Here we are making Cooter's pants. Notice the pudgy little hand ready on the back-up button! so cute.

Laura's Jacket

2007-09-11T00:25:00.000-07:00

Here's my daughter Laura and the story of her Jacket.

Last Summer my daughter Laura turned 21. She had purchased a corduroy "hoodie" at the Okanagan Barter Faire. It wasn't very well made, and she told me she knew I could make them much better. So for her birthday she requested a patchwork jacket with a Tree.
I started working on that idea, but it definitely had a different idea of where it was going!
I began with the back. I was going to make patchwork with corduroy, but I didn't like the colors I had available so I went with jeans. I had these 2 long pieces and put them together. Then I made the Tree. When Laura was little I used to tell her that I found her in a Magical tree with a little door. So that was the theme for the tree. There are gold buttons for leaves and a tiny gold button for a door knob.

At this point I realized that I was not going to make a jean jacket, but make an altered sweatshirt instead. I took apart a black large Hoody and appliquéd Spring on one sleeve, and Autumn on the other. I saved Summer for the jean vest front.

The vest fronts are more jeans, batik flowers growing out of the pockets. I finished up with a sun/moon face on the front of the sweatshirt. There was such an expanse of unadorned black at the top, I thought it needed a necklace or brooch. :)

I am an Iris

2007-08-06T01:40:00.000-07:00

ere's my iris piece so far.

It started with fusing some batiks together on a backgound. Then I added stitching, fusible ribbon, stitched some more. Now I am adding trapunto and will quilt & bind. I have been working on a vase/urn series so this was already in the works before the flower power challenge came up.

click the images for details
.

Kiddo Quilting

2007-07-25T17:26:00.001-07:00

2 grandkids were over last week and we made little quilts. I had some fusible stuff with a grid printed on. They picked out a fabric theme and we cut out 4" squares and fused them on. Then they sewed. Next time we'll put on a backing and make a finished quilt

at 8 you can iron

and sew

When you are only 5

you have to let Grandma Help

Purple frogs and snakes!

Here's the finished products on the wall waiting till next time Mom works late.

we had fun!! (most important part)

Grandbaby Halter Tops

2007-07-07T22:08:00.000-07:00

Sidetracked Once again! My daughter came by and wanted to make summer tops for my granddaughter so we raided my fabric stash, I was roped into creating a pattern and sewing for 1/2 the evening. My daughter & grand-niece raided the button bin (read "big mess") and we put cute buttons on as well. Reversible !

5 Women

2007-06-29T11:47:00.000-07:00

Okay I used a pattern. I saw it made up in a shop and thought since we have 5 daughters, it might represent something . I gave it to my oldest daughter and I dont think she likes that the faces are like old women.. she must have stashed it away somewhere because I havent seen it since.

10 talents 1000 thoughts

2007-06-29T11:24:00.000-07:00

My guild had a self portrait challenge so I made this pixel portrait. I had no idea how to get the tones right, but it was fun and possibly looks like me. I used a photo and my son explained how to pixelize it in photoshop, using only 10 colors. The title is because its 10 colors and 1000 pieces.

A few months later my genius niece came by (age 13) and said oh, you can get the tones right by scanning the fabrics in b&w, and then turn your photo into a b&w , then you can see if the tones are right or not. HA! where are the genuis children when you need them?