finishes 2011....

I guess I should have kept a list and made photos of quilts that I sarted, finished, or both...in 2011. I didn't. So I think that I'll just do this as I go and, in between talking about other things, squeeze in a quilt or two from last year. More and more, I've been piecing my quilt backs...in a style more like improv. This quilt is a little different. It's actually two sided...the back, an echo of the front, but with larger blocks and using a darker colors for the solid patches. I also used two solids rather than sticking to one as on its reverse. Here's a look at both sides.

the best seat in the house......

Welcome to my favorite little corner of the world.  Here's where I play with fabrics, colors and patterns...then figure out how to turn them into all kinds of quilty things.  And some not so quilty.  The wonderful Miss Janome and her walking foot helped me quilt that colorful bit of patchwork on the left just this afternoon.  Tomorrow I'll make a pillow cover using that piece on the back.   

                     




And here's the front....two fronts really ....because I have two pillows in the works.  I think that they're going to be a fun and colorful addition to the purple (yes, purple) love seat in my family room.  The pattern for this scrap rainbow is from a terrific new book, Scrap Republic.

I'm looking forward to making some of the other quilts from this book too.  This particular pattern takes the old, thrift based, scrap savers standby:  string piecing,  and gives it a fresh, new look.  Using scraps that I can't bring myself to throw away also helps me feel less guilty about those days when I can't stand it anymore and have to stop at my local quilt shop for a browse....which always turns into a buy.   The quilter's addiction....fabric.   There should be a fabri-holics anonymous for those like me...who find that the lure of cotton-on-the-bolt is irresistible.

it's only been a year......?

2011 came and went...and my little blog was silent. It's not that I had nothing to say...or to show. I just got busy with things...simple, everyday things that, at the time, didn't seem to require a narrative or photos. Just the normal stuff of living. But now I think that I want to dust off my keyboard and try it again...blogging, I mean. No promises. I have a new camera and have taken some pictures. In a day or three I'll download a few and do a little writing...a sort of digital show and tell. So 'bye for now. I'll be back soon.

Still Quilting After All These Years

I'm back after a long silence. After my last post a lot of things happened. I think that I mentioned something about traveling to Turkey for the wedding of my husband's daughter, Autumn....well....we did go in mid-July. I fell ill almost as soon as we got to Istanbul...got through the next 10 days with lots of pain and fever reducers...and landed in the hospital a couple of days after returning home. There I stayed for a week. Then two more weeks of slow recovery at home until I got back on my feet again. That about describes my great travel adventure. It's the old story....something I ate. My husband ate the same things that I did and nothing happened. Anyway...I'm not in any hurry to leave the country again.

For the New Year....2011....how time does fly....I've resolved to stop making so much "art" to swap and start finishing...and of course, starting....projects to keep. As for the finishing....I completed a quilt that had been three years in the making (I'm such a procrastinator). It was originally supposed to be a baby quilt for my Granddaughter, Lily. It would up being this year's Christmas gift. It's not a very good photo, but it turned out to be a very cute quilt. And I'm going to count it as my first finish of the New Year.

I found another UFO (Unfinished Object) in a box on a shelf. This consisted of a couple of completed and one partial block for a quilt that I began a couple of years ago. A Sue Spargo pattern....Ginger Grove. I've managed to complete all of the applique and embroidery on ALL of the blocks. The next step is sewing them together, layering the quilt top, batting and backing.....and.....quilting the thing. But first (something that I couldn't resist) another quilt begged to be started. This one is from a Kim McLean pattern called Roseville Album. I'm working on the second of the 16"x16" blocks. It's another applique project. I love applique. It's something I can do while watching TV. Actually, I don't really watch TV...I sort of half-listen and look up occasionally to see what's on the screen. Anyway...here's a sampling of both of these quilts. I'll be very lucky to post the photos in the right place....they usually wind up at the top. Still haven't figured that one out. Oh, well.

Bye for now.

Just Doodling

Sometimes I like to just take a Micron pen and a piece of drawing or watercolor paper and just play...see what, if anything, develops. So I doodled for a couple of hours today and up came this doodle-flower. I added a little color...simple black and white can be interesting...but my paper was not a bright white...sort of a light cream. From the beginning, this doodle wanted to be bright black and white with touches of grey....so it sort of decided that I should add some color to make it sing a little. So here's the result. I placed it on a piece of fun dotty, green paper that I thought would add a fun look....notice that it's the same paper that I used for yesterday's birthday card. I like this paper. I like dotty patterns...especially on bright backgrounds. So that's my big accomplishment for today....a doodle-flower on a dotty paper background. Some days just turn out that way too....a bit dotty.

So Here's the Final Version!

.....And it's going into the mail today. I hope that Millie loves it as much as I loved making it for her. I hope that it makes her smile because it's been an especially difficult year for her. Well, it's off to the Post Office for me now. Then...back home. I need to finish a couple of unfinished art projects. My head is also full of ideas for new stuff. Art is my "drug" of choice. The more I do....the more I want and have to do. It's a good addiction.

Happy Birthday Millie

My baby sister's 67th birthday is in about a week...so I decided to take advantage of all that I was learning about Digital Layering in Gail Schmidt's class and created a special card for the occasion. I found a battered black & white photo of my sister taken when she was about 1 or so. I restored the photo and colorized it...then sat her at the head of the table...a birthday party with a few friends (digital elements from Scrapbook Graphics). Every element in the collage...each cup, saucer, chair, etc...were placed on layers of their own...then manipulated, shaded, colored, etc. until they looked like they all belonged together. The hardest part was the old photo that I had to start with...I really had to work to get it to look natural. I couldn't have done it without layers...and a couple of my favorite toys: Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 and Corel Painter 11.

The Octopus and The Squid

Except for my original line drawings of Mr Octopus and Ms Squid...which I scanned and loaded into Photoshop Elements...the rest of this little under-sea frolic was made digitally on my computer. I'm beginning to collaborate with a machine!
I was introduced to computers rather late in life. Now, every time I sit down in front of my PC, I feel the magic. The computer opens a window to the world. I communicate, I learn, I dig for information, I send photos or even videos to one or a dozen people at the touch of a key. I share my art and thoughts with those who care to look at or read my blog. And now I use my computer as I would use a canvas and paint. I would sorely miss this wonderful tool if I couldn't have it. Oh, sure, I would still have real paint, real paper, pencils, inks, brushes, books, telephones, radios, TVs etc...but now that I've made friends with this new and ever more powerful tool (it boggles the mind when you realize just how quickly advances are being made) I wouldn't want to let go it go.

When I was a kid....Dick Tracy's wrist radio seemed like a fun idea but impossible. And going to the moon?......the stuff of science fiction. Well, the future got here at lightening speed, didn't it? I think that asking Scotty to "beam me up" will be something that I'll be able to do in my lifetime. Interesting to think about. It sure is!

Dreaming of Venice

As usual....I'm taking several online workshops....at the same time. I've already talked about Pam Carriker's year long "365 Journal" workshop. Now I've also signed up for two of Gail Schmidt's Digital Art classes. All of these are at Creative Workshops.

After struggling and failing to understand how one goes about merging wonderful images into a unified whole...a piece of art created digitally...I decided that taking a class was the only way for me to go. So go I did. The Dreaming of Venice piece is my first successful piece of digital art. I'm beginning to understand how to manipulate and layer images. I'm using Photoshop Elements 8 to create art! It's a very powerful program that is not only for touching up and cropping photos...it's also a tool for art making. I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of all that Elements can do. But I am going to learn. Not only because of the challenge of learning something new...but because it's a whole lot of fun. Art is Fun. Learning is Fun. Living is Fun....yes it is!

30 Years Ago - May 18, 1980

It's not a great photo....but it sure brought back memories when I got it in an e-mail from my son, Chris this morning. The picture was taken from the deck of my home in Gresham, Oregon (south of the volcano)...probably at the time of a later eruption (there were several....and ongoing eruptions) of Mount St. Helens. I'm guessing that the ash plume in this picture is probably more steam than ash...because of its color. You can see what was left of the mountain (extreme left of the photo) looking more like a cloud caught on the distant hills, than a mountain.

I remember the day of the first, and most violent, eruption. The mountain had been threatening, with small plumes and puffs of steam and ash for weeks. There had been earthquakes on the mountain too...not big ones...but rumblings...occurring with greater and greater frequency in the weeks prior to the eruption. We were all aware that something big might happen. But no one, including geologists with the USGS, could predict with any certainty, what or when that something would occur.

I was standing at my kitchen window, looking out (I had the same view of the mountain from the window as from my deck where the photo was taken). I had my morning cup of coffee in my hand and I was talking to my Mom (in California) on the phone. I turned away from the window briefly, then turned toward it again. In the minute or two that my back was turned...the whole landscape had changed. All that I could say was "Oh my God!" Then I told my Mom what I was seeing. You've all seen photos and film footage of the eruption and its aftermath. Well...I saw it from my kitchen...and all I can tell you is that all the photos and film just don't compare to what it was to see the eruption in person. I can't even find words to describe what I saw and felt. It was everything at once.....Amazing. Unbelievable. Terrible. Fascinating. Even beautiful, in a strange way. I've never seen such force and power. Nature really put on a show...and I feel privileged to have been there to see it. And no...I never even thought of taking photos that morning or any other day during the mountain's most spectacular eruptions. I knew that there would be plenty of film used and shown...and I also knew that no picture that I could take would ever be as real to me as what I had actually seen.