Mental health days. .

are good for the soul, and definitely good for the deadline list!  I can't remember the last time I felt like I got so much done in such a short time.

My Tangled Textiles piece is sandwiched and ready for quilting.  I'm trying something a little different for that, and it involved getting a new gadget for my machine.  I think it will work!  Here's a sneak peek at a corner- the reveal isn't until Sunday.

My eyes are starved for color after winter, and my palette reflects that.  I really had a lot of fun doing this one!

I am participating in a craft fair the women's group at my church is organizing- I will have my hand dyed fabric and scarves.  I bought some cotton and rayon scarves to dye; I already had some silk I hadn't done anything with.  I started dyeing Saturday with some solids, then last night got five dyepots going with some LWI scarves.  I hope they sell, I have the possibility of a sales venue close to home and I'd like to know if the general public would like them before I commit.

On three scarves, I tried a new product- Color Magnet.  You screen it on, and the color is darker there.  Of the three I did, the coral colored one is my favorite.  You really have to be extremely careful to not get extra spots on the fabric, and to make sure it is saturated.

I made a couple of screens to do deconstructed screenprinting with, and did two scarves this afternoon- one rayon and one silk.  I'll let them batch overnight.

After I wash them out, I plan to overdye them.

I also overdyed a bunch of silk scarves that I'd decided were dogs, and had been run through a Thiox bath.  I think they are all salvageable now- the colors at least don't remind me of a baby's diaper.  Most need something else, I'm thinking I'll stencil some motifs with Shiva paintstiks.

The weather has been gorgeous the last couple of days- almost 70 F!!  That is way above normal for March, but I will take it.  I'm sure that, and the time change (I LOVE daylight savings) has helped energize me.  Whatever the cause, I hope it sticks around awhile!!

Ugly Fabric

I belong to a Yahoo group just for MX dyers.  The moderator likes to do what she calls ugly fabric challenges-n she sends out half to one yard pieces of fabric she has dyed and not liked, and the recipient has three months to change it.  You can use any process, but it must include at least one overdye with MX dyes.  I decided I had to try this, especially seeing what one member created last year.  Cherie, who came to Carol Soderlund's workshop last summer, brought her fabric to show, and it was drop dead gorgeous.

I received my package Saturday.  I opened it up to find---

Really ugly, right??  I guess if you don't like orange!  The texture is phenomenal!

I now have it hanging on my design wall.  I will probably stick with warm colors, since I don't want mud.  But I have time to think about it while I finish my Tangled Textiles challenge, due in a couple of weeks, and dye scarves for a craft fair at church on March 31.

And I need to figure out what to do with 'Grace.'  The flowing quilting lines have just disappeared, and that is not what I wanted.  So I will add some different colors of thread, and maybe even Shiva paintstiks.  We'll see.  I'm taking my time with this one, I don't want to botch it this late in the process.

I am feeling energized creatively- a nice feeling!  And the signs of spring that we are seeing certainly can't hurt!

An Art Date

I decided I needed some mental health time, so I took off Thursday afternoon.  Shannon and I went to a Korean restaurant for lunch, a place I'd been once before.  Korean food bears no resemblance to any other Asian cuisine I've had.  And, all the jokes on MASH notwithstanding- we both agreed, we liked the kim chee, it is tons better than German sauerkraut.

After lunch, we headed over to the BYU Museum of Art.  Every once in awhile they have an extraordinary exhibit, and this was one- Beauty and Belief: Crossing Bridges with the Art of Islamic Culture.

This exhibit pulls together items from all over the world, and ranging from a few twentieth century works to some pottery and metal items that were over one thousand years old.  There was fiber, pottery, metal, mosaics- it was amazing.

We watched a short video at the entrance to the exhibit.  One of the concepts that I found most intriguing was the idea of pattern within pattern, image within image.  The idea of  multiple layers is integral to Islamic art- multiple layers of images, and multiple layers of meaning.  The work also tends toward the ornate, and for my taste, a little bit goes a long way  But is was all undeniably beautiful.

There were sayings from the Koran painted on the walls throughout the exhibit.  I was fascinated by the 99 ways to name God.  Many of the verses saddened me, leaving me to wonder how some segments of modern day Islam have come from the beauty expressed in the sayings in the museum to the radical views that our politicians seem so focused on.

I have completed the pattern quilting on 'Grace', and it's clear to me I still have work to do.  The flowing lines should be the center of attention on the quilt, and now they seem sort of lost.  So I am going to add more thread to them, to try to add highlights and shadows.  I will probably also try adding color with some Shiva paintstiks, if I can get colors I like with what I have.  I will definitely be making samples for this.

I'm off to made a lemon pudding cake- a lovely sounding low-fat dessert.  Hope your weekend has been a good one so far!

Moving Along. . .

I actually have got a lot of quilting done this weekend- I am at the stage where I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and that motivates me to keep going.  The time flew by this afternoon, I couldn't believe it when I looked at my watch this afternoon and it was five o'clock.

I am loving the texture and movement of this pattern (from Charlotte Warr Anderson's One Line at a Time, Encore).  I'm loving even more that it looks complicated, but is really pretty easy to do, especially after the first set of lines is laid down.  And I am so happy that I decided to use variegated thread for the second set of lines!

It is hard to see in a photo, but I have extended quilting with the colored thread into part of the black 'border.'  It is subtle, but I wanted to blend the hand dye into the black, and the threadwork gives me the effect I wanted.  On the first photo,  you can see one part where only the first set of lines is done, and another where both sets are complete.  Makes a difference, doesn't it!

I'm also trying to decided how to crop the black once I get the quilting done. This is my first inclination- pull it in tighter on the sides and top, and leave the bottom as long as it is.  Like this--

What do you think?

I want to get this done quickly, so I can get back to my Tangled Textiles piece that is due mid-March.  I already have a pretty good idea of what I want to do, it's just getting beyond this so I can concentrate on it! 

Now I'm off to watch the Oscars-- have a good week, all!

Tesselating

A wonderful long weekend, and Sunday we got hit with snow- which made it a good excuse to stay home and quilt!! Yes, I got my Juki back.  Turns out the issue was not with the machine at all, but with the speed limiter I made with Radio Shack parts shortly after I got the machine.  The speed limiter made it easier to control the speed when I was free motion quilting- Juki's can go like crazy if you floor it!  Apparently it can also create problems.  I ended up throwing the limiter out, and my machine guy fixed up a way to limit the speed that is mechanical and easy. 

So I have been quilting on Grace.  The first part of the design is done!  The second half should go quicker, since I won't have to mess with gridded tape anymore.

I think I am going to play with the last photo in PSE, to help me decide how much of the black 'border' I need.  You can't see it well in this photo, but some of my quilting lines that use color- either hot pink, yellow, or orange- flow into the black on the top and bottom.  I'm thinking I'm going to extend the color along the sides too when I add the second half of the design, which makes the tesselation.

I have finally starting doing one of the exercises in the Creative Photography book I got a few weeks ago.  It is looking at line, and finding letters of the alphabet in unexpected places.  Saturday was a gorgeous, sunny and relatively warm day, so I took Shiloh for a walk along the river trail in town.  I found my first three letters on that walk, and another today when I had to make a quick trip to the store.  I now have an L, T, F and Y.  O will be easy, I see them all over the place.  And I think I've seen an A I need to go back and shoot!

It's a fun exercise that certainly teaches you to look around and beyond the obvious!

Well, I've laundry to finish and dinner to fix.  Work tomorrow- sigh.  I'd so much rather be quiltng.

The Cure for Frustration

I had good intentions and plans.  I was up and in the studio by 9:30 am, after an eye checkup and getting the laundry started.  I really want to finish this quilt, so it can go to its intended owner.  I have made progress!!

I decided to start the geometric, structured quilting- if I need to add more to the flowing lines, I can do that later.  I love using the painter's tape to guide my lines, so much easier than marking- and no marks to remove!  My Juki started acting weird last weekend.  I would stop the machine to turn the quilt, and it would not start again.  I tried turning it off, taking the power cord off and putting it back, and finally gave up after it did the same thing multiple times.  When it started doing it again this weekend, I decided a trip to the repair shop was unavoidable.  So I packed her up and had her in the shop by noon.  I'm hoping she'll be ready before next weekend, and the bill won't be a big one.

That left me with frustrations- the need to create, and nothing to do.  I'd thought about making some treats for staff at work for Valentine's Day, and that's what I did (and then some!!)  By the end of it, my kitchen looked like my studio at the end of a project.

I started with Cake Pops.  I first had them at Starbuck's, and was intrigued by the sweet treats that are only a few bites, and so not a calorie budget-buster.  I looked on You Tube, and found many, many tutorials on how to make them.  Skip the ones that call for cake mix and canned frosting, if I am going to eat sweet calories it is going to be the real thing.  So I made brownies (from Moosewood's Desserts cookbook), crumbled them, and bound the crumbles together with melted white chocolate.  Roll the balls, freeze them long enough to get them good and cold, then insert the sticks, and voila!  Chocolate brownie cake pops!!

That white dot you see where the stick goes in the cake pop is melted white chocolate.  An important step, run the stick through melted chocolate right before you insert it in the cake pop- it help cement them together.  After another fifteen minutes in the freezer, then I swirled them in more melted semi-sweet chocolate.  Wow- I'm a pastry chef!!

 

After the dark chocolate cooled, I tried decorating with melted white chocolate.  This is where I learned that white chocolate is much more temperamental than dark.  I managed to turn white chocolate chips into something that looked more like cottage cheese in my attempts to melt it.

Then I decided I wanted cupcakes.  So I made lemon cupcakes.  I think I got mesmerized by my stand mixer, I started playing with the shutter speed settings on my DSLR.  So we have slow shutter speed. . . 

which blurs the motion of the mixer, and fast shutter speed. . . 

which freezes the motion (and lets in less light to the camera, hence the noise in the photo!) 

For the first time ever, I made a European butter cream frosting in addition to my version of cream cheese frosting.  OMG, what a treat.  Light, silky, and not too sweet- that is was a frosting should taste like.  And I flavored some of that cream cheese frosting with raspberries to fill the cupcakes.  By the time I was done with them, they looked like this:

 

Gotta have red for Valentine's Day, right??

Then I decided I wanted to make another batch of cake pops, using a recipe from an Australian cook for raspberry white chocolate.  I  baked my cake instead of microwaving it like she did, and it worked fine.  I did mix it with a bit of my cream cheese frosting before I made the cake pops, and it seemed to work fine.  

After my disaster with white chocolate, I decided I wanted to try using melted cream cheese frosting to coat the cake pops.  It sorta worked, but not nearly as well as chocolate.  And I ended up dunking the top half in dark chocolate anyway. No, they aren't round and pretty like the first batch, but they taste just fine.  I guess I just have to get better at handling white chocolate!

I made cookies- gotta have heart cookies,right?

And last, I had cream cheese frosting left, so I made a small batch of gingerbread cupcakes.  I couldn't let that stuff go to waste!!

Don't worry, I have not fallen off the calorie conscious wagon.  All of this will get taken to work tomorrow, I will get to sample one or two things, and the rest will get eaten by some one else.  But I will have had the fun of creating, of getting better with my pastry bag and tips, and the pleasure of making some people happy with good food.  All in all, it's not that different than the creating I do with dyes, fabric, and thread.

But I really want my Juki back! 

Winter Walking (2012!)

Shannon and I spent part of the afternoon Saturday walking along the Provo river, close to my first home in Utah.  It is winter, but it has sure been a mild one. 

The lower part of the trail parallels the river to where it dumps into Utah Lake.  Parts of it are surrounded by trees, in their spare winter glory.

We saw ducks along the entire walk, some mallards and some coots.

 

I absolutely loved the two pictures I got of reflections on the water.  

  And this tree stump, reflected in the water--

It really felt good to get out and walk- I haven't done it since the issues with my foot started.

And, I have no pictures yet, but I spent the better part of Saturday morning quilting!  I decided I needed to get my Grace quilt done, I'm tired of having it hanging over my head.  I got the free-flowing part done to my satisfaction, and started on the more structured part.  I'm using one of the designs in Charlotte Warr Anderson's second book of geometric quilting designs.  Because it is not densely quilted, it is coming along nicely.  I am really trying to get the muse jumpstarted again!!

Balacing

pretty much describes my daily quest, trying to balance the 'have-to's' with the 'want-to's.'  Balance is also the theme of our next Tangled Textiles challenge.  I found a couple of hours to start playing with it this weekend, and this is what I came up with.

I'm limiting myself to two colors, in a range of values.  I don't know if any of these will end up in the final piece, but I am having fun playing.  We'll see where this leads me.

Today was all about the kitchen.  I made chicken white chili for dinner.  I've done it before, but I think the pot I made today- without a recipe- is the best I've ever done.  This is what was left in the pot after dinner.

So, for my own sanity, since I probably won't remember how I did it if I don't write it down NOW- here's my recipe.  I chopped a large onion and about four cloves of garlic, and sliced about six stalks of celery.  I sauteed these in olive oil- enough to coat the bottom of my Dutch oven- until tender.  I covered the pot and let them sweat on low heat while I cut up four large chicken breast halves in to small pieces.  I took the veggies out of the pan, and sauteed the chicken in three batches, so the pan wasn't too crowded.  When all the chicken was cooked, I added my spices.  I used about two teaspoons of roasted ground coriander, two teaspoons of ground cumin, and two teaspoons of oregano.  I added salt and pepper, and cooked the chicken and spices for a few minutes.  Then I returned the veggies to the pan, added four cans of drained canellini beans, two small cans of chopped green chiles, and three cans of chicken broth.  That filled my Dutch oven up to the top.  I let it simmer for a couple of hours this afternoon, then served it with grated queso fresco, sour cream, and cilantro.  With corn muffins or tortillas, it made a scrumptious winter dinner.

I've had cans of pumpking staring at me in the pantry from Christmas- I never did make a pumpkin pie this year.  So I made pumpkin gingerbread cupcakes, frosted with cream cheese frosting.  Love the recipes in Williams-Sonoma Cooking at Home.  The frosting recipes don't have tons of sugar in them, and aren't gagglingly sweet.  Yum!!

I swear, one day I'll be a pro with my pastry bag!

So now I'm off to try to finish my latest book in my Nook- I need to start reading a library book I downloaded, I only have two weeks to get through that one.  Hope your week is a flavorful and creative one!

Musings and Mumblings

That's all I have to offer up tonight, without any visuals.  I haven't taken any interesting photos recently, and I certainly don't need to bore you with photos of the snow we got over the weekend and today.  No, Shiloh and I did not go walking in it this weekend.  Since I worked on Friday, I felt rushed all weekend.  Amazing how I've gotten into a three day weekend grove, I need that long to get all my domestic stuff done, and get some creative time in the studio.  There was no creative time in the studio this weekend.

We have a new challenge for the Tangled Textiles group- Balance.  I quite like this one, and have been mulling ideas around in my head.  I think I will take some time to observe my surroundings, and get some photos of both balance and imbalance.  Beyond that, I'm not sure what direction I will take.

I thought I would be taking two workshops this year.  Rosalie Dace is teaching in Grand Junction in June, and I'd thought I could swing it.  Last week I came to the conclusion I couldn't, and took my name off the list.  Carol Soderlund was supposed to come back to Heber in July, but the studio we used for her workshop last summer is not available the week she can come- so that one has been put off until 2013.  Katie PM is coming here in August, and I just can't get enthusiastic about taking a class from her.  I'm getting more and more tired of taking design related classes from quilt artists.  I'm really thinking I just need to find the time and motivation to stay home and do the work.  So maybe the time I would have been at Carol's workshop will be staycation in the studio.  Or maybe I will take a long weekend and spend time with my brother and camera somewhere around Reno.  My brother would be the perfect companion for that kind of getaway.  Lots to think about, at least I don't have to make a decision any time soon.

So there you have it, the boring state of my mind.  I'll let you know if any of it results in action any time soon!

Winter Walking

We had our first snow of the year today- and I decided that my foot was feeling good enough to go for a walk with Shiloh.  I haven't been walking in a couple of months because of a plantar wart on my right foot.  I had it taken off last fall, but it came back- even worse.  My podiatrist took it off again a couple of weeks ago- it has taken that long for me to feel like I could walk, not limp.

So Shiloh and I drove up to Hobble Creek, where I'd learned there is a paved trail.  We found it easily, and headed off.  It was starting to snow, but not enough to make me change my mind.  I also wanted to take some pictures with my Nikon point and shoot.  I'm trying to use it and get used to the settings and it's capabilities.  It will never replace my Pentax DSLR, but I love having a camera that fits easily in my purse or pocket.

We had to cross a couple of bridges.  Shiloh managed to stand still long enough to have a portrait!

I loved the texture and color of the lichen on this tree trunk.

 

I wasn't expecting to see any green leaves this time of year- but these were peeking through the snow and underbrush.

 

It may have been snowing, but Hobble Creek was running fast and furious.  I was intrigued by the movement of the water next to the one piece of ice.

We walked for about an hour- I think we did about three miles.  When the snow on the trail got thick enough that I couldn't tell where it was icy underneath, we turned around.  But it's a trail I'll be going back to when the weather improves!

Tangled Textiles Reveal Day

Today was the reveal for the fourth Tangled Textiles challenge- "Look Up."  My entry is The Eyes (don't have it anymore).  I was trying to use my recent experience with a secondary cataract and subsequent laser treatment as my inspiration.

 

 It is another mixed media piece, using the same general techniques as 'The Tools of My Trade" that I did for the last challenge.  This one has a lot less paint on it, and I am not that happy with it.  It never felt like it came together.  Maybe it will look differently to me if I put it away for awhile, but right now I am ready to move on to something else.

I tried and successfully used some new techniques- blurring text with PSE, and transferring a laser print of the text with gel medium.  

Click on over to the Tangled Textiles blog and see what the others in the group did.  There are some incredibly imaginative interpretations of the theme, and some wonderful work.

More Mixed Media- and a Book Review!

I got some work done on my Tangled Textiles challenge piece, which needs to be done by the 15th.  I will be pushing that deadline!

I'm doing mixed media again, and have a base layer similar to the last one I did.  Right now I'm waiting for some gel medium to dry that I used to do transfers using a method I've never done before.  Yes, I know I'm breaking a cardinal rule, but I don't have time to do samples.  I'm just praying it doesn't come back to bite me on the butt.

Here's your teaser, one corner of the piece.  I haven't even started with the paint, so I suspect that it won't look like this very long.

That white rectangle is not fabric, it's my transfer mid-process.

I also added to my library this week- and I am very happy with one acquisition!

I haven't even read the entire book, but she has some exercises using your camera that I am excited to try.  She does have information about camera settings and other technical information, but mostly this is a book about using the camera as an artistic tool.  I knew I was reading a kindred spirit- she talks at the beginning of the book about needing to spend at least some time after work (as an attorney) each day with her fabric and sewing machine.  She has some interesting ideas for using your own photographs in different kind of art projects, many of which are easily translated to fabric.  For anyone who wants to be more creative with the camera, I would highly recommend this book!

We got our first snow in quite awhile yesterday.  I must admit I have thoroughly enjoyed the lack of snow and the mild winter temperatures we've been having.  I just hope we don't get buried in the valley the rest of the winter- it can snow all it wants in the mountains!

That's it, I'm off to see how dry my gel medium is.  Here's hoping your week is a good and creative one!

Adios, 2011!!

Not that I have any particularly bad memories of the year, it's been ok.  I think it will go down in my memory as the Year I Learned to Control the Dyes, thanks to a week with Carol Soderlund.  Worth all the other fabric related classes I've taken, and then some.  I'll be taking Part Two with her in July.

I've work short hours since Christmas, and have been BUSY!  Shannon and I made scrubs to give as gifts:

Pumpkin spice brown sugar scrub (smells yummy!)

Sweet orange salt scrub- another heavenly smell.

All nicely packaged and ready to gift- Pumpkin Spice Sugar Scrub, Sweet Orange Salt Scrub, Lavender Salt Scrub.

We made kolache, a scrumptious, highly caloric cookie I only make at Christmas.  Butter, cream cheese, flour, and apricot filling- that's it.  But they are to die for.

I decided it was time to get the mis-dyed color swatches done for my Dye Bible.  These are the last of the dozen or so I did, ready for the washout.

 

And I decided it was time to clean up the studio, I have a Tangled Textile piece I need to get started on this week.  And, what better way to usher in the new creative year?  Wow, I can see the floor of my fabric closet!  I managed to get rid of one plastic storage bin that was taking up valuable storage space, and get other stuff better organized.  And yes, I threw out stuff too!!

Woohoo, Utah just pulled off a win in overtime against Georgia Tech!!  (Sorry, Judy!!)  What a game- BYU won their bowl game yesterday, which meant I really wanted Utah to win theirs.  College football and New Year's- what better combination!

I'm wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year, with blessings and creativity.  That's my prayer for the year!

It's All About the Food

Because that's pretty much all I did this weekend, play in the kitchen!  We had our family party with DH's sisters and their families today.  We supplied scalloped potatoes and salad, one sister supplied a ham.  Another brought pies- and I had to make cupcakes!!

And, just for the heck of it, I also made cookies and bread, although it wasn't out for consumption at the party.

The bread is a Christmas stollen I make every year.  It's a yummy sweet yeast bread full of almonds, dried cherries, apicots, and blueberries.  Not the traditional fruit, but it's what I like.  I got an early Christmas present of an electric cookie press, so I had to try it out making lemon butter cookies.

I ended up making three kinds of cupcakes.  Gingerbread, because Jaden specifically requested them (and he doesn't request my food very often!).  I also made tiramisu cupcakes, and lemon blackberry cupcakes.  The last ones were the biggest hit.

They all tasted fantastic, but I definitely need practice with the decorating tips.  Fortunately drizzled blackberry puree and cocoa powder can cover a multitude of sins.

We did an inexpensive gift exchange- I ended up with kitchen towels and a fabric bread bowl.  Seems fitting, somehow, doesn't it?

We drank, ate,  played games and just enjoyed the time together.  A lovely way to end the weekend!

Therapy Sewing

Rayna is right, it's the best prescription for the creative doldrums.  Or just the doldrums, in this social worker's opinion!

It started with a Christmas project with Shannon, but I now have a small stash of freeform strips started.  What fun to just grab fabric and start stitching.  Since I started with Christmas, I'm still doing a lot of green and red and gold.  But I have a stash of Easy Pieces blocks that are every shade of purple on my radar.

So the studio is in disarray, with piles of fabric sorted by value.  

 

My pile of strips is growing.  And think what I can do with those blocks!  Not all the Easy Pieces blocks are purple, I did have some with green so I took those out to play with now.

I am loving how my hand dyed and printed cloth is playing with my commercial fabric stash.  I have enough smaller pieces to keep doing this for quite awhile!!

My first two free form blocks, started with squares that I just kept dividing and adding to.  

 I have no idea how I will end up using these blocks and stirps.  I just know that it is relaxing and fun, and it is something I can do even after ten hours at work.  I am way to tired at night to even think about quilting, which is why 'Grace' is coming along so slowly.  A couple of strip sets or blocks?  No problem!

So thank you, Rayna, I feel like I've gotten two early Christmas presents!