Our adventures in California

We spent the past week visiting friends in Irvine, California. We are sort of extended family and what is really nice is that we are really part of the woodwork. They do not need to entertain us and we do not impose on them other than for a bed. We have been friends for 51 years. I love to cook so when I have been visiting lately, I treat them to meals they would never make for themselves.

On our agenda was to go down the the San Diego Zoo and the Long Beach Aquarium. Ned and I both love to spend time with the fishies and walk the zoo. As an added bonus this time I got to see the exhibit "Kimono as Art, The Landscapes of Itchiku Kubota". I wish I could have spent more time looking at these absolutely fantastic works of art. They did not allow pictures but if you Google it, you can find some videos with his work. Amazon sells the book for $30. Treat yourselves.... buy it. You will drool over it. It closes tomorrow in San Diego but will be in Canton, Ohio from Feb 8- April 26, 2009. If you are anywhere in the area, do yourselves a favor and go see it.
For those who are into food the menu included: Quesadilla's with goat cheese and roasted pepper sauce, 7 types of onion soup, risotto with asparagus, oven steamed snapper with black bean sauce, Spanikopita (with my special cheese combo), brisket, guacamole, and chocolate mousse. I love having people to cook for. Lots of good wines went with these meals.

I even got to sew the sleeve on my Black and White piece (see old post) and hand delivered it to Annie Copeland who went out of her way to meet us one morning.

The only bad news is that we picked up my kitty from the vet ( we thought he just had a respiratory infection) to find out he might have either a kidney stone or a malfunctioning kidney. He is 15 years old and really my baby. The next week or so should give us a better idea of where he is. He is in great health otherwise. The respiratory infection crops up every 5 years or so and is treatable.

I am in the process of working on a piece that includes some of the black shibori dyed pieces I had done. No photo yet.

Here's to a great new year. I tend not to do resolutions because I never keep them but I do have goals for myself this year. The first is to try to focus more on my work and not get so distracted. The second would be to try to both sell and show more of it as well.

Happy Holidays

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season . May 2009 be a better year for everyone.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who read my blog and comment both here and privately. You have given me more gifts than you can imagine. I will try to keep you interested.

Overall, this year had more pluses than minuses and I have lots to be grateful for. The two most important events this year were the marriages of my daughter to a wonderful man and my own marriage to a gem of a man. I made many new friends at classes this year and new friends online. For the first time I started putting my art "out there" in the universe and have been pleased with the results. I had the first piece ever submitted to PIQF accepted and 3 other pieces juried into a show at a local gallery. The 2 pieces I donated for auction fetched more than I ever anticipated. I even sold some. I learned many new techniques and even learned what I do not like doing..... even my FMQ is getting better. I am hoping to stay more focused in 2009 and produce more works. Most important to me is that all of this remains fun. Creating is the best therapy in the world.

Peace and joy.

Sherryl

.... and finally, blogger decided my posts were not spam and I no longer have to twist myself into a pretzel to post them.

Our week in Hawaii

The weather was lousy but we had fun anyway. It was chilly and rainy and we did not get to do what we had hoped.... oh well.
Day 1... travel day. We had a connecting flight through San Francisco. Our flight from Phoenix was delayed so we missed our connection. Because Ned travels so much, he is considered a top tier traveler... it has its perks. We had a 4 hour layover in SF but we got to enjoy the Red Carpet club... this was the view out the window.
We finally arrived in Honolulu and found the rental car place. Things were starting to look up! We were told we were entitled to an upgrade and half jokingly I said I wanted a convertible! DONE!!!
Little did we know we would not get to enjoy it much. Such is life.
Day 2
Weather was overcast so we decided to take a drive around the Island.
It is really very pretty and would have been more so if the sun had been shining. We did get to see whales.















We stopped for lunch at one of the local fishing holes.... yep, they farm shrimp and prawns.
Day 3
The weather has not improved much.... we decided to do the zoo and the aquarium. I was impressed with both.


Day 4. The sun came out!!! We decided to go snorkeling. Turns out this was not to be. Because of the recent storms, there were Man O War jelly fish. Almost 200 of them and 25 people had already been stung that morning..... even through wetsuits. I decided I was not going in the water. We explored the other side of the island and saw more whales. I love whale watching. I could sit and do it all day. We had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant called Orchids.

Day 5. We flew to Kauai. The weather was not any better! In fact it was worse. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging around the pool. The ocean was too rough. It was not warm enough for me to go in the water but Ned made use of the pool. The mango rum smoothie was delicious.

Day 6. The chickens own this island. Everywhere you go there are chickens running around.
We tried to drive up to Waimea canyon but it was so foggy we never made it. We picnicked in the car and tried for some whale watching. They did not cooperate.

Day 7. Another crappy day but the highlight was the feeding of the koi at the hotel. There were hundreds of them! I fed them just like the other kids and Ned took the photos with the iphone (we got locked out of our room... don't ask, and couldn't get the camera on time) The other photos from this video are also from my iphone. I am pretty impressed. I am not really into rocks and stuff but I have lots of pictures. If anyone wants some, please email me and I will be happy to send you the jpgs to use.
We drove the other side of the island. The wettest spot on earth is here...Mt. Wai'ale but we couldn't find it in the mist... so we went to see the falls instead.








There was so much silt in the water from the storms.

And of course the requisite rooster.

















We drove up to Hanelei but Puff must have been on vacation. It is a very pretty area and would have been more so if the weather cooperated a bit more. On the way back to the airport for the trip home we stopped by the Kilauea lighthouse. It was closed when we got there.
When we arrived at the airport for the trip home via Honolulu we found out that the flights were all delayed. President-elect Obama and his family were flying in. I hope they have better weather than we had.

Aloha

We are leaving for Hawaii tomorrow... call it a honeymoon. I will try to take some good photos and post them, but no promises.
I have been working on the black piece and I like the way it is coming out. Rayna suggested I rotate it and I took her up on her suggestion. It now has much more interest. I have cut out all the applique pieces that are going on it, but alas, I cannot sew them down. I took my sewing machine in for a cleaning and fixing yesterday figuring it would be good to go when I got back.... forgetting that I wanted to use it today. Oh well. I have a busy day today anyway. Of course we haven't started packing but that is SOP for me. Tonight is the 2nd of 2 receptions at the gallery where some of my work is hanging and we have to hit the post office and send out the last of the holiday gifts.
Have a good week.

Coordinating non commercial fabrics

This evening Rayna Gillman posted an interesting problem regarding using hand dyed/printed fabrics together successfully. The post was very timely because I was having just that issue in the past 2 days. I am pretty new to most of these techniques and have a long journey ahead of me exploring all the possibilities, but I realized the problem last night when I started to put together the fabrics I wanted to use in a particular piece. This piece has rules that I cannot change so I am semi limited in what I can use to start with. Our guild is doing a challenge due in mid January of a piece that is 24"square but it has to be predominantly (at least 50%) one color. My luck, they picked black! ( I was sick of black and white this summer.) So that means mostly blacks and greys with accent colors thrown in. I did up some shibori pieces last week using black dye and was pretty happy with the results...... trick turns out to be.. how to use them together. This is what I have come up with. It took me a while to work it out. The rest of it will be applique using orange colors.
When I started putting up some of the other pieces together for another project, it occured to me that this is a mine field. It is much easier being in a quilt shop and matching up patterns and colors. It is not so easy at home with your own creations. Questions come up about how busy you want to make the piece, how to not overwhelm the senses or the other fabrics, and just plain balance questions. This is not so easy.
Thanks Rayna for bringing this up.

Sunset

I looked out my window this evening just in time to view a stunning sunset. I ran out with my camera and snapped a bunch of pictures. This one is probably the best. Yes, this is what the sky looked like.. no touch ups.

Sale on my older hand dyed fabrics

Starting in the new year, I am going to be dyeing up lots of new fabrics so I need to make room for them. I am having a sale of 40% off for 1 week on the ones I have posted (I may add to them). The fabrics are on my other blog Fields of Color. The discount will be taken off at checkout. Help me make room!

More Shibori

OK, I am hooked on shibori. I decided to play some more last night but this time I wanted to see if I could use smaller containers that I could manage rather than the big 5 gallon buckets. Yep, I was able to dye 4 fat quarters in 1 gallon of water with room to spare. This opens up a larger range of possibilities for me since I can do this with no help. I hope I find the time to do something with these pieces since I am now addicted to creating them!

Gift

I finished a small piece that is going out as a gift. I was experimenting with techniques and of course took the opportunity to add some stencils of Ginkgo leaves. I really love this leaf.

Playing with shibori

It is always less stressful when you are learning new techniques to have someone holding your hand. It is far more difficult to experiment with what you have learned in a class at home. I worry that I forgot some important detail or there was so much information that I missed some. Last night I finally got my act together and dyed and over dyed fabric using the shibori techniques I had learned in Jan Meyers-Newbury's class. I decided to only use one color to start... partly because of space constrains, partly because these buckets are heavy and I cannot lift them, and last of all because if I screwed up, I wanted to limit the damage. I twisted, folded, scrunched, and tied the fabrics. I had some fabrics I decided could be improved with some black on them so I mixed up the black using Carol Soderllund's secret recipe and tossed them all in the bucket and held my breath. After unwrapping, they got tossed into cold water and rinsed then 2 washes in very hot water with synthrapol. It is so much fun unwrapping shibori! You never know what you are going to get. I am thrilled with the results!! I am sharing the results with this slide show. Enjoy.

Chihuly

On Friday we went to see the Chihuly exhibit that was presented at the Desert Botanical Gardens. (I know, today is Tuesday and it has taken me this long to get around to blogging about it). The exhibit was a real treat. Most of the pieces were made specifically for this exhibit and this is Dale Chihuly's first exhibition in an outdoor desert environment. The glass looks like it belongs were it was placed. I think I took over 100 photos! I couldn't resist. One was more beautiful than the next. I am adding a slide show so I can share.

I have been nominated by a wonderfully creative and productive quilter for the Kreativ Blogger award. I had the good fortune to "meet" Bunny several years ago when I first started to do machine embroidery, long before I ever started to quilt. I do not think she ever sleeps. She produces more finished projects (good ones) than anyone else I know. Check out her blog The Creative Hare. She hasn't really gotten into art quilting yet, but if she did, her work would be great. She does great New York Beauty quilts though!

The rules of the award are:
1. The winner may put the logo on her blog.
2. Put a link to the person you got the award from in your blog.

3. Nominate 5 blogs.

4. Put links to the blogs.

5. Leave a message for your nominees.

Here are my 5 nominees. I enjoy reading their blogs and seeing what they are working on.
Linda at http://lindaedkinswyatt.blogspot.com/ does work that is innovative and full of color.
Lynn at http://lamdes.blogspot.com/does the most gorgeous quilting and painting. I hope to get as good as she is.
Wil at http://wilopiooguta.blogspot.com/is another innovative art quilter. I have taken 2 online classes with her and her work is gorgeous.
Deanna at http://www.eclectic-meanderings.blogspot.com/just has plain old fun with her stuff. I always smile as she really gets into everything with a passion.
Patty at http://pcoxdesign.blogspot.com/is another art quilter who I admire. She is not afraid to experiment.

Thawed out

I am back home again after taking Jan's Shibori class and freezing in New Jersey. However, it was well worth it! I had the pleasure of taking the class with Gloria Hansen and Rayna Gillman. Please check their blogs for other photos. The class was so much fun. Jan is a fantastic teacher with the patience of a saint. I feel very lucky that I had the opportunity to do this. Jan is holding up a sample of her own to which I aspire to. I have added a slide show of some of the pieces I dyed.
I also got to see my daughter. We went to dinner at a new restaurant on E. 82nd St. called Mussels. It had opened 4 days before and was excellent. As the name implies they specialize in Mussels. They were the best I have ever had and I thought the ones I had in Liege, Belgium were fantastic. These were better. They prepare them 23 different ways. We tried 2 of them and also ordered the best scallops I have ever had. The mussels and scallops come from Prince Edward Island. Yummy dinner.

Roses, etc

My Roses have been in full bloom again but I didn't get around to taking a picture until today. There will be plenty more blooms next week but I will not be here. Just thought I would share 2 pictures.

I am getting ready for my Shibori class. I am very excited. I leave on Thursday and I am just getting around to putting stuff together. I washed 20 yards of fabric last night and let it air dry.

I now have a "wet" studio! I turned one of my guest rooms into a messy workroom. I was using 2'sq of space in my laundry room. I did it the cheap way. We put a large waterproof tarp on the floor. I added a floor lamp and a clamp on lamp for more lighting and if I need more I will get another lamp. I used sawhorses to mount a sheet of plywood that I covered which will be my main workspace and also put in a 5' folding table that I will use for low water immersion dyeing. Thanks to a friend of mine who just had gorgeous fitted closets made (yep, I am jealous), I have inherited her plastic drawers and shelves. I put up 2 sheets of insulation board on the wall and covered it with flannel and now I have a real design wall. There is a bathroom next door for water and 2 doors down is the laundry room with the utility sink. No pictures...... everything is piled up in there waiting for me to decide where to put it and I am sure by the time I start working it will be a mess! Hahaha.

Playing with paint and dye paste

Yesterday was play day and today I got to see the results. I had an odd piece of silk hanging around that I had stenciled with some presist. I decided to toss a bunch of dye paste on it to see what would happen. I am happy with the result. The next piece is one that got started in Ohio as a monoprint that bombed. I added some dye paste using stencils, bubble wrap and just plain slopping it on. The jury is still out on this one. The 3rd piece is on that I was going to do up with a lot of gel glue but changed my mind mid stream. I painted it with fabric paint instead. These are the leftovers from the sun painting experiment. I did not want to throw away the paint even though I had watered them down too much. I added some dye paste via bubble wrap and a small stencil. This one I like as well although I am not sure what if anything I am going to add to this before I start quilting.
Enjoy and feel free to make suggestions.

Everything else is on hold as I am creating a new work area in our extra guest room. This will be my "wet" room so I have more than a 24" space to work on (my current laundry room).

Sun printing

I signed up for Susan Sorrell's online Monoprinting class and being the sometimes ditz that I am, I thought it started next week so I figured I still had time to purchase supplies. To my surprise, the first lesson arrived on Monday. The first assignment was to do a sun printed piece and of course I did not have any Seta Color paint. I ran out to Michael's and picked up a few jars and set to it on Tuesday morning. Since I had never done one before, I was a bit lost but serendipitously, Sue Andrus posted a note the the QA list with her version. Between the 2 sets of instructions I managed to do one. There is lots of room for improvement here, but I stuck my toe in the water. I also forgot to use salt.

Swooning

I had a rather frustrating day today but now I am flying very high. I came home to find an email from Martha Seilman saying that the 12 x 12 piece I had donated to the SAQA auction "Ginkgoes in the Wind" sold today on the first day for $750.00. WOW. I am in shock! I posted about this piece on June 17th.
Ok, I am going to see if I can come down out of the clouds!!

Rejected Journal Quilt

This is my journal quilt that got rejected but is now in an online show called Braving the Elements with the other rejectees. I know mine needs some work but it is not talking to me. It is called Survivor. We live in an area that is prone to wild fires and this represents the hope that some vegetation escapes the ravages of the fires. The other quilts in this "show" are well worth the visit.

We've come a long way, baby

Last night we made history. We finally put away our bigotry and bias and joined together to elect the best person for the job of steering our great country out of the mess of the last 8 years. Congratulations, America. We have grown up. We are now on the road to being able to hold our heads up high and proud in the rest of the world, again. We have proven that we can come together for the greater good of the whole. Maybe this will be a road map other nations can follow. When people pull together everyone profits. When people are fractured, everyone suffers.
There are going to be tough times ahead for many but the future is looking less bleak. The founding fathers of our country had it right... We are all created equal. Biases due to race, religion, or gender only hold us down. We all have something to offer. Dare to dream and may all your dreams come true.

Trip to Baltimore

Ned and I spent several days in Baltimore last week. One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to the Baltimore aquarium. It is a very interesting place as it is not just a bunch of fishies. They have a permanent exhibit housing some of the diversity of Australia and a wonderful exhibit of frogs... we liked that one best! Of course we got to see the dolphins and the sharks as well as the feeding of the sting rays. I also went to Fort McHenry were Frances Scott Key wrote the national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner.