It's a Colorful Life

Last week I got to spend the day with my friend Bonnie Hull. We meet on the pretense of being a "Quilt Groop," but we're the only two people, and we often spend much of our time chatting. Here's her quilting studio. She's a painter too (acrylics), and I love love love her color sense and daring.Then Saturday was my lovely granddaughter Mia's first birthday party up in Portland. Isn't she too cute?
Today, we drove to McMinnville, OR with some friends for lunch and to walk around in the fall color. Here's a shot from the rooftop restaurant where we ate. The colors make my knees weak.
And...last of all...some photos of a sock cat I made yesterday, just to see if I could. Note the tattoo on her hiney.

I Think That I Shall Always See

Today was another beautiful fall day. Crisp in the morning. Warm in the afternoon.We have pumpkins ready for jack-o-lantern making, and gold and red reflections in our river below.






I've been stitching together my random experimental pieces, and adding to them with embroidery. It's goofy, but at least I have the pieces all in one place. I haven't decided if I'll actually add batting and quilt stitching.

A Deck with a View

The past few days here have been as beautiful as I've ever experienced. I just love the leaf colors in the Fall. It's like having shimmering red, yellow and orange petals up in the trees...maybe more colorful than in the Spring.

This shot is taken from our deck out to the front yard. There's still a lot of green, but you can see the other colors coming on.And here's what I saw this morning from the deck, looking down at our river.




Tre magnifique!

Clubs, Candy Corn, and Cats

Today was our River Bookies book club luncheon.


We call ourselves the River Bookies because almost all of us live right next to a river here in the Oregon Cascades.

We range in ages from 50 to almost 80, have many different life experiences, and almost every book we've read has spurred a lively and interesting discussion. I LOVE these women.










We meet once a month, and besides discussing a book, we indulge in the finer things of life.

(Some think the main reason we get together is for the wine and food, but that's just a rotten rumor. It's just not true. It is NOT!)

























This morning, I just about finished my "Earth, Air, Fire and Water" quilt that I did on homemade-soy-milk soaked fabric, and I used water color paints that I wet with the soy milk. It's fun because I was able to paint without the color bleeding into the adjacent fabric.








Here's my pal Phoebe sitting in the middle of what I was working on at my desk. This is what she does if I don't give her the attention she so rightfully deserves.

Thready Quilting

For the last couple of days, I've been experimenting with doing a mini quilt, with random white-on-white quilting meandering all over the place. I wound up adding a little black stitching just for contrast.







I sort of like how it looks, and it's definitely meditative and soothing to do. (Click on these photos if you want a closer look.)

I think I'm getting a bit tired of doing all these quickie pieces. They're great for experimentation, but I think I'll start something big soon. Usually, I start with an idea that keeps me awake at night, but I haven't had one of those lately. Maybe if I do some sketching? Sometimes that helps.

Mia at the Pumpkin Patch

Today, Josh, Lori, Jim and I took Mia to her first annual pumpkin hunt at the Heiser's pumpkin patch. Here she is getting in to the pumpkin mood.







There were Mia sized tractors...
















There was a hay wagon that took us all out to the BIG pumpkin patch...


















And the nearby fire departments were having a water pumpkin pushing contest...sort of like tug of war, but with water, and pushing instead of tugging.










There was good ole fashioned Texas two-step music...which Mia LOVED.














And a skeleton spooked everyone from the outhouse.




























Jim and I had our portrait taken...

















And so did Mia.






What a GREAT day!

Atomic Stitches

Here's what I've been doing today...

Reading "The Universe in a Single Atom" by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and...

stitching and layering, stitching and layering.

I can only read the Dalai Lama's book in short stints because his grasp of cosmology is way over my head.

So I read some pages, then stitch awhile, and when my brain has been soothed enough, I read more. It's a really great book, and speaks perfectly to my current spiritual and philosophical confusion.

More about all that another day.

Quilted Paint Splats

I recently got the idea that I wanted to do a quilt series in which the fabrics looked like spilled and splattered paint. I wanted to use all cotton fabrics, cut freehand and pieced together, rather than appliqueing pieces on top.



So here's the first one:


Yellow Paint Spilling from Above



















Next came:


Red Paint Spilling from the Corner













And finally (but done in reverse applique):

Paint Mixture Splatted from Above


I just finished machine quilting this one. I tried to do this by regular piecing, but the first try was a disaster. I finally surrendered and did it with reverse applique (the holes cut in the black fabric and the colored fabric showing from beneath).

Army of Women Project

Today I signed up to be a part of the "Army of Women Project" to help in the research of breast cancer. The researchers need many women of all ethnicities, health backgrounds, ages and sexual orientations to take part. My sister-in-law had breast cancer (she's fine now), so I'm ever hopeful that causes and cures will be found.

If you're interested, go to their web page and read about it, and perhaps sign on.

http://www.armyofwomen.org/

Fun with Color

So today, I did my first watercolor on some soy milk treated muslin. The soy is supposed to keep the watercolor from bleeding into surrounding fibers. It worked pretty well, but as you can see, not perfectly. I think if I would have waited until the colors were completely dry before painting the adjoining section, it would have worked better.

The fabric pieces (flowers and berries) are just placed on top of the piece for now. When the piece is completely dry, I'll do some stitching around and on top of them.

I really loved painting on fabric. I'll be doing some more for sure. And I like the idea of combining painting, piecing and applique. All my favorite techniques, using my favorite medium...fabric.