Bits and Pieces

For the last few days I have been doing some "housekeeping".  I pulled out pieces that were in various stages of finishing and have been working on completing them.  I had about seven pieces.

This one is called Bits and Pieces I, as I decided to make something without a preconceived idea or plan, using the bits and pieces of fabric that were laying around left over from previous projects.  This type of working is much more of a challenge for me, most of the time.  Once in a while, something will come together without too much thinking and arranging.  This was not one of those times.

Bits and Pieces I

 21-1/2" x 9"

hand dyed and commercial fabrics,

machine pieced and quilted

©2010 Lisa Flowers Ross

Happy Mother's Day

Vintage photo: Lisa and Anna, Mother's Day 2001

May you get to sleep in, 

have chocolate for breakfast, 

be pampered,

have a sunny day,

relax,

get lots of hugs

and feel like the special person you are! 

Breakfast of Artists

What is the breakfast of artists?  I don't think it's Wheaties.  Maybe it's cold pizza.  This artist made a new discovery for breakfast that I will share with you.  I do not consider myself a "foodie" and I really don't enjoy cooking.  That's mostly why I have cereal or oatmeal for breakfast. 

One morning this week, I was fixing one of the usuals: five grain oats with milk, microwaved for about a minute.  Since these are the regular oats, I usually add a spoonful or two of some homemade blueberry jam, that's a bit on the syrupy side, to make it a bit sweet.  Since I had used up a jar of jam, I decided to add dried cranberries and a tablespoon or so of dark chocolate chips, after heating.  Delicious!  The chips melt and it kind of tastes like warm oatmeal cookies.  And it's healthy, right? A yummy way to start the day.

Modern Mayhem

Yesterday was First Thursday and the Modern Art event, among others. The hotel opens its rooms to artists for them to do what they want (within reason and not destroying the room).

In the morning, bundled up in my polar fleece coat with several layers underneath and my fingerless gloves, I helped install the TVAA's sixty panels on the outside of the main stairwell at the Modern Hotel.  It was quite chilly (it is May, right?) and took us a couple of hours.

Mike Chambers with the completed installation.

The event was suppose to be from 5-9 p.m. I had volunteered to help take down the panels that night as well.  I left the house around 8 p.m. so I would have time to go through some of the rooms and see what it was all about. I haven't been to the event before because I knew it would be crowded.  And it was, just as my title suggests. The halls were wall to wall people and it was very hard to get into some of the rooms for all the people in there. Drinks and cocktails were being served in the parking lot and they also had tables set out.  It was basically a big block party as one street was also blocked off.

The event is called Modern Art, but I thought it was a bit surreal.  There were some performing artists singing and acting on the balcony of one room and also having a bizarre tea party in the rock garden. A graffiti artist was working outside on some panels.

There were some artists that had their art just set up for display and sell (a creative feat without having to put holes in the walls).  There were installations in many of the rooms, transforming them.  The one below is a neon murder scene.

One ceramic artist even had her wares in the bathroom, which was quite effective since she did sea-like creatures and things.  

I have to apologize for not having the names of these artists.  It was just very crazy there and I didn't think of grabbing a business card after I snapped a picture.

It was after 9:30 p.m. when we started taking down the panels and there were still lots of people hanging out at the hotel.

Purple and Yellow

The Twelve by Twelve group's next color challenge is purple and yellow.  Complimentary colors that I rarely use together.  But I think I can find some inspiration somewhere.

Kilauea Colors

May 1st was the reveal day for the Twelve by Twelve group's latest color challenge.  (Go to their page to see all the interpretations.) The colors were Hawaiian volcano colors: chartreuse, oranges, reds and grays.  That combination of colors was very interesting to me. One day while I was going through some of the pictures on my computer, I found this one again.

I thought it had a similar color scheme and used it as my inspiration for my "play-along" piece.

Sorry the photo is not so great.  Since I just made the piece today, the edges are not finished.  I will take a better photo when I get the edges done. It is a bit different than the sketch I did first.  I started piecing it and decided that would take forever.  This is all fused. I started with the vertical orientation, but in the end, I liked this horizontal.  My mind might change again after the edges are finished.  I think I will call it Yucca.

Self Portrait

Self Portrait in Brown

11-1/2" x 11-1/2"

2010

This is a piece I made this week for a collaborative project our new artist alliance is doing for First Thursday next week  I talked a little bit about this project in my previous blog post "A is for ..." 

That letter "A" is also for the same project.  Members can do a letter (T,V,A, A for Treasure Valley Artists' Alliance) and/or a self portrait.  I did both because I wanted to try this self portrait technique by Maria Elkins which is shown on the Quilting Arts TV series 400. 

The pieces are mounted on a 11-1/2" square board because they will all be hung in a giant grid outside the Modern Hotel.  I stapled this around the board and maybe when they are done with it I will take it off and finish it in a regular, rectangular way.  But I'll have to figure out some way to cover the holes I cut in the fabric to go around the eye screws.

I would have used green fabrics as that is one of my favorite colors, but I thought green might just look a little sickly.  

Maybe a turquoise color would have been o.k.

Does the picture look familiar?

Found!

The two little brothers (Chester and Rocky) have finally been caught and returned to their cage.  It only took until about 9:45 last night.  The one stayed under the t.v. unit all day and I had apparently trapped the other in the laundry room all day.  Frank had come home and put his biking shoes in the laundry room and later found that the hamster crawled right in.  Of course, he escaped behind the washer and dryer again when Frank tried to pick him up.  But eventually, Frank put the shoe down again and he crawled back in.  Phew!

Missing

It looks like it is going to be one of those days.  This morning Anna woke up and when she turned on the light in her bedroom, she discovered that the hamster wheel to one of the cages broke and her two Robo hamsters were nowhere to be seen.

The hunt is on.  Anna still had to get ready and go to school.  I searched her room and a few other places.  We have a book that says to set up a bucket with some food in it and a ladder that goes up to the edge.  The hamsters are suppose to climb up the ladder and into the bucket. Then, they won't be able to get out.  I don't think that's going to work.  But I have a bucket set up and a foam core ramp leading up to it.

Robo hamsters are the smallest in the world.  Hamsters can squeeze into the smallest of spaces.  Even Anna's regular size hamster managed to squeeze under the piano one time.

After she left for school, I was going downstairs to get a flashlight and one of the little hamsters scurried across the floor.  It went under the couch and then squeezed under the t.v. center, which has about a half an inch clearance.  Laying on my stomach with my face smashed to the floor and trying to see in a half an inch gap, I saw and heard the hamster scratching.  I tried sliding a piece of mat board underneath to try to flush him out, but it did nothing.  After awhile, I figured he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.  I went to look for the other one.

I've searched all the rooms on my knees with a flashlight.  No sign of the other, yet.  If I was pretty sure the hamster wasn't in the room I closed the door and blocked the crack of the door with books or something.  So he either won't go in or maybe he's trapped inside.

Since hamsters are suppose to sleep during the day, it will be even harder to find them if they are not making noise.  I don't know what to do now.  I came back downstairs and am not sure if the one is still under the t.v. or not because there is no noise and I can only see him if he is near the front.  I was hoping to work on art today but it may be spent hunting hamsters instead.

(I was going to post a picture of the escapees, but I see blogger has changed the way to add images and I cannot get it to work right now.)

Bruneau

On Saturday, we took my sister out to the Bruneau sand dunes.  It had been years since we had been out there.  We had a really nice day (although a little windy and cool).  I thought we were going to kill my sister by making her climb to the top of the large dune.  It is a steep climb and much harder since you do it in sand.  I'm proud to say she made it to the top and lives to tell the tale!  We also tried a bit of kite flying, glider tossing, had a picnic and casual rock finding.

I'm the one with the green shirt amidst two grandparents climbing with their granddaughter.  Jill and Anna are the "dots" at the bottom.  And, of course, Frank is the one already on top taking the picture.

We made it!  It was much more fun to go down.

It's a First

When you're thirteen, you have already had many of your firsts: first smile, first tooth, first step, first haircut, first day of school, etc.  The firsts may be slowing down some.  But Anna had another first on Friday night.  It was her first time at a "rock" concert.  When I mentioned that to her, she said, "Mom, I've been to many concerts."  Yes, but dance concerts, bluegrass concerts, musicals, orchestra concerts are not the same as a "rock" concert with its deafening, ear ringing music and large venue. (I think my first rock concert was in college.)

My sister and I took Anna to see Cavo, Lifehouse and Daughtry on Friday night.  I was mostly going for Lifehouse.  We were in about the farthest seats away from the stage but it really wasn't that far away in the Idaho Center (and I had brought the binoculars).  Before the show was over, I had earplugs in my ears.  Before we left, Anna was asking for one of the $35 concert t-shirts.  I really did not want to spend that much for a t-shirt.  But with those pretty eyes and sly grin she says, "Well Mom, it is my first concert." 

I'm sure she will be wearing the shirt to school tomorrow. With that first taken care of, I will be happy to wait quite awhile until the next first, . . . like first boyfriend!

Happy Earth Day

In honor of earth day, my sister and I went for a hike in the foothills.  We also did a little shopping downtown.  And, of course, I brought my own bags to use.

This last picture is from downtown.  It is what we like to call "the hole" because it has been a defunct construction project for years.  But this tree is staking a claim. Very appropriate for Earth Day.

Convertible

I have been noticing the convertible cars coming out of the garages and driving around town as the weather here has been very nice these last few days.  I got so caught up in yard work and being outside on Sunday that I forgot about going to the dance concert for which Anna and I had tickets.  (I've done that before, but 2 p.m. on Sunday is sometimes hard to remember when you're in the middle of something).

We weren't driving a convertible around because we do not have one.  But the convertible I want to talk about is my sewing room, which also serves as a guest bedroom.  I'm very excited to have my sister coming for a visit today (just in time for the weather to change to cloudy  and cooler tomorrow).  So, the sewing room has been converted.  I have a sewing cabinet that folds up and is on wheels.  The cutting table folds down and has wheels.  This makes it very easy to change the room. 

Here's the guest room.  No I did not make the quilt on the bed (It's a Target purchase from years ago when I wanted my daughter to have a warmer quilt and knew I wasn't going to get around to making it.  I also liked it for the holiday season).  The quilt on the end was finished by me.  My mom had some blocks she made in the 70's (or at least with 70's fabric) and I ended up piecing them and finishing it up. Oh, and that's an inflatable double high Aerobed which makes it easy to put away when the guests leave.

A is for . . .

. . . art.  Yes, I have been working on some art.

. . . artists' alliance.  I made this "a" for a collaborative piece with other members of the Treasure Valley Artists' Alliance.  Members will make a T,V, or A (initials for the group) on a 11-1/2" board.  They will be hung together at the Modern Art event at the Modern hotel on the First Thursday in May. 

. . . Anna.  I had drawn this "a" on a piece of paper and asked Anna when she came home from school what she thought it looked like.  Being a pencil drawing on paper and just an outline she said, "Some kind of arch thing."  I had the right side of the bar across the middle of the "a" thinner than what you see. I think my "a" was a little too abstract.  Then I asked her if it looked like an "a" and she said, "Now that you mention it, yes." 

I like how this turned out and will tell you what I did.  When I took Melanie Testa's online class, we layered two fabrics (right sides up) on top of a piece of batting.  We sewed around a picture outline that we had drawn on tracing paper and placed on top of the fabrics (you can probably find detailed instructions in her book Inspired to Quilt).  Then we removed the tracing paper and cut inside the top layer only. After that, we could add more stitches or whatever.

I did something similar and a little bit differently with this piece.  First I chose a background fabric (yellow) and fused little bits of fabrics onto it.  I layered it on batting and went ahead and free motion quilted over top of it.  Then I layered the navy piece on top and my tracing paper with the letter on top of that.  I had marked with pins on the bottom fabric where I wanted the edges of the tracing paper to line up so I could match them even though I could not see the bottom fabric (did that make sense?).  I sewed the outline of the letter and removed the tracing paper.  Then cut just the top fabric inside the stitching.  I went back and satin stitched around the entire letter.  I plan to put some free motion quilting with navy thread around the letter to give it some texture.

I liked using the bits of fused fabric and quilting first.  I think this might be a good technique to use on some of my older pieces that are "finished" but I am not happy with.  I definitely will be trying this again.

A Few More

These are the last beach pictures from this trip that I will show you. 

How Could It Be

"We interrupt our regularly scheduled beach pictures to bring you some breaking news.  It is official.  Lisa Flowers Ross and Frank Ross are now the parents of a TEENAGER.  We wish them the best of luck and will return to beach pictures tomorrow."


How could this possibly be that our beautiful little baby is now a beautiful teenager as tall as me? 

Birds

Today I share with you pictures of some of the birds we saw in Florida.  On one of the first days we there, Anna was out on our little patio with her cousin.  This bird flew up, landed on the railing and startled them.  Obviously, it wasn't too worried about people.  We were able to get quite close to it.  Eventually it flew away, but I think it was looking for some crumbs.

On our last day after checking out of our condo, we went to Stump Pass Beach.  It was long and narrow and we were looking for shark teeth.  But Anna saw this heron on the edge of the beach sitting in the grasses.  We got fairly close before it flew away.  (We found some small shark teeth. But one girl had found quite a large one which I understand is rare.)

We saw lots of pelicans.

Sea Creatures

Jellyfish on the beach.  We saw quite a few (even a huge one that was about a foot wide).  They were in the water, too.  But I don't know if they sting or not.  We didn't want to test it out.

Dried sea urchins.

Barnacles on a rock, which now remind me of garlic.

Back from Break

We are back from our spring break trip from Florida.  For a week, we stayed at Siesta Key and visited with Frank's parents, sisters and their families. Today is our first day back and it's time to get back into the swing of everyday routines. Here are a few pictures.  Over the next week I will post some of my more "artsy" pictures.

The beach had beautiful white sand and the color of the water was pretty.

It was spring break in Florida and there were lots of people.  You can't tell from this photo because it was taken in the morning on one of the "cooler" days.  But the beach was very wide so it wasn't too bad.

Sunset view from the condo.

Another Quote of the Day

"Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them." 
- John Ruskin

 

Quote of the Day

In celebration of spring and thoughts on the garden.

"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." 
- Margaret Atwood

Revised Edition

Meadows and Streams

 24-3/4" x 29-1/4" 

 fabrics hand-dyed by artist,

machine pieced and quilted

©2010 Lisa Flowers Ross

$350

Detail of stitching

The title of this piece is Meadows and Streams, although I think it should be called Heartache because it was such a pain in the puttuti to make into existence!  I ripped many seams, inserted and re-sewed.  As I was pin basting the sandwich with safety pins, I jabbed my finger.  That's par for the course. I just suck on it for a second, look at it and then continue on.  Then I saw a spot on the fabric that hadn't been there before.  It wasn't a piece of fuzz and wasn't coming off.  What is that?  Oh CRUD, it's blood!  So first I went and got a BandAid so I wouldn't bleed all over the piece.  I was upset because I did not want to have to rip out any more seams.  I grabbed some club soda (because I had read that that would work on wine. I was just about ready for a glass of wine at that point.) and managed to get the stain out.  Phew!

I had picked out all the colors of thread to quilt with and started with a variegated thread.  After about a minute of free-motion quilting the thread broke.  I changed needles, tension, etc. and it kept breaking. I asked for help on the Quiltart list.  While waiting for replies,  I picked out some of the stitching I had done, switched threads and continued on.  With all the help, I eventually figured out a way to make that thread work, but it is not in this quilt. So after much ado, it was completed.

Thank you to all who left comments about the first posting of the piece.  Here's the before shot again for reference.

I knew something wasn't right and I thought putting on the border would help.  But my brain said that I haven't used a border in awhile so that's interesting that I would need one on this piece.  

Well, it didn't need that border.  But what the border did was to help me focus in on what was bothering me.  Many of you hit on the same things. It was too light in the bottom right-hand corner and too dark in the lower left-hand corner.  The blue sections didn't seem in balance to me. 

I guess you can see what I did to fix it.  I inserted a light strip of color in the lower left corner.  I added another blue section on the bottom to make it darker, more weighted and to balance out the blue.  Someone had mentioned maybe adding a bit of complimentary red to give it some sparkle.  Obviously, I did not use any red, as I was going for a more subdued, calming effect overall.  But I did insert some white pieces in the blues to give it some more "excitement". 

The border is gone, but I did put a binding on it because I still thought it needed a little containment.  I'm sure some will not like my binding choice of color and having two different colors.  I thought it needed the dark green on the bottom to ground it.  I am happier with the piece now, although I think the original intention got changed somewhat.  But that's art!

Please feel free to leave comments about what you think of the changes, good or bad.