The Finish of Something #1

Here is one piece finished with the hand stitching and the machine stitching which you can see better on the back. I put a black binding on the edge which you cannot see in this picture.

My thought behind this piece is two different abstracted views of trees.

The Start of Something #3

The Start of Something #2

Any impressions on this one, so far?

The Start of Something #1

Here is one of the pieces I have started. I have started several things as I am intending to do some hand stitching on them and I can do that when I'm too tired to do something else or am watching t.v.

The pins are there because I am hand stitching the reverse applique on this. Do you have any impressions of this at this stage?

Anthony Lake

This weekend went spent a couple of days in Baker City, Oregon. It has been a long time since we have been there in the winter. We spent Friday and Saturday night there. Saturday morning we went nordic skiing at Anthony Lake. It was cold with the wind, but pretty nice as we had intermittent sun.

Anna probably enjoyed the indoor pool at the hotel, more than the skiing.





And since Saturday was Valentine's day, we had to have chocolate!

Modern Art?

. . . or sweet treats? Here is my version of these treats that I thought were cute. However, I could not find any circle pretzels, so we had to make do with the square, waffle pretzels. They turned out o.k. But if you make them, you definitely want someone to help you unwrap all those Hershey kisses!

Happy Valentine's day!

Progress

Here are some of the quilting stitches I have done on the piece that I am working on. This is the view from the back. Below is a close-up view.


Here is what is looks like now. I also did some stitching in the yellow squares (windows) and added the trees on top. I have started the hand stitching around the trees. You might be able to see some on the lower tree on the right side.

On another note, Anna and I went to watch some of the special olympic floor hockey competition after school today. We watched a very exciting game between one of the USA teams and Uruguay. Unfortunately, USA lost.

Special Olympics

I work at the art museum this week and hope I will be able to squeeze in some time to work on art.

Yesterday however, I picked up Anna and her friend after school and we went to see some of the Special Olympic events. We went to see the figure skating. They had this ice sculpture outside where the "Olympic Village" was. It is pretty small; not anything compared to the regular Olympics.

We saw six pairs of skaters in the compulsory event. And that was all because the advertised times are pretty general. So that was a bit disappointing. We spent as much time trying to get out of the parking garage as we did watching the event. Today we will try to see the floor hockey (where we won't be in a parking garage).

Valentine on line

Our local paper has posted some of the valentines that were donated for the Valentine for Aids auction that is currently going on here in Boise. My picture is included (#3, I think) and many others. Here is the link: valentines.

Other local news: The special olympic winter games begin here in Boise next week.

Work in Progress

Here is something I have been working on this week. I have not been working on much as I caught Anna's cold and it has really dragged me down. Anyway, the above picture is before and the below picture is after I used some paintsticks on the red areas. Can you tell a difference? It looks kind of dirty now.

I wanted to tone down the pink and red some and have them blend together a little more. Not sure it succeeded but there is still more to do and then I will do some hand stitching on top.

This piece has been put together differently than what I usually do. I started with a sketch and then just started cutting the pieces by hand with scissors (no rotary cutter) and built them up from the yellow squares out using scraps I had. That is why things are a little wonky. Somehow it all went together fairly easily.

The 12 x 12 group has picked their next theme, which is windows. So many possibilities for that, including the piece above because the yellow squares are suppose to represent windows on a building.

Last night I was looking at my Paul Klee art book (as that was about all I had energy for) and one of the works had a window depicted in it. In the comments, the author was talking about how you couldn't really tell if the viewer was looking out the window or in, as the picture was abstract.

That's something to think about for the window theme. Are you looking out or in or both? Can you see out the windows? or do you see a reflection? Lots of things to think about. I know I have lots of pictures of windows from our European trips. And aren't the eyes the "window to the the soul." Hmm . . .

12 x 12 Chair Challenge

It's a bonus blog, as I remembered that the 12 x 12 group was revealing their chair theme pieces. Therefore, I have put mine up as well. I didn't have as much time to spend on this as I would have liked. I had quite a few ideas for chairs as I had already done a few before. These chairs actually started out in a different piece. But they, along with a couple more, got put away for a long time and did not get completed. After pulling them out to start working on it again, I decided I didn't want to finish the original idea and re-purposed these for the challenge.

It looks a bit like Brenda's over at the 12 x 12 group with the simple, abstract design. See all of their interpretations here.

Valentine Cat

Thank you to all who left their input on the valentine selection. I decided #4 would go to the auction and that is where it is now. Anna also made a piece for donation. It is this lovely cat below.




I thought since I have missed a few days, I would show you a piece I finished a while ago but have not put on the blog yet. I showed you the start of it here. Below is the finished piece I call Paper or Plastic? It is made with reused materials. The tree is stitched on a piece of linen shirt. The brown paper and plastic bags are obvious and the binding is from a wool jacket.

Valentine Collage #5

Here is another of the Valentine collage series. Of all the ones I have posted so far, which one should I donate to the auction (or which is your favorite)?

Valentine Collage #4

Valentine Collage #3

Another Valentine Collage

The quote says, "Let your heart be your compass, your mind your map, your soul your guide and you will never get lost."

I have completed six of these Valentine collages. I will put one up each day. They are for sale but I haven't decided yet which one I will be donating to the Valentine for Aids auction.

Time Well Spent

I must apologize for not writing for a few days. This week Anna is on a week-long school field trip, which means I have been trying to make the most with my free time. She left Monday morning and will return Friday afternoon. They are only about 2-1/2 hours away in McCall studying at the McCall Outdoor Science School. Her teacher has been posting pictures on the internet. And although Anna does not appear to be in her "group", it is fun to see how things are going there.

This is the first time Anna has been away from both Frank and me for more than one night. She was very excited to go, but on Sunday, she also admitted she was nervous. She was going to miss Big Cat, her favorite animal that has traveled with us everywhere (and our website namesake). It was the first time he has not gone with her overnight. We thought it would safer for him given how many sixth graders would be there. I told her not to worry, Big Cat would be with us. She said, "Well, I'm going to miss you, too." I said, "Wow, you're going to miss us?" and she said, "Well, duh!" She was also going to miss her hamster, Clare.

While she has been gone, I have been trying to spend my time well. I have been working on the, aforementioned, online class and I have spent some time working on a series of Valentines collages. Here is one that I have completed. One will be donated to the local Flying M Valentine for Aids auction, in which I have been participating for about 10 years now.


The quote says, "Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave but not our hearts." Hmm, I guess that is pretty appropriate for this week while Anna is away. A little bit of our hearts are in McCall right now.

Affirmation Card #3

Here is another one of my affirmation cards. Making them as a little piece of art really makes it more exciting to me.

Affirmations

With a last minute decision, I decided to sign up for one of Alyson Stanfield's online classes. It just started and is helping me set goals for my art and inspiring ways to achieve them.

One recent assignment was to create some affirmations for myself. Alyson showed us a few of the cards she made one year by hand (not on the computer). There was no requirement that it had to be anything creative, but I thought it would be more fun that way. So here are two that I have made so far.


I'm hoping if I repeat them enough, it will become true (especially that second one!).

Resolutions?

Well, I've had almost an entire week to think about resolutions/goals/intentions. Each of those seem a little bit different to me. Resolutions seem like guidelines for what you want in your life. Goals seem to me to be more specific with, maybe, a time-line as well. Intention feels like how you intend to act toward the previous two. I haven't looked this up in a dictionary. These are just my definitions.

I've been reading on blogs and in papers about resolutions, etc. Some people also like to choose a word to guide them through the year. This year I have decided that my "intention" is to Be Open. That's two words to guide me and it can mean many things.
Be open. . .
to new ideas,
to new opportunities
to creativity
to transition
to change (is that the same as transition?)
to mistakes
to others
to yourself
to accept peace and simplicity in life
and so on and so on.

I also have "resolutions" which include working more on my art. I definitely have goals. They are usually a to-do list and concentrate on the smaller or more specific things. But I don't think I need to list them all here.