Scene from a Happy Christmas

Hope everyone had as happy a Christmas as Emily did!

Snowed in

So, um, it finally snowed...



19.4 inches in 24 hours, 24 inches total over 36 hours. My trusty Saturn handles really well in the snow, but Thursday I couldn't get out of my driveway. No worries, as my office, along with the rest of the city was closed. The MALLS were closed! The state patrol told everyone to stay home unless they had a major emergency.



Friday was a snow day as well...everyone was still stuck. Pistol and I went for a very short walk to check out the snow.



Mostly we hung out on the couch, crocheting and cuddling.

Family portrait

Man, I HATE losing to the Cougs. But we did have a LOT of fun!


AshLee covered her bases - that's Vandal gear underneath her Husky gear.

The vital importance of goofing off

Too much of my creative time has been in bits and pieces crammed in here and there. That works fine for stitching or paint layering or embellishing things I've already mostly figured out. It does NOT work for designing, developing, testing ideas. Those lovely, wonderful tasks require larger chunks of time, time to get lost in playing around, goofing off. I finally took an evening to do that this week and this is the excellent mess I made. I didn't "accomplish" anything and that was perfectly fine. The point wasn't to accomplish, but to let my mind rest and refresh and slip back into a creative groove. To get things percolating. I goofed off until I was tired, then went to bed. I woke up feeling refreshed and bubbling over with ideas and design solutions. Love that feeling!

I have been making some stuff

I finished up some new dresses last week. These three are currently for sale at the Lady Bug Gallery at Sew Uniquely You.

Preparing for the colorless and cold

Ha! Who am I kidding? I'm not preparing for anything. Life is a blur of work and bad football. Quiet moments with the camera and the cat are rare.

I'm not ready for the colorless and the cold. I'm still busy lamenting the fact that I lost the best of the color and the heat, stuck in bed recovering from my surgery. On the other hand, I got a cold last week that didn't turn into a sinus infection...the surgery was so worth it. Life is such a balance. The colorless and the cold make the color and the heat that much sweeter.


Pistol thinks these concrete edgers are a cat sidewalk. He walks everywhere on them.

What I've been up to...

Sheesh, bad blogger! It's been a very busy month since I last posted. Here's some of what I've been doing the last six weeks:

Went to Seattle 3 times. (Pic is Lake Union from the rooftop terrace at Eastlake Grill)

Returned to Husky Stadium with my dad, a day I've been anticipating since he had double bypass surgery in January.



Finished up my contribution to 2 different swaps. This is a crummy picture of my page in a post-ArtFest fatbook. Colors are more vibrant in RL.


Reconnected with an old friend. OK, this is where I've spent most of my time. ;-)


Hung out with AshLee.
Dyed fabric twice.
Went to the lake.
Soaked up as much sun as possible.

Time really flies when you're having this much fun...

Big (shopping) weekend!

Here's a hint of where mom and I went this weekend:


Shipwreck Beads! They don't have a big sign, so the beaded sidewalk tells you you're in the right place. Here we are inside the store:


We look so happy! The store is bigger than it looks in this picture. It's bigger than I remembered. It's just really really big. And mom wants to say that they make really awesome BLT's.

Here we are at our second destination, Pacific Northwest Quiltfest


I was really pleased with the quality of the show this year. I only noticed a couple of traditional quilts that were made from well-known patterns and, of course, the workmanship on those ones was excellent. There was great variety in the art, pictorial and innovative quilts and more sophisticated use of all the cool techniques and embellishments than I've seen in the past. It seemed like design drove the use of techniques and embellishments more this year, rather than techniques and embellishments driving design.

The exhibit from South African quilters was definitely my favorite part of the show. This quilt, Blood and Fire by Jeanette Gilks really mesmerized me. I felt like it was worth the whole trip just to see this quilt in person.


Here's a closeup. Of course, pictures don't do justice to the incredible layers and details and symbolism of this quilt.


Oh yeah, and there were vendors. Do I really need to say more? ;-)

Here's last weekend's fun...

Now that I'm getting ready for this weekend's fun, I'm finally taking a minute to post a couple of pics of last weekend's fun. Two beautiful sunny colorful days of dying fabric with the Sew Uniquely You crew:


Here I am with my table buddies Pam and Becca. I think my favorite part was when they moved the table into the shade while I was busy doing something else. I turned around and my table had disappeared! LOL!


It was a great weekend: tons of fun and tons of beautiful new fabric to play with! (I'll post some fabric pics next week)

SHOCK-ing

Aren't my parents cute? Saturday night we went to the Spokane Shock (local arena football team) game. It was super-fun in a get-loud-and-silly kind of way.

In other news, my nose is healing really well, but I'm getting really tired of being really tired all the dang time. Apparently the whole anesthetic thing can really mess you up. :-P

Still fuzzy in the middle

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Here's a fun meme I've seen on a couple of blogs, most recently Leah's. I barely ever use flickr, so this was a fun exercise for me, but I don't know why all the photo credits show up as not available.

* Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search.
* Using only the first page, choose an image.
* Copy and paste each of the URL’s into the mosaic maker over at FD's image maker.

The questions:
What is your first name?
What is your favorite food?
What high school did you attend?
What is your favorite color?
Who is your celebrity crush?
Favorite drink?
Dream vacation?
Favorite dessert?
What do you want to be when you grow up?
What do you love most in life?
One word to describe you.
Your Flickr name

So I had my surgery back on 7/2 and life has mostly been a blur since then. They actually removed a bone spur from inside my nose, so I had a tremendous amount of pain at first. After several days of nothing but eat, take pain meds, sleep, I had the splints removed and immediately got violently ill from the antibiotics I was taking. I'm finally feeling better, although still a bit shaky and rather fuzzy in the middle where my nose is supposed to be. Where my nose is actually, it's just that it doesn't feel nose-ish, it feels fuzzy. But the good news is no pain meds at all for the past several days. No pressure causing the vague headache between the eyes. Fingers crossed that this might just work!

It's a structural problem

So I've got a deviated septum and enlarged turbinates. English translation: I finally know why I have a sinus headache pretty much all of the time. And all of the allergy meds and antibiotics, etc. never do much good because there just isn't much space for air to go up my nose. I'm having surgery in a couple of weeks.

There's been a bit of craftiness going on here, but mostly I've been working and feeling crummy due to my structurally unsound nose. :-/

Boise for the weekend

Mom and I went to Boise for the weekend to watch AshLee compete in the Western Athletic Conference Track and Field Championships. The lovely AshLee, pictured here in blue, ran a personal best in the 400 and helped earn points for her team in the 4x100 and 4x400 relays. The fine young women from Idaho took 2nd place overall!

When we weren't at the track meet, we managed to stay busy shopping. And then we went shopping. We finished things off with more shopping. My excellent friend Sarah introduced us to the wonders of anthropologie, Urban Outfitters and Sephora, all of which are sadly lacking in Spokane. Upon further reflection, I think it's best that there is no anthropologie in this area. If there were I might pack up my little cat and move in there (yes, I know they have a website, but it's not the same). Oh yeah, and then there was the shoe section at Dillards. Oh my goodness.

So now, having fully indulged in a weekend of fun out in the world, I'm ready for a nice quiet weekend at home with my little cat. Kelly Rae Roberts posted on her blog the other day about how she's always been on the cusp of being an extrovert/introvert. And I thought "Yes, exactly!" I love hanging out with family and friends, but my only-child-self also craves time at home alone. I adore puttering around the house, staying in my pjs all day, baking or sewing or reading or napping, just me and Pistol. With that in mind here's my to-do list for this weekend:

Read blogs
Read books
Make stuff
Take naps
Take a walk
Theoretically, I suppose I might do some cleaning. Lord knows, the house could use it.

I think that should make for a very full weekend.

Here's some stuff I made at ArtFest

This is the adorable little suitcase I made in Pamela Huntington's Just In Case class. I was a bit apprehensive going into this class because Pam's style is very pretty and vintagey with soft muted colors. I love her work, but my style is very different. I thought I would be the weird girl with the bright colors. I was the only one with colors this bright, but it was all good as everyone in the class brought their own unique style. The cases all turned out very different and each was a very personal expression of its maker.

One of the many cool things about ArtFest is how down-to-earth the teachers were. The three I had were almost more facilitators than teachers. They showed us techniques and they answered questions and gave excellent guidance, but most of the time in class was spent making and there was an expectation that we would pretty much do whatever the heck we wanted. The teachers were so accessible and encouraging to every single student. The atmosphere was "we're all artists here" not "I'm the teacher and you are the students." Pam was just delighted with all the different directions we pushed her techniques.


Here's the inside of my case. One of the main reasons I chose this class was to get some instruction on making fabric paper. I've tried it before and never could get it right, so I was very excited to finally figure it out. The inside top and bottom are fabric paper made with a batik and tissue paper with embedded bits of paper and fake flowers.

The other technique that was super-cool was the way we applied the fabric around the outside edges (the hot pink "binding" in the top photo). You soak the fabric in watered-down glue. The fabric gets all sticky and stretchy and you can just stick it right on your surface and manipulate it to fit. It dries nice and tight and very solidly attached.

I'll post more about my other classes soon.

Finally

It's finally spring.

Sunday I went for a walk. More of a stroll really.

It's finally warm. I wore shorts, a t-shirt and sandals. My hair is long enough for a ponytail now.


Trees are finally leafing out, flowers are finally blooming. I just ambled along, enjoying the warmth of the sun on my skin, the chattering of the birds. Letting myself get distracted by flashes of color, wander into fields for a closer look, literally stop and smell the flowers.

This one smelled exotic and spicy.

Lovely.

Garden Party Dresses

Here's my excuse for not posting more about Artfest yet. I'm very busy making art! (OK, and I haven't gotten around to taking pics of the art I bought and the art I made.) But I have been busy finishing up this quilt. I'm calling it Garden Party Dresses and it's 21" by 27". And it has a sleeve and a label and it's going to hang in a show this weekend. That's me, right on time!

The show is Imagination Unleashed: Dreams and Illusions put on by Sew Uniquely You. Saturday and Sunday, the 26th and 27th at The Old Church Arts and Cultural Center, 405 William Street, Post Falls, ID. It's a contemporary/art quilt show and Anna has promised that my paper quilt won't be "that weird quilt made by that weird girl."

Pistol took an active helper cat role in finishing this up. Such a good little (gigantic) helper cat.

"You should definitely use this thread mom. It smells good." (Yes, he's the one who put the thread on the quilt block.)


"Hmm, and maybe some of these buttons. They look tasty!"

ArtFest 2008

So...umm...wow. I'm having a bit of a hard time being coherent about ArtFest. I use superlatives like wonderful and amazing a lot here at art:quilt:play. And that's ok, because I'm all about appreciating the wonder of everyday life. But ArtFest was something...more. ArtFest has a reputation for its great atmosphere, its creative energy, so I was hoping for a really cool experience. I got that...times 10.

It was magical. Yes, the classes were awesome and the setting is beautiful. But the atmosphere...Wow! There was such openness, energy, sharing, acceptance, understanding, friendship, freedom to be yourself. I lived completely in the moment for 3 full days. After all the stuff I've dealt with over the last year-and-a-half, I was so ready for this time and place. It felt like a miracle.

OK, enough babbling. This picture of me with new friends Kristie, Cheryl and Layla sums it up much better than I can. Just plain joy.

Exhilarated. Exhausted.

Home from Artfest. Unbelievably wonderful and amazing. Lots more later. Must take nap now.

There's no place like home

Be it ever so snowy. I was so happy to get home Friday night that I didn't even mind this icky blanket of cold-and-wetness. After a completely ridiculous week in which I started a new job AND cleaned the rest of my junk out of the garage so we could close early on the sale of our house, I packed my bags Sunday night and went to Olympia for a week of new-job training. And if you think that was a run-on sentence, try living it. Sheesh!

The trip had it's ups - a wonderfully restorative lunch hour spent at the Scarlet Empress, an early evening spent at Shipwreck Beads (holy cow people! this place is HUGE!!!), a lovely family birthday party for cousin Ryan, a fun, interesting class packed with good information. The trip also had its downs - cold, snowy (!) weather and me in lightweight business clothes, a stinky rental car with no ice scraper, a pervasive feeling of exhaustion, reports of a depressed cat waiting for me at home. On balance it was a good week, but I just wanted to go HOME.

Yeah right. When I got to the airport my flight was already delayed over an hour due to weather. Then there was a maintenance issue with the plane. Then we boarded. Then we sat and watched maintenance guys in baggy yellow rain pants climb on and off the plane. Then we got off the plane and went back to the terminal. Then we got on a different plane. Then we sat and watched the baggy yellow rain pants guys get on and off that plane. Then we got off that plane and stood waiting in the freezing cold tunnel place. Then we got back on the first plane. Then we sat and watched the baggy yellow rain pants guys get on and off that plane. Finally we took off, still under the threat that if we couldn't land in Spokane due to the weather, they would bring us back to Seattle. Noooooo! There was giddiness and cheering when we landed in Spokane. I didn't even mind having to clean all the snow off my car. After all, at least I had an ice scraper.

Bits and Pieces

I'm it.

Sheila tagged me a while ago to list 7 random things about me. So here goes:

1. I don't like coffee. Or really anything bitter. Dark chocolate and some vegetables are challenging.
2. Pistol is the first cat I've ever lived with. I used to think cat people were a bit crazy. Now I get it.
3. I like lots of light. I don't really get the whole dimmer switch concept.
4. I have a law degree but I don't practice law.
5. I've been left-handed from the cradle. Mom says anything placed in my little baby right hand would be immediately switched to the left hand.
6. I surround myself with bright color, but I prefer to wear neutrals.
7. I like the process of sewing by hand a lot more than the process of sewing by machine.

I have another one of these deals from Judy so stay tuned for more random quirky stuff.

A daisy day

I've been telling friends that the last 3 weeks of my life have reached the level of ridiculous on the stress meter, but then I remembered that right before that I had the evil sinus infection/horrid rash combo. Sheesh!

But yesterday, yesterday was a lovely daisy of a day. I got an offer for a great job that I think I'm really going to enjoy. The offer brought resolution to more than a year of uncertainty and stress in my life. And I found out that I will definitely be able to attend Artfest in April! I signed up and paid for Artfest in September to give myself something to look forward to, but whether or not I could actually attend has been one of the many uncertainties swirling around me.

So what's a girl to do to celebrate? Shopping of course! Even more loveliness awaited me. I found some cute shirts and pants and I had to buy smaller sizes than I originally tried on! This despite the fact that my workout routine has gone horribly off track lately. I will have to start exercising again to ensure that I will be able to keep wearing my new clothes! And then I found this book:


M. Joan Lintault Connecting Quilts, Art & Textiles. The pictures alone are worth the cover price; the in-depth, insightful thoughts Ms. Lintault shares about her artistic process...well, let's just say I can't wait to spend a long afternoon absorbing this book.

I finished off my daisy day standing outside gazing at the eclipsed moon. Lovely and amazing.

Taking a break

I'm taking a little break this morning. A break from the crippling weather...a break from the crazyness of life this past week.


I'm taking a moment to enjoy the sunshine...and the quiet. A moment to hang out with my cat.


Soon I'll head back to the hospital where my dad is recovering from open heart surgery. He is doing very well, but this came as a shock to all of us. Of course it coincided with an already hectic and draining week and with some of the worst weather of the last 40 years. But such is life. The crazy teaches us to appreciate the quiet.

even more dresses

Here are dresses #5 and #6. Apologies for all the dark pictures lately, it's practically impossible to get a decent picture up here in the frozen tundra these days. It was actually sunny yesterday, but way too cold to go outside for pics.




To look at my blog you'd think all I've been doing is making dresses. There have been some other creative activities happening, but mostly there's been a sinus infection followed by an allergic reaction to the meds. The weatherman just said it's 1 degree out. Ugh.

Lucky studio cat - he has all that fur to keep him warm.