Spice Drop Soup

Sailor Valentines

A few more pictures.  Sailor Valentines created at the April Banders meeting.  Sorry, I can't tie the artist name to the individual hearts.  Here is a sample of the beauty created by our talented group.

 

After saying I couldn't give artists names, I believe this one was created by Sally. It reminds me of a paisley.

 

It's been a while

So I thought I'd tell my story in pictures.  First the Dallas Quilt Show:

 It's all about the colors

 Intricate pattern, color again

 This quilt was on the cover of Quilting Arts magazine.  I've focused in on just a small part.

 Love the composition

 Serene

 The needlework in this quilt was amazing

The quilts were absolutely amazing.  I stand in awe at the brilliant artists who take needle in hand and work these wonders. 

Quick Update

I went to the Anne Bagby exhibit at the Artist's Showplace this morning after my aerobics class.  Very nice.  It's true, seeing everything in person is so much better.  Her work has so much detail and dimension that is lost when viewing online or in magazine reproductions.  Marvelous, just lovely.  My fingertips were itching to touch, I had difficulty not tracing the lines of her work.  Anne is teaching a three day class and my friend Denise was lucky enough to get in, as the class sold out almost immediately.  Denise and I went to lunch and she was kind enough to let me poke my nose into the classroom and briefly look around.  I saw so much activity and creativity.  Everyone was busy using what they had learned in days 1 and 2 to create their finished pieces, each different and beautiful.  I was inspired to be in the studio and back to work, carving, painting, doing. 

After lunch was time for grocery shopping at Whole Foods, finding lots of fun delicacies and staples.  Then home to clean and nap a while.  Watched a couple food shows, which made me quite hungry so I cooked a delicious supper; baked salmon, couscous with fried sage, and broccoli with a touch of olive oil and garlic.  Yum! 

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

How does that happen, you say?  Well, you weren't supposed to ask. But mostly because I was not being attentive and it was all my fault.  You see, this morning I woke up with plenty of time to spare, so thought I'd make a big "bacon and egg" type breakfast.  Only, when I got started, I remembered that today is trash day, and I didn't have all the trash pulled together to go outside.  So I took a trash bag and started walking around the house, emptying all the waste baskets.  Here comes the kicker, I left the bacon on the stove on medium high.  By the time I got back to the kitchen, the pan was in flames and smoke was rolling out the entryway.  Of course I did the exact WRONG thing and picked up the pan by the handle.  I did not get burned, but did get "warmed"  That's the term for "scared shitless, but not injured".  Sad to say, the bacon was toast, the toast was never started, my kitchen a mess, my house stinky, my tummy empty and my on-time record demolished.  The only good thing, I did get the garbage all picked up. 

Now, doesn't that sound exactly like something I would do? Well, I did it.  Not proud of myself, but somewhat resigned.  So, how was your day?

Storage ideas

Thought I'd show a couple of storage ideas.  I'm moving my 12' x 15' studio into a 10' x 10' space and I had to come up with a few new ideas to crunch that same amount of stuff into a smaller area.  Here's what I'm doing.  A picture is worth a couple dozen words.

 

Stamp storage for unmounted stamps, using CD cases and rack.  I plan to use some type of indexing notebook to keep track of what I have, but am not there yet. 

   

The stamps are thin enough to layer. 

   

TicTac storage boxes are great for tiny pieces.  These can be found at WalMart for $5.00.  They come complete with 24 little boxes.  Great for beads, brads, eyelets, gems. 

 

I got this idea from the Moonlight Stampers, who use these 6-compartment acrylic boxes to store their Twinkling H20's.  I love this one!  I was always throwing these into the bottom of whatever bag I was toting to the next meeting.  They would get all jumbled up and lost.  Then I'd unload the bag and wouldn't know where to put these little pots.  They would end up rolling around on my table.  Not anymore!  Now they are neatly corralled and ready to pop in my bag.  And they look so pretty.  Makes me want to use them. 

That's it for today.  Now for you, what cool storage ideas have you come up with lately?

The worst that could happen

So, what is the worst that could happen if you went to a chocolate class/tasting event?

You could come home with a 10 lb bar of chocolate!!!

 

Yeah, uh huh!  You caught me.  But, it was on sale.  I couldn't pass up such a great price. 

I wonder how long it will last?  Now, before you get all freaked out that I came home with 10 lbs of chocolate, I'll have you know that I wasn't the only one.  Not that I'm saying exactly WHO else bought a 10 lb bar of chocolate, but we ALL know who is the chocolate fiend amoung us. 

Challenge

Last night I went to the El Corazon exhibit at the Bath House Cultural Center with friends Carol, Debbie and Jacqueline.  The Bath House, run by the City of Dallas boasts a 120 seat theater and three gallery spaces and two to three Visual Arts exhibitions per month.  Because Febrary is the month "of the heart", the two shows that premiered last night were "El Corazon" and "HeART and Soul". 

Which got us to thinking.  Actually, Carol was thinking and I was just shouting encouragement from the background.  It went a little something like this . . .

Carol:   What if we agreed to make one heart themed project a week for the next year? 

Me:  That's a great idea, count me in!

Carol:  We could start the week of Valentines and

Me:  We could post our projects to our blogs!

Carol:  Yeah, really!  Do you really want to do this?

Me:  Yeah!  Hey Debbie, Jac, You interested?

Debbie:  Ugh . . . hmm . . . ugh, maybe

Jac:  I'm pretty busy, (what with graduating from Chiropractic College and trying to pass the Boards and set up a practice) what about one per month for me? (well, ok, you do have a valid point)

**** SO ****

All are welcome to join.  Pass the word!  One HEART related art project per week for the next year.  Any size, any medium, any style.  Fabric, paint, papier mache, metal, jewelry, paper.  Use your imagination!  Then, SHOW US!!  Yes, show off your work.  Use your blog, bring your project to a meeting, wear it - Whatever.  Just be proud and show it to the world.  Happy heARTing! 

It's a New Day

    #1 Ginny    #2 Carol at work    #3 Carol's fish    #4 My fish   #5 Flowers    #6 Denise at work

  #7 Shell by . . . ?

Painting on silk, taught by Ginny Eckley.  Definitely something I'll do more of. 

Procrastination (sung to the "Anticipation" tune)

So, tomorrow I am hosting a meeting.  My project is a recipe book, with recipes compiled from our Banders members.  I have been collecting the recipes for months.  Now I need to get them all in a format that can be easily bound into a 5.5" x 8.5" booklet.  I should be doing that right now.  I should have been doing that all week.  Instead, I took a nuno felting class, AND made a Papier Mache bowl. 

    I'm thrilled with the outcome.  If anyone would like to learn how to make this bowl, please let me know - I'd be happy to teach you. 

Now, time to knuckle down and get these recipes typed and printed. 

Nuno Felt

Nuno Felting is a process using wool and natural fibers, wetted and agitated to enmesh a design into fabric.  Last Wednesday I took a class led by Suzanne Morgan to learn this technique.  We started by laying down a towel, a bamboo mat and a piece of tulle. 

On that we layered a thin pre-made felt and pulled strands of wool.  Small cut pieces of silk were placed on top to create a design and a final thin layer of wool strands covered all.  Another piece of tulle covered our felt sandwich. 

Soapy water saturated the composition.  By hand, this creation was rubbed using a balled up plastic grocery sack, for about 5 minutes.  Additional water was added to keep the felt wet, facilitating the agitation.  After this, all layers were rolled into the bamboo mat, sushi-style.  The entire thing was rolled back and forth about 100 times.  The mat was unfurled, the felt turned 1/4 turn, re-rolled and given another 100 turns.  This process was repeated two more times, for a total of 400 back-and-forth movements.  After this, the felt was removed, rinsed in very hot water, balled up and thrown hard into the sink a number of times.  Finally all excess water was squeezed out and the felt was pulled back into shape and allowed to dry.

 

My masterpiece!  Please, hold the applause. 

More examples:

 

Carol Regan - finished piece             Deborah Boschert - during the design process

Denise made a lovely composition with a leaf design, but my camera battery ran low, so no picture is available.  It is a fun and easy process, and quite a workout for the arms.  I worked up a sweat by the end of class.  I'll try this again soon.  Anyone ready for a PLAYDAY?