Flying Kites

For my DH's birthday this year, we gathered in a park to fly kites.
Here is our favorite kite-flying spot:

Granddaughter Lily flying the dragon kite:

One of the other features of this park is it is next to Santa Ana River...and if you are careful, you can climb down to the river...last time we went to this park, the mere thought of going down that hill caused tears, but this time, Lily was a brave, brave girl and went down the hill!!

You can sense the hesitation!! Holding tight to Daddy:

But she made it all the way down!

And back up! (it was getting dark by the time she and her Daddy came back up)

Road to CA 2014

Oh my...cannot believe I have neglected this blog for soooo long!

At Road to CA this year, I took two classes - Mixed Media by Patt Blair and Watercolor Painting to Quilt by Katie Pasquini Masopust.

The Mixed Media class was very interesting..we adhered bits and pieces of paper napkins, stamped tissue paper, wrapping paper, rice paper to a piece of fabric using artist medium (gel medium or fabric paint medium) - it dries clear and once you coat both sides of the paper, its pretty impervious to water though I don't think I would wash this quilt!!

Here is the quilt after I added the borders and did some minimal quilting..it needs more!

The Watercolor Painting to Quilt class was two days...the first day we played with watercolors..I discovered my watercolors from high school are probably not the best anymore!! They turned out rather pastel...

We did a bunch of techniques...we blew bubbles on the wet paint, we dripped paint, we used the edges of bottle caps and the rims of cups and an old lampshade, we sprayed water on the paintings, we used rubber cement to mask some areas and stuff called Masquepen to see the differences, we dripped India ink and squirted it from a syringe...

Then..once those were dry, we use a cropping tool to figure out 'interesting' places in our paintings...cut windows out of typing paper and decided which one was going to get turned into a quilt....
This is my drip painting - broad bands of wet watercolors, held at an angle so it flowed into the lower parts of the painting...

Here is the section I cropped out

Looks kinda 'Grand Canyon-ish'...

Then we used acetate, and marked the color changes:

Katie then took the acetate overlays to the copy shop and blew them up twice...my piece ended up around 15 x 40...The next morning, she brought back two copies of the blown up piece - one we stuck onto a piece of poster board to make the pattern pieces with, and the other was pinned to a piece of foam core.
We copied the drawing onto tear-away stabilizer, then started cutting the pattern pieces and fabric and stapling those to the foam core board... She showed us how she uses the poster board pattern pieces to turn the edges using starch and a hot iron (and a stiletto!)...Now..starched edges DO NOT float my boat...so after a couple of inches of stapling to the foam core..I switched to prep for needle turn..I had a suspicion she used starch so I brought my applique pins!!

Got almost done with cutting the pieces of fabric and pinning to the stabilizer.

Road to California - 3D Sculpture - Day 3

Today we added flowers to the trees:

 This is my friend's Beast and Tree:

Our Beasts and Trees on  the teacher's stage:

Closeup of 'Blowing Kisses':

I loved this class! Learned sooo many techniques for making 3d sculptures.

Road to California - 3D Sculpture - Day 2

Today we learned how to couch wire using our machines...we made leaves for our trees! Fortunately I didn't break a needle - there were some that did...

And..we met 'The Beast' (he really didn't come in a bag). I was the only one to get my beast sewed, stuffed and pinned together..

I need to stitch the openings closed, and stitch the limbs on the beast..and stitch up his gestures : here he is blowing kisses:

Tomorrow we will make flowers for the center of the tree and hopefully I will be done with the hand stitching..just will need to make a base for the sculpture (she will show us how she does bases, but its not something we will make in class.)

If you ever get a chance to take a class from Susan Else (and 3D fabric sculpture floats your boat) - she is an excellent teacher. I have enjoyed this class SOO much!

Road to California - 3D Sculpture - Day 1

It rained pretty steadily today..fortunately I got there early and got a really close in parking spot. Tomorrow and Sunday, I am going to a friend's house and her hubby will drive us..thus saving us BOTH 18 bucks! The upstairs was SUPER crowded, most likely because of the rain.. Didn't get a table but did score a few chairs..so lunch was eaten off our laps!

Today was the first day of the 3D sculpture class with Susan Else..O.M. G...this is a terrific class..she provides ALL of the supplies..already cut so we just do the sewing! Best supplies fee, ever!!

Here is a picture of the Beasts in the Jungle we are working on..her sample is way more involved than what we will be able to do in three days...but we are doing 'elements' of the scene. The 'beast' in the center is the one we will be creating (There are 3 figures/beasts in this scene - the lady in the tree, the beast swinging on the branch and his friend peaking out from behind the second tree - Susan describes the Beast as having a duck body, cat legs, chimpanzee arms, horse head with dinosaur horns):

Here is my tree after FMQ, trimming and stitching the shapes together..

Here is the tree after stuffing. I started out using a chopstick to stuff with, but then tried out one of the metal stuffing forks. I had to buy it! (only purchase of the day):

Here are the wires and the stiffening rod (an old knitting needle!) that keep the tree up and let us bend the roots:

Here is Susan's tree in the Jungle scene - we will be making those large leaves and the flower tomorrow and starting on the 'beast in a bag':

Here is the vine before stitching. Once we stitched all around the leaves, we wet the Solvy:

And...here is what my tree looked like before I left the room for the night - I have a bit more stitching to finish up closing the hole on the bottom and to stitch a few of the 'gestures' in the roots:

Road to California - Wholecloth Painting

It's Road to California Time, once again!

The weather report for Southern California was wet today, wet tomorrow, possible wet the next several days after that... sigh... At least I didn't get too wet this morning, and by afternoon, the sun actually broke thru for a while.

My first class was a wholecloth painting class from Judy Coates Perez using Setacolor paints. I loved the class and learned quite a bit! The class was in the North Annex building...across the street from the rest of the Quilt Show. They didn't have irons and ironing boards, which were needed, and the tables were not covered with plastic..we had to tromp thru a long arm class to get to the bathroom to get water..They brought a couple of ironing boards while we were waiting for some of the students to show up (we got an email 3 days ago saying the class was in the North Annex..now..if you KNOW where that is, good..but its not shown on the map, and there was no address! I did a Google street view and saw the Convention Center sign but a few of the students had no email..and were totally confused...)

Here is the cartoon that I started with:

We traced the design onto PFD muslin...then cut out masks for the lighter parts..ironed those on and made up a batch of background paint..mine I didn't get quite light enough..it should have been much lighter blue. And..I got lots of 'bleed under', which I had to fix by painting opaque white over the edges where it bled.

We learned how Judy makes the steps the paint so she gets really smooth shading...I need more practice as mine don't have quite the 'pop' that Judy's have.

Here is what my painted cloth looked like by lunch:

Here is Judy doing a 'glazing' lesson on a magnolia - notice the 'pop' on her leaves and..her background is way lighter!

Here is what my painted cloth looked like at the end of the day...it is VERY NEARLY DONE!! Which, for a class is QUITE AMAZING! (but then, since is was still a bit drippy, I stayed in the room and worked on the painting instead of getting wet and fighting the crowds in the vendor mall.) I will probably add some shiny gold accents before I quilt it..don't have to, but want to!

After I scrubbed out my paint dishes and stashed my supplies in my car, I headed over to the vendor mall...amazingly, I actually made it around both rooms. The crowds had thinned quite dramatically, and it no longer was dripping... I bought a few things:

I think the ruler gizmo is really the 'cat's meow' - it has grippy things that when you press on the handle, stick thru holes in the center of the ruler and man, o man..it GRIPS the fabric and holds it soooo tight! And you don't have to press very hard at all...and..I may actually use this thimble..its like a jelly one, but has a hard silver tip..feels very comfortable.

Tomorrow...3D sculpture...hopefully in the main building!!

Christmas 2012

These are some of gifts I made this year.

First, the 'rag' dollies I made for my DGD and DGNieces...my DH wanted to keep them! We both like the red-headed dolly best..I named them The Butterfly Girls since all of them were made with butterfly fabric! I saw the original dolly on Pinterest..they are made by just rough cutting fabric - no measuring! - and sewing it together..the hair on the one on Pinterest was loops of fabric but I wanted a bit more traditional look so...they got yarn wigs!

Next, the Grey Flannel Horsie for my DGNephew...

Then, Button Tree ornaments - I had a BLAST making these...again, saw the idea on Pinterest and had a jar of green buttons that were just begging to be made into these...

 And last but not least, a fabric covered picture frame that I saw the idea for on, you guessed it, Pinterest!! 

 All of these projects were made with stuff already in my sewing room (with the exception of having to buy more stuffing for the last dolly and the horse!)

Twenty-Thirteen

Happy New Year!

I was hoping to be a more faithful blogger this year..not starting off too well, eh, since its the 6th already!

This is a rainbow that was out our back window this afternoon. Its a rainy day, but the sun peaked thru a bit and this was the result!

Getting ready for the annual Road To CA quilt show in a few weeks. I am taking two classes - one is a fabric painting class with Judy Coates Perez, the other is making a stuffed diorama with Susan Else.

Susan Else was a featured artist at last Road and I am thrilled to be in her class..actually, thrilled to be in both classes!

Southwest Trip

DH and I went on a driving trip for our anniversary this year. We toured the Southwest.We left really early on Saturday morning. By the time we got to Baker, it was daylight and lo and behold, the desert was GREEN due to some rain we had a week earlier.

Stayed in Nevada for a couple of days then headed to Arizona. We crossed over Hoover Dam. Though I have been there several times, its still awesome and huge!

Then on to the old Route 66, heading for New Mexico for the tour of  Spaceport America.

We stopped to change drivers in this wee little spot on the map - Grasshopper Junction - where I got a quick shot of this handsome fella!

Our major goal for the trip was to take a tour of the Spaceport America outside of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.  The Spaceport has not quite opened for business but they allow a tour company access.

This is the highly polished glass windows of the terminal building. You can just see us reflected in the glass as I took the picture. (We are the couple on the left). On the lower floor is the waiting area for family and friends of the astronauts. On the top floor is the prep area for the astronauts  -  they come a few days ahead of time to get ready for the space shot. Behind the waiting area is the hanger which stores the spaceship and its launch vehicle.

This is looking at the hanger/terminal building from the operations center. Those dark panels are the doors to the hanger part.

This is out on the runway. Probably the ONLY time I will be on that runway...unless I should happen to run into a couple of spare millions and could sign up for one of the flights. (They start at $200,000! Lets see, that would be at least $400,000 for the both of us...um..not happening anytime soon! But we can dream!)

DH looking out of the top floor of the operations center. The white smear in the distance is the runway.

Here is the window he was looking out of from the other side!

This is an aerial shot (from a news service - not my picture!) showing the terminal/hanger building. The operations center is off to the left of this picture.

One of the other features interesting features near Truth or Consequences is Elephant Butte Dam. It was built before Hoover Dam and at the time, was the largest dam in the USA.

Elephant Butte Reservoir..the water level is way down due to the lack of rainfall.

We headed to White Sands after the Spaceport. One of the interesting sights was a two humped camel in a trailer - this is not the actual camel we saw, but it looks kinda like him..the camel looked like he was having the time of his life, rolling down the highway. I was driving or I would have snapped a picture.

This is the center at White Sands. I love the pueblo styling and the color.

A picture taken near White Sands.

This is the lake at the Inn of the Mountain Gods. We got there after dark and were hoping to stay there. Went up to the front desk to ask if they had a room and were told no, but that not all the guests had checked in yet - check back with them in an hour - maybe they would have a cancellation. So..in an hour, we went back up to the desk and a guy tapped DH on the shoulder. Said he had heard us inquire about a room when we were there an hour ago...and that he had one he was going to give up - he had asked for an adjoining set of rooms but what he got were rooms that were on opposite sides of the hall..he really didn't want his young daughter to stay across the hall! So they were going to get a rollaway for her and if we wanted, we could have the room! So...we got the room..thanks to an alert and generous guy.

Next morning we toured the lake and then headed for Roswell..and the famous alien landing!

Here I am looking at one of the tourist trap gift shops - this one has a depiction of the alien ship's crash landing, complete with flashing red lights. The McDonald's in Roswell is themed after the alien ship as well.

We drove up to Gallup next, with Four Corners and Monument Valley as the next destinations. This is Shiprock on the way to Four Corners.

Four Corners...with little booths all around in each of the four states - New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah..Since its on an Indian Reservation, the booths were staffed by Indians of various local tribes. Some of them were really interesting to listen to. We watched a lady that made sand paintings using rocks she ground up from her backyard. Turquoise for the blue, sulpher for the yellow, quartz for the white, coal for the black. She would paint a thin line of white glue on a tile, then shake some of the rock dust onto it and would make wonderful pictures. At the end she coats them with an acrylic to keep the sand set.
Another couple were making the most intricate carvings on clay pots. The wife used a sharp tool to inscribe the clay and he added the colors once it was fired. They really were wonderful (but really expensive!) The guy told us about a scenic way to get to Monument Valley - it was thru some really desolate areas.

The hills turned RED once we got into Utah. I couldn't stop to get one shot that I really wanted as the road turned into a completely red valley. It was so peaceful and quiet, and hardly any traffic. (Which could have been a bad thing (see the end of the post) but it turned out ok - our Guardian Angel was watching over us!)

Monument Valley.

Another view of Monument Valley.

After we left Monument Valley, we headed to Sedona. I had heard it was beautiful and the drive down into Sedona from Flagstaff was so gorgeous. This is Bell Mountain in Sedona. We decided not to stay in Sedona because of the cicadas...they made such a racket that I don't know if we would have slept! It sounded like some weird kind of motor, humming away at max volume! Some day we will come back and we plan on climbing Bell Mountain to see if there really is any truth to the stories of it being an energy vortex.

The hills were still red outside of Sedona.

The setting sun thru the clouds.

It was a good trip. The day after we got home, we went to start the car and OMG, the battery was dead. It had hiccupped a couple of times on the trip but always started the engine...So we put the charger on the battery and the next morning we headed for Sears to get the battery replaced (It was time anyway) Thank goodness we didn't get stuck out there in the middle of one of the nowheres we were in on the trip!