Continuing to Catch Up

I have been continuing in my quest to get unfinished work off of the old piles and in to the finished piles....which are all on top of an extra bed...so many that if I need something on the bottom it is quite hard to get out!

But anyway, enough of my woes!  This is a fused piece that I did several years ago and I had wonky edges on it (on purpose). The edges curved but it never hung flat because I did not plan the curves correctly.  So I cleaned it all up, cut off portions, and refaced it which I like much better.

Summer Time

Yesterday I spent several hours creating sleeves for three other pieces that I have previously shown on this blog. It is really nice to get these things done.

Now, all that needs to happen on these is to put labels on them.  I have even been putting them into my catalog!  Will wonders never cease. Oh, I do hate all the details that have to be done for the business end.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, is a reception for a new show opening called Fabric Art/Art Quilts Plus, at the Cinema Place Gallery at 1061 B St. Hayward, CA.  There are quite a few pieces of work in this show and I have two of my new pieces in it.  The reception is from 5-7pm and the show runs until November 12 if you are in the area. There are many northern California members of SAQA in the show.  Lots of great work!

So, I have sandwiched the Grand Canyon/Colorado River piece and am about ready to draw in some basic shapes. I have spent a lot of time studying the topo map of the Grand Canyon and have decided on a portion to work with which I think has very interesting shapes.  I am impressed with myself that I have been patient, have quilted three quilts created by women at the Federal Correctional Facility in Dublin, CA, have been working on a piece for the altar at church, and have worked with a small group of teens at church to create a new stole for our new assistant priest who is heading up the family ministries.  Just have to finish each of the those for church and then can get them in to be used.

Next week a small group of us are going to Asilomar for the week of free time with the sewing machines.  I am trying to figure out just what I want to do with this time....hmmmmmm...what shall I do with four full days away from home?  Well, you will just have to wait and see.

Your help is needed

I have a piece that I created a couple of years ago that I made wonky sides on but it never hung correctly and was only shown once at a guild show.  I have now removed the facings, trimmed it straight and refaced it.  All I need to do now is give it a final pressing and then photograph it so I can post it here...promise I will do so very soon.

My topo map arrived for the Grand Canyon piece and I have been fascinated as I study it.  There is so much information contained on these maps.  I have found entries to the north side of the Canyon that I didn't know existed and now hope to get back there before too long to check it out.  But I have been planning this quilt in my head, which is the way I usually do things.  I have such a clear image of what I want to do that it almost feels done....but I guess that really isn't the way it works, is it?

However, I have been busy doing some quilting on community quilts.  One of our members from the Amador Valley Quilters has worked with the women at the Federal Correctional Facility in Pleasanton for a number of years. She brings in fabrics and the women make quilts.  Since they did not purchase the fabric, they can not keep the tops they have made so they donate them to the guild's community quilt project.  This December we anticipate giving away about 900 quilts to various organizations within the community where there is need. So I am just doing a very small part.

But on to more important things.

Two years ago I went with six other members of my church, All Saints Episcopal Church from San Leandro, CA, to Uganda where we spent two weeks, most of which was working physically at a small orphanage which we had been providing some support to over the years. At that time, I made  a plea to people to help support this project and offered 20% off on any of my work and the payment would be made to the church and I would not get any of the money. This then afforded a very nice tax deduction for those who purchased my art work. I was able to raise over $3500 from generous purchases and donations.

When I returned I raised a little bit more and was able to send money to purchase three treadle sewing machines.  They had an instructor to show the kids and staff how to use the machines. I had hoped to be able to follow up with further fund raisers to help them but was not able to for a while.

Which comes to today. All Saints has been trying to work with Sunrise House to become more self-sufficient. Uganda has over 4,000,000 children who have become orphaned as a result of the very serious AIDS epidemic in Africa. Sunrise House has, had various times, had up to ninety children there but now can only afford to help about 25.  They are having serious financial difficulties and need immediately $3000 in order to get the children into school. School costs each student about $50  for a term of 3 months, plus money for their books, paper, pencils and uniforms.

I am again making the offer of 20% off for any of my art work with a check made payable to All Saints Episcopal Church.  If you are interested in making a purchase, please contact me first to confirm availability before sending any money.  Many of my newer works are on my blog and have not been updated on to my website so search here also.

One of the girls after making a craft project together

Our Fr. Rob on the left with boys from the house all ready to do major clean up on a fire destroyed room prior to repairing and repainting.

The cook on the left with one of the kids bringing a load of bananas down to the cook house on the right. Cooking is done over an open wood fire.  On the left are the latrines for the house. In the background is the town of Fort Portal, Uganda.

My thanks to any of your who are able to help support this effort.

Another one is now done

I am waiting for the map of the Grand Canyon to come from  USGS so that I can figure out the right contours for the Colorado River in my Grand Canyon piece that is waiting for me.

For once, I am not feeling impatient to start. I guess having several things to finish up allows for that! I have just finished the facing on one which is about 106" wide and about 48" high.  It still needs to have a sleeve put on.
It is one of my ridge series and hasn't been titled yet....it really is amazing to see what I have sitting around in various piles of things. And I have given you a close up.

Yesterday I spent a lot of time making sleeves for about 5 pieces.  And during all this time I have quilted two large quilts for our community quilts at my home guild, Amador Valley Quilters.  One of our members works with the women at the Federal Correction Facility in Dublin and I have agreed to quilt a bunch of the quilts that the women have made.  When done, those will go into the batch for community quilts...over the years this project has grown quite a bit and we now give away about 700 quilts at Christmas time to various agencies in the community.

Meanwhile, I continue to do my collages with found paper and am really enjoying doing them. They are all done in a book where they will stay as they are done back to back. I enjoy looking back at my color combinations and choice of composition.  Some day I will scan some and post them. It is a nice way to start the day.

And, for any of you who are in the San Francisco Bay Area, I have a couple of new pieces that will be showing in Hayward at the Cinema Place Gallery, 1061 B St., Hayward, CA from Sept 21 until Nov 12.  There will be a reception on Wed, Sept 28 from 5-7 pm. Come on down! There are a lot of SAQA artists from the area showing in this show.  It should be quite interesting.

Another thing on the burner.  We are currently interviewing and discussing building plans with several contractors to begin finally to build our additional garage to hold our motorhome and it will have a space above for me to have a much larger studio at home.  I have the scale drawing all ready and little cut out pieces of furniture (4 x 8' plywood tables) which I move around.  I will have my own outside entrance which will be nice for open studios in our area.  I am really looking forward to this since my studio at home house all the household finance stuff genealogy stuff and more stuff and more stuff.  I have been going through things and filled up our recycling bin yesterday with a lot of paper stuff...old bills, etc...all the shredded paper went into our greens bin and get composted but the sheet paper goes off to recycling.  It feels good but there is still a lot of stuff.  I am going to have to hire young men to move my other studio stuff to the new studio when the time comes because I sure can't haul everything up stairs!  Once I am in there, I may hardly ever come out...oh yeah, dinner time and bed time....but it will be especially nice to start working on my collages first thing in the morning before I do anything else, and in my pj's too!  Feels so decadent!

Back to sewing sleeves on....

And it keeps on coming

my goodness, I spend the day at the studio and then come home and do my hand sewing while I am watching Masterpiece Theater...what is wrong with that....oh, did I say my husband went up to the cabin without me? That's why I get to sit in my comfy chair and watch MP Theater!  He can't sit through the commercials and has to hold on to that silly remote...so, I come and go when I feel like it and don't have to worry about fixing a real dinner...just get out the lettuce I have cut up, add some chicken slices that I bought ready cooked and cut and veg out....oh, life doesn't get any better! LOL

So, anyway, I have completed Roots:

And then I finished Lone Tree which is based on my trip to Uganda...the tree is a photo I took while I was at the Queen Elizabeth National Park

 

 

 

 And finally, the beginning of a new piece which will be the next one in my River Series, The Grand Canyon.  It will show a topo map of the Colorado River as it runs through the Grand Canyon.  It is ready to sandwich and then start quilting.  It, too, is pretty large. I don't know why but all of a sudden I am working really large...probably a result of doing so many small things the past year!

 Meanwhile, at my chair at home is another very large piece, about 98 inches long and about 48 inches high which almost has all the facing sewn down and then another piece which needs the facing sewn down.

It is really fulfilling to get these things finished.  I am feeling a great sense of accomplishment as the pieces that were around I had just done the quilting and left it...never doing the final finishing. But, as I decided I wanted to get back in to showing work, I felt I needed to get some of these things done. But it hasn't stopped me from doing new work. I am getting much clearer about what I want to do...some time ago I did several pieces that included a lot of silkscreened trees and I have decided that those are just too busy for me...I like my things relatively simple....except for the quilting, that is!

And the work keeps coming

I have really been working hard.

I have completed two more quilts, one which was just done, River 2, and another that I just finished up, Safe Harbor.

Below is River 2.  I seemed to have so much fun sewing strips together that I did it with some more fabric and then did all over quilting of the river.  Then I used gesso lightly to help bring all the colors together.  I really like this and have enjoyed doing it....I think I see some more coming.

This is Safe Harbor, a quilted painting. It is about 60 inches x something else close to that....

 

I have been on a finish everything spurt of energy.  And I have been working large.  I had a quilt I had done some time ago and had made the edges wonky and it just never hung right.  So off went the facing, I trimmed everything square and now I need to resew the new facing.  I also had another small quilt that I had done earlier this year and had just tossed it aside after doing the top and the quilting...out it came and now it is all bound...will get a picture soon as I really like it.

And then, more photos to come, I have been doing a lot of collages...about a collage a day. Sometimes I miss a day but then make up for it. It is all with torn, found paper and I am just working with color and shape and composition.  I won't bore you with a new piece everyday on my blog....I just get too busy to blog.  And besides, I need to pull the scanner out once I find a clear place on my desk to put it.

Oh well, some more in another day....the juices are really flowing...I hope no one gets any spittle on them!  (That was a funny!)