Great Sale at Okan Arts 05-11-24

Okan Arts sells Japanese fabrics, mostly online, but today they had a sale at their warehouse location in Long Beach.  This location is not open to the public except for their once a year sale.  Check their website  https://okanarts.com   The majority of  their stock is vintage, and some is antique. 

My friend Deb McKay drove up from SDiego to meet me in LBeach so we could heat  up our credit cards and bring home wonderful fabric treasures.  Afterward we went  to Katella Deli in Los Alamitos where we waited almost an hour for a table!  It was worth  it - Deb had wonderful lox and bagels and I ordered my favorite pastrami sandwich.  The place  was really "jumping", along with very loud, raucous   music.  We  had  forgotten  about Mother's  Day, Graduation lunches, and the  glorious sunshine of this weekend.  It was worth all of it.   An all together fun day.  

We  all  needed a bag to take home our treasures.

Some ladies needed TWO!

I couldn't  resist these two children's prints.

Cute puppies and imaginary hieroglyphics.  

Two yard cuts of Blue/White for the quilt I have been collecting fabrics for several decades.  Well, the one on the left is just because it is so beautiful.  

Of course, some stripes, especially orange.  

I can never resist new stripes. 

And the "piece de resistance", this rich crimson print. I had to buy the entire bolt!

A vest?  A scarf?  A bag?  Hang it on the wall?

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Images from students printing on fabric class 02-17-24

 

Pat Pauly and Del Thomas with "Oregon Rain" Pat's quilt that is part of TCQC.

Strawberries by Deb MacKay, who experimented with combining different techniques.

Terry Gardella

I especially admire this soft color piece by Andrea Bacal.  So much like autumn with the light morning fog.  This is not silk screened, but softly rollered with the template underneath. 

The subject of the class was Motif and Kay Laboda worked with Ginkgo leaves.  So graceful  and great color. 

Lots of dots going on, not necessarily perfectly round dots.  

Leaves were popular, probably because Pat used a leaf as a demo and suggested it as a basic shape to  begin with.  The bottom picture are my beginnings, using a commercial stencil borrowed from another student. 

More images at a later date.

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More 12X12 quilts in the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection 8 09-17-23

The SAQA auction continues with the quilts in section one on offer at $750 starting on Monday 09-18-23.  The price goes down each day.

Here are four more 12X12 quilts that I added to the Collection in years past.  I think the first two are so interesting in their similarity since they were made by two different artists in different years, on opposite sides of the world and using different techniques.They have nice balance and values.  They hang nicely together.

"Breaking Through"  Polly Bech - Pennsylvania    2008

Cotton fabrics and threads.

Bleaching with leaves and grasses, machine applique and piecing, hand stitching. 

"Cloncurry Flinders Grass" - Sue Dennis  - Australia   2007

Cotton fabrics, thread.  Stamping  with leaves and grasses, machine applique, machine quilting.  Bleaching with leaves and grasses, machine applique and piecing, hand stitching. 

"Blue Bird of Happiness"   Deb MacKay- California   2014  12X12

Commercial cotton fabric and thread.

Fusing, machine applique, machine quilting, overcast binding. faced back.

In the corners Deb has used Sue Benner's technique of knotting all the threads from the machine overcast binding.

"Possibilities"  Deborah Boschert - Texas  2009  12X12

Cotton fabrics, paper, beads, sequins, cotton embroidery floss.

Fusing, machine and hand stitching, stamping.

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Another rainy day. 02-25-23

The other week when I went to SDiego for the ArtStream meeting my friend Deb gave me this great bird fabric.  It is upholstery weight and about 40" long and 58" wide.  The birds are woven in.

Particularly like this guy.  Check out the feet, guess he is holding the wire together.  Am I too literal?  

I have no idea what I might do with it, right now it hangs in my "viewing spot" at the end of the hall where I see it a zillion times a day when I go to the bathroom!  Deb's friend had a love seat recovered with it and ordered too much fabric. I don't need a love seat, but someone suggested a headboard.  I could also cut out some birds and collage them into a wall quilt.  

Rain all day today again.  We walked in it this morning, but managed to hit a dry spell this evening, although it was only 49F.  Lots of standing water in planters and along walls.  More yet to come. 

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Surfside QGuild meeting 01-11-23

Surfside Quilters Guild meeting in San Clemente yesterday.  I enjoy being with my quilting friends and seeing the quilts they have produced.  This month we were asked to bring the first quilt we made; a bit of a stretch for me, but I do have a wedding ring quilt from about 1948 when I was helping my maternal grandmother and her quilt group at the Grange in Clackamas, Oregon.   I was only ten, but they were teaching me how to hand quilt on a frame and allowing me to thread their needles.  I wish it was so easy for me now-a-days.  Anyway, the quilt is completely scrap with a pale yellow background and depression green backing.  One fabric has completely deteriorated so I can no longer launder the quilt unless I mend all those pieces.   But I have cuddled in it all my life as it is one of the first quilts I worked on.  The very first quilt I made when I was about seven and sat on grandmother's front porch hand-sewing together about three inch squares to make a quilt for my dolly - it is long gone.  

Back is Depression Green - very faded now.

Del wins the refreshment table decoration from Jaine Culbertson, Hospitality Chair.  One must remember to put one's name in the basket when they provide refreshments, usually I forget.  But I had the box of Dewar's taffy that the financial people send every year.  It is delicious, but much more than I can enjoy.   One member kindly took home the leftovers.  

I was wearing the beautiful hand-dyed rayon indigo scarf that friend Deb McKay gave me Saturday.  She did a workday with some friends to learn about indigo and experiment with the technique.  I think she made a beautiful piece.  Thanks, Deb. 

Our speaker this month was Tina Curran  who told us about her Design Process.

www.tinacurran.com   She is a local quilt designer with a line of patterns using her method for freezer paper piecing.  Her presentation was professional and interesting.  

SCalifornia had a huge rain event yesterday and I had a hard time driving in it,  Fortunately many drivers listened to the warnings and stayed off the roads.  so even at reduced speed I was there in an hour.

Missed the usual view of I-5 and the ocean beyond.  My car on the right, the drop off about five feet beyond the fence.  Slow drive home, but the rain wasn't as heavy.  The soil is saturated now and more storms coming, but how can we complain after so many years of draught.  

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A Whisper Quilt Project 09-20-21

A Whisper Quilt project is like the childhood game of "Whisper" where the 1st child sitting in a circle whispers something to the second child.  She then repeats the whisper to child number three, who in turn whispers it to number four and so on around the circle.  It was great fun to see how much the whisper had changed when it came back to the first child.  With quilters the first person in the privacy of her sewing space makes a small quilt and then shows it to the second person, letting them keep it until the second person has made a quilt based on the first.  She then returns the first quilt to the maker and shows her own quilt to person number three who will base her quilt on that inspiration.  Nobody else will see the quilts except the maker and the next person on the list.  Our art quilt group in San Diego started our project over two years ago, but the pandemic rather slowed us down.  Instead of passing our quilts to the next person we started e-mailing pictures to the next person.  Only seven of the members participated and we all took an inordinate amount of time to make such small quilts.  However, we finally had our "reveal" at the in-person September meeting.  It was interesting to hear the explanations of why each quilt developed.  

The only “rule” is that it should be approximately 18” X 24”, either portrait or landscape orientation.  Any fabric or technique is acceptable.  The quilt must be quilted and have finished edges.

       

Andrea Bacal started us off with this view of cone flowers based on a picture she had taken.  

This is my quilt, based on Andrea's coneflowers.  Butterflies love coneflowers.  I had intended to add the white dots they display using white puff paint, but I forgot!  This is all fused with the orange/yellow of the wings one piece with the cutout black veins fused on top.  

Michalee Sloan was next.  She based her hidden tiger on the colors in my quilt with lots of green as in the background.  The leaves are made individually and tacked to make a 3-D jungle.  

Ellen Spellman followed with her delicate embroidery inspired by the intricacy of the hidden tiger and foliage.  She accented the blue in the tiger. 

Carol Sebastian-Nealy picked up on the geometric, but used squares instead of rectangles, repeating the vertical quilting.  Now called "matchstick", but was called "channel" quilting in the 70s. 

Deb McKay printed her own fish, repeating the five images and included the horizontal line from Carol's quilt. 

Nelda McComb started with a blue background as in Deb's quilt and created a whimsical view of her recently retired husband catching a fish.  

Here are the quilts pinned up in order at our meeting. 

It was an interesting project, but might have gone better without the complication of the pandemic and not being able to pass the actual quilts to the next person.  

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Friday Food 08-13-21

Wednesday I met three friends who drove up from San Diego to view a quilt exhibit at the Newport Beach Public Library and to have lunch.  Two of my friends have quilts in this showing of about 30 quilts from the Quilts on the Wall group.  I hope to post some pictures  over the weekend, but I am still quilting on a quilt that has a looming deadline, so I need to work on that most of the time.  

Andrea chose the restaurant because she seems to find restaurants that are good and different.  We went to Cappy's Cafe on Pacific Coast Highway at the north end of Newport Beach.  She told us it was a biker and surfer hangout and I had my doubts.  We ate outside and my seat faced the back of the building which has a fantastic mural of the beach, a big wave and surfers.  I almost felt I was actually looking at the ocean.  There is no real ocean view since the cafe is on the inland side of PCH.  There were barefoot diners, maybe surfers, and the bikers were bicyclists.  Very casual and quiet.  The service was a little spotty, but the food was great. 

Nelda had the Mahi Mahi tacos with a side of beans. 

Andrea enjoyed her Ruben sandwich with a side of onion rings.

Deb and I each ordered the Prime Rib Melt with au jus.  I had a side of excellent coleslaw and Deb chose the onion rings and let me have a taste.  If you go to Cappy's DO have the onion rings, they are excellent.   There are extensive breakfast selections and I imagine the place is packed in the morning, especially on weekends.  Their hours are 7am to 3pm - 7 days a week. 

The day was a break from the pandemic..  We all wore masks except when we ate and I keep hoping that all those other diners were vaccinated and covid free. 

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Quilts at Carlsbad gallery 05-19-21

On Tuesday I drove to Carlsbad to see the exhibit at the Cannon Gallery of a SAQA traveling exhibit.  Worth the drive!  My friend Carol went along and we met Deb and Andrea there.  Including the four of us there were about twelve ladies there; we all wore masks and tried to keep away from each other.  Hard to do when we are all concentrating on the quilts and the signs.  The gallery is only open on Tuesday and Thursday  11am to 5pm and the exhibit closes on May 23rd.  The exhibit has been traveling around the USA for four years.  This may be its last venue. 

Material Pulses: Seven Viewpoints

"Momentum"  Christine Mauersberger  9' tall, 10' deep, 8' wide

To me this is an installation, but not a quilt.  It is layered red plastic strips sewn lengthwise onto netting.  The artist has supplied a explanatory poster with actual fabric pieces one can touch.  The magical thing about this is the cast shadows.

 

Jane Willoughby (two-sided quilt),  two pieces by Elizabeth Brandt

From her "Falling Apart" series,  80" square. 

(detail)

The flowing patterns you see are the very close together quilting lines done in different thread colors. 

Image on the right shows the other side of the quilt.  The gallery attendant will white glove the back if requested.  I imagine the artist wanted these quilts hung this way, but it is too bad they couldn't be hung perpendicular to the wall.

The complex houses several other city offices, including the Carlsbad Library and there is a large patio area with seating and tables.

Andrea, Carol, and Deb waiting for Del.

Great chairs and comfortable. 

We had lunch at Beach Plum Kitchen in the nearby shopping complex.  Good food, great service, tent with well spaced tables.  

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