The Mod Squad Display is up and running at the Manley Art Center Gallery!

 Now appearing for the month of February -

 the Famous Creative Mod Squad Artists!

It was a busy week, looked almost like herding cats ... but our whole Squad jumped in and made quick work of it. Thanks, Mod Squad-ers for your great attitude and sense of humor - we can rest on our laurels for a minute or two!!  But our February meeting is next week ... do you have "Gifting" done???

Besides Self-Portraits, our display includes a selection of our work from 2019 - 2020.  Some of our favorite work /challenges were not selected.  And I tried to keep the number from each artist evenly as possible.  You know how that goes!!

So these pictures are from taking pictures of everything turned in and available for the show by challenge.  Even though we didn't meet much during 2020, we had 48 challenges!

 Pantone Color of Year  

Personal Symbols

 Trapunto (not in show)

  Curvaceous (not in show)

 Fish  (not in Show) 

  Skyscapes      

Space / Night Sky 

  Boro / Visible Mending

Food (not in show)

  Spring Fabric Challenge

Love Is In the Air (not in show) 

  Vision Boards              

 A New Beginning

  The Daily Button 

 Covid-19 / Quarantine

I was told we could only display 50 out of 86!!  Gallery Manager wouldn't count them as groups / categories (15 groups)  But of course, when we got the 50 up, it really looked like a half-done job.  She allowed us to add more - so we had to go out and buy more dowels, (they didn't get painted grey.)  Then mount 4 more groups on the hanging ribbons ... without the cutting mats for grids that we used the day before to prep.  

We ran out of ribbons - so we ended up with 65.  It turned out well. But most of us were exhausted.

The members were encouraged to bring Fiber Art; P and I both entered something.

  

A Year at the Coast                     Squirrel! by P                                 

with my fabric Post Cards           working with Laura Heine pattern

Busy 2 weeks, as you can guess.  Laters! 

Monday?

It's so easy to lose track of time and days now.  I had to look back, I started curtailing my schedule the first week in March.  I came back from Finishing School and I was totally exhausted.  You know how you catch everything when you are run down ... TaiChi was cancelled that week because our teacher was unavailable.  So I took the week off!  And have only been out of the house about 1 time each week since.  I don't count walks around our complex or down the Coastal Trail with DH.  Cabin Fever is a real thing, though!

I didn't get any photos back from the kids yesterday, Here are the reveals from yesterday:

 

And here is today's photos:

I haven't made my block of the day quite yet!  Big outing this morning - when to the grocery store!!!

I worked on my ModSquad Quarantine project yesterday, normally these are secret because we try to guess who made what at our meetings. But I have to show someone!!!

Quarantine theme - I could come up with dozens of ideas that were dark and negative.  Remember how awful it was to watch the news every night.  I still tear up alot, but I was devastated some nights before we got used to the new normal??  So I really had to put my mind to finding a more positive outlook, which is odd for me, I've been nicknamed "Pollyanna" by family!

So universal experience.  Majority in same situation globally!  That is odd. So all sorts of people staying home, some with kids, some with pets, but all staying in.

Our building is 'redwood'; my first thought was to use a fabric by Jo Morton - old fashioned women busts.  Pardon me for saying the obvious - but that was a bust!  Then I had a fabric of "Many faces of Dr Who"  colorful but weird!  Hmm, went to my computer and found avatars - had to reduce them and transfer them to fusible ... it was a learning curve but I liked the look.  Incorporated the Teddy Bear Parade that went on in towns for kids to spy while walking.  This isn't done yet - I found some dogs on fabric that might be the right size to add to the windows.  And some spring green leaves and maybe a bird on the tree.  Started quilting it to hold the fusible on.  The back is a cartoon fabric of NYC, God bless them.  So - what do you think???

Stay safe & QUILT ON!

The Ocean is wild this week

High rolling tides - fun to watch - from a window with a hot chocolate!!

We had our first ModSquad meeting of 2020.  We've moved to a new meeting room at the Manley Art Center.  It's going to be great!!  Lots of work space, good lighting, even a bulletin board to pin the projects on!!  Our first challenge for the year was:  VisionBoard.  We got the assignment in November but the majority of the class started working on it after the New Years!  Of course, we were thinking it out during the holidays, but the actual sewing comes later.

I read a lot of 2020 chit-chat on the web.  Glasses came up often with the 2020 vision (perfect eyesight)  BUT I was the only one that had glasses on her challenge piece!!

Next challenge is "Love is in the air" and that was decided before we realized that we would be meeting on Valentine's Day!  Meant to be!!

What a great selection!!

I tried to make a "Candyland-type" game board.  A twisty path thru the year.  The fabric pieces were meaningful steps in 2020.  

Snowflakes - Portland at Christmas

Blue puddles - rainy season

Black is a Japanese fabric. (see below!)  

Hearts - Valentines Day and spending time with loved ones 

Sewing machines

Whales

Peas in a pod - healthier eating

Heart in hands - friendships

Scissors

Pennants - celebrations

The earth - Earth Day and/or will we still be holding together??

Sunny days of summer - Camp Nana/Papa

Patriotic fabric for QOV, Memorial Day, Veterans Day

2 spools of threads - it's always sew, sew, sew before Christmas! 

Sailboats, hoping for smooth sailing!!

And just a sliver of Christmas fabric at the far end of 2020! (Most of it got trimmed off.)

The background is a favorite Sweet Water fabric with event announcements.  And the glasses are combo of 2020 vision (cataract surgery could be this year!) and 'My future's so bright I have to wear shades!'  Raise your hand if you're old enough to remember that song title!!

I've been busy straightening up and packing!  I'm off on Tuesday for a Craft-Tour trip to Japan.  I've never crossed the dateline before.  We'll end up 18 hours ahead of home. So-o will my email that I'm boarding come before or after my email that we've landed???  Time continuum questions!!

We'll be doing some tours, some workshops, visiting temples, a kimono museum, a ride on the bullet train! and TWO days at the Tokyo International Quilt Show!!!  Woot! Woot!!

We'll be in a kaleidoscope class - the spy glass type, not the quilt pattern.  We'll even learn out to make fake food models(?) like the ones outside restaurants internationally!

I've been practicing eating with chopsticks!  It's been interesting, I may come back thinner!!  Will a fork be contraband going thru security????

So excited!!  I'm sure we'll bring back lots of pictures and loads of stories - stay tuned!!

College Art Class assignment is presentation on art group origins - ModSquad!!!

You know all about ModSquad if you've been following me long.  It was a 'study group' I formed and it has been so-o rewarding!!  We started 3 years ago.  I had met Deborah Boschert at the Houston Quilt Show.  She had just published a book about Modern Quilt Collage.  The book had the 7(?) layout designs of modern quilts.  I talked a few quilters here in Brookings into exploring the topic.  None of us had any idea what we were doing, so we took turns researching the layouts, presenting them to the group and then each making a sample of that layout.  We decided to keep our projects secret and try to guess who had made them.  We also were to "Gently critique" each others' work.  We learned the techniques of Landscapes, Magic 3,  One Amazing Line, Dancing Grid, Symmetry, and Modular.

We got thru the entire book the first year.  But we wanted to keep learning new techniques.  So our second year, we each picked a theme or technique to 'modernize'.  We had fun that year too!! Our assignments included Identity, Doodle Art, Couched Embroidery, Mandalas, Hide this Fabric, Vacation, Trapunto, Bird & a Word, and 50 shades (of one color)!  

This is our third year and this year we are choosing more Themes and Techniques for our assignments: A New Beginning, Daily Button, Isosceles Triangles, Personal Symbols, Curvaceous Improv, Celtic Knots, and more!

After our first year's worth of assignments we were asked to mount a display at our community library.  Okay, I might have mentioned we'd be open to doing that ... but we were IN!  They are very large cases in the entry.  Our projects were a big hit - so colorful and interesting!!  But we could only show 3 projects for each assignment.  So, then we talked our way into presenting the entire year's work at the Annual Quilt Show.  So cool to see them all together!

This has been a busy fall for me.  I was able to go to the Quilt Expo show in Portland.  And then to Bayshore Babes Retreat in Bandon.  Don't you just love retreats??? Time to Quilt til you Wilt!!  And you usually only have to help with one meal ... everyone takes turns.

I'm not active in this group since I moved to Brookings 9 years ago??? So I'm careful to be a Big Help when I'm there.  I got called out on it this year!  So I explained - my Grandmother always said, "If you're not rich, you best be useful!"  Definitely words to live by!!  I may have to make a banner saying that!!!  Tee-hee!!

 Beautiful Sunsets and Thunderstorms rolling in!!  Oh My!!

So much fun!  But I was exhausted when I came home - talk about burning the candle on each end!!  Finally getting back into my life - time to finish up some UFOs that have been in 'time-out' way too long!!  After all, Christmas IS only  75 days away!!!  ARRRG!

August - my birthday MONTH!

We had a great time at Newport Oregon for the quilt show.  It was just beautiful.  No ribbons for me this year.  :<  Must try harder.  Looking back, I didn't get much done this year.  I entered my QOV quilt and Laurie Heine Bumble Bee wall quilt in the Brookings Show, and Bumble Bee and the crib "Color block"at Newport.

I have a new 'go to' dinner dish.  Hillshire Meats have the Veggie Sausage Dish on their website.  I generally add every veggie that looks good at the store!  We love asparagus, brussel sprouts, green beans, red and green peppers ...  And I don't do the lemon juice.  I think it comes out awesome no matter what you add or leave out.  We love it.  AND after it's been baked, the leftovers are good cold too. Win, Win!

Our ModSquad group's assignment this month was self-portrait.  Man, are they hard!  First you have to look at pictures of you.  That's my smile???  My top lip disappears!!  Then the project is 15" square - that's bigger than real life!!  BUT we had 14 self portraits turned in today!  That's our biggest participation ever!
Thanks, Ladies for all your hard work!

 

We, of course, thought it was going to be easy to guess who was who!  NOT!  So many techniques, so many memories, it was fun! Mine is not quite finished, I chickened out with the facial details you draw or stitch in.  Someday soon???

Next weekend is a small retreat - but I have big plans for what I will accomplish while I'm there!  (Of course!)  I have a list and several deadlines zooming up!  I'll give you a progress report next time.

Bye-bye summer, it was nice while it lasted!

There's something about spring ...

There's something about spring ... that makes me a bad blogger!  Sorry, I don't know if it is the rainy weather; spring allergies;  the countdown to the Quilt Show; there's a million excuses!  And I've been using them all!!

But I have been nose to the grindstone all weekend!  One of my QOV quilts is done-done!  Alleluia!!  It will be presented over Memorial Day weekend - no last minute sewing for this one!!  I'm presenting a QOV today to a local veteran.  He can't come to the Memorial Day Presentation, but his family is visiting this weekend, so we're giving the quilt to him today.

AND I'm working on a "color-block" quilt for my DS's family.  Have you tried this?  I first saw it on Pinterest (trouble maker that it is!)  Since I have been saving scraps forever, they were taking over the closet space.  I had sorted them into medium boxes by color.  Something had to give.  This method has many names - the 'mile a minute' method should be easy and fast ... right??  The answer is 'kind-of, sort-of!"  

Here are some of the blocks on the Design Wall.

I'm currently working on the end of the Orange blocks.  

Red, purple and blue are finished.

20-something blocks made YESTERDAY!!

There are threads and stacks of color all over the condo!!  I did make 20-some 8 inch blocks yesterday!!  I have definitely gotten the routine memorized!  

* Sort scraps by length

* Start by sewing 2 small fabrics together

* Press and trim if needed

* Pick a scrap the right size to add

* Sew together.  You're basically making a log cabin quilt with scraps of varying widths.  There are alot of choices and variations to get bogged down with!  But it's fun to see those stacks of fabric disappear!!

Just have 3 more colors of scraps to 'block'!  Fingers crossed it will be ready to 'top' this week.

Ladies - keep those engines revving!!  Sew like the wind!

You've heard about something new ... Now let's see something that hasn't been reported yet!!

We were able to display our Mod Squad projects from last year at the library again.  This year's display was just as interesting!  So interesting that we already are committed to March 2020!!  The display cases are in the lobby and they're HUGE!  Here are this year's challenges:

 The double cases with free magazines underneath.

Challenges included 'Thread fabric', A Bird and a Word, Hide this Fabric!, and Trapunto

Displayed in second case:  Vacation, 50 Shades, Doodle Art and Mandala

The intrepid Hanging Committee!  Thanks Ladies for your help!

So I'm fine, how are you???

I must say, time is going very fast this winter-spring.  I keep thinking of things I should blog about, but never manage to sit down to blog.  My bad!

Mod Squad was great fun in March.  Our 'assignment' was to combine doodles into a new design.  Very far out of most of our boxes!!  I started with a spiral and then it just took over!  Luckily, the member teaching us this month works with children and normally hands out a bright orange sheet for them to sign.  The sheet says, "The teacher gives you permission to ignore any instructions as long as you make something!"  Saved by the bell!

My life is spinning out of control ... the spiral was mixing it all up.

Let me walk you thru my problems ... errr ... symbols:  The spiral is black netting.  Might be the only time you see me work with it!!

• Green house - our condo is up for sale, we're not buying it.  Our lease doesn't end until October, and if the new owners want it for a rental, they will want to extend our lease so they have a better chance of getting it designated a rental.  (There is only a small percentage of condos allowed to be rentals out here!)  That would be good for us - but meanwhile ... arrrgh!
• A package of needles to remind me I have Needle Book issues hanging over me ... that's all I can say right now!
• Spools fabric - my sewing room tends to look like a tornado has hit!!
• Peas fabric - a new way of cooking/eating - I don't really like to cook!
• Whale fabric - where the heck are they this year??? Not in our cove.
• Pink fabric - I was in charge of cancer quilt, all pink - What was I thinking?
• Light blue fabric with 3 dogs - that I'm allergic to at my DD's.
• Five kids - the Grandkids.  Doing well, but always on our minds!
• Car - my car was hit in the parking lot.  Kind-of killed the CHI when I got done with Tai-Chi!
• Clock - Out of control! AND what happened to 8 hours of sleep a night??
• Patriotic fabric - don't have enough quilts for the QOV nominees ... 2 months to presentation!  YIKES!!!

I'm happy to say, I'm in a much better place today!  Some of those things are done - pink quilt; (tempted to put scraps in the burn barrel!) there are enough quilts for the QOV nominees; sewing room is neat and tidy, because some of the stash now lives in garage!

Here are the other projects at Mod Squad

I've touched everything in my sewing room!!  And I'm happy to say that quite a bit of it is going to the Country Store at our quilt show in May!  I'm carefully ignoring the boxes tucked between my table and the bookcase.  Pay no attention to them - they are out of here in May!!  There is only one box on the floor - QOV strips.  I can live with that!

This month our book club is reading "Yellow Raft In Blue Water" by Michael Dorris.  It's very good.  Need to finish it this weekend.

Before DH's appointment we stayed with A&J and the kids.  What a busy household.  Miss E (turns 1 in June) is army crawling and smiling at everyone!

At his yearly exam with the cardiologist, the dr had a very serious look on his face while looking at DH's records ... almost gave ME a heart attack!  But at the end of the appointment, he said see you next year!  DH did have to go in for a cholesterol test locally.  Should have results in a week.  Fingers crossed that all small issues will solve themselves!

We went up to Portland after dr appointment in the valley - Miss P had her annual Music Project show.  Last year, I loved to say that it was the first time I'd ever heard Pink Floyd on the Ukulele!!  Didn't get that this year, but Miss P's group wrote their own song!  Pretty darn good for 11 year olds!  As we were leaving L&Js house, my hip twanged! (Yes, that is a medical term!) So I'm officially old enough to hurt myself just standing there!  Pretty scary - but sitting on a cold pack all the way home did help.  I haven't had too much trouble with it since. I feel I dodged a bullet there! I don't have time for 6 weeks recovery!!

Did you know I'm the Honored Guild Member at our Memorial Day Weekend  show??  That was part of the ModSquad spiral too!  I have my own display area, which I have to man during show hours, and I've told you I've had a few panic attacks about it!

I also have our QOV presentation that Sunday.  It's a tear-jerker and hard to speak in front of that many people.  But I survived last year ... so this year will be good too.

My small group - Woolies - met at my house and we looked at every quilt in the house and decided what can be in the show, what can be in the booth.  Our condo is just large enough to get them all out!!!  I also decided they will all keep an eye on me.  Am I drinking water?  Have I gone to the restroom lately?  Has anyone moved into my booth and won't leave???? Do I need chocolate?

That same day Woolies met here was also March Madness Quilt til you Wilt! And yes, we start wilting about 8:35!!   I love these - they don't make you do the project!!  I had a lot of people to talk to and hand things off to; and some figuring/consulting about a new project that I was ready to cut for.  It was wonderful!! Just being in a room filled with quilters working ... magic!

Then at the guild meeting - it finally registered with members that we don't have enough quilts!  So we had an impromptu sweatshop and finished 4 tops and two people brought in their quilts to finish! We now have more than enough and I am breathing easier. Yay!

Until next time!!