17 March

Flu Be Gone

The only thing worse than having the flu is needing to take care of your kid throughout the night who has the flu while you also have the flu. The chills hit me on Tuesday, followed by muscle aches, light sensitivity, loss of appetite, fever dreams and just being flat out on the sofa with my Great-Grandma’s wedding ring quilt and a cup of crushed ice. What a horrible way to spend Spring Break! It seems like we are awake for about 20 minutes then back out for an hour, awake, then back asleep, both Gus and I watching way too much TV while we are trying to readjust our sleep cycles. Derek has made several trips to the store for Sprite, popcicles, soup while trying really hard to not catch what we have. Thankfully today, both Gus and I can actually sit up and could eat popcicles for breakfast and are finally a little better and not worse.

Fortunately, before I got the flu I was able to finish my two Red Poppy quilts. I want to donate one of the quilts to the 2012 Charity Ball to be held at the Hotel Captain Cook on May 12 for the special Art Section. I used the TAP transfer paper to iron on poppy images to 100% cotton then embellished each flower with the dryer sheets I mentioned in my last post. I drew the leaves and stems onto different colors of green fabric using an applique method and free motioned stitched additional line details. For further embellishments I added small black glass beads to the flower centers.

This Red Poppy Art Quilt is 15" wide x 28" tall.

This Red Poppy Art Quilt is about
10" wide x 20" tall.

13 March

Spring Break?

The “Break” part may be true here in Anchorage but I’m not so sure about the “Spring” part! Temps are still in the low 20’s, snow is in the forecast again and the yard is still frozen with drifts and snow depths up to our fence! Olive-dog has shoveled pathways she still needs to use and she isn't too happy about it -especially since her favorite Kong, tennis ball AND tug are missing in the drifts. Only Daddy-O knew how to celebrate the first day of “Spring Break” though… skiing with Chugach Powder Guides! Derek finally had time to use my Christmas present to him and happened to choose a PERFECT blue-bird day skiing Sunnyside Ridge in the Winner Creek Valley, kicking off his Spring Break holiday!

xOx

In a stark contrast to all of the snow, I kicked off Spring Break by doing some colorful art making using images of Red Poppies. I’d seen an article in the on-line Cloth, Paper Scissors publication using Dryer Sheets that sounded really interesting. Instead of running the dryer sheets through a printer as the article suggested, I wanted to iron on digital transfers using TAP paper (Transfer Artist Paper) onto used dryer sheets and sew them onto an art quilt. My first attempt only yielded in Gus shouting “Mom ruined another towel again!” The transferred images bled through and stuck to the towel. Oh well. I ended up mixing up colorful batches of fabric paint onto the used fabric sheets, rinsing and drying the sheets that made for wonderfully sheer material! I cut, tore and sewed individual red poppy petals onto the art quilts. The base images of the digitally transferred poppies were ironed onto white cotton fabric and sewn onto the art quilt applique style. I’ll post those images on the next Blog post –much more “Spring Break-like” if you ask me! Enough of this winter snow!

This was the result when Gus shouted "Mom ruined another towel!"

I mixed up batches of orange as well as red for the Poppy petal color.

The dryer sheets air-dried beautifully and are ready to sew!

These are the successful digital images
ironed onto white, batik cotton cloth.

My idea for wanting to make a "spring-like" art quilt using
colorful Red Poppies.

10 March

Getting an EYEful

What a night at the EYE of the Beholder Wearable Art Show!

...hangover is such a harsh word when you have so much BEAUTIFUL and ARTFUL fun! The Eye of the Beholder Wearable Art Show was just FAB -almost as much fun as the pre-functioning with Ann, Daddy-O and my sweet sis!

Darl Schaaff of Art Services North transformed the Crosspoint Auditorium! Featured and displayed were the works of Featured Artist, Designer and now Costumer in California, Sean Purucker.

Several of us that were on the committee arrived early in the afternoon to start setting up. This is one of the 10 VIP tables that were near the Runway.

My sister and I glamming it up at a VIP runway-side table.

VIP "Swag Bags" included a pair of Artisan-made wool mittens or a hand made silk scarf, gift cards, artisan tea, Modern Dwellers chocolates, hand moisturizer, cool lite-up LED rings, hand crafted soap, Artist Trading Card kit and MORE! My friend Jana and I were the VIP Bag committee chicks and we think we ROCKED the goodie bags this year! They were SO popular that some people sitting behind us at a non-VIP table stole MY goodie bag(!)... oh well, just proves they were a hit!

My date.
xOx
Within hours, Daddy-O went from wearing his tool belt and Carhartt's, tearing out a wall in the kitchen for our new refrigerator (this was AFTER he got home from work) to Mr. Runway, the best date a girl could have.

One of my entries "Power Suit for Casual Fridays" looked great on the model but had a few pre-show issues in the dressing room. One of the problems was that the model was too petite for the piece and didn't wear the head piece that I designed for it. Some of the metal work was also damaged after the show which I can hopefully fix BUT a buyer wanted to take it home last night arrrggh... I learned a LOT by entering this show. There is so much time and basic materials and structure knowledge needed to pull of a really great piece that planning and time are essential. Several of us also agreed that the artist needs to work closely with who will be modeling your work. Next year I won't leave it up the the Show to select my models (if my work is selected), I'll have that better planned, not only for sizing but for choreography and overall design and presentation.

One of my favorite pieces was "Queen of Caffeine" designed by Nessa Noveau and Carly Garay. The tall, beautifully winged garment was worn by a model on stilts!! It was constructed of coffee and tea bags, dyed and embellished with rich and warm rust-brown palette. Just breathtaking.

With close to 60 entries we were on sensory overload with the talent and scope of "wearable art" at the show. It was hard for the judges (Jocelyn Young, Jo Michelski, and Georgia Blue) to choose three ultimate winners because of the diversity of not only the materials used but the quality of construction on each piece.

2012 Show Winners

Best of Show and Jurors Choice

Larry Depute "Still Flying"

Theme: Elise Rose "Restrained/Gratification"

Best use of material: Lauralye Miko, "Post Poetic"

04 March

Running Wild from Pamplona to Anchorage With Love

From US National Weather Service Alaska

“As of 12:15pm today, Anchorage's seasonal snowfall increased to 123.3 inches. The snow from last night and this morning moved this winter to third place in the race for the snowiest winter on record. Another 9.6 inches of snow needs to fall before June 1st for the record to be broken.” ...and March usually brings a few more winter storms.

Here is the link to more photos from the
Anchorage Daily News 2012 Running With
the Reindeer!

With only 9.6 inches of snowfall left to go for Anchorage to set a new snowfall record it’s pretty easy to get a little cabin fever! What’s a good Alaskan to do when winter is wearing out it’s welcome? Get out in it and RUN WITH THE REINDEER of course! Celebrating Anchorage’s Fur Rondy put the guys and I downtown, a short walk from our house and signed up for the 5^th Annual Run With the Reindeer. The "Run" is a popular fundraiser for the Toys for Tots Program. My costume was “The Herd Queen” and the guys were “Reindeer Luche Libres!” Of course Daddy-O and I packed a few of our favorite beverages in our pockets so we could stay hydrated like a good athlete should… It was evident that the majority of the nearly 2,300 other "Runners" had the same thought!

The "Herd Queen" and her faithful protector "Reindeer Lucha Libre!"

NO JOKE! This Reindeer with a Web Cam attached to it's antlers, hopefully CAPTURED it's Antlers POKING ME RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF MY BIB NUMBERS! Some idget had smacked the Reindeer on it's rump just as it was passing through the crowd! Thankfully the race bib was made of durable Tyvek and the antler didn't poke through!

At the "holding pen" racers waited for their heat to run while partying with music from KWHL and throwing beach balls. The only problem was that the cold weather proved fatal for most of the balls as soon as they were hit!