LizCopeland fiber art and life

Snowbound birding

2012-01-22T14:34:00.000-08:00

Now that the snow is finally melting, and the Seattle area is mostly back to normal, at least those who have electricity, I thought I'd share some of the photos I took of the birds visiting my backyard. I normally have feeders set up - one for hummingbirds, one seed feeder with the squirrel proof weight triggered guard, and a couple of suet feeders. I supplemented that during the snow with peanuts in the shell (which draws the Stellars Jays and crows), some chopped up apples (which drew the Varied Thrushes) and some of the bird seed tossed on the ground to make it easier for the ground feeding birds, mostly juncos, to find it. My backyard was busy and provided much entertainment for me and my two cats.

The hummingbirds were, as usual, waiting for me when I thawed out their feeder. I really like the contrast here with the piles of snow and the hummingbird hovering over the feeder. I suspect this is because a part of my brain still associates hummingbirds with flowers and warm weather and the contrast is amusing.

The Jays were quick to catch on about the peanuts. They took them away, also quickly, and would then sit waiting in the tree for me to replenish the supply.

My surprise photo this time was this Red-breasted Nuthatch. I usually see them up high, coming in from the surrounding tall conifers to feed at the suet feeder. I'm not sure why this guy was down in a bush just inches from the ground and only a few feet from my backdoor, but I was pleased to see him.

12 steps for going green in 2012

2012-01-02T18:05:00.000-08:00

Today's email brought this simple list of 12 things to do to go green in 2012. Any or all of them, whatever can be done easily, will benefit our wallets and our planet. Read the full list here. I'm particularly pleased that the bike share programs I've mentioned earlier made the list. Bicycling to the local mall (about 2/3rds of a mile one way) is on my list of things to do more of this year. I'll increase my exercise level, use my car less and save money that way, and shop local. A great threefer!

2011 in Review and some good fiction for artists

2011-12-31T12:54:00.000-08:00

It's been a rough year at my house. I had knee replacement surgery in March and spent several months playing Angry Birds, Plants vs Zombies, and reading *lots* and *lots* of books. One new author I discovered, because of being recommended to me, was Louise Penny.

In once sense, her Armand Gamache books are slow paced police procedurals. But in another way, because of the characters in her small town, and their work, these books are about the internal struggles of artists. And, in particular, two artists who are married to each other while being in different phases of their careers. I find these books require much more focus from me as a reader than the usual murder mystery. And I have enjoyed watching the characters grow and change. I don't read that many mysteries anymore, so I'm not sure if the focus on the characters is unusual or not. I *do* highly recommend these. They have the best characteristics of good novels within the setting of a police procedural and I found the many artist characters and their struggles illuminating for my own process as an artist. The most recent book in the series is A Trick of the Light but I would recommend reading them all in order because of the evolution of the characters.

As for 2011, I did, despite the knee recovery, create a few new pieces but I am still reworking my artistic process to allow for my physical limitations. And I'm cleaning up all the debris that accumulated from several months of inactivity in my studio. I look forward to sharing my new work with all of you in the near future.

Alternatives to mall shopping for Black Friday

2011-11-24T07:52:00.000-08:00

Grist.org has a nice list of things people do on Black Friday instead of shopping. Since I stopped shopping at the malls for Winter Holiday presents, my need to watch "Die Hard" as my Christmas movie has decreased considerably. I like the movie marathon idea as well as the nature hike. This year, we're once again doing mostly handmade or edible presents since most of our relatives and friends have too much stuff already. Perhaps you might find an idea worth doing on this list.

Solar & Wind power going mainstream

2011-11-09T12:25:00.000-08:00

I'm back from vacation, all rested and relaxed, with over 500 pictures of birds and landscapes. It will probably be a week or so before I finish processing them, a fairly tedious but necessary task, so I was very pleased by today's Grist email containing two articles about non-fossil fuel power generation. Apparently, big power companies are investing in solar power. Finally! Read the details here.

Secondly, there's a pretty map showing how much of each state's total electrical power could be supplied by wind power generation within their state. Talk about going local! There's also a link to the full report about energy self sufficiency. Read it here.

Stamp carving or another way to make my own fabric

2011-10-22T18:46:00.000-07:00

In my ongoing search for ways to create my art without stressing my bionic knee or my herniated disc, I am playing with carving my own stamps to use in dyeing and batiking fabric, or adding images to already dyed fabric. I already have a lot of different dyes, fabric paints and silkscreening paint, so my new supplies list is pretty simple: carving tools and stamp material. Stampeaz has a nice sampler pack of stamp material so I started with that. And I got the 2.5 inch carveable brayer because the idea of the rolling image seemed fun. It's definitely something I can't do with a silkscreen. My local art supply store had a sale on the carving tools so after about $30, I was set to go.

I got my first image from Art Stamping Workshop by Gloria Page. I also watched her video which gave me really great tips on using the tools and how to make carving easier. Here's the stamp. I've used commercial batik fabric with spirals on it so I was very interested in doing something similar but with my own feel to it. This one started with a 4x6 block of stamp material.

Here's two images from this stamp. The one in purple ink was the first one. That's when I discovered that my eye was used to the lines I use in my silkscreen work and for stamping the lines needed to be thicker and stronger. I also didn't like the straight edges with all those curves so I shaped the edges as much as I could with the material left on the edge of the stamp. The black print is after the modifications. It came out much closer to what I was looking for.

I found this material pretty easy to carve. It's the Speedball beige stuff. Stampeaz mentions in the description they have for it that it can be crumblier over time. I'll try the other 2 materials I have from the sampler pack and see what I think. More about that later, as I get more carving time in.

Then I moved on to the brayer. I got the smallest one, which made it harder to hold onto it while carving. I didn't slice myself up, but I did slip and prick my finger a couple of times. Obviously some work to do here with the technique - probably both the holding and being more aware of my finger being in front of the carving tool's leading edge. Here's the brayer and how it did on paper in one picture. I missed inking all of it, so I filled the blanks in with blue ink so I could see where the gaps were easier. It was harder to ink the brayer evenly. The print pictured here was done with silkscreen ink spread lightly onto a paper plate.

I liked how this one worked to give me the continuous line of image, but the surface doesn't hold much ink so it fades fairly quickly. I will have to experiment to see how to improve this.

Next up, doing stamping with these stamps on fabric. Fun times ahead!

Fashionable & on a bicycle - tips to help

2011-10-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

Today's email from Grist.org brought an article about bicycling and still presenting an office ready demeanor. Or being fashionable. Whichever way you choose to describe it. For the full article, go here. It's a quick interview with a woman who lives car free in Portland so it has several important tips for those of us who live in the Pacific North Wet. I encourage you to read the whole article but here's the important points from it (and mucho thanks to Grist.org and Elly Blue for giving them to us):

First and foremost, Meghan says, "suck it up and get some fenders." She's right. Far worse than any downpour is the rain and road muck that your tires heave up onto your legs, face, and back as you ride -- not to mention into the face of anyone unlucky enough to find themselves riding behind you.

Planning your wardrobe is just as important. Judicious investments are key. Wearing technical rain gear can mean getting just as damp from sweat as you would from a light rain, but it can save you from getting drenched in a downpour. Here are Meghan's suggestions as you find that wardrobe balance:

Wear black. Or brown. Or dark colors and patterns. Black bottoms don't show rain and mud and a black top doesn't show sweat when you get overheated wearing a rain jacket.

Wear wool if you can. I love my wool tights. They're not cheap, but you can get them in the off-season on sale, and they're totally worth it. Guys, go for wool pants. They're sexier than khakis anyway. Seriously.

Don't ever wear cotton in the rain. You'll regret it for hours. (The stuff takes forever to dry!) Even synthetics are better than cotton if you can't or don't wear wool.

If it's truly pouring, I accept that I'm going to get wet and go bare legged. I wear shoes that dry quickly (like Crocs or Melissa brand shoes). I dry off MUCH quicker than everyone else! (If you decide to fight it, try some rainboots. I like the Tretorn ones because they're lined, but you can get any ol' boots and put some sealant on them and they'll do the job.)

A tight cap under your helmet will sop up rain and keep water from trickling through your hair and down your face.

Invest in a good-lookin' raincoat! Like the kind you'd wear to walk down the street. You don't have to look like you're mountaineering every day.

This year's shows

2011-10-04T11:45:00.000-07:00

I picked up my piece, The Big Bang: A Bird's Eye View, from the Connecting Threads Exhibit in Seattle this last Friday and realized that I had neglected to mention that show and my current solo show on my blog. (Bad Artist! No cookie!) The Connecting Threads show was for the graduates of the Fiber Arts Certificate program at UW and we had 55 artists participating. I think I didn't mention it because I was physically unable to do all the stitching that I wanted to on the piece and I was therefore unhappy with it. Having it come home after almost 3 months has given me a different perspective. So here it is.

I feel it still needs some work to highlight the splitting/openings in the background but I'm not sure exactly how I'll be doing that. We shall see...

My current show is at the Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church in Kirkland, WA. The gallery is in the sanctuary so my work can be seen when the sanctuary is open for functions and during church office hours (Mon-Fri, 9:30 - 1:30pm). I learned a lot about picking work for a show and hanging my pieces so this has already been a fabulous experience. I hope to have an artist reception sometime before the show comes down in early November.

World Bicycle domination! or at least lots of blogs

2011-09-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's summer, so that's why lots of bicycle posts lately. That and my studio is undergoing a major renovation to allow me to work/sew standing up. But, I find this report from Grist.org exciting - lots of bike enthusiasts sharing and networking and getting attention from their local governments. Read about the coming world bicycle domination here.

Local energy production means local jobs

2011-09-21T10:50:00.000-07:00

Great news on the going green front today from grist.org: there's a rural community movement to produce their energy locally from sustainable sources and a village in Germany has hit 100% local energy production. It took them 8 years, given the government support for renewable energy in Germany, and there are rural communities in the US doing the same. Read more here. I think this is great - reduces carbon production, reduces dependence on foreign oil, and produces more jobs for local people. What's not to like?

An example of permaculture gardening

2011-09-17T11:22:00.000-07:00

Today's email brought an interesting page about how to grow an apple tree in a permaculture way, providing nutrients & water without external fertilizer and watering. Here's where to read it in detail. It's part of a new wiki aimed at helping build resiliency so there are lots of interesting pages available and more all the time. I love low effort gardening myself, especially as my joints are wearing out. And this sort of effort is possible to do now, in experimentation.

More fabulous biking news! More space on the street, oh yea!

2011-09-07T07:54:00.000-07:00

This just in via Grist.org, bike corrals are the big new thing in Nevada City, CA. Apparently, they're gaining in popularity nationwide and what's not to like about having actual decent parking space for bikes? Read all about it here.

Electric folding bike to be made in Portland

2011-08-31T10:08:00.000-07:00

As you all may remember, we bought an electric folding bike a couple of years ago. We're still using it, and it works well for short errands and coordinating with bus transit, but it was manufactured in China. And the manufacturer had problems so the bike shop we bought it from no longer carries it. This could cause problems if there's ever a major maintenance/repair issue so I am pleased to report a project to produce an electric folding bike in Portland, Oregon. They're doing it via Kickstart so you can be an investor if you like. Read all about it here.

Edible landscaping that won't offend your neighbors

2011-08-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

In July, Oak Park, Michigan, got on the map by prosecuting Julie Bass for putting food gardens in her front yard. After a bit of internet uproar, and people pointing out that the town rules had many exceptions written in to them, they backed down. Since lots of people are facing economic difficulties, along with those who just don't always trust the agribusiness created food, there are more and more people interested in putting in some kind of garden. Front yards often get the best light so here is an article about how to do it and minimize the problems with neighbors. Some interesting design issues pointed out along with the mention of permaculture which is a step beyond just putting in a food garden.

Bike Sharing takes off

2011-08-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

It's been a long hiatus for me due to knee surgery, and some problems with rehab, but I'm back and planning to post again regularly.

This article about bike sharing caught my eye this morning. There's a 4 minute video which is not only pretty to watch but informative. See it here. I'm sure this system works best in areas where there are compact business districts, but I can also see it working where there are large companies with say 35,000 employees (says the woman living 2 miles from Microsoft). Have a few of these racks, and reasonable transit connections, and voila, your employees don't have to commute by car and still be able to run errands or go out for lunch. Fewer parking garages, less traffic congestion, sounds like an overall win to me. The video is about the system in Minneapolis. There are currently systems in Washington, D.C., Madison, Wisc., and Denver. Boston is planning one. Notice how they all have winter?

Marymoor birding expedition

2011-04-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

My knee continues its slow healing journey and is now capable of short walks unaided. Since both my doctor and my PT said I needed to be sure and continue my exercises this month, I decided to reward myself with a bird walk. I went to Marymoor Park with the hopes of seeing some swallows, one of my favorite seasonal birds. Alas, that was not to be but I did get some great shots of other birds.

I stopped first at the rowing club pond where I was greeted by a Steller's Jay intent on posing for as many pictures as I wanted to take. Another favorite bird and one I needed a picture of for an art piece I'm doing about my son's joining the Air Force and leaving the nest. So I was pleased to get such great shots. Here's one of them.

Then I got to the pond where I was dismayed at the number of trees that have been cut down for the construction they are doing. I had hoped for wood ducks here but had to settle for this lovely couple. And I am once again reminded that I have to relearn my ducks every year. *sigh*

After taking some pictures of the turtles, I proceeded to the main area of the park, and the marshy part of the slough which is often an excellent spot to see swallows. Alas, no swallows, but I did get over a hundred shots of two different herons hunting in the marshy area. One caught something while I was watching but I only got shots before and after the strike, so nothing dramatic there.

It was about 3:30pm so the light was angled and I think the heron shots came out well.

I plan to reward myself for doing my 3x a day exercises by taking short local bird walks and carrying my camera along. So expect to see more pictures in the future on a regular basis.

Electric cars and their benefits

2011-04-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

This should be interesting as my iPad won't bring up the composer that I normally use for blogging, so I'm typing in the HTML editor without any reference material for formatting commands. I apologize in advance for whatever visual Mess results.

here's a link from today's email that discusses exactly how much benefit an electric car will be and in which ways that can be increased. I must admit, I'm impressed by the numbers: 80% of gasoline burned in a car engine is waste heat, while 80% of electrical power goes to moving the vehicle. I still prefer the idea of a hybrid at least until the electrical cars can go further before charging but we're a one car family. (and I promise to go look up asap the commands for hotlinks. That or figure out how to get the composer working...)

http://www.mercurynews.com/cars/ci_17767977?source=rss&nclick_check=1

Surgery prep and snowy chickadees

2011-02-24T13:34:00.000-08:00

I go in for knee joint replacement surgery tomorrow so today is the final day to pick up all the rugs in the house, and pack my suitcase and whatever other prep I haven't gotten done yet. It's not a bad day to be stuck in the house considering the several inches of snow we got last night. And considering how cute the birds are in the backyard as they land on the branches en route to the feeder scattering snow as they land and launch. I got several nice pictures, and I wanted to share this one of a chickadee. Usually, I see the chestnut-backed chickadees predominate but today it's the black-capped ones. Their coloring is less dramatic, more subtle and I always enjoy watching them play in the trees.

"Hummer's Comfort" at Phinney Center Gallery show in March

2011-02-21T11:12:00.000-08:00

The Northwest Collage Society Members' Spring Exhibit is at the Phinney Center Gallery, located at 6532 Phinney Ave N, Seattle WA 98103. The show runs March 2 - April 1, with the Artist Reception on March 11, from 7 - 9pm. The Gallery hours: Monday – Friday, 9am to 9pm; Saturday 9am to 2pm, closed Sunday. More details about the gallery can be found at www.phinneycenter.org/arts.shtm

I've recently joined the NWCS, and I'm looking forward to my first show with them. One of my favorite pieces, Hummer's Comfort (shown above), was juried into the show and I'm curious to see how it shows next to the mostly paper collage most of the members do. I'm not sure I'll be able to attend the reception on March 11 because I'll still be in the recovery/rehab phase of my knee joint replacement but I will try to be there. I'd love to get feedback from anyone who is able to see the show so please, if you go, post a comment or email me directly. Thanks!

New yard, new yard birds

2011-01-31T13:40:00.001-08:00

Well, we're finally moved in and mostly settled in our new place. This has meant a new yard, and surprisingly, new birds in that yard. The first bird I saw in the yard was a Sharp-shinned Hawk who sat in the tree over the empty seed feeder for a few minutes, giving me an evil eye, and wondering why there were no birds. I started filling the feeder later that week, but he has not returned. And I didn't yet have my camera sitting by the back window, so no picture of him.

The second most surprising bird, or actually birds, are the pair of varied thrush who have been in my yard every day since I put seed in the feeder. I saw these birds at our previous house infrequently, at best. Here, I'm seeing them daily, and have only seen a robin once in the six weeks I've been feeding the birds here.

Most surprising is the pileated woodpecker who has been here 3 days in the last week. Pileateds are big, and flashy, and usually like the deep woods so seeing one in my yard a half mile south of the local shopping center is surprising.

I'm also getting some good shots of favorites, like the Northern Flicker who argued with the Pileated about who had priority at the feeder. (The Pileated won, unsurprisingly. )

I'm getting some great pictures, and once I have the knee replacement surgery the end of February, and my back heals, I'm hoping to make some fabulous art based on the photos.

Exploring Collage - check out Collagista!

2010-12-05T05:41:00.000-08:00

I sometimes describe my art as fabric collage, and I've recently joined the NW Collage Society as I started working with paper & fabric in a smaller format while unable to sew this last few months. So, I've been exploring collage communities and opportunities on the web. I recently found Collagista!, a blog publication dedicated to collage. The blog gives the pdf link to download so there are lots of pretty pictures of collage work, and some explanatory text, all done in a more pleasing layout than a blog would normally allow. If you're interested in collage as an art form, I'd recommend checking it out.

Hummer in the snow, or why I'm thankful for warmth and light

2010-11-24T18:13:00.000-08:00

It's a little bit early for a Thanksgiving post, but I'm going to take the day off from my computer tomorrow, and I just uploaded the pictures I've taken of Bob, the backyard hummingbird, over the past couple of days. We don't often get much snow here in the Seattle area, and the hummingbirds who winter over will get very protective of "their" feeders when we do. Bob decided to move even closer to the feeder than usual, and didn't move from his post even when I went out on the deck to take his picture. So I got some nice pictures and I also kept a close eye on the feeder so I could warm the solution back up when it started getting slushy.

Here's Bob, perched on a nearby maple tree, about 6 feet away from his feeder. You can see the white stuff below, and earlier, the evergreen in the background was covered with a very pretty layer of accumulated snow.

And here's a closeup of Bob, showing how fluffed up his feathers are to help him keep warm.

I suspect I'll be seeing Bob again tomorrow morning at 7 am. I've been bringing the feeder in at night so the sugar solution is nice and warm in the morning. And since the weather page I use said that sunrise was 7:30, I went out at 7 on Tuesday to put the feeder back. Bob was sitting on the metal hook that the feeder is usually suspended from, and he was not a happy camper that I was late bringing him his breakfast. This morning, he was there waiting again, and let me almost touch him before he backed off a bit while I put the feeder out. I'm going to miss living so close to the wildlife. It's been one of the things I've liked the best about this house. But I'm leaving the new owner some written guidelines for the hummingbird feeder so I hope she'll get as much enjoyment from the hummers as I have.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Bicycle made of wood, beauty and speed combined

2010-11-24T12:07:00.000-08:00

I've always loved bicycling, and I'm really pleased at the new things happening in this field, such as electric bikes. Okay, my knees wearing out are the reason for that one. But, reading this article made me want to spend big bucks on a truly beautiful and powerful bike. There's a custom bike builder in Portland making bikes from hardwood. See the pictures and read the article here.

Achieving Excellence

2010-11-15T13:11:00.000-08:00

In my earlier post about my show entry system, there's a sheet on the wall next to the box with the file folders about "Achieving Excellence". I've gotten a request to share it. I did a google search using the phrase in the first sentence, and found the Harvard Business Review blog article I got it from. See the full article here. I just took out the six keys and printed that out for myself, but the full article has some interesting things in it about becoming what we practice. I find this relevant in all areas of my life, not just the studio.

Shows - entry tracking system

2010-11-15T11:31:00.001-08:00

I'm being swamped with all the details of selling my house, and moving us to a new place, so my plans to blog about my perfect studio which will have to be dismantled are being chopped into smaller bits. Today, I'm going to talk about how I track shows I want to enter and make sure I don't miss the deadlines. My daughter, who has worked as a business manager/accountant for some artists in the Bellingham area, helped me set up the system and I have to say, it is working wonderfully for me. This year, one of my goals is to apply to at least one show a month, and with this system, I am doing well at organizing the show info, the dates and tracking how I'm doing with them.

Here's my little box, next to my computer, surrounded by the clutter on my desk. I have a three bin wall holder that I will put up in the new place, but this works for now. So, what's the magic? I use erasable labels on the file folders, that's the first step. When I hear about a show I'm interested in, I print out the prospectus, write the name of the show and the date I have to do something by on the label. Note: if the deadline is a receive by date, the date I write down is a week earlier so I'm taking action in time for it to get there. Then I put it in the box in chronological order. Usually, I'll write a little note on the first page of the prospectus saying which pieces I'm thinking of submitting. If I'm going to do a piece just for the show, I put a to-do item in my studio grasscatcher notebook (visible in the foreground on the desk). Then, once a week or so, I look at the next couple of weeks to see what deadlines are coming up, and I mentally plan out what I'm submitting. Once I hear back from the show, assuming I've been accepted, I erase the date on the file folder and put the ship date on it, then refile it in the box in the right place for the new date.

I'm not yet entered in so many things that I need a system to track which pieces are going where, but that's the next step. Right now, I use my inventory sheet, the long printed pages sticking up from the file folder box. It's a word document with a table, done as 8.5 x 14 size paper in landscape mode, with columns for Title, Date finished, ID#, Type of work, medium (I'm doing both paper and fabric nowadays), Height, Width, Price, Shows, Date photographed, and date posted to my webpage. For now, scanning down the Shows column is sufficient to make sure I don't double enter something. I pencil in a name on my hard copy when I submit it and do it in ink when a piece is accepted.

This seems so simple now that I'm explaining it, but it's such a delight to feel completely on top of all of this. And it takes only a couple of minutes of my time to add a show to my entry list. I share this because it's made such a difference for me and I hope it can help some others get on top of the whole show submission cycle.

Bicycles and infrastructure

2010-11-12T06:34:00.000-08:00

I'm not surprised to hear that there's finally been a pedestrian killed in a bicycle/pedestrian accident. Multi-use trails, while fine when there aren't a lot of bicyclists, don't work well if there's heavy traffic. I found this out when living in Venice, CA in the 80's when rollerblading was so popular. (Small digression: I would try to ride my bike on the bike path, and fantasize about ways to get the attention of the headphone-wearing rollerbladers kicking their legs out and blocking the whole path and completely oblivious to all others around them. Grrr! ) Here's an interesting article about some options for increasing bicycle use and decreasing congestion and accidents.

Radioactive rabbit poop - too funny not to share

2010-11-05T08:34:00.000-07:00

I suppose it's not really funny, but the mental image I get from reading this story - the people with detectors going around searching for the radioactive rabbit poop... Well, alright, I have a twisted sense of humor. Read the full story here.

I'll return to my more serious posts next time with pictures of my perfect studio that will have to be dismantled when we move.

Solar power & politics

2010-10-27T13:01:00.000-07:00

I've taken a small break from the virtual vacation while I deal with negotiating the sale of our house. But this crossed my email desk today, and I thought it worth sharing as we head into voting time.

US Solar boom requires policy and money, not sunshine is the headline of the article. It discusses the climate needed to quickly grow alternative energy, and the role of government in accelerating the development of a new industry.

I particularly like this quote from the article:

Exhibit A for such a phenomenon is Germany. With about as much sunshine as Maine, the European nation became the world's solar stronghold through policies that rewarded homeowners, businesses, and farmers for generating their own electricity.

Click on the link above to read the whole thing.

Virtual Vacation: A day in Squamish

2010-10-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, we went to Squamish. We had planned that outing for Wednesday since that was the sunny day in the week's forecast, but the clouds changed their minds, so we did the same. I had a page from the web about birding the Squamish Estuary so we started at the location given there. I was wanting to take more heron pictures so I wanted to be close to the water. Unfortunately for me, the part of the trail closest to our parking space went through the marshy parts. The other bird on my wish list for this vacation was a Golden Eagle. I've never seen one, and they like rural mountainous areas so I had hopes. Instead, this was the first bird I saw.

Yes, that's right, it's a Turkey Vulture. I thought they'd all headed south by now, but this one was soaring overhead, keeping an eye on a Northern Harrier hunting below it. The Harrier was too fast for me to get a good shot but I ended up seeing one in two different locations so I got some nice looks.

It turned out to be a day for common birds. First, a couple of Stellar's Jays near where I saw the vulture, some ducks in the river, and multiple views of this little brown bird, most likely a savannah sparrow. I took his picture since I haven't been doing regular birdwalks so my ability to id sparrows is almost completely gone. Small digression: it turns out sparrows and gulls are two of the hardest categories of birds to id since they all mostly look alike with only small differences in color, streakiness or bill colors. In case you've ever wondered how any sane person could worry about which particular sparrow they're seeing, this is why - it's challenging, like doing the NYTimes crossword puzzle in ink.

After backtracking back to the car, we broke for lunch. We had a really nice meal at Parkside Restaurant, where the soup of the day was a fabulous bean soup with duck and turkey sausage. I barely had room for my bunless burger, but I managed. *burp* After lunch, we crossed the street behind the restaurant because I wanted some photos of the amazing rock face. Again, wires in the way, but still a wonderful view.

Next, we strolled the shops along Cleveland. We stopped first at a small chocolate shop for dessert, got directions to the appropriate place to buy a sketchbook (Garibaldi Graphics, which carries office supplies and has a really nice art supply corner in the back) and finished up with a stop at The Nature Nest which I wish we'd seen before we started birding. They not only had a map better than what I'd gotten off the web, but also had birding checklists for the Squamish Estuary, Whistler and the larger Squamish area including the Upper Howe Sound region.

We headed off to an area just northwest of downtown that looked promising for more water birds. It turned out to be right next to the high school and a skateboard park so it was an interesting walk through shady woods hopping with birds with the sounds of the skateboarders carrying from the park. I did get an unexpected life bird: a black-throated gray warbler. Being a warbler, she refused to hold still long enough for a picture, but I got lots of great looks, certainly enough to tell that the throat was white, which made it a girl.

This walk wasn't enough to satisfy my heron cravings, so armed with new maps, we returned to our previous parking spot and I walked the other way on the trails. I ended up down by the shipping area, where I was about to give up, when I saw a flock of geese and decided to give them a look. I saw them and a sentinel that made me think of a flock of sheep with a guarding dog. (Click on the picture to get a better view of the heron, altho he was looking straight at me so the head looks odd.)

Thus ended the birding part of the day with me being a very happy girl. We decided to try a restaurant named 21 Steps when we got back to Whistler. Just as at The Keg, the hostess was quite happy to escort me to the elevator so I didn't have to actually climb steps to get to dinner. They had a lovely menu, with a dinner special of an item from the Small Plates, a Big Plate and dessert for $35 so we went with that. Our meal was enlivened by a woman at a neighboring table jumping up and exclaiming "Look! There's a bear!" Yes, indeed there was, and he was walking down the pedestrian walkway in the Village. I was quite pleased to be on the second floor where I could view the bear and then enjoy my dinner in peace and quiet. The food was excellent, the service was too, and all in all, it was a great day.

Virtual Vacation: Chilliwack BC, heron sanctuary

2010-10-01T09:01:00.000-07:00

We're back from our lovely vacation in British Columbia which I was unable to share in real-time as I forgot the cable for the camera. So, instead, I'll be doing a virtual vacation retroactively as I process the pictures. It makes it much easier to find things later if I take the time to put the keywords into Bridge, but it does take some time upfront. Adobe Bridge, however, makes it really easy as I can keyword all the photos from one day at a time, or any subset actually. But I digress...

Our first day of vacation was spent visiting the Great Blue Heron Sanctuary in Chilliwack, BC. This is not actually on the way to Whistler (our final destination) from Bellevue, but how could I resist either the chance at multiple herons or the chance to visit a place named Chilliwack? So, off we went, east into the Fraser Valley. Mapquest dropped the directions in Chilliwack itself, so we ended up stopping at Fred's Fishing store where the owner was amazingly helpful and kind. Part of why we always enjoy visiting Canada. Once we found the heron place, we got no more than about 30 yards down the first trail when we spotted a heron right beside the bank. Since he was being fairly active, I settled down to take lots of photos, getting the first one of him from across the pond.

Then I was diverted by a green heron who flew across the pond when I walked too close to his fishing location near the trail while trying for a better angle on the big guy.

We continued on the closest trail, heading toward a bird blind where I hoped to see more herons without them being able to see me. The two in the closest pond weren't very happy about all my photo taking antics so I wanted to give them a break.

While on the trail, we noticed dozens of frogs leaping into ponds as we approached. Since I have a piece in mind with a heron hunting, I loved the idea of getting a picture of one of the frogs. I lucked out a bit later on the trail when a frog decided to hide in a large puddle in the middle of the path. I was able to sneak up right next to him and get this shot from almost directly overhead.

We found no other herons down that trail, so we backtracked, and the one great blue that I'd been stalking and photographing had moved into a marshy area to hide in the reeds, grasses, and such. I liked how he looked in there, his head looking snakelike so I bothered him a bit more and got this shot.

We walked a bit more down another trail but then some serious rain started so we decided it was time to move on to Whistler. I got lots of great shots of both herons, and two kinds of frogs, so it was definitely a worthwhile stop.

The drive to Whistler was very scenic. I was most impressed with looking off the coast toward the many islands, sticking up abruptly from the water into the clouds. It was difficult to get a shot that really showed this well because of the wires strung along poles along the road. But, I think this one gives some of the flavor.

Day one ended with dinner at The Keg in Whistler. For context, let me say that Jeff enjoys going out to restaurants so even though we don't ski or mountain bike, the two major activities in Whistler, we were looking forward to a week in a village where we could walk to dinner every night and eat at a different place every time. So, each day's blog post will end with a restaurant review. The Keg is one of our standby restaurants so we started with it after a day of traveling since we weren't up to being adventurous. We noted that the onion soup bowls in Canada were larger than our local Keg, and the wine list was different so I got to try a couple of different Okanagan red wines which were both quite tasty. All in all, an excellent first day of vacation.

Buy some SF, help with Gulf Relief

2010-09-15T16:18:00.000-07:00

This in my inbox today, from one of the Seattle area authors involved in creating this. I think it's worth sharing, so feel free to pass it along to those you know who read Science Fiction.

Book View Café Publishes Benefit Anthology for Gulf Relief

Book View Café has launched their benefit anthology, BREAKING WAVES. All proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund of the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

The collection features over thirty stories by a wide range of best-selling and award-winning authors, including a previously-unpublished poem from Nebula and Hugo award-winner Ursula K. Le Guin, as well as a chapter from Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking book The Sea Around Us. Authors contributing stories of environmental rescue and recovery include Vonda N. McIntyre, Judith Tarr, Deborah Ross, Sarah Monette, David D. Levine, David Gessner, and Lyda Morehouse among others. Tiffany Trent and Phyllis Irene Radford edited the collection.

The book is available in epub, pdf, mobi, and prc formats in the Book View Café bookstore (http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Book-View-Cafe-Breaking-Waves) and will be coming to the Kindle store soon.

Tidal power in Snohomish - coming soon!

2010-09-10T12:03:00.001-07:00

Today's email brought a link to this article about tidal power research in Snohomish County, just to the north of Seattle. Our federal dollars were important in funding the research, and will lead to power coming from the tides in 2012, if all goes as planned. I'll be interested in seeing how this goes. I think each area will have a better form of alternative energy depending on the local conditions. Hot and sunny, go solar. Lots of wind or tide, use that. I also think decentralized and multisource is a better way to go than a single giant electric grid, but that's a different post for another day. *smile*

Birds & Wind Power - how to really tell how many birds are being killed

2010-09-02T14:59:00.000-07:00

Okay, that's a provocative title on my blog post, but I'm seriously torn about this issue. I'm a birder, and I do bird themed art, so I care deeply about birds. I also think renewable energy sources are definitely the way to go. So, I've been following the various reports about birds and wind turbines quite closely. I was pleased to see the birdnote coverage about a local project and the new technology to not only tell how many birds are in the area, but potentially shut off the turbines when endangered species (specifically marbled murrelets) approach. See the birdnote short here (actually hear it, since it's a 2 minute radio bit) and follow the 'still more' link to read a more comprehensive article about it. F or those that care, wind turbines kill about 6500 birds a year in the USA while other common causes of bird deaths such as skyscrapers and cars kill several million. Just sayin'.

Going green: great news!

2010-08-30T10:04:00.000-07:00

Today's email brought in a story about total energy use being down 5% in the US. And a big increase in alternative energy use. As the mother of a young man soon to join the Air Force, I can only applaud the actions that lead to less dependence on foreign oil. And as someone who believes we need to lighten our impact on the earth, it's also great news. So I share it. Read the full story here.

canvas mounting small collage, or what to do if I can't sew

2010-07-19T10:42:00.000-07:00

The herniated disk is taking more time and therapy to heal, altho the shot in the spine helped a whole lot, so I still can't sew. Who knew that sewing was such a physically demanding thing to do? So, instead, I've been playing with paints and working on redoing my website. Putting some of the collages I did during my Fiber Arts class onto canvas lets me do both of these things at once. I'm having fun playing with the paints, and I've been pleasantly surprised at how well my color mixing skills have transferred from dyes to paints. So, here's some pictures of what I've been doing.

First, here's the collage I started with. I started with my favorite one. Normally, that would be a decision that would cause me problems since I'd not want to mess it up. However, since I didn't actually do anything to the paper collage until the last step of mounting it on the canvas, I decided to be brave and do the one I wanted done the most rather than one I was willing to lose if I messed up because it was the first time.

I did 2 canvases. The first one, I used the green, gold and purple from the collage, and I put a lot of movement into the colors. My daughter pointed out that there was so much movement going on in the collage itself that maybe it would show better with a calmer background. Once I put the collage on the canvas to see what I thought, I agreed with her.

So the second canvas was much calmer, and pretty much just the gold with some metallic highlights to pick up the metallic flecks in some of the papers. I think this is more successful and I went ahead and attached it to the canvas using gel medium. The picture is before the collage was trimmed and attached so it's an approximation altho a good one.

This is actually a mixed media painting at this point as there's no fabric on it anywhere and it's a canvas with paint and other stuff on it. A departure from my usual work, but really just a change in medium. The techniques I'm using can be transferred to working with fabric as this is also a good way to show a small fabric piece and sneak it into an art show rather than a quilt show. And I'm feeling really good about still getting work done while I deal with the medical issues. So, life is good in my house right now!

Green energy and the FHA - let's write letters!

2010-07-07T10:51:00.000-07:00

When I was on vacation in 2008, I wrote about possible financing approaches for solar power on homes that was being discussed in Boulder, and already implemented in Berkeley. In the intervening 2 years, the idea has spread like wildfire to more than 20 states, but hit a roadbump recently with a FHFA ruling about mortgages in May. Grist.org has the story here. Seems to me, this is the perfect place for a little citizen activism, like a letter, email or phone call. This is a wonderful approach to financing alternative power sources at the home level, and should be encouraged by our government. If you agree, let them know.

More about bicycles & electric bikes

2010-07-06T10:32:00.000-07:00

Today's email brought a link to an article about bicycling, electric bikes, and converting our society to one that is less reliant on fossil fuels. It's a quick read, and a good summary. Check it out here. I'm particularly pleased that he points out that Europe and China are already making this transition, and how the electric bicycle can help. My son loves his ebikes - he now has 2, one a folding one that is easy to transport but is not as powerful, and his "Big Blue", which zooms up our incredibly steep hill, only requiring a little bit of pedaling at the top. He has so much fun with them, and they're so incredibly frugal, that I was wanting to join in. Alas, between my knee surgery, and my herniated disk in my spine, it looks like I'll have to wait until later. Anyone out there over the age of 30 who is getting around by electric bike? How's that working for you?

Electric car support infrastructure coming to WA

2010-06-29T10:14:00.000-07:00

Today's email brought a link to this article about electric car charging stations along I5 in Washington state. Read it here. There are several interesting points raised, particularly in the comments, although I can't help but think that I'd still prefer to have a hybrid car that could run on either fuel so my chances of not being able to recharge or refuel would be less. That's why I bought the Prius model we got, so we can do the aftermarket upgrade to a plug-in with additional battery capacity and still have the hybrid capability. It will be interesting to see how this all works out over the next few years.

Anne Bagby's Collage - DVD review

2010-06-16T13:40:00.000-07:00

I'm not able to work in my studio very much right now due to back spasms and the resulting physical problems, so I'm spending a fair amount of time catching up on reading and watching some DVDs. My local library has a wonderful selection of art and technique dvds, and the one I watched most recently is Anne Bagby's Collage: Paper, Patterns & Glazing. Let me just say I'd give it 2 thumbs up as a summation.

I'm moving toward multimedia collage myself so I'm very interested in the subject matter. And I've been intrigued by the idea of transparency and layering in my fabric work for some time. So, I was predisposed to like this. In addition to covering material I'm interested in, I was particularly pleased that the dvd essentially watches Bagby create the beginnings of several pieces. I appreciated seeing her process, including the creation of her own papers and stamps, in all its messy details. I also appreciated that she talks us through her design decisions as she makes them in simple terms, not artspeak lingo, but in terms of focusing the viewer on the piece, what's the foreground or background, and ways to shift things with a quick layer of color.

In 90 minutes, there's a lot to watch and learn from. I'll be applying techniques and ideas for some time, even though my designs tend to be simpler. As Bagby says at one point, she's in the Too Much is Not Enough school which I am not, but that doesn't mean I can't learn from her and her process. I'd recommend this dvd to anyone interested in working in collage, either paper or fabric, as I think the techniques will translate well into either medium. I'd also recommend it to anyone interested in watching an artist in process while creating.

UW Fiber Arts program - final piece, and some thoughts

2010-06-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

Our show (by-hand.org) opened last week at the UW Towers, and I missed the opening because of continuing knee and back issues. While I am saddened at missing the party, I did enjoy the pictures posted on facebook by some of the other class members. I'm also looking forward to going to see the exhibit during the month of June sometime, as soon as my back and knee will allow. This is even more important as I didn't get a final picture taken of my piece and need to go take a picture, if only so I can add it to the webpage. Here's a shot of the piece in progress. James, my son, is holding it up, so it's a terribly traditional quilt picture complete with fingers at the edges and lots of background clutter.

I forgot to load my piece into the car when taking off for class, so Jeff and James did a quick photo and emailed it so I could present my piece that day. We were all showing our pieces so we collectively knew enough to answer questions and talk knowledgeably at the opening.

And now it's time for the big sigh of relief and accomplishment, and taking inventory of what I've learned. This was a fabulous class. I learned so much it's difficult to list it all. Most importantly, I learned to take myself seriously. I learned how to think about my art, the materials I use, and how to think about creating a piece to maximize its effectiveness. I'll be processing these lessons for quite some time to come but I look forward to my progress as I now feel confident I can deal with issues as they arise rather than feeling overwhelmed. It's a wonderful, exhilarating change that's coming and next up on my to-do list is redoing my webpage to reflect the changes I've already internalized. I'll keep blogging about this whole process as one of the things I've learned is how much I, and others, need the community of other artists to learn from. So, in a way, this blog is a way of paying it forward.

Class collaborative project, or doing art in public at Greenlake

2010-05-22T11:33:00.000-07:00

My Fiber Arts Certificate course continues to be a fabulous learning experience. As we go into the final week before our exhibit opens (see by-hand.org for details), I'm focusing mostly on finishing the detail work on the piece I'll be exhibiting. But I promised to blog about what we're doing as we do it, so I want to show off our collaborative project. A group of six of us decided to do an interactive public art project for our collaborative group project. We decided on doing a group weaving project - creating a frame, bringing fabric strips and yarns, setting up tables at Greenlake Park near the hiking trail, and inviting anyone who walked by to participate. We split up the basic materials, scheduled slots for being at the tables, and assigned other tasks, such as creating the frame, or, my task, writing a blurb and creating a booklet for participants to sign. Here's the text that went on the sign, and on the back of the booklet:

"Community comes in many forms and is made up of each member contributing their own abilities, like color and texture from threads in a woven cloth. On May 15, 2010, we are creating an opportunity to symbolically create a cloth representing the community here at Greenlake. By selecting a fiber to weave into the cloth and using your own preferences as to how the fiber is inserted, you can help create the final cloth just as each of us creates the community by the way we participate in it. Please use the booklet provided to record your thoughts about community, this project or what your choice of fiber symbolizes to you."

The reason I mentioned community is that Lois, the creator of the frame, also took the initiative to go talk to the staff at the Community Center and arranged for display of the final piece after our class is finished.

We started out setting up on 2 tables, and having to create a sign to try and draw people in. This turned out to be somewhat unnecessary as people were curious about what we were doing and usually we had at least 1 or 2 people at all times, and sometimes were on the verge of having a line for people to participate.

Once we had things set up, and had started the weaving in a couple of directions, we were off and going.

We had a wide range of participants, of all ages, genders and backgrounds. And lots of interesting conversations with people. It was really clear that the people who stopped valued the opportunity to participate in creating art.

By the time my shift ended at noon, we had almost half the frame filled with materials.

I haven't yet seen the finished piece as I missed the most recent class due to the pinched nerve in my back, but I'm looking forward to the PowerPoint presentation next Tuesday when we present to the class. This was a good exercise in working in a group and gave us an excellent opportunity to do some publicity for our upcoming exhibit. I can certainly see doing something similar on a regular basis, although it's likely I'll pick a park a little closer to home.

Guerilla Art (Fiber Art Program)

2010-05-06T09:19:00.000-07:00

One of the assignments for my Fiber Art class was to do a site specific piece of public art. Since I walk at the greenbelt near Larsen Lake almost every day, I decided to do a piece for the pier at the lake. I selected pictures I've taken that represented each season, and a detail image to go along with the larger landscape picture. Then I put them together in a banner. I had originally intended to include a strip of green fabric representing the greenbelt, and silkscreened runners on the belt but once I got the images on the banner, I decided that additional layer would be too much.

I had some interesting conversations while carrying the banner from the library parking lot to the pier as it's about a half mile walk on the greenbelt. And I learned some things about creating art for a different presentation. I meant for the banner to hang over the lake but that didn't quite work out due to several problems. I got the angle wrong, the bamboo poles I used, to evoke fishing rods, weren't long enough, and I completely forgot about the predominant wind direction. If I'd gotten the angle and the rods right, the wind might not have been such an issue but as it was, I had to move the poles to a different hole in the railing so that the art was visible.

Lots of learning going on this quarter, that's for sure. And now that I have my new computer installed, and most of the things I need transferred or installed from the old one, I'm back in business and will be blogging about what's going on in the course at least once a week.

Fiber Arts Certificate Program, second quarter wrapup

2010-04-16T12:29:00.000-07:00

Despite having knee surgery in early February, I was still pretty productive in the second quarter of the Fiber Arts Certificate program. The focus for this quarter was concept driven art and how to produce it. We started out the quarter with an assignment to do 50 collages in one week. That was a tremendous learning experience, and I'm looking forward to being back in the studio and using the lessons I learned in daily practice. Right now, the knee is only allowing a couple of hours at a desk at a time, so I have to be patient. Not one of my best skills but I'm working on it.

To do those collages, I had to work smaller than I have before. This was an excellent exercise as it allowed me to try out variations visually rather than attempting to edit my ideas in my head. I learned that things don't look the way I expect them to and that my design ideas are greatly improved by trying them out visually.

This insight led to my really grasping the point of working in a series. I'd heard others talking about series work, but hadn't really gotten the why of it before now. Now, I do. I can try out the variations, see what works best, and then do that in a bigger format. A big plus is that I get to feel incredibly productive and have smaller pieces that will sell at a more affordable price. I'm not seeing a downside here which is really nice.

The third big lesson is that thinking over what to do is futile. Do one, see if I like it, if not, do another idea. Experiment! I suppose this is what is meant by the phrase "make visual decisions visually". Spending a couple of hours going back and forth in my head turns out to be a waste of time. In the same time, I can do 2 or 3 variations in a small size and SEE which one comes closest to evoking the emotion I'm aiming for.

And fourth, I learned to have a clear concept underlying a piece and make sure that every part of the piece contributes to that. If not, toss it aside and let it wait for a piece that it does fit.

The other big part of this quarter was producing a clear philosophical artists statement. I found this to be very useful, especially the class we spent doing quick written feedback on our fellow classmates' statements. Having to put into words why I produce the work that I do was a good way to clarify the concepts that I want to focus on. I've written artist statements before, for pieces going out to exhibits, but this time was more productive because of the feedback from others and the questions raised by our teacher.

The last big lesson I learned is the usefulness of a regular critique group. Having a supportive and knowledgeable group to ask focused questions is a very useful way for me to get clear on the underlying conceptual basis for my work.

To sum up: an incredibly powerful quarter, and I only hope I can apply the lessons I've learned once I'm back in the studio full-time.

E-bikes at Best Buy? Coming soon...

2010-03-19T14:16:00.001-07:00

Today's Sightline email led off with a link to the first in a 5 part series on electric bikes, and improving transportation efficiency with alternatives. I've only read the first 2, and this is a link to the second in the series. It talks about why people might choose electric bikes, and what's likely to happen this next year. My soon-to-be 20 year old son has been riding electric bikes as his major form of transportation since graduating high school. We got him a folding electric bike for graduation, and a more powerful (and more expensive) one last year. He rides both but prefers the more powerful one as we live on a really steep hill. If I hadn't had knee problems this year, I'd probably have already converted my regular bike to an e-bike and be using it for my shorter rides around the neighborhood, by which I mean 3-4 miles. I'm really jazzed that I'm not the only one excited about e-bikes so this series is something I wanted to share. I'll also take this opportunity to point out that even including the repair costs for the 2 accidents he's had (both very minor), all maintenance costs, and the costs of the bikes and all his riding gear, it's cost us way less for his transportation than it did for his older sister's car and it's maintenance and repairs. Less than half, to be more precise. Costs less, better for the planet, healthier for him. What's not to like?

Meditate like a Marine

2010-03-10T09:52:00.000-08:00

Isn't that a great title? Today's email from dailygood.org contained that title and a link to the full article about measurable mood and memory enhancement from 12 minutes of meditation a day. (They called it mindfulness training, which is a somewhat clearer name, but it's the same thing.) Controlling mood is on my mind these days as my knee surgery recovery takes much longer than anticipated and I find myself struggling to maintain my emotional equilibrium. I'm okay with the loss of daily walks altho I miss them, but adding in an inability to sit at my work areas for more than 20 minutes, so it's very difficult to create, and I find I'm getting impatient easily. My Fiber Arts class for this quarter ended last night so I have a couple of weeks to focus on healing and maybe regain my sense of being centered and balanced.

10 easy ways to help the planet (Yes! magazine)

2010-02-04T11:26:00.000-08:00

Today's email brought a pointer to an article from yes! magazine about 10 easy ways to change your life and help the planet. It seems worth sharing. Read the whole detailed list here; some of the easy ones: eat your veggies (reduce meat consumption) , give up bottled water (we've switched to a seltzer bottle. Umbra at grist.org had a nice video today about various other ways to make your own bubbly water), and have dinner with friends. We're doing the last as a monthly game night which gives us all a chance to hang out, chat, play some games, and enjoy ourselves. This last is on my mind as I head off to knee surgery today, and realized I needed to send a reminder email. Yikes!

Light Electric Vehicles (LEVs) aka electric bikes

2010-01-29T12:11:00.000-08:00

Today's email features a lengthy article about Light Electric Vehicles, a category designed to include both scooters and electric bicycles. It mostly focuses on the bikes, and the huge increase in popularity in Europe, but I found this quote compelling:

"...the average cost of owning, operating, maintaining, and driving a car comes out to 71 cents per mile for an average car driving an average of 10,000 miles per year. In contrast, it costs about 2.7 cents per mile to drive a LEV the same distance."

For those who go short commutes, it might make sense to switch, at least for the shorter trips. For more info, here's the link to the full article.

50 Collages, lessons learned

2010-01-15T09:32:00.000-08:00

Class on Tuesday was very interesting. Few of the others in the class did all 50 of the collages, so I felt pretty good about my having "only" done 30. The other interesting thing I noticed is that my 50 were not as tightly related as most of the others. My theme, spiritual journey, is kind of a large one and I did a couple of different sub-themes. I also didn't have a particular palette. Obviously, my word for 201o (Focus) comes into play here too.

So, for the next class assignment, I've narrowed my theme significantly. For now, it's hummingbirds, but while I like the sketches I've done, I'm wanting the spiritual aspect to be there too, so I'm going to have to think about how to bring that back in. And I sorted through my fabric stash in my studio. I'm moving some of it downstairs, as it's not the right visual texture for my current work. If it's not in the studio, I won't be tempted to use it, and can more easily develop my own palette.

Our next assignment is to do a diptych on the theme as we're developing it. I've picked the phrase "Joy & Comport" as a working title. I wanted a vague background, impressionistic in style, so I did my preliminary sketches (size 9"x12") using watercolor pencils and then did some experimenting with adding a wash to blend them. I like the effect, and I'm looking forward to experimenting with the pencils on fabric in the future. For now, I'm working with the hand-dyed silk I have on hand, except for the piece I need for the sky which I will be painting today.

The class assignment is for at least 14" on each side in size. I've set myself a personal goal of producing 6 sq. ft. of art per week. So, in line with that goal, my fabric version of the sketches will each be 18"x24". We'll see if I can actually finish them in a week. I'll just keep telling myself my new mantras: Focus, Use what you have, experiment. ( These are the things I've gotten from the class so far.)

At the very least, I should have the fabric tops done by class but I really believe I stand a good chance of having the complete pieces, or at least 75% of them, finished by next Tuesday. Whatever happens, it will be a grand experiment!

50 Collages, day 4

2010-01-12T13:00:00.000-08:00

I took Sunday off, how traditional. I was back to work on the collages yesterday, and got 7 done. I also had a couple of epiphanies about my work process, and I'm mulling over how to change things. I'll be talking about the changes when they're done, I expect. I find I have a hard time doing more than 5 - 7 collages in a day, given the restriction on each of them being different. When I did fabric postcards for an exchange, I did small collage like things, but did variations on a theme in sets of 5. That I could do really fast! This has been a very fruitful and productive assignment, in both work produced and insights achieved. I'll be talking about what I learned tomorrow when I wrap up with things I produce today.

Yesterday's work yielded these 2 among others.

Number 24 came about because I was reflecting on how literal I can be in my thinking. Then I looked down at my work table, saw the remaining pile of dancer figures already cut out, and the image just popped into my head. This one was almost instantaneous which was a nice break from the slogging I felt I'd been doing all afternoon. I was good until the fifth one for the day, then I started slowing down, overthinking, and generally having to push to keep going.

This one, #25, is the visual sketch for a piece I'm doing for an online challenge. I wanted to try out the TAP paper (Transfer Artist Paper) which worked great on transferring the hummingbird images from my computer to the fabric background. I also wanted to try the composition which has been sitting in my head for a bit. I find I really like doing the visual sketch. I had tried doing a pencil sketch, but I need the color and the texture that comes from the fabrics I use to really evaluate the idea. The word theme for the challenge is Comfort.

In addition, I want to share #14 which was the one I used ExtravOrganza on for the first time. Given that I'm sharing the experiment with TAP, I thought I'd include my other experiment.
I like the transparency of the globe that I printed using Extravorganza and I expect I'll be using it in the future, unless I actually get around to the image transfer experimentation I have on my want-to-try list.

50 collages, day 3

2010-01-10T10:30:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was less productive, but I had anticipated that which is why I tried to get off to a big start. Not only did I have a morning appt, but I slept poorly so I was brainfogged. However, I got in 3 hours of solid work, producing 5 more (total so far is 18) collages. In addition, I had some insights about my work process and how to integrate this collage process into it, and got some prep work done. Here's a couple of the ones I did yesterday. They're getting more sketch like as I go along but that's okay, these are conceptual sketches, reminders/tryouts of the ideas, and I'm now to doing one in 20 to 30 minutes max. I foresee this being what I do in my sketchbook when I have an idea, and want to see if it's worth developing.

This was #17 in the collages. The idea was to visually present walking a maze. I like the strong graphic imagery, and think this one might work really well on a larger scale, where I could stick in lots more detail in the walls of the maze. I intended for the green fabric to imply one of those garden hedge mazes and that would give me lots of room for birds in the hedges, etc.

This next one was the last one I did yesterday. The hummingbird theme is a strong one, but it's not as prevalent as it might seem based on the pictures I'm posting here. I'd estimate the hummingbirds only show up in no more than a third of the total so far.

I originally laid this one out on the peltex which is 8.5 x 11", and then when I realized I was using paper, I switched to the 9 x 12 watercolor paper for the base. This led to there being more leafy stuff at the bottom. I'm contemplating cutting some of it off. On the other hand, I kind of like the slightly topheavy feel. I'll set it aside and think about it later, I suppose.

Going to bed early did not solve the sleep problem, which is probably related to the beginning of tree pollen season, so I anticipate today will also be low on the collage count. So, I'll be catching up on my accumulated email, doing some miscellaneous stray studio tasks, and tidying my work area so I can go big tomorrow. Realistically, I'm hoping for a total over 35; I think I've already benefitted tremendously from doing this exercise so I'll be happy with whatever happens from this point on.

As part of my relaxed day, I put one of today's collages into jigspot as an experiment. I've been meaning to do this but haven't gotten around to it. Here's the link to it.

50 collages, day 2

2010-01-09T07:58:00.000-08:00

Well, I did it. 10 collages yesterday in 7 hours, for an average of about 40 minutes each. The last few were in about half an hour so I should be just burning through them today, assuming I don't fall over from the effort. *grin* Only 37 more to go...

I had a couple of comments on Facebook that brought it to my attention that I forgot to mention the size. I started out using 9"x12" watercolor paper as a base. Spiral Dance was cut down to a square, 9x9. Then, because of the curling factor for the paper and because I'm scanning them in to show them here, I cut peltex to 8.5 x 11 size. So, they're roughly the size of a piece of paper.

I did 10 and then laid them out on the floor to see them all at once. This was instructive because I could see visually how my thoughts had run. Since this was something the instructor had mentioned in particular, it was nice to have it happening so early.

These two, selected from the day's production, deal with an image that I was already wrestling with to turn into a larger wallhanging. It's very useful to play with the composition in this smaller format and I'm looking forward to seeing if the design that works in the small can scale to a larger piece well.

I don't think I've told the story about the hummingbird we feed, or one of them, going into the garage and trying to fly through the window in the back. He didn't smash himself, he just kept buzzing at it. I had to run an errand, and he was still there when I got back, so I went to get the feeder and held it hanging from my finger to try and get him to turn around so he could see the open door. He ended up landing on my hand to rest which was an amazing sensation. That experience has deepened my fascination with hummingbirds, and is leading to a whole series of pieces so I tried out one of the ideas for this collage.

This was #10, done after the above one. I finished the first one, and I'd printed out some smaller globes to use, and thought about fingertips, smaller globes, that led to multiple hummingbirds, et voila!

More tomorrow!

50 Collages in one week, Yikes!

2010-01-08T07:21:00.000-08:00

My new Fiber Arts instructor gave us our first assignment: make 50 collages on a single theme in one week. This will be an interesting learning experience, for sure. Class is next Tuesday evening, and I have 3 done so far. I spent one day brainstorming, so I have a huge list of ideas to explore, and assembling materials from various nooks and shelves around the house. The first 2 took over 3 hours to make; the third took one hour. I set a timer on myself on the third one so I could keep it to an hour. Today, I aim for 10 collages, and less than 45 minutes each. We'll see how we do. I need to let go of doing a finished piece, and do a compositional sketch or I'll never make it to the total number. And as he explained, the idea is to experiment and see our own conceptual connections so it is important to do the whole 50 (plus or minus a couple...). Somehow, I still feel like I've been pushed off a cliff and am trying to learn to fly as I go down.

My theme is Spiritual Journey and here's the first 3 collages. I particularly like #2. These are all a combination of fabric and paper glued or fused to watercolor paper. I'm thinking of using peltex as it's a bit stiffer for the ones with mostly fabric. The watercolor paper is curling on the boat one.

The first one is from an idea that's been simmering for a while, based on a song, Sailing a Blue Boat.

Second one is Spiral Dance, probably #1. I expect more along this path in the next few days.

And this one is based on the Solstice Stocking I did for a friend a couple of years ago. It worked better as the stocking, I think, altho I like the idea and think it would work better with more detail.

Monthly Games playing day, or doing more but buying less

2010-01-04T11:20:00.000-08:00

I spent a chunk of time on New Year's Day playing Mah Jong with my daughter and a couple of friends. It's been a year since we played together, and we all remarked on how nice it was. I had talked with another group of friends the night before about doing regular board game playing get togethers and we picked a day, and set a time. So I suggested the same thing to my Mah Jong buddies and we did the same. I now have a monthly day playing games of some sort and I expect it to grow as interested friends get added to the notification list. So I noted with interest an article from the NY Times about people buying less, and doing more interactive things with friends. Yup, me too. The article can be found here. I must admit I've always had a tendency to prefer simpler pleasures and have never spent $1000/month on designer clothes. (Okay, $100/month on books maybe...)

Fiber Arts Certificate Program, First quarter wrapup

2010-01-02T06:37:00.000-08:00

Now that I've had a little time over the holidays to digest how the first quarter of the Fiber Arts Certificate Program went, and I've uploaded the photos of our last assignment, I'm ready to share.

It's been a challenging quarter. Our instructor's intent was to shake things up for us and she certainly succeeded for me. We only had 2 major assignments so the work we did wasn't primarily creating things but was instead questioning our assumptions, and giving us a broader perspective.

Our final assignment was to do a bigger than life size self-portrait of one persona or aspect of ourselves. I got tangled in the "bigger than lfe size" part of it, and feel my own piece was a major belly flop. A fabulous learning experience however. I was attempting to portray the emotional impact of having a hummingbird land on my hand - an experience that delighted, and astonished me. I also got caught up in the mechanics of doing the shadows and shading, not to mention some serious trouble getting the photo to start from. (That was also part of the assignment.) So, my piece was incomplete when it was time to present. It wasn't until after the class discussion that I realized I didn't need the bottom 2/3rds of the piece. I'm now working on tightening the focus, and doing this again because I do want to do a piece about this experience.

Several of the other members of the class did wonderful interpretations. Here's one of the ones I particularly liked. Roberta captured her love of swimming and water so well visually, at least in my opinion.

I think we've all learned a lot. I know I have. Most of my lessons have to do with my own process, and how I need to tighten my focus, do a bit more planning of the intent of a piece before leaping in and working. I have to balance that with the fact that once I'm in the flow of working on it, I work intuitively and need to not push myself into a box to meet some requirements. The other big thing I'm taking away is to use what I have to make it work while staying focused on the intent and the goal.

Now to see how we all do on applying these lessons to creating work this next quarter. We were warned that the next instructor pushes us to do lots of work; to the point of requiring 50 collages in one week at one point. Yikes! This will be another, and different challenge.

Resolved: Give just a little and help a lot

2009-12-31T15:09:00.000-08:00

Today's email brought a story from dailygood.org about a website that helps people with small needs. Modest Needs Foundation, at modestneeds.org, gives small grants (usually a few hundred dollars) to the working poor with the intent of helping the recipient make it through an unexpected emergency. Donors can give as little as $5, and the donors pick which applicant to help. What I found encouraging is that 68% of the recipients end up donating back later on. Paying it forward, indeed...

See the full story here.

Backup battery for your house or how to go off-grid for up to a week

2009-12-30T05:58:00.000-08:00

Panasonic announces a battery for your home, able to store enough energy for a week. I think this is exciting news since having an easy energy storage system will make intermittent energy production more useful. If I have a battery that stores enough power to run my house for a week, then wind or solar is much more useful. Panasonic has announced delivery is planned for 2011. Read the full article here.

Electric Bike news

2009-12-24T06:26:00.000-08:00

My son is in love with his electric bikes. And now that we've added the bike rack to the back of the Prius, I'm ready to order the conversion kit for my bike and give it a try myself. So I was encouraged by this article from EV World, about the surge in electric bikes worldwide. We're lagging way behind China and the EU in this area but that's not surprising, I guess. If you've ever loved riding a bike, but didn't like hills, or getting too sweaty, check out an electric bike.

December baking and (gluten-free) buckwheat

2009-12-11T10:39:00.000-08:00

Between Thanksgiving travel, and my fiber arts program, I have had little time to blog lately. As I gear up to do my seasonal baking, now that my class has finished, I thought I'd share a link to a grist article about buckwheat, an old grain being rediscovered as lots of people go gluten free.

Here's the buckwheat article.

I have hopes of posting photos from the fiber arts program this weekend. Picture me crossing my fingers....

Giving green - alternative gift registry

2009-11-19T06:59:00.000-08:00

Today's grist.org featured an article about having a green baby, or actually, how to shop for a new baby using the reuse, recycle, reduce approach. (Read the full article here.) In the article, mention is made of an alternative gift registry from The New American Dream. As my daughter reaches the age where marriages & babies are becoming common among her age group, this seems more relevant than ever. So I share. Gift registry here, New American Dream here. I'll note New American Dream has an article about gift giving in general and simplifying the holidays. I hope your holidays are full of joy!

lacy maple leaves

2009-10-31T11:05:00.000-07:00

Inspired by fall, I decided to try some things out with the burgundy lacy maple leaves in my yard. I planted the tree about 3 years ago, when the winter storms took out 2 apple trees and left a big hole in the sunny back part. This year, the tree is big enough, and has enough branches and leaves, that I didn't feel guilty cutting some off before they fell.

I clipped a small branch so that I got several leaves because I wanted to try and get some depth and layering of the leaves. Some went into glycerin, and in a few days, I'll see how well that works for saving them for me to play with throughout the winter. Here's a black&white scan done on my epson cx3810. I liked the shading I got. I had to play with the settings to get it to show at all. This was annoying since the b&w copy came out great. Not sure why the difference. I suspect I have a lot to learn about how my scanner works and how to manipulate it.

Here's the same layout on the scanner in color. It looked much better on the screen when I was scanning it because the horizontal lines didn't show there.

And here's a photo I took, using macro lens, sidelit by the table light I use while sewing. I taped the leaves to the top of the lid on the printer because of the white background in the lid. I'll be manipulating this in photoshop, and seeing how many different things I can do with it. I particularly like the shadow behind the leaves from the side lighting.

I love these leaves, and I'm still trying to figure out exactly how to capture the contrast between them and the gray rainy fall days when the burgundy pops out at us even with the other fall colors. There's been a piece, or more than one actually, brewing for years. I think this might be the year they happen. More pictures later, as things mature.

350.org performance art

2009-10-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

I'm on the mailing list for 350.org, and in fact, James was planning for us to do something, but the flu intervened. However, I urge anyone who likes pictures of everyday people acting from their heart to check it out. Whether you view it as necessary political activism or performance art, it's an amazing collection of pictures. Go to 350.org and be amazed! (Note for those who've missed a story about it - 350.org organized a day of doing things, art, actions that could be photographed to get the number 350 into public awareness, as it's the number climate scientists say we need to cap carbon at. )

I particularly like the one about the kayakers in the Williamette River, but then that's local as far as I'm concerned, and I canoe so I know how hard it is to hold them in place on a river. To see this photo, and the story about it, go here.

Fiber Arts Certificate Program, Exercise #1

2009-10-23T11:57:00.000-07:00

I've started in the Fiber Arts Certificate Program at the University of WashingtonExtension, and we've had a couple of interesting exercises assigned. My daughter wants to see what I'm doing, and posting here to the blog is an easy way to share.

The first quarter focuses on examining materials to develop a visual vocabulary, and establishing a studio practice. She's having us work with materials other than fiber, so that's an interesting departure that's causing me to examine why I prefer fiber. And the connotations of the materials themselves. All food for thought.

The first exercise was based on small group discussions about fiber and our goals, and what stereotypes we have run into. We were supposed to pick a material from around the house that would refute a particular stereotype and do a material study with it. I picked steel wool as not being warm & cuddly, and also not something you would wear on your head. I went past a study with it, because the idea of Barbie in her outfit just tickled me, and I wanted to work small as the steel wool (0000, Super Fine) is not fun to handle. I think she turned out pretty cute.

This one above is the closer in shot, with her posed on the fabric I used for lining & stabilizing the stole and hat. The next one shows the hat from above, so the roll of steel wool is obvious.

It was an interesting exercise, and a lot of fun to see what the other 20some people in the class did.

Buying solar for your house, CA plan goes national

2009-10-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

While I struggle my way back to posting pretty pictures of what art I'm doing, I post this for your edification and amusement. I think I posted last year while on vacation about the California plan to allow people to buy solar panels by borrowing from the government and pay it back as part of the property taxes. Looks like there's a good chance that will be happening at a national level, presumably via encouraging states to do the same programs as California. Since we can sell excess power back to the power company, this seems like a fabulous idea to me. Read about it here.

Interesting economic thoughts, resiliency & tough times

2009-10-13T07:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to an article about being resilient in hard economic times where there are big changes happening. The author writes articles & a book on global terrorism, and his views tend toward the dark, but this is a list of what to do to protect yourself and your community via entrepreneurship. I think it crosses lots of political boundaries and might appeal to many. Read the whole thing here.

Surprise! Big Oil has pro-CO2 website

2009-09-09T06:47:00.000-07:00

I'm sure we're all surprised as all get out at this news. A "citizen" informational website about the benefits of CO2 is actually owned by an oil & gas exploration services company. Astroturf, can you say that?

Details here at grist.org.

Nintendo gets a green roof

2009-08-28T14:12:00.000-07:00

I'm still dealing with medical issues this summer and while I'm trying to get back to blogging regularly, I'll be filling in with interesting links when I don't have an art related post. In that spirit, here's a story about green roofs (and a company called Xero Flor) and the many benefits. I really wish I'd read it before we got our new roof last year. Full story here.

Nissan & Tesla, electric cars real soon now...

2009-08-05T06:40:00.000-07:00

Today's Grist.org email has 2 stories about electric cars. One is the announcement of the Nissan Leaf, a purely electric car that will go up to 100 miles on a charge, and use the swap batteries/recharger strategy outlined by Shai Agassi. Read the full article here.

The second was an announcement of the retail stores opening for the Tesla company. Appointment only, la-di-dah, so big bucks for this car (about $100K). But the article has lots of pretty pictures which can be seen here.

Bixi program, or pedal your own bike taxi...

2009-08-04T09:02:00.000-07:00

Wow, where did July go? I was lost in emotional limbo waiting for some liver testing for my husband and I didn't do much more than the minimum required for daily life. Well, okay, I read a lot of books. Anita Blake, Meredith Gentry and other summer fun reading. But, he doesn't have liver cancer, and we're still doing the tests and I just can't hide anymore.

So, here's a link to an interesting story about bike rentals in Montreal. The comment from lowerh8r gives some first hand info about using them. It's too sad that the process of doing this in San Francisco is being held hostage by bogus claims about bicycles hurting the environment. Check out the story here.

Oil & food, or where does your fresh fruit come from?

2009-06-25T09:18:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting much as we're in the middle of a series of medical tests. That limbo state where nothing definite is known yet but there's lots of bad possibilities is unsettling. However, as I start shopping for summer produce at the farmer's market, this came through my email today, and I thought I'd share.

Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to save Civilization is by Lester R Brown, and has lots of good thoughts about sustainability. Today's excerpt, read the full thing here, is about oil use in food production, from tractors & fertilizer to processing such as canning, freezing or dehydrating. I'll just add there's a link at the end to the next chapter about urban farming, a subject I'm very interested in. Shortcut to it here.

Here's a teaser quote that I hope will encourage others to buy things with less packaging:

The 14 percent of energy used in the food system to move goods from farmer to consumer is equal to two thirds of the energy used to produce the food. And an estimated 16 percent of food system energy use is devoted to canning, freezing, and drying food—everything from frozen orange juice concentrate to canned peas.

Food staples such as wheat have traditionally moved over long distances by ship, traveling from the United States to Europe, for example. What is new is the shipment of fresh fruits and vegetables over vast distances by air. Few economic activities are more energy-intensive.

Food miles—the distance that food travels from producer to consumer—have risen with cheap oil. At my local supermarket in downtown Washington, D.C., the fresh grapes in winter typically come by plane from Chile, traveling almost 5,000 miles. One of the most routine long-distance movements of fresh produce is from California to the heavily populated U.S. East Coast. Most of this produce moves by refrigerated trucks. In assessing the future of long-distance produce transport, one writer observed that the days of the 3,000-mile Caesar salad may be numbered.

Packaging is also surprisingly energy-intensive, accounting for 7 percent of food system energy use. It is not uncommon for the energy invested in packaging to exceed that in the food it contains. Packaging and marketing also can account for much of the cost of processed foods. The U.S. farmer gets about 20 percent of the consumer food dollar, and for some products, the figure is much lower. As one analyst has observed, “An empty cereal box delivered to the grocery store would cost about the same as a full one.”

Village Building & bike/sail food transport

2009-06-15T06:42:00.000-07:00

Today's email brought a report (see full text here) about the Village Building Convergence in Portland, and how their food was transported mostly by sail and/or bicycle. I love hearing how people are making these changes now, before it's all $8/gallon gas, and fights in lines at the gas stations. (Anybody else old enough to remember the embargo in the 70's?) Some great pictures of bikes hauling cargo and some good pointers to others doing good work. An interesting tie in with Langley in that Robert Gilman was a featured speaker. He's now a councilman in Langley where I spent a great time last weekend.

Teaser quote from the article:

The essence of the Village Building Convergence (VBC) can be glimpsed in the project-sharing. After our bike-cart/sailboat delivery of produce on Friday, when everyone had sat down to a splendid vegan dinner (on real plates and steel utensils), three urban ecovillage/co-housing projects in Portland shared their progress. The amount of energy saving, depaving, recycling, composting, gardening, natural building, tool-sharing, car-sharing, consensus decision-making, renewable energy, common meals, etc., were impressive and thus cheered.

Net-zero (almost) energy house being built now!

2009-06-12T07:08:00.000-07:00

I spent last weekend on Whidbey Island again, this time for a birthday weekend getaway with the hubster, Jeff. There will be fabulous pictures of the garden and the rufous hummingbirds soon. But today's email brought news I just had to share - there's a green house being built here in Bellevue that will have almost net-zero energy costs. They're combining new insulation materials with a vegetated roof and solar water heating to reduce the energy costs below $500 a year. I'm excited to see this happening so I'm sharing their webpage here. I think people need an example of what can be done now and this is a good first step.

Nature makes you healthier, who knew? (hint: ecopsychologists)

2009-05-28T12:07:00.000-07:00

Today's email brought a link to an interesting article about studies done showing that patients in a hospital with a view of trees got out a day faster, used less pain medication, and complained less than patients recovering from the same surgery who had a view of a brick wall. My initial reaction is, well, duh! but a lot of psychology consists of these types of studies verifying scientifically what seems obvious about people. Even better, it's now a branch of psychology with its own journal.

Teaser quote: But if exposure to nature is beneficial, what happens when we withdraw from it? That's one of the defining questions for ecopsychology -- an emerging branch of psychology rooted in the idea that mental health requires, in addition to strong bonds with fellow humans, a connection with nature and an understanding of our place in the ecosystem we are a part of.

Read the whole article here.

Wine, women and quilting; Part II

2009-05-20T13:33:00.001-07:00

Here are the promised pictures of some of the work I did while at the quilting retreat in Langley. I missed getting them up yesterday due to spending the day taking the cat to the vet. (Small digression: Cat seems better even though the vet can't figure out which mild stomach problem is causing his vomiting without several hundred dollars more in tests. I figure since he stops vomiting when we give him soft food, that's what we'll do. ) Mostly I got part way on several pieces. The only finished thing I did was a copy of my favorite shirt, and sorry, no photo of it for now.

The first piece (about 18 x 24") started as a class exercise in a class taught by Esterita Austin. I learned a lot about highlights and shadows, and using paint to make the appliqued pieces look more 3D. That would be the rocks and the tree. On retreat, I added the heron, and did some texturing using rubbing plates & stamps with the fabric dye crayons I like. I wanted to get more a visual difference between the water and sky parts of the piece. I'm going to add some more emphasis on the heron (not to mention legs), so the level of detail on the rocks isn't so different, and some further elements in the sky. Then, I'll decide on the quilting. I like how it's shaping up.

Next, I decided that I liked Gaia's Dancer so much that I wanted to work further with that fabric and theme. This piece is the result - I have more to do in adding foreground creatures. In one of my online groups, we're going to be doing an exhibit with a theme of The Spirit of Nature and I'm going to try out some ideas I have for that on this piece. This is also about 16 x 24 in size. For an idea of relative sizes, the earth globe is about 3.5 inches in diameter.

Then I did some smaller pieces - these are 6 x 9, or about that.

A couple of darker background Tiny Dancers, where I experimented with using stencils as rubbing plates. I think the dragon in the one pn the left worked well.

And 2 with a lighter background. I like the way the dancers are almost transparent, letting the pattern of the background fabric show through somewhat. I like the composition on the right more.

And then last, a piece using some leftover fused fabric from a purse that I made. I grew to love armadillos when I was living in Austin, so I had to buy the armadillo fabric when I saw it. I didn't want to let any of them languish in the dark, so here a few are in a small piece.

I'm heading off for a reunion weekend and the Indy 500 race, leaving tomorrow. I'll be working further with all of these after I get back. I hope you also have a good holiday weekend!

Wine, women, and quilting; Part I

2009-05-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

I went on a quilt retreat with 7 women from the Northlake Unitarian Church Seamsters Union (and yes, we have a shop steward...) at the Quilting by the Sea shop/retreat the first weekend in May. I got a lot done, had a great time talking, and sipping some delicious wine with our potluck dinner on Saturday with lots of laughter. I also got in some fabulous walks along the beach before everyone else got up. Yes, I'm the one who wakes at 5:30 no matter what. Since I really like having the time for a bird walk while on Whidbey Island, it all works out fine. (Except for the latte places not opening until 7:30 so not even Langley is perfect.) Here's some pictures I took Sunday morning.

The morning started overcast, but it was obvious the sun was trying to break through the clouds. The first shot is this wonderful heron on the beach, backlit by the clouded sun.

I kept walking toward him, snapping as I went, trying to get the right composition and distance. When I got too close, he took off, flew over the water to a spot behind me on the beach. I am completely satisfied with the picture I got of him in flight - it is uncropped, just the way I shot it. Since my camera has a noticeably lag time between my pushing the button and the picture being taken, this was a big accomplishment for me in using my camera well.

And lastly, I got more pictures of him on an area of the beach where other birds were getting their breakfast.

Lots of inspiration in these shots, and the rest I took. I look forward to using the flying one in particular.

Tomorrow, or Tuesday, I'll have shots of the things I worked on at the retreat.

Infrastructure for relocalizing food supply

2009-05-13T14:25:00.001-07:00

I went out of town the first weekend of the month for a quilt retreat in Langley on Whidbey island, then had to catch up on everything that piled up around the house during the 3 days I was gone, then I spent a few days catching up on a book series I love (Okay, I'll admit it; I adore the Troubleshooters series by Suzanne Brockmann) and then I got the flu. I promise pictures from the quilt retreat Real Soon Now.

However, today's email from Sightline brought this newstory about Montana food production, and how localization supporters and the state are working together to make locally grown food available year round. Before the advent of agribiz, this was the norm. I'm glad to see it's returning, but geez, Montana being the leader? Who woulda thought...

Read the full story here.

Ferns: weekly photo at cougar mtn, 4/21

2009-04-30T16:30:00.000-07:00

Those of you with calendars will probably note that I'm late posting these photos too. My last couple of walks at Cougar mtn got me lots of pictures of the ferns growing out of the moss that grows on the trees. I have a couple of pieces percolating right now, and I'm printing photos on fabric today so that I can work on them this weekend while I'm on Whidbey Island with the Seamsters Union. I don't think I'll be using the first photo because there's too much going on in it. But the second one, the closer one with the little fern, it will definitely be used in some way.

This one is here so people can possibly understand why I'm so obsessed with these ferns. I think it's just amazing, the layering of green that happens in the woods here.

And this one was the first of the close ups of a very small fern growing next to a tiny streamlet. I can't help but wonder if it will survive the summer when the stream will dry up.

microcredit comes to NYC

2009-04-26T10:14:00.000-07:00

In my email this morning was this news from dailygood.org. I pass it along because I think going small (and relocalizing) is the best way out of the current economic problems for most of us.

My greatest challenge has been to change the mindset of people. Mindsets play strange tricks on us. We see things the way our minds have instructed our eyes to see. /--Muhammad Yunus/

*Good News of the Day:*
Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, known as the "banker to the poor" for making small loans in impoverished countries, is now doing business in the center of capitalism -- New York City. In the past year the first U.S. branch of his Grameen Bank has lent $1.5 million, ranging from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, to nearly 600 women with small business plans in the city's borough of Queens. People around the country are struggling to repay mortgages and credit card debts, but Grameen America says its loan repayment rate is more than 99 percent. [ full story here ]

Backyard Bushtits series finished! Finally!

2009-04-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

So here are the completed 4 pieces that were all done starting with the backyard bushtit photo I blogged about earlier, when I finished the first piece. It's taken me over a week to get the photos taken so I could blog about them, and I'm not completely happy with the first photo, but it's "Ship It!" time so here they are.

The first 2 pieces are both about 8 x 8 finished size. And all four are put on stretcher bars so they are ready to hang. I haven't done any pieces this way before and that was a learning experience. (This shot came out a bit darker than I'd like so I'll probably redo it, but not today. I'm itching to go work on my new pieces.)

Backyard Bushtits #3 is approximately 10" x 20" and was my first attempt to explore the theme of birds living in the nooks and crannies that we leave them.

This turned out to be the one I liked the best after it was finished. I didn't completely like the batik fabric that I intercut through the picture as I thought it made it too jangly and disrupted. So I added the silkscreening after I'd already pieced it. (And after #4 was halfway done...) And that didn't quite do it, so I added some more stenciling and watercolor highlights on top of it all.
I think this is the one that gets across my idea, and has the most coherent design.

After being unhappy with #3, I thought about just doing intercut fabric in one direction. Thus, I came up with #4. It's okay, but not as appealing to me as #3. It's also not as big as #3 being only
9" x 17". I did like the effect of silkscreening on the fabric I used to slice up the bird photo and I'll probably be doing this some more in future work.

Frankly, this was an exercise in doing a series, to stretch my own process, and experiment with working multiple interpretations of an idea at a time. I learned a lot about how I work, and got some ideas tried out that had been bubbling in my head for a while. It was worth the effort and I hope, in addition, some of you like some of the pieces that resulted.

Earth Jurisprudence: Legal rights for Gaia

2009-04-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

I blogged about Ecuador adding legal rights for nature in their rewritten constitution. And here's a link to an article about where else the idea is catching on, including Vermont (no surprise there) and Maine, where local communities are using the idea to fight corporations (such as Nestle) who want to use their aquifers for bottled water without regard to the local communities' desires or the aquifer recharge rate.

Read the full article here.

I am particularly excited to hear about the folks at the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), based in Pennsylvania. They're providing legal assistance to communities both locally and internationally. I'm intending to look at what I can do to support them. See their webpage at www.celdf.org. If the rules aren't working, and I believe they're not, then we need to change them rather than wait for disaster.

Weekly photo: Larsen lake greenbelt, 4/11

2009-04-13T14:29:00.000-07:00

Having successfully recovered after surgery and the almost neverending flu, I have resumed my weekly photo taking. I took the camera along to Larsen Lake, and was fascinated by the pussy willows budding out. I don't know what the yellow things I photographed are called, but I really liked their shape and contrast against the grey stones on the greenbelt trail. This one was taken using the macro lens on my camera.

And here's a more distant shot of the same things still on the bare branches of one of the many willows along the lake.

I'm mulling over how to use the macro one in a fiber art piece. I'm thinking I'll work smaller, probably 8 x 11 and see what happens if I focus on the textures and contrast of the colors.

Here's hoping you're finding your own inspiration this spring!

Tidal power test in BC

2009-04-10T10:53:00.001-07:00

Today's email brought a story about British Columbia testing tidal power generation in the islands off Vancouver Island. Since I live in the Pacific Northwest area, I follow water power ideas. I think each region will have to find alternate power sources that suit their strengths. Solar in Arizona, hydro in the PNW. Apparently, some of the folks in BC think the same.

First few paragraphs:

North Vancouver Island will soon be home to the first commercial-scale tidal current electrical turbine in North America.

The B.C. government announced last week that it is giving $2 million in funding to Canoe Pass Tidal Energy Corporation for the project.

Company officials said the turbine will be running before the end of 2010 in the tidal channel between Quadra and Maude Island, north of Campbell River.

To read the full article, go here.

I'm Back! with electric vehicle updates...

2009-04-07T14:40:00.000-07:00

I seem to finally be over the dreadful flu and post-surgery lassitude that has overwhelmed me for the last couple of months. So, I'm starting off my return to blogging with a couple of links about electric vehicles. One is Segway's 2 seater version of their personal transportation. Since it has 2 wheels, and no motor, is it legally a bicycle? I'm looking forward to trying one out. Check it out here.

The next bit of news is about a trial run of a fully electric car in Vancouver BC. The vehicle is freeway capable, and is from Mitsubishi. It's being tested in several cities. Read the full article here.

Wow, this is sure happening fast. And a good thing too, if the recent articles about Antarctic ice melting are any indication.

Gratitude is good for you...

2009-03-23T11:36:00.000-07:00

Today's email brought a link from DailyGood on gratitude and its effect on the parasympathetic nerve system. Turns out it's good for you physically to think about things that you feel grateful for, that enrich your life. Good thoughts, good health. What a concept.

Read the whole thing here.

Artists reinvent the world, sustainably...

2009-03-20T15:15:00.000-07:00

I'm not doing much art myself right now, as I suffer through what is apparently the longest case of flu on record, but I wanted to share this article about artists in Detroit buying up abandoned houses and turning them into off-grid homes. I was talking about this sort of idea to my husband when I heard about houses in Cleveland going for $2000 on ebay. It's an interesting idea, and I think we'll see it spread. Housing is a huge part of normal living costs. If you can slice that down to nothing, and you make your living through galleries or the net, well, it makes a lot of sense.

Here's a teaser paragraph:
"Although it is small consolation in the face of overwhelming economic strife in Detroit and elsewhere as the foreclosure crisis continues, this story gave me a real feeling of hope and renewal. To me, this example and other corresponding cases – like the artist-driven re-imaginings of shopping malls and big box stores seems symbolic of an even larger cultural shift. The arts community isn't just moving into one downtrodden urban neighborhood; rather, they're taking on the ruins of the unsustainable. They're taking on big box stores, shopping malls, and grid-connected homes in the car capitol of North America. And they're not just creating new art. They're seizing the opportunity to turn old shells of buildings into independent, renewable energy-powered, 21st century-ready spaces."

Talk about recycle, reuse or make do! For the full story, go here.

Friedman on moving to a sustainable culture

2009-03-10T10:28:00.000-07:00

Today's email from Culture Change brought a column from Thomas L. Friedman, the nationally syndicated columnist. I guess if even the East Coast intellectuals are catching on, it must be true, eh? I liked the commentary that Culture Change had to make so I'm passing on the link for their reprint rather than the direct link to the column.

I particularly liked this paragraph:

Let’s today step out of the normal boundaries of analysis of our economic crisis and ask a radical question: What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: “No more.”

Read the whole column here.

Junk Cars morph into green manufactured homes

2009-02-26T10:11:00.000-08:00

Okay, that headline caught my eye in my morning email. An interesting lead, especially for someone married to an engineer type, made me go read the whole article. Super energy efficient affordable homes made from scrap cars. I can only applaud...

Read the article here.

Herbal chai, tasty and fights colds

2009-02-25T11:03:00.000-08:00

As my winter cold is dragging on and on and on, I'm realizing that I haven't been drinking my cold weather daily cup of herbal chai. Could be part of the problem. And since I'm hearing from friends that they too are having cold/flu problems, I thought I'd share the recipe. I got this recipe from an acupuncturist when I was living in Boulder. I found it did indeed help me feel warmer and fight sinus congestion. And it's very tasty.

1.5 inches fresh ginger root (peeled or unpeeled, doesn't seem to matter) sliced thinly
8-10 cinnamon sticks (I split mine in half to get more exposure to the water)
10 cardamon pods (or about 50 cardamon seeds if you can't get pods) Split the pods open slightly
10 whole cloves
5 peppercorns

Put everything in 5 cups water, Boil for 30 minutes total. I bring it to a boil, reduce the heat and put a lid on the pot with a slight gap at the edge of the lid. Add honey, lemon, milk or rice milk to taste. I have also used heated herbal chai as water to make tea with when I want the kind of chai you get at a latte stand.

Yields about a quart of chai.

Recycling pillows and green living tips

2009-02-23T06:41:00.000-08:00

One of my regular emails is a green living tips newsletter. This time, I did let myself get distracted by the sidebar link to one about recycling/repurposing foam pillows. With my allergies, we do this regularly because of accumulated allergens and dust mites and it always gives me a twinge to toss them so frequently. I especially like the post from Sheila in Texas about repurposing multiple things. Lots and lots of tips from all sorts of people make this a very useful place.

Check it out here: green living tips. They plant a tree via Trees for the Future for each new subscriber so just subscribing will help the planet. How cool is that?

Backyard Bushtits #1 finally finished

2009-02-19T09:53:00.000-08:00

I've obviously been trying to go faster than my body wants, as I'm struggling with a cold in addition to the surgery recovery so it's taken me quite some time to finish up Backyard Bushtits #1. BUT, it's done, finished, even ready to hang and it will be put on my etsy store sometime next week.

I learned a lot from doing this work in a series and I'll post later about the rest of the pieces as they finish up. Right now there are 4 of them. I've put the word "LESSON" in caps throughout my post for the things I've learned.

Here's the photo I started with. The bushtits travel in large flocks, up to a couple of dozen little birds, and they tumble across backyards here in western washington. (Probably elsewhere, but I'm not motivated enough right now to go look up their range map. I leave it as an exercise for the reader.) I really liked the way the four of them looked like a puppy pile so I snapped the photo through the greenhouse window in my kitchen and played with it in adobe until I had it cropped to a pleasing composition. LESSON #1: my technique of cutting up photos and doing a textile collage with them works better when I don't start with a good composition. It's much harder to create one that's different from the photo when I like the photo just fine to start with.

Here's the top without much done to it. I was not happy with it, and did a little in the way of paintstiks and stamps to try and rescue it with varying the colors and tones a bit. LESSON #2: remember the one rule (vary all intervals) from the beginning. The photo has more contrast and variation than the fabric printed version of the photo and I ended up having to add that back in. When it prints on the fabric and loses all the variation in color/tone that it had to start with, maybe it's time to switch to another photo or idea. It's not like I have a shortage of them, anyway....

Then I did more surface design work on it, and quilted it lightly, then put it on stretcher bars. I'm okay with how it looks, altho the composition is still more static than I like. LESSON #3: Get the composition right to begin with, improv work can go on top of a good composition but can't correct one I don't like to start with. LESSON #4: don't put the batting all the way out to the edge of the fabric for stretcher bars. I don't like the bulk on the sides and corners when I wrap the fabric around with the batting going all the way to the edges. We'll see if I can get this one better on #2 which is now in the quilting phase and should be finished before Monday.

I'll just point out that the yellow added to the birds shows up much stronger in the photo than it does in person. I'll have to play with the photography before I list this piece on my etsy store. I'm not entirely sure it's fixable as part of the problem is the reflective quality of the silk I printed the photo on. The other possibility is that the watercolor pencils I used reflect differently enough that they will always pop out visually in a photo. We'll have to see...

weekly photo: Larsen lake 1/31

2009-02-09T21:20:00.000-08:00

I'm late posting last weekend's photo, which is just as well, as I didn't get photos this weekend because I'm having a delayed reaction to having surgery. I'm spending a few days curled up in my pj's and reading rather than doing much of anything. But, last weekend, I took some photos at Larsen Lake. The first one is another interesting one of the great blue heron. It's official, I am obsessed with him.

The second is a possible starting point for a piece based on "urban decay". It's not really the typical urban shot, but Larsen Lake is within sight of a major street, and in the middle of a city, so that sounds pretty urban to me. I like the reflections on the water and may end up using it for something else if I find something more appropriate for the urban decay piece.

Going green: high speed rail

2009-02-03T08:59:00.000-08:00

While we're looking at spending money on national infrastructure and building the future green economy, here's some thoughts about how we can try to catch up with others who already have high speed rail. The source of this excerpt, Plan B 3.0 by Lester Brown, is one of the books being used by the folks in Washington and other places to push for a comprehensive restructuring of the US economy. I think they're aiming in the right direction so it's worth checking out.

http://www.earthpolicy.org/Books/Seg/PB3ch11_ss5.htm

Weekly photo: Larsen lake greenbelt, 1/25

2009-01-30T16:44:00.000-08:00

There's been a great blue heron at Larson Lake around the time I normally walk about half the time over the past 2 weeks. He likes a stump that juts out of the lake fairly close to the pier I go out on when I walk. But he doesn't like people being too close. So when I go on the pier, he flies across the lake to the quieter part on the other side. I've been using my photos of herons a lot lately - I seem to have a thing for them right now. I'm already planning how to turn this photo into a piece. I like the lines and colors of the bare branches and the reflection of the light on the lake.

Since the heron shot was at a distance, I decided to do a closeup shot of something. I'm in a facebook art group that's talking about texture right now so I tried to find something that showed the texture of the woods in winter. Here are 3 shots of the same spot with the log shifted in the view. I'm trying to decide which I like best as a composition. Comments on your choice are welcome.

First, I spotted the log, liked the texture of the cut end, and the moss growing on the side. So, like any snapshot, I put it in the center.

Then I decided to focus on the moss, so I shot it with the cut end to the right side of the view.

And last, I decided I liked the parallel line of the snag in the background so I shot it with the mossy log on the left.

It was definitely an interesting exercise in looking closely and thinking about composing with the camera. I think I'll learn a lot this year from doing these weekly shots. And it should be a fascinating look at how my local spots change over time. My opinion: I think #2 is the most effective composition, but I'm not entirely able to say exactly why.

Art: Working smaller, adding texture

2009-01-27T13:41:00.000-08:00

I sent off a piece to the SAQA 20th anniversary traveling exhibit yesterday after facing an interesting couple of challenges in creating something for it. I had 2 new constraints: an 8" limit on the size of the final image, and a square format. I usually work in a much larger rectangle. But, this is an important exhibition to participate in, so I dug in and went to work.

First of all, here's the piece that went off, Tiny Dancers #1. It was my second try at a subject after I was so unhappy with the first one. I feel that I managed to work smaller with this piece and still have my love of color and sense of design show well. I've also combined motifs from two earlier works so in addition to working smaller, I'm doing a series. That's a realization from hindsight.

The idea came to me in that foggy pre-sleep time in bed on Friday night. It was fused, stamped, stitched and photographed by Sunday noon. This working smaller could become addictive...

Also, this finished at 9.5" square and will be matted so that only 8" shows. I'm hoping they realize they should cut off the bottom of the globe, not the outstretched hand of the dancer. At least, that's what I'd do. I'm looking forward to seeing it in the exhibit of work by all us studio art quilters.

My first try at a piece was completely unsatisfactory. I didn't take a picture of it and now wish I had so I could show the before and after. I started with a photo of bushtits in my backyard. I loved the texture of the lichen on the tree branches and the way it echoed the color of the tiny bushtits. And I loved the way the 4 little birds were almost doing a puppy pile. But, when I cut the photo printed on fabric up and fused it to the background hand dyed fabric, it was all a monochromatic blur. I wasn't happy. And running it by my husband, the red green colorblind family member who aids me as a tonal viewer, verified that it was impossible to see anything but a dappled green square. So I set it aside, and fretted about what to do, and then had my aha! moment which resulted in the Tiny Dancers #1 piece above.

As part of Tiny Dancers, I pulled out some fabric dye crayons and stamps and texture plates to pull things together a bit. The spirals I added to TD this way aren't as noticeable because of the richness of the background fabric. But, I liked the effect enough to start wondering if this wasn't a way to rescue the poor bushtits. So, I went to town, experimenting with everything that seemed likely and using lots of different colors. I really like the result. The visual texture I added between the photo pieces highlights the lichen texture on the branches that I absolutely love. And the orange and navy bits make the green and grey less bland. It's still a calmer piece than is usual for me, but I no longer want to burn it so I'm calling it good.

It's 11" square right now, so there's quite a bit on the edges that I was considering excess. I'm thinking I'll put it on stretcher bars so it finishes to the 8" square size that is intended. And then move on to the next experiment using this photo and see what else I can discover about how I work.

Going from greed to green

2009-01-23T09:05:00.000-08:00

Today's email brought an article "7 Fixes from the Green Economy" which I thought worth sharing. There's a discussion of what to do as individuals, how it fits into a bigger plan, and how to pay for the changes without furthering damaging the economy. Since one of my goals for this year is maximizing energy efficiency in our house, I'm interested in sources that relate to that. This looks like a good one.

2009 Goals

2009-01-21T05:52:00.000-08:00

In the course of a wide-ranging discussion of New Year's resolutions, one of my fellow quiltart members recommended a book entitled Your Best Year Yet. I checked it out of the library and found I already knew most of the material, but realized I hadn't been applying it as well as I'd like so I decided to come up with a goal list for this year. And stick to just those goals. My problem being that I tend to overcommit my time and energy.

Here's my list for this coming year, focusing on the major 3 areas I want to work in:

ART

Redo webpage using plone or other cms

Add galleries with thumbnails
Create separate blog for sales or add shopping cart to webpage

Increase productivity/skills

Work in studio daily
Take classes (digital camera, painting)

Produce income

Teach classes
Add shirts for sales
List small pieces for sale online

SELF

Take Reiki Level 3 training

Chakra owner's manual work

Lose 20 pounds

Return exercise to base level
Cut back on extras in diet (less wine and chocolate)

Declutter life

Focus on main roles/goals
Get rid of stuff that's not being used or creating beauty in my life

HOUSEHOLD

Increase food production in garden

Plant perennial veggies
Increase food preservation skills

Maximize energy efficiency

Garage insulation
Energy audit

Paint exterior

Get quotes
Estimate labor/costs to do ourselves

Investigate IRA land possibilities

The book recommends 10 goals and I've exceeded that limit slightly. How typical. However, all progress is made one step at a time so this is my first step.

Weekly photo: Cougar Mtn Park

2009-01-19T14:03:00.000-08:00

This year, I'm focusing on doing more fiber art using photos printed on fabric. Mostly I'll be using ones I take of birds and local landscapes, with a few bird shots from a couple of bird photographers I'm hoping to work with. In order to do this, I have to take pictures. So, one of the things to do to accomplish my goal is to take weekly pictures on my walks at either the greenbelt (Blueberry Lake) or Cougar Mountain Park. This week's photos are from Cougar Mountain. Some of the spring plants are budding out, but mostly there's the winter sparseness. And the winter water so that the streams are still running. I looked for things that might inspire me to interpret them or incorporate them into a fiber piece. This is one of the possibles from this week. I liked the way the water glimmered between the dead leaves and the stark tree trunks.

The second photo is from Coal Creek which runs along the meadow restoration site. I'm fascinated by the creek and the very narrow footbridge crossing it. Today, a fern next to the bridge caught my eye.

Going green, national level plan

2009-01-14T06:24:00.001-08:00

I get a lot of email from a lot of different sites about what they're doing, and today brought news of The Real Deal, from the Post Carbon Institute. I've skimmed it this morning, and it looks like it's written at a reasonable level, both in covering why we need to act and what there is to do. I'm glad to see a coherent plan laid out, and equally glad to see they're getting name endorsements so it stands a chance of getting publicity. It's only 24 pages long which is also a big plus.

Check it out: http://www.postcarbon.org/real-new-deal.

Reinstalling my computer - or what I did with my weekend

2009-01-11T20:53:00.000-08:00

My computer crashed. I was forced to realize how much I rely on this technology to stay connected to the people in my life. I'd been thinking of reinstalling because something went wrong with the computer writing to CDs so this just sort of moved everything up. I first tried to avoid it by cleaning up the drive and defragging which took all day Saturday, and I'll just note that the defragging shows a really pretty colored display showing before and after. I'd just recommend that people do this for their machines a little more frequently than every 5 years. Today was spent admitting defeat, and reinstalling. The problem with reinstalling is that you also have to reinstall all the software you want to continue to use. I'm about halfway through that, and have a couple of things to recommend, just in case you want to avoid the pain I'm suffering. First, keep all the installation disks in one place, including any drivers you've downloaded, especially if you keep hardware until it dies and the drivers might no longer be on the websites of the manufacturer. Second, do regular backups and keep those with the installation stuff. Third, a list of software you've installed from downloads would also be a good idea. We had to create the lists for all of these items and I'll just say how happy I am that my darling husband is a professional in the computer field and very knowledgeable about Microsoft. Otherwise, I have no idea how long I'd still be doing all of this. I'm still not done, there's a bunch of stuff to reinstall, plus restoring the backed up data. But I'm past the worst of it, especially the frustration of not being able to respond to comments, or even read my email.

Gaia's Dance - first art of 2009

2009-01-08T13:53:00.000-08:00

I finished a piece that's been in the works for over a year. Finally. And I'm really happy with the results. I'm submitting it to the Sacred Threads show but won't hear if it's been accepted or not until the end of March. Here's the full size photo of the piece.

And here's a detail shot of the quilting. I did a post earlier of the trial piece for the quilting so some of this should look familiar to anyone who saw that post.

For those who are interested in the technical details, the piece is 38" wide and 47" high. The little dancing people are cut from several different fabrics and were individually hand cut (hence the long elapsed time as after cutting them all out, I needed to take a break). The globe and the lotus blossoms were printed on silk using my epson cx3810 printer.

I'm really pretty happy with it and I'm looking forward to applying some of the things I learned to future pieces.

Winter Holiday 2008 & wool batting quilt

2008-12-26T11:21:00.000-08:00

We are having a wonderful visit with our daughter Allie who is with us for Christmas. The snowfall just before Christmas was incredible, as seen in the photo below. Every branch of every tree had 2-3 inches of snow on it. If you click on the photo, you should be able to see amazing detail. Fortunately, the roads cleared by Christmas Eve so Allie could drive down from Bellingham after digging the car out of a snow bank.

For her present this year, I made a lap quilt with wool batting. This is the first time I've used a wool batting so of course, I asked on the quiltart list for advice on using it. I got the usual expert advice and proceeded to make what appears to be a quite cozy quilt. Allie is sensitive to the cold, and Bellingham gets colder winters than we do here in Bellevue, so I thought a nice wool lap quilt to cuddle up under would be just the thing. I also had bought the Betty Boop on motorcycles fabric intending to make something cute for her. I decided to pick up the black and white check motif from the Boops and used an asymetrical log cabin style block. I think the Boop side came out nice.

For the back, I had intended to run to the quilt store and buy some stylish retro black and chartreuse fabric as she loves those colors. The snow kept me from going shopping so I had to fall back on my stash. Looking at the black and white cat fabric (visible in the closeup photo),

I decided to use the Burch cats, and the green polka dot fabric that went with it. I wanted something quick as I was running out of time and didn't want a complicated quilt. The big strips of fabric (5.5" wide) worked well and gave me a good idea for some quick quilting.

I didn't quite get the quilting finished before she arrived, so I wrapped it up, put it under the tree, and included a note promising to finish Christmas Day while we did our traditional lounge around & watch videos marathon. I got it finished by dinner time and she slept with it last night. A great finish to a wonderful day.

Here's hoping your winter holiday was as satisfying!