branching out

it looks like i misled you from your comments. i am not on the coast; i was there last week. i am in bend, oregon... sort of in the middle of the state, south of mt. hood, in the salisaw forest. there has been a fire and the land is rebirthing. today we went on a field trip to see some of these magnificent tree ghosts. it was a great composition study in black and white. the feeling was etherial. don't despair though the whole forest wasn't destroyed. and it is recovering quite nicely. there is plenty of green as well! there is certainly a lot of inspiration here for our theme.

fly away

the coast was fabulous and there are so many pictures i would share... i should start a flicker page but i have had some trouble getting that up and running and have no time to sort it out now. maybe in september. for now, i have flown away to my next adventure. tomorrow i will start my week studying with rosalie. changing my focus from the sea to trees. we will be creating a quilt top that will evoke trees. it will be abstract. i have my series of trees printed on organza as well as a lot of ephemera for embellishing, including some silk rods from grace. i really can't wait for the fun to begin... and then when i get back jude's class will soon be starting! how good can it get?

branching out

well i have no photo of fabrics for now... but i have completed my dyeing task... a forest floor combination from melissa at fabric dyeing 101. and a nice little run of greens that i did myself. why am i dyeing all this fabric, you might ask? well when i get back from the coast, i will only have a couple of days left to get myself organized for "branching out" with rosalie dace. she is from so. africa and she is coming to sisters, oregon to teach at jean wells' stitchin' post. are we lucky or what? google her and see what she does... it is really beautiful... its a different type of story cloth... the photo is one that i took recently and will be transferring to organza and other fabrics to incorporate into the piece i will do in class. i'll be at the coast until thurs... its predicted to be windy and cool so the surf will be great to watch... we can never go in here in oregon anyway, so we might as well have a show! and it will bring good things in with the tide...i am really looking forward to this! stay tuned!

again

and again, time has passed by in the wink of an eye...
we are about to embark on some serious canning and then to the beach... in between times we take care of family and suffer the heat while entertaining out of town company...and today a four year old birthday party! talk about time flying by....
i have my dye station all ready to go so will attack that first thing in the am. who knows, maybe i will have something to show soon... will it be tuna , peaches or cloth? or maybe all three!
i am more at ease with it though, than i was last week.
thanks for your supportive messages!

beauty all around us, we just need to look.

i went out to my magnolia tree to bring in a bloom for the bedroom, as the scent is so lovely. i couldn't resist taking a few pictures. i had never seen the inside of a magnolia... exquisite! don't you just love those curls?

never enough time

some days i pull into the garage and want to go straight into the sewing room instead of upstairs to responsibility... today i had promised to make a lasagne from scratch for my husband and my son... it was fun... i do like making pasta from scratch.... and i like it that i grew the tomatoes last year and canned them and now have made sauce with garlic and basil i have grown and that i make the bechamel sauce for on top and then grate the cheese and spread the duxelles anf the ricotta. it all pleases me very much... but its what i have done all my life. now i finally thought i would have time to pursue fibers. no kids at home...far from it... and no need to go to work each day. but i am older and it takes more time to do things. and i have to spend more time taking care of my body. family issues take up time too. and caring for a husband... not that he has intense needs... he is an artist and understands if the dishes aren't done. he even does them from time to time and his own laundry too now. all in the guise of helping me to have more time in the studio..... so why don't i seem to have "enough" time?

trying something new

before i could quilt this piece that i did in jean wells' intuitive quilting class last may... i wanted to test the new batting i am trying out. this is called "deconstructed nine patch"



so i challenged myself to work quickly without over thinking...something i tend to do if i am not under a time constraint. i've been thinking of my next series since i got back from morocco... you can see the pictures here... http://web.me.com/nddas
there are also pics from japan there...
i'll talk more about my new series later but for now here is what i did today. it is not quilted or embellished yet. its working title is "listen to the call". ignore the little white squares... i couldn't crop them out.

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