Strange timing

The day after little Agnes died, I learned that 4 of my art pieces had been accepted in a local Cartoon and Humorous Art show.  One featured her as a character in a painting.  It was impossible to be very happy at that point, but I was grateful to have the work to do to ready the pictures for the show.  I had the pictures, which I'd painted using Photoshop, printed on silk, and then I mounted them on white needle felted wool, so that the effect would be soft.  Yesterday, I delivered them to the gallery, but took this picture first...you can see her little face, and the carved rock which the veterinary hospital sent to me, as well as the Keep Calm Carry On water bottle my son sent.  Once the show opens I'll post a photo of the pictures...at least I think I will...I am a big worrier about how they will look in public.  Anyway, all this has been therapeutic and a month has gone by, which is astonishing. 

That's all for now...

Very Sad News

Hello everyone,
Dear little Agnes passed away during her Dental Procedure this morning.  Her heart stopped beating and they weren't able to start it up again, despite every effort.  It wasn't anyone's fault.  She lived with me for 7 years...she was 3 when she came here, but she might have been older.  I will tell more of her story some day, meanwhile here is a picture of her on Valentine's day with the heart bisquit that friend Pat gave her.  She was the lovingest, dearest creature imaginable.

To the farm

Hello everyone...on Sunday we went to the farm.  First there was snow on Mt. Diablo, an unusual sight, the snow, that is:

Then comes all this beautiful green grass on the windmill pass into the Great Valley:

And here is the river my friends live next to...all swollen with the winter rains...just a little more water and they would have to evacuate, but so far the storms are spaced far enough apart that they're safe.  As I write this, I'm thinking of my friends in Australia and New Zealand who are getting the brunt of the worst.  My prayers go there.

I finished basting a big panel for my grandson's quilt and have started outlining the letters using one of the techniques taught by Jude in the boro class:

And here is Agnes, all snuggled up next to the the thread nest.  She's resting up for the big Dental Experience she'll be having next week at the animal hospital.

That's all for now!

Overnight guest

Hello everyone.  Things have been a little busy around here...Agnes' friend Zoe came over for an experimental sleepover, to see if they would be compatible for a longer stay.  Agnes did a little growling, but overall it was a positive experience...here is a preliminary sniff...

I did go to see some of the Lunar New Year festivities at the Community Center.  The Chinese after-school program had some wonderful performances...the room was packed...

Here's my first experimental "weaving without a foundation" for Jude's Contemporary Boro Weaving class.  We are learning many intriguing new techniques.

Have also been continuing to needle-felt.  This one is called "Bumped":

That's all for now!

Home Sweet Home

Hello everyone! I'm back from a satisfying family holiday in Ohio.  I've missed you all.  Here's a nearly complete sampling of the presents I made for everyone.  The goal was usefulness, so I zeroed in on trivets and bookmarks:

A mountain in Nevada, taken through the train window:

And this is Agnes, sight-seeing on the way home after spending the holidays on the farm with our dear friends.

Happy New Year dear readers!

The Watusi

Well, last weekend we had another big adventure.  First, Agnes had her portrait made by our photographer friend and former student Dorothy:

Then, we went out to the farm to celebrate yet ANOTHER birthday, this time Farmer Kat's:

Here is her  stitched card (sorry, the colors aren't very accurate) with lots of special indigo fabric from Glennis and with some fabric weaving as learned from Jude and a picture of the donkeys as printed by the Pixeladies:

And THEN, we all went for a ride to see The Watusi!  He is a special breed of bull, which originated in Africa, who is presently living in a field with the Texas Longhorns.  I hope I am not stretching my credibility too far, but we saw this amazing beast with all of our eyes...no photoshopping!

And here, in case this brings back dancing memories, is the Watusi song:

Moving through reality.

Here is Agnes deciding to go home with me rather than with the group of less shaggy dogs who are more or less in her size range.   Since this picture was taken some of her hair was shaved off to help with a skin problem.  She asked me not to include a picture of that.

This is a small cloth I started when it looked like my beautiful sunflower was not going to last very long, due to the sly, cheeky squirrel.  (I was right.)  But it's been fun working on this...the base is made of silk batting with a layer of gauze on top.  I've been incorporating ideas from Jude's workshops. There's a long way to go still.

This is the sunflower now.  Sigh.  That's Molly the dove in the background.

It's a long story, but before my return to sewing, I spent many years creating images on the computer. They turned into a series that revolved around a horse character, O.P. (Opie)  I used to sell them at Farmers' Markets, but not lately.  SO!  I'm going to try putting some of them in the Mostly Threads Shop. Perhaps the Nurse Series will also become cards.  We'll see how it goes, but here's a picture of the first one, in its cellophane package; it's in the shop.

The Mystery of the Sneaky Harvester

Yesterday, I went out to the farm in the Valley and passed a field of pumpkins, waiting to be picked:

Today, I was working a little on this:

 

and this:

When suddenly I looked up at the apple tree, and saw THIS lying on a branch:

Then, looking over at my beautiful sunflower, my first EVER, I saw this:

Someone has been harvesting my sunflower!  Maybe it was that cheeky squirrel who quarrels with Agnes. Or maybe it was the crow who hides out in the liquidamber tree singing strangely percussive chants.

Whatever it is, I thought I better quick put up a couple of photos of my sunflower whilst it is still partially around.  Here it is as a very very young sunflower blossom:

And here is what is thankfully still there:

Happy October dear readers.

Switching gears

Yesterday we drove out to visit my dear friends at the farm.  Lunch is always amazing but this corn particularly so.  It was so sweet and so Yellow...I wish I could capture the color...pure sunshine.  Oh my!

I pulled off the road on the way home to take this picture or maybe just to linger a little longer. It's looking west in the Central Valley toward the Coastal Mountains.

Am going to get back to work for a while on the Farm Cloth...here's the project:

And here's another one that I stitched on the train going East and need to do some more work on.  It's of a mysterious island nearby:

So life is not boring, but all that driving is kind of tiring and here's Agnes at the end of the day:

An unusual visitor

This pigeon appeared in my yard one afternoon recently.  Right next to the aviary where the doves, Edgar and Molly, live.  The pigeon looked serenely up at me and seemed to be enjoying pecking around for seeds.  Then I noticed he/she had bands on the ankles.  I thought, hmmm...perhaps I should do something...perhaps he/she belongs to someone...so I resolved to think more seriously about it, not knowing quite what I ought to do.  The next morning he/she popped up on the fence and looked directly at me as Agnes (dog) and I were heading out to the dogpark...it was quite a look and I resolved that if the pigeon made another appearance, I would capture it (how??) and ask someone what to do.  Well, it didn't reappear...probably a wise decision, as Agnes' welcoming statement might have meant The End, and my next door neighbor has a cat, but in the meantime he/she posed quite grandly for this photo, and I feel that the visit was a blessing.

Mobile stitching

Trying to create a habit of taking projects to work on with me everywhere.  Sometimes I forget but yesterday I had a long wait in a waiting room and made good progress on the little Agnes cloth.  It's for Liam's quilt but hasn't been stitched down yet.  The second example is an experimental combining of 2 cloths.  Both pieces use techniques from Jude's workshops.  These are so light and manageable and fun to work on that it makes waiting into treasure time.

It's been pretty cool lately, perfect for walking; here's a scene from relatively nearby, Jewel Lake(perfect name):

What came out in the wash

I had a surprise when I took the farm cloth out of the washer/dryer (it is all one machine). The denim made these interesting pointy things on the sides, and on the bottom edge:

It did this!  After I get the loose threads tacked down, I'll wash it in my neighbor's machine with fabric softener and see if the denim behaves differently.  I like those funny points.  Jude's cloth to cloth class starts Saturday and I'm very very much looking forward to it.

This is Agnes at the dog park with her gigantic Mother's Day Biscuit, presented to her by her friend Pat.  She worked her way laboriously and lovingly through about half of it, then a Big Dog sauntered over and in one quick bite, swallowed the remainder.  Agnes was a little perplexed...she didn't see it happen...one minute it was there, and when she looked back it was gone, but it didn't spoil her day one bit.  She looked up at Pat and wagged her tail and pretty soon she had another homemade biscuit to gnaw on.

Call of the wild

Last night at 3 a.m. my dog Agnes began barking and jumping up and down on top of me.  Wearily, since she would not respond to my pleas that she focus on sleep, I arose to switch on the back yard light;  there were the wild raccoons mating in the moonlight.  It seemed voyeuristic to watch them too much so I switched off the light and tried to go back to sleep, but Agnes would have none of that and kept barking...she levitates a little with each bark and it is very cute, but it was so late.  One of the raccoons came over, put its' nose to the French door and watched her.  But for the glass, they were inches apart.  Agnes loved this. So, I think, did the raccoon. Eventually the wild beasts retreated and sleep returned.  Sorry, I could not take a picture!  Too much reflection. So instead, here are just 3 photos from my trip to Tucson.  More soon.

I wanted to drive down the east side of the Sierras to see the escarpment...that is where the Sierras rise up in sharp contrast to the geologically downward motion of the Owens Valley.  I hope I am describing this correctly.  I decided to take highway 50 and some other smaller roads to cross the Sierras (instead of Route 80, which is straighter).  Therefore it was a little scary at times! in terms of curvy roads and breathtaking vistas involving height.  So here are some samples:

Above is a turn-out.  I am not a fast driver in the best of circumstances, but this sort of situation brings out the snail in me and I'm happy to let the faster folks go by.  We are going East through the beautiful Sierra Mountains.

This is the same situation, looking in the other direction.  Can you imagine what it was like coming through here in a stage coach??

This is the escarpment! The eastern side of the Sierras.  They rise up in all their glory out of the more desert-like valley of Nevada.   I went to a little quilt store in this town...the Quilt House (Gardnerville, Nevada) and bought some fat quarters of flannel with pine cones and the like.

weather moods

We've been having dramatic weather here.  Yesterday the internet vanished, but it turned out that by unplugging the router box, then plugging it back in after 30 seconds,  the connection returned.  Its' absence felt a little spooky;  here we are by this wild coastline, great chunks of which periodically slide into the sea. Somehow the internet feels like a tangible connection, a life-line. Of sorts.

Seals!  See the baby? Evidently it was born just hours before I took this picture.  Usually at this time of year there are many more baby seals.  Who knows what has detained them.  

Today it has been pouring; this is the murky scene through my window.

A brief respite from the rain.

Here is the cormorant nesting area.  Can you see one practically in the middle, in a little niche?  At night there is a cormorant on almost every ledge.

 Seagulls.

 Agnes doesn't like the rain.  Only a lap will do.