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Hello everyone,

Many days and even two moons have gone by since last I wrote. Almost every day I have thought today is the day to write and then that day went by, but suddenly today arrived. So I will fill you in a bit. Two lovely train trips, one to New Jersey and one, for Christmas, to Ohio, where I gave the completed quilt to my eldest grandson! Voila!

Thank you to Jude, and everyone in this community who gave me ideas and encouragement for proceeding in a not completely conventional manner. Although I've been silent, in terms of my blog, for a while, my gratitude to each of you is huge and profound.

I have been plugging away! Examples:

The Christmas donkey...

Here is a creature I made at the Columbus, Ohio art museum, which has a wonderful program for Making. Interactive family making...providing materials for creation to happen. Lots of young people encouraging folks to Make Things!

This is a barn swallow embroidered on a tee shirt for my daughter-in-law.  Not quite finished. 

One thing I love about posting these pictures is the chance to see them more objectively.  I see all the imperfections, but mostly I am glad there is a place to share.

There have been many challenges, on a daily basis. This is good, for how else to grow?  

Favorite photo from latest train trip. When the snow melts, the tracks remain...at least in this case. 

That's all for now. Love to each of you!~~s.

Moving forward

Hello everyone,

Today I'll give you a peek at the most recent makings. Awhile ago I mentioned the "cloth of unsettling events".  As soon as I took the photo I realized that is by no means finished, but here it is,  as is. 

A close up of the opossum:

One of the benefactors, Crazy Horse:

I began a new cloth which doesn't have a name yet:

Recently, at a high school reunion, we climbed the Pt. Arena Lighthouse (145 steps!). The view:

I loved it that in the gift shop were hand-embroidered tea towels of the lighthouse!

Yesterday four of the Very Small Books went into the mail!

A candle sending love to a very small boy who needs a lot of it:

And Gilly being a champ at her first agility fun match!

That's all for now. xoxo,~~s.

Wonderful Show

While on my trip to the Northwest, I visited a show in Astoria, Oregon of original works by Katherine Dunn, of Apifera Farm.  Her blog is always intriguing; her lively and kindly imagination sees deeply into life, so I was very glad to be able to see her work in person again. These are some of my very favorites... The Riversea Gallery website shows more...

I wish the photo quality were better but perhaps you can catch a glimpse of her rare vision and love of creatures and the stories they embody...

A class with India

Hello everyone. I've relatively recently returned from my first solo camping trip to the beautiful Northwest, with a destination of Lopez Island and three magical days at my second workshop with India Flint. We made wayfarers' wonder jackets using bits and pieces of other clothing items which we reassembled to make our unique garments! What fun, and challenging too.  I loved stretching my mind to embrace the concepts of sleeves becoming pockets and shirts being transformed into pinafores.

This is the beginning of my jacket.

And this is how it's been progressing since coming home. I will dye it once construction is done.

It was so much fun to do communal dyeing again:

India is very patient and full of interesting ideas and poems. It was a most congenial group of women who gathered to work in Patsy's beautiful garden studio. Christi did a first rate job of organizing everything so all went smoothly.  Patsy, Christi and India created the most delicious lunches for us.  Oh goodness...that's what it all was: Goodness. Great Goodness.

There also was opportunity to be gastronomically delighted by... guess what...wild mushrooms.  I was a bit nervous but ultimately trusted the experts and found these "shaggy manes" to be delicious!

I visited two friends from the workshop in Seattle on the way home. We watched the eclipse together and opened some more more bundles from the workshop. Magic. 

So now I'm home and have been gathering leaves from our parched environment and have bundled them up and dyed this old shirt.  I used marigolds, eucalyptus, rose leaves and apple leaves in a stainless steel pot, with some iron bits and a little bit of copper.  Some of the marigold petals are still on there.  The cloth is still wet so looks a bit brighter than it will later.  I've never gotten such golden hues before.  I wonder if it could be due to the drought somehow.

Gilly meanwhile has found a pair of pink sunglasses, kind of like mine, except they are more edible!

Next I am going to tell you about a wonderful show I visited on the way to the workshop, so stay tuned. xoxo, ~s. 

The huntress

Gilly caught a possum. Sigh. It was very quickly dispatched, by her. This event was part of the full moon activities in the (very small) back yard. Size makes no difference when the moon is full, and gentle Gilly's instincts rose to the surface. Instead of a picture of the unfortunate possum, here is herself in the bike basket...

We've been looking at shore birds. Walking at the dog park has become problematical due to bigger dogs with not helpful owners, so until I can learn how to deal with the issue there, we're going other places, by bike. One day a drama among the birds and a crab played itself out right before my very eyes and Ah-Ha, thought I, here is the makings of another Very Small Book!  So to start, I've been embroidering an egret.  It is almost finished. Mostly am experimenting with how to go about it. I love doing the millions of tiny stitches, but am I being practical. Do I need to be practical. That is not a proper question because I will probably go for the millions of tiny stitches because they are such a good antidote to all the crazy stuff elsewhere, but I do consider the question. Anyway, here is the egret this far:

And this is how the owl (see last post) turned out:

Also, in trying out ways of dealing with unsettling events, I am making a list of them and putting them on a special cloth. Here is the tick! Ick! 

The list is growing long. Perhaps it should be a daily practice. 

Thank you all for taking a look, and have a good and safe Labor Day weekend whether or not it is a holiday you celebrate. xo, s. 

A very short report

Hello everyone. Perhaps, I was thinking, my blogging procrastination was due to feeling I had to have lots to show. So today, just one picture... The owl in progress!

Happy first week in August to you. xo, s. 

Completed!

Hello everyone. The very small book is finished now...I'm still making small changes, but basically it seems OK!

I'm hoping to reorganize and reopen the shop soon and I will put the book in there in case you'd like to have one for your very own (or for someone with small hands). 

Also I've been embroidering t-shirts for the family. Presently am working on an owl but here is a complete goldfinch, the New Jersey state bird...

So far it's been a lovely summer but the water situation is not good...

However, my garden seems to be benefiting from the extra care required to make sure everything stays alive in the midst of experimenting to see how little water is required. I don't yet have pictures to illustrate this.

My town is working on making our small beach more user friendly and have added a lot of sand to it. Gilly and I went on an early morning walk and discovered jelly fish and these odd squiggles...

When the family was here in the early part of July we went to the eastern side of the Sierras for a few days. What majesty! This is Convict Lake, which we walked around.  It looked quite manageable to me at the outset, but the high altitude made it seem a lot longer.  It rained while we were there...bliss!!

One day this sign appeared on our refrigerator door:

We took many hikes but didn't see the bear. Not sad about that. 

Then I visited friends at Sea Ranch. The seals were lounging on the beach...

I had hoped to be posting more regularly, but instead have been procrastinating, so I had better not make any promises about improving my performance, except to say that I MIGHT be back soon. Meanwhile here is Miss Gilly  taking it easy. After all, it IS summer, and I hope you are having a good one. xoxo, s.