Oh Look!

I got another trinket bowl made, using up the last of the blue ark fabric and what was left of the pinks. But that raindrop fabric - it will go into many more bowls, it looks like. That strip you see is four double layers  that will take 3 swipes of the rotary cutter across its width. Many more long lengths for wrapping around clothesline. I'm not as happy with this one as the others, not liking my decision to just go as far as I could with the first inner pink which made that second round short, and wishing I'd had some blue, even if a different fabric, as accent around the top to balance the blue in the center.

And we got our first snow over the weekend - only a few inches that quickly melted off even the lawns, but more is due in tonight and tomorrow. Oddly enough, my deck garden doesn't seem to mind. Small excitement on the home front: a new refrigerator got delivered today. The old one was starting to make some disturbing clunks when the condenser shut down. As a renter, appliances are included so getting a new one doesn't cost me a thing. Ditto with new sets of blinds for the upstairs bedrooms. Those bedrooms facing west get the afternoon sun and the plastic clips holding the vertical blinds in place started snapping from deterioration. Now I have working blinds again and really appreciate having a great maintenance man to install them. In the meantime, I've noticed that the new refrigerator sounds slightly different when running, causing me to cock my head to figure out what that sound is. Shouldn't take long to get used to it though.

Woodworking Artist Extraordinaire

South of the Colorado - Basketweave turning by Charliewood Art

Goodness, the last few weeks have been full of distractions and diversions that can kept me from having much to share. I'm guessing hearing that I've gotten to some document shredding and filing, finished updating my various journals, received positive reports from my regular 6 month followups with my rheumatologist and dental hygienist and got my car serviced for winter aren't the sort of thing you come here for. I've also had some computer wars that I finally resolved today so hopefully am ready to get back into regularly scheduled blog reports. In the meantime, I ran across a woodworker whose artistic renditions either fool you into thinking you're looking at a woven basket or that puzzle you over how he did that. It's Rich Charlson, a Montana farmer who turns wood in his spare time. But don't think he's some amateur for he has been honing his craft for about thirty-five years and has many accolades to his name, Go check out his many bowls, crosses and even wall hangings at Charliwoodart.com.

Glad For That Extra Yarn

I have had so many distractions and diversions and things to stress out over, little time to unwind in the studio. So the other night I pulled out my knitting again, knowing I didn't have too many more rows to go to finish the second sleeve of my wool sweater. I was so right to think I wouldn't have enough yarn to finish it and so lucky I was able to get more of it. The arrow points to where the last of the originally bought yarn ended and the additional bought yarn was added in order to finish the top of the sleeve. Of course, you also need a bit of yarn to join front and back and sleeves by hand and also more to knit the neckline ribbing. An extra skein was definitely what I needed. As the shop owner commiserated when I told her my sad story of being sure I wouldn't have enough, "Don't you just hate it when those yarn amounts aren't right?" So I guess it happening must not be rare.

By the way, still enjoying autumn colors. Though some trees are dropping leaves, many more, like the cottonwoods and birches, are clinging on. Had to make the hour drive to the "almost big city" yesterday which is mostly through the countryside and thoroughly enjoyed seeing so much brilliant yellow along the way.

Creativity and Cottonwoods

As I've journeyed through my quilting career, I've soaked in so many bits of advice to the point that I rarely run across anything new to me and frankly have even stopped clicking into most of them. But I couldn't resist checking out this one due to the title: "I've studied creative people for 40 years: They share these 6 habits." Hmm - I think of myself as a creative person. How do I stand up? Well, I don't quite have them all but most, and especially the outdoor habit. I hardly miss a daily walk where there are many opportunities to study trees. Read the article here and let me know if you have all six habits.

So with a cold front due to move in with rain the next day, I needed to get out somewhere in the great outdoors before it arrived, but I decided not to make the 45 or so minute drive to that new trail I discovered. Instead, I headed into town to check out how the leaves were turning and had a choice between City Beach or the Bay Trail. I didn't think I was up for the Bay Trail so settled for enjoying the lake front from city beach. Lake draw down has started and most boats have been pulled from the docks, but it isn't down all that much, still beautiful views. From the spit I could look across at the Bay Trail which is lined with cottonwood trees, now showing their colors. I wasn't sure if they would be, but gazing across I was almost sorry I didn't take that trail. It's lovely walking beneath that golden canopy.

I spotted some rather scraggly flowers next to the walkway, but pretty all the same.

The cottonwoods have finally amped up their color, and the birch trees are following suit. I took these pictures along the service road next to the dog park.

They are at their best when the sun hits them.  

And they are sooooo tall!

I don't have pictures but have noticed some trees that have turned color in what seems an odd way. At least I don't remember noticing before how some trees have both yellow and orange leaves in different parts of the tree. And one tree at City Beach had yellow leaves close to the trunk while the outer leaves were orange red. You really had to look closely to see those yellow leaves hiding underneath. And while many trees are at peak, others have leaves that are stubbornly staying green. What are you observing in your neck of the woods?

Organizing

You might remember that my resolution word for this year is organize. After the first big push early in the year, I haven't thought much about it as I've just delved into various projects. Well, maybe I've thought of it a little bit as I note things I've continued to stack on the end of the work table. The filing never seems to end. But here is another part of my procrastination problem. I see things I might want to print off to place in a journal or my book of quotations, or something short enough I could just copy into one of them by hand, but instead of doing it on the spot, I end up saving the image or link to one of several places. If it is found on Facebook, I save it to a file I've titled "When I have time" because that is exactly when I think I'll get to it as well as articles I want to read but right now I don't have the time. Sometimes I download it to my computer where it can sit for a very long time, sometimes just waiting until I have enough to fill a page when I do get around to printing them. It would take just a few minutes to deal with things like this as I run across them, but I so often procrastinate until I think I'll have more time.

Well, this past week or so, I decided to take the time, and I've been doing some organizing of files and photos on my computer and going through all those Facebook saves and getting them printed off. I'm down to the last page in my quotations book and am looking forward to transitioning to the Celtic Weave book I made. My Gratitude and Memories book hasn't been touched in a long time but some of the saves definitely belong in there. There was even directions and photos of a transfer method I've been meaning to try for a very long time, but I needed it printed out to make it happen.

While in the midst of this, an e-mail directed me to some hiking trails a bit south of me that I was unaware of. I've been wanting to go somewhere new so maybe I will try one of them. For once, I did not save the link to Pocket under the Hiking tag but printed off the info right then (upper left). Pretty proud of myself for that!

Now to get them trimmed to size and glued into their proper places. Let's not procrastinate there too . . .

More Trinket Bowls

You may think the above photo looks familiar but it is not a re-posting. I was emptying my studio wastebasket when I spotted the long strips trimmed off along the selvage when making the pillowcases. They'd gone immediately into the trash because the printed area next to the actual selvage was so narrow - no reason to save these. This was before I caught on to the idea of using up scraps from the quilt to make trinket bowls. I did a quick measure and there was exactly the width of print that I cut for strips to make the bowls. There were usable scraps from the pillowcase cuffs as well as 4 inches of raindrop fabric (seen at left) to continue cutting up, so it all looked like enough for another trinket bowl.

And indeed it was.

I decided to look a little deeper into what was in the bag where I'd been tossing fabric scraps I thought I could use for bowls. There was quite a bit of a fabric used as backing for another baby quilt I'd made for a nephew's baby, one where the mother had a specific pattern and fabric choice in mind. I never really liked this fabric - too kind of 60's pop for me but at least had teal in it which is a favorite color of mine. One nice thing about these narrow strips that wrap around the clothesline is that much of the print becomes indistinguishable so I knew this was a good use for this fabric I'm not keen on. You'd never guess what it looked like before being cut up and it pairs well with the raindrop fabric.

I also found more pink strips in that bag, puzzled as to where they came from but they will go into yet another bowl with this floral, still working on making it all go away. But this is reminding me too much of the biblical fishes and loaves story where no matter how much they gave away to the thousands of people being fed, there was always some left over. Quilters and their scraps apparently have the same problem. ;-)

Thoughts on Creativity

Leaves seem reluctant to change their colors in my part of the world, that is, save for a group of maples in a park I frequent.

They are a rich red which draws me over for a closer look.

The cottonwood trees, though, can't seem to muster their usual bright golden yellow I love, if they are turning at all. Their hearts don't seem in it, any more than my heart has been into what waits in my studio this year. Oh, there have been splashes of interest, bursts like those maples, but the interest and drive I once had waxes and wanes. Age? Health? Shift of priorities? I don't even take as many inspiration photos as I used to. And yet, I still study clouds on my walks and couldn't help but try to capture some stunning ones yesterday, having no idea how I might work them into a textile piece - clouds are really hard to capture in fabric and thread! Not even easy with paint!

I went on a bit of a rant in my last post, and confessed I'd managed to confuse myself looking at all the videos previewed during a taster offering.Why am I looking at all these painting sessions? Why am I not working with textiles? And then found this quotation in a recent e-mail from Laly Mille, one of the teachers and someone I've been following and taking free lessons from for awhile:

“You will enrich your life immeasurably if you approach it with a sense of wonder and discovery, and always challenge yourself to try new things.”

– Nate Berkus –

Well, I did allude during my rant that I do like a challenge of mastering something new and this quotation reminded me of that. Some of my earliest memories involve needle and thread, fabric and yarn, constantly challenging myself to learn a new stitch or make something slightly beyond my abilities. And this need to learn has never been limited to any one thing. That's why now I joke that I have too many interests, I can't keep up!

Ah well, I suppose there are worse problems to have. I can't disagree with the above statement. Back to work . . .