A Walk Around Round Lake

Yesterday was my birthday, and I hadn't planned anything special. After all, I feel like I've been partying all month what with treating myself to three of the eight Festival at Sandpoint concerts, shopping at the Arts & Crafts Fair and the Gem-Bead show, and spending Friday with my art group making the rounds of the Artist's Studio Tour. Fun fun fun all month long! Maybe I'd just stay home and have some fun fun fun in the studio. Oh, but the weather was too nice and I've been wanting for too long to check out the hiking trail at the aptly named Round Lake about ten miles south of where I live.

There are many small lakes in this part of Idaho, leftovers from a colder time when ice sheets and glaciers and ice age floods carved out the topography. This one just happens to be part of a state park and so has camping and picnicking facilities, a beach for swimming and a dock for fishing off of, a place to put in small watercraft and a trail system that circles the 58-acre lake - 2 to 3 miles around depending upon which routes you take. I took the Trapper's trail.

This trail follows mostly just above the shoreline and periodically has signage telling about the wildlife and ecosystem you may observe. Not being an early riser, I was hiking at mid-day so most of the wildlife was keeping to itself.

Much of the trail winds "under canopies of western white pine, Engelmann spruce, grand fir, lodgepole pine, black cottonwood, paper birch, red alder, and Rock Mountain maple." It's the end of summer, a dryness to the air, not much in the way of wildflowers, everything looking a bit spent.

Even the lilypads looked spent in spite of residing in the water.

And yet here on the side of this tree, bright green moss.

Not far from it, a reminder of forest fires that have passed through this area that can get so tinder dry.

And evidence of the recent winds from thunderstorms that took down so many trees in our area.

Round lake empties into a small stream that flows into the next lake along. I have a real fondness for the crystal clear waters of the Pacific Northwest, the smooth round rocks they flow over, all shades of my favorite neutral color.

Soon the trail crosses the creek via this bridge and switchbacks up the hillside. The trees seem less dense on this side of the lake, and there are tons of windfalls.

I always think trees grow straight up but often those that no longer have bark reveal a slight twist to the growth. Woodpeckers, no doubt, have been busy making those holes.

The trees are so straight and tall through here, and as I said, everything with a sense of dryness and age, that I was startled to realize I'd come upon some young trees, looking fresh and new. These weren't much taller than I am.

Couldn't resist a backlit shot.

Plenty to look at on the ground as well. Roots across the trail that looked like snakes.

Lots and lots of exposed roots in some places.

And this root popping up a burl-like round protrusion in the middle of the trail. I've not seen anything quite like that before.

At the half-way point, I found a bench to rest upon and have a bit of lunch while I watched these boys float by.

They weren't the only ones enjoying the water. I saw other boats and at least one paddle board.

 

The terrain was a bit different along the second half of the trail - getting steeper. 

I spotted both red-orange and almost turquoise blue berries on ground cover, but not many.

Couldn't miss this rotting birch next to the trail.

And then realized there was a virtual birch graveyard running up the hillside.

One stretch went over a rock outcropping - granite mostly.

And when I looked up the hillside, I saw this very large rock, no doubt carried there by the ancient ice sheet.

As I neared the east side of the lake I came upon a very large tree, still alive but the branches of it's lower half bare and looking dead. So many branches, such a tangle! Taking in its girth and age, it had a presence that was almost spooky. Maybe I've seen too many Tolkien movies...

Soon I was crossing a creek again, this one feeding into the lake. One of the amazing things about northern Idaho is that its mountains can either hold tightly together in narrow canyons or open out to surround farmland. This view shows just such farmland that abuts the state park.

I was nearly back to where I'd started, but decided to walk the short loop called the swamp tromp. There I found another bench by the water where I could rest and sketch. This old snag intrigued me with its half-on half-off bark.

And the last bit of intrigue before reaching the car - these two different species of trees uniting.

I really enjoyed my time in the woods, something I did constantly growing up in this area but do not do often enough anymore. I stopped off at the library on the way home to replenish my reading supply and spent the rest of the afternoon on my back deck enjoying a different kind of solitude, birthday cake and iced coffee.

And to top off the day, here's my birthday dinner ready to pop into the oven - crab & creamcheese-stuffed salmon fillet. What a great day! 

 

The Giant Waffle...

...and I'm not talking food here. I tried, I really did, to include pops of chartreuse into the half-inch strips between the wider ones but I couldn't do it. I suspect I needed a slightly darker value of the brighter ones I had, while the more muted ones just darkened the quilt more - something I was trying to get away from. So as much as I did not want to introduce more "pink" into the quilt, my gut had said all along that a nice strong dark fuchsia was what it needed.

And I admit, I was also being influenced by this fabric which will go on the back...

So I cut and arranged and pieced and measured cut and pieced some more, knowing that there were dozens of ways I could have done this. But for Pete's sake - it's a quilt for a baby and it's pretty ridiculous that I've been feeling so defeated by it. This designing on the fly definitely took it's own turn, this is so far from where I thought I would go with it. I can see where and why I got off, mostly due to the limitations of the two fabrics I started with, and my weakness for adding colors I think are contrasting but in fact tend to read too much the same and darker than I think they will. You'd think I'd learn...

I left it alone yesterday, as one must when one gets to this point of not liking something one started off so enthusiastic about. Today I was pleased to view it as not as offensive as I remembered, and sewed it down off the design wall. I know I've shown you this before, but this is my favorite method for assuring perfect 1/4" seams, a must when working with such narrow strips. That's a partial pad of small sticky notes pushed up against the side of the presser foot, a piece of masking tape as extra insurance that it stays in place. No guessing if you're keeping the edge of the seam allowance perfectly along the edge of the foot, especially at the end where you can't hold on to it anymore. Just feed it in to run against that pad. 

I'll give the top a good press tomorrow and get it layered up for quilting - stitch in the ditch and maybe something else. It will be fine, just not exactly how I thought it would be.

In Need Of An Intervention...

I'm sure I spent all my impending birthday bucks at the Arts and Crafts Fair last weekend, yet Sunday found me heading over to a nearby hotel where Bend Beads/Shiva Endeavors from Bend, Oregon had their gem-beads & mineral show set up. I'd happen upon this traveling husband and wife team two years ago on my way home from Minnesota when I stayed overnight at the same hotel where they were displaying their wares. I'd purchased some larger-than-I-usually-use picture jasper beads and a hank of small and irregular smoky quartz beads. I was tempted to get more but had been gone from home so long that I was totally out of touch with what I could use. They were headed for my home town the next month so I planned an assessment in preparation for a shopping spree. Unfortunately for me, they canceled that show. Since then they've gotten as close as a few hours drive but I knew they'd eventually make it back here. I'm nothing if not patient.

For the daughter of a miner, their display of raw minerals as taken from the ground, many sparkling, many oddly shaped and interestingly colored, was a delight to behold. It brought memories of my dad bringing home small bits of pyrite, quartz crystals and galena-encrusted rocks, some of which I still have. For the now grown woman who dabbles in textile embellishing, their array of polished gem-beads was also a delight to behold...full of landmines sure to wreck my finances! I went with a plan, which always helps, but spent more money than planned. Oh, but I brought home such beautiful things. I was hoping to find some smaller beads in either blue, ivory and/or pinkish tones but most of his beads are quite large, more appropriate for the chunky jewelry that seems to be in vogue.These green and coral unakite beads were about the only small thing he had, measuring about 1/4" and I'm pretty sure I'll have a use for them. I should mention that there's a bit of guilt buying more beads since I've not used the ones I bought from them 2 years ago. Yeah, that kind of guilt has seldom stopped an avid quilter or beader, has it?

My other goal was to purchase a few cabochons. I blame this on my friend and beading mentor Mary Stori. I've been watching her add cabochons to her quilts for awhile now (see her latest here and more if you scroll down to ones in private collections on her Gallery Shop page here), even own one such quilt of hers (Her Light Shines On), and have her instructions for how to do it. Even have a couple of inherited cabachons on hand for the trial run. But no - I have not tried it yet, and my lopsided logic thinks that if I collect more, my chances are better of doing it. They didn't have a huge selection of what I had in mind but two did catch my eye including the one above.  Who doesn't love agates? And this was by far the most interesting one in the case - about 1-3/4 by 1-1/4 inches. (I also got to see the big piece of agate that these cabochons were sliced from). I'm guessing you know what the appeal is, how I'm seeing quilting lines in there. It also reminds me of of parts of a quilt I pieced rather than appliqued as a challenge to myself (Night & Noon on the Planet Hoffman). It doesn't hurt that it comes from not too far away in the state next door.

I always go for the unusual shapes and this triangular piece of Eudialyte bisected off-center into dark red and grey sections stole my heart. Hmmm - no wonder. According to the information sheet they sent home with me (below), it apparently is the stone of the heart! It's about one inch from base to tip. I also considered an oval one of these, but when I flipped them over to check the price, saw that I could only justify (barely) one. It may not make it on a textile piece. The more I look at it, the more I think I want to have it made into a pendant to wear. I've noticed when looking at the close-up of the picture the letter "A" in quite beautiful script near the bottom tip (upside down in this orientation but right side up if made into a pendant). That's my middle initial! We shall see which wins out.

I really enjoy talking to this couple - he an American from Oregon, she a native of Pakistan. He chooses and collects what he puts out on display much in the same way I collect fabric and embellishments. He likes oddities and interesting pieces, pretty much knows where everything came from, who he bought it from, in many cases its history. He was even able to show me some mineral stones taken from the mine my dad worked in. And like me, he loves hearing stories about the areas he travels to, learning their histories and how they might relate to his passion. He told me he also finds it fascinating to hear how his customers think they will be using what they purchase, how the same sort of item will be chosen with such different ends in mind. He was very interested in my plans for the cabochons and commented that perhaps he should carry more small beads. I wish I had more money to support both his and my obsession! And I really need to complete something with his gem-stones to show him the next time he hits town.  

Working on the Wall

Work progresses on the quilt for the godson's little boy. More fabric needed to be cut into strips because two fat quarters do not a quilt top make. I found myself happily dipping into the color runs from last August's dye sessions. That IS one of the advantages of dyeing your own fabric - it often magically works together even when that was not planned.

Here I'm randomly adding strips from two different hand-dyes - one with blue/violet undertones and one with highlights of turquoise. The turquoise one was a fat quarter while the other I could cut in selvage to selvage strips of 45" inches in length. Still getting a feel for how these fabrics are working together and carrying out the vision in my head.

Eventually I had to commit to at least some of the vertical row arrangements, sewing shorter strips together and trimming to length. Part of the winging it has been working without a firm finished dimension. I figured somewhere around 44 inches would be ok for length but what about width? I'm really limited in how much focus fabric I have to work with. I found myself referring to a general quilt instruction book for crib mattress sizes.

When working without much of a plan, I always find the last few sections the hardest to get right - running out of fabric usually and struggling with balance. And in this case, as I started this last session to work out the outer rows and make any other adjustments, I realized how dark the quilt was becoming (although it looks brighter in the pic). To get the width I need (because what you see has not been sewn together - I need a lot more added), I decided I could sew "spacers" between each row that would finish at half an inch. I'd originally thought to use that dark hand-dye on the left but decided I need to add something lighter and/or brighter to lighten things up - this IS for a baby after all. And I think the spacers will help the design, such as it is, to show up better. A strong fuchsia might be the obvious choice but I don't want to make this pinker than it already is. 

If you look closely, you can see I'm auditioning some brighter blue strips in the upper section - any other blue I tried made the pink/blue snow dye look dirty. But I wondered if there wasn't another color I could introduce that would give more pop and interest, even if it was only a square or short section added to the strips of blue. Using Joen Wolfrom's 3-in-1 Color Tool (seen on the lower left), I determined that chartreuse works with this palette. We'll have to check what's in the stash but I can see how this might provide the excitement I feel this quilt is lacking.

 

Michele asked some good questions on my post about winging it with this quilt. She wanted to know how I like creating on the design wall rather than from a sketch. I generally like this kind of designing quite a bit, although like most things, there are pros and cons. I tend to think it's mostly how I work these days, remembering my traditional quilting days when so much of what I made was figured out in quilting software or on graph paper, quilts often meant to be reproductions. Upon reflection that may not be true; many of my traditional quilts came together on the design wall, deviating and building upon a concept while many of my art quilts followed a sketch or an enlargement of a photo. It so depends on what I'm working on and whether the fabric has sparked an idea or if the inspiration has come from without (photo reference for instance). I suppose I'm more likely to work from a sketch or mock-up if the design is more realistic than abstract. Perhaps if I took the time to sketch out my abstract ideas, there'd be less frustration while working at the design wall. Perhaps there's be less time spent staring and pondering and fewer pieces of rejected cuts of fabric lying on the work table. But there's no doubt that I feel a certain exhilaration working this way, and I think some of my best work may be those pieces that have evolved on the wall rather than on paper.

Michele's followup questions had me nodding yes. She wondered if working on the design wall was a bit like improvisational jazz, giving more freedom to the piece to develop and grow as it wants. I think this a perfect analogy. Having played jazz in college and heard both inspired and cringe-inducing improv solos, I know there's skill involved - it's not just "serendipity" - and as great as the piece of music might be, when the players can deviate and build on the basic theme, something even greater can be created. I don't always feel I have the skill to successfully "improvise" when designing, and that is when a sketch that has worked out the kinks keeps me out of trouble and makes the transition to fabric easier.

But does a sketchbook lock me into a design that may or may not be feasible or possible, Michelle wondered? Oh indeed. And maybe not just into things that aren't feasible to execute (because I love the technical challenge of figuring out that transition), but lock my brain up so that it can't see or accept when something should or could be changed for the better once work begins. I think that's why I didn't want to try to sketch out this particular vision that appeared. It was a bit vague to begin with and relatively simple so why not just let it develop on the wall? Of course, if I had sketched this out beforehand, I could have calculated dimensions and how much fabric I needed. But that too could have locked me up, setting aside good options rather than finding solutions to include them. As Tim Gunn so famously says, "Make it work!" Being forced to come up with creative solutions often results in a more interesting product than the one carefully mapped out in advance. I think it's my left brain that keeps telling me not to deviate from the sketch or reference photo, insisting I follow it exactly. The right brain, when I can get the left brain to go away, can appreciate the safety net of the sketch or photo without being a slave to it or just totally go off on its own.

So you may be wondering, is the quilt I'm improvising turning out as originally envisioned? I don't think so - I think I lost part of the original concept partly due to the limited amount of focus fabric. Am I frustrated or unhappy with the direction it took? Not at all - I'm liking where this is going and that I'm having to put in spacers which may make the design stronger. Will I continue to work both by designing free-form on the design wall and in a sketchbook? Yes - and sometimes with a combination of both. 

  

Padfolios for Sale

Leaf Padfolio Black Stitching

It is with some trepidation that I announce that I have added a padfolio sale page to the blog. I've been wanting to set up gallery pages for a long time, a place I could direct people to see my work and offer some of it for purchase. These things take a lot of time to set up - at least they do for me - and I wanted to research the whole PayPal "buy now" button thing. Yes, I want the ease that this should give both me and my customers, but I am nervous about having set it up properly. There are stages in the process that I can't preview, so I just have to hope it all looks right and functions properly.

Leaf Padfolio Tan Stitching

At the moment, I just have these two padfolios available (the 3rd one sold before I could get the page up!). You can see other views and full descriptions of each on the Padfolio page. I am limiting sales to U.S. delivery addresses at this time. For payment options other than PayPal, contact me at idahobeautyquilts@yahoo.com

Padfolios are a nice break from my art quilts and allow me to explore design ideas in a small and functional format so I'll be adding more from time to time. I'll let you know when new ones become available, or you can check the page by clicking on the "Padfolios" link right under the blog heading. Thanks!

A P.S. for followers who read my posts on a feed reader

It's unclear to me whether these additional pages on blogs show up in feed readers when they publish or are updated. I'd appreciate any feedback you could give me on that.

POAC Arts & Crafts Fair

Every August Pend Oreille Arts Council puts on a fantastic Arts and Crafts Fair in Sandpoint's beautiful City Beach Park. And since I can pretty much depend on some birthday money showing up later in the month, I enjoy perusing the booths, knowing that if I find something, I don't have to feel guilty about buying it - it'll be paid for eventually by that birthday check. Some years nothing stands out as something I want to take home while other years I really have to control myself. As you can see, this was a good fair! Four pieces of jewelry is a bit much for me but they all have a reason for ending up in my bag. The small leaf in the right forefront may actually end up sewn like a charm onto something textile related but I also might wear it. It is an actual birch leaf that has been put through an electroplating process and according to the tag stands for good fortune. I have two other pins similarly capturing bits of nature with this process, but you know how I feel about birches - they are my artistic muse and at one point, an integral part of emotional healing. Ironically, I have recently discovered that their pollen (along with cottonwood and oak) is number one on my allergy sensitivity test and may be partly responsible for the medical issues I've been sorting out for so long. Allergic or not, I vowed I'm not giving up my birches (just being more careful around them). Buying the leaf from Gray's Tree Leaves of Tucson AZ was definitely my way of rebelling, a way to show I am going to fight this and not let it get the better of me. We all need our symbols!

Dichroic Glass pendents by Elizabeth Dunlop

Less controversial are these pendents by Elizabeth Dunlop of Mesa, AR. It is so difficult to capture the color and sparkle of glass in a photo, especially this glass that seems lit by an inner glow. These are actually her test pieces of the dichroic glass she uses in her larger abstract wall sculptures, transformed into affordable jewelry in a variety of colors, sizes and shapes. By far my favorite booth at the fair, and as you can see, I couldn't decide between these two so took both - they were that affordable! Be sure to check out her website to see those wall sculptures, but I have to say, the pictures do not do them justice.

I managed to get away from this vendor of jewelry without info about them, other than that they are based just south of here in Hayden. I snagged this out of a basket of "show special" bracelets for two reasons (other than its very reasonable price). First, it reminds me of a bracelet my dad gave me when I was little - squares of shaped elk teeth (or maybe it was horn) strung on elastic. But the second reason was the real pull - this is tiger eye which I've always loved. I once had a very pretty tiger eye pendant that disappeared during a move. All these years later, I still can't fathom how it didn't make it from one house to the next, and I still mourn its loss. You'd think there was some sentimental attachment involved, or that it was an expensive piece; neither is the case. I just really liked it and have never found anything similar to replace it, though I am always on the lookout. I decided this bracelet was a start. The vendor did dig out a couple of necklaces she had under the table but neither were anything like my lost pendant nor anything I'd really wear. This will do.

Oregon Big Leaf Maple bowl by Thomas Leonard

I hardly need this bowl crafted by Thomas Leonard of Square Peg Products in Bonners Ferry just north of here, but I am a sucker for beautifully turned ones with interesting shapes and grains. I wish I could afford some of his more intricate pieces. In the meantime, this one goes well with the group I bought from Eric von Bargen of Walla Walla Wood Works back in 2009. Both artists believe in reclaiming and recycling wood for their products - no live trees were injured in pursuit of their passion. This piece has very delicate grain lines including a wing-like pattern appearing to caress the sides of the bowl.

So you see, I had a lovely time at the fair. Perfect weather, perfect views of the lake, and perfectly wonderful arts and crafts!

Restart

I finished filling out all my documentation sheets early this week, clearing off even more space on the worktable, readying to fill it again with new projects! I put a fresh blade in my rotary cutter and got to work. This Ghana batik is going into the first baby quilt.

As is this snow dye I was less than thrilled with. But it is a good pairing with that batik

I'm freewheeling here, hoping to capture an idea that popped into my head awhile back. I decided not to try to sketch out the image that came to me, but just have faith that as I work with the strips, I can reconstruct it. The strips are cut 2 inches wide with this arrangement just a start to get me going. The blue batik further to the right will also be cut into strips to fill in. This is what I was referring to when I said I was done with circles for awhile, being siren sung by rectangles.

But before I do more to that, I also cut strips for another basket to be given as a housewarming gift. The recipient's favorite color is red and what is left of this very old print should look good as the accent.

Oh, I am SO pleased with how this turned out. I wanted to try another oval basket since my first try didn't turn out quite like I'd envisioned. I really like the baskets with the more vertical sides and I definitely got that with this one.

Another improvement - I managed the sides better to avoid the dip I got with the other one and also did a better job of tapering the end of the clothesline at the finish.

The particular pattern I was using as a guide did not call for the base to be done in the same fabric as the accent band but the red hand-dye I'd chosen was in short supply - not enough of it to do the base too. I actually like this better - a little surprise when you look inside.

This one is a bit smaller than the other oval basket (partly because the sides do not slope out) - I'm tempted to say, not too big and not too small: 9" x 6" and about 4 inches deep. And no need for handles or embellishment to improve it - it's pretty darn perfect as is. I just love it!

July Wrap

Leaf Padfolios soon for sale

I know I'm not alone in wondering where July went off to. Still, as I look at my July plan of attack, I did get a lot crossed off. I did think I'd be well into the first baby quilt by now, an idea sparked by that African batik and a couple of my hand-dyes. Instead, I traded that work time for making more padfolios than were on my list. These three use up the rest of the printed bands so I've been able to put away where they belong a bolt of fabric and several smaller cuts as well as the peltex, steam-a-seam, directions and other odds and ends I've left out until I felt well and truly done with padfolios for awhile. Clear space is emerging on the work table, and I'll soon be cutting into the fabric for the baby quilt.

I also started the documentation process on the last 6 quilts I finished for ArtWalk but have a ways to go to be done. I'm pretty old school about this, still using the printed out forms I developed years ago, printing out photos to attach and leaving on the table fabric from each which will be added as swatches to the page. What takes a bit longer is tracking down start and end dates and tallying up how many days I spent on each piece. Not sure how important that last thing is anymore, but I DO still get asked now and then how long it takes for me to make my pieces. Without my tracking system, I'd have no idea. Once filled out and filed, even more work space will emerge.

While putting the fusible away, I finally had it with this storage unit. It's been around for quite awhile and over time the plastic sides have bowed out, making it impossible to keep some of the drawers in their track, and no place for the trackless drawer to go but into the drawer below. This has always been an issue even when new, depending on how heavy the things were in the drawers. I've been halfheartedly searching for a replacement, but when I could no longer get that top drawer of fusibles and stabilizers to stay in the tracks, it was time to do something about it.

So yesterday I decided between two Sterilite units I'd been eying, neither very expensive in the grand scheme of things. It is the same depth and height as the old stacking units but a little wider, with deeper drawers so only three. I nearly got the one with two more shallow drawers on top but thought better of it as I worked the drawers and observed the side to side wobble. These drawers do not run in a track but just slide along the bottom of each slot. I'd rather have a unit like what you see sitting beside it - wood laminate that I've had since the 80's and still hanging in there - but I couldn't find the size and configuration I need within my price range. Well, I think this will do for quite awhile.

I don't get into these drawers much except for the fusibles one and it was a bit of a shock to see what was stored in the bottom two which I consolidated into one drawer of the new unit. I tossed a few things and should have jettisoned more but I quickly got overwhelmed. There's fabric for a couple of specific projects I can't imagine getting back to so the fabric really should get filed into my regular stash. But that would mean admitting I won't continue with the idea and wondering what to do with the blocks that are completed. Also a few "orphan" blocks and leftover pieces of stripsets and their fabric leftovers, other odds and ends. I just moved it all for another day. The other drawer is full of small pieces suitable for paper piecing (which I do very little of these days) and string quilts (which I make from time to time for charity). Now I'm eying those long thin pieces for fabric baskets. This is why I have such a hard time getting rid of things. If I wait long enough, I'm often happy to still have these things around!

As far as the other things on the July list, I finished stamping the piece of ugly art cloth but didn't get it made into a bag, although I think I've tracked down a purse pattern like what I had in mind. I ironed the pile of green hand-dyes from my friends stash that had been waiting for me to finish up with ArtWalk and folded/put them away along with others that I'd been stacking up. I didn't get to the half a bag that's left to wash/iron and put away so that task will continue to be carried forward. And finally, I mocked up a design requested by my niece-in-law who is expecting in September. She had some specific colors in mind which were harder to find in print fabric than I anticipated. She's in CA so we've been collaborating through e-mail - me sending her links and she letting me know what she likes. With size and fabrics agreed upon, the ordering began. I now have everything I need for her baby's quilt, but it must wait until the other one is done. The baby it is for is already here!

Fabric for a "modern" quilt for the California baby to come