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I have a tree in my garden that has heart shaped leaves (a red bud). It made me think of heartwood, which is actually something that a tree might have.
Just so I remember the idea.
Both of these pictures contain a fabric that I've dyed with plant material using solar heat. I love how it all comes together....
When I rinsed this piece of fabric out after pulling it out of the dye pot I noticed a heart. I may sew this onto the blanket I'm making right now. It's about the color of the sky the last couple nights, right after the sun set. Tonight it became very dark, very fast. It's raining now.
"Crepuscular midnight stands by the road, Where the stars have spilled from its purse. You cannot go over the road past the fence without trampling the universe.
When did the stars ever grow so low and midnight fall to the feather-grassed ground and muslin mist catch alight and cling.... " Boris Pasternak
Tonight may be a good night to warm the kitchen with cookies...
One of my favorite things about my living room is that it faces East. In the morning I like to open the door and let the sunlight come through.
This morning I started a new project. The nights have been getting much cooler and the weather is supposed to change soon. I'm going to be awhile on my other quilts so I decided to salvage two wool blankets that have seen better days by tying them together and then applying binding to the edges. Eventually I may do more with this project, but for now I just want something warm for the bed. The goal is to not turn the heat on until the end of October. I had a little more help than needed this morning.
I was thinking about contentment. I've thought a lot about whether contentment limits creativity, whether it creates stagnation. I'd like to say no, it doesn't. As long as we stay curious. And I think curiosity and contentment can coexist.
Brought to you today by the letter "c."
So many dots that I can't count them. This is a very big bowl of grapes from my garden. Good thing I only planted one vine. They are an eating variety called 'Candice' and they do very well in the Pacific Northwest. Even better, they taste wonderful. As well as eating as a fresh grape, I've been drying them for raisins, made pickled grapes and I'm going to be making a flat bread with grapes and rosemary tomorrow. They are also wonderful in clafoutis (also a great way to use up eggs!). I suppose table grapes could be used for wine... it would probably just be sweet?
I knew when I got the chickens that I was going to have to get creative about using them.
Yesterday I made ice cream. It was a little soft at this point still but I couldn't wait anymore to sample. I don't have an ice cream maker either. Just put it in the freezer and stirred about once an hour. 4 egg yolks for the ice cream, 4 egg whites that I cooked and gave to the dogs. It was really tempting to make some type of cookie with them. 4 eggs.
Since I had just a dribble of molasses I wanted to use up, I made ginger snaps instead. Hurry up Mom, they might be gone before you get here! 1 egg.
Also made brioche. It's a large batch. Baked one loaf and have enough dough for 3 more. Some of it is going in the freezer. 8 eggs. Don't ask about the butter!
Chili rellanos for lunch. 2 eggs.
15 eggs total. Not bad. I have another dozen in the fridge and am steadily getting two eggs a day. I think I'll be making quiche next weekend. Maybe souffle?
And more ice cream.
I wasn't supposed to start this until I'd finished a few things, but the time seemed right....
I've been wanting to do a heart that bloomed with flowers since last year and to add tape with a heart beat pattern in some way. The reading that I've done recently made me think that the skeleton would be appropriate as well. All of this is to help me remember what a miracle life is.
The skeleton is an illustration from a book that I scanned and then printed on canvas fabric. Much to my delight when I applied a filter to the illustration, the photo on the backside of the page became apparent.
The red flowers were cut from a wool sweater that I felted (fulled really) and then the center was needle felted with a bit of wool roving. I'm going to be making more of these flowers and using them in a variety of ways. They really are fun. The playful heart.
I've scanned the paper tape and will either print it on to organza or t-shirt transfer paper. Not sure which yet. The persistent heart.
I'm glad that I didn't make this when I first had the idea, that it's settled and developed a bit. I think it will turn out all the better for the time that it's taken to germinate. A patient heart.
I woke up this morning to pouring, pounding rain. The autumn crocus are little tattered by the slugs as well.
When I went out this morning to feed the chickens I noticed how beautiful the wool I had tossed into a mixture of blackberries and cabbage was. The roving, well, I was trying over-dyeing green and it didn't work. I also realized that for roving the plant material really needs to be strained out. The process continues.
This morning Jude at Spirit Cloth wrote about living an "artful life." Artful is a difficult word for me. There is something limiting to it for me, maybe because it seems to be product driven? (And that is not a critique of those who create art at all, art if food for the soul). Maybe too because "artful" has been turned into a lifestyle statement?
In choosing a word to describe what I want to be doing, how I want to live my life, I do like creative. When I first named my blog I looked in the dictionary (Websters to be precise, 1984 edition).
Create: To bring into being. To produce through artistic or imaginative effort.
Creative: Productive, imaginative.
Imagination: The ability to confront and cope with reality by using the creative power of the mind; resoucefulness.
I have a strong need to take pieces of things and put them together, to create something new or different from fragments, to make things whole, to heal and nurture. Creative is a lifestyle choice for me. I've been wondering a lot lately (as I commented at Spirit Cloth) about whether we do the best with what we are given in life or if we create the life we want? And if it really matters in the long run. The goal is to live and to live to the best of our ability.
I think at times it is both. Sometimes it doesn't have to be either, but rather part of the learning process.
This is a jacket I made over ten years ago and started playing with four or five years ago (I saved it because I love the orange fabric). I really don't like the jacket. As an item of clothing that I might wear it would be a failure. The first bad decision was black trim on orange. Way too Halloween. I really don't know what I was thinking. Probably that velvet would feel nice on the neckline, that black went with anything and that the velvet was something I had and wanted to use up.
The second mistake was thinking I could make it better by adding more color. That maybe the black would blend in a little better. So I started needle felting roving and yarn around the neckline. Busy, busy, busy! I really, really don't like it.
Where is the success? I learned that I don't like orange and black together, that needle felting is lots of fun, that yarn could be needle felted as easily as roving (and in fact can be controlled more), that I generally like to create a binding for a neckline rather than do a facing, that boiled wool and velvet are both wonderful fabrics and that sometimes the best thing to do is to get out the scissors.
If we learn something from what might be called a failure is it really failure? For me, no it's not. This jacket was a question asked, an experiment tried and then I moved on. Well, I haven't cut it up yet but I'm going to. I want the wool for a quilt. And again, I'll ask myself, "Does this work for me?" Sooner or later it will find it's right home and usage.
Once upon a time I didn't consider myself a risk taker. After a conversation with a friend I realized that I took a lot more risks than I thought. I'll never be one to take physical risks (I won't be the person to go parachuting), but when it comes to creative risks there isn't much I won't try. The questions I always ask myself are, "What is there to lose? If it doesn't turn out the way I want, will I be able to try again? Will I be able to use the materials another way?"
For me it's about process. Although I want things to turn out well, if I've enjoyed the process or learned something from it, I'm happy. I think failure would bother me more if I was really invested in having something turn out a particular way.
Are there failures? Definitely. Dinner tonight was an experiment I won't try again. Which brings me to creative cooking. Cooking is very much a creative act for me and a good example of how I approach projects in general.
I love to read recipes and I love to tweak them. My favorite dinners are a little of this and a little of that. The worst that will happen is that it will taste icky. If it does, the dogs will eat it. And if they won't (which has never happened), there is always the compost. Failure is best if there is no waste....
P.S. (added 9/17): What if there is no such thing as failure? How do we define failure anyway?
Here's a recipe that was a success:
Pumpkin Seed Mole (based on a recipe from Moosewood Restaurant New Classics)
4 or 5 tomatillos, husks removed
1/4 cup shelled raw pumpkin seeds
1 cup chopped onions
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon chipotle powder (or to taste-chipotle powder can be pretty spicy)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Blend all ingredients together in a food processor or a blender until it fairly smooth in texture. Transfer to a saucepan and cook at medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes.
My favorite thing to do with this sauce is to stir it in to some rice with a few vegetables. It also is a good dip for corn chips or as a sauce for enchiladas. It is a different mole sauce than what I've had in restaurants.
Both pieces of velvet were dyed for about the same length of time. The fabric on the right was added with the water and the cabbage and berries. The one on the left was added the next day after the plant material had steeped awhile. I love both. They are a tad bit bluer in this picture then I really think they are. They make me think of twilight and pansies. What will I do with them? Pretty sure that they will end up in a quilt. Does it matter if they fade and change as they age? Not really. Am I being scientific about this at all? Nope. Will all the purple cabbage I grew end up in the dye pot? Oh yes!
Not my normal shade cloth, but the day seemed to call for it.
What I finished on the porch swing. Next weekend I'll sew it into a pillow cover. There is a map of sorts on the back side of this piece.
I had started to doodle on the fabric, following the lines of color. It reminded me of a sea chart with islands and depth markings. Eventually it got a little too busy so I stopped and decided to use the other side of the fabric as a base. I like knowing there will be a secret map inside this pillow. I think that every pillow cover that I make will include a secret map or a secret message (maybe not so secret...).
I've been knitting squares on the bus again. Well, sort of square as these have flaps. There are two of these and after a little dip in some hot water and soap, and a bit of scrubbing I should have two felted pieces of fabric for pockets on my wool coat.
I found some white velvet and white silk. A few frozen blackberries, a little red cabbage, a piece of copper and a little water. Who knows what will happen?
Dinner tonight. I don't think I have to worry about whether the grapes will ripen this year or not anymore. I think what I really have to worry about is who's been helping themselves. What I know for sure is that if the chickens could get to them they would be gone, gone, gone. The pear is also from my garden.
Twice now I've collected two eggs in one day, up to over a dozen total now. I didn't make anything with the first egg, wasn't sure how long it had been out. I saved the shell and will make an ornament with it. The first eggs used for cooking went into a yogurt cake (this week's morning bus snack).
I'm starting my third year without a car. My local bus system has a reward program that I registered for that tracks my usage. I've eliminated 6,400 miles from being driven and saved 266 gallons of gas just for my commute to work and back. It's not always easy, but it's been worthwhile.
I haven't been as good at riding my trike as I'd hoped. Mostly I ride downtown on weekends to shop at the farmer's market and at the coop.
I was hoping to try this out this weekend, but I lost the spindle and didn't find it until Monday night. I wonder how big of a mess I can make?
beans
garlic
tomato.
Might be the makings of a good meal, but it's actually my seed collection for next year. Well, except that yellow tomato. I ate that right after I took the picture.
I can't eat plums without thinking of the William Carlos William's poem "This Is Just to Say." Summer is so close to being over.
It's after 8 PM here and dark and stormy. Time to start planning what photos I want to take when there is natural light (I think they usually look better). On the other hand it's an excuse to play with filters. I've been rounding up projects that I want to finish and I'm back to working on one of my wool quilts.
For Phyllis who asked about my cat. Hazel is an expert at being slothful, but knows just when to speed up. When she thinks she's going to get fed in particular. Just behind Hazel is a piece of a broken tile. I did a photo transfer on to the tile. It's a photo of a piece of lace that one of my great grandmothers made. Didn't notice that was there until I cropped the photo.
Another passage I like from Finding Beauty in a Broken World by Terry Tempest Williams:
"Much of our world now is a fabrication, a fiction, a manufactured and manipulated time-lapsed piece of film making where a rose no longer unfolds but bursts. Speed is the buzz, the blur, the drug. Life out of focus becomes our way of seeing. We no longer expect clarity. The lenses of perception and perspective have been replaced by speed, motion. We don't know how to stop. The information we value is retrieved, never internalized."
Slow cloth, slow food, slow transportation, going slowly.... I haven't finished the book yet, but I think that slowing down is part of finding beauty.
Finished stitching on my daisy pillow on Sunday. The daisies still looked like they needed something more so I decided to try crayon (inspired by Jude). Very pleased with the results. The cream in the stripes is some of the fabric I dyed in hazelnut leaves.
Cabbage roll unwrapped. Lovely, lovely, blue. Some of this rinsed out, but it's just beautiful.
