bee creative

dawn to dusk

Strawberries that I grow in a container on my back porch.  Eaten at dawn.

Apricot milkshake...a couple hours before dusk.  I cooked down some apricots, sweetened with a bit of sugar, ran in through a food mill and then used if for the liquid in a milkshake.  So good!

A bit before dusk.  Japanese maple being grown in a container, the monster grape and an apple tree in the background.  This is what is opposite my porch swing.  Occasionally little birds will go zooming by just over the top of the grape and the apple tree.  A couple nights ago two hummingbirds buzzed by.  Dragon flies flit in and out and spiders build webs.  As I think about, I realize that the wild life in my garden has increased over the years I've lived here.  But then, so has the garden.  

I'm off to the front porch to listen to my neighbors.   They have friends over and are playing live music. 

a beginning

My horoscope last week said: "Send your soul flying out through your soul pit for some daring exploits that will revitalize your lust for life.  Take your backlog of stored-up tears along with you and pour them down like rain on the secret garden you've been neglecting.  The garden will respond to the downpour with a big growth spurt."  (From Free Will Astrology).   

 
I've always liked the idea of secret gardens.  I'm not sure if a beast will end up here or not...maybe an eye in the cloud. 

sun bear arrives

Yesterday was certainly a summer day... so sun bear decided to make an appearance. 

He went to play in the field where the ragged butterflies live.  He played until the full moon came up.

And then he went home and went to bed.  I wonder where moon bear is? 

perspective and balance

I've been thinking about how perspective shapes view...

For me this glass is neither half empty or half full, but is both at the same time.  I've always thought that was a trick question. 

This morning sorting through some scraps and some bits that I'd pieced for a quilt that I've changed directions on, I found this just waiting for me to put together:

Knit and woven.  Appliqued and pieced.   Thinking about the butterfly effect again. 

And it occurred to me that I will need butterflies on this quilt:

The quilt my mother started with various scraps from different women in my family.  That I've added "Peace and Plenty" blocks to, made with scraps from my grandfather's work shirts.  And that I most recently started adding woven balls to.  So now I am thinking butterflies and flowers, and maybe other little critters hiding here and there...

And me too...light and dark.  Looking for balance. 

wool beast number two

I came home as quickly as I could to see if the wool was dry enough to needle felt.

It was.  So five pieces of knit material that I stitched together became this:

I'm not sure how I'm going to do the eyes yet, but I can see the mouth and know what I'll do there.  It will, however, need to wait until tomorrow. 

peeling back

The bark is coming off the old apple tree that came down a couple years ago...peeling back to reveal other layers, a different texture. 

putting things together

Berries, ice cream and scone....

A wool patchwork beast....  Lots of "what if's" floating in my mind. 

beasts of all sorts

A few of the projects I'm working on for the class I'm taking.  I probably would have done a bee sooner or later, but last night I saw a bee keeping demonstration and so was inspired to do this:

Sure wish I'd had my camera with me last night.

I'm reading Maps of the Imagination:  The Writer as Cartographer by Peter Turchi.  Some interesting things to think about.  This passage certainly caught my interest:

"Some of the most famous blanks on maps were filled with drawings--of sea serpents, dragons, griffins, hippogriffs, and freakishly exotic people.  This was a less a matter of encoding than a matter of decoration, but in some cases those drawings represented an earlier day's urban myths..."  

I think I need to make some dragons soon. Maybe the red critter in the middle is a dragon not quite formed? 

from the porch swing

Lunch:  from my garden, lettuce, dried apple, blueberries; local, hazelnuts, apple cider vinegar; blue cheese and olive oil.  We have lots of wonderful cheese makers in our area.  I wonder why none of them make blue cheese? 

I've already started three different projects for the Patchwork Beast class.  So much fun!  This is the first one (still in progress), my lion-tiger lily.  

dye pot: elderberry and bronze fennel

 

The first couple things off the dye shelf:

The bottom piece of fabric is the bundle I made up with bronze fennel, sumac, and elderberry (both flowers and leaves).  I love how the dark lines (created by the bronze fennel I think) look like vertebrae. 

I also did a piece of cheese cloth and a couple pieces of silk in just elderberry.  The spots where the elderberry rested against the silk fabric most firmly made wonderful rust prints.  I need to gather more elderberry leaves to dye more silk and see if I can get a leaf print.  I also found that the elderberry is more yellowish on cotton and browner on silk. 

I'll be returning to more stitching as I participate in Jude's (Spirit Cloth) Patchwork Beast class.