bee creative

healing things

Yesterday I spent a few hours working on the quilt that I named

GOOD enough COVID 19. 

The name had a lot to do with letting things be good enough during difficult times. 

As I've worked on it another name has come...

Holding Breath.

 One of my reactions to stress over the last few years has been holding my breath.  It's kind of ironic because at least once a day, while at work, I coach an upset child to take a deep breath. 

There are other reasons the name fits, how the cloth used for masks held our breath the most obvious.  When I think about the years we lived with Covid as a pandemic, so much of it will be about breath.

Filling the gaps between the squares.  What is working the best for me is to:

1. stitch 3 sides of a strip
2. place it right side to right side with one of the blocks
3. stitch down the fourth side along one of the blocks
4. flip the strip over to cover the gap
5. stich in place

 

 

As I work towards piecing all the squares together, 6 feet by 6 feet, I think a lot about distance, about making things fit. 

This is the other memory I will  hold on to as I think about the pandemic.

And then I started thinking about bandages.

That was random, but maybe not.

The theme might have been continued by making calendula salve but really it just had been on the to-do list for too long.

I think of this as healing our environment...waste stream, invasive, ruderial.

The golden is buddleia, in process, and the khaki is the bindweed pigment, mulled and with a binder added. 

When the bindweed pigment was wet I thought it looked like the color of Gibson and Timber's eyes. 

Bindweed, morning glory...coming back to thinking about names.

Does healing start with naming?

 

the same but different

About a month ago on an impulse I bought some yarn for socks.

Today I realized it was the same color as the fabric I dyed with goldenrod and marigold.

Knit 2, purl 2...it's soothing. 

 

This morning's sky, first day of fall. 

Early morning ten days ago, still summer...

The same but different.

just hanging on

A couple nights ago I woke up to Gibson draped across the crocheted table runner I had hung for a curtain...the one on the top that he is just pulling himself over in this picture. His front legs were suspended to one side and his back legs to the other. I am sure he would have found a way down but I rescued him before he broke something.

This morning I caught him in the act climbing up the other panel. Both runners are down for repairs now.

 

While visiting a nursery today I found a few things for the garden and visited a little with this garden helper.

And this one too.  It was a lovely afternoon.

Hoping to get back to some sewing soon but I also have some more colors to play with.  This is goldenrod in the center and cosmos for the petals. It had more pigment at first but a lot brushed off as it dried.  Something to problem solve... or maybe accept.

always something to learn from the garden

Jude's post today reminded me of something that I have been watching for the last month...

A pansy that is a volunteer from one that grew in a pot just above this area in the spring and a foxglove that has been waiting patiently for some time. 

I thought that all of the volunteer foxgloves were gone from the garden. 

This spring I dug this area out after losing a few shrubs to the weather. 

Such a lovely surprise to find foxglove growing here again. 

color, plants and cats

The fabric that went into the indigo vat is done for now, washed and dried. 

It will be cut and sewn and then perhaps dyed again. 

Not sure what to do with this piece. It was going to be part of a shirt but maybe not. Or maybe differently than first intended. 

I love how the dots aren't a solid white. 

The last of the lilies in the garden is blooming. The variety, Scheherazade, was breed by someone here in the area where I live.  The flowers are where I walk so I decided to remove the pollen right away, before they stained something.

Pollen with alcohol added.

It's a kind of magic when there is a shift in color.

 

I started subscribing to the Wild Pigment Project's "ground bright" shortly after taking a class from Tilke. It's a really great opportunity to interact with pigments that I might not be able to gather on my own.  The pigments being gathered are "waste stream" pigments; so important to me... I also love that I had something to share, waste not!

During the class I realized that I had a lot of branches with gum on them that could be collected by soaking the branches and then filtering the water. I had shared with Tilke that it had made a lot more stone fruit gum solution that I thought could be used before it went bad (it ferments) and she suggested drying it.  And then she asked if I'd like to contribute some for one of the ground bright subscriptions.

My subscription arrived today and I have to admit it was a bit strange (but not an objection of the label) to see myself described as "artist."  Maybe because it is strange to see someone else describe who you are?  And artist isn't a label I tend to use ... it's a word that I am still working on defining. Either way, it's a lovely and thoughtful description and one that I appreciate!  

I highly recommend watching the Feedback Friday that featured Tilke and Natalie Stopkka to anyone wanting to know more about Wild Pigment Project, Tilke, or pigments.

And here is one of the guilty parties who broke a 1/2 gallon jar of gum solution that was sitting on the floor by knocking something on to it during a "zoomies" session.

When did his ruff get so big?

 

good to hold

Plant and soil, both from California.

This morning I listened to a conversation with Heidi Gustafson on Feedback Friday. She has a book out, primarily about ochre, called Book of Earth which is beautiful. I am just now settling in to read it more thoroughly.

Part of the discussion was about ethical foraging, about connection to the place where something might be collected and who you need permission from.

And about purpose, are we respecting what we take?

What I hold in my hand is about family and birth place.

It feels good to hold.

It leads me back to why we make and who we are making things for...

 

step in

I am still reading Katherine May's Enchantment.  Most days I only read 2 or 3 pages at a time...and I will be sad when I am done.  It is a beautiful book.

The passage that is lingering at the moment is about how she feels when she goes swimming in the ocean.

Me dipping my toes into the very end of a river a couple weeks ago, where it enters the ocean.

Like Katherine May, and I am sure others, I believe that to step into the ocean is to step into connection.

And oh joy! I just discovered Katherine May has a podcast. 

First up, listening to Ross Gay, the author of Inciting Joy and Book of Delights.

to be so many things (going big)

I used to worry (and every once and awhile still do) that I loved to do too many things.

The worry is/was driven, I think, by being part of a culture that values specialization. Success is often defined as becoming very good at one thing. 

That's just not who some of us are.

It's not who I am.

A few months ago (I know I should have paid more attention to where but I can't remember or find where) I discovered an artist that I wanted to know more about, Meryl McMaster.

So, I ordered her book. It arrived at the end of last week and it is full of wonder.

Buffy Sainte-Marie, in the foreword, writes about how it wasn't always that people were specialists.

We knew how to do many things. 

After some of the other reading/listening I've been doing recently (Nick Offerman/Wendell Berry in particular), it really clicked into place that we lose something really important when we specialize too much.  It's not just about not knowing where food comes from or how something is made, but how we might be and interact with the world around us.

There is a loss of faith in our ability to be something more than a consumer. It shows up every day in the news.

And as I go out into the garden every day right now and collect or harvest for projects or food, I am watch all the changes that are happening so quickly in this season. I am thinking about how much I learn from being curious about growth, about nurturing a garden. Thinking about how a garden is always a process. 

About how it influences me as someone who makes things; how I make them and why I make them.  A garden is abundant with possibilities. 

This is partly a response to Grace's and Jude's posts regarding making, but also something that I am almost always thinking about...

"Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"  Mary Oliver

 

making things, growing things

Salve making:

Olive oil (about 1 cup) that  calendula petals have been steeping in + beeswax (about 1 tablespoon).

I usually dry any plant matter before adding to the olive oil.  This keeps it from molding.

I have a dedicated jar that I use for melting the beeswax in and use a frying pan as a double boiler to heat the oil and the wax.  Once the wax is melted, it is poured into the heated oil and stirred (I usually use a wood skewer).  If you try this, be careful with this step and don't walk away. 

The salve will solidify as it cools. 

The proportion of wax to oil will impact how hard the salve is.  My proportion makes a fairly soft salve that can almost become a liquid on a really hot day. 

Sewing:  This was dress length.  I never really wore it much and it's been sitting in a "re-do" pile.  Today I cut it to just above knee length and am now hemming it.  I will probably make a bag with the fabric I cut off.

Growing: 

The ginger has sprouted! I will put it in a planter and give it a good dose of fish fertilizer (recommended by a local farmer who grew it to sell at the farmer's market for many years).

The cherry, plums, pears and one of the apple trees are blooming.  This cherry has never set fruit.  It's supposed to be self-pollinating but I don't think it is!

Eating:

Pasta + homemade ricotta + sorrel (garden) + oregano (garden) + asparagus (garden) + hazelnuts and hazelnut oil (local, farmer's market) + parmigiano reggiano (from far away Italy because I am not perfect and I love it so).

Listening to:  Where the Deer and the Antelope Play by Nick Offerman.  Interesting, sometimes funny, political, and seriously concerned about the state of our world. He sometimes seems to go off on a tangent, which might drive some crazy, and he has what I would call a "potty mouth."

I am not quite done yet, but am pretty sure one of my favorite things he discusses is about how disconnected we become from our  environment and what it means to be a community, when we are only consumers... 

waste not

A new challenge has been on my mind and it is pure coincidence that I am posting about it on Earth Day.

This is what I am starting with: 50 projects that use up what would be commonly considered "waste," weeds or salvaged materials.  Depending on how long it takes me to get to 50, I may keep going.  I've already got ideas to start with such as making a rag rug, making paper with paper scraps, pieced clothing, baskets and...

Dandelion wine!

It will be a small batch as I really don't know whether I like it or not.  Two cups of petals are now soaking in water for the next week.

This could qualify as a project although it feels a bit like cheating.  All I did was gather some vines and put them in the tins.  Mom was the one that tended the fire.  The top piece of charcoal is from Mom and Dad's fireplace. 

Along with some other things, my aunt sent me this beautiful table runner that has tears in it.

So many possibilities!

This isn't a daily challenge, I am just going to take my time and see what I can do.