bee creative

filling in the gaps

I've spent most of today working on a section of my Good Enough quilt.

There has been some problem solving to do.

 

As usual, Timber wants to help.

 

ethereal

Mussels are not recommended for making pigment...at least not on a regular basis and not without safety precautions.  They accumulate toxic metals in their shells.

Just once I wanted to try it.

On Wednesday I gathered a small handful of shells (and a piece of brick) and brought them home to make pigment with.

The brown below is a soil pigment.

The mussel pigment is ethereal...

 

day one, looking and making

Just after sunrise I went outside to look around the garden.

There are things blooming...just little blossoms here and there. 

Later I went down to walk along the bay. 

It was busy but still there are ways to find quiet spaces.

Look close.

Look into the distance.

After I came home, I finished my first project with the quilt I am cutting up.

It's filled with buckwheat hulls.

Once upon a time I had a plan to make a lot of pillows and ordered a really big bag of hulls.  Instead I made a few small pillows and then one really big pillow. 

I've opened that big pillow up and and am breaking it down to make smaller pillows. 

There will probably be quite a few when I am done. 

at the end of December

Widget this morning.

She was my Christmas kitten who arrived a few days before the end of the year four years ago. 

She is a bit mythic to my friends and family who come to visit as she hides and won't come out. 

And...

I heard a bird sing

In the dark of December

A magical thing

And sweet to remember.

 

"We are nearer to spring

Than we were in September,"

I heard a bird sing

In the Dark of December.

-Oliver Herford

And...

I will be setting my alarm not to wake up so that I can "ring the New Year in," but rather in hopes of seeing the Aurora Borealis... Wouldn't that be amazing?

Happy New Year! 

dots and holes and beasts

Today I finally cut up a quilt I had made and that Lola had torn a lot of holes in with her nesting habit. I miss her, but not how hard she was on blankets.

All the pieces will be recycled into other things, including this slightly tattered beast I made in one of Jude's classes.  

There is help; Timber thinks it's great fun to flop right where I am cutting. 

I keep telling him it's not helpful and probably dangerous.

I've also been playing with the ink made with the Douglas Fir cones.

The dot on the left is the Doug fir, the middle Doug Fir mixed with iron water and the one on the right Doug Fir with iron water dropped in the middle.

And then walnut and iron because it was so much fun to play.

Might be the eye of a beast? 

good enough

Time to get back to "good enough."

I need a few more squares to fill in some gaps.

Another look at the earth pigments: The one from the beach (right) and from the lake (left) are actually pretty different now that they are dry.

And...the hellebores are blooming; tattered but more than good enough.

staying cozy

It was the perfect day to finish up the baby blanket and make split pea soup... 

joy and silliness

One of my coworkers decided the cats needed a costume...

Gibson thought it was worth considering.

 

field notes

Last night I almost posted these images and the title "quietly;" along with just a few words like ...look at what's blooming in the garden still and here's another pigment.

I decided to wait though, there was something more that I just wasn't finding the words for. This is some of it..

Yesterday Grace wrote about "field notes." 

It's an idea I've loved for a long time, the idea of gathering observations and documenting what is seen/experienced in the environment.  As a way of documenting, I love that there is an intent of curiosity and of noticing with field notes.

(I am thinking a lot about the aspect of research versus participant though...something to consider later.)

I believe that we take care of the things we notice (loved Nancy's noticing); that we take care of the things we feel a part of.

And that brings me to Christmas...

This year I am really aware of how it is a holiday of care giving.   

Last week while picking one of my brothers up so he could get his car, I gathered a bit of clay from the bank of the road he lives on. 

I will give him a few pigment dots tomorrow, but want to make him something more.

It won't be done as a gift for Christmas this year. 

He won't mind.

P.S.  It is interesting to me how close in color it is to what I collected at the beach.  He lives about 10 miles inland on a lake.

colors and textures

On today's walk the log and the grass growing in the water caught my eye.

And the coot, what a fun word that is!

I played a bit with the pigment made from the little clump of clay that I found about a month ago on the beach.

I could mull it to make it smoother but I love the texture as it is so won't.