bee creative

something new

As soon as the class was listed I knew I wanted to sign up, Paper Mache Sculpture.  It probably won't use up as much of my scrap paper as I want but it will help.  I have lots of plans for more and have already started on a boat.

something to do when it's hot

Spent most of yesterday sitting on the front porch stitching and reading Orwell's Roses.  

The brown material (walnut) and blue (fresh indigo) thread I dyed.  The blue and brown was done by someone my mom knows. 

Drank lots of water with lemon and mint.

rearranging

Yesterday morning I spent a couple hours working on my GOOD Enough COVID 19 quilt.

This isn't the way it ended up but rather a practice run at what 6 feet by 6 feet would look like. Makes me think of a path.

I need 12 to 14 more blocks.

Which means it will be made from 36 to 48 blocks.

That makes me think of years, 3 or 4?

I am leaning towards 36 blocks, with strips of fabric along the sides to make the 6 foot by 6 foot measurement.

Another practice run, it's really lap quilt size at the moment.

I had a random thought awhile ago, that it might be strange to sleep under and use a quilt named and created in response to a pandemic.

I've decided it's not. 

This quilt is mostly about living and celebrating what we can and protection.

It's about caring, which is a form of mending and a form of healing.

It's about life, which is really, mostly...complicated and messy.

other things

From last weekend's walk.

I love this one just as much as the loon floating on the water.

Going under...what will be found?

Leftover soup found it's way into quiche as the liquid component.

(Avocado is one of the few non-local foods I eat, from California so not too far.)

My hummingbird feeders: fuchsias and petunias.  As well as lobelia and creeping charlie.

And "mending to wear."

That's when you mend something and then put it on so you can wear it that day...

 

things that make me happy

I love cooked onions.

Really love them.

(Pasta + dried red peppers re-hydrated with the pasta + sausage + cheese + onions cooked in olive oil. The pasta and peppers, plus some of the cooking water was added to the onions to make a sauce.)

And I bought way more than I needed for storage in the fall.

Time to cook and freeze before they spoil.

And since there were onion skins, there was bundling.  I used a few pieces of cloth that were added to the walnut dye bath I had made for the pants.

Which are now being rinsed.

The sun is shining even though the forecast says cloudy.

I'll be heading out to the garden soon.

This is my "spring fever" garden...not to be confused with the spring garden.

(Indigo is scraggly but still alive!)

 

stars and moons

Directions can be found here.

Drying coffee filters on the window so that I can try making coffee filter yarn.

Soon.

#90 return

I paused for awhile on this...

I like how my stripes are crooked sometimes.

Off work for a few day.

I am glad that today's decisions are something like...rug or quilt square?

Maybe both.

#89 learn a new skill: rug making

Making rugs has been on my to-do list for awhile. 

After seeing Ilka White's beautiful rugs and learning that she teaches classes, I thought now is the time!

It will be a great way to use up scraps...I love that knits and woven fabrics can be used together.  Denim is good too.

And other things can be made...bags, baskets

and

kitten beds?

#84 stay in motion

From my journal: 

Arrangement, how things come together. To make one arrangement, and then cut and rearrange. To rearrange the furniture. To change you mind about how you want something arranged. To be fluid and flow with the current. Current: what is timely or what is the motion of water or air moving in a similar direction….

Earlier this week I finished rearranging the pieces I had cut and found myself really liking this arrangement...not quite what I had in mind. 

Okay.  Let it be something else. I am going to use it as a book cover.  A bit more stitching to add and I will start gathering pages.

Widget and the boy band have had a few meetings.  Mostly going well.  They want to explore and Widget wants to play chase.  Sometimes I let them both out for a bit, other times one at a time.  It will take a little time but I think it is going to be okay. 

Field notes:  first storm of the season on the cusp of summer and fall.

Rain.  Wind 17-22 MPH with gusts possible to 33 MPH tomorrow. Possibly thunder showers. Temp: 52 F.

Sunrise,  6:49 PM               Sunset, 7:17 PM

 

#82 advice to a stranger

Sometimes when I journal I write to myself, other times to an unknown person. Thinking about that.  Adapted from a journal entry:

At the farmer’s market on Saturday, I was talking with someone I know about Alaska. Their family goes up each summer to fish. The person next to me commented about our conversation and I asked her if she had ever been to Alaska or lived there. Her reply was no, but that she had just moved from Hawaii and was finding the transition difficult. That where she had came from was small and a close community.

Even though it has been such a long time since my family made that move, I knew exactly what she was talking about. Living on an island is different.

It made me think about moving to Seattle in my twenties, something that was out of my comfort zone and seemed overwhelming at times. I moved to a neighborhood I was somewhat familiar with, into an apartment for the first time (it had great light for houseplants).  The first weekend there, I went to a park I had been to a few times before.  

I don't know that I was very brave, but I was brave enough. 

And the only thought I have, is start small and build from there. Know your neighborhood and move out further, go a little further, and then farther, but not too far all at once. And maybe only so far.

Boundaries and edges are not always a bad thing.