bee creative

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.

#81 reflect

Deep contentment. This is the third week that I’ve gone to walk on the trail along the bay . I was able to claim a space down at the very end of the dock, in one of the corners. There was a fairly good breeze coming from the south. When I closed my eyes I could imagine being out on the boat during the summer…childhood memories.

 

Reading chapters in Wild Comfort brought back other memories. The chapter about burning garbage on the beach in Alaska made me think of my own family history. About the garbage that would come up in the trawl when we were dragging for shrimp in the San Juan Islands, once a refrigerator. And yes, dragging isn’t the best environmental choice. Sometimes we do the best we can with the information we have, with the opportunities that are available.

 

Another one of my memories is of going into an abandoned small village that had been built around a cannery in SE Alaska. It was as if the people who were living there just walked away and left. A ghost town. I wonder what happened to those things? Are they still there? Has it been buried or burned? Was it loaded up and taken away? Or did someone dump it out in deep water?

I am guilty of having more than needed (don’t ask about how many coffee cups I have!). I think a lot about consumption, sustainability, resiliency. About what I would want or need if I lived in a tiny house.

In the midst of a long term goal of organizing belongings, I am still trying to let go of things or transform things into more useful things. To take responsibility for what I have.

I found a project from several years back, sitting in a pile waiting.

It knows what it wants to be now.

It wants to be smaller and useful.

#63 just cut the sleeves off

The arm holes were a little bigger than I wanted so I cut the shoulder seams as well and will resew.

Also adding a third pocket to cover a bleach stain.

Now to get some thread.

P.S.  I don't sew facings anymore but love the pattern piece for altering necklines, arm holes and some other things too. More on that later, 'cause I just realized that's something I need to look at more. 

#45 document

Out in the garden I noticed a bald eagle, blue heron, and the first swallowtail sighting of the year.

Watered everything well in preparation for 90+ temps.

#40 make it personal

First:

And then:

A very subtle addition of a stripe.  I also added a filter that changed the tone just a bit.

The combination of baby photo and claim check made me smile. 

 

I was in a bit of a mood today, not liking what I was making. And then I found this quote that I had stashed away...

"The best way to hone your skills and develop your style is to just do the work, over and over again.  The more you create, the more natural it becomes. The more natural it becomes, the less you think. And when you stop thinking, this is when the magic begins to happen."  Seth Apter

I also took a nap.

#33 gather

This morning's harvest:

When I make a pouch with my shirt to carry something, I always think of other women in my family. Pretty sure I've seen everyone on my mother's side of the family do this.

I also gathered scraps and made a book.  The class was called "Seeded notebook." With a name like that how could I resist?

The image to the right is a photo copy of a project I stitched.  It includes an edge of lace made my Grandma Iside.

I am pretty sure I won't ever buy a book to journal in again...

I'll just keep making them.