Wandering Wednesday - Wilder Ranch

 From earlier in the year,some pictures of the beach and historic ranch at one of our local state parks, Wilder Ranch.

 The mossy ranch bell.

 Climbing in the enormous cypress.

Enjoying the sunset down on the cove beach.

A New Vessel

 I hardly ever showcase other people's artwork on my blog, but I had to make an exception in this case.

 This beautiful vessel was made for me by my son, Alex.

 It is the first ceramic vessel he's ever constructed.

 I'm so impressed with his natural abilities in a form that's so foreign to me.

I feel really lucky to have been given this as a gift on Mother's Day. Thanks Alex.

Deer-Watch 2013

 Our deer seem to be enjoying the not-quite-ripe apples tremendously this year.

 They wisely ignore the dog barking at them and me taking pictures.

And then they come back the next day for another one.  I guess I post about our deer quite a lot as I have a tag for them! I do see them everyday, and we name the new ones every year. This one is Dearie.  If I get a good picture of Prongs I'll post it, he has a wonderful rack growing.

Wandering Wednesday - Animals of India

 More pictures from my husband's trip to India, these are all animal related.
First a decorated horse racing down the street past a wall of speakers which were all going full-blast.

 A horse-drawn vehicle from inside, and one of the many three wheelers passing by.

 Monkeys on the roof tops. I think they're rhesus monkeys.

 The monkeys are free to roam the monuments.

The workers pretty much ignore the monkeys.  Funny to notice how similarly we humans sit.

Blackbuck wandering the grounds of the animal preserve, (glad the horns point that direction).

 Rose-ringed parakeets on the walls.

And contrasting nicely with the red stone.

For Want of A Few Yards More

The perfect fabric, a silky print of small skulls, you really can't tell what they are until you're close up.  Unfortunately I was only given a small piece.

Oh but only if I had a few yards, I'd make myself something like this to wear with my big black sun hat, black sunglasses and red lipstick:

Oh dear, aspirational dresses made out of invisible fabric, things are getting worse, send help.

Posted To Inspire

The two bulletin boards that I have in my work room are used for different purposes.  This first one is larger, more easily accessible and requires no thumbtacks to put something up.  So it gets changed more often, has more current, topical, things like show advertisements, birth announcements.  I have things hanging off the bottom too, a green silk scarf I'm supposed to do something with, and a cool black/white/green zipper I want to use for a bag or jacket.  This is mostly just a hodgepodge of stuff I want to look at more than once or an image I want to revisit.

The second one is smaller, much harder to reach as it hangs over my wide cutting/work table and requires a new thumbtack to be hunted up to hang something new on it.  I have inspirational images,things with color combinations or patterns that I enjoy, quotes and words and a few objects hanging on here, a collage of myself in a way.  It doesn't change as much, but it gets update occasionally, usually when I clean off the other bulletin board.

The coolest artist bulletin board I ever got to see in person was probably Judith Content's, it took up almost a whole wall above her desk I think.  And if I recall correctly she takes everything down on a yearly basis and puts it in a book, then starts over again filling up the blank wall.

Do you have something similar in your work space?

July Flowers

 Happy July! If we survive this heatwave with any flowers remaining I'll be totally amazed.  Over 100F for 3 days in a row.  At least the bees are happy.

 So are the butterflies.

 Second try at growing this plant, Lotus Vine, I have it in a less hot and sunny spot so hopefully it will survive.  Isn't the shading on these buds beautiful.  I'd love to try dyeing something to look like this.

I like how speckled it is on the outside, and how the flower shape changes so much as it opens up from the flame-like bud.

Tilting At Windmills

More windmills cut out and sent to friend Jaye. Sorry about the title of this post, but I promised last time I posted about this project.

I don't know why it's so fun to take pictures of these stacked-up pieces.

Obviously it's the colors primarily.

 Or maybe the amount of work involved in cutting all that fabric that this tidy stack represents and I'm just glad to have done it. 

Or maybe it's just that I can see the potential for this awesome quilt being created.

Or all of the above.

Spoonflower, Why Not?

So here's my first Spoonflower fabric,which I had produced using the image I photoshopped from the End of Anise.   I just really liked how the image turned into something so different than what it started as.  I was curious to see what it would look like in a tiled fabric, and I've been curious to use Spoonflower for a while now.

The interface is very easy to use and there are many tools and choices to use as you specify what you want printed.  The fabric itself is lovely and very usable.

This is probably what it feels like to self-publish a book, that thrill that you created this physical thing, and you're very happy with it, but it's not like it's official success or anything, something you've bought for yourself, just to please yourself.  Just leave me to wallow in my selfish pride for a moment.Spoonflower includes this cute little fabric label, which I'm not sure what I'd use it for, maybe to specify on the back of the quilt or whatever I make with the fabric that the fabric was printed by them.

The main reason I was even at Spoonflower in the first place was for the purpose of buying this fabric so that I can participate in the Exquisite Uterus project.  If you're interested, there's still time for you, work isn't due until 8/31.  By the way this fabric is a linen-cotton canvas with a nice thick hand., which is great because I'll be embellishing it (probably with beads and paint).

Wandering Wednesday - Patterns of India

 Last year my husband got to travel to India for his work, and he took a lot of pictures, especially of patterns that he noticed.  I thought you might enjoy seeing some of these, mostly mosaics, but some stonework as well as wood.  Many of them are from the inside of various domes which make them even more extraordinary.  See any quilt design inspirations?

First Try at Ice Dyeing

 I finally got to try out ice dyeing this weekend, thanks to my friend Debbie Wambaugh.  We did some outdoor dyeing with a couple of her friends.  This first picture show many of the containers we were using to contain the dyeing fabric, and the dye dripping out as the ice slowly melts.
What is ice dyeing? Another way of applying dye to fabric, we soaked our fabric in soda ash water, then scrunched or folded it, placed it containers, added ice and then sprinkled dye powder on top (wearing safety masks and gloves of course).  As the ice melts it brings the dye particles along with the melting water through the fabric mixing and  separating if it's a compound dye into the component dye colors.
You just don't know what you're going to get as far as color combinations, patterns, and overall coverage of the base fabric, you have to wait until all the ice melts.

I only had one issue with the dye not following the path of the melting ice into the fabric fibers, this one just didn't want to go anywhere, the dyes were just clumped there even as the ice melted around it.
Here's how it looked after adding more ice, but even when the ice was gone for the second time, the blobs of orangey yellow dye still sat on the top of the fabric.  This is the one that was the lightest, green/yellow folded, second from the bottom of this post.
For the most part though, the dyes and fabrics played pretty nicely together.  And then it was just a night of waiting until I could wash them out and see what happened...

Here are all the fabrics hanging up to dry on my clothesline.  It was pretty colorful that day.  You can click these pictures to see them a little larger so that the details are visible.  I tried to keep track of the dye combinations that I used as I went along, but a few of these are unfortunately guesses.

 I believe this one is Black Cherry/Mulberry Pink

 I think this one was Plum/Peacock Blue

Eggplant/Cerulean Blue

 Eggplant/Cerulean Blue, These were both in the same bag folded and scrunched up together because I didn't notice there were two pieces. Interesting that they don't match a little more in the patterning.

Fire Red/Charcoal Grey

Raspberry/Sky Blue/

This one was folded and then rolled up with ice inside the roll, dye place on top with more dye, 

Camel/Bright Green

 Emerald Green/Golden Yellow.

This was super fun, and I'm ready to try it again.  Thanks Debbie!