As Summer Ends: Farmington Gardens Images, Lavender and 4th of July Whimsical Wired Characters

 Images from Farmington Gardens in Beaverton, Oregon taken in late June.
These photos capture colors and compositions of the summer garden.

Lavender was harvested from our home garden and placed in containers to dry.

A new family of Wired Characters took shape on July 4th...four in all.  Three of the four have been purchased; their new homes are in Wenatchee, WA, Portland, OR and Durban, South Africa.  They are dancers built on wood spool bases with wild hair made of fiber, button faces, fabric or knitted skirts, wire and fabric-wrapped bodies and colorful wire arms.
The three sisters in the photo below are in various stages of construction.  

Columbia FiberArts Guild "Fiber Inspirations" Exhibit Submission and Strawberries

The Columbia FiberArts Guild is having a juried Art exhibit at the ArtReach Gallery in Portland, Oregon this August.  The exhibit theme is "Fiber Inspirations".  Submissions were due earlier this month.  I decided to make something new using my fabric scrap twine bowl as a starting point.  The vessel developed and grew ... and then it was not done when it was time to submit entries for jurying, so I did not submit it, and instead submitted a quilt.  The fiber inspirations vessel continues to evolve; my notion is to weave in fabric or paper strips that describe things that inspire my fiber art. 

At the core of the vessel is my original fabric scrap twine bowl.

The first layer - just fabric scrap twine.  After this I added craft wire in various gauges and colors to provide structure and whimsy.

"Forest Walk" is the quilt that I submitted for the Fiber Inspirations exhibit.  The concept for this quilt, inspired by walks in the forest along the Metolius River with our dogs, was developed in workshops I took at the Stitchin' Post in Sisters, Oregon with Jean Wells and Rosalie Dace.  I also incorporated curve techniques learned from Hilde Morin and silk organza tubes from Ann Williamson.

35"W x 24"H
Constructed from cotton, linen, silk and hand stamped and painted fabric.  Free pieced by machine and hand quilted.

Oregon Strawberries - Sweet and Delicious! 

Hood and Albion strawberries frozen on a cookie sheet.  Ready to bag and freeze until we make them into jam.

Fresh and Juicy!

A Walk with Friends

After a delicious barbecued dinner in May, we took a walk in the woods near the home of friends in Gresham, Oregon.  

The scale, colors, light and shadows, lines and textures caught my camera's eye. 

Fabric Scrap Twine and Photos from the Road

Last month my sister-in-law sent me this link to her new craft past time, making fabric scrap twine;  a great way to use fabric scraps.  I was in Central Oregon for a week-long workshop, with Jean Wells at the Stitchin' Post in Sisters, Oregon.  By the time I went to bed that night I had several yards of twine made from stowed away bins of fabric scraps.  By the end of the week there were many balls of colorful twine, much of the twine wrapped around pine cones.  Fun!

Fabric Scrap Twine and Black Butte Quilt-let from Jean Wells' workshop

Fabric Scrap Twine on pinecones and spools

The start of a Fabric Scrap Twine bowl

These photos were taken when traffic was stopped for road construction.  Love the colors and textures and composition.  The up-side of a road construction delay; on a normal traffic day I'd zoom past this field without noticing it.

 

 

 

"Make Your Mark" Art Quilt Retreat

Two years ago I attended a week long Jean Wells art quilting retreat at the Stitchin' Post in Sisters, Oregon.  I pieced this quilt, Red Bloom, at the retreat, and finished it in August 2011.  

At the retreat there was so much talent and experience in the room, each person working on their own unique quilt project.  Before class I carefully chose a quilt idea I thought would be simple enough for me to do.  My idea turned out to be a challenging one - fortunately nobody told me that until after I was almost done with piecing.  Everybody at the retreat was so supportive and inspiring - it was a wonderful environment to learn and work in.

I just finished another week long retreat, Making Your Mark, with Jean.  Many of the participants from the retreat two years ago were also at this week's retreat.  It was good to catch up with friends and to get to know others better.  We learned and explored various types of surface design, and I spent one whole day stamping fabric and paper with rubber stamps I created myself!  Now it is time to incorporate the stamped fabric into the quilts I will be showing at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt show in July.

First Snow of the Season

 As the day began, snow fell.

 As the day warmed, snow melted revealing the colors of the fall leaves.

 The snow continued to fall as I departed.  I love the color palette of the early snows. 

A few hours later I was in the midst of a colorful rainy autumn afternoon.  A delicious splash of bright vibrant colors against ominous grey skies.

... my Llama neighbors.

Central Oregon Winter Scenes

on a winter morning, a new white snow cover

the sun shines through grey skies

light and shadows in snowy branches

our Christmas trees

the Camp Sherman Post Office

warm and cozy and friendly and reliable

icicle lights hang in front, nature's icicles on the side of the building

  the Camp Sherman Store

 snow sprinkled trees

some blue in the sky 

  Pono snow exploring

the Metolius River

Pono resting during our snow walk

our driveway - tracks mark comings and goings

our front yard - the snow not yet touched by the two dogs

the tree by the front deck

made massive by the piles of snow upon its branches

... and Tiger

Tiger watches, snow all around him...