Good stuff in my email box

I have gotten so many requests for my grocery tote pattern, which quite surprised me. What has been an even nicer surprise has been how many nice messages accompanied those requests. Judy wrote to tell me that she grew up in the neighborhood I now live in, among others.

I got an email from Caity to let me know that she had posted a picture of a quilt she finished, using a pattern I designed many years ago. I wrote about that quilt here, as the "most famous quilt I never made." I don't need to make it, when people like Caity do such beautiful versions of it.

I just love the connections this blog has created for me. And I really love the people who have taken the time to write.

Finding the cool

It's been so hot in Portland this week that I was especially looking forward to our STASH group meeting at Gale's house in Astoria, over on the Oregon Coast. Gale moved from Portland to Astoria a couple years ago, but she drives to Portland for our monthly meetings and we try to get to her house at least once a year. Gerrie, Reva and Linda rode with me and we had a nice two hour trip over the mountains. The temperature went from 82 in Portland when we left to 62 in Astoria. Gale's house sits on the side of a hill looking out over Young's Bay. The view was cloudy and cool as we caught up with Gale, discussed this month's chapter of Twyla Tharp's book The Creative Habit and showed what we have all been working on.

Gale had prepared a beautiful lunch of baked Filo pastry with spinach, sundried tomatoes and goat cheese alongside a fresh green salad with walnuts and dried cranberries. Ice cream and hot fudge finished the meal! Yum. As Reva noted, two scoops of Tillamook ice cream is now the official STASH dessert.

Before we left Astoria we drove up to the Astoria column. Gerrie had never been to Astoria and Linda had never been up to the column.

The city of Astoria is very historic. Astoria is the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies and is located at the end of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It was named for John Jacob Astor and for years the column was called the "Astor Column". I'm not sure when they started calling it the Astoria column. The scraffito decoration on the outside of the column illustrates the history of the area, starting with the discovery of the Columbia River. It sits on a hill looking out over spectacular scenery.

The long bridge crosses the Columbia River at Astoria to Washington state on the other side. Just beyond the bridge the Columbia empties into the Pacific Ocean.

This bronze relief shows the lay of the land and what you are seeing from the hill.
It was obviously placed there before the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980, as it shows the mountain at it's original elevation of 9,671 feet. It now looks like this and is only 8,365 feet high.

We headed back over the mountains and watched the temperature climb as we approached Portland. Fortunately it has cooled off nicely overnight and is quite comfortable here today.

Hot

It is really hot here. I am dreading trying to sleep tonight. Our bedroom gets so hot. This is an old house with no air conditioning, which is only needed, at most, 10 days or so out of each year, but they can be miserable. When we get desperate we go to the basement and sleep on the hide-a-bed. We are not yet that desperate.

My sewing room is on the side of the house that usually catches a little breeze, but not today. Hot. Hot. Hot. I did finish another small piece for the Japanese Garden.

I was kind of pleased with the other moon piece that I did, so decided to try another. This was a different piece of blue fabric and it discharged to a different color than the first one. That is one of the mysteries and surprises of bleaching fabrics. The branches in this piece are all done with the satin stitch on my machine. I started them at a wide stitch and gradually made it narrower for each branch. This is another technique that I've wanted to try. I think of this as Liz Berg's technique. She uses it to great effect.

Ray used one of the grocery bags today and declared it a success. He said an added benefit was that it was just the right size to stick into the side of the grocery basket at the store. I had quite a few people request the pattern. I hope it works for you. Let me know if any of the rest of you want one. If you make one, send me a picture!

Today's littles:

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This looks like something fun to do:

Paying it Forward

Paying it forward, a la Jane Ann:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week… LOL… but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Will that be paper or plastic?

Isn't that a dilemma? Neither paper nor plastic is good for the environment.

I've been meaning to do this for a long time and today I finally made two cloth grocery bags. They are slightly larger than a large size paper grocery bag. I made them nice and sturdy and washable, from a cotton duck with cotton webbing handles that wrap under the bag for added support. Each has a corrugated plastic insert to give the bottom a little more support as well. I did not make them cute or pretty, so that I would not feel bad when they get dirty and worn and also so my husband, who is not into cute and pretty, will be comfortable using them. Ray thinks we should each keep one in each of our cars. I have seen the canvas bags that most of the stores sell, but they are quite small. I have several small canvas bags I can use for smaller purchases, but these will hold a lot of groceries. It is a small thing I can do for the environment. Or maybe a big thing—my house seems to be overrun by both paper and plastic grocery bags

If you would like my general directions, email and ask me to send it to you. I have put it together in .pdf format. I won't even care if you make yours cute and/or pretty.

Saturday stuff

Thanks for all the kind words about the studio cleanup. After I posted the pictures I was thinking it is kind of funny that these might well be the "before" pictures for some studio cleanups. My standards for my workspace are fairly low. I need to be able to find things. I need to be able to find a space in which to work. I like a certain amount of visual clutter around me—it energizes me. Threads and snips and schmutz on the floor make me tired, but are a fact of my life. I am in breathless awe of those spotless, gleaming white, light-filled studios I see, but if I had one I know I would be wanting some color and some texture around me.

I love to read designers' blogs and especially those talented young designers who have such great ideas, but a lot of their blogs depict a kind of perfection that I know is simply impossible, or they are aliens from Planet Precious. Their studios have sweet little shabby chic shelves and beautiful baskets and antique desks and chairs and one even has a chandelier in her studio. They are painted chalky pastels and have chintz curtains at multipaned windows where the sunlight pours in. Their bulletin boards, unlike my explosion-on-the-wall, are the French kind with crisscrossed grosgrain ribbon and dear little antique postcards of the Eiffel Tower tucked under the ribbon. I'm not making fun. I absolutely adore looking at these blogs. But, can you believe them? Naaaah.

This morning was a beautiful, summer Saturday morning and put me in the mood to hit some estate sales just for the fun of it. I didn't find much of interest, but in a futile search for one of the advertised estate sales I drove by a moving sale at a huge, palatial home hidden away up in the Portland West Hills. I stopped to see what kind of rummage the rich have out on their lawns. Turns out it was pretty much the same kind of junk we all have. The one thing I did spot, however, was a nice rolling office chair. We have needed another one for Ray's computer desk. He has been using a folding chair and has been known to steal my nice big comfy chair when I'm not looking. The sale chair was very comfortable and very solid and well-built, and best of all, priced at $5. I decided on the spot I would give Ray my big comfy chair and take this smaller one home for myself. The only downside was that it was quite relentlessly BEIGE.

When I figured out I could take it apart and quite easily recover the upholstered parts I searched my fabric stash and found a piece of awning-striped denim I picked up from the remnant box awhile back. It seemed perfect to liven up the chair and I still have enough left to make the tote bag I originally bought it for.

Isn't it just—well "divine" isn't a word I use, but if I did I'd call this divine. You can't have much more fun on a Saturday for $5 than this.

For anonymous, who left the comment on the studio yesterday—If you look to the right, up at the top near my picture you will see "view my complete profile". Click on that and on that page is a link to my email address. That is an excellent way to get in touch with me. Then go back to the blog page and scroll down below the long list of "favorite places" in the sidebar to "other links" and click on "my fusing method tutorial". Click on that and it will take you to a post that shows how I use the lightbox for my work. Thanks for stopping by!

Would you like the tour?

You remember weeks and weeks ago I started cleaning up my workspace, then got bogged down with other things, including making a few little pieces. I finally finished the job today. I have to admit that pictures of people's sewing rooms/studios are a bit boring, but I understand now why people post them. When you finally get it all cleaned up you just have to share it with someone! So, come along with me on the tour—it won't take long and you won't be required to walk very far.

Here we are standing in the hallway just outside the door. Straight ahead you see part of my stash. These are the fabrics I am currently using most often, filed semi-neatly in the dishpans I bought at the dollar store. More dishpans are in the shelves at the right. That blue-gray carpet is a pain. Threads and snips stick to it like velcro.

Just inside the door, to the right, is the closet where the rest of the stash lives. This closet is very deep to the left. There is a lot of stuff in there. The closet didn't have a door on it, so I made a curtain out of an antique sheet with beautiful tatting across the top edge. The little plaque says, "when life gives you scraps, make quilts"—a long ago gift from my friend Muriel when I first started quilting.

Now, swiveling around to the left you see the sewing/pressing station and the requisite little tv set. The bulletin board has all kinds of stuff on it. There's a poem up there by Alice Walker called, If There Was Any Justice (I'd own van Gogh's Starry Night). I have never seen a quilter's bulletin board that didn't have quilt show ribbons on it. That cute little '50s style secretary's chair is from my Dad's office. It is very comfortable and adjusts and rolls.

Here's my work table. It is counter height, so it's very comfortable to stand and work or cut on. The flannel-covered board has current projects as well as that mandala piece that didn't work for a piece I made years ago, but I like it so well I keep it out, hoping I will figure out something great to do with it. I thought about making it into a clock. It has 12 points. The crow is my journal quilt, which I am not supposed to show on my blog or web site. Forget you saw it. You can only see part of it, anyway, so I don't think this counts. The gray thing on the right is my lightbox. My favorite tool. I use it constantly. I bought it at a yard sale. What a find.

And in this drawer—oh wait—I wasn't planning to show that. Avert your eyes. Move along.

Ray came up to admire the cleaned up room and suggested he take my picture. Then he made me a tall, cold drink. What a guy.

Amazing color in the garden

Yesterday when I was snapping pictures of our 4th of July, I took a few of some of the flowers blooming in the yard right now. As I was looking at them on my monitor this morning I was really taken with the amazing colors that nature combines.

This red crocosmia is new this summer. We have had yellow ones, but were noticing the incredible reds around town and Ray found some to plant. The red color is delicious in itself, but combined with the purply buds and teal blue/green stems it is glorious. These grow quite tall, on slender, gracefully arching stems, (you can see then in context in the last picture in the previous post) and I learned they are native to South Africa and related to irises.

A couple of days ago Ray and I went out to Al's Garden Center, which has become one of our favorite nurseries. We had discount coupons to use on bedding plants and I found these little flowers, which I had never seen before. I fell for their soft, coral color.

They are called Diascia and I learned they are also native to South Africa and are a recent import to the US. I love the color combination with the lavendar.

This is a mystery plant, purchased at the plant sale earlier this spring where we sold garden art.

These leaves are just as purple as they look—gorgeous! I have no idea what it is called, but it would not surprise me to find out it comes from South Africa. Anybody know?

Update: Jeannie identified the purple leaf plant as Persian Shield Strobilanthes. Lots of info on the web. It is native to Myanmar (formerly Burma), not South Africa. I guess not everything beautiful and colorful comes from South Africa! Thanks, Jeannie.

How we spent the 4th of July

Tea and a plum

I am kind of on a roll with these small pieces. I probably should make a few bigger pieces for the show, but I am enjoying making these little guys. The small pieces always seem to sell the best too. It's a bit of a dilemma. Large pieces make for a more visually striking show, but the small ones sell. So I think I will go for maybe a few larger pieces but continue with the small ones for awhile, too. These small pieces will all be mounted on linen backgrounds with hanging rods like this one, but I decided I would wait and see how many small pieces I end up with, then make all the linen parts at the same time.

We don't know what sales will be like this year, moving the show to September. Well, we never know for sure. A couple of years ago I sold every single piece I showed—about 14 as I recall. That was pretty exciting. Last year I sold about half. I have to say that selling your work is a real rush. This Japanese Garden show has been extremely good for that, so I hope the change of month won't kill it.

New "littles." As I mentioned I have been missing some nice yellow, so I found some good scraps to add to the mix. I also used some of the odd shapes and curves that the scraps already had for some interesting lines. I think this is my favorite bunch so far.

Lazy Sunday

So, this is my second blog post today. I am taking it easy. We've been working hard (see earlier post) and I have a crummy cold, which I think I got from Sofia, who, poor baby, has had a cold and ear infection. She is feeling much better, but I'm not. Yesterday I heard her laugh out loud for the first time. Big guffaw-y "Ha, ha." What a joyful sound. She is a cheerful Charlie.

Here's another Japanese Garden piece. Same size and format as the previous two.
I have had this idea of trying to depict the moon for awhile now. I discharged the circle behind the moon with a bleach pen. I was surprised that it discharged to purple, but it was OK. Below are the littles I made at the same time. My scraps were looking awfully somber, so I dug around and found a piece of orange and purple hand-dye to liven them up a bit. I am noticing there is a lack of any kind of yellow in the littles I've done so far. I need to remedy that. Though I am using up scraps as I work, it is not a rule that I limit myself to only those scraps. Hey, I'm making this project up as I go along. There are no rules!

Meeting the neighbors

We have been helping Emily, Cayo and Sofia move. Their new house is an updated '70s ranch in a beautiful neighborhood of huge shady trees and beautiful lawns and gardens. For a couple of weeks we've been painting and moving and working on the decent hardwood floors that lurked under dull, beige carpeting. We met Del, the nice old guy that lives next door. Ray has a mental block and keeps referring to him as "Ned". It's only a matter of time until he calls him that, but Del may not mind or notice. He's a little foggy, but friendly. He spends most of his day watering his lawn and flowers and tells us how nice the folks who moved out were, how much work the woman did in the yard, how much they had helped him out when he needed it. No pressure there.

The other day Emily and Ray met another nice old guy living next door on the other side. He was just introducing himself as Jess Tanner, when Emily's childhood friend, Jessica Tanner drove up to the house. Whoa! Ray said they introduced Jessica to Jess and pointed out the name thing. Emily, Ray and Jessica were fairly blown away by the coincidence. Ray said Jess just looked a little confused.

Yesterday I finished painting a bedroom and was out in the backyard washing out the roller and brush. Yet another nice old guy, Del/Ned's brother, introduced himself across the back fence. I walked over to say hello and he said, quite seriously "So, you folks Amish?" I was at a loss for words and must have looked quite confused. He gestured toward my chest. I was wearing my old painting clothes—paint-splattered shorts, paint-splattered fake Crocs and an old paint-splattered T shirt, not what I'd deem Amish attire, but---------oh, yeah, duh, my ancient "Amish, the art of the quilt" T shirt. I explained it was from a quilt show I'd seen once, and no we weren't Amish at all.

Once inside the house we all cracked up over being Amish. After a long day of hard work we went to a nearby pub for burgers and beer and amused ourselves with the snappy comebacks I should have come up with. "Oh, you must have seen the horse and buggy in the driveway..." Brilliant stuff like that.

Happy Birthday Becky

Fifty-seven years ago my sister Becky (Rebecca Sue) was born and destroyed my perfectly self-centered, 4-year old, only-child world! To my shame I do remember wailing at my poor mother, "take her back—that baby's ruined everything!" A sentiment that recurred only once or twice in the ensuing years.

Awhile ago my daughter, watching my nieces together, reflected on how nice it would have been to have a sister and I thought, for probably the thousandth time, how lucky I am to have my sister. We bickered, but we were also great playmates and I felt very protective of her when we were little. You can see what a beautiful, sunny little girl she was. If you saw her today you would recognize that smile. It hasn't changed. She works with special ed kids and deaf children and especially loves the littlest ones, helping them and their parents prepare for school and life. All children love her quiet voice and nurturing ways and it has always been that way. I think we all knew she would spend her life working with children when she was still a child herself.

Becky has had a rough year. My birthday wish is for a much better one this year. Happy Birthday, Beck.

Love, Ter

Still doin' the wabi sabi

Here's a new little piece for the Japanese garden show. It will also be mounted on the same linen as the other one and hung with a little rod. The dark purple fabric that is used on both sides of the central image is antique kimono fabric. It is a wonderful color. This is one of several beautiful old stone lanterns at the Japanese garden. I have used this image before.

This was a larger piece that I showed (and sold) at the Japanese Garden show in 2003. I reuse ideas from time to time, but never in exactly the same way. I keep my sketches for just this purpose. Once I was asked to duplicate exactly, three small pieces that I sold at the Japanese Garden show for someone. I did it, but I found little pleasure in doing that.

Here are my littles using some of today's scraps.

Littles—waste not, want not

Brrraaaaa! I am shaking off that fit of nostalgia that I have indulged in here for the last few days and getting on to things going on in the here and now.

The other day when I had lunch with Gerrie and June, Gerrie was talking about a project that someone was trying to engage her in whereby you make a small block every day for a year that relates to what is happening in your life. We all agreed this was daunting and not something any of us were about to do. But it got me thinking. I have also been reading about folks making tiny, tiny little pieces of art, like an inch square. Also something I'm not going to do. But—still thinking, I'm noticing all the bits and scraps laying around my cutting table and being tossed into the trash, including a bunch of the dots from the layer piece, and all this thinking is beginning to gel into maybe something.

What if, I wonder, as I'm going along making other stuff, I use up scraps and snips of each current project to make some little 2" pieces. I'll stick them in a little box and at some point when there are a lot (optimistic!) I will do something with them. Maybe they will all go together into some mosaic-y piece, or maybe they will work better divided up for different pieces or maybe they will just get added to other pieces. Sonji has her bundles, maybe I will find equally spectacular uses for my "littles". Or maybe not. Six of them make a swell postcard if nothing else works.

So—ta da! My first batch of littles. Can you spot the piece of fabric that had the crow's egg cut out of it?

More little treasures

Regarding the comments left about yesterday's treasures, Suzi I am astounded that your grandmother "in darkest Africa" had the same little Coke bottles that I had. She clearly thought they were treasures as well. Jane Ann, I don't remember what the dangly thing on the Brownie pin was for either, but like you, I'm pretty sure it was added at some point for some reason or accomplishment.

This rhinestone butterfly is also in the treasure box. It was in my grandmother's sewing box. It's a little more than 3" across and I have no idea what it came from. It is not jewelry. It is somewhat flexible. Grandma was an awesome seamstress who made all her finely tailored clothes and she loved all things flashy and gaudy. This may have been on a little clutch bag, or a hat or an evening dress. It has a very flapperish vibe I imagine, but I can't really guess at its age.

Two campaign buttons from different eras. I don't remember how I came by them, but have had them forever. I remember when Goldwater ran, but Roosevelt and Wallace were way before my time.

A soapstone marker. My Dad always had them in his pockets. After he died I picked this one up off his dresser and carried it around in my coat pocket for awhile. It's a nice thing to find in a pocket—cool and smooth.

Reva mentioned her charm bracelet. This charm bracelet was the chronicle of my High School years—activities, vacations (Seattle Space Needle and New Mexico turquoise) emblems of organizations (Girl Scouts, Jobs Daughters, MYF, Honor Society). One silver disk proclaims "A Date to Remember" and the date 12-5-64 is engraved on it. I have no memory of its significance.

Little box of treasures

A post on Suzi's blog sent me looking for my little box of treasures. She was reminiscing about old songs, including the Melanie song that went "I've got a brand-new pair of roller skates, you've got a brand-new key . . ." She was wondering what a key had to do with roller skates. That's where my box of treasures comes in. One of those treasures is my old skate key. That's it above. My friends and I were quite the sidewalk roller skaters—all over the neighborhood, pony tail flying, and my trusty skate key hanging on a shoelace around my neck.

I'm sure you all have your own little box of treasures. Mine resides in the bottom drawer of the armoire. I know Ray has his own on a shelf in his closet. There is little rhyme nor reason about what gets put into that little box.

This perfect little Coke bottle was an advertising thing. A friend of my Dad's was the manager of the local Coca Cola bottling plant in Pocatello, Idaho where I grew up. Over the years he gave us all kinds of Coke tchotskes and toys and stuff. I felt so lucky to get these little Coke bottles in a little wooden case. I adored them. My dolls drank a lot of Coke. This is the only one that remains. It even has a perfect little metal bottle cap on it.

I'm sure I don't have to tell you this was my Brownie pin. What can I say? Brown felt beanie, snappy uniform, crisp salute and pledge, sit-upons, s'mores and that great song: "I have something in my pocket that belongs upon my face. I keep it very close at hand in a most convenient place. I'm sure you couldn't guess it if you guessed a long, long while, so I'll take it out and put it on. It's a great big Brownie smile!" Brownies was the best.

Silver barrett (quite tarnished) with my Mom's name engraved on it.

My Dad's Navy I.D. tags.

There's a lot more, but that's enough for now—don't want you nodding off at your keyboards.

What's in your box of treasures? I know you have one.

Wabi Sabi is kind of like the Hoky Poky

That's what it's all about!

Last night was our High Fiber Diet meeting and the discussion was all about the Japanese Garden Show. We usually have this show/sale in July at the Portland Japanese Garden, but this year it has been moved to September, which made me feel like I had tons of time to get things ready. Last night I realized that it isn't all that far off, so today I hustled around and made this little piece.

The theme is "Wabi Sabi" which is a concept we all seem to be struggling to wrap our minds around. Gerrie's idea is hilarious, but a very loose interpretation! Wikipedia says Wabi Sabi "represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centred on the acceptance of transience. The phrase comes from the two words wabi and sabi. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete"

They go on to quote someone named Andrew Juniper: "if an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi." I like the way that sounds, but I still am not sure whether my bird's nest quilt is Wabi Sabi.

I really like birds' nests. We have a lot of birds around our house and they build nests up in the eaves and on the porch pillars. When Ray is cleaning up in the spring and finds the old nests he has been putting them out on the porch. Here is the current collection. I love the way they look and how amazingly intricate they are. I'm pretty sure the real nests are Wabi Sabi.

I have a post up on the Ragged cloth cafe blog, where I am a contributor, about the murals of Diego Rivera. You can see it here: http://junomain.wordpress.com/