Summer Solstice party

Our friends Paula and Duane had us over for a Summer Solstice party where we celebrated with glorious balmy, sunny weather. First they took us for a leisurely boat ride with appetizers.

Then we strolled through Master Gardener Paula's incredible, colorful gardens. She told me the names of everything, but I've forgotten. I was too absorbed in the colors and shapes to stop and write anything down. 

I posed with my daughter in front of some of the hundreds of lilies.

Then we headed to the house, where the table had some cute quilted potholders and a table runner made by Duane's mom, Marge.

On the menu were giant Northwest mussels, in addition to Copper River salmon and salads. Good summer fare.

Dave and Julia made cherry pies, which they're holding here just before putting them in the oven. Cherries are another Northwest summer staple.

Topping off everything this Solstice weekend was the blimp, shown here from our back deck flying over Fox Island after hovering most of the day over the U.S. Open at nearby Chambers Bay.

Happy Solstice!

Wordless Wednesday

Have a cool, colorful day

Swan Creek with Feet and Forks

The Feet and Forks explored new territory last week, hiking through the shady canyon of Swan Creek Park in Tacoma. It was a blistering hot day but refreshingly cool under the thick green canopy of trees.

I think Nancy, our Master Gardener, said the red berries are elderberries.

We try to remember to get a photo of our feet to document each hike.

 

And instead of the traditional "forks" photo, I shot the cool blueberry drinks that we had afterward at Duke's Chowder House. Delicious. 

Have a refreshing day

Dyeing with STITCH on Anderson Island

My art quilt group, STITCH, hopped on the ferry yesterday for a trip to Anderson Island to dye fabric at Andrea's house. It was a gorgeous, sunny, hot day.

We tore fabric into quarter yards, lugged 12 buckets of hot water onto the deck ...

... measured dye and diluted it more for each step in the gradation ...

... and stirred, stirred, stirred.

In between stirring sessions, we soaked in the bright colors of a perfectly cloudless Northwest day. Temps were in the 80s, which is hotter than usual, but it sure beats the grey days of winter.

When it was time for show and tell, Andrea showed an amazing totally thread-painted owl. The back side (second photo) looks like a snow scene.

Carol showed her first experiment with making her own cordage by zigzagging with a cording foot over several strands of yarn. She followed directions in Susan Lenz's blog: http://artbysusanlenz.blogspot.com/2015/05/making-cord-and-tags-for-keys-plus.html. Susan makes fabulous bowls from her cords.

After a delicious potluck lunch and more stirring, we put our wet fabric in baggies to take home on the ferry. We had this view of snowy Mt. Rainier.

 

The photo above is the Chambers Bay golf course, site of next week's U.S. Open. I think the browns of the course and blues of the water look like the two gradated color runs we dyed. We used bronze and cerulean blue.

I've linked up to Nina Marie's Off-the-Wall Fridays if you want to see what other fiber artists have been doing this week:  http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

 Have a colorful day

Another string quilt

I'm making another string quilt for a baby. Somehow I managed to find all the colors I needed in my stash! The nursery has salmon, yellow, mint green, soft gray, white ... I threw in a few more colors and brightened up the palette a little.

The bunny print has been on my shelves for years and I thought it would make a nice backing.

For those of you not familiar with this easy way of making a scrappy quilt, you start by cutting paper foundation squares a little bigger than your finished size. I use old phone pages. Then you gather a bunch of fabric strips in different widths.

 
Lay a strip right side up down the center of the paper, diagonally. Sew and flip strips out from either side until the paper is covered, then trim it to your desired size and tear off the paper backing. It comes off pretty easily if you use a short machine stitch. (I use 1.5.)

Here are the first four that I made today. I'm using the bright parasol print as my center strip for each square, but you don't have to be consistent.

Have a colorful day

After the sunset colors

I'm normally an "auto" setting photographer, but Dave and I just took two intensive days of Nikon classes and I'm starting to explore other settings. Last night I tried to capture the colors just after sunset.

These aren't exactly like what my eye saw, but I like the colors anyway. It was late -- after 9 p.m. I'll try some more tonight.

Have a colorful day

 

Nourish and the Dungeness Spit

A friend recently raved about a farm-to-table restaurant in Sequim, WA, (pronounced "skwim," rhymes with "swim") called Nourish. My husband and I tried it out yesterday and it was all she said and more!




The photo above is the view from our table. It was so peaceful, with birds, butterflies, flowers and vegetable and herb gardens. So relaxing. So sunny and balmy.

I had halibut tacos on thick, earthy homemade corn tortillas with a rhubarb salsa. Delicious and healthy.

Here is the blurb from the website, nourishsequim.com:

   Nourish, located in beautiful Sequim, Washington, is an exciting garden-to-plate restaurant and so much more… providing a gathering place for the community and visitors alike! Located on the last remaining acres of a historic 1880s pioneer farm at the base of Bell Hill, the garden enjoys views of Sequim, the San Juan Islands and Mount Baker.
 
   At its heart, Nourish serves to raise awareness of our food sources, sound nutrition, sustainable living practices and to stimulate local economic opportunity. Nourish’s Patio Café, Greenhouse Dining Room and private catering, all offer delicious, healthy menus created around locally produced food and beverages; as well as edibles grown on the property. Nourish is a haven for artists, musicians and artisans to share and sell their crafts, as well as providing an array of events to entertain and inform, from yoga to cooking 101. Nourish provides meaningful employment and on-the-job training to young adults in the Olympic Peninsula area.

   Nourish is a place to stop, breathe and enjoy the best of the Pacific Northwest.

Once nourished, we headed over to the nearby Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge to hike on the Dungeness Spit. The sand spit is 5.5 miles long and juts out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca off the Olympic Peninsula. It shelters a bay full of marine life, and thus is a protected area.

When we arrived it was foggy and chilly, but gradually most of the fog dissipated.

We ran into friends from Gig Harbor who we hadn't seen since December! It made a great end to a great day.

Have a colorful day

"Salmon With Asparagus and Lemon"

Here's my finished quilt for Quilt Revolution's salmon challenge. I call it "Salmon With Asparagus and Lemon" and it's 21-inches square. I quilted it by layering it with Sulky Solvy to hold all the woven strips and yarn down. The raveled texture resulted with swishing it around in water to dissolve the Solvy. Luckily, I like texture.

Have a colorful day

Salmon quilt challenge

Our local quilt shop, Quilt Revolution, is having a display of salmon quilts during Shop Hop next month. I've taken up the challenge and am doing a quilt called "Salmon with Asparagus and Lemon." I'm just using those colors. No pictures of salmon.

The background fabric is actually a pinky-orange salmon color, although it looks more orange in the photo. I laid down a few chunks of other colors and then wove a layer of salmon, asparagus and lemon colored strips on top.

 
Then I pulled out some lemon and asparagus yarns from my stash (didn't have any salmon) and wove bits of them in.

So that's where it stands now. Next I have to decide how to quilt it and whether to just pin it like crazy or put a layer of Sulky Solvy over top to hold things down. I'll keep you posted.

Check out what other fiber artists have been doing this week at Nina Marie's Off-the-Wall Fridays: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-colors-of-chop-suey-off-wall-friday.html

Have a colorful day