Artistic snippets and aprons

My fellow quilt artists can appreciate this first picture! Found it on Facebook.

Yesterday my STITCH group of art quilters met and we put the finishing touches on our art aprons. I blogged about making the aprons here: making-art-aprons-with-stitch.html

I brought some black and white Posca paint pens for everyone to try and they loved them because they're very opaque and vivid compared with the white markers from the big-box craft store. I ordered mine on Amazon. They come in all sorts of colors and sizes, from fine tip to bold.

There were only four of us at yesterday's meeting. Here are our aprons.

The weather was so nice that we met outside on Karen's deck with a gorgeous view over the water. It's hard to distinguish it from the clouds, but that's the top of Mount Rainier in the middle of the horizon.

Linda used my show-and-tell quilt to block the breeze from her shoulder. I think she wears it well!

On the way home, a quick stop at the grocery store yielded dinner. Why not? One of the perks of being suddenly single is never having to cook for anyone else unless you want to. I added a sliced banana to make it healthy and enjoyed it with a recorded documentary on the Rolling Stones. A dinner-and-a-movie date with myself.

Today the beautiful weather continued, and I snapped these pictures of dinner plate dahlias outside of a shop. Flowers grow really well out here in the Northwest.

Have a colorful day

"Small Kindnesses"

Some of the Yoga Girls at Starbucks.

I came across a beautiful passage the other day -- "Small Kindnesses" by Danusha Lameris. I love it so much that I'm sharing it for today's post. It really touches me and puts so eloquently into words how I feel. It's why I choose to chat with the grocery store cashier rather than using the faster self-checkout, why I crave human contact over a machine, why I make eye contact and seek out a stranger's smile when I'm in a new city.

"Small Kindnesses"

By Danusha Lameris

I've been thinking about the way, when you walk down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs to let you by. Or how strangers still say "bless you" when someone sneezes, a leftover from the Bubonic plague. "Don't die," we are saying. 

And sometimes, when you spill lemons from your grocery bag, someone else will help you pick them up. 

Mostly, we don't want to harm each other. We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot, and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder, and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.

We have so little of each other, now. So far from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange. 

What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these fleeting temples we make together when we say, "Here, have my seat," "Go ahead -- you first," "I like your hat."

 Have a colorful day

Boro stitching and aging like sea glass

I sat down intending to do a quick post about the boro stitching that I used to mend two shirts. I also wanted to show you my new book, "Slow Stitch -- Mindful and Contemplative Textile Art," which describes boro stitching. Then it occurred to me that this would go well with the Sea Glass poem by Bernadette Noll that some of you already may know.

The boro style of mending gently, slowly, stitches a worn or torn piece of clothing back together with a patch and hand running stitches. The end result doesn't look shiny and new, but it is strong and has character.

My airy loosely-woven top had torn in two places over years of wearing and washing, but I couldn't bear to throw it away because I love its loose casualness and it's a great top to wear over a camisole to yoga class. So I stitched scraps of sheer indigo silk over the tears. I used embroidery floss strengthened with beeswax to do running stitches.

I did the same mending on an old worn work shirt, using a scrap of denim for the patch. I left the edges of the patches raw rather than turning them under.

I Want to Age Like Sea Glass

by Bernadette Noll

I want to age like sea glass,

Smoothed by tides, not broken.

I want the currents of life to toss me around,

shake me up and leave me feeling

washed clean.

I want my hard edges to soften as the years pass --

not weak, but supple.

I want to ride the waves,

go with the flow,

feel the impact of the

surging tides rolling in and out.

When I am thrown against the shore

and caught between the rocks and a hard place,

I want to rest there until I can find

the strength to do what is next.

Not stuck -- just waiting, pondering,

feeling what it feels like to pause.

And when I am ready,

I will catch a wave and let it carry me

along to the next place

that I am supposed to be.

I want to be picked up on occasion

by an unsuspecting soul and carried along --

just for the connection,

just for the sake of appreciation and wonder.

And with each encounter,

new possibilities of collaboration

are presented, and new ideas born.

I want to age like sea glass

so that when people see

the old woman I'll become,

they'll embrace all that I am.

They'll marvel at my exquisite nature,

hold me gently in their hands,

and be awed by my well-earned patina.

Neither flashy nor dull,

just the right luster.

And they'll wonder, if just for a second,

what it is exactly I am made of

and how I got to be in this very here and now.

And we'll both feel lucky to realize, once again,

that we have landed in that perfectly right place

at that perfectly right time.

I want to age like sea glass.

I want to enjoy the journey

and let my preciousness be,

not in spite of the impacts of life,

but because of them.

If you're interested in the history of boro and some beautiful examples, check out this older blog post: 
japanese-boro-jackets-in-shibori-dragon.html

 Have a colorful day

A joyful quilt

I just made this quilt. No, I didn't whip out the whole thing in a few days, but I did sew the blocks together and finish it!

I was turning my studio upside down over the weekend looking for a particular piece of fabric when I came across a basket that I thought was full of fused scraps. I dug to the bottom and found this pile of quilt-as-you-go strip pieced blocks from batiks and my hand-painted fabric that I made I don't know how long ago! They even had numbers pinned to them, so I must have decided on an arrangement at the time.

I looked at various configurations:

I really liked these two, but kept experimenting.

I finally settled on this one because I liked the power of the two "eyes" looking out from the top two thirds.

I trimmed the blocks to 11 1/2 inches and admired their joyful spirit. I always hate to throw the scraps away because they're so pretty.

Since the blocks were already quilted, I had to figure out what to do with the raw seams on the back. I really liked the way they look as is, but decided I needed a lunch break. I think most quilt-as-you-go people cover the seams with binding strips that they insert when they do the seams and then hand stitch the other side down, but my arthritic thumbs would never be able to do all of those little stitches.

After lunch, I decided to cover the seams with strips of fused batik. (Because those darn quilt police intruded on my thoughts and said people will think I didn't know how to finish the back if I leave them raw!) Now that it's all done, I like the raw-edge look better, but that's okay. It's on the back and I won't see it when it's on the wall.

I also came across this quote by Joseph Campbell over the weekend. It's so true. Maybe I'll name the quilt "Joy."

"Find a place inside

where there's joy,

And the joy will

burn out the pain."

Color is my joy!

My friend Joyce took this photo from her deck.

Have a colorful day

Feet and Forks' 10-year anniversary!

Joyce, Kandi, Nancy and me this week
celebrating 10 years of walking together.

The Feet and Forks just celebrated

our 10th anniversary of 

WALKING

and

EATING 

TOGETHER!

Best guesstimate is that we've

walked around 800 miles,

but quite possibly more.

Hiking the Nisqually Delta almost 10 years ago.
Different hairstyles, but otherwise we look about the same.

I think we've aged very well, like fine wine, no doubt due to all the exercise and sweet potato fries over the past decade. We've walked nearly two times every month, followed by lunch. That's more than 200 walks and meals!!! Sweet potato fries became our go-to side order.

Sweet potato fries for all at Chambers Bay in 2011.

The first picture I took of us was in the rain in April 2010 when we walked the three-mile Chambers Bay Trail in University Place, WA. We aim to walk twice a month on whatever two dates we are all free. If it rains, we walk anyway -- most of the time.

Rain or shine, we walk.
Here we are at Chambers Bay in April 2010.

We brought out the umbrellas again this year at
Newbury National Volcanic Monument near Bend, OR.

A moody morning winter solstice walk.
Cushman Trail, Gig Harbor, Dec. 21, 2012.

In 2012, we started going on overnighters almost every year. The first one was to Victoria, B.C., via the ferry. (We love ferries.) Since then we have gone to Copalis Beach, WA, in 2014, Birch Bay, WA, on the beach in 2015, Vancouver, B.C., in 2017, the mountain town of Leavenworth, WA, in 2018, and Sunriver, OR, this year. Here are a few photos.

Ready to embark on one of our first overnighters,
excited for the adventure.

We hiked through beautiful Beacon Hill Park
during our trip to Victoria, B.C., in 2012.
It was our first overnighter -- out of the country, no less!

We vacationed at Iron Springs Resort on
the coast of Washington in 2014.

We walked many miles in Vancouver, B.C.,
in May 2017. A great walking town.

The mountains called us to Leavenworth, WA, in May 2018.

Sunriver, OR, and the Deschutes River
was our destination this year.
(Nancy couldn't make it.)

Kandi, Nancy and I even managed to rendezvous for some desert hikes in the Palm Springs, CA, area in March 2012. It was a nice break from the rainy Northwest.

I became the group's photographer and was always on the lookout for good photo ops, like this one in Victoria ... 

... and the wall outside the Tacoma Musical Playhouse.

I had to be creative to get myself in the picture, so I took a lot of shadow and reflection shots.

A mirror in Vancouver, B.C.,
helped get me in the photo

Mirror in a nut shop in Leavenworth, WA.
Oh boy, were those flavored nuts good!

When my daughter gave me a selfie-stick for Christmas a few years ago, that changed everything. Suddenly I could get myself into the photos without gimmicks!

Selfie-stick photo before hiking a mountain trail in Leavenworth.

Our Christmas tradition most years has been taking the ferry from Bremerton into Seattle and walking throughout downtown, hitting Pike Place Market with its food samples, the Teddy Bear Suite at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, the Gingerbread Village at the Sheraton, and sometimes the giant ferris wheel and the art museum. And, of course, lunch.

In the Teddy Bear Suite.

Last Christmas we added a ride on the carousel to our traditions.

December in Seattle's Pioneer Square
with yarn-bombed trees.

December 2013 in downtown Seattle.

We have hiked through woods, meadows, mountains, gardens, beaches and city streets, always looking for new trails.

Giant dahlia on a walk in Pt. Gamble, WA.

Gardens in Victoria, B.C.

Copalis Beach, coast of Washington.

The high desert of Oregon and snow-capped mountains.

Deschutes River, Bend, OR.

Another tradition is taking a feet photo ...

Putt putt golf in Leavenworth. Aren't we versatile?

and a forks photo on each outing.

Mexican food is another favorite.

One of my personal traditions, as "Sherrie Loves Color," is to look for color everywhere we go, like these chairs at a Bremerton restaurant ...

... this bus in downtown Gig Harbor ...

... and fruit at Pike Place Market in Seattle.

We also get together outside of our walks. Here we are seven years ago at an art opening at the Harbor History Museum with one of my quilts that was juried in. 

And here we are around Valentine's Day 2010 at Nancy's "Pamper Party," where she invited a houseful of friends over for scrumptious food, drinks, makeovers, massages and general pampering. 

Random favorites

The rest of these photos are in no particular order. I sorted through thousands of pictures from our 10 years and these are some of my favorites.

These first two are from our vacation at Iron Springs Resort at Copalis Beach on the coast of Washington in April 2010. Sun, sun, fun!

In 2010, I was a columnist for the local Peninsula Gateway. In December I wrote a Pacific Northwest version of "These Are a Few of My Favorite Things," and the rest of the group surprised me by pulling out the lyrics and singing them on the Cushman Trail on a beautiful sunny December day. I wrote a column with the lyrics: our-great-northwest-highs.html

Curious peacock in Victoria, Canada.

Seattle as seen from the ferry on one of our many ferry trips.

Vancouver, B.C., skyline in May 2017.

At a pumpkin patch on Whidbey Island.

Hiking near Bend, OR, after the rain stopped.

A heron and geese at the Nisqually Delta.

One of our summer potlucks, where we take turns hosting.
I brought the brownies, natch.

At a coffee shop for an annual Christmas gift exchange.

Kayaking in Gig Harbor for a change of pace.

A rest stop somewhere north of Seattle. One of my favorite photos.

Totem pole park in Vancouver, Canada.

Happy hour drinks in Vancouver.

Joyce, but I can't remember where this was.
I love the flowery background.

I photographed MANY bakery cases.

Tree fluff floating in the sunshine in Leavenworth.

The new slides at Dune Peninsula Park
in Tacoma this week.

This year at the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island.

Until next time ...

Pt. Ruston in Tacoma, this week.

Have a colorful day