Packing, moving

We're on the move again, this time to a rental while we look for land on which to build our forever home and Dave's dream shop. I'll get to design my studio so that everything fits and has good lighting!

I spent weeks packing books and other items that can go into storage, but today I faced the sewing room. I always hate to pack away the fabric because I feel untethered without being able to look at it.

Pretty soon I won't be able to walk through the house without climbing over boxes. Dave had planned to move them up to the garage as I packed, but now he's come down with what seems to be the dreaded flu. I just read that there's an outbreak of Influenza Type B here, so I think that's what he might have. 

I'm crossing my fingers that I don't get it, because we have to be out of this house by the end of April and there's so much to be done.

I can't even count how many rolls of tape and boxes I've gone through. 

But I AM going to save my "happy space" for last. This is a little area tucked behind the couch looking out the windows where I do my hand stitching and meditate on the clouds and water. I'll sure miss it, but I'm sure I'll find another happy space at the new house.

Have a colorful day

Color at Tacoma's Museum of Glass

Part of Dale Chihuly's glass ceiling outside the Museum of Glass.

For a sure shot of color, the Museum of Glass in Tacoma always delivers. Over the weekend, Dave and I spent a few hours there taking in the exhibits and watching a team of glassblowers do their dance in the Hot Shop.

This huge grey cone is the outside of the Hot Shop. It's one of Tacoma's most distinctive landmarks.

To enter the museum, you walk over a highway on the Bridge of Glass, which features a ceiling of renowned Tacoma native Dale Chihuly's organic sea forms (top photo). The sides of the bridge, next two photos below, feature Chihuly's large, whimsical vessels.

Our favorite part of the museum is the Hot Shop, which has auditorium seating facing a large glassblowing studio. A moderator explains what's going on as the glassblowers work, and a screen above gives you a different perspective.

The three-person team we watched made wide glass bowls, which each started as just a little blob of molten glass on the end of a hollow pole. The blob was blown, twirled, heated, dipped in more glass and shaped over and over until the final result was cut from the pole and taken away to applause.

Looking up from inside the Hot Shop dome.

We spent at least an hour in the Hot Shop in our front-row seats, soaking in the warmth and watching the dance. Then we headed into the exhibit rooms

These next three photos are from an exhibit of hard-edged laminated optical and pigmented glass by Michael E. Taylor:

The next room had Chihuly's organic pieces:

And a third exhibit was filled with glass and steel sculptures by Albert Paley:

As always, I went away inspired. 

Have a colorful day

Color block for March

Here is my color block for March, with fabric pulled from my stash to match colors of photographs that I took outside this month. It's definitely looking more cheerful than January and February's blocks.

January, dark and dramatic:

February, lighter with subdued hues:

Yesterday, all fogged in:

I'm linking up to Nina Marie's post here women-artists-off-wall-friday.html in case you want to see what other fiber artists have been doing this week. Nina Marie also has a nice list of women artists, who I plan to read up on.


 Have a colorful day

It's Spring!

It's the first day of Spring and it was bursting with blue skies and pink and yellow flowers here in the Pacific Northwest! It's a lot lighter, the rain is less frequent and the highs are up in the 50s and near 60.

I spent some time today taking more photos for my monthly block and pulling fabrics together to go with the photo colors. Orange, pink and yellow have a strong presence this month, from sunrises, sunsets and flowers.

A few evenings ago we had this glorious sunset, reflected in the water. It even made the evening news.

Water in all its hues washes through the days and nights here, and I will try to capture those colors in my monthly fabric collage blocks.

Below is this foggy morning on the first day of Spring. By the time I finished my coffee, the fog had burned off and blue skies prevailed.

And soon the Easter Bunny will be here! What says Spring more than a cute bunny in a basket? That's Bailey, one of my daughter's three rabbits and my grand bunny. 

 Have a colorful day

Collecting March colors

I've been taking photos of March colors for this month's block, and it's been a beautiful month so far. It's much lighter than February, and we've been having some awesome pinky-orange sunsets. 

And yellow has made an appearance big time with these daffodils that my friend, Anne, brought over last week from her yard for our STITCH meeting. I'll show more of the colors soon, along with my selection of fabrics for the March block.

Have a colorful day

Wool reindeer herd

I rounded up the wool reindeers that members of the Woolies have made this winter. They're from a pattern shown above with the red bird, which is from a quilt store in Bellingham whose name escapes me.

The reindeer above with a blue bird is by Pam and the next one is by Mary.

Next up is mine ...

... and last is Donna's. It's been fun seeing the different approaches to color and embellishing.

Have a colorful day

Woolies color on a blue-sky day

Detail of Donna's house block.

Woolies met this week, and what an inspirational meeting it was! There were only four of us because most had fled rainy Washington for the sun (although our meeting day was gloriously sunny), but it was filled with color and beautiful stitching.

Donna unveiled her nearly complete "At Home In the Garden" wool applique masterpiece. After beautifully embellishing the blocks with embroidery, beads, buttons and fancy ribbons, she's now finishing it with hand quilting. She had the lattice strips and borders machine quilted to anchor everything before she started hand quilting within the blocks.

Here are more details:

Mary, meanwhile, brought some wonderful wool embellished eggs that she made ...

... from this pattern.

Victoria was working on this sweet piece ...

... and she also made these sweet orange cream scones.

Double yum!!!

I worked on my version of "At Home In the Garden," which is in the previous post.

And here is the view from where we stitched! We were inside, but this is what we saw through Donna's windows. It was a fantastic, warm, blue-sky day. That's Mt. Rainier and the Puget Sound.

 Have a colorful day