Evolving Sweetie

Steel Town Gal Quilt - In Progress part 1

Adored the Improv Coin Quilting class that I took a few weeks ago. Utilized my little collection of "Hometown" fabrics from Sweetwater for this project.  A little bit challenging to come up with variations in the stripping due to similar patterns themes throughout the fabrics.  In the layout phase, I played with the placement of the strip sections and like some of them oriented horizontally. Loved how that seemed to make some of the fabrics shine more.

My design is in 2 main parts -  a vertical and a horizontal pieced section. Completed the verticals and I'm 1/2 way through the larger horizontal section.  Unfortunately setting aside this project for a few days due to deadline on a Shutterfly book (40% off coupon expires on Weds). Hopefully my quilt top will be complete in the next week or so.

Shout out to my Dad for installing the ceiling hooks in the office for a design wall. Love it! Thank you!!!

Sneak peek at my first official quilt...

 

POSTCARDS from my design wall.

Quilting Class #1

Are there things that you've always wanted to try? For me that's quilting. I've been fascinated by fiber arts and quilts for at least a decade now. But rationalized starting away with a handful of excuses... don't you have enough hobbies, it's expensive, time consuming, another collection of materials - a space sucking STASH, lengthy projects etc. 

But my spirit wouldn't keep bubbling up the desire and interest in quilting if I wasn't meant to explore it. Love the tradition and idea of making something that will wrap another in love and warmth. The colors, textures and combinations. And funny, my inspirational or creative ideas alway seem to be seen in patchwork.

Exercised my Martha Stewart genes (as my sister loves to tease me) to know that I could probably figure it out on my own given a little time, but hands-on instruction speeds up my understanding and lowers the frustration quotient. So in the effort to eradicate the "someday I'll do/become" disease from my life, I signed up for a beginner quilt-making class at the Quilting Loft this month. Adored the teacher's sentiment that this is suppose to be FUN. And that unless mistakes are so glaringly obvious that you'd notice it galloping by on a horse to let it be. Enjoy the over-all beauty and relax judgement. Wow, if I can incorporate those lessons in my life this class would be worth every penny even if I never sewed a stitch.

Our project is a sampler quilt to learn some basic piecing techniques and a few traditional block - houses, log cabin, pin-wheel and basic stars. Last week's class was to get an overview of the craft, pick out fabrics and learn to rotary-cut. Challenged myself to alter the color pallet and subtle patterning a bit from the sample. Love a hint of whimsy in my art projects and absolutely fell for three prints and choose two subtler ones for balance. Almost let myself be talked out of my favorite one (the light blue with hand-drawn flowers) as a fellow student didn't think it quite worked. But my teacher and the quilt shop clerk loved my combination. First lesson learned was to trust my instinct and eye.

 

POSTCARDS from my first quilt - the raw materials

Class project - sampler quilt

 

My favorite one

Color pallet for project.

Lovely surprise I found on the green one - perfect name for a beginner.

 

 

Luminaries

It's Tulip Festival time in the PNW! Yesterday, I spent the day tripping through the flowers with my friend Julie. Blissfully, my inner shutterbug played the beautiful day away.

What captured my imagination most was the interplay with the sun and the blooms. Viewed from the right angles they absolutely glowed. Like little souls. As I am gravitating more towards lightness, these images were my favorites of the day.

Enjoy a few moments of walking in sunshine. 

 

POSTCARDS from the 2011 Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

Spring Has Sprung

Spring is definitely in the air in the PNW. And not a moment too soon! 

One of my major goals this year is to invest in things that make my heart sing. Towards that end, I signed up for a month long Photography course at The Mountaineers. Been brushing up my technique, wiping the cobwebs from my eyes, and taking the camera out of auto-mode. Enjoying it and remembering what it's like to be more deliberate with my photos than just framing. Alas, I now have a laundry list of additional equipment I'd like to own someday. Sigh!

Note to self ~ schedule more dates with my inner shutterbug. Consider a reoccurring weekly event.

 

POSTCARDS from Springtime Seattle

 

 

Felting Weekend - part 3

Here's all our finished goods. In all we completed 14 projects. As you can see they all varied in style, color and fancy. Out of our weekend came a desire to set up a felting club to keep learning new skills and have the opportunity to play together. I found it delightful to find some new passionate and inspiring women to share a hobby with. Till next time...

Final projects

Leah taking photos

Linda modeling her gorgeous scarf

Jean modeling her lovely scarf

Linda, Paula & Jean

My shawl

Scarf for my sister

My weekend bounty

Ferry coming to take us home

Felting Weekend - part 2

The Felting Getaway afforded us 2 days to felt. Most of us completed 2-3 projects in that time span. Interestingly we all wanted to Nuno felt. Nuno felting felts wool into existing natural fabrics. The fun part was we all had different approaches and things we wanted to try. It was very creative and collaborative process. I found myself zoning out as I laid out my projects and beat them into submission. There is a lot of pounding, pushing, coaxing, scrubbing and throwing that happens before a piece is finished.

Felting is always magically. It takes a lot of elbow grease and patience, but nothing beats the excitement when the felting really begins to take shape. The results are unpredictable and wonderfully surprising. We all experienced a lot of issues with getting the process started. Think it had to do with the hardness of the water and how cold the garments got holding water. Felting relies on heat, soap and friction as key components. One of them being off throws the whole experiment out of balance. 

I completed 3 projects that weekend. The last 2 were shawls that took 4-5 hours to complete apiece. Its a good thing they finished up just in the nick of time before my back gave way into cascades of spasms. Hard work on all parts of the body. I left each day feeling my body throb from head to foot, yet my soul sang.

Here are some pictures of works in progress:

Paula laying out her pattern

Leah's perfectly drafted skirt

Raw materials for Mom's Shawl - my 2nd project

Drafted shawl - before wet felting

Close up of drafted wool

Mom's shawl after felting

Felting Weekend - part 1

Time flies far too fast this time of year. Being sick hasn't helped matters either. Just now getting around to posting about my felting weekend in Coupeville on Whidbey Island. A friend Paula & I took a series of felting classes this fall from Leah, who owns Spiderfelt. Leah organized a small group of us felters for a getaway weekend to felt to our heart's content. A joyous, relaxing weekend getting to know some phenomenal women. Quality creative time, great food and a few ferryboat rides. Awesome!

Here's Paula on reading about felting as we started

 the journey across to Whidbey Island. A beautiful friday afternoon.

Our first night, we chatted away until after 8:00 before we headed into town for food. Coupeville is a small little town on Penn Cove. I fell in love with the light as we were walking along and drifted into photographer mode. We ended up at Christopher's for dinner, although I don't think anyone was over the moon with their dinner. It was a nice way to start getting to know one another.

POSTCARDS from Coupeville, WA 

View off our front porch

Water view from our porch

The Heart of the Matter

One of the pieces I struggle with about my lifetime with Chuck is the lessons I've learned through care-taking, cancer and widowhood. Why was I given these experiences so young? How do I assimilate all this emotional and spiritual knowledge? And the one I struggle with most is what do I do with it- how do I give back?  Chuck & I used to joke that you are given the secret handshake to life wisdom that'd you'd never choose to know.  Yet they are the most valuable lessons to learn.

There's a strong desire in me to help people going through cancer and those in grief after losing their partner. While I keep playing with ideas on how this will manifest -  a solid plan has yet to emerge. One opportunity has presented itself. I was asked to be the widow facilitator at a new support group in my healing community. Revolving around expressing where you are on your journey through art. Very enjoyable thus far. Definitely highlights to me how far I've come in two + years.

Right now, I'm making the conscious shift toward happiness. Chuck resides in the pieces of my heart that are his alone. Forever - he accompanies me there. Yes, somedays the pain of his death inevitably floods over in tears and grief. But I feel him closest to me when I allow the best of life in - happiness, fulfillment, joy, love, peace, sunshine. 

Tonight's project was a collage. As you can tell by my blog style, words and images are important to me. My desire was to represent where Chuck is in my heart. Here is where I carry not only him, but us. Joyful, fiery, glowing yellow was appropriate to me. Choose words I found that represent me moving forward, how I honor us, how I envision him and recognize gifts that Chuck alone gave me. It may make absolutely no sense to anyone else...I'm happy with that. The token of love is ours alone. And Chuck will understand it perfectly.

What is your truth?

Currently I'm taking a seminar designed to get past the mind chatter - the inner critic who has an opinion on how everything you do could be better. The goal is to narrow down to what is your truth - what gifts would you want to give the world if you have the power. And what do you need in order to live in and share those gifts. 

My truths are:

1. Love

2. Creativity

3. Gratitude

4. Freedom

The first three are so me and ring true at my core. The last one I'm still on the fence with. Freedom for me is the means and opportunity to fulfill your heart's desire. I've expressed some extraordinary lengths to get to freedom in my life. And have short circuited and self sabotaged my heart's desire in equal measurement. Curious to see how this one stands by weekends end and after much more reflection. 

Imagine if you have 4 truths to bring into the world to make it a better place... 

What are they for you?

Winter via Matthews Beach

Spent some quality time with my friend Canon yesterday. We unexpectedly received snow overnight. I wanted to capture some images from my favorite neighborhood spot, Matthews Beach on Lake Washington.

POSTCARDS - from Matthews Beach, Seattle WA