Cheesecake with Handpicked Blackberries

 Today I made a cheesecake. I had a dinner party to go to tonight with a group of fellow Virgos and Libras and wanted to bring something special. It is blackberry season now in Washington and they are everywhere. I got the raspberries at the store. The cheesecake was delish and the party was delightful.

Virgo-Libra Dinner Party

Exploring cloth

embroidery sample squares

Butterfly embroidery

Lately I've felt drawn to sewing and have had the desire to dye fabric. I was a little intimidated but finally took the plunge and dyed some linen fabric from my stash with a navy Procion dye. I've also been embroidering small squares of fabric and here are some of the results. The inspiration for these is the Spirit Cloth Diaries class I am taking online with Jude Hill.

Butterfly Shibori

Home from Penland

Penland View

I'm back from two weeks at the beautiful and wonderful Penland School of Crafts. The school teaches all kinds of crafts and arts from glass, metals, printmaking, textiles to bookarts. I took a book/lettering/painting class with Laura Wait. It was fabulous. We started with large pieces of paper and then started writing words with sticks, shingles, rocks and whatever primitive materials we could find. Next we graduated to brushes and calligraphy pens, creating layers of text which bagan to take on the look of abstract forms. The next step in the process was learning to sew exposed bindings such as the herringbone. Paint was added to pages before and after the sewing process. Here are some pictures from the workshop.

Writing tools

Sample text

exposed bindings

Sewing a book on linen cords

Laura Wait demonstrating writing and painting with sumi ink

Palette and books in progress

Exposed binding book

My books on display

Some of my books

Back from Vacation

I'm just back from a great tip to London and Spain. It was a combination of city and country adventures. In Spain, I was near the village of Sayalonga just northeast of Malaga in the South. Look for Torre Del Mar on the map and go north from there to find it. There are lots of small whitewashed villages with narrow, windy streets. In Sayalonga, there are only two cafes where the center of all social activity happens. The area is full of olive trees and grape vines.

Poems

I've been reflecting on the violence of the last week. Five people in Seattle were killed by a mentally ill man as they went about their business on an ordinary day. I thought of Mary Oliver's poem, The Summer Day. It is my favorite of her poems. The last few lines seem pertinent now.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

With your one wild and precious life?

Flowers left in memory of the victims killed at Cafe Racer on May 31, 2012

Complimentary colors

Spring and catching up

Super Moon on May 5

Toolshed on Bainbridge Island

Washboard band at the Greenwood Art Walk

Cemetary in the Hill Country outside of Austin, TX

Old Yellow Truck

Barbershop on South Congress in Austin

Blooming Cactus

Bridesmaids before Claire's wedding

Old tombstone

Was Murdered by the Indians....

Tin shack Fredericksburg

Before the wedding with Ge Crozier 

Austin Hot Sauce

I haven't posted in months. I've been on the go: to Austin for a Wedding, to Bainbridge Island for an Collage workshop, and around town in Seattle for various events. Here are pictures from a the last few months....