200!

Yes, today is my 200th blog! Also, it's August 1st, and I am wondering where the summer has gone, and how in the world did I get to #200 on this blogsite?????

I promised to post my "storm at sea" one-piece wonder. Here it is! How fitting, as last night we had the most amazing electrical storm here at Refuge Cove (and in surrounding areas). It lasted over 2 hours and was a SLOW buildup, allowing us to sit out and experience it for over an hour before the heavy thunder and rains came. Beautiful!

Upcoming: 3rd annual Cyber Fibres Retreat (this weekend!)...stay tuned!

SPECTACULAR SEPTEMBER

 

On a crystal clear September evening, my husband and I were sitting at our favorite perch on our front deck, overlooking the peace and beauty of Refuge Cove. It had been a stunning day, clear and sunny, and the twilight hours were just as lovely. The sky had a particular brightness against the horizon and the simple silhouette of the trees added to the scene. I looked up to the night sky and noticed the Big Dipper located perfectly in the notch created by the trees. It was a quilt journal moment! (The theme I was pairing it with in mind was "All That Sparkles".)

I knew that my black dye would leave a cast of color as it climbed up a piece of fabric, so I set to doing that. I half-filled a cylinder with black dye and soda ash, then set a loosely rolled piece of fabric into it and watched the color climb up and eventually leave a margin of light turquoise. From there it was working with blacks: creating the horizon, using “Steam a Seam Light” as a fusible for the trees, adding the binding. A wiggly, feathery stitch along the branches added texture to the trees. For the stars, I disassembled an old, never-worn piece of jewelry which happened to have the perfect blue crystal beads.

I love the stark simplicity of this piece. It will forever remind me of the many lovely nights, sitting on the deck with Tom, appreciating life.

MAKING STAMPS

Earlier this month we had visitors Christine, Rick, Kathe and Mike come to Refuge Cove to enjoy some time with us. What a treat!

And, we gals made some time for some creative fun. The remnants of our pond liner (thick, heavy duty rubber) became the medium for creating stamps. Add cedar blocks, scissors and waterproof glue, along with some imagination, and we were good to go.

These are wonderful little stamps. The rubber lays down well and the glue secures all edges. Get them wet with thickened dye, then wash them, and they are good as new.

Last week I made up some print paste with some OLD purple dye and proceeded to fill up some fabric. Yesterday I added some background color.

This stamp is made from a styrofoam meat tray that was just waiting for a design. I used a pen to scratch it out.

Thanks Christine and Kathe for a great time together! I'll be making some more of these stamps soon!

MY HITCHCOCK MOMENT

I'm into BIRDS these days: colorful whimsical, identifiable or not, I am obsessesed with birds. Here at Refuge we are having a great bird year. We have our annual flood of hummingbirds who mob our feeders, the robins who are constantly hunting the worms in my garden (bugs too I hope), a resident sapsucker who flits from tree to tree, and his big pileated relative who rips and shreds the bark from the dead and dying. The towhees and their little friends are always rustling around in the brush. Inspiration is alive and flying in my Refuge Cove world.

(Raw-edge applique, all hand-dyed)

REFUGE COVE ATTIRE

Gardening, boating, hiking, and general mucking around are the definers for what I wear each day in Refuge Cove. It all boils down to my favorite pair of jeans, those well-worn, easy fit, perfectly frayed jeans. And what should happen during an on-my-knees weeding fest last week? That’s right, a blow out, a left knee blow out. Coincidentally it also happened that Tom’s jeans had a similar problem, so I set to work patching. My first step was to open up the legs to get a nice flat surface to work on, then apply a piece of jean fabric to the back, securing it with a wide zig-zag. On the front side, I free-motioned over the rip and continued with loops and swirls to bond the fabrics together. With mine I got fancy, also securing the other knee which hadn’t given way yet, but was showing sure signs of splitting. They truly are my favorite jeans now!

SUMMER MONTHS THAT BEGIN WITH THE LETTER J

June and July.

I'm living the good life at Refuge Cove, tending my garden, fishing and prawning on a regular basis, enjoying time with friends and family. Squeezed within all of this I have been working to create my summer stash of goods to sell. For the first time in 10 years, I am opting out of participation in the Cortes Craft Shop, and only working for the "Feathered Fish", the local gallery owned and operated by fellow Co-op member, Sandie Dixon. This is her second year and I was quite pleased with results last year, so have decided to keep my focus here in Refuge Cove. And, I haven't made that much this past winter, so the little I can get accomplished in these two summer months that begin with the letter J will be it for the year. Next week, my sewing room gets taken over by one grandson as his makeshift bedroom, so that will be it...4 more days.

One of my goals this summer has been to use up my stash: fabric pieces large and small, thread, small pieces of batting that I sew together to make larger pieces. I even went through my collection of small quilted pieces, either finished wall hangings or a practice piece that I've carried around in the stash box for way too long. I looked at them, took myself back to when I created it, then sliced and diced to make something new. It was liberating to let go of these pieces.

I've focused on two items, luggage tags and tote bags. They have been the perfect recipients of my scraps and remnants, or the small piece that has been folded in the bottom of a tote for many years.

This is a pattern for me: clearing out what I'm not using. I do it in my closet, in those junk drawers that collect all sorts of oddities, my kitchen cabinets. I like things simple and minimal. Minimalist Mary is what someone called me, and the title fits well.

So 127 luggage tags and 7 totes later, I am soon to put the commercialism aside and focus on more play and creative expression in my craft. And I'm looking forward to that!

FAIRY HOUSES

You might be wondering, "What is that?" Look hard, what do you see?
I live in the coastal rainforest of British Columbia. The name of the community is Refuge Cove on West Redonda Island, in the middle of Desolation Sound. This community is a land and housing cooperative shared by 18 shareholders, our family being one of them.
You enter " Refuge" from the series of docks, where, depending on the month of the year, you can see a wide range of qualities and quantities of boats moored there. In the summer months, it is a mecca for boaters in search of fuel, groceries, a meal out, perusing through the book exchange, or just some socializing-on-the-dock time. You might even catch a game of washers. In the wintertime, you may see a few float houses and a skiff or two.
Past the "commercial zone" are the "keep out" gates, the boundary of the members-only zone. This is how you would come to my house. I pass boardwalk, hillside and the last 100 feet of thick forest, which pops right onto the bluff where our house sits. This little forest trail has become the home for a few of my ceramic, metal or glass collectibles. I was ready to part with them (probably more like a de-cluttering mood) and decided to give them a new home along this trail. This all started about six years ago so some of the items have a nice coat of moss on them by this time and are getting hard to see.
Today five fairy houses appeared on this magical little mossy path. They are made of sticks, moss, rocks, pinecones and built into the natural curvature of the rock cliff that winds its way next to our path. They are hard to spot, but they are definitely fairy houses. (I don't think the fairies are living there yet, but are probably on their way.)

Who built those fairy houses? My niece, Sarah, and her boyfriend, Chris, were visiting for a week, and just this morning, I walked them to the boat to say good-by. On our way down the hill at 5:30 am, they mentioned for me to look for the fairy houses. It took a moment, but my eye finally tuned in. They had created them the previous afternoon, adding more magic to the path.
So the little quilt journal piece above is a fairy house. It's the one built under a cleft of rock that has the perfect triangle shape, so naturally created by the moss. Sarah and Chris added the finishing touches: sticks rocks, more moss, pinecones.
I've been trying to come up with an idea for this quilt journal challenge with the theme of "TODAY". Lately I've been in the sort of creative funk that does not allow me to have fast reaction times (from idea to reality in just one day???? You must be kidding!). Once I had taken photos of all five fairy houses and got to looking at them, putting it onto fabric seemed like a doable project, with the main idea to create a basic structure, similar to one the actual homes, covered with lots and lots of green stitching to represent the moss. It was therapeutic and the perfect activity to get some of the spider webs and kinks out of my free motion system. I finished, not on the "today", but on the "tomorrow" which isn't too bad for me.
So on this "TODAY" (which actually was the "today" of about 5 days ago), the fairy houses appeared, and Sarah and Chris left Refuge Cove for their return to Annapolis, Maryland, after a fantastic week-long visit. Two, bright and capable recent college graduates, they truly appreciated the uniqueness of our environment and took advantage of all the highlights of Refuge Cove: kayaking, canoeing and swimming in the lake, fishing, prawning, hiking, eating amazing home-harvested meals, playing washers, and enjoying family time together in a special surrounding.
Each time I walk down our path, I look hard to find the "fairy houses" that are tucked so secretively along the path and in the cliffside. Warm memories of a good visit come back to me.
Here's one of the real fairy houses:

QUILTER'S BLOCK

It’s kind of like writer’s block, but only with cloth, not pen and paper. And I’ve got it!

 There are a wealth of distractions here in Refuge Cove that keep me away from the sewing machine. Actually my desire to sew is about nil - thus,"Quilter's Block".

But maybe it’s because of all the amazing distractions I have here in Refuge Cove. Like, my new garden fence (put up last year), recently fitted with a beautiful gate made by Tom.

Or playing in the dirt in my new greenhouse.  It’s 80% completed and plenty adequate for growing and taking advantage of our summer.

The hummingbirds are really keeping me busy. I fill 4 feeders every day. Those little hummers are inhaling a half gallon per day.

We’re still hoping to see more goldfish in our pond. Every day it’s the same answer…3! Two years ago, we had 17.

Our good friends and neighbors, Jim and Sharon, arrived yesterday and we helped them move. With hamburgers on Cortes first!

Tom’s latest garden project was to build my 3^rd raised garden box.

He asked me to check it out for size…what’s that all about!?????

I quickly filled it with dirt and plants….thankfully,  I haven’t seen him building a lid!

So quilting is the last thing on my mind, but I really should be thinking what I’m going to put in Sandie’s shop (Refuge Cove Gallery) this summer. My first QUICK little commercial project was to cut up a few of my old, undesirable pieces into 3”x6” rectangles and then I proceeded to making them into luggage tags.

And we’ve also been prawning, which is horrible this year because the commercial guys have totally scraped the bottom clean. So now we are trying our hand at fishing, which also hasn’t been too fruitful .

And then there’s my new Kindle. I’ve powered through 4 books in the last 3 weeks. That’s a lot of reading by me. They are: 1) The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver, 2)The Hummingbird’s Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea, 3) Unbroken: A World War II Story  of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand, and 4) Stoned into Schools: Promoting Peace with Education in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Greg Mortenson. These all were great reads!

So, you can see, I’ve definitely been pre-occupied.