Absent- and Busy!

Almost a month since I blogged- and for once, it's not because I've had nothing going on.  Au contraire, I feel like I've been running the past several weekends.

Memorial weekend we went to Moab for the Art Festival.  I was so enjoying it all, I did not take a single picture.  I managed to get more earrings from a vendor I love, got a naturally dyed silk scarf from another vendor, and spent some time speaking with a natural soap and lotions vendor.  The only downside was the not very cooperative weather- not as bad as the car show weekend, but still cooler than I wanted, interspersed with rain.  I do love Moab!

Last weekend we went exploring up Payson Canyon.  I'd hoped for some hiking, but that turned out to be more of a short walk than anything.  We drove up to Maple Lake, thinking it would be a mile and a half hike to the lake.  Turned out to be a short walk to the lake, then maybe a mile around it.  It was beautiful, however.

The greens and blues just seemed incredibly intense that day! While starting to walk around the little lake, I thought I saw a heron, then decided I was mistaken.  Then Shiloh scared something, and I realized I had seen a heron!  I got this shot of it up at the top of a tree, safe from my crazy dog.
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Since the hike was so short, Sean fished for awhile- then we decided to drive the entire Nebo Loop.  So we kept going up the canyon, stopping at places that looked interesting.

Turned out, the loop wasn't open yet- we got over the top a little ways, then hit a gate.  I can't believe there would still be snow there- but maybe they haven't finished all the maintenance.  On the way back down the way we came up, we stopped at the viewpoint for Utah Lake.  It really was a spectacular view of Utah valley.

This weekend, I've done some quilting, and I've done some soapy stuff.  Michelle's pink quilt is coming along- if I can just do a couple of hours every weekend, it shouldn't take that long to finish.

The thread I'm using isn't really orange, it's a dusty pink that blends well with everything.  I'm planning to throw this quilt in the washer and dryer when I am done, hoping to get that crinkled effect.  Once that's done, I figure my somewhat wonky quilting won't show much at all.

I also spent several hours wrapping soap.  This idea will work for the show I'm vending at in July, but it is not a long term solution.  I still need to figure out some inexpensive embellishment for this side of the soap.  My ingredients label is on the bottom, and my other label will go on the other side.

And, I finished the last of my felted soaps.  I hope these sell well!

So that is what I have been up to.  Work is crazy making right now- this is the stuff that feeds my soul and keeps me sane. 

Hellooo Out There!

Two weeks since my last post.  It's taken that long to get most of my photos from the trip edited, and to get my head wrapped around being back at work.  Then last weekend we took off and spent a couple of days with a friend in Moab, always a welcome trip.

And, I went to a second meeting with the art quilt group I've found in Utah county. I am really liking this group of women, they are energetic and creative.  One of the members, Sue, has a blog and took some pictures at the meeting- they are posted here.  She also makes the most gorgeous jewelry, and has an Etsy shop.  I've drooled over the pieces she's worn to the meetings.

Some of the group got together Saturday afternoon to dye and paint fabric.  I wanted to get more greens in my stash, and got 3 different value gradations done.

I wanted toned greens, so each of these gradations has a different amount of red in it.  I also used two different sets of primary colors.  I knew I wouldn't do solids, so I did these LWI with lots of squishing and massaging to smooth out the texture.  Some still have a lot of mottling, but I'm pleased with how they turned out.

Of course I was so focused on the gradations, I forgot to take pictures of what everyone else was doing.  Bonnie and Liza Ann were playing with Setacolors and trying to sunprint, but the sun wasn't cooperating.  Kathleen did a hue gradation that looked very interesting, and was still dyeing when I left. Kathleen helped Denise and Pat get some colors dyed for projects they were planning, and I helped Denise with a small parfait.  All in all, it was a fun afternoon.

I also did a parfait, just to give Denise and Pat and idea of what it is.  I did lemon yellow on the bottom, strongest red next, then cobalt blue and finally cerulean.  Oh, and I added a dab of red to both the blues.  This is what I got.

The bottom one, the yellow, was glorious.  Take a look at this!

I'm keeping this one up on the design wall for awhile, just so I can look at all those glorious greens and yellows.

I have been working on my Tangled Textiles challenge piece- it is pieced, sandwiched, and I have been auditioning quilting designs.  I think I know where I'm headed, and will finish it next weekend (just before the reveal!!)

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from my camping trip with my son Ian and his fiance Corey- we went to Ludington State Park in northwest Michigan.  It was a very last minute decision to go there- we changed our plans the morning we left, mostly hoping to find warmer weather in Michigan than in northern Wisconsin where we'd originally decided to go.  The park had wonderful acomodations (real bathrooms and showers, no less!!), and a plethora of biking and hiking trails, all accessible from the campground.  It is the 'sense of place' that inspired my TT piece, and probably more after that one.

For someone who has spent most of her life in the desert west, the lushness of the woods was breathtaking.  I couldn't get enough of all those greens!!

Spring Fever

That's my excuse for not having more fiber content.  After a week or more of cool, wet weather, we finally saw the sun again.  I've been out walking two of the last three days- oh my, does that sun feel good!

We walked the new (to me, anyway) trail close to our home.  The wildlife must be feeling spring fever, too, because we saw plenty of them.  I saw deer on the trail,

and probably half dozen or more of this critter along the trail.  

 I had no idea what they are- my first glimpse, I thought they were raccoons, but the coloring is all wrong.  Today, however, I saw a sign along the trail that identified them as marmots.  I will have to do more research, I know absolutely nothing about them except they live in holes along the rocky riverbank.  I also saw and heard lots of birds, all too quick for my camera, and a snake or too- stayed away from those.

I did, however, get my tee fabric screen printed, washed, and dried.  I also started picking out fabrics for my next Tangled Textiles challenge.  So far I have this--

and this on the 'maybe' list.

Love the fabrics, just can't decide if they blend well with the others.  Obviously I'm going for the obvious with a theme like 'Green!'

So that's my world this lovely spring day.  Next weekend we are going to Moab for the car show, so no sewing then either.  I will probably be scrambling to get it done by the reveal day from the looks of it!

Hope your week is a creative one!

Sun, Glorious Sun!!

And we got to enjoy it for a fleeting day Saturday.  It was the warmest day of the year, in the low 80's.  After a busy day at church with the women's ministry, Shilo and I headed out for a walk in the late afternoon.  I have a new favorite walking trail, and best of all, it is close to home.  It starts out by the clubhouse of the golf course, winds through a park and one end of the course, then continues along with the river on one side and farm fields on the other.

We start out crossing a bridge over the river (or creek, as my Midwest friends would say).  I was taken by the patterns of the moss and rocks in the river, and snapped a couple of pictures.  They look like cool abstract art!

I played with light levels some, but other than that, this is straight from my camera.  I love the surreal look.

As we walked, I couldn't help but look up at the gorgeous blue sky- an intense blue, laced with a few clouds.  The patterns the tree branches made against the sky were wonderful.

I tried getting a close view of the new leaves on another tree, with the grays and browns of the other trees behind- hoping to get a blurred background with a shallow depth of field.  The point and shoot isn't as easy to use as my DSLR, but I did get an interesting shot after several tries.  Love the lime green!

 

This is the view I had walking back to the car.  Glorious!!

Today, it is gray, wet, cloudy, and thirty degrees colder.  The whimsy of spring in Utah, you never know what you are going to get. 

Winter Walking

We had our first snow of the year today- and I decided that my foot was feeling good enough to go for a walk with Shiloh.  I haven't been walking in a couple of months because of a plantar wart on my right foot.  I had it taken off last fall, but it came back- even worse.  My podiatrist took it off again a couple of weeks ago- it has taken that long for me to feel like I could walk, not limp.

So Shiloh and I drove up to Hobble Creek, where I'd learned there is a paved trail.  We found it easily, and headed off.  It was starting to snow, but not enough to make me change my mind.  I also wanted to take some pictures with my Nikon point and shoot.  I'm trying to use it and get used to the settings and it's capabilities.  It will never replace my Pentax DSLR, but I love having a camera that fits easily in my purse or pocket.

We had to cross a couple of bridges.  Shiloh managed to stand still long enough to have a portrait!

I loved the texture and color of the lichen on this tree trunk.

 

I wasn't expecting to see any green leaves this time of year- but these were peeking through the snow and underbrush.

 

It may have been snowing, but Hobble Creek was running fast and furious.  I was intrigued by the movement of the water next to the one piece of ice.

We walked for about an hour- I think we did about three miles.  When the snow on the trail got thick enough that I couldn't tell where it was icy underneath, we turned around.  But it's a trail I'll be going back to when the weather improves!

A Sense of Humor

I have absolutely no doubt that God has a sense of humor, and He enjoys playing practical jokes on earthly beings.  How else to explain the last couple of days?

Friday was gorgeous, in the low 70's, sunny.  Yesterday was almost as warm, although overcast, and I managed to get out for an hour or so and walk the dog.  I went with Shannon's small camera, hoping to catch signs that spring really is on the way.

I had to look carefully for those signs- as you can see, it is still pretty brown/gray out there.

Look closer, though- there is green on the lawns, and weeds on the riverbank.  The river (creek?) is really muddy, fast, and pretty high on the banks- all a sign that spring runoff in the mountains has started.

A little further down, we saw one woman hanging laundry outside to dry.  Can't do that in bad weather!!

I saw lots of a red seed pod or something on the trail.  Later on, I finally figured out which tree it was coming from.

Along the riverbank, there were some bushes with new leaves showing.

I was happy, spring really does appear to be making her presence known!  Driving home, I had to stop at one garden I photograph every year.  Marjan, the gardener, has gorgeous spring flowers.  Most haven't started to bloom yet, but we saw--

 

Perfect!!  Complementary colors the first to be seen in her garden!  The last best part of the day- I wore sandals all day, and my feet loved it.  They are crying to be out of winter shoes!

I won't even show what I woke up to this morning- at least 6 inches of wet, heavy snow.  Give me a break!!  I haven't left the house, I just can't face the cold and wet.

So I've been down in the studio, altering tank tops so I can wear them this summer without embarrassing myself.  I have another summer top to cut out, and sewing it up shouldn't take long.  Sooner or later, the weather will actually catch up to where my brain and heart are.  Hey, the weather forecast says we should be back at 70 by the end of the week!!

While it lasts. . .

I'm enjoying our decidedly not-November weather.  It was in the high 60's-low 70's yesterday and today, so both days I've taken the dog out for a walk.  Today we went up the canyon and hiked for an hour or so.  It feels great!!  And it's all supposed to change come Monday- drat.

I have been working on my IT design.  Once I started drawing patterns, I realized none of my grays were large enough.  So I hit the LQS this morning, and managed to find a couple that I think will work.  A sign of the times, this is a shop that has been around for years- the selection of fabrics seems smaller.  I was glad to find something I can make work, because gray clearly is not a big color this year.

I'm also continuing to knit on the sock, although not as much as before.  I'm to the boring part- knitting in rib up the leg until I run out of yarn.  But I'll get there!

Well, the picture isn't from today- but this is a look at where we hiked this afternoon. 

 The trees are barer than in this photo, and most of the color is gone- the mountain is pretty much shades of brown that we'll live with for the next several months.  But the views from the top of the mountain (hill?) we climbed to is still spectacular.

 They've started gating the campground that where the trailhead is located, so I had to climb through the gate.  The nice thing is that nobody else was there, so Shiloh got to run off-leash the whole time.  Hopefully it means she's worn out!!

The weight continues to come off- last time I checked, almost ten pounds.  I do my 'official' weigh-in on Monday mornings, so we'll see.  I've found the best motivator for me to get some activity in each day- the added number of calories I can eat!  It makes the hour at the gym doable.

Maybe with my extra hour tonight I can get more work done on my piece.  We'll see- later!

Wilderness Adventures

Without going into a lot of detail as to the why, I spend part of the day up Diamond Fork canyon with a group of people. It's about ten miles or so from our house, and was lovely, green, and beautiful where we were doing our activities. I wasn't able to participate in all the activities due to a schedule conflict, but I did do this one- the second time I've done it in twelve years. It is a rush, my muscles are still feeling it.



Obviously neither of these people is me, since I took the picture after I came down. But if you click on the picture, you can see how we have two lines coming down. On the left, the rappeler is halfway down; on the right, the track I took, she's just getting ready to come over the edge. And if you think the rock face looks like a nice easy slope, it's not- it was pretty vertical much of the way down.

The climb up was a killer, I wouldn't have made it without some help from younger folks a couple of times. But it was worth it!

A few photos from Moab---

It has been a busy week, but I'm grabbing a few minutes to post some of the pictures from our trip last weekend. The weather the first two days we were there was perfect hiking weather, so we decided to do the "strenous" hike up to Delicate Arch. It is strenous, but not un-doable,even for an out of shape fifty-something like me. The first part is through the sage on some small hills,



and then you climb up an incline on the slickrock. Just when you think you are almost there, you find you have to hike further on top of the slickrock, until you finally reach the bowl at the top where the arch is situated. And this is what you see--



The view out is spectacular- the La Sal mountains still have lots of snow on them, and the contrast of the snow with the blue sky and red rocks is gorgeous.

The hike is three miles round trip, and worth every aching muscle. We saw lots of family groups making the climb, even one woman who looked about eight months pregnant.

On the way down, Shannon decided to take a small detour on a side trail to a petroglyph wall. She got some good photos, I'm hoping to turn some of this into thermofax screens.



Well, I have more photos, but Blogger is not cooperating, so it will have to wait for another post. We are off to Salt Lake for the day--

Rock Art, Hiking, and Other Assorted Miscellany---

There has been a very interesting discussion on the QA list the last couple of days. I threw my bit in this morning, in response to posts by Terry Grant, Pamela Allen, and Liz Berg, all of whom mentioned emotional or personal content in art. Of all the concepts around art, this one has been the hardest for me to get my arms around. It's come up with my brother in our discussions, and I've never resolved my questions about it. But I think I got some answers I can understand, and that will help me in my own journey, today. And that feels good!

I have been working hard on my rock art piece, which has developed out of the discharging I did with my granddaughter last summer. I think this is the closest I've come to capturing the true color, I've found the discharges to be notoriously difficult to photograph. I'm pleased, I got the black figures to 'pop' the way I wanted, and I achieved the texture in the background I wanted without the distraction of thread color. Now that I've found a monofilament thread I like, I think I'll be finding more ways to use it. (Sew Art thread, the same as Harriet Hargrave uses.) Anyway, here it is, the interior done, only the borders left.



And here's the detail, showing the texture. Believe me, doing the close stippling on this was not easy, I felt like I was sewing blind!



I'm now part of a small crit group, and one of them suggested the hand embroidery around the figures. I wasn't sure, but took a leap of faith, and I'm very happy with how it looks. That pale color is just the "zinger" it needed. I'll be using more of that same thread in the border, doing seed stitching. Once the border is done, I'll be stretching it on stretcher bars. I love how that helps them read like ART.

On a more mundane note, Sadie demanded a walk yesterday, so we hiked up in Spanish Fork Canyon again. This time, I decided to go through a cattle gate and climb up the hill- it was well worth it, though my legs let me know they'd had a workout last night. It was unbelievably warm for mid-November. Here I am in my short sleeve tee as proof--



If you are jealous, have no fear- we are supposed to be in the 40's by Tuesday, with the possibility of snow in the valleys. I have no doubt the skiers are anxious, but me, I am not looking forward to shoveling the driveway.

Sadie probably walks twice the distance I do. She runs ahead, then stops to make sure I'm still following, runs back to me, then ahead again. Even at nine years, she has loads of energy.



Love the colors of the lichen on this scrub oak!!!



Coming back down the hill, I was struck by the black lines of the trees against the red rock in the canyon. Part of the area we hiked burned last summer, and it was an interesting mixture of blackened trees and shrubs, with green grass on the ground.



One last note- I'm still open for takers on pay it forward. Kimmi has taken me up on it, I'd love to have two more.

I hope all of you have a blessed Thanksgiving, with family or friends, or both. Even in adversity, I've learned that we have much to be grateful for.