Summer Went by in A Blur

It' been a while since my last post and I can't tell you how that happens. The fogs of August were dense around the island and then or now its the end of September and Fall has been ushered in with changing colors, ideas, clothes and the house is being buttoned up for winter. This summer i had a great time dyeing with any and all plant material from the garden or walks along the woods road. I have collected acorns to use as mordants to help the cloth accept the dyes. I finally received my Eco Dyeing by India Flint . Actually it came  a day after I had emptied all my jars due to high wind warnings and I could envison them all crashing to the brick. Sooo  the next day I read that I could have saved all that dye bath and used it with another combination. Who knew. The same with pickle juice and that old batch of beet greens I never got to in the frige. All fuel for eco dyeing. It's quite a mind expander. I have a pile of dyed fabric that includes, avocado skins, hollyhock floweres with and without vinegar, marigolds, dyers cosmos, joe pye weed, crabapple mash after the jam was made same with elderberries. I am letting the Pileated woodpecker have the black chokecherries he gets so excited and jabbers non stop in the tree.

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This past Friday some friends and I went to Common Ground Fair in Unity. A long drive but was well worth it once we arrived and took the haywagon pulled by a tractor down to the Pine entrance to the fair. we headed for the food as breakfast seemed ages ago. Found the wood cooked pizza and ordered a pesto pizza which was very tasty, next stop the felting demo and then a walk through Folk Art tent 1 and 2. Saw  a rug hooker and a rug braider as well as a man using cattail to weave a rush seat. Since i have a seat that needs a new one I stopped to speak to him. It's too late this year but next year if I have not gotten the seat woven will cut cattail in july and august to dry and try my hand. Then we went to the fleece tent and spent a long while making up our minds which fleece a. we could afford and B. which would spin up beautifully and or overdye since we were looking at a silver gray/charcoal  fleece that had absolutely no vegetation in the whole bag of fleece. This was a fleece from the Millers of Rivercroft Farm in Starks. We pooled our funds to purchase this gorgeous fleece. I have already washed one pound to see how it would come out and its as beautiful as I thought it would be.

 Off to the tent with the Wednesday Spinners from down east. I saw a wonderful patterned hat with different colored traingles knit by Geri Valentine. Well I knew a Geri she was the first woman shearer I had even seen many mnay years ago and went to find her. As friendly as I had remembered and she said Donna Kausen is here too and off we went to see Donna. It was like old home week. I used to buy the wool  clip from Nash and Flat Island years ago and Donna and Brad would either drive to my house and unload 100's of pounds of wool or I'd meet them in a parking lot in Augusta. Those were the days in some ways, wonderful fleeces, all sold by the time i'd pick them up from the kausens, they were premium spinning fleece when not all farmers thought to raise spinning fleece. We were lucky spinners then. The prices were good and the wool clean as island fleece often is. I have been revisiting my fiber roots and liking what I see and especially the way of life that brings spinning, wool, mohair and other exotic fiber and people together.  The ability to share ideas, indigo seeds, how to's and friendship all seem to be a natural component in fiber people. Donna showed us how whe wove a liitle pouch on a cardboard loom. I had been experimenting with  tapestry on tiny cardboard looms and had enticed some of the students in rug hooking to try it to sample colors and ideas. And here was a different idea using that same old piece of cardboard. From there we went to the MOFGA store for Fran and Diane to purchase t shits and a sweatshirt. I sat on a bench and did some sketching. We also visited the exhibition hall to see the silk display, the worms were huge and doing a wand like dance. I could not figure out what they ate though. I did not see any leaves. They were in all stages of growth. Facinating. Then the different silks from cultivated or wild grown. Degummed and not, and finished products too was a good introduction to the whole sericulture of silk.

We saw a woman with shiny roving and had to ask where she purchased it. Found out it was Friends Folly Farm and they were near the animals. Again off on a search.

Here's Fran checking out fiber as we look for the roving

 Here is the color I chose Northern Lights and it is spinning up wonderfully!!

 more sights, a wagon ride

Stopping for the parade

and last stilts

Quite amazing!  

Now its time to gte back to spinning I have a lot of wool socks to knit.

The Rug Hookers' Class

Today was the last class before I leave for Ireland next Monday night. I thought I'd show what everyone is working on. The class is an open one where everyone chooses what they want to work on.

Susan's House

Charlotte's House

Catherine's Carpet Bag

Diane's Carpet bag  ready to sew together

and one more image Christine's Valentine Since she was not at class today, no image of her rug. 

 

Made with cotton and vintage Kimono fabric and Sashiko stitches.

Thanks for stopping by. I am packing my canvasses and oils for the big trip to Moyard near Clifden and I hear the weather is fierce and I was warned to be prepared. So back in go the wool mittens and hat along with wool scarf and maybe there will be room for my warm shawl. I am sewing together a sweater tonight or at least that is my hope and goal. I leave on the 1st of March and will be gone until the 24th not clear if I will have the internet near by to post on line or not. But lots of paintings to show when I get back. I have a room inside that I will use as a studio so all who ordered postcards from Ireland rest assured whatever the weather I have a studio to paint in. 

A New Year

Here on the island the day is bright, full of sunshine and bitter cold. I began the new year with 8 days of silence and solitude. The retreat was so wonderful that I hated to end it. I was able to slow way down, take or make time for meditation, daily walks in the woods, beautiful salads, steamy soups, journal writings. But what surprised me the most were the dreams. They came tumbling on top of each other making an epic dream by the end of the retreat. And because they were so "real" they appeapred to go on whether I was asleep or awake. I remembered most and was able to jote down notes on others. I had chosen the word attention for this year but along came a second word integration both showing up in dreams and Tarot readings. Was a bit unnerving on some levels....

I thought this 8 day retreat was going to be full with paint and visual images. That did not happen but in fact the path was made for me to follow that ended there later. By the end of the retreat I was looking over some bits and pieces of fabric, looking on line and stumbling into the slow cloth movement. From that point I went through all my trunks of fabric and unfinished objects and began a journey with small Valentines...

This one is made from vintage chenelle pieces, and cotton sewn onto flannel,

with some Sashiko stitches and a Valentine made with continuous beading.

 

This small quilt has a fabric image , vintage whose leaves reminded me of Valentines. The leaves are placed on top of a tea bag and then becomes a part of the quilt.

My plan is to post more often in this new year and integrate more of what it is I do, whether in paint, wax, or fabric.  Diane