This & that..........

 I've been doing more ice-dyeing...….it's stacking up waiting for me to do the photography work. I also bought some socks from Dharma to ice-dye. Here are two pair above the ice-dyed rayon/silk devore scarves. They take the dye so well - I love them.  Today I have a batch of 8 pair of socks ice-dyeing along with cotton fabric underneath them to be dyed for whatever projects may come along, mostly probably quilting projects.

 It's that time of year again to make gift bags.  I leave them out on my table to work on here and there when I have a bit of spare time.  I generally take my own bags when grocery shopping but occasionally I open the back of the car and there aren't any in there......so I save the bags to recycle. I wonder if Trader Joe's ever thought this would happen to their bags when they printed 'reusable recyclable' on them.

 Here's one of the finished bags, this is the larger size.  Yes, they aren't beautiful holiday gift bags but I like them. I do still have to hit up the Dollar Store every once in a while when I run out of my homemade bags.

Here are the cows this morning, from left to right - Gwinevere, Stan, Ollie and Moo Latte.  They are not actually staring at me, they're staring at the guy on the roof trying to pull the chimney stack out. Today the new gas fireplace install is happening although we're in a holding pattern waiting for the gas company to arrive to shut off the gas as these guys aren't allowed to touch the main shut off and we don't have a secondary one outside.  Back to the cows. It looks like the piece of property behind us has sold and there will be houses built - it's going to be a sad day when I no longer get to see and talk to the cow gang...…….and I instead hear construction work going on and have houses behind us.

What the ??? I don't use profanity but you know what I mean......

This is how I'm feeling this morning.  105 degree temp yesterday and the A/C went out early evening, temp today predicted to be 103. This house gets no shade so it heats up. The A/C went out within the first month after we bought this house last summer but we had a one year home warranty compliments of our realtor so it was fixed - dual compacitor needed to be replaced.....that happened when the temps were well over 100 also.  Well here we go again. We did have the option to pay for another year of the home warranty so we did since the A/C and furnace are original to the house. Right now we're waiting for a call back to schedule a repairman. It would be great if it was the entire unit that needed replacing rather than just one more part. 

On the computer/lost data front - we did have a ghost image of my old computer in the safe deposit box from August 2017.  So, I have everything up until that date, I think...... The hard drive is still being analyzed to see if we can recover everything which would include the past two years.  Yep, going to have back up drives to my back up drives in the future......since the back up external hard drive failed in addition to the one in the computer. When did life get so complicated???

This is a picture I took recently when we took family to Wildlife Safari. This guy was just inches from my camera. 

Paradise lost.......

I got an email from my local ASG (American Sewing Guild) about making quilt blocks for quilters who lost homes in Paradise, CA (just down I5 from us here in Southern Oregon) in the raging fire late last year. It's being coordinated by a quilt shop that I understand was in Paradise but is now in a different town. There was a pattern included although one could make up their own house block designs as long as they were a 10 1/2" square. We were to write somewhere on them with fabric ink inspiration, our names and town. Here's what I came up with using fabrics from my stash - 4 blocks. Now I need to get my blocks to someone so they can be mailed with all the others from our area.

I was wondering why all of a sudden the birdseed in the round feeder was disappearing quickly. A squirrel has found us - I hadn't seen any in the yard until this last week. Bailey hates squirrels so this new development should be interesting once he figures out those squirrels he thought he left at the other house have sent their relatives here.

He got tired of me watching him so turned his back on me. He better watch that tail because this feeder is low enough that Bailey could reach it.

Tweet......

 My feeders pull in lots of little birds like chickadees, pine siskins, finches and the occasional big stellar jay, but the other day I saw a bird I didn't know on the suet feeder. I asked my friend and big time birder Yvonne what it was as looking through the bird book is overwhelming to me and even then I'm most often wrong.

It's a starling. I see starlings in flight but have never seen one close up, I didn't realize all the colors and spots in their feathers.  I am loving having feeders at this house - at our previous house the bear could get the feeders no matter how high we hung them on cables between trees.

MIA

Yes, missing in action once again - sometimes there is just too much going on in my life and sometimes, like now, it's nothing I think would be of interest of anyone out there. Hopefully life will get back to normal in the not too distant future and I will have more creative 'stuff' to share.

I have been doing some sewing but it's for gift giving so I can't show it until after the holidays.

This morning we had freezing fog. I forgot to bring the hummingbird feeder in overnight but it wasn't frozen solid so the pair that visit were able to drink from it.

We have hummingbirds that stay here all year long which means I need to get back into the habit of bringing the feeder in at night so it's not frozen come morning.

It's hard to see in this photo but this hummie's beak is open - guess it's smacking it's lips and saying "yum, good sugar water"

And here just two hours later the sun has broken through and the feeder has thawed. These pix were taken through the window (with screen) right by my computer.

There must be mice around here...........

There must be mice around here because the owls are showing up again........this time in browns and rusts. Someone saw the other owl towels and wanted some in browns/rusts - I hope she likes them because they're stinkin' cute.

Hoot - Hoot

 A friend requested a couple towels with blues and ended up picking this cute owl embroidery pattern. The borders on the towel look black in the photo but they're not - they're blue. My cell phone can sometimes be challenging color wise and I was too lazy to run up the stairs to get the camera.

Here's a close up of the owl - it is so danged cute. I may eventually stitch some of these for my etsy shop but right now I don't have time.

This and that.......

Still not accomplishing much but that's ok - it's my life, I can do what I want..........most of the time.  Friday morning I drove 5 miles up the road to the Hugo Ladies Quilt Show - always a fun event with quilts on display inside the historic one room schoolhouse, lunch including home made pie for sale, vendors and music outside.  It was too hard to get photos of many quilts this year so I only took a few pix.

I love this quilt pattern and the colors. I'm impressed with the curves and points in it - construction was incredible.

This was one of the quilts by the featured quilter - she had many quilts I loved but this old fashion one with the applique really struck me.

And although not my favorite colors put together I always love a good hexie quilt.

After some time in the morning at the quilt show we took off for the coast for 4 days - the weather was glorious. These are raccoon prints on the beach - wondering if they're just out enjoying the surf & sand or maybe eating some of those crabs washed ashore.

Yesterday I did finish knitting the shawl I recently started on - if I'm feeling up to dealing with it today I'll get it blocked. Maybe I'll get some sewing in today. Pix to come when it's camera ready. Tempting to start another shawl or play on the blending board but first need to work on some gifts.

Once again more tragedy in the news - the devastating fires in California - my heart goes out to all affected and I'm sending positive thoughts that the firefighters get them under control soon.

Birds drunk on basil seeds

 Sunday late afternoon and evening I noticed lots of little finches (I think they're finches) on my almost spent basil plants on the deck. I was able to grab a few pix through the window. They were out there munching away on basil seeds since I had let the plants go after making the last batches of pesto.

I would have never guessed they would have loved the basil seeds so much - I'll remember this next year.

We spent some days on the coast to relax and I taught a beginning drop spindle class on Saturday. Very nice group of gals - hope they went home to keep practicing and keep up with spinning. Not a craft learned in just a couple hours, takes much practice. I taught the class at The Wool Co in Bandon, OR. If you're ever on the Oregon coast stop in and say hi to Kelly.......and buy some knitting, spinning or felting supplies, we need to support the small local shops.

Getting a bit panicked about holiday gifts - need to sit down and make a list today of what I still need to create. I have a plan for our holiday cards but haven't put that warp on the AVL yet, so there's a plan but I have no clue how it will turn out so I need to get to this project soon. Today is prep work for a future day of gift making with a friend - can't say what kind of gifts, they're a secret.

If I can get to reading over the voter's pamphlet I'll also vote today - we've voted by mail here in Oregon for years - I love it. Easy choice for president.........hard to understand all the county and state measures and know close to nothing about many of the county and state officials that are running. Need to reread all info, once again, with hopes that I can figure some of this stuff out. And what's with many local positions that have only one person running, or a few with no one listed on the ballot at all - I'm thinking that's where I write in Bailey's name............I've done it before but never saw him on the news or in the newspaper as having received votes after the election is over...........

New fawn

New baby just outside Bailey's fence this morning. Bailey was barking and barking, never stopping so I finally went out to see why he was being so mouthy.  Well, he was practically nose to nose through the fence with this new fawn - just 2 feet between them. The fawn is so new it could barely stand. It wasn't afraid of Bailey at all, maybe it thinks Bailey is it's Momma. It wasn't afraid of me talking to it. Sam ran to get the camera so we could get a picture of them practically nose to nose but Bailey had come to the deck stairs with me by that time so photo op missed. I snapped this quick pic and we've now left the fawn alone hoping it stays put and Momma comes back soon. It would have been so easy to have gone and hugged it up, I know it wouldn't have run off...........but that would have been the wrong thing to do so I kept my distance having faith Momma will be back soon.

A bit of this, a bit of that........

....to start the new year. We decided to head to the coast after Christmas for a week. We walked the beach each day looking for treasures, Sam painted, I wove, knit, finished listening to an audio book and read......I've had it with painting at the moment.

I finally finished up the cottolin towel warp that was on the loom over there - brought this stack home, have washed them, they're now waiting to be hemmed and photographed for the etsy shop.

In my continuing effort to blow through my cottolin stash I put this towel warp on. I don't know if anyone will like pastel towels but they're really pretty, I might even keep 1 or 2. It's getting tough mixing colors from what cottolin I have left but I'm always up for a challenge.

Here's the first of the towels - I'm guessing I'll get 4 of them in this plaid design, the rest will have solid color wefts using up spools of the colors I've got.

In my effort this year to be ahead when the holidays come at the end of the year I'm starting to work on gifts - ask me again in a couple months how this plan is working out. Here's a knitted shawlette in the works. It's a very fun pattern to knit, soon I'll be at the stage where I do short rows to shape it. Not liking these Lantern Moon circular needles - they're beautiful, feel great in my hands but, and this is a big but, the join to the cable is horrible, not smooth at all so I'm fighting with them as I knit. I think I've got another size 5 circular in my stash so I'll be looking for it this evening.

We had to take a different, way too long, route to the coast due to a huge landslide. The upside to it was seeing different scenery including at least 60 elk and hundreds of geese at an elk viewing area. Unfortunately on the way over we didn't stop for pix when they were all standing majestically for photo ops, today they were all laying down. I'm still trying to figure out how they know to congregate in the area where the viewing stations have been built.........

That dreaded job.......

Oh, that dreaded job - photography. I forced myself to do a bit today - it's such a challenge for me, I'm really not very good at it.  But photos of 3 shawls are finished up and they're now listed in my etsy shop.

Sage Green rayon and cotton shawl with silk ribbon embellishment

Sage Green Lace Rayon shawl - this one is a bit lighter in weight than the one above that has a cotton weft

This is the charcoal grey alpaca shawl - oh my gosh, is this ever the softest thing I've put around my shoulders. There is no way to capture how lovely it is in photos, especially since it's so dark. There's an all black one to come, it's still drying and will then need the fringe twisted.

Look who showed up out the kitchen window this morning - momma wasn't far away

Dyeing.........

I decided to do a little dyeing. here's where I've got some ice dyeing going - there are silk scarves (first soaked in soda ash) hidden under those piles of ice, then fiber reactive dye powder sprinkled over top the ice, then they sit there overnight to batch. I bought some frames at the Salvation Army, took the glass out and had Sam staple some leftover screen from another project in them.

 I love the designs created with the dye as the ice melts

 Look at these squiggly designs

 

 Here are the 4 scarves rinsed out this morning hanging to dry - they take no time to rinse and dry

 Here's a close up - I find the designs created with the ice dyeing fascinating

 And here they are dried and ironed

And here are the silk/rayon devore shawls I dyed yesterday - these took forever to rinse the leftover/excess dye out of.

 This little lizard came to watch me today - good thing he was up on the fence rail out of Bailey's range who loves to chase the lizards - never caught one but it's a great activity.

 And this dragonfly kept lighting on my drying rack and let me get really close

Here's a beauty head shot. This one had a buddy that looked to be blue and grey but it would never stop so I could get a picture of it.

I've got some more scarves sitting under the ice and dye - the great reveal tomorrow after they're washed out. After that I've got 12 more scarves to ice dye but alas I've only got 4 frames at the moment so it will take a few days to finish up.

Majestic buck

There are 4 huge bucks that hang right outside the kitchen window - by the time I got the camera this morning they had moved up on the hill maybe 30 feet away. By the looks of the lawn they're sleeping there overnight...I'm sure it's much more comfy than this brown crackly stuff on the rest of our acreage.

Look at the rack on this guy - how beautiful.  The other 3 have racks just as impressive. I think he's been sharpening his. This afternoon as I was filling up the hummingbird feeder I was hearing footfall down the ravine on the side of the house, then clanking - no one should be down there so I was getting a bit worried about what it was.....then it dawned on me - it was the antlers clanking against each other as the bucks were facing off. I was only able to catch a bit of the battle as they got closer to the house without disturbing them - not close enough for photos.

More name drafting

Today I wound a warp in a very pale steel gray 10/2 perle cotton and threaded the heddles to a name draft I had designed the other day for 'I Love Weaving'. I think it turned out pretty nice. It's woven in overshot, the pattern weft is a very dark teal/navy in 5/2 perle cotton

Here's a shot of the underside - I might like it even more than the top.

When I went to unload the dishwasher this little doe was watching me through the kitchen window. She posed for many pictures before sauntering off.

 Here's a close-up - her ear turned at that moment, maybe listening for her friends who earlier in the day were all laying amongst logs from dead trees Sam and neighbor Merle took down on Wednesday.

As I mentioned earlier this morning we're under a red flag warning for forest fires due to the dry conditions and wind. Wouldn't you know it when Bailey and I went out for a walk someone was burning nearby - so stupid. Fires are burning to the east of us, maybe an hour east......and in numerous other areas of the state. What a crazy winter - no rain in Oregon, unheard of............