My friend Ruthie Inman is always teaching me new things! This week, we are making a new journal cover.
For our Zoom Art group this week, she asked us to pull together some muslin fabric, tissue papers or napkins, and some watered down glue.
So friends in Scotland, Illinois and Portland did just that. And the project, at least this part, was just as easy as it could be. We slathered the thin glue mixture onto the fabric, tore the tissue paper into pieces, and stuck them down.
I started with bright colors from napkins, and then softened them with the white layers.
We kept gluing until we had about four layers, pausing to let it dry a bit in between layers so the whole gooey thing didn’t disintegrate under our brush.
I finished my piece with some old wrapping tissue flowers and a butterfly from a napkin, and left it to dry.
And to make sure it didn’t stick to the mat and dried completely by tomorrow, I carefully peeled the fabric and paper layers off the mat and laid them on a cooling rack.
We’ll see what happens when we all Zoom Art together on Thursday!
You know I love our local Pioneer Cemetery, Lone Fir. It has been used for over 150 years and always brings me peace and perspective.
In the spring, it is full of dandelions and dogwood blossoms, birdsong and baby squirrels.
The very, very dead folks seem to balance out the newness of spring, reminding us that all this newness comes and goes quickly. “Enjoy the beauty!” They whisper. “It’s gone in a blink!”
This year is shaping up to be one of many adventures. Camping with SOAK, art boothing with Auntie Bridgett, and maybe even a visit to you. It’s good to know I can carry the perspective of Lone Fir with me.
Auntie Katie and Cousins Jasper and Kestrel have invited me to be part of their camping group at SOAK this year!
SOAK is the regional version of Burning Man, with lots of folks camping out, making art and music, and having fun together. SOAK is closer to Portland than the ‘real’ Burning Man, being just 93 miles away, and shorter, (four days) and in a more human-friendly area ( a grassy campground instead of a dusty desert). I think it is going to be a fun Adventure.
I haven’t been camping for a long time (here is a picture of your great grandma Billie and me about 56 years ago at Coyote Creek), so I will need to pick up a small tent, cot, and sleeping bag. But I’m sure there are folks out there to borrow from, so I won’t run out and buy those just yet.
Sunday, I went shopping for materials for my “festival” outfit. Since the theme of SOAK this year is “Electric Ocean”, I will try and make a jellyfish-like thing, with dangling lights and lacy bits. The first thing I needed was a hat from which to dangle the bits.
I walked down to Hawthorne Street, where there are lots of used and vintage clothing- type shops.
2nd Street was clean, bright and well organized. Most of their clothes were very current, with lots of jackets and high end atheletic shoes. Good stuff, and a nice staff, but not what I needed.
Crossover, just across the street, was also very current, with nice clothes and about three dozen ball caps, but not what I needed. The lady at the register told me that this store is part of a national corporation, which surprised me. Has clothing become so pricey that used clothes are a paying business?
I made my way a few blocks down to House of Vintage, an old favorite. This store is huge, with lots of corners and nooks and shelves to hunt in. Besides clothing, it carries kitchen knickknacks, fabrics and laces, records and books.
And it was in the middle of all the clutter that I found my hat!
It is a vintage straw hat made by “Billie” Ross of the Palm Beaches, and feels sturdy enough to hold all the lights, ribbons, and doodads I plan on attaching to it.
Now comes the collecting, sorting, and attaching of all the floaty, sparkly, electric bits. I’ll keep you posted. Wish me luck!
Well, the Crazy quilt is all done, washed, and ready to be used.
Of course, it couldn’t get finished simply or easily; it had to make me a little crazy first. You know how it is when your Mom tries to cut your bangs and she cuts one part too short, and then has to cut the rest to match? There was some of that.
I had planned on a wide plum-colored edge to frame the quilt top, but I cut too much off one side, had to cut the others to match, and got a really narrow frame instead. It was accidentally perfect, and I love it!
I sewed the finishing seam in the machine, careful to keep the edges smooth and even. To finish it off, I gave it a gentle wash in the bathtub and then a tumble dry.
It developed that lovely quilty crinkle that I love so much.
I am very happy to have made a pretty, useful thing. It is also a memory quilt, because it has fabrics from Auntie Katie, Auntie Bridgett, my friend Charlotte, and projects I made for lots of other folks. It even has some embroidery by Kestrel and Katie.
Along with the Crazy Quilt, I have been working on a new Adventure Grandma Story. It’s going to be bigger, better, and more complicated than the first one.
The first story was just you (Liza) and me (Grandma Judy) on a cycling trip around Denmark. We found Viking history, bog men, and learned a little about what we were made of. I enjoyed writing it and, even more, listening to you read it!
This one has an expanded cast of you, me, Cousin Kestrel and Auntie Katie, and a supporting cast of your Daddy David, Cousin Jasper, Momma Olga, and Grandpa Nelson. We are all involved in a Scavenger Hunt Quest to learn about the Vikings and their place in Danish History.
I have been having great fun doing research for the story…. Where did the Vikings go? How did they get there? How should WE get there? What sort of games can we play? I’m learning about train lines, ferry schedules, and ancient burial mounds.
Since this story covers more ground, it will take longer to write and probably won’t be done by our next visit. But be assured that I am pushing it forward everyday.
We are expecting our lovely Easter weather to turn to rain overnight, so I headed out to the garden plot to do some spring cleaning.
The camellia tree next door always blooms like a lunatic and drops hundreds of blossoms on my plot! I don’t mind much, because nothing is growing yet. But they need to get picked up or they get slimy and invite the slugs in.
Two years ago, you were here and helped out!
But rather than get melancholy about you being far away, I went to work and got the plot cleaned up.
Back home just in time for lunch, Auntie Bridgett suggested a picnic (two picnics in two days!! I am so spoiled!!)
We packed some leftovers from Easter, found a table by the dog park, and enjoyed just BEING. Smelling the blossoms, hearing the people, watching the dogs, tasting the blueberries.
We walked around the park and talked to all the new trees, giving them encouragement and welcoming them to the neighborhood. And anll the way home, the azaleas are beginning to bloom.
We had fun on Easter, but not much of it shows in pictures. I’ll show what I have and tell the rest.
Easter Day was sunny and warm (almost too warm, for some), and we got everything packed into the wagon and headed for Laurelhurst Park.
We found a table in the sun just above Firwood Lake. Someone had recently drawn a cute cartoon of a bunny jumping over an egg, with the words “In the name of the moon”. Very nice.
We enjoyed the sunshine and people watching until everyone else showed up.
Then the food came out, and we all had good bread Katie brought from Grand Central Bakery, turkey, cheeses, fruits, veggies and cookies.
We met some nice folks who name the ducks at the park, just like we name the trees! We may all get together and make a map of the park with all our silly information….wouldn’t that be fun?
As we were walking home, Jasper and Kestrel taught all the adults about a new kind of music, called “Vocaloid”. It is made with synthetically generated voices and sounds, mostly, like a video game. But I am always happy to learn something new, so we listened and chatted while I worked on the CrazyQuilt.
Having clever grandkids is like having clever kids! Always keeping me on my toes.
Grandpa Nelson, Auntie Bridgett and I have an Easter picnic planned at Laurelhurst Park with Auntie Katie, Cousins Jasper and Kestrel, and Katie’s pal Douglas. We are providing most of the food, so there was a lot to do!
First, of course, was cookies. Donna Spicer’s sugar cookies always turn out delicious, so I made a double batch.
As you can see, I have included the “traditional” Easter dinosaur. (Maybe it is traditional somewhere…)
Once the cookies were baked and cooled, I iced them with plain white frosting and painted them with food coloring.
The colors are sort of Easter-ish, even if there are no bunny cookies. Cats, yes, and flowers, and a happy face.
But you can’t have a picnic of just cookies, so we made some deviled eggs.
We sliced the eggs a little differently, mixed the yolks with spices and mayonnaise, and filled the eggs back up.
Then Auntie Bridgett put on the tops and gave them little eyes made of peppercorns. Little chicks hatching from their shells! Aren’t they cute?
So now, the night before Easter, I feel ready for the picnic. We have cookies, deviled eggs, fruits, veggies, meat and spreads, pickles and other goodies. Auntie Katie will bring lots of bread, and we’ll be fed!
So now I can watch Yul Brynner give in to Charleton Heston in “The Ten Commandments” and head off to bed.
We got lucky for the last few days, as the clouds scooted east and the sun came out for the Easter weekend.
Cynthia drove us up to the Portland Japanese Garden in Washington Park. The cherry blossoms, these lovely dangling pink flowers, and a few brave camellias were blooming, but most of the flowers were still napping.
Fortunately, this is a garden that doesn’t depend on blooms for its beauty. Trees, bridges, and even the paths are so strong and peaceful, just sitting there.
The stream flowing through the garden, under a variety of bridges and koi ponds, lets everything be quiet but alive, as well.
. And the view of downtown and Mount Hood from the Pavilion Garden was striking.
It seems weird to say, but most of the Crazy Quilt isn’t about the quilting. I’ve been at it since October and am just NOW doing the quilting.
The piecing and embroidering have taken a long time. The quilting, the step that holds the top, middle and backing together, the part that makes it a QUILT, goes the fastest. And it’s exhausting!
First, the quilt is heavy, and moving it around is a challenge. It is big, at five by seven feet, and the edges are bulky and floppy. Our living room is too small for a free-standing quilting frame, so I needed to find another way.
I tried working in my lap, but got a neck sprain. Using the biggest hand-held quilting hoop kept the quilt stretched, but was still unwieldy.
While watching Katharine Hepburn’s Eleanor of Aquitaine do needlework in “Lion in Winter”, I saw the answer. I needed something to support the heavy quilt at a good angle to work on, while keeping it stretched.
Turns out, two kitchen chairs work just fine! I sit on one, lean towards the other one, and can work for quite a while before I get worn out.
If I can work a little everyday, I should have the whole thing quilted and edged before Cousin Kestrel’s school year is over. I promised her she could take it to her Textiles Class for show and tell.
Dear Liza 