Heartful and Handful Day 6 October 25,2013

I am eternally grateful for the lakeshore. Each day the pristine sand reveals the motions of the waves in patterns.  One such pattern is that of an electrocardiogram reading all the way down the beach.

I am grateful for the relationship I share with my two sisters.  Recently texting with them has become a favorite way of sharing photos and such.

I am grateful for the birds who have been visiting our suet feeder delighting us with their antics.  (pileated woodpeckers, chickadees, and red breasted nuthatches)


Visual 1 wave design on sand bar

Visual 2 Jack frost leaf on beach

A newcomer to felting:

Today I felted a wee bit for ten minutes. I just learned a simple felting technique that I enjoy.  It involves stretching the roving and placing down in flat pieces, one color on top of another. Taking one end, I roll all of the pieces into a sausage.  Then I felt the "sausage."  After that, I use scissors to "slice" the sausage.  I get wonderful concentric colors to use as embellishments in my hooking. I learned this technique in a mini class with Marlene Colgrove at the Sauder Village rug show last summer.

Here are  the felted pieces in a pillow that I am currently hooking.  I  fitted them in amidst the actual hooking with a no. 6 cut of melton wool.  It is a Xmas tree and the felted pieces add interest.  I used Wanda's technique of using clear silicone glue (to attach a backing to christmas ornaments) to glue the felted pieces in their place.  I think I may go back and tack them in as well.

Heartful and Handful Day 5, October 24, 2013

I am grateful for the quality of health care in our community.  Preventive care is  stressed and accessing it is relatively easy.  Reg and I went for flu and shingles vaccines at the local pharmacy and thought it was rare to actually know the pharmacist administering the vaccines.

I am grateful for the sound and warmth of a wood fire in the fireplace on a snow laced day.

I am grateful to be learning about color.  It enhances my world.

Visuals that inspire me today are from the  Washington Craft Show (https://www.facebook.com/washingtoncraftshow)

Visual 1 Debo Groover

Visual 2 Susan Levy-Goerlich

Visual 3  Natalia Margulis, Fiber Art

Idea from Wanda's video on using silicone to attach backing to Christmas ornaments. 

Today I worked on using a tube of clear silicon to attach felted stylized ornaments to a green tree that I am hooking.  The felted ornaments are tucked in within the rug hooking.  It worked well and it is going to be drying over night.

Heartful and Handful Day 4. October 23, 2013

I am grateful for the sound of the apples crunching as Reg peels and slices them in the early morning for a pie.

I am also grateful that Reg enjoys cooking and baking in the morning and cutting up trees for firewood in the afternoon.

I am grateful for change in the apparent path of the sun, so noticeable at this time of the year when the leaves are gone from the trees.  It means a different perspective for watching sun rays filtering into the rooms of our home.


Visual # 1  Franklin Carmichael GROUP OF SEVEN   "Light and Shadow"
Visual 2  Lawren Harris,  GROUP  OF SEVEN  -"Beaver Swamp"

The play of light and shadows in these paintings inspire me to experiment with shadow in my own work.

BIRCH BARK HOOKING FAILURE:

Today I experimented with hooking with birch bark.  I gather birch bark in the spring at solstice time.  

Birch bark is laminated,  I split the laminations, heated them to make it more pliable, cut them with my cutter and tried to hook a 1 inch square.  It did not work because the bark would split.  THis may mean that I had overheated the birch thus making it brittle.  I shall try at a later time with less heat.  I will also rub the cut piece with mink oil that will soften the bark.  I will also use thicker material.

Heartful and Handful Day 3 October 22

I am grateful for the gusting NW wind  over Lake Superior that creates blustery days in which to relish the indoors and the chocolate lab who sits and leans on me as I hook.  I am grateful for being able to access the internet to pay bills, to shop, and to research what I need to know.  This is an unexpected luxury up here in the Northwoods of the Upper Peninsula.

Two visuals/audio  that inspire me:

Linda Thompson's new album is not part of the mainstream music, but it is wonderful.  It could have been written 100 years ago.
http://tiny.cc/z0ue

http://www.npr.org/2013/10/22/239679749/its-a-family-affair-on-linda-thompsons-wont-be-long-now

 2nd visual: I try to ponder about colors often during the day.

My creative experience today was placing all of my left over wool worms in  one large plastic container.  Before visiting Wanda's class in Manistee last year, I stored my left over worms separated in plastic baggies.  I never used them!  A problem.  So today I sent a bit of time throwing all of them together.  I was able to see the color so much better and the ideas began to flow about how to use them This is a real boost to creative synapses firing!

Heartful and Handful Day 2 October 21

• I loved going to the rug hooking group today seeing the different works in progress, hearing the hearty laughter, and feeling the warmth of friends.
• I love curling up on the couch with the soft throw that my sister knitted for me.
• I love hearing the rhythmic quiet breaths coming from Reg sleeping next to me.

Two visuals that inspire me:

I want to hook a rendition of this painting of a fisherman.  It reminds me of my husband on a trout stream in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

I love the simplicity of this owl family.  It would be fun to figure out the grey scale values of this and perhaps hook it some day.

Creative effort:

I organized a corner of my rug wool.  I am only beginning to develop  a worthy stash and am organizing it by color and value.  I am recycling old bookcases to do this.

Heartful and Handful Day I October 20, 2013

• I love to walk an abandoned beach, leaving footprints and gathering beach treasures (loon feathers, pebbles, beach glass, and grasses.)
  
• I love to watch Reg as he gathers fall mushrooms, dry them in a dehydrator, and pack them in glass canning jars for the winter.
• I
  love petting our chocolate lab, Sophia, especially since we lost her father, Fudge 4 weeks ago.
  Fudge
  
  
  
  
  Two visuals that inspire me:
  
  

Kate Themel: Moonlight

Marlene Colgrove

I made chicken soup today on the first blustery day of the fall.