2500 miles, 15 days, & a multi-million trees

In Praise of Trees

George & I got back a few days ago from the journey that took us as far as San Louis Obispo [Louis, became a young bishop, died at the age of 24, & was later sainted].

We stayed with friends, relatives, & a few motels. It was a trip like lovely beads -- jewels of experience-- on the necklace of road travel.

It's the trees that really caught my attention for two reasons: since the leafing out is immanent the silhouettes are sublime to my eye. Also the early flowers that come before leaves give some trees a subtle tinge & a sense of density that they don't have in winter.

I want to share my best trees! I decided I wouldn't interrupt the looking with the naming of known trees. These first 3 are from Washington State.

.... on into Oregon....

California next...

& still in California....

....and on the way back home....

And finally, a glass of wine & delicious meal at the Oyster Creek Inn in Bellingham.

Thanks to Sabina for her giving me courage to do drive-by-shooting with my camera. Many of these were cropped to remove car blurs or windshield reflections.

                                                                That's it for now.

Textile work -- 2 Months of Work & 4 Quilts Later

I went to Vermont on January 3, which feels now like a long time ago. In the time since I got back I worked on 4 different pieces. Vancouver, though very different from Vermont has lots of winter grays, whites, & blues which is what completely captivated me & carried forward the impulse.

This quartet of work is really a symphony rather than work in a theme & variations. I focused on color range. The variation was not about form, line, or shape.

I'll give you, to start with some of the instigations.

The orange that came to me was a bit too strong.Work wall progress. 

Then....

This fabric was in a front panel of a dress that I wore in 1958, June, to my brother's wedding. The dress was bought at the Window Shop in Cambridge, near the Brattle Theatre & Design Research. All three of these places were in the center of my Cambridge Joy!

This combination was an accidental discovery alone the journey of the 4 pieces. The two clothes went together so well. This was the first one. The orange patches were too prominent at the start so I wound up splitting a few to 'calm' them down.

This was before quilting. I am now working on making the quilting on this piece more dense. It was too poofy. Lower right is quite dense, upper left, poofier.

I had some wonderful graduated dye gradation.  Here are two steps along the way.

Then I did a scrap quilt....

And finally, the backs. In order....

You can see where the denser quilting has been done.

And finally the quilt that came from the coincidence of cloths. For me the fronts and backs are both important.

This has been a great journey.  And now I am wandering off in new directions.

I have no idea how this next endeavor will go, if anywhere.

That's all for now.