A really interesting artist, I saw his portfolio on Behance. Alberto Seveso…..doesn’t it look like the most luscious silk?

From Bill Moyers comes a really interesting graphic on social media as our main source of news.

From Cool Hunting comes TED-ED – what looks to be some REALLY great lesson plans and ideas for teachers to really expand what’s happening in the classroom.

From Joen Wolfrom – the most used colors in the world – Tones.

From Letters of Note comes a very timely letter from one of my favorite authors,  John Steinbeck. Very interesting in light of what is happening in current affairs in Arizona. “American Democracy Will Have Disappeared.”

Also from Letters of Note, the incomparable Harper Lee, with words that ring true today:

“Early-1966, believing its contents to be “immoral,” the Hanover County School Board in Virginia decided to remove all copies of Harper Lee‘s classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, from the county’s school libraries. As soon as she was alerted, Lee responded perfectly by way of the following letter, written to, and later published in, The Richmond News Leader.
Also sent, as mentioned in the letter, was a contribution to the Beadle Bumble Fund — a project set up by the newspaper in 1959 to highlight/compensate for “official stupidities,” and which subsequently gave away copies of the banned book to all children who asked.”

From the 365 Project, another set of gorgeous pictures.

End of the Rainbow by Richard Tyson

4 No-Cost Etsy Shop Promotions from Handmade-ology….since I didn’t get much on yesterday’s marketing post.

From Cool Hunting – really cool tables from the Milan Design Show. Love the texture and grain lines in this first one.

And finally, some pictures from a place most of us know nothing about…..except as a country in the news, Iran. These are gorgeous. From The Best Article Every Day…..

Be sure to look at all the pictures – Iran looks to be a very beautiful place.

And that’s it for this week – let me know what you find surfing over the next few days!

From Dumb Little Man comes this post on 14 actions lessons from the inimitable Benjamin Franklin.

The first lesson is less talk, more action…..

And with that, I’m off to a day in the studio. Yes, there’s marketing to do, but I need to create….so many ideas in my head that need to come out!

Go work!!

…but is it? As I was trolling through blogs, I came to this entry from Oceana, Maya Lin’s “What is Missing?” project. All I have to say is wow. Click the link on the blog to go directly to the website, and then be prepared to be stunned, informed, and saddened at what is missing.

I watched in awe as each little dot came together into a story. As you peruse the site, you can click on dots for more information. I ended up with a video on sound overtaking the natural sound of the ocean. You might think it’s not a big deal, but then the statistics point out how the increasing decibels of various activities, like oil drilling, can devastate a sea population.

The site is new and has some glitches in navigation, but the information, science, and artwork seem to be superb.

So, in one respect, it is “just another Sunday,” with species diminishing all the time. And yet, it’s not “just another Sunday,” as life as we know it now is constantly changing and diminishing. This is a site well worth viewing.

Forty years ago I was teaching at Baldwin High School, on the island of Maui. I was adviser to a student group called Pacific and Asian Affairs Council. In September of my second year teaching, two of the students, Claudia and Dawn Otsuka, came to me with an idea….have a day-long celebration devoted to studying peace. We started planning then, and on April 28, 1972, we held World Peace Day. Along the way we raised money through a 9-mile Walk for Peace, lobbied the state legislature to make April 28 an official World Peace Day, convinced the school administration to cancel regular classes in favor of peace activities, and planned a weekend of events for PAAC groups around the state.

It was quite the undertaking, and as the adviser, I learned a lot. In the name of one of the students I wrote to our Congressional representative, Sparky Matsunaga, about coming and being the keynote speaker – and he accepted. I lobbied the mayor’s office to get the parade permit for our Walk for Peace. Students participated in the peace walk in droves, raising $2000 (in 1972 dollars) to support activities. We lined up the mayor, the governor, pro athletes….as I was rereading some of the articles, I am amazed at what the students were able to accomplish.

Two major lessons: students will rise to the expectations set for them. The whole high school participated in activities that Friday, listening to speakers and attending small group activities. The PAAC group handled so many various little details, creating slide shows, hosting students and faculty members in their homes, speaking to groups, preparing materials, providing entertainment. When you have school groups coming from Kauai, Oahu, and the Big Island to Maui for two days, there are a lot of little important details. They spoke to the state legislature, giving them meaningful arguments for a declaration for a World Peace Day.

The other lesson was a surprise to me. In 1972 we were still at war in Vietnam. I fielded phone calls saying what the students were doing was a communist plot. So many negative phone calls about a communist plot in Peace Day. We had no hidden agendas beyond talking about the need for peace. But to many people, peace was perceived as being against the government and against the Vietnam War.

This was the beginning of my understanding just what students could do when motivated by an idea of their own. The involvement of students from the very beginning of an idea (in fact, their idea) led to ownership on their part. In the years since then, I have often asked teacher and administrative groups, as they are sharing something “new” with us, where the “student voice” is. It’s always missing, and I still get looks along the lines of, “Yeah, like the kids will really want to do that.”

But they do, and part of what is wrong with education today is that students are not really involved in major decision-making.

Yet on one sunny Friday and Saturday in April, 40 years ago, a group of high school students made their mark at the state and local level with World Peace Day. The following year, they followed up with an environmental conference held as a student United Nations event. PAAC members, I salute you. You did well.

Linda Lemke Moran, Baldwin High School, 1970 – 1973

Done the old-fashioned way, on a  mimeo…..

Written by a fellow teacher at Baldwin, John Bose, a veteran of Korea.

The fine print gives the text of messages from the Congressional delegation, among others.

And the next year’s event, the Model UN Conference on the Environment:

PS – peace is still ever elusive…..

Lots of ramblings through the mind this week, a good chunk on medical care. Last week I checked into possible vision therapy as a result of losing the vision in my left eye. My insurance would not cover any of it, not even out of network, and the treatment is very expensive. So there is no way I can do this. Now I am already paying a lot of money each month on my COBRA, until Medicare kicks in.

Keep in mind I have always felt like I needed to pay my fair share, and I realize I am lucky to have health insurance. But come on, people, we shouldn’t have to feel lucky. We should be able to access what we need without going broke or going in to bankruptcy….and I know whereof I speak. Every person in this country should have access to affordable health care. I don’t think this necessarily means the government needs to be completely involved, but I think the attitude of “medicine for profit” is hurting the average American.

In line with the previous thought, I am making a effort to try and read more “conservative” blogs to try and widen my views on current issues, as well as be sure what I believe is accurate. This has been a challenge, because I seem to see – and feel – a great deal more vitriol on these blogs. Michelle Malkin’s blog has so much sarcasm that it becomes difficult to plow through to find nuggets. And yes, she seems way more sarcastic than Rachel Maddow, who does have her share of sarcasm, but then there is a footnoted nugget to follow.

Notice I am reading women. I think if I want a truer look at “the war on women,” then I need to read women. This is not a conservative or liberal issue. Women’s rights are being attacked.

Which is just another reason why I get so incredibly depressed, thinking about the amount of evil in the world, and it’s no longer just outside our borders…yes, I have managed to stay pretty darn naive all these years, and this global/national/local evil is coming unrelentingly….

Which is why I lament the lack of good history teaching in the schools, that now brings me to….

…my tutoring session this afternoon, where I am helping a college student prepare for a philosophy test….a class I never had. I spent a lot of time on the internet looking up information to help me understand the topic and then help my student understand what could possibly be asked on a test tomorrow. And all this led to a really interesting hour and a half of philosophical questions on topics in history that would illustrate deontology and consequentialism. From Harry Potter to the movie Black Hawk Down to the killing of Bin Laden – quite an interesting 90 minutes.

To tie this to teaching history in schools, how can we have philosophical discussions and look at morality if we don’t understand our own history, what makes us a country, and how we fit with the rest of the planet? That’s a good philosophical question……

I must say, however, that the philosophy book stinks…..no index, the glossary is worthless, and the table of contents leaves much to be desired. When you are working with a student on study skills, being able to access an index to find information is critical. How can a textbook NOT have an index? This is such a basic skill for any of us wanting to access information from a text and not just the internet. Yes, Google is essentially an index, but its algorithms bring up results based on our previous searches. And let’s face it, not everyone uses the internet, especially if they have spent a LOT of money on a class text. I would think for 80 dollars a book should have an index.

Yeah, the mind is all over the place this week…..who knows where I’ll be next Thursday?

I’ve been sewing a LOT on the commission that needs to be done before I can move on to a couple of other projects. I am finding that setting specific number of times for sewing each day, as well as assigning specific times, is helping me make progress. Hopefully next Wednesday you’ll see the finished commission.

In other work, we’re experimenting with Margot Bianca, a batik artist we met at La Conner. Here’s her Etsy store. We traded a batik for a marbled fabric. Margot will batik on top of cotton that has already been marbled. We are going to marble on top of a piece that is already had wax. Here’s initial results. This first is the original batik and the marbled batik (we just did a small piece). I personally like the effect, and I think we could do some interesting combinations together.

Here’s a close-up of the piece after marbling.

And…since I haven’t been working on Photoshop lately, I just had to play around with a couple of filters – there are a lot of possibilities for art cards…..here’s an inversion.

Here’s a half-tone:

This one is poster edges.

And now for the emboss:

The other batik experiment is with a piece of linen that just has wax on it. I’m still working on ironing out all the wax……For this piece I think the marbling pattern needed to be more complex than just a basic stone, but again, I think there are possibilities.

Now waiting for batting and backing is the very beginning of my “depression” piece….which has a general idea, and it will speak to me as we go along.

This is an unpolished black satin.

Hopefully I will have a bunch o’ stuff next week!

Got caught up on some blogs I do not read regularly, mining them for bits of wisdom. Here’s what I’ve found this week:

From the Blurberati blog, designing e-book covers. Very interesting article about e-books and regular books and their covers. There’s a lot to think about here in terms of presentation and encouragement to buy.

Interesting look at the death of Thomas Kinkade from Fine Art Views blog:

“The death of artist Thomas Kinkade has triggered a ‘barrage of arrows’ from specific circles of the mainstream art world. Notable art critics, ranging from Jerry Saltz  to Paddy Johnson, have taken it upon themselves to offer one last ‘jab’ while, as the saying goes, the corpse is still warm. Their critical hostility, if you will, has revealed a number of contradictions when compared to the usual rhetoric spewed in support of artwork favored by their circles — those ‘power structures’ they adamantly support. In that sense, the passing of Kinkade has offered insight into the mentality of the mainstream art world in general.”

With Dick Clark now gone, it seems a part of my childhood is gone forever. Every afternoon I watched American Bandstand faithfully, read the teen magazines, and wondered at this whole new world out there. These teens were so different from my life, and I so just wanted to dance all the time. Mamacita (Jane Goodwin) has a nice tribute to the man, the icon, and the institution.

In the spirit of trying to change our world and wondering if we ever make a difference comes this amazing story of the savior of 30,000 lives during the Holocaust. Read through and see what we have in descendants of the people saved by Aristides de Sousa Mendes.

And another article for Holocaust Remembrance Day, the life of a 92-year-old who survived the camps and is still a witness. From  the Huff Blog, lest we forget…..

From Generation Q comes “Now Touring: How to Spend Your Summer Vacation.” Loads of quilt museums!!! I’ve been to three of them over the years.

I love flash mobs, and there are some really cool videos on line, but this one is so different……

From Letters of Note comes this letter about the burning of a Maurice Sendak children’s book. “It is Only Adults Who Ever Feel Threatened.”

from Lyric Kinard comes copyright-free images to use in your work. A very handy site….

Here’s a cool tutorial on making bookmarks from See How We Sew, something I intend to do…..after a few other projects…..

Have a great week – let me know what you find on your web surfing excursions!

This is one of those Mondays where you find yourself doing everything on the business but creating. I am slowly making progress in that area, including a new system for scheduling the actual creativity (to a point…) and getting hubby to pick up more of the business loose ends. Making progress…..

From Kate Harper’s blog comes 38 Amazing Apps for Designers: worth taking a look, as there might be something you can definitely use. Web Elements by Visual Lightbox looks intriguing – and might save me some time.

Also from Kate: Free Photoshop Brushes for Designers. Both links take you to the original pages, but it’s great to see all the goodies Kate posts. I’m thinking the Free Floral Brushes from Graphic Design Junction (now I have to figure out how to download…..advice??)

Bamboo Textures in Photoshop – these also look cool….

And….How to be Funny  – excellent article on finding humor anywhere, especially if you are looking to write greeting cards.

Pinterest seems to be the rage, and I have been slowly checking out articles, as I am concerned about copyright. So from SewCAlGal comes Thoughts on Pinterest…..

And…a new spot on line to check out: Tophatter, which is daily online auctions. I “sat in” on one, and it looks like something I want to try…but it’s kind of at the bottom of my list ot to-do’s right now, as there are a couple of commissions that need finishing. Handemadeology put up this buyers’ guide.

The latest I have found was off a link from a graduate student friend who found Pomodoro, which is a new organizing system (new to me, at least). I’m trying it this afternoon, and I’m pleased to report I am getting a lot down for these few hours. I downloaded a timer as an app for my iPad, and I’m liking how the whole system is helping. I downloaded their free e-book this morning (and multi-tasked by reading it and eating some fruit). You could get really in to it, but I like the overall approach, which is not very gimmick-y. If you do use it, let me know what you think.

…and that’s the pomodoro……

  I am so enjoying my yoga lessons….I think I have finally found the exercise that will work for me. Over this week I’ve been actually sitting on the floor for meditation, instead of a chair, as well as doing some other leg exercises during the day. I am managing yoga breathing/meditation each day, and it is certainly starting my day off pretty well. I am concentrating on positive affirmations about restraining the calorie count.

My goal for today was to walk to yoga, which is a little over a mile. I am trying to do my part for the environment. So I’m up earlier, sunscreen on my face, spray suntan lotion on my arms, and regular shorts – I don’t want to walk in black pants, since today is supposed to be the hottest day so far – upper 90s. I get there, feeling oh so proud of myself. Turns out I already have fatigued the muscles, and they really don’t want to cooperate. I am huffing and puffing and doing less than I usually do. Plus….since I am sweating, the suntan lotion is keeping me from holding on to my legs for stretches. I am pooped.

So obviously the walking TO yoga isn’t going to work for a while. When the weather gets back to normal for this time of year (80s) I will try walking home. We worked on warrior one poses, as I am having trouble with balance, as well as a few new tai chi moves. I am finding some interesting things going on with my body. My shorts  are now tight in the abdomen when they weren’t before, and they are very loose in the waist. I am also getting a bit of a “ski jump” butt, which has never happened before. Oh, yes, and perky boobs…..been decades since that happened.

We spent some time analyzing the why’s and wherefore’s. Seems that as my posture has improved significantly, my boobs have begun defying gravity…..that and thanks to a better bra and open shoulders. And as I do more hip opener exercises, my hips are pushing my butt back, so it looks more rounded and “hilly.” Hmmmm…….

I definitely feel better, have regained my long and somewhat slimmer neck, have a waist returning,  have really strong toes, and my knees don’t hurt as much. And I’m down four pounds in the last 10 days. I know it’s mostly water to start, but it’s motivation to keep on going.

   I think I need a day each week where I just ramble….’course, I do that a lot anyway, but sometimes I just want to process in writing what’s swimming around upstairs (was that a mixed metaphor?). I’ve spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks wondering about the state of the country, especially since a good friend is leaving the US for a three-year teaching contract in Vienna, as she is pretty dissatisfied with the direction we seem to be moving. So it was interesting to see this post by Bill Moyers, whom I really respect. It’s all about a change in FCC regulations that would allow public television and radio stations to take advertising money for political groups, in the name of free speech. I love this quote:

“Imagine if you turned on your TV set someday soon and were greeted by Sesame Street, brought to you by the letter C, for “creeping campaign cash corruption.” Perhaps that’s a bit of a stretch, but as the late William F. Buckley, Jr., used to say, the point survives the exaggeration.”

I’ve also become aware over the last few months that for a political science major, I tend to not examine information on line perhaps as closely as I should. Just because something has a liberal label, or is posted by a liberal group, doesn’t mean it’s absolutely and completely true. I need to apply that same rigor as I would to examining a conservative posting. I also am trying to be very conscious when I make a comment to be sure that it is absolutely civil in its questioning.

Perhaps what’s going on in my head – and heart – is the desire to become the change I want to see. Since we know that every individual can make an impact, no matter how small, I need to continue to try and make an impact, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem to me. I have a lifetime of years of seeing the impact I have made in teaching, student by student, so there is no reason to believe that influence stops, just because I have retired.

Along with this has come an increasing awareness and fear of the growing evil that I see in the world. Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, and I have a few columns on next Tuesday’s Top Ten dealing with the Holocaust. I remember when I first heard about the Holocaust, at a young age of ten, from a neighbor. I asked my nana about it, and her curt reply was “we don’t talk about that.” As my mother worked on the maternal family tree, and I learned more about the emigration of my father’s family from Lithuania and Germany, and the Jewish surnames, I began to wonder, but no one ever answered any questions, and I really was too afraid to ask out loud. Now I just don’t know, and will never know. Here’s a Bill Moyer’s “Moment” with Elie Wiesel about whether humanity is good or evil.

One of the most influential pieces of fiction I read at 12 was Exodus, by Leon Uris. I loved that book, and I still reread it at least once a year. My copy is battered, and the cover page says 50 cents, so you know just how old it is. That started my real interest in the Holocaust, and I still read whatever I can get my hands on. One day in the pool at one of the complexes where we lived, I met Gina, a lovely older woman with thinning red hair and a thick accent. We started talking about living in the complex, and I noticed numbers on her arm. She was a survivor. I didn’t know what to say, I was so in awe of her. She wanted to know what I did, and then she mentioned that she and her husband used to go into classrooms every year and work with the teachers on teaching about the Holocaust. She had two grown daughters and several grandsons, but she was losing her spark of life, as her husband had died within the last year. I wanted to talk to her, to say how much I admired her, but I was afraid of prying. She died several years later, just as we were moving from that complex, from complications of pneumonia; she just hadn’t wanted to go to the doctor, and then it was just too late. Gina reveled in life, from Friday night at temple to her grandsons, to the every-day act of waking up warm and well-fed.

I guess I do need to ramble each week. I hope I continue to revel in life, thankful for all I have, and all I can still do in my life.

Busy week! I’ve been dutifully getting a list made each day, and I am being pretty successful at accomplishing everything. The biggest news….I FINALLY have all the names entered to be able to start the newsletter. Next week it should arrive in your mailboxes….a mere 16 months after the last one. I’ma workin’ on it……

Here’s a couple of pictures of what’s been happening this week. We are waiting on about 10 years of pima cotton to get started on our next big order, as well as a large order of paints. Meantime, hubby is planning to marble some small test pieces for a couple of projects. First up, a piece of linen that has wax on it. We met a wonderful batik artist up at StashFest in La Conner, Margot Bianca. You can check her Etsy store here. We spent a lot of time talking, and we’re going to marble a piece of linen, and then Margot will dye it, and she is going to batik a piece of already-marbled cotton. Should be a lot of fun to experiment. We’ll show results as they happen.

The studio is ready for marbling. We can dry in the garage, but sometimes for pretreating, it’s just easier, especially if there are mostly small pieces, to set up the drying racks in the studio. We sure do know how to maximize space!

And we do recycle, as you can see from the OJ bottles – they are perfect for keeping carrageenan as the bubbles disappear and then get stored in the refrigerator. We always cover up the rugs, even though we are obsessively neat, because the one time we don’t, paint will spatter…..

I am currently finishing a piece for my yoga instructor, as we are bartering: art for yoga lessons. You may recognize the piece….this is the “remains” of my “Shallows” piece, and it is in the process of becoming a triptych. More on that as it gets finished, hopefully by next week.

Still lots of shading, binding, lots of beads so that we have a small stream running through the three pieces. And of course, my lichen……

I’m also trying to start the pattern for the seasons wall hangings. I’ve got the ideas, and potentially the right fabric. Here’s spring….

…and here’s summer…..

I may actually combine the two…it will depend on how it works out.

There’s lots more on the list, including a new book I am starting on tutoring. I need to schedule significant writing time, along with all the sewing. So far, so productive!

I am still so far behind of getting caught up on blogs, even my most favorite ones. But slowly, slowly…I want to enjoy what’s out there!

Really cool shots from this week’s 365 Project. Love the rainbow water drops!!

Cromer High Tide by Paul

As usual, Alyson Stanfield has great advice in her ArtBiz Blog, “Quadruple Your Email Subscribers, and this week is no exception, especially in light of what I wrote yesterday in finally getting to a newsletter.

Now I am certainly behind the time, and this has already gone viral, but what a great story, Caine’s Arcade!

I still haven’t really figured out Pinterest, but I do know that since the TAFA list started using it, the amount of spam I am getting has really increased. So here’s an article I am going to pursue as I learn more about Pinterest.

If you’ve ever wanted to try ATC’s (Artist Trading Cards), here is a blog by Quilt Rat that takes you through the process. Her doodles are excellent.

I have a new guilty pleasure……(that’s how I felt about the ORIGINAL Survivor….), and that’s Fashion Star. I’m finding it absolutely fascinating, both the design and marketing process, and trying to guess which clothes will get a bid. Joan Beiriger’s blog looks at the show from the point of licensing tips.

I love Mamacita and her occasional rants on society and education. Here’s a good one…..

“Back in the day, as George Washington might have said if he’d had to, except he DIDN’T have to because in his day, violent people were dealt with promptly and in a way that mightily discouraged repeat performances, a teacher’s problems consisted of gum, untucked shirts, spitballs, and the occasional talking-back, all of which were dealt with swiftly and firmly.  The teacher was in charge; the parents respected the teacher; the principal usually backed up the teacher, and since decent people were respected back then, the student knew that to be a decent person, he/she needed to shape up or look forward to five to ten in the pen.  At the very least, to be deprived of any further free public educational opportunities, because frankly, those belong to learners, not destroyers.

“Said shaping-up to be done by the student, mind you.  Who else can do it?  Nobody, that’s who.”

Readers of my blog know I love most things zentangle, and now there are zendalas……nice and round. Here’s a couple from the zentangle blog:

Letters of Note always have something of interest from the great and the unusual. This is a letter about writing, from the venerable C. S. Lewis, with advice that definitely stands the test of time.

And on another note, from James Thurber, comes this delightful letter, quite the counterpoint to C. S. Lewis.

Let me know of cool stuff you find on the web this week!

It’s been a week since we got back from Seattle, and we’ve been busy doing a lot of catch-up and ordering of more fabric and paints. There were quite a few lessons from the event, most of them good ones.

First, we didn’t make all our expenses, with  the cost of the trip. But we did make enough to cover all the supplies (fabric, paints, bags, etc). We knew we’d be going for a vacation, so there was a certain amount we wanted to be able to make – at least the cost of preparing the stock, which we did. But we had a fabulous time. You can check out pictures from the StashFest here.

Second, next time we will bring up more than just cotton. We had originally planned on other fabrics but were talked out of it, since this show was being geared specifically to quilters. Out specialty fabrics that we did bring went very quickly, with lots of requests for more.

Third, bringing all the quilts (even though we worried about them being stolen from our car) was excellent. One of the results is we need to bring up a lot of unpolished satin next time, as that is what all the big art quilts were made from. The traditional quilts were a hit, as people could see how small pieces of fabric could be used in traditional blocks.

Fourth, we did get a good mailing list, and now I am really committed to getting out the regular newsletters. I set people up as a separate group, so when StashFest rolls around next year, they can get separate emails.

Fifth, I definitely have to get a garment from marbled fabric for me to wear at shows. That’s another whole audience to reach.

Sixth, lots of good connections, including two new commissions. We really loved talking to people, and the article from the National Quilting Journal was great to show the marbling process. There definitely are some things to change in the overall portfolio set-up.

Seventh, we had a chance to go through the quilt museum, and there were two great exhibits. Larkin Van Horn curated one called Deep Spaces, with some really gorgeous pieces. Carol Taylor had her “arc-i-texture” series, and I enjoyed seeing some of the other things she did with that technique. If you get to the area, check out the La Conner Quilt and Textile Museum. The building is amazing, and the people are just great.

And there’s probably lots more, but the marketing is ramping up again, so I definitely plan on capitalizing on our first really big event!

So the Etsy shop was on hiatus while we went to Seattle and back. I’ve added lots of new fabrics in cotton and basically restocked the store. Now, we have had some movement within the store. Certainly more this past year than totally since I opened the shop. But I feel like there is so much more I can do. I need to get the links done to my TAFA (Textile and Fiber Arts list) profile, and just generally think about how I can market this. By the end of the month I expect to have silks and some other specialty fabrics in the shop.

Ebay has been great for small pieces of fabrics and remnant bags. In fact, remnants have been the big seller on eBay, so we’ll keep it that way. I will use Etsy for the specialty fabrics, and the fabrics that are more expensive. This is one of the ways I feel we can specialize, and at the same time differentiate product. I need to do some reading on getting an Etsy store to be productive, so that is one of my goals for the rest of this month. By the end of May I want to have a couple of pattern kits in the store, complete with fabric. I have two of the samples made, and I am ready to start writing the pattern, as well as complete the remaining two samples. That’s my May goal.

I have sold a couple of small quilts in the store, so I should think about increasing a few of those, especially around the holidays. Speaking of holidays, I have not been able to take advantage of buying for specific days…and Mother’s Day is coming up. I need to think about how to incorporate that.

All that said, here’s a look at the fabrics waiting for you and your projects, be they quilts, wearable art, or applique. Perfect for that creative person you know!!

  One of the interesting side-effects of our stay in the N0rthwest was a new appreciation for the color gray. I have a limited number of grays in my stash, and we have one gray color of paint we use in our marbling. We used to have six or seven when we used Ceramcoat paints for marbling, but since they changed formulas, we’re not happy with the pigment. So we get by with the one gray. Using only the one gray has caused us to see how that color can change when mixed with other colors, so we really can achieve some differences.

But after two weeks of gray and rain, there are so many shades of gray! Part of me wants to go out and start buying a lot of gray fabrics, which I really might have to do. Yellowed grays, blue-grays, green-grays. There are so many distinctions. For years I’ve always loved all the spring greens that happen once a year, and my stash reflects that. We were able to see a lot of that on our trip, and many of the places and trees reminded us of New England.  But I had never really focused on gray as its own color with all the variations. By the second day in Seattle, I could look out at the water and mountains and count probably ten different shades. Then I became really attuned to looking at the differences.

Here’s just a few examples.

The Crocker Museum in Sacramento. Glorious Victorian home.

The bridge at Deception Point on Whidbey Island, in the rain (of course) and few snow flakes, with some grayed greens.

It’s interesting that after a while I didn’t even notice the lack of sun…although I was very glad to see it reappear while going down the Oregon coast. Speaking of the Oregon coast….

Wild, wonderful, and rugged.

Along the beach road in Alki, part of Seattle.

One evening at sunset, looking to the west from Alki. A lone person paddling something by standing upright.

Klamath River rest area before heading into Oregon.

Snow……

So does this mean I choose my vacations based on a color I want to study? Hmmmm. Would love to hear your examples of realizing the range of one particular color.