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 Hello!

It's good to be writing to everyone again!  I'm just popping in quickly today to let you know that if you follow this blog by receiving it on email, Google is discontinuing that feature in one week.  Not that there have been any posts lately to read!  

I've been busy working on my new focus, ceramics, glass, and enameling and do have plans to start adding more frequent posts about that - probably in a month or so.  And if you're really here for the fiber arts, don't worry - a lot of the links may no longer work, but all the past posts will stay up!

Take care and I'll be back in a bit!

Deborah

Friday Inspiration - Beach Days

I love the Oregon coast and especially love it in August when the temperatures are often in the 80's!

I always have plans to create a beach inspired textile piece, but so far haven't.  But that doesn't stop me from looking at what others have done!   Merle Axelrad works with fabric and fiber collages in a way that is amazing.  I love her beach inspired pieces like Central Coast below, but all of her water pieces are wonderful.  Be sure to take a look!

Naomi Renouf also works with layered fabric collages and has quite a few pieces with ocean/beach themes.   Sea and Stones, below, is one of my favorites.  The transparency of the water she achieves is amazing!

This Seaglass Beach Quilt pattern was on Craftsy but now seems to have vanished from the web!  I think I'm going to have to start gathering batiks and see if I can make one just using the photograph.  I love how the colors in this make me feel I'm looking at the ocean.  If anyone knows who the designer is, please let me know so I can credit them and link to their work.  Thanks!

And since knitting seems to be what I get the most time to work on lately, I thought I'd see what beach colored yarns are out there.  I found two long gradient yarns that I'm trying to decide between for my next shawl!   The Blue Brick has Seafoam - I love how all of their yarns are paired with a photograph that inspired the colors and a swatch of how it knits up. 

And Knitcircus offers Beach Glass - hmmm, a hard choice!

I'm hoping to get more beach days this summer - Happy Creating!  Deborah

Lazy August Days!

It's August already - and I don't think I even need a calendar to tell!  The sunlight in the forest has that golden tint to it and I've been enjoying long walks in its coolness.

Most of the wildflowers are done and the Queen Anne's Lace is blooming beautifully.

The gooseberries are ready for jam making

and I'm anxiously waiting for the blackberries to ripen!

I finished my third pair of socks - a much better fit than the first pair I made for myself!  These are from the pattern Simply Beautiful Socks by Fiona Stevenson - they use a German short row heel that I like much better than the heel flap/gusset one, but they did each end up with a gap I needed to sew up.  Next I'm trying the Fish Lips Kiss Heel, which is supposed to not have a gap!

I'll be in and out this month so probably won't be getting much done but knitting and trying to stay cool!  

Happy Creating!  Deborah

Second Quarter Fiber Challenge Reveal

It's hard to believe the second quarter of this year is done already!  This was the artwork used for the Second Quarter Fiber Art Challenge, a woodblock print by Japanese artist Imao Keinen (1845 - 1924).  You can read more about the challenge here.

This quarter, I decided to use the colors of the print as inspiration for my work.  I found yarn that was very close to the colors of the piece and knit an airy cowl, trying to capture the lightness of the print and of spring.

The yarn is Hand Maiden's Casbah Sock in the Peridot colorway.  It's perfect for a spring cowl, so soft with the cashmere that makes up part of it.  And the pattern is Mora Jewel by Virginia Sattler-Reimer.  This is a great pattern - it has enough stitch work in it to look nice while still being simple enough to not take all of one's concentration!

You can add your piece inspired by the print by clicking below.  There will be information to fill out that will link the photo to your blog, facebook post, instagram post, .... some place that you wrote about what you made.  If you don't have a spot to link to, contact me and I'll get your photo up on this blog.  

And if you're ready for the Third Quarter Fiber Art Challenge, see this post here.

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Creating!  Deborah