Saturday, October 23, 2010

Halloween Costumes

Monte and me were going to be going to a birthday party - one of his geology comrades. I "Thread Painted" (free-motion machine embroidery) a Serpentinite picture for him over a photo transfer and matted it for him. But then the party was canceled, which was a good thing ... Dawson along with Splarah and her sister Abby came wanting me to help them sew their Halloween Costumes.

I can't tell you their character names: TV/Movie characters I don't know about. Dawson pretty much sewed his own. Splarah was making Christmas presents - sewing double layer fleece blankets on my sewing machine. And there's no way Abby and them could have made her costume - it was even challenging for me! and I'm an expert seamstress, having made my own clothes since I was a teenager and used to make Monte's jeans, and suits, shirts, etc.

They found a picture on the internet - Dawson blew it up to proportionately fit the front panel of Abbey's costume and we printed it in pieces and iron transferred them to material. Anyway, come evening, we got everything done. Whew!

I don't think I've taken a picture of the Serpentinite thread painted picture. This is the second one I've done - the first for Monte, which we gave to Jensimil who was returning to Norway and really wanted it - so we gifted it to him. I need to do another for Monte's partner Stan for Christmas, and then another one for Monte.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Bleach Painting T-shirts

Painting with bleach on T-shirts - Dawson, Splarah, Sarah, and Travis
My sons just posted pics on Facebook of an activity they did yesterday. I suppose we'd have been invited too if Monte wasn't needing to work. But I'm always glad to see family togetherness. I shared the painting with bleach technique with them awhile back. I've overdyed (bleached), like tie-dying, an already painted Tee to great affect too and stamped with bleach. I sometimes use my dye thickener, sodium alginate (sp?) added to bleach. Do this in a well-ventilated space - like outside! Rinse well and wash. If left too long bleach will eat at the fibers.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Early Fall Happenings

Fall has hit. It's been an extended season this year of warmth, so tomatoes, peppers, and beans didn't freeze until the other night. I had them extended for ripening warmth with the white "floating row covers" (remay cloth), and occasionally covering with blankets on borderline nights. Other than kale, chinese cabbage, and chard, my outdoor gardening season is done. Now for mother nature to do her thing with tucking in the scattered flower seeds for new growth next year, and stronger root development for the perennials.

Torkel, my felted tree-hugging Tomte
My last color/design challenge for my class was using Tetrad colors of the Color Wheel. It was a busy month with garden harvest, readying the greenhouse for winter, and LOTS of company! Needless to say, at the last minute I decided felting was my thing I could do, producing something! ... Thinking ... I looked at my favorite sculpted needlefelted head, still needing a body and finishing. His skin colors chose my tetrad colors: blue-green, violet, red-orange, and yellow. You'd think the face is orange, green and gray, but no, not when compared with the 4-in-1 color tool. Since tetrad is a square of double complementary colors, I was thinking square - like plaid, for his coat. So I finished Torkel, my tree-hugging elf (or Swedish Tompte).

In the above picture are vased zinnias, brought Saturday by my friend Marty. We had a houseful that day. Various peoples have come to help cut wood, taking some home for themselves, so Saturday was the Johnson's day. Dawson and Splarah came, Gary, and our house guest Michael, who cooked the supper main dish (he's now in a place of his own closer to his new job). I've not gathered many flowers to dry this year, not thinking I'm making anything with them, but did gather some, so that's pictured, along with the "pumpkins?" behind (volunteer squash we don't know for sure what they are, but as I posted on my kitchen blog, I'm still roasting the seeds and using them as pumpkins).

The round circle is the broken glass.
I was just upstairs checking on my home brews and heard a crash, expecting it to be something in the greenhouse. SHOCK! The middle window in the dining area was broken - the outer one of a two-glass window. The culprit still there, most likely stunned, so not flying away. His victim lay dead. So what happened?  What I've identified as a Sharp-shinned or Cooper's Hawk was chasing a chickadee for it's meal, and they both bashed into the window. Because it was stunned it stood around for a long time for me to capture many pics!

The hawk and broken glass fallen between two-glass window
Sharp-shinned or Cooper's Hawk?
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Wood cutting. We like burning aspen - our "hardest" wood for longer burning
Cleaned the back porch corner for extra wood storage
Wood storage by front door with ore buckets, etc
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