Coming Soon

New badges. 

Falling Silent

The change in seasons seems to have left me in a funk.  You may not have noticed I've been absent.  But I haven't been myself lately.  I have not been upholding my part of the conversation.  I read your blogs.  I am as amazed and inspired as always.  I think in superlatives when I see your projects.  I laugh at your funny stories.  I relate to your troubles.  I smile.  I sympathize. 

And yet I cannot comment. 

I type but have nothing to say.  It has all been said.  So I delete. 

Perhaps it is the looming speeches that have my words twisted up unable to be free.  Perhaps it has been the long slog through the summer of events and issues.  Perhaps it is all the words coming at me.  Perhaps I am overwhelmed by the need to catch up.  Perhaps it is just time for a rest.  Perhaps I simply need to take a moment to catch my breath.  Perhaps all I need is a thesaurus. 

I don't know where my words have gone. 

I do know that I am missing them.

I am looking for them.  If you see them shuffling about under the fallen leaves, tell them to return home.  I have things to say.   

About those vampires...

Look closely at those two in the middle on the bottom.  You'd think I was holding a mirror up to them. 

(Getting ready for Halloween.)

Church in the Round

Another shot from our weekend retreat.  This is the children's sermon.  It is an amazing service.  We have church sitting around the campfire in the woods. 

Camping Retreat

 Here is my little cabin in the woods.  It was a beautiful setting on the ridge overlooking the river. (I did sacrifice a bit of scenery for the luxury of being next to the brand new shower house and potty!) 

Most of the buildings on site were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 30's.  There is beautiful stonework all through the park.  The spud and his friend occupied the lodge next door.  It has a fireplace facing in and another one on the screen porch.

Unfortunately, economic woes in the State have prevented a lot of maintenance and many of the buildings need some work.  Although the dated graffiti in this cabin goes back a lot further than the current budget crisis.  Although it looks pretty nasty, most of the writing is simple names and dates, people staking a claim on wonderful experience.  I can't really complain about that too much.  After all, I've been seen Independence Rock and petroglyphs.  It is an interesting question.  When does it stop being vandalism and start being part of the historic record? 

Camping

I have been neglecting my blog and my bloggy friends this week.  It has been one of those weeks when I have been working non-stop but I don't seem to produce much of anything.  Now I am preparing to go on our annual weekend retreat: an opportunity to pick apples, sit around the campfire and find salamanders like the one in the picture above.  I will take my stitching with me and hopefully I will have some things to show you next week.  Too bad some of the spuds will be left behind.  It is great that they are doing their own things.  I will miss them

Skipping September

An altered image of one of the spuds from a few years ago.  A perfect day on a September beach.  I call it "Skipping September".  I recently had it printed on canvas by cafe press.  It turned out OK.  

Pillow finished

This pillow has been a long time in the works, but it is finally ready to put in the mail.  It is a commission and destined for a trip overseas.  The bleeding heart design is from Embroidery Library.  It is stitched out on silk and pieced into a raw silk, envelope style pillow.  I make the 'flange' by doing a standard quilting binding with the two sides - wrong sides together.  I probably should have made it much wider, but I am programed for a 2 inch binding strip and cut them before I even thought about what I was doing. 

It is nice to finally be able to be working on my projects again!

National Sewing Month

Starts today.  And I managed to sew something.  Yay. 

National Knife Day?

Who knew.  In celebration, here is an artsy picture of the knife Spud 1 (otherwise known as boy blacksmith) made for me.  It is over 12 inches long and mirror finished.  You can sort of see me with the camera in the reflection.

Sad

My poor sewing machine is not doing very well today.  It had to go to the shop to get a checkup.  It is a good thing I have a number of hand sewing projects and a back up machine.  But my embroidery projects are on hold for the near term. 

Amazed

As I am slowly tying up loose ends, re-grouping and looking for my sewing mojo I have been wandering aimlessly around the internet.  I decided to google mini art quilt.  I am amazed at the endless variety of projects to be found: Realistic fabric and thread paintings, abstract, geometric, cute, cynical, sassy, political, neat as a pin, raw edges, whimsy, technical perfection, embellished, mixed media.  I am some combination of stunned, overwhelmed and inspired.

Paddling

Bohemiannie! asked me to tell more about the Race for the Rivers.  For the first time, I didn't even manage to take my camera.  I personally have no pictures other than a few I took on my phone.   I'll start by sharing a few that have been sent to me.  These were taken by M Garvey.  They are very low resolution but they will give you an impression of the day on the river.  He was on one of the support boats that went along with the paddlers. 

Maybe I should start at the beginning... at 9 am we launched paddlers in canoes, kayaks and stand up paddle boards from 20 miles out and from 41 miles out.  There were 97 boats registered.  We send support boats with them.  The image above was taken after one of the heart-stopping moments during the day.  Shortly after launch I looked out at the river and saw this barge going up river toward our paddlers.  I am in touch with the barge folks.  They didn't have this one on the roster.  Paddlers in small boats have to respect the barges.  The barge cannot react.  With the water as low as it is, there is less room for everyone to maneuver.  Our wonderful radio communications crew got word out as quickly as possible to the support boats to warn the paddlers.  Fortunately, there was only one close call and that was with a well trained crew who knew how to paddle through the wake. 

The paddlers go through some amazing scenery, natural and man-made as well as some naturally altered man-made... those are full size trees on the bridge support.  They are left from the extreme flooding of last summer.   

We track the paddlers all along the route.  We get reports of their progress.  They faced a stiff wind for much of the day.  We had it in the park.  It was problematic for the tents, but made the 90+ degree day tolerable. 

Eventually they cross under the last bridge and are within sight of the park and sound of the music. 

 That is where there were helpers to get them on shore.  Fans to cheer them on.  The sweet sound of the airhorn signalling their finish and documenting their time. 

Day two saw some of our intrepid adventurers off on another 24 mile stretch of the river.  

  The crew on one of the support boats along with the radio operator.  All smiles as they keep track of our paddlers.  What a great way to spend a morning!

Still smiling.

 These six guys in five boats completed 65 miles on the Big Muddy.  Awesome paddlers.  Awesome guys.  And a great day. 

As I collect more pictures and have more time to reflect, I will share some adventures at the Race for the Rivers.

Stitching

This week is going to be all about getting caught up with my badge-making. I have orders to fill and Halloween to stock.  The badges I need to make are stitch intense.  I am very glad I have a lot of hand stitching to entertain me while the machine does its thing. 

Recovering

Getting ready to launch the kayaks for day 2 of our big event.  I will be back on my feet and ready with more crafty and sewing goodness later this week.  Thanks for sticking with my wee blog through the big summer event.