new prayer flags

I made three new prayer flags, all of which were presented to my sister-in-law, Marti for her birthday last week. This one is called "Organic."

We went all the way to Colorado to celebrate her birthday. This one is called "Nest," and was inspired by the two baby hummingbirds that were born in our atrium a few years back. If you look on my list of Labels on the right, you'll find lots of photos and stories about them. At one point I made a rubber "stamp" of the babies in the nest, and that was the starting point for this prayer flag.

This one is called "Equal."

It's been a busy week! Tuesday night, I finished my Experimenting in Letter Press Printing class at the Irvine Fine Arts Center. I never did get around to printing words on fabric, because we were kept so busy with other projects. There were so many new terms to learn, my head was spinning! But now I know what a quoin is, do you? (It helps to lock the type into the proper position on the printing press.)

We made our own business cards in assorted colors, including cardboard. We also made note cards with our names and a motif on them.

I got a head start on some Christmas cards! The inside message is letter press. The front of the card will be printed with two block prints as shown on the left; one was made from a rubber block and linoleum cutting tools; the other one I made with fun foam, because it was getting frustrating cutting the flowers with my ancient lino cutters.

So this is just a sneak peak.

Finally, everyone in the class made a page for a book that we collaborated on. We each were assigned a word to print, and we added our own background and our own print from a rubber block. Can you guess? Mine is the one with the baby hummingbirds in a nest! I haven't put my pages together yet, because I was busy printing my Christmas cards. I'll show you when it's done.

In the bottom of the photo I showed where I printed the new hummingbird block on Dupioni silk. I'll probably do more of that.

Anyway, the teacher, Madeleine, was really good, very knowledgeable and patient with those of us who were slow to catch on. :-) And the students were really friendly and eager to learn. It was a great experience, and I recommend it.

fun with fabric

I've been experimenting with some of the dyed fabrics I made in Rayna Gillman's class. I made some more stamps with fun foam and stamped away. Even the dyed fabrics that I had been disappointed with seemed to benefit from the extra layers.

Once again, Matilda has to be in the photo.

Notice the two baby hummingbirds on one of my stamps!

It occurred to me that these fabrics might look great in clothing. So I made a blouse, mixing in some other fabric that I also stamped on. What do you think?

My dressmaking skills are still rusty. I'm still figuring out current-day pattern sizing versus current-day me sizing!

Scenes from Rayna's workshop

Here are a few photos from Rayna's class, just to give you the gist of it. The walls were really colorful with our fabrics!

Next is a photo of my rinsed fabrics on the dryer, waiting their turn to dry.

I had only mixed four dyes, which limited my fabric palette. I wish I'd had time to mix more. I'll probably do some overdyeing.

Finally, here is a photo of the baby hummingbirds on Sunday morning, reunited in the palm tree in the atrium. Today I saw one of them flying around the atrium, from one palm tree to the other. Woohoo!

Empty Nest

About six clock this evening, my husband noticed that the babies had flown from the nest. One of them was on a branch above the nest for quite some time. Then the mother lured him over to the palm tree. Now who knows where they are. All we can do now is wish them well....

It's been quite an experience for us. I feel inspired, to try making a mixed media nest, or a mixed media book, a quilt, or???

Getting Ready to Fly

Here are the babies earlier today. Look how squashed the nest has become! It was a first to see the birds perched on opposite sides of the nest, facing each other.

Hummers, Tortoise and Quilts

These photos were taken Tuesday, Wednesday and today, Thursday. They seem much more alert than before. So jaunty! It's as if they're saying, Mommy, teach me to fly right now! I can see their little hearts pounding away.

I should mention that their nest is visible to our living room, which is the center of our house. The mom couldn't have picked a more public place to raise her babies! The cats and we are enjoying the show and dreading empty nest.

I've been reading up on them. It takes 3 weeks from when they hatch until they fly. Since I don't know when they hatched, I can only guess they will fly in the next few days. When they have learned to fly, they're called fledglings. Their eggs are the size of Tic-tacs. Oh - and hummingbirds don't walk! When they want to move somewhere else, they always fly.

Here's something non-hummingbird. My tortoise Grampa T attacking his ear of corn.

Here's something else non-hummingbird. I turned in my Edges quilt to be hung at Long Beach Quilt Festival. It's five weeks away! I can't wait.

I am working on my "Sweet Dreamy Dreams" quilt and it's been challenging. The sides refuse to be symmetrical, so I'm finally deciding to embrace the asymmetry. Hopefully, I can begin embroidery soon. I wish I could show it here, but I would like to enter it in something, so I can't yet.

The hummingbird babies are still thriving in my atrium. The first photo was taken on Tuesday morning: they look hungry! The mom is kept busy, thrusting food down their mouths.

The second photo was taken on Wednesday. You can see two beaks on the right and a tail sticking out on the left. The third photo was taken this morning. I've seen them wriggling halfway out of the nest, but by the time I grab my camera they're nestled back inside. So sweet.....

When I came downstairs this morning, the hummingbirds' nest had disappeared! I assumed a large bird had swooped down and carried it off. But my husband went out into the atrium and found the nest, just out of sight of the window. One baby was still in the nest and the other was nearby - both were still alive.

So I called Irvine Animal Services, and someone was at my door in 20 minutes. He simply put the bird back in the nest, and put the nest back into the Heavenly Bamboo. Matilda my cat watched the whole process with interest. She's an indoor cat and is innocent in this crime. But she may know more than she's saying! ;-)

Thirty seconds after he left, the mother appeared and tended to her babies. Amazing! I was worried she would reject them after he touched them, but she didn't. So she has been feeding them and they're okay.

I sure hope there are no more mishaps until they're ready to leave the nest! They're getting downy and cute. I worry about the crows in the area....

clothing bug and hummingbirds

I've been bit by the home-sewn clothing bug, at least a little. I was pretty excited about it all until I wore my homemade blouse today, and the sushi chef asked me if I was trying to save money by sewing my own clothing. (sigh) Some people just don't get it, I guess, that some people sew because it's FUN, not because we're cheap. I made the blouse from a super-simple pattern, but I cut it out from a quilt top I'd bought a while back (simple squares of fabric), so it looks more complicated than it really is. I attached a bead with tied silk ribbon at each square's corner - hard to see in the photos. Anyway, it was fun, and now I have something else to wear to meetings with artsy craftsy people.

The other exciting news is that we've discovered a hummingbird's nest in our atrium, right by the window! It's perched delicately on a branch of Heavenly Bamboo, and is smaller than my fist. And I have a small fist. I think the cats knew about it way before we did. So we've been watching the parent birds coming and going, but today we definitely saw babies for the first time! I believe there are two. One of them is in the bottom photo - notice that his beak is still short. It will gradually grow out.

The colors of the bird and nest look different from one photo from the next, I think because I used a flash in one but not the others.