Month: October 2023

At five o’clock in the morning and just a couple hours later.

Another walk over to the dam in the middle of the morning.

So many of the leaves have blown off the trees here. It was not the prettiest of falls but nice clear skies.

I took out the shawl of earth pigment colors, eaten through sections that were stitched over with silks from Beautiful Silks in Australia and other fabrics. All held together by backing it with another linen shawl the same size. I worked on it while dealing with Lee’s dementia and then put it away thinking it would stay in the trunk. But I wanted to hold it again and stitch on top of the stitches. It is so soft and comforting as cooler weather comes our way.

I took this picture of myself wrapped up in it the other day. So much more stitching to add. It will keep me company through the winter.

This morning I went to the gym, photographed the moon, had coffee with the men, went to see the dermatologist, slipped in to get a hair trim where I told her to make sure I did not look like I was at a hair salon. I am ready to go back to messy!

Also I approved the changes in The Story of Burke and Wills. It is such a lovely size and feel now. Available on Amazon for $10. Today I reworked The Stoat Story into a smaller size and will get the proof on Friday. Isn’t it funny how you have to hold something to tell if it is where you wanted it to be? We are such tactile people. Always needing to touch.

I walked back toward the river today and visited with neighbors. Tomorrow I go back into town to see all the trick or treaters show up on the square, going from business to business with their bags open. My brother and I dressed like pirates in the early fifties and just walked into town to the tavern. It was the only stop needed to get treats, mostly full sized candy bars…no miniatures back then and the men were very generous once they had a few.

I will take some pictures for the next post.

Til later…

I love this view into the creek by the Indian mound near my house. And the walk to get there.

And how fall is taking over.

When I don’t walk up the hill to have coffee, this is what I step into from my car.

And the sunrises after the gym workout still have a view of Venus and the mist.

On Sunday friends came over with homemade pizza and this delightful bottle of wine. A nice deep red that can be purchased at the Food Lion grocery store, closest being about 45 minutes away. The bottle is a very heavy glass and was worth saving in the spirits cupboard. The label is in the 15th alcohol label collection books. No label to be repeated and a brief writing of what I thought of the drink and the company I shared it with. Been doing this since 2000. Documentations of good times, good company and very good memories.

The rest of my time this week has been spent trying to make The Stoat Story a more visually appealing book. The proof for this will arrive by Monday.

I did not like the images or text on white paper so did the book and cover in this soft grey.  Burke and Wills has a grey cover and this same font, but the pages are white because of the hopes of having a good color match with the original drawings/paintings.

Burke and Wills proof arrives Friday and I am hoping there are no more corrections or changes needed. It is a 5″ x 8″ book that is 48 pages . The Stoat Story is 8″ square and has a page count of 34. So, to keep the price down, both books will be priced at $10 each on Amazon. They cost about $4.10 each to be printed. My royalty is less than $2 for each book, which is not much but keeping them low in cost is more important than a royalty.  At $10 on US Amazon they still will cost about $15 in Australia. But I owe that country something for inspiring the names for Burke and Wills (most famous and ill-fated explorers there), their leaf print abilities, and some of the best students I have ever had in workshops. Beside all that, the Australians have been very supportive of the S. Webster books already available on Amazon. These two new children’s books are under Sandy Webster as author and can be found when finally approved for publishing with my Earth Pigments book from 2012.

Poetry meetings in the next two weeks so after a nice walk over to my tai chi class I decided to just pull out a pen and yellow legal pad to get things on paper.

Til later…..

On my walk to the river the other day.

And then going back to the dam in mid morning two days later.

And crossing over the bridge of the river at the dam that becomes the river from up above. Lovely to be back at both places putting one foot in front of the other. I collected sticks and mosses for my front entry.

Then Friday night was the chili contest on the square. We each get a sample from all the ones who entered and then vote for our favorite. One of the guys from the coffee group was there with his. Most of them were pretty good. Some just too hot for this old palette pf mine. Nice to see so many come out.

Friday lunch here with a few other artists was very good. So nice to have them to talk to. We won’t meet again until after the first of the year because of the busy holidays coming up.

Both of the proofs came for the books. I need to rework them color-wise and also the size for the Stoat Story.  The dyed leaf prints with graphite drawings throughout make it hard to reproduce. Later today friends come over to share red wines and I will ask their opinion on how to proceed with the layout, etc.

The white cover and cute font just aren’t what I was hoping for on the Burke and Wills book, so changed both. I also needed to adjust color on some of the images. So much time can be spent on getting what looks like it might work. I will get it sorted and then order two more proofs.

Better get going and prepare my charcuterie board…..

Til later….

Another beautiful morning on Monday. Then lunch with a friend and getting to a quilt show here in town. It is a traveling exhibition of quilters working during the shut down of Covid times. The work was much more serious in the inspiration of the makers. There were fewer quilts than the last time (2018) that this exhibition came to town. Not so many done with the idea of being pretty to look at. By putting in the code number on my Iphone I could hear in their own words about their inspiration and process. So here are some of the ones exhibited.  Inspirations being migration, peace, immigration, gun violence. It was good to see this much passion translated into cloth.

Melancholia by Linda Colsh

Fire Season detail by Dorothy Raymond

Blessed Are the Peacemakers detail by Susan Price

November 9th 1946 detail by Gabriele Ditota

Testimony of Yazmin Juarez by Ivy Sandz

Fifty-Eight by Lisa Jenni

These are only a few that caught my eye.  None were very big. I miss the large quilts that made you feel comforted by their size and yet confronted with their messages.

As  I was getting into my car in the rain, the color through the trees seemed very fall like.

And in my own yard, the dogwood was lovely in the morning sun.

Then I worked to a state of cross-eyed-ness on getting The Stoat Story in a size and format that fit the images and text. My proof for this one will be here on Sunday…which probably translates to next week.

This should do it for a while. I will let you know when they are officially published on Amazon.

Friday a few artists come over for lunch here and talk about what we are doing…hopefully what is mattering to each of us enough to put in a visual form.  It will be good to talk to people who hold brushes, mix paints, and maybe, just maybe, thread a needle.

Today I hacked up old shirts and pieced them with other shirts so they would be more interesting. Interesting and disguise spills of whatever did not make it to my mouth.

Dorinda, the new baker on the corner where we meet for coffee now has some of my recipes. She had to order golden syrup and barley malt to make The Second Best Malted Cookies I Ever Ate (she wanted the recipe for the best but I said I was sworn to secrecy and even my kids do not have that recipe), Anzac Cookies, savoury scones and cinnamon scones, which she is selling quite well. Today I brought home one of her latest quiches for lunch…delicious!

Time to take a walk. Yesterday I went to the river near here and it was wonderful. Brought home some sticks and moss.

Better get going.

Til later…