come visit the kitsap county fair where my very talented 4-h needle arts members have some lovely creations on display this week and WON some great prizes for their needlework! yippee! great job girls!

geekie:i just figured out how to make a collage in photoshop and had to post my first try at it. i can see all sorts of possibilities with this new toy!

dog days of summer:what better way to spend the waning days of summer than to make flower leis? mine aren't nearly as fragrant as those from far away tropical isles but they are rather colorful and delightful to wear. i have been wanting to make leis for quite some time and finally got around to doing it. i have a lei needle somewhere hiding in the recesses of my tools and equipment, that i bought as a teenager in hawaii, but where oh where is it now that i want to use it? so i just used a chenille needle with quilting thread and gathered up lots of dahlias.this is how one of my leis looks after drying for a few days. that 85 degree heat helped the process along quite a bit.


the abundant gardenafter gorging on raspberries, currants and blueberries it is now apple time. the gravensteins are dropping faster than i can pick them. they are really beautiful this year. not much damage from scab since it has been quite dry during the growing season. i've got to get a ladder out to reach the lovelies way up high. that has to be the happiest tree! near the manure pile, it has a steady flow of nutrients throughout the year to make for incredibly vigorous growth. can't wait to make my favorite ginger apple crisp recipe!i love how the poppy pods mature to mauves and buff colors. they are nearly ready to harvest for cooking needsthis is consistently one of my favorite dahlias, "david howard", year after year. it has purple leaves and such delightful flowers. with many more dahlias planted this year the bees are kept mighty busy. i need to try to take some pics of the hummers that are so profuse this year. they relish my fuschias.

the reluctant modelthe beaderoil on canvas9 x 12"i had to paint quickly as the models had other things to do

coppicing:there's a gardening practice called coppicing that i employ for a variety of reasons. the ancient practice entails cutting back the plant each year to a stump. basket makers use this method to make straight rods for their craft. i do this to my eucalyptus, some of my willows, and a big leaf maple. why? on the euc it encourages the juvenile foliage to grow, which are primarily used for flower arrangements. euc foliage matures to a very different shape than the new young foliage as the tree grows. i like to keep a pussy willow in bounds and encourage straight new annual branches for cutting when the pussies are blooming by coppicing. i chop back the maple to encourage heafty straight branches for garden structures and art projects (as seen on my latest works on display this month). see this web site to learn how to coppice.

detail from three graces of the strawberry field, unfinishedlast night was the opening to the latest showing of my work and it's always nice to hear pleasant remarks about my stuff, but what really intrigues me at these events are the unexpected sort of comments that make me pause and think about the impact my work has had on someone. one such comment followed a description of the intent of one of my pieces called three graces of the strawberry field. i mentioned how in greek and roman mythology the three graces were an allegory for joy, beauty and fertility and that these qualities embodied a life on bainbridge. the response was that with all that is going on in the world that it was interesting that i could delve into a side of life that often is overshadowed by current events, and how nice that was for her to hear at that moment. now i am an active progressive participant and yet i have to set that part of me aside sometimes so i don't get overwhelmed by the enormity of that passion. i think that much of my work is a reaction to ills in the world by trying to still find the interstices of pleasure + simplicity. anyway i thank viewers for sharing their insights with me to remind me of what art is all about.


today's fashion show:dahlia chilson's pride
artichoke petals
a new echinacea

green belt
if you are visiting via a posting in the B.I. ArtsNews please go to the queen anne tree walk website for images of my green belt fiber art project, a tribute to nobel peace prize laureate wangari maathai.

dahlias delight:just a quick post of some of the dahlias in the garden. man they grow quickly!


harvest from the garden:




berryliscious:it's a battle between me and the robins to see whom will take more! they're ripening faster than i can pick them. there a just gazillions of them out there! i think this is the first time in years that i have been home to enjoy them. i have put away bag after bag in the freezer to save for winter muffin making. i should make jam if i have time. the bunnies delight in their raspberry treats. it's just too cute to watch them eat these ruby morsels. ....yum


garden treasures of late:these skyscrapers are 9' tall. i thought for sure they would topple in the strong winds yesterday but these stalwarts didn't budge. the scent is heaven sent.those strong winds sent these campanula lactiflora horizontal. i like how a different orientation from the usual upright makes them look fringie.i'll have to save the seeds for poppy seed cake!this is a bee magnet. there can be four bees in a flower at the same time. i was buzzed quite a bit while trying to take the photos. i thought for sure i'd get stung, but didn't. they know i love them.


new applique +this one is about the history of strawberry farming on the island
ichigo kaku-dako

yosemiteit has probably been twenty five years since i last visited yosemite until last week. we were supposed to stay in the high country, at white wolf, but the road was still closed because of deep snow so we had to stay in the valley. as soon as i stepped out of the car in the valley mosquitos amased from all directions to zero in on my tastey flesh. i quickly learned that even in the heat i was going to be dressed like a victorian lady, covered from neck to toe, in order to prevent further attacks.
on the way up to glacier point wildflowers of all colors spoke to me from every switchback. i was hoping hoping hoping that the meadow i had remembered from long ago would be blooming with shooting stars on this trip. and it revealed itself resplendent in brilliant pink and cobalt blue (cammas lilies) at the height of bloom. it was perfect timing. i was in heaven. perfection. alpine wildflowers in profusion. life just doesn't get any better than teeming wildflowers in the sunshine.


birdie totefrustrated with the limited selection and high price of fabrics here on the island i went over to the hardware store, bought a couple of tea towels (nice heavy weight cotton canvas) cut 'em up and made a new tote bag. the cut outs made pockets for the inside. the handles actually go straight up unlike how it looks in the photo.


slip castthe light pouring into the bathroom this morning was so crisp and clean that it made this bowl sparkle. can you guess how the bowl was made? i took a sugar pumpkin, yes it was home grown (i like to make pies, bread + soup from them), cast it in plaster, then poured slip into the mold and voila (after firing + glazing) an assymetrical organically shaped bowl.


latest from the gardenin order of appearance: campanula percifolia (along the front walkway), carpenteria californica (one of my favorite shrubs), deutzia 'goodsall pink' (a gift from my friend sarah, who started the smith + hawken nursery in mill valley, when my son was born...it's travelled from garden to garden and still thrives), oenothera (from my grandmother's garden...wow that one has been quite the traveler...to my mom's garden then to my various gardens...it has the happiest-best-shade-of-yellow flowers ever)


birdieoodle
you might wonder why this blog is called "birdieoodle". when i was entitling paintings for my "circular needles" show last summer one painting jumped out as the encapsulation of everything that i love, aside from my family. there were wildflowers, birds (red breasted nuthatches...oh i love the noises they make), knitting needles + tools in an obvious nod to the joyous active nature of william morris textiles. that oil painting was called "birdieoodle". birdie has always been an endearing nickname given to my pets, as well as the usual greeting, "hi birdie", to visitors at the bird feeder. -oodle, with various consonants at the start, has been the middle name for many pets since i was little. i guess birdieoodle is me in a nutshell, or nutcase as my sisters would say. so here's the painting that named the blog.18 x 18"oil on canvassold

ahhh bloedelevery year before school ends and everyone is home for the summer i grab my fleeting moments of solitude and take a walk through the bloedel. i feel so lucky to have such a magical place so close by that is different every time i visit. it is the perfect place to stroll, although i always walk fast, and just appreciate the subtle beauty of verdure in peace + quiet. to peer into the blackness of the duck pond and get lost in the reflections, drawn into that space, nearly transforms into a state of vertigo. but that is the bliss of solitude, to allow one's self to be uninterupted, just for a moment, before it becomes a rarity for a long while.

ichigo kaku-dakohere's the model and a hint of the paintinggouache on awagami

kimonosince my latest project has japanesque influences i searched for and found my old japanese architecture sketchbook from college. i just found out from my latest issue of selvedge magazine that the plural of kimono is kimono. that is the greatest magazine for fiber devotees.

just a peek at what's to come in augusti'm just packing my sketchbook with ideas but frustrated that i won't be able to accomplish a fraction of them in time. this is such an amazingly busy time of year, and it just gets more complicated when summer activities start soon. i don't sleep because i'm thinking about what i want to make and how to fabricate it. everything requires it's own uncharted pattern that starts with a blank page. i love the process and materials that conspire to form the product. i look at the array of materials before me and swoon in rapture, hoping to honor their beauty with competent construction. we'll see.
more floriciousness...can a tree pack more blossoms onto a branch than styrax japonica (japanese snowbell)? and for an extra whammy of admiration this tree permeates the air with the most intoxicating perfume. i started this tree from a seed and now it's 25 feet tall i would guess. when i used to hang birdie basket feeders in this tree the racoons would regularly smash the baskets to the ground and break the branches with their avoirdupois, the porkers, and they gouged chasms into the trunk with their beastly talons. you can guess what i think of those critters!?#!and now to the simple delicacy of rosa glauca. sweet.

ahhhhh june!it just doesn't get any better that petal profusion and perfumed air!

nexti'm working on my next show, coming up in august, at gallery fraga. this is a peek at my work zone.

new scarfit's still in progress but i couldn't wait to see the pattern taking shape so i blocked the work so far, probably not a good idea until it is finished. now i know how to make an imitation missoni top using the same stitch pattern.... ....using koigu yarn.

maceratedlately i've been fascinated by the form of flowers as they are ravaged by the elements. my early mentor, angela danadjieva, used to buy a single stem of orchids and left them on her desk for months, watching and relishing the sublime forms as they withered and decayed. in college we studied "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful", by edmund burke, and i was rapped by the notion of beauty in decay. this has permeated my perception of idealized landscapes, and i guess in a way buttresses my devotion to providing habitat for wild species. when i see developers wipe a site clean of all it's indigenous materials i feel a blow to the stomach. degredation of habitat not only happens in china or south america but right here in a place where nature commands attention by it's enormous scale. when a builder, just for the heck of it, stripped the understory from the forest behind our house did he know that all the critters that used that place for forage and shelter would be displaced or killed? it was nesting season. the pheasants are ground nesters. was a generation wiped out? with a verdant garden the pheasants are here far more than they used to be when the forest was replete with hiding places. i just wish more would not see native habitat as an object to subdue, but as a nursery for a myriad of interconnected indigenous species.

is it fabric?no it's just a hosta leaf that was corrupted in photoshop. photoshop is so cool how it can change the perception of an object by adjusting its color. we are so conditioned to only think of leaves in terms of green or fall colors. but what if a leaf were cobalt blue? would we perceive it relative to the status of a flower? instead of just a leaf?

pistilokay, so i'm going to weigh in on all the da vinci code rhetoric and give a plug to the divine feminine. in the middle of a flower is the pistil. it is the female reproductive structure of a flower. all the other parts are arranged around this central figure. she is the axis around which all of nature rotates.oil on canvas, detail from 9 x 12" painting, from an exhibit of botanical paintings.

transformedinspired by the book "the art of chopping up a sweater" i bought a used men's golf sweater, felted it, removed the ribbing on the cuffs and bottom of the sweater, then added the decorative knitted trim and some flowery brass buttons from my grandmother's button box.

these leaves look as if i used my pinking shears on them. it's in the saxifraga genus. i'll have to try to find the tag for it to find the species name.