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My Latest Boston Trip

May 19, 2012 by Clareannette

I just got home today from a great trip to Boston; my first day there, my second cousin Katy Miles very kindly hosted a get-together at her home in Dorchester where I could see my cousins. I had a chance to meet up once again with folks whom you’d think I’d feel distantly related to…but don’t. It’s not that I know anyone really well;  it’s just funny to me that our shared Newfoundland gene pool seems to have a small selection of commonly replicated traits which we share. Nuttiness being chief among them. In the above photo–aside from me, my lovely aunt Mary and my brother John–there are by my counting 8 O’Neil and Tranford second cousins and some of their partners and spouses.

I had a really nice time at an afternoon game at Fenway Park. Here I am with my brother John. Despite all the scratching of body parts, spitting, prima donna behavior by players and absurdly high ticket prices, I like the actual game of baseball.

I know my Aunt Mary feels she is not nearly as photogenic as she was in her youth (who is?) but agism is a terrible problem in our culture, and I think this photo shows engagement with life and joy in good company makes everyone–regardless of age–great material for a photo:

I didn’t do any real gardening chores this time around. I just transplanted a hydrangea….

…and some echinacea…

I was constantly amused by the wild turkeys dining at the backyard bird feeder. I’m so glad I don’t have that birdseed bill!

The 3 hour time difference is catching up with me so that’s all for now!

Posted in Aylward/O'Neil family | Leave a Comment »

Small Garden Update

May 9, 2012 by Clareannette

This is how part of my yard looks like. I’m leaving for Boston Friday, will be gone a week and will not be using any mobile devices or computers: so no blog updating. I also have some tendonitis in my wrist from mouse-scrolling at work: so, the less typing the better. It’s a great time to get on a plane, for me, as I’ll have some movement restrictions in my hand until this gets better.

So here are some photos of what’s going on in my yard. I have a nice columbine that is finally flowering:

There are the apricots, they were all picked today.

I dug up the small raised beds and moved the frame, they’ll be used later. I planted a sage garden this space, but I can’t find the photos I took so next time…

I’ll be back here May 20th to post photos of my Boston trip!

 

Posted in Sonoran Desert Gardening | Leave a Comment »

Clare and Bearbear: Therapy Team!

May 8, 2012 by Clareannette

Bearbear just passed his exam to be a therapy dog; of course, as his handler, I had to pass the test, too. I think I was the bigger variable, personally.

Of course, Bearbear did very well. Except for the part where he had to demonstrate his excellent “down”. He had to do this after the part of the test where he was intentionally startled, to assess his overall composure. He was fine, but after being scared he gave me this look (pardon me for anthropomorphizing) that said, “You expect me to do WHAT after THAT?” I had to try 3 times but he finally agreed to work with me.

We took a 2 month-long class to prepare for the test. Then a trip to the vet for a $120 signature to say he’s healthy. Then, all the paperwork was submitted along with a fee for registration and insurance to Pet Partners, the national organization for therapy animals. This is the photo I sent them: I hope it can be used for our badge. This photo is a few years old, my sister took it:

Once we get our badge, we’ll be volunteering a few days a month at the hospital where I work, as well as the Ronald McDonald house which is very close to my home: even therapy dogs need easy commutes!

Posted in Bearbear and Baxter | Tagged , | Leave a Comment »

Shadow Fabric Part 2

May 6, 2012 by Clareannette

I took the fabric I made last weekend (see previous post) and pinned it down today and stuck some more contact-paper shapes on top. Then I applied another layer of screen-printed dye paste. This is how it looked before the dye:

A close up…I’m a bit tired of cutting out the same shapes!

Once the first layer of dye dried, I carefully unstuck the shapes and reapplied them in different spots on the fabric and screen-printed on more dye. Here’s the yardage drying out on the patio. I don’t “proof” or “cure” or “batch” anything; most advice and tips on dyeing fabric calls for the dyed fabric to be sealed in a plastic bag overnight to get the maximum amount of dye.  Sometimes I’ll let something sit that has a lot of nuance; but in this case, after a few hours in the sun this fabric was tossed in the wash. Once dried, this is how both pieces of fabric look:

Here’s a close up:

And another close-up:

I’m generally quite pleased. I’m able to see how everything is going to fit together now; I just need to keep at it and hope to have this project done by the end of summer.

Posted in Art Quilt Project: January 8 Shooting, Art Quiltmaking Design, Screen Printing Fabric | Tagged | 2 Comments »

Screen Printed Shadow Fabric

April 29, 2012 by Clareannette

Above is the fabric I posted about last time; this is how it now looks with a fourth layer of dye, which I sponged on yesterday afternoon. Now it has even more depth.

I screen printed some new fabric today. I made stencils of 2 shapes–a man and a girl, I did a test run a few months ago–and cut them out of solid white contact paper and stuck them to some white cotton sateen:

Here’s a general idea of the yardage. This is one of two bath-towel-lined boards with cotton sateen pinned to the top; the fabric wasn’t entirely flat and secure the whole time, which is technically sloppy but makes for some interesting shapes:

And here is what the first layer of screen-printed dye looked like:

I waited for the first layer to dry, then carefully unpeeled the stencils and reapplied them to the stiff (the dye mix has sodium alginate, a thickening agent, which dries stiff) fabric. They aren’t quite as sticky as they are the first time, but with care they can be used twice. Which is good, because cutting those shapes over and over again gets a bit tiring!

This is what the fabric looks like after a second application of dye:

This is the same fabric, after being washed:

The second bit of yardage started yellow, too; this one had turquoise as a second layer and this is how it looks now:

From the detail below, which is looking pretty good I think, you can see a few examples of less-than-technically-perfect screen-printing technique; there are some blotches and variations in color.

I will screen-print both of these again with 2 different colors. But not until later this week. So far I think it’s looking pretty good.

Posted in Art Quilt Project: January 8 Shooting, Art Quilts | Leave a Comment »

Flour Paste Resist and Canning Beets

April 24, 2012 by Clareannette

I took a few days off from work and managed to get a few things done. Such as cook all those beets.

I decided to make pickled beets. My secret weapon was to be horseradish root (see above) but the recipe I used called for so much apple cider vinegar, there really is not much else to taste.

Good thing I have another 10# of beets to pickle. I can make a sweet-and-sour pickle next time. And yes, all the jars below went into a hot water bath and all sealed very nicely. That’s 2 1/2 gallons of beets!

I also managed to get some fabric dyed for my January 8th Shooting quilt.  I want to have a big piece of sunny-sky fabric; because, although the topic is not an upbeat one, the weather was really beautiful that day.

So here I have some cotton sateen clipped to a padded piece of big plywood. I’ve brushed flour paste in the shape of clouds on to the fabric; it dries yellow. I think I like flour paste resist so much because of my affinity for baking and cooking. I mean, how convenient, right?

After I sponged on the dye, and after the flour paste complete dried, this is what my dyed and puckered fabric looked like.

The first dye application is light; you can hardly see anything in the fabric below, but this is how it looked after the first application of dye, and with the cloud-shapes once again painted with flour resist.

This is how the fabric looks after 2 applications of dye. It’s getting better….

Once again, I dried the fabric, clipped it to the plywood and brushed on the flour resist. I put some soda ash water in a sprayer bottle and misted the fabric as I sponged on the dye; this seemed to fix the dye better than soaking the fabric in soda ash water and then letting it dry. That’s what I did the first time, which is why I think the initial dye application was so faint.

Here is the fabric, mostly dry (any gray is from dampness, not dye!); it’s almost done. I think it needs one more bit of dye and I need to tone down the yellow a bit.

Posted in Art Quilt Project: January 8 Shooting, Art Quilts, healthy cooking | Tagged , | Leave a Comment »

Beet Procrastination

April 22, 2012 by Clareannette

If I’d properyly thinned my beet patch, things wouldn’t have gotten out of control.  I knew I was in trouble when they started going to seed; I deadheaded the tops, to avoid (I hoped) too woody and tough a beet root. I somehow just could not get around to dealing with all the beets. So my mom came up to Tucson to help me today.

Here she is, about to dig in; her enthusiasm is almost alarming to me, given how I’ve put this job off forever and ever:

My mom insisted on a photo of my giant beets. I didn’t think big beets were anything to be proud of, they indicate procrastination to me; but of course I took the photo, given all the help I was getting!

Not only did my mom pick the beets (and carrots and parnips still left in the ground) she cleaned them and trimmed them!

I gave her the parsnips and carrots, and in return I now have a big bowl of sliced raw beets in my kitchen. Tomorrow I’m making pickled beets!

Posted in Sonoran Desert Gardening | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

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