La Veta dining



Bye Bye my American pie ...

Perusing some of the gastronomic wonders of our trip ..  the slow food devotees,  Ryus Avenue Bakery , and their food products were something to behold. Not just because the bakery is only open three days of the week - but that the queue to get the food is mind boggling - and the locals go early before the tourist steam train from Alamosa arrives (a few times a week). The bakery website apologises for the queue being out the door in peak months!!!  So ... a Canadian friend I work with informed me one day, when I produced a home-made lemon meringue pie for morning tea, that in North America there was an entire food group called "pie". One of the "bucket list" items from the trip was that I wanted to try real American pie - and thanks to the Ryus Avenue Bakery, I did! Home made fresh cherry pie. I can still taste it ....


Chicago was no where in sight ...

And to complete the menu, I also had the not-so- inconsequential Chicago Hot Dog as a first course ... and it was absolutely, totally delicious. Indescribable doesn't cover it -  and I managed to inhale it without the aid of  antacid. The only thing better than the dog was the bowl of 'slaw accompanying the future heart attack.  All of us saved our packets of accompanying potato crisps for ... Ernest. The breads produced in this bakery were so good it ruined out taste buds and expectations for the next few weeks ...  C'est La Veta and thanks to Sue Dennis' blog for reminding me that some of the food on our trip was gastronomically delightful!

La Veta locals

La Veta locals ...

A bit of fun today as a disc arrived from Judith - it really is amazing how the same people at the same event appear to take the same photos ... and you know the rest! When we were travelling, La Veta was such a special place - for so many reasons. The local deer - I think it would be true to say you can do just about anything in La Veta within reason - but speeding is truly a crime because you might hit one of the local ... deer. They are timid and cautious - and if you drive slow enough, or are simply lucky enough as we were - you will see mum and baby pop over a fence (far more athletic than this body I can tell you), Mum puts baby bambi into someone's back yard with instructions to stay put, and then pops back over the fence to graze on the footpath.We would return to Judith's and Ernest's place after lunch past a beautiful  adobe church - where the deer would snooze in the beginnings of the afternoon shade ... absolutely carefree (while remaining timid and cautious) of humans .... so this photo from Judith took me back to sharing the streets with the local deer folk.

Soluble leaf play

Adding another dimension ...

Forget what I said about lessons learned ... I'm trying to develop the habit of looking at things afresh - like treating yesterday's piece as a "blank canvas". So I got some soluble base and put it in a hoop, then made a few leaves using the darning foot and a zigzag stitch  - and after they were rinsed out and dried, I couched the long ones to the existing piece in gold thread, then bonded the original square to another piece of indigo dyed fabric  - and then couched the larger leaf  on the left - positioned it across the two pieces. I still think less might have been more ... but I'm on a roll ... a learning curve rather than a roll ... and I'll stop fiddling with it now and move on.

Leaf stitching

Leaf stitching

Free motion stitching with either the stitch regulator or the "pogo" stick is a relatively quick way of practising  thread drawing and different designs. The feed dogs get dropped and the needle pressure dropped to "zero" enabling easy movement around the bonded tissue and felt. I make up multiple bonded pieces at a time and keep them handy. They are approximately 15 x 20 cm rectangles. When opportunities  to stitch arise, no matter how short, it's great to threadplay on smaller pieces. The stitched leaves were created using two embroidery threads together - some with two similar greens, others by combining a medium with a darker shade, and finally mixing a dark olive green with a brown umber tone.  Finishing the piece with gold thread in broken lines did not work for me (that was my contribution to the exercise) and another lesson in the "less is more" bucket.

Bay leaves ...

The leaf design was based on bay leaves from our tree - one fresh and lemony green new, the other aged and olive tough. They were scanned through the printer then resized a few times, copied and reverse imaged, pasted etc until the page to be printed was filled. There is such beauty in repetition - both of shape and colour.
I now wish I had a photo of my father's hankies - one washing day all 200 of them it seemed were lined up in groups of two or three like Tibetan flags ... on a single length of line. The power of repetition.

Cocoons in the conifer and Kate's cans



Leaf prints on tissue bonded to felt background

My crippled state since Monday morning has meant I got to spend the last two days in the studio ... working on Module 2 of Dale Rollerson's Playways on the Net. It's a multi-module arrangement available online via The Thread Studio. Module 1 intake appears closed at present - but thankfully modules 2 and beyond are alive and well.  I am having such a creative time sewing and stitching  my way through the workbook exercises - there's plenty of instruction to get started, but not enough that there's any danger of everyone turning out the same "stuff". I find it a place where I can get lost, very quickly, in experimentation.

Kate's stitchable tins

My efforts yesterday included the use of tissue paper, bonding agents, paint, felt, lino cuts, scanning, bay leaves, cocoons, copying, printing, cutting, enlarging, ironing and pressing, scrunching, burning, playing with netting, free motion stitching   ... and that was just one part of one exercise. Thanks to the WMBM for putting my lino cuts onto blocks for easier printing.
Kate came to visit last evening - and we spent much of the time just talking ... art quilts, sewing and stitching. After a short while the WMBM retreated to another part of the house and left us to discuss Kate's new tool being put to unusual use - the creme bru-thingy blowtorch that has been applied to empty Pepsi-max cans. I am yet to learn whether or not the brand is significant. For now I have been gifted a few sheets of soft and stitchable metal from which I can create something. You can see Kate's fun on her blog site.


Cocoon in the conifer

I found some cocoons in one of our conifers last year and watched them for many days and weeks. They were ten or so in number and would vibrate if disturbed. A rather large spider resided in adjacent fernery but I was unable to confirm whether there was any connection between them. The now empty cases remain in the tree, each cocoon bearing a tiny hole or two - for what reason or purpose I still don't know. I am quite taken with them. One has found its way to my journal and will be the basis of some design work.
Crippled state = danced too much on Sunday night at the wedding. Have not been able to move without significant and painful reminders that I'm not as good as I once was; but on Sunday night I was as good once as I ever was!!!  [Apologies to Toby Keith]

My best friend's wedding

Lolly and me ...

Yesterday, in spite of the rain, we sailed the Brisbane River celebrating Lorraine and Barrie's wedding. A different Lorraine from the one I travelled to the US with - and not the Lorraine who is my aunt, and not the Lorraine who is Chris's sister. The Lorraine ("Lolly") I've been friends and who has put up with me since I was almost 18. A rather long time ... and after being together for 15+ years together, Barrie and Lorraine made it official with 50 friends and relatives on board the Good Ship Lolly-pop. (Not it's real name, but I should have thought that one through before yesterday).
We all had an absolute hoot on board,  and managed to party on afterwards at the Shaftson Hotel  - before old age and tiredness sent us all home to beddy-byes. And just before anyone thinks it's all about me and Lolly, here's a photo of the groom-to-be offering a protective umbrella ...


Thar'  she blows ...

Happy sailing - on your honeymoon cruise and the rest of your lives.

Play in the studio

Pashmeena romping in the studio

This is my constant companion in the studio - Pashmeena  - who's adventures in life were the subject of various earlier posts. Pashmeena lives a comfortable life at Tarome - often found playing in the scraps and being a generally messy mouse. Since we live in a "blame free" household it is unfair to suggest any mess  is entirely of Pashmeena's making. But it is. I'm in the process of a big tidy up - which means opening every storage container and reminding myself of what's in there. So far I've had several "That's where you went!" and "oh dear, forgot about you" and shamefully, one "where did THAT come from?"

Lino cut leaf and print on paper

Last night I started work on Module 2 of Dale Rollerson's "Playways on the Net" through The Thread Studio. I so enjoyed Module 1 - and moved to Module 2 early last year. Which is where it stayed until last night. Module 2 is about "Lacey stuff" and I love the process of working through the book. I'm still on the first page of exercises. Some of it we've all done before - but I am inspired by the "new" ways of doing same or old things. What I have found particularly useful in is the discipline of keeping of samples in folders - techniques, what went right, what didn't go so well, processes rather than outcomes ... and they've become a real resource for current and future projects. Let's hope the rain doesn't clear up anytime soon!