past tense

Last weekend I took a wood block carving class and was reminded how much I enjoy carving and printing with artist's soft block material. Even a soft wood is difficult to cut, especially against the grain; the end of my index finger is still numb from the effort! But soft block is a pleasure to carve.

Several years ago, LK Ludwig hosted a swap where each participant submitted pages printed with carved stamps, along with vellum overlay sheets featuring a favorite ee cummings poem.
LK produced the covers and assembled everything into a book for each player.

My carvings, and chosen poem.

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

and Maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles, and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles; and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea

--ee cummings

getting messy

Good morning! It is very good here, with the sun out in full force. As you can see I'm under the influence of summery color, and a short online course with Traci Bautista, "Graffiti Panels". I'm working on canvas rather than cardboard panels with the intention of cutting up the canvas and incorporating it into book covers and other things.

Copy of a photo of my great-grandfather I came across recently. Handsome fellow.

Heading outdoors now...hope you have a wonderful weekend!

four letter word

One of my favorites. Right there on a canvas bag.

While browsing the other day I came across a free pattern for this market tote, designed by Denyse Schmidt. So natch, I had to stitch one up for myself. Love the slightly wonky letters, which are a little fussy to piece, but still fun. I'll no doubt be ordering The Proverbial Quilt pattern to get the entire alphabet.

Happy June

Hope you had a good holiday weekend...we had a little down time out at the beach with the biggest kids. I'm so looking forward to some sun, which is known to come out around July 4th here in the Northwest. An exceptionally wet May is behind us, thank goodness!

I'm scurrying around today, gathering and preparing stuff to take downtown for the library gift shop...some cards, bookmarks, and the canvases I've been working on. This is the latest and my favorite, I think; it feels personal in every way.