rust

i hope mr. likes his new scarf.  

each stitch is an exercise in love; 

and there are a lot of stitches.

december's gifts

 a simple wreath this year of red twig dogwood, variegated holly, eucalyptus and magnolia buds.

 this has been the best year so far for december camellias.

such a wonderful december treat in the gloom of the northwest.

puddy is sticking close by to keep warm.

merino + rosehips

yesterday was one of the hardest days!  i dropped off both of my babies at the airport for their year in France and a year and a half in England.  i was a mess of tears.  i went to IKEA, near the airport, and got a text from my girl saying she was boarding her plane and bye. tears dripped into my rosehip drink.  on the ferry ride home i got a text from my boy saying he was boarding his plane, just as i was listening to "i hope you have the time of your life" from the playlist he had made for me. next stop Reykjavik. then when i arrived home i was met at the front door with a big box that contained a merino sweater that my mom had made for me.  what excellent timing as a pick-me-up.  it's gorgeous and only took her a month to make!  amazing!  i won't normally wear it with the watermelon pants but i just had to take a picture right away to send to my mom with the thank you note.  my mom is the queen of cable knitting.  can you believe that this was made by an 85 year old????  she says that knitting keeps her brain challenged.  what could be more challenging than cable patterns, when she doesn't even look at a pattern, but memorizes it?!  what a mom!  best wishes for your new life in Europe my babies!

on film!

my fiberwork for PATH is featured in a video about Agency, who coordinated the exhibit and event, along with Melinda Gates!  yah!

We Are Agency from WGHA on Vimeo.

Gardening Books

(Robin's Meadow, pastel)

At work, months ago, I was asked to produce a list of my favorite gardening books (which I just came across). My boss said that he didn't read very much (what?!!!), and asked me to speak about gardening books to augment his brief presentation at a local bookstore. Here's my list, in no particular order (I discussed my 5 favorites, but here's the long list): 

Insituto Geografico de Agostini Novara, Monumenti d'Italia Ville e Giardini 

Mosser, The Architecture of Western Gardens 

Hazelhurst, Gardens of Illusion 

Dan Hinkley, Winter Ornamentals 

Kruckeberg, Gardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest 

Grant, Trees and Shrubs for Pacific NW Gardens 

Bryant, Propagation Handbook 

Solomon, Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades 

Colebrook, Winter Gardening 

Jane Brown, Gardens of a Golden Afternoon 

Roger Grounds, Ornamental Grasses 

LH Bailey, How Plants Get Their Names 

Rosemary Verey, The Englishwoman's Garden 

The American Horticultural Society, Encyclopedia of Garden Plants 

Sudworth, Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope 

Pojar + Mackinnon, Plants of the Pacific NW Coast 

Emily Brown, Landscaping with Perennials 

Bruce, Winterthur in Bloom 

Penelope Hobhouse, Color in Your Garden 

Stephen Lacey, Scent in Your Garden 

Penelope Hobhouse, Garden Style 

Oehme + Van Sweden, Bold Romantic Gardens 

Rosemary Verey, The Art of Planting 

Reader's Digest, Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants + Flowers 

Gertrude Jekyll, color Schemes for the Flower Garden 

Karson, Fletcher Steele Landscape Architect 

GC Taylor, The Modern Garden 

William Robinson, The Wild Garden 

Patrick Blanc, The Vertical Garden 

Louisa Jones, The Art of French Gardening 

L Jones, Gardens of Provence 

Stephen Mansfield, Japanese Stone Gardens

To prepare for my exhibit opening i doodled mendhi on my feet and made a dress from fabric that my husband brought back from Shanghai many years ago.  The fabric is a yummy chocolate brown (not really how it shows up in the photo). 

'Anticipation' is now on display at the Intiman Theater at the Seattle Center in conjunction with the Global Health Exhibit in the next 50 plaza. The piece illustrates a segment of PATH's Sure Start program in India.  The border represents the 200 rupees (each disk is the size of a 2 rupee coin) needed to transport a woman in labor to a safe health care facility instead of giving birth at home where mortality rates are very high.  200 rupees is about $10. and that's what it takes to save the life of a new born and the mother.  The father in the piece is putting a coin into a traditional terracotta bank, held by his daughter, as savings towards the cost of transportation.  The piece has an excerpt from a poem by Swami Vivekananda, that is embroidered, which reads:

Before the sun, the moon, the earth,
Before the stars or comets free,
Before e'en time has had its birth,
I was, I am, and I will be.

The fiberwork is made out of cotton, silk, linen and mylar.  The rupee border is also a take on shisha embroidery in India that uses tiny mirrors to repel the evil eye.  
This was such a fun piece to work on and I'm happy to have it eventually go to PATH's Seattle offices.

Anticipation

 I'm working on a new commission that illustrates a segment of PATH's (a global health organization) maternal health initiative in India.  It will be on display at McCaw Hall in Seattle for a global health gathering (featuring Melinda Gates as the keynote speaker), then on to the Intiman Theater at the Seattle Center, as part of the Century 21 exhibit, and then will go to PATH's headquarters.  Like the Greenbelt project this is a fiberwork with a deeply personal connection.  I have researched traditional Indian landscape paintings, clothing, embroideries, plants and native birds that conspire to hopefully create a deeply rooted piece.

Here's just a peek.