The sunflowers in my yard have been prolific and resilient against the drought and voracious grasshoppers! I decided to try to capture the last few rays of summer with another batch of gelatin plate prints.
The sunflowers were added after the leaves were dry. I need to decide soon if I want flowers printed on the other two leaf prints. Soon the frost will make the sunflowers disappear until next summer!
He was covered with burrs, and still looking for grub.
I wanted to use up some of my scraps, and wanted to limit myself to using only scraps of fabric that I have dyed or painted or discharged. I wanted to use rust dyed fabric, because that is what I used to make the valance in the kitchen. I wanted to mix in some black because my new china is black. After sorting through the scrap bin, I discovered I did not really have a lot of small scraps of my own hand dyed, printed, discharged fabrics. I started sewing strips together, anyway, and then cut them down to a 3 1/2 inch width and kept sewing, making a long strip. This was pieced into the larger pieces of rust dyed fabric.
I have two more placemats and a table runner to finish the quilting on - then I will bind them with solid black - which will look striking with my black dishes, I think.
Here is a detail of the screen printed bottom fabric strip. The background was painted with Setacolor Transparent Fabric Paints. The Thermofax screen is adapted from a photo I took of a hedge located in Harlotown, MT.
Hand dyed cotton, Thermofax screen printed with a screen created from my photograph of a grazing angus at my parent's ranch. Machine quilted.
I wish the top right panel was not so light, but I think I can fix this with the quilting lines.
The Studio Art Quilt Association Online Fundraiser kicked off last week.
After slobbering on the window, the bear proceeded to tip over the pet food bin and at that point, we decided to try hazing it away.
The bear was not very fearful and even though we shouted and threw things at it, it lingered. Finally it walked away around the house. Later, we discovered it was at the old apple tree out front. 
We watched this bear climb the tree several times eating apples. We thought it left after that, but we later discovered it had gotten into our trash bin out in the cul-de-sac (we have never had any creature disturb our trash before! ) Everything is now safely stowed away in the shop under lock and key. This bear may return sometime soon, but we won't have anything for it to eat!
One of the biggest challenges to visiting Yosemite National Park is finding a place to sleep!
I had carefully researched campgrounds on the outer fringes of the park. We knew it would be nearly impossible to find a spot, but we timed our arrival around noon (check out time for campgrounds). Even though the sign at Ellery Lake Campground said it was full, we took a chance and drove in to look around. Surprisingly, there were only 14 spots in the entire campground, but there were two open ones!
We felt very lucky to have a place to pitch our tent. And it was a beautiful spot, too! These pictures were taken at dawn the morning we left.
I inherited my mother-in-law's satin fabric collection. She died before I met my husband, Joe.
We found this stump a ways off the road in Yosemite, where we set up our little barbeque grill and cooked some burgers. No need for a picnic table!
The two mile hike to Taft Point was another favorite for us.
With great valley views.
