President Biden is not speaking yet, but they started streaming an hour ago, so I think it should be soon.
President Biden on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment Act (LIVE)Post + Comments (185)
This post is in: Biden Administration in Action, Open Threads
President Biden is not speaking yet, but they started streaming an hour ago, so I think it should be soon.
President Biden on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment Act (LIVE)Post + Comments (185)
by WaterGirl| 13 Comments
This post is in: On The Road, Photo Blogging
We are fortunate to live within an easy hour’s drive to this little corner of the Olympic National Forest (ONP), and it’s a lovely drive from Olympia along Hood Canal to Hoodsport to get there as well. Only marred by the last couple of miles thru National Forest land where the road is unpaved, and never in good repair. The forest, canyon and Skokomish river are always a cool, restful retreat, without too many tourists to deal with, and the trail is an easy two miles, with further options for those inclined. My husband and I took a quick jaunt up there in mid-June and spent a beautiful summer afternoon hanging out along the river. This is some of what we saw.
On The Road – Mike in Oly – Staircase, Olympic National Park, WAPost + Comments (13)
The main trail makes a loop up one side of the river and then crosses and comes back down the other side. At this point it ascends to a bluff above the river giving a nice bird’s eye view.
by WaterGirl| 55 Comments
This post is in: Political Action, Political Fundraising 2021-22
Inspired by Anonymous, who was inspired by HinTN who was inspired by Mousebumples who was inspired by MomSense, we have 3 more offers to match new Four Directions GA donations up to a total of $1,000! So much generosity on display here!!
I want to announce our 3 remaining matchers: Madeleine! frosty! la caterina!
Madeleine is first up for the 1,000 match today.
More news: Four Directions has not received confirmation yet on the potential match of $25k from an outside group, but I remain hopeful. In the meantime, Four Directions does have an offer in hand from someone else to match $7,000 of the remaining $9,500 that we are trying to raise. *Fine print: the $7,000 won’t show up in our thermometer, but it does help Four Directions come up with their $25,000 need for the joint project with Fair Fight.
So, starting when this post goes up, until we reach $1,000 in the comments, your donation will be double-double matched.If you donate, say $25, Madeleine matches that so it turns into $50, and then the outside person will match that, so it turns into $100. We already got to the $1,000 match amount from Madeleine!
In case you were told there would be no math, I’ll give you some of the answers:
$10 will turn into $40!
$25 turns into $100!
$50 turns into $200!
Any donation between $10 and $50 is eligible for your double match.
Tell us the amount of your donation in the comments, and they will match with that amount. The $1,000 donation will be made once $1,000 of matchable donations have been noted in the comments.
If you donate more than $50, Madeleine will match $50 of that.
Update: We’re at $1,000 in donations in the comments – so the match from Madeleine will be over, and we’ll be back to a single match from the external person who will match up to $7k. We’ll have another turn at double-double matches with the $1,000 matches from frosty and la caterina!
We will still have two more $!,000 matches this week from frosty and la caterina, and each of those will be double-double matches until they reach $1,000.
From myself, Balloon Juice, Four Directions, Fair Fight, native people and every other sane person in Georgia: thank you so very much!
Thank you to everyone who is making this happen! We can do this, right?
We Have Three $1,000 Matches for your Four Directions GA Donations!Post + Comments (55)
by WaterGirl| 18 Comments
This post is in: Albatrossity, On The Road, Photo Blogging
It’s still summer in flyover country. Then we head to a national park with Mike in Oly, then we’re with Bill in Glendale after dark, and we finish with a 2-day trip to the North Island in New Zealand with Paul in St. Augustine.
Week 2 of Summer in Flyover Country. Images of birds in flight, young birds and old birds, as well as some shots of birds in the middle of molting, a great summertime activity. Hope you enjoy them!
On The Road – Albatrossity – Summer in Flyover Country – week 2Post + Comments (18)
One last image from my trip to Quivira NWR; this Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) seems to be sleepy-eyed and has a serious case of bed-head. Even owls have bad hair/feather days, I guess.
by WaterGirl| 82 Comments
This post is in: Artists In Our Midst, On The Road, Photo Blogging
Making Art Cloth – by Faithful Lurker
Art cloth is cloth transformed by adding or subtracting color, line, shape, texture, value, or fiber to create a compelling surface.
That is the classic definition of art cloth. Most cultures have a tradition of taking plain cloth and turning it into a more decorative form. The Japanese have raised this to a spectacular art form with shibori, resists and embroidery. Africans have a long tradition of using color, weaving and dyeing to make extraordinary cloth.
I love dyeing cloth. I really like watching the colors run into each other and become another color. Like a flower with different shades of color on each petal. I started dyeing fiber when I was a weaver. I dyed my silk yarn in patterned colors and then wove it into big pieces.
In the mid 80’s we, my academic husband and I, spent a year in southern China,120 miles north of Hanoi. We went home and then 8 months later spent 2 years in Malaysia. Traveling put a stop to weaving but in Malaysia I studied hot wax batik with an Indonesian master. That cemented my love of changing the color of cloth and taught me the wonders of cold water procion dyes.
The next 10 years I made batik silk scarves and handmade books. I didn’t pay attention to the revolution going on in the quilt world until much later. It was changing from hand pieced, intricate and traditional patterns into something much more open and freer in expression.
Needless to say, there was a lot of pushback from traditional quilters. My own guild almost broke up over the question of machine piecing and machine quilting as opposed to hand piecing and hand quilting. The big quilting show, Quilt National (https://dairybarn>quiltnational,) erupted when an art quilt instead of a traditional quilt won best in show. Then came the quilts of Gee’s Bend( https://www.soulsgrowndeep.org) community and art quilters never looked back.
I belong to a group of fiber artists called The Art Cloth Network (artclothnetwork.com). There are 32 of us scattered across the US and Canada. Many of our members have never made a quilt but they make art with cloth. Two organizations that support art quilts and art cloth are the Studio Art Quilters Association (www.saqa.com) and The Surface Design Association (surfacedesign.org).
Surface design is a baffler, any painter works on the surface as do most other artists. If you want to get into a fierce discussion, ask a sculptor or painter or any artist about the legitimacy of fiber art and whether it is art. And once you’ve negotiated that thorny subject ask casually about the difference between art and craft. And then stand back while the fight rages on for hours.
photo credits: Myron Gauger
artshots.biz
Faithful Lurker – Making Art Cloth and Art Quilts!Post + Comments (82)
Let There Be Light. 44” X 56” Discharged and over dyed cotton
I principally do three forms of cloth dyeing, discharge, resists, and whole cloth dyeing Discharge involves removing color from cloth and then redyeing it.
by WaterGirl| 76 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
I’ve been working all day, but thought I would take a minute to stop and smell the roses.
Here’s my dinner-plate sized hibiscus bloom.
I love how it looks like the pink was hand-painted, but I promise it wasn’t.
Open thread.
by WaterGirl| 82 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Looks like we could use a new thread! Tom has started working on a new post, but I have no idea whether it will go up right away or not, so I will put this up in the meantime. I can always move it to a bit later if Tom’s post goes up soon.
Open Thread.