Stitching Hands Studio

Parade Weather **

If you don't follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Flickr or Tumblr, or happen to get the local paper, then you haven't seen this photo yet!  I get a kick out of our daily duck parade everytime I see  it.  They go by the house multiple times a day, from the pond to the left of the photo, past our house and up the street to rest in the lawns of houses on the other street.  Why they do it is a big mystery to me.  They hardly ever stop in our yard to rest.  

Anyway, I admit to taking way too many duck photos since we moved in here.  I just think they are adorable.  It wasn't until I took this one that I knew I had a winner.  I posted it to Facebook and all the other sites above and after a while thought, what the heck, I'll send it to the Bulletin because they are accepting reader photos.  The Pacific Northwest has had an incredible weather week.  Heavy snow Tuesday into Wednesday morning when I took this photo.  None too soon as it turned to rain right after and became a squishy, sloppy, dirty mess.  So, I got an email from the chief copy editor on Wednesday night asking if I had taken the photo that day.  I said yes of course.  The next day this is what I saw.

My photo was at the top of the article with three other snowy day photos.  Totally cool!  Well, my duck shooting (and I mean that in the nicest possible way) days are not over by a long shot.  Here's one the day after.  This is the "pond" that used to be the street in front of our house.

And here's a Hipstamatic shot I took this morning looking the other way, toward the river.  They come up from the river to the right of that house .  They are only heading back toward the river because I came out and disturbed them by taking a photo.  I'm sure when I left they went about their duck parade business.

Here's another one from December.  Well, I've said before how much I love a parade.  They are one of life's little pleasures and I'm just thrilled that we get to experience several per day here.

**Parade Weather is the title the Bulletin gave to my photo.  I think, really, that for a duck, any weather is parade weather!

Happy Winter Solstice!

My Solstice cloth is done. I love this one.  I just decided to wing (if you'll pardon the pun) the owl and I like it.  The trees were inspired by Jude's solstice trees last year.  The owl by Janet Bolton.  I had so much fun with this, expect more of these.  Click to see details.

I also like the back.  Iquilted it free hand, just changing direction on a whim.  I did Jude's technique of quilting behind something like the trees, but only going through the back layer. It looks more uniform that way, but doesn't interfere with the shapes on the front.  Signed it in stitch.  This is my new preference.  I am still working on that signature post.  Sometime soon, I promise!

This is our amazing winter view from the kitchen corner of the house.  It's sort of a mysterious view, but with the  leaves gone we can see the river and Mt. Bachelor.  This little lighted tree feels like a special gift just for us.  

I wish you a safe and joyous holiday, whatever you celebrate.  I think I might take a blog break.  Don't expect a whole lot of posting til after the new year, but I may pop in once or twice to share photos.  

Over the river and through the woods to Portland we will go

Friday was our first big storm of the winter and of course, the day I was heading over the pass to get Chloe for her Thanksgiving break.  The drive over the pass was super slow, but beautiful.  We spent the weekend in Portland before heading home.  It was so nice to spend some one on one time with this grown up girl.

Portland was in fine form, with some real sun and cold temperatures.  We did tons of shopping, walking and eating.

Portland is well known for it's food carts which pop in places all over the city.  We found one that was new to us and had some real gourmet waffles.

We saw this totally cool Kodachrome window in the Anthropologie store.  

Saturday night we went to an amazing production of Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol.  The writing, acting and set were so well done.  I would love to see more plays at the Artists Repertory Theater.  Now we have a whole week off to bake, make stuff and hang out.  Bliss!

A November Habit

I"ve been contributing to the habit group at Flickr.  Only a couple of mine have been published on the habit blog, but it's been an interesting exercise nonetheless.  A daily photo and just a few words. I may continue beyond November...  

Happy First Day of Spring!

Ha, ha, ha....

A little winter cloth

Thanks to Jude's holiday cloth series, I started this several weeks ago.  As usual, other items caught my attention in the weeks leading up to Christmas, but I finally got back to it after New Year's.

I love the ragged edge trees and that moon!  It's a shibori moon from Glennis.  My intention was to celebrate the winter solstice lunar eclipse. 

More snowflakes need to be sewn, not sure what to do after that?  Any thoughts?

On another note, Chloe just got her second college acceptance- to her preferred college and again with a hefty scholarship.  Yay- way to go Chloe!

Finding the Perfect Tree

We headed out to Black Butte a couple of weeks ago just after a warming spell to pick the perfect tree.

It was warm enough (57 degrees) for a picnic!  Okay, that's just warm enough to justify eating outside, but we didn't hang around.  We packed up as soon as we finished eating and headed up the butte.

That's the one!  With a Forest Service permit of $5 we could cut our own tree and there are so many to choose from.

Chloe did the cutting this time.

Ryan helped Grampa with his tree.

One for us and one for Grammy and Grampa!  

Christmas Kayak Parade

On the Deschutes River in Bend.  It's exceedingly difficult to take photos with no flash on a bridge with lots of people and no tripod, but they are pretty anyway!

Happy Solstice!

This photo was actually taken a few nights ago, but last night was crystal clear here and we got a fantastic view of the lunar eclipse.  Today we'll be making Ryan's solstice cake, a tradition that he came up with after we moved here 6 years ago.  He wanted to make a Christmas cake, but we have so many cookies for Christmas I convinced him that the solstice was a perfect cake making day.  Do you have any special solstice traditions?  I'd love to hear about your summer solstice traditions too if you happen to be enjoying summer right now.

4:46 pm

I'll be back soon with the goings on around here!