Reusable bags.

A plastic bag ban goes into effect today in our little town. Here are some ideas for reusable ones. I have a couple like this first one...they're great because they fold up and fit in your purse so easily! The other bags I tend to forget to bring with me.

And by the way, Happy November!

Western Washington University.

I went up to Bellingham yesterday to visit my daughter. What a gorgeous fall day! First we went out to Lake Whatcom, where she rows in the morning, then we spent some time on campus, did some shopping, and finished the day with a Mexican dinner in town. The WWU campus has one of the largest outdoor sculpture parks in the west, if not the nation.

Weekend.

It's a cold, rainy weekend here in the Pacific Northwest. But I brought a last burst of summer into the house with the last bouquet of hydrangeas. Hope you are having a nice weekend.

Stains.

Fall, on Winslow Way.

Heart rock.

This one was just too big to bring home...

Billy Collins.

There are lots of perks when you work for a museum! This weekend was one of them. We hosted the former U.S. and New York State Poet Laureate, Billy Collins, and he did three events for us, two of them fundraisers. I got him to sign the little haiku he wrote and I letterpressed. He is a wonderful, down-to-earth man and very approachable. And his poetry is so loved by so many people including me now. I got to have dinner with him and a group of other museum people last night...I'm still smiling.

Life on an island...

Ferry schedule, on my son's hand!

Letterpress.

Excuse the absence. I've been in an all-day three-day workshop in Seattle...everything else has suffered and now it's straight back to work this morning. House is a mess, the emails and snail mail have piled up, and the refrigerator is empty! It'll take me a couple of days to catch up, but it was well worth it. Here are a few images...

Bye bye baseball!

Well, bye to the regular season anyway and bye to the Mariners until spring 2013. The postseason starts on Friday! I'm off to the game today against the Angels...both teams are out of it so it should be a fun, relaxed game. On the other hand, there are a couple of races that will be decided today...Yankees and Baltimore, and Oakland vs. Texas...those will be nail biters!

Bold Expressions.

I almost forgot to put together a blog post for the last day of the month...after blogging every day in September! It was a busy day...the highlight being a trip to the Bellevue Arts Museum to see "Bold Expressions: African American Quilts from the Collection of Corrine Riley." I had been meaning to get there since it opened in June and finally made it today, one week before it closes. I'm so glad I did...the show is amazing. Quilts from mostly the 30's and 40's and mostly from the south. A lot like Gee's Bend quilts, which I love. Some of these pics are mine, some are from the internet. A lot of mine on the iPhone were too blurry. If you're in the Seattle area this week, this is definitely worth the trip over to Bellevue!

This one was my favorite!

Heath.

Dreaming of being able to shop here with an unlimited budget!

It's the new Heath Ceramics store in San Francisco. Read about it here in Dwell.

Happy Friday. Happy Fall.

I'm so happy it's Friday!!!

Papercut.

This was a birthday card from my friend Linda. She found an image that she really liked and mounted it on black, then on the card. I love it! Well, a bunch of us met at the Treehouse to celebrate our birthdays and it turns out another friend, celebrating with us, her daughter actually designed and cut each of these (plus a few more) as a logo for Taste of Lynwood. She's a young mom and teacher here on the Island, but I think she should be doing her art full time...she's super-talented in my opinion.  You can find her blog here.

More links.

bookhou at home.

Black Eiffel.

A Day in the Country.

MaeMae Paperie.

Oh Happy Day!

SF Girl by Bay.

There are so many more, but these are few at the top of my list, where I go for inspiration. Enjoy.

Quilting blog links.

A couple of years ago our computer died and I lost the links in my favorites file, among them were my favorite blogs. Well I just found a list of them and I feel like I just found some old friends. A bunch of them are no longer posting, but here are a few that are still going strong I'm happy to report (and share)....

http://amyscreativeside.com/

http://bluenickelstudios.com/

http://www.modabakeshop.com/

http://www.sewjoycreations.com/

http://stitchindye.blogspot.com/  (This one is on my blog list now. I'll add the others after cleaning the list up...it's getting too long.)

I'm looking for inspiration! Christmas is three months from today. I gotta get sewin'.