Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Cheesecake in the Light - approx April 1990 to April 2009

Cheesecake in the Light

Cheesecake is gone. He died last Thursday. He was just 19 years old. That summer I was going to the pound, looking for my missing mama cat, and he was just the most irresistible kitten I had ever seen. (Hence his name.) He was about 2 weeks bigger than the kittens who had been born on my bed May 5. (Wake up. Squeaking by my feet. Kittens!) So I think he just turned 19.

Cheesecake, and those kittens whose mama went missing, and later Fussy, whom I got from the pound in October, all used to do something in the dark at night. They would all oodge up towards my face, kneading and purring like crazy, as if I were their mama. If one started, the others would join. I called it a purring fest.

In recent years, when only one cat got to sleep with me, he was the one. And sometimes he seemed to remember the purring fests from when he was young. It's the season when the cat starts sleeping on the bed again

In about the last 2 years he had become very skinny, but was still mobile and eating. In fact, until about 1 ½ weeks before he died, he was eating 2 cans of cat food a day. About 3 weeks earlier, the other cats killed a mouse - and before I got back with the camera to take a picture, Cheesecake ate half of it. A last memory of his hunting past.

One thing I finally found out, almost by accident, is that when they are getting weak, the easiest way for them to drink is from a drip onto a surface, like a sink or tub. I knew a cat years ago who only drank that way. We had a hot week, and Cheesecake was not sitting on his pad by the heater, but on the cool bricks. So I put him in the tub, where he used to like to be in the hot summer. And so, he was able to drink water from the drip, his last night.

I took this original photo in about the summer of 2003, and you can see he still looked young and beautiful. Then I added a layer of a pattern of light coming through one of the old windows here at sunrise or sunset, and tried different blending modes.

Goodbye Cheesecake. I love you.

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Sunday, April 19, 2009

Wildflower season

Lupines at Bridgeport, on Buttermilk Bend trail. Only the second time this year I've been there, since I've been working most weekends. This picture was taken on April 18 2009. Taking pictures on the way out, and trying to walk more on the way back.

I was looking for a photo op to illustrate "Only good dogs get to go for a walk on Buttermilk Bend trail", but there weren't nearly as many dogs out for a walk as on Easter Sunday.

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Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Spoonflower hooray!

At Spoonflower (www.spoonflower.com), you can upload a design, and get digitally-printed yardage with your design printed on it! I only have about 114 designs sent to them so far, and have gotten some successful samples in light and medium colors. *

This is a design that started as a small dye-painted square of test fabric. Then I scanned it, Photoshopped it to get many colors, and made an array so it could print as yardage. Soon I'll order a sample to see how the colors come out. Then if that works well, I'll get a couple of yards to make perhaps a knee-length vest, lined in a teal fleece which I got for that, and then found it didn't go with the batiks I intended to use. And it will be my unique fabric.

Your designs remain private unless you choose to make them public, but no one except your self can buy them now. Someday. Unless one of your designs is chosen to be in the weekly contest, and it wins - in which case people can buy it for a week. And you would win some fabric. Right now they're printing on a quilting-weight cotton. Other fabrics later. (Update: several more fabrics now available, in different widths.)

This is a lot of fun. Click on the fabric to see some of my other designs.


*(Dark or black backgrounds with low-contrast images don't work well.)


11-09 UPDATE Spoonflower now makes it possible for us to put our fabrics up for sale, but only the ones we have ordered swatches of. So I have a couple available for sale now, and more coming. This one soon. 11-29-09 This one is now available for sale: 
http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/111479

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Sunday, April 12, 2009

I'd forgotten I did these raven sketches


I found them going through old class files, looking for duplicates to delete.

I think they'll make fun fabric designs.

There are three ravens who hang around in the parking lot at work. One of my co-workers feeds them. If they're flying overhead and he calls, they come down. They have him trained to call when he has food for them.

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