News From Norma

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-25T06:52:00.000-08:00

Art Squared

2012-01-22T10:25:00.001-08:00

FANE (Fiber Artists of the Northeast), a group of which I am a member will be putting on our third show this spring in the Mahopac Library. As in previous shows, our works will be mounted on white artist canvases, this time 18" square and our works have to be 12" square, thus the title. For our previous shows we have published books and will again this year, but Jane Davila, our fearless leader, decided that it would be fun if we also had tutorials in the book to explain a technique in our quilt.

I chose to do Skinny Wiggly piecing, a favorite of mine and this is my quilt, Summer Storm, which uses some of my snow dyed fabric, commercial batiks and Dupioni silk. More about the tutorial in another post someday. And it really is perfectly square, just bad photography. Sorry!

I thought that the quilt needed a little something extra and decided to do some beading. Here's a detail of one section, that is the vertical strip on the left side of the quilt, in which I did spaced beading, using beads of different sizes and shapes.

In the center of the quit I scattered seed beads and sewed them down. I wanted them to look very random. These are tiny seed beads, but this camera takes great macro shots.

Ethiopian Cuisine

2012-01-21T07:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my friend, Paula, and I had a unique art filled dining experience. We had lunch at Lalibela, an Ethiopian restaurant in Mt. Kisco, NY. Paula's good friend, Ken Kurzweill, is a serious photographer who recently returned from a photo shooting expedition in Ethiopia. He stayed mostly in remote villages and got the most incredible pictures that are on display and for sale at this restaurant.

Be sure to click on the picture for a bigger view. Paula has purchased the photo on the lower left corner of the postcard and it was right over our table where we ate. There is a young boy with the most beautiful face under all that paint .

I had never eaten Ethiopian food before and wasn't sure what to expect, but it was quite delicious. I thought of having Paula take the picture after we had already started eating, so it's a little messed up. The food is served on a pizza tin lined with injera, the staple bread of Ethiopia, made from Teff seeds grown in that country. It is a thin crepe like bread with a spongy appearance that is used to scoop up the food. You can use the injera on the platter or use the smaller rolled up pieces that that bring you on a smaller plate.

I don't care for food that is too spicy, so we stayed away from those. In the center of the platter is a beef dish, small pieces of tender stewed beef in a delectable sauce. On either side of the platter was a fabulous avocado salad, very similar to the Guacamole salad that I make, but minus the black beans. On the side closest to you is a beet and carrot salad, also delicious, and on the far side is a lentil dish that was too spicy for me. The meal is meant to be shared. I only used a little of the bread, not wanting that many carbs, and mostly used my fork. At the end of the meal there was nothing left on the injera but the lentils.

A Great Day!!

2012-01-15T14:26:00.000-08:00

Peter Brady, a member of my church, St. Joseph's in Brookfield, CT, runs a wonderful ministry. He started it 12 years ago when he retired and decided to rake a couple of lawns for elderly or sick neighbors who were unable to do it for themselves. That part of his ministry grew and grew so that now he has about 1,000 volunteers each fall to do about 80 homes. He was featured on NBC news last year and you can read about it here.

Peter's ministry has gone far beyond raking leaves and now does many things to help out those who are less fortunate, the homeless, the down trodden, the down on their luck. He has done complete home makeovers, put in handicapped ramps, fixed electrical problems, painted houses, and much, much more with his core of volunteers. Last week he heard of a single mother who had been homeless until a few weeks ago. Hers was a sad story. She was a cancer surviver twice with a double mastectomy; her 5 year old daughter's father was killed in a car crash when she was pregnant, so the little girl had never known him; her ex-husband was abusive and was responsible for the death of her 9 year old son in a DUI; she lost her elderly parents after caring for them, and was left homeless for various reasons. Through one charitable organization, she was able to find an apartment and get a part time job. She does have a college degree and is also a LPN. All she had was a single bed that she was sharing with her daughter and some odds and ends of kitchen things picked up at Good Will. She was able to pay the rent and buy groceries, but there was no money for anything else.

Peter sent out a call to his over 2,000 email recipients and within 2 days got enough new or very good used things to furnish the apartment. Yesterday morning was a bitterly cold day with temps in the teens and wind chills in the single numbers, but thankfully no snow on the ground or in the air. With a rented van, eight strong men and three women (including my friend Claire and me and now a new friend, Mary) spent the day yesterday putting it all together. Everything had to be carried up the outside staircase into the second floor apartment. Getting some of the furniture in was very tricky, especially the couch and big triple dresser. Of course we let the big strong men do all the heavy lifting and carrying and we three gals did the sprucing up, making beds, hanging pictures and giving it a woman's touch.

The kitchen before. Fortunately the apartment was very clean and freshly painted, so we didn't have to do any of that.

Kitchen after with new microwave, toaster oven, dishes, pots and pans and silver that match and a new green color scheme. The sink and refrigerator are behind me in the picture.

Living room before, devoid of any furniture, but cluttered with black trash bags full of her clothes and other belongings. She had cleared that all out before we got there.

Living room after with new rug, like-new leather couch and chair, coffee table, end tables, matching floor lamps and the wall behind me has a triple dresser for storage and a new small TV on top.

Child's room before where they both had been sharing a bed. This all went to go in the trash.

Child's room after with gently used trundle bed, pretty gently used rug, and all new bedding. What little girl would not love this color scheme?

Child's room again with a desk with pink bean bag chair beneath. The pink TV is only good for watching DVD's, but how cute is that? How about that lamp? There is a matching bed-side table.

Master bedroom before with only an empty bed-frame.

Master bedroom after. The bedding was my contribution. I had such fun shopping and found everything at Home Goods. Someone else donated the pretty headboard and new carpet.

Master bedroom again with double dresser and mirror. There was also a matching bed-side chest.

The apartment was very bright with plenty of window and mini-blinds on the windows. Too bad we couldn't do some sort of window treatments, but the blinds looked quite nice. We also wished that one of us had thought to take fresh flowers for the kitchen table.

Here's the group loading up the van with our bright red Handy Dandy Handyman (the name of Pete's ministry) T-shirts on.

Busy bee workers in the kitchen cleaning out and relining drawers.

Enjoying a pizza feast after the work was done. We got it all done in about three hours and then the women and Pete went back after lunch for the finishing touches, like hanging pictures and getting rid of all our empty bags.

It was such a fun and rewarding day. The client was out all day working and wouldn't be home until later. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when she saw our results.

Finally!

2012-01-13T11:06:00.000-08:00

The Andrew Lloyd Webber Broadway version of Phantom of the Opera has been running for 25 years, yet I had never seen it. My late husband was not a lover of the theater and for some reason I never thought of going without him. After he passed away and I started going to the theater quite a bit, it seemed like everyone I knew had already seen it. But Wednesday I went into NYC with two friends, one who had never seen it, like me, and another friend who was seeing it for her fourth time! The stranger sitting next to me in the theater was also seeing it for the fourth time. The music was beautiful and it's hard to get some of the songs out of your head. The young woman who played Christine was lovely and had a magnificent voice. I'm always amazed at how the actors make it seem fresh and new each time they perform, even though they've done it countless times. So now I can cross one more thing off my bucket list.

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-04T05:59:00.001-08:00

The big cleanup continues

2012-01-03T16:05:00.001-08:00

The recycling pick-up men must have thought that I had received a ludicrous amount of Christmas gifts when they saw this huge pile of broken down boxes and blue or white recycling bags full of stuff. Little did they know that it was a ten year accumulation of packing boxes and other detritus from my basement. I wrote about it a couple of posts back. My trash gets picked up once a week. First the garbage men come and then much later in the day comes the recycling truck. It is quite full when it gets to us. I watched from an upstairs window as the man threw the bundles and bags into the truck. About every third one would fall back out (sometimes twice) before he got them to stay. I found it quite humorous, but I'll bet he was cursing up a storm. Wait until he sees what I have for him next week. It won't be as bad, but the cleanup goes on.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T06:09:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning with this song in my head. I'm not sure why since I don't think I heard it on the radio or TV, but it keeps going round and round in my brain. So I thought that it would be a good New Year's wish for you. Happy New Year!

May the good Lord bless and keep you

Whether near or far away
May you find that long awaited
Golden day today.
May your troubles all be small ones
And your fortunes ten times ten
May the good Lord bless and keep you
Till we meet again.
May you walk with sunlight shining
And a bluebird in every tree
May there be a silver lining
Back of every cloud you see.
Fill your dreams with sweet tomorrows
Never mind what might have been
May the good Lord bless and keep you
Till we meet again.

Decluttering

2011-12-29T11:53:00.000-08:00

The dictionary says there is no such word, but that's what my son and I spent a couple of days doing during his short stay here for Christmas. I moved here ten years ago and was so delighted to have a big, clean, dry basement in which to store things. It's great to be able to have ample room to store my many Christmas decorations, cooking things that aren't used that often, vases and plant containers, paper goods from Costco, packing boxes and other things. Packing boxes, did I say packing boxes? Well, that 's one thing that got me into a lot of trouble. Since I had the room, I couldn't bear to throw away a good packing box and I ended up with a huge mountain of them, much more that I would ever use. Besides, I usually roll my quilts and send them in telescoping Uni- boxes. So my son, Kurt, broke down all the boxes, put them in piles and we bundled them all up in twine to put out for recycling next Monday.

Then we tackled the many boxes of things that had not been opened since I moved here, most of them filled with either my son's or my late husband's stuff. Lots of things went in the trash or recycling and three station wagons full went to Good Will. I have a lot of fine tuning to do down there, but it is soooo much better now. My house is very neat and tidy and uncluttered, but my basement was always a huge source of embarrassment if anyone went down there. We won't talk about my studio. That's another whole story.

My son's best bud from college, Will, was here very briefly, just overnight and a short time today before they both left for NYC for a concert. That's him on the left. He is just as nice as he is good looking! They have been best friends since freshman year of college and although they live very far apart, they still remain close. Kurt was his best man last year at his wedding. So for a short time I had two burly young men to help me. They carried the metal two-drawer filing cabinet from the basement up to my second floor studio. I couldn't believe how heavy it was, even though it was empty. They also took the heavy cabinet that housed the video equipment to Good Will. Kurt had previously taken the turn table and other equipment. I don't know why I ever moved it here in the first place since I had no room for it in this house. It had been the basement all that time.

I loved having Kurt home, not just because he is so helpful when he's here. We have a good time together. We went to see "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", ate pizza at Peppi's, the new branch of the famous one in New Haven, that he had been wanting to try. It was delicious! He cooked dinner one night for my sister, my niece and me (he's a good cook) and we just had fun hanging out together. I sure wish he didn't live on the other side of the country. Portland is very far from Connecticut!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-28T06:18:00.001-08:00

And unto us a child is born

2011-12-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

Lest we forget the true meaning of this beautiful season, I want to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a New Year of good health, peace and happiness!

New Living Room Tree

2011-12-22T14:40:00.001-08:00

If you remember my blogging about my living room tree last year, you would think that this is the same one. But it's not. My former tree was called a pencil tree, very skinny and tall, a good fit for my small room with high ceilings. It did a good job for ten years and then it, too, started showing its age, so I bought this new one. It's only 6 1/2 feet tall, but also quite slim and a good size for the room. It's decorated the same with all white and silver and gold ornaments, rather fitting for the somewhat formal room.

The new artificial trees are so much better today. They are pre-lit, pre-fluffed, pre-shaped and so much easier to assemble. And they look so real, that sometimes even when you go up and touch them it's hard to tell if they're real or not.

How did that Santa get in there? Well he is dressed in white after all, so I guess he can stay. All red robed Santas belong in the family room and kitchen. Just a reminder that he's watching in this room, too, so be nice!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-21T06:22:00.001-08:00

Santa, Santa Everywhere!

2011-12-20T14:30:00.000-08:00

I have been collecting Santa ornaments and other Santa decorations for years. I have put up a Santa tree for several years. It was a four foot tree that I put on a table and it was just covered with Santas. This year the little tree was showing its age so I bought a new 7 1/2 foot pre-lit tree, rearranged some furniture in my family room to put it in a different place and bought some plain red balls to add some sparkle. I am so happy with the results.

Be sure to click on the pictures for a bigger view.

There are all kinds of Santas. Many are glass.

Some are yarn or needlepoint or quilted and several are handmade.

Can you see the one with a sea shell beard? it's amazing that there can be so many variations on the same theme.

Of course there has to be a Mrs. Claus. Actually there are several Mrs. Clauses.

There are Santas on the mantle under my quilt. I made that many years ago when I did traditional quilting. I even hand quilted it with gold metallic thread.

Santas on the baker's rack, where everything else gets put away to make room for them.

Santa flower pots on the window sill over the sink.

Santa on top of the armoire that houses the TV.

A Santa quilt over the couch, also made many years ago from a pattern. It's called "I Remember Santa Claus Skating on Mistletoe Pond"

And a Santa snack bowl that I filled with pine cones and little red balls. I love the expression on his face.

There are a few more here and there. So you'd better be good at my house if you don't want coal in your stocking. Santa is always watching!

Christmas party

2011-12-19T11:31:00.001-08:00

My good friend, Claire, and I so often show up at an event or church dressed in a similar color palette that it has gotten to be joke. So that when she arrived at my Christmas party last night in her gold outfit, a perfect pairing to my silver outfit, I had to get it on record.

This was my first big party in this house where I have now lived for ten years. I love my house, but it's on the small side and I never thought I could have a big party. Last year my neighbors down the street had a New Year's Day party for 30 at their house, which is the exact same layout as mine. I thought that if they could do it, that I could do it and started planning way back then for this get together on the Sunday before Christmas.

I also had about 30 people and served heavy hors d'oeuvres, desserts and wine. I was so concerned about having enough food that I had way to much. I will plan better the next time. My guest list was a little heavy on the female side, since so many of us at this age are widows (as I am), or divorced, but there were several husbands there, too. I love to decorate for the holidays and this gave me a good excuse to do it. I meant to take a lot of pictures at the party, but I was so busy that I forgot. I'll take some pictures of my trees and post them later this week.

I think that everything went well and all had a good time (at least they said they did). I hired two high school girls to help me and that made a big difference. It enabled me to enjoy myself and mingle with the guests, periodically checking in with them.

Now to get to putting things away, washing the wine glasses, getting the furniture back in its proper place, etc. etc. But it was fun and I'm so glad I did it. Merry Christmas!

Masters Art Quilts vol.2

2011-12-12T14:04:00.000-08:00

What a pleasant surprise it was to receive a copy of this book in the mail last week to be considered for review or mention on my blog. I had purchased the first volume from Amazon, when it came out and Martha had asked me to review it for Amazon, so I guess that 's why I got this one gratis.

As for this book, the second volume, I loved it! It is a beautiful book that presents the work of 40 artists, selected by curator, Martha Seilman. Each artist had ten pages to showcase their work, presenting about a dozen quilts, with a well written introduction by Martha. About half the artists were from the United States and the rest from many different countries. Some were names I knew very well, such as Jan Myers-Newbury, Paula Nadlestern, Dianne Firth, and Laura Wasilowsi. Some were artist's whose work I had seen once at a big show like Quilt National and was glad to see more of, such as Mirjam Per-Jacobs and Nelda Warkentin. And so many more were artists that were totally new to me and I was so happy to discover.

I flipped through it quickly at first and then allowed myself to digest it at leisure over a few days (my lunch time reading). It's a fairly large book at 415 pages, full of sumptuous photography and I thought the price was quite reasonable at $24.95 list price, and much less at Amazon. I think it would be a welcome addition to any art quilter's collection, perhaps a Christmas gift for your best quilt buddy or yourself.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-07T11:20:00.001-08:00

conversation rock or talking heads

New Book

2011-11-24T11:10:00.000-08:00

I was flattered, yet surprised, when Rayna Gillman asked for one of my quilts to be used in her new book. I had always thought that Rayna was all about surface design and I am mostly about piecing. Well, I received my copy of her book in the mail yesterday and, who knew, we are doing a lot of the same thing.

Her latest book is mostly about using strip piecing to make improvisational, free-form original quilts. She uses a lot of scraps and left-overs and puts them together in new and exciting ways.

She offers many suggestions with great photos and clear, concise directions. She works with "units", much as I do, although hers are more spontaneous looking than mine.

That's my quilt, Spring Thaw, on the left, with my skinny, wiggly piecing used with some of my snow dyes.

I was also amused by how serendipitous it was. I belong to FANE, an art quilt group led by Jane Davila. We have put on two shows at a local library gallery and have published books of each show. This year Jane thought it would be a great idea if we also had tutorials in the book of some technique used in our quilt. I chose skinny wiggly piecing and had just finished all the writing and making the step-outs. It was lot of work just for that one little tutorial and it gave me an even greater respect for those who write books. I had "Spring Thaw" spread out on my worktable to remind me of how I did those strips. So when Rayna's book arrived with a similar technique and my same quilt, I had to chuckle.

After reading her book, I have a lot new ideas and inspiration for using my strips in different ways and maybe loosening up a little in my approach. It's a great book that would be a welcome addition to any quilt book library and it's available at Amazon.

I want to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. I know that I have a lot for which to be grateful. I usually spend the day at my niece's home, but a wedding got in the way and I was delighted to receive an invite from a friend. I don't have to be there until 5PM, which gives me all day to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, make the one side that I am contributing to the feast, write my blog and now go off and sew some more wiggly skinny strips. Life is good!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-23T06:11:00.001-08:00

Bye, Bye Green

2011-11-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

Yippee! I finally finished quilting Emerald City and am ready to put away the green mess that was on my work table. I still have sooo much green fabric left and I will save all those left over strips for another day, too.

Here she is, all done except for the facing and that can wait. It ended up being about 48" x 48". It gave me so much trouble in the quilting. The size wasn't the problem, although quilting a smaller piece is easier. It was all those seams. I would be merrily quilting along and the darned thing would refuse to move, having the quilting foot caught up on a seam and I would end up with tiny, tiny stitches. Or I would tug on the quilt to get out of that tight space and I would have galloping big stitches. Argh!!

Here are a couple of details. It's not horrible, but not up to my usual standards.

Here's a detail of a quilt that I did last year. I ended up not liking the quilt and I have since cut it up, but I did like the quilting. And this quilt was full of seams, too, and about the same size so I don't know what the problem was with the green monster, but now it's on to greener pastures.

Or maybe not so green.

Remember to click on each picture for a bigger view and comments are always welcome.

Boutique Finds

2011-11-17T11:06:00.001-08:00

Every year my guild, Northern Star Quilter's Guild, has a boutique before its November meeting. I always manage to find some treasures.

This is a piece made up of antique Japanese kimono scraps. It is pieced square and true, but I just plopped it down on my carpet for the photo. I'm not sure what I will do with it, perhaps make a tote bag. It measures 25" x 34". It is not quilted and has no backing or lining. I think I will have to back it with interfacing before doing anything with it, since it is so soft and slippery. Be sure to click on each picture for a bigger view.

One woman had a table where she was trying to get rid of a friend's huge accumulation of sewing paraphernalia. Her friend was giving up sewing. Imagine that! She had pint sized zip-lock bags of buttons for three dollars each. This was called "brown blend". There are some interesting ones in there. Note the one with the whimsical duck and the big one with the anchor.

This was"white blend". Maybe not as interesting, but still fun to look through. Note the small plastic bag at the top left with tiny buttons that might have marched down the back of a bride's dress. I also liked the little strung-together group of daisies in the middle. I got to her table late and she didn't have a lot left.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-16T07:03:00.000-08:00

11|11|11

2011-11-11T10:39:00.001-08:00

I know that this is Veterans' Day, a worthy holiday to remember and honor those veterans who fought and gave their lives for our country.

But on a much lighter note you may not know that it is also Corduroy Appreciation Day. I first heard about this on NPR a few years ago. It was started as a spoof of all the silly holidays and/or secret societies out there and as a fiber enthusiast I find it very amusing. If you think about it, the numbers 11|11 most closely resemble the ridges in the corduroy fabric. There is a Corduroy Appreciation Society that meets twice a year on January 1 and November 1, but this year 11|11|11 is their really big year. It's all very tongue-in-cheek, of course, but there are parties being held all over the country, such as Portland, OR (no surprise there), Chicago, Boston and New York, the biggest one of all, where I heard that tickets have been sold out for months. I had thought about having a CA party where everyone had to wear some corduroy, but I looked in my closet and no corduroy was to be found. I thought I had couple of old pairs of jeans, but they must have gone to Good Will.

At my quilt group today Barbara did have on a pair of corduroy pants and she kindly posed for this picture. So happy 11|11|11 to you all, however you choose to celebrate it.

Happy Birthday, Kurt

2011-11-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

Now, you have to admit, that's one cute kid, although I may be a bit prejudiced. That's my son at eleven months (he walked at ten months) and today he turns 34! Wow, how did the time go by so fast? It seems like only yesterday that he was an adorable toddler and now he's well over 6 feet and still pretty cute. Happy birthday, Kurt, from your Mom who loves you a lot!

More from Houston

2011-11-07T16:46:00.000-08:00

One of the exhibits at the show was of photography, Eye of the Quilter, and the theme this year was Friendship. It was beautifully done, as were all the exhibits . This gives you a very small view of the scope of the show. It takes up the entire Bush Convention Center. The main floor is the size of three football field and is about half filled with quilts and the other half vendors and food. The second and third floors are for classes, lectures and special luncheons.

I entered a photo I had taken in Kyoto, Japan of teenage girls dressed in kimonos out shopping.

I was so pleased to have it juried into the show.

The photos were grouped by theme, mine was with other Asian people. There were children, adults, pets, flowers and many more.

Houston

2011-11-06T12:33:00.000-08:00

I was so glad to get away from the snow and devastation here in CT and head for Houston and the International Quilt Festival. I was not only looking forward to the show, but to the anticipated warm weather. Surprise, surprise, they had a front come through and it was in the 40's and very windy. We were inside 99% of the time, so it didn't matter much. The convention center, as usual, was over air conditioned and we were chilly inside, too.

I was delighted to part of this, the largest quilt show in the world, even if I didn't win a ribbon. Here I am with my quilt, Of Cabbages and Kings, in the painted quilt category.

I loved the quilt hanging next to mine, Artichokes in Bloom. I thought they were wise to put the two veggie quilts together and the colors were so compatible. Andrea Brokenshire was thrilled with her Judge's Choice award.

Gloria Hansen's quilt won a first in the Digital Imagery category. It was stunning, as are all her quilts.

I was so glad to get a chance to meet Sheila Frampton-Cooper. She was just as beautiful and exuberant as her quilts. Hard to believe that she just started quilting three years and ago. She had three quilts in the show and she won two awards. This one, "A View From Above" was a First Place in Art Quilts Abstract-Small. Be sure to check out her website and blog.

Also by Sheila is "Life in the City", a ribbon winner in Art Quilts Large.

You can see all the winners if you go here.

I'll post some more tomorrow.

Trick or Treat

2011-10-31T08:36:00.000-07:00

I'm sure that for years to come we will remember this Halloween Nor'Easter. It started snowing at noon on Saturday, heavy wet snow that lasted all day and into the night. The official total for my city was 17.2 inches. That's a lot of snow even in the middle of winter, but in the fall when most of the leaves are still on the trees, it's a disaster. You could hear the trees snapping all day long. I live in a wonderful condo complex of town houses and stand-alone homes, such as I have. Each house and town house has a tree in front, mostly Bradford Pears. They are a pretty tree with shiny heart shaped leaves that bloom in the spring with lovely white flowers. The leaves are long lasting and one of the last to fall in the autumn.

This is what I saw when I looked out the door yesterday morning. A huge limb was across the walk and up on my porch. fortunately it did no damage to the house. I was able to squeeze past the limb and get off the side off the porch.

This is the view of the front of the house. It actually is worse than it looks. About 2/3 of the tree came down and the tree will have to be removed.

My next door neighbor who is in Florida. He lost two trees.

My neighbor on the other side of me.

Up and down the street it was the same thing.

A few of the town houses. Just about every tree in the whole community had extensive damage and will have to be removed. I shudder to think of the expense.

We do have underground wires, that's a good thing, but we lost power anyway because the road leading to our community had massive trees down on power lines. It went out at 6PM on Saturday evening, thankfully just after I had eaten dinner. I read my Kindle by using the little battery light attached and went to bed early. I woke up to a cold house and it stayed that way all day. We were so thrilled to have the power back by 7PM, only 25 hours of cold and dark. Many people all over the area are still out and may be for days.

The mayor has advised the children not to Trick or Treat tonight, a big disappointment to them I'm sure. I hope you're having a better Halloween.

Tree Hugger

2011-10-29T07:47:00.000-07:00

I saw this while in Portland, OR. Apparently they are all over town on trees and bike racks, but this was the only one we saw, since we spent very little time in town. I don't know if they are knitted right on the tree or knitted at home then sewn onto the tree. Does anyone know?

The Green Monster

2011-10-25T07:06:00.000-07:00

The real name of the quilt is "Emerald City", but I started calling it the Green Monster because of all the problems it gave me. I wrote about it here on my blog, telling how I make these Configuration quilts. I make many "units" in different colors and sizes and keep slapping them up on my design wall in no particular order until I have filled the size that I want it to be. Then I take them all down and one by one put them back up to form a pleasing, balanced design. All of the blocks are different sizes and shapes, so I have to piece some strips of wiggly stripes to fill in the blank spots. I've done this several times before. You can see some more of my configuration quilts on my website in the Abstract section, but they are not all there. My website is woefully out of date.

I did more ripping out, rearranging and doing over on this one than any of the others. I also debated putting in an accent color and dyed six shades of purple, but purple did nothing for it, so I added very narrow, about an eighth of an inch, strips of this pinkish red just here and there.

I'm only showing you a small section of it. The quilt measures about 48 x 46. Usually I can figure a way to piece these quilts in sections so that it can be quilted in sections, but again this one did not cooperate, so it is one big piece. That's going to make it harder to quilt it in the extensive free-motion style that I like to do. I have the backing and I hope to start quilting it this week. Stay tuned......

Last Rose of Summer

2011-10-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

I know it's not a rose. As much as I admire roses, I don't grow them. Too demanding and too temperamental for me. My friend, Carolyn, has this amazing, enormous geranium plant that she has had growing in her house near a sunny window for years and years. It gets bigger and bigger (I think it's about 5 feet tall), although she cuts it back periodically, and blooms all year round. This spring she gave me three rooted leaves in a pot and I put it near my glass kitchen door. It grew very slowly all summer with no sign of buds. So I put it out on my deck in September and in that sunny spot it really thrived.

As you can see, it's full of flowers and looking so spiffy. Unfortunately we will get a frost any day now and it will be a goner unless I bring it inside. But I don't have a sunny enough spot for it to flower for very long. I do have a nice bright house with lots of big windows, but the afternoon sun is in the front of the house where I don't have spots for house plants. So be it, I will enjoy it while I can.

I'm a Centerfold Girl!

2011-10-21T06:05:00.000-07:00

Now, you knew it wasn't that kind of centerfold, but I was delighted to find out that my quilt was one of five quilts chosen for the current issue of the SAQA Journal. SAQA (Studio Art Quilts Associates), of which I am a member, is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the art quilt through education, exhibitions, professional development and documentation. A quarterly journal is published. Since I joined about seven years ago I have seen the publication grow from a small black and white newsletter with no photographs and minimal content to the professional, glossy, colored publication that it is today. There are many interesting editorials, articles and reviews in each issue and lots of pictures. Each issue now features one type of quilt in the centerfold. In this issue the theme was Red.

I entered my Poppies quilt on line way back in June. I wasn't sure if my photo had gone through and I never heard back from anyone, so I was surprised and thrilled to see the photo of my quilt when I returned from my trip. The other quilts are stunning; sorry that you can only see 2 1/2 of them.

Picture for Houston

2011-10-20T06:17:00.000-07:00

I was pleased to get the email yesterday that my photo, Afternoon Outing, was chosen for the exhibit at the IQA show, Eye of the Quilter, in Houston. This year the theme was Friendship and I thought that this picture of giggly teenagers in Kyoto, Japan was a good fit.

I'll be going to the show so now in addition to seeing my quilt, Of Cabbages and Kings, I'll also be able to see my photo.

The Beautiful Pacific North West

2011-10-19T07:23:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a visit to my son, Kurt, who lives in Portland, OR. He and his girlfriend, Katie, always find great places to take me. This time we spent a few days in Bend, OR, about a three hour drive from Portland. We were rewarded with beautiful views everywhere we went. I took a lot of pictures, but most did not very successful. Don't know why. Here are just a few that were pretty good.

We walked a ways into the woods to see this roaring waterfall.

The moss on the rocks near the bottom of the fall was the most incredible shade of......well, moss green.

The foliage was spectacular, but very little of the brilliant reds and oranges we are used to here in the North East. Mostly what we saw were the glowing yellows and golds of the aspens.

The bright orangey-red low shrubs are huckleberries. We even got to sample a few.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-12T06:42:00.000-07:00

A Good Day in NYC

2011-10-10T12:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry, but no pictures today. Saturday I took the train into NYC to meet my blog buddy, Sherryl Buchler. It was a spectacular day, weather-wise. I know that these are short lived, so I was glad to be able to take advantage of it. Our main focus was the Museum of Arts and Design on Columbus Circle. We saw the jewelry exhibit, with pieces made by artists that you never thought of as jewelry makers, like Picasso and Calder and many, many more. I didn't see much that I would want to wear, but it was interesting to look at. The other exhibit was Flora and Fauna that showed the eponymous in many mediums, including a couple of quilts.

Two floors were closed for installations, so the only other thing to see was the artist in residence and she was worth the whole trip to NYC. Patrice Yourdon is a young artist who makes the most incredible things out of screws. I did not have my camera with me, so please go to Sherry's blog to see pictures. Patrice uses very fine nylon hardware cloth, which looks like metal and inserts the screws with a Dremell drill. What she had on display was a child's pinafore. It must be seen to appreciate it, so be sure to go to Sherryl's blog.

Lunch (well, we always have to have lunch) was at Robert, their restaurant on the ninth floor. The views and the room itself were impressive, but I thought the food was just OK. I had eaten there before and thought it was better the last time.

After lunch we went over to the huge Time Warner mall on the circle. We only got as far as William Sonoma where I bought a great and much needed zester. The one that I had was so inadequate. I used my new one last night for the lime in my Guacamole salad and, as it says on the label, it is the perfect citrus zester. My garden is looking pretty sad, but I am still picking tomatoes from my two container Sun Sweet plants. The leaves have almost all fallen off, but they give me a handful of those delicious gems everyday. The Guacamole salad (one of my favorites) depend on really good tomatoes and these may be the last for a long time.

Fiber Revolution Show

2011-10-06T12:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday two of my quilting buds and I drove to Morristown, NJ to see the Fiber Revolution show, Thoughts Visualized. I am an alumna of the group which consists of artists from five of the North Eastern states. The group exhibits frequently but I thought that this space was one of the best I had seen. The show was in a large room of the museum with ample space for the quilts to be viewed properly and excellent light. I am only going to show you three of the quilts to perhaps whet your appetite and entice you to visit the show, which runs through October 16.

You would swear that this quilt, Squared Illusions, by Gloria Hansen was three dimensional, but it was not. Gloria is a master of digital technology and she has brought her prodigious skills to her fiber art. She has won many major awards for her work and has written a book, Digital Essential.

I loved the colors in this piece, Windfall, by Meltta VanderBrooke. She paints some of her fabric and likes to use nature as her inspiration.

We were intrigued by Wen Redmond's piece, Flown. The label below explains how she did it.

A Big Puzzle

2011-10-04T09:09:00.001-07:00

This is what I've been doing with all those greens I dyed. I piece what I called "units" and put them up on my design wall in no particular order until I've filled the space I want it to be. Today I thought I had made enough. There are 17 units and some strips of wiggly stripes. So I took everything off the wall and piled them on my work table.

Now I have the big task of putting them all back one by one, to make a pleasing design. I've done this many times before, but it's always a challenge. This will be number eight in my Configuration/City series and will be (no surprise) Emerald City. I had toyed with the idea of adding an accent color, maybe purple or orange, but I think I'm going to keep it all green.

And, oh yes, I have lots of greens left over. I shouldn't have to get out the green dye pots for a long time, if ever.

New Bowl

2011-10-02T14:21:00.000-07:00

I have often admired the work of Chihuly, the glass artist, and coveted one of his wave bowls, but the prices were something I wouldn't even consider. On my recent trip, we visited the town of Wertheim, Germany, known for their glass blowing. When I saw this bowl by an artist who had worked with Chihuly I knew I was in trouble. While his prices were nowhere near Chihuly, they were still expensive, but it didn't take long for me to succumb. And I knew I had the perfect spot to display it.

The icing on the cake was that he would ship it for free with no VAT (value added tax). It arrived the other day in perfect condition . I put it just where I thought I would, in my small living room on the glass top table. I clustered three small glass blown paper weights at one end of the table to offset it.

The bowl came with a DVD about the town and the glass blowing process. It also showed the making of one of these wave bowls from beginning to end, a fascinating process.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-28T14:24:00.001-07:00

not Photoshopped

A New Book

2011-09-27T12:29:00.000-07:00

Last year I received an email from Joen Wolfrom saying that she had seen two of my quilts on my website that she would like to include in her new book to be released in 2011. Was I interested? Of course I jumped at the chance, knowing that she is the author of twelve other quilts books, all of them excellent. My autographed copy came the other day and I was not disappointed. It is a beauty!

She uses 153 quilts made by quilters and fiber artists from around the world to demonstrate the Elements and Principals of design. You will recognize a lot of the names and I was honored to be in such illustrious company. Each quilt illustrates one or more of these Elements or Principals.

Here on page 97 she uses my quilt, Fiesta, to illustrate Repetition, Rhythm and Harmony.

And here on page 48, she uses my Blue Ginkgoes to show a Complementary Color Plan.

Joen also writes a fabulous blog, in which she recently went through the color wheel, illustrating each color with the most amazing nature photographs that she has taken. Scroll back a little to see them all. It's worth the effort.

To read a much more thorough and complete review of the book, please go to Dara Williamson's blog, See How We Sew.

Playing on the Surface

2011-09-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are pictures of another show, this one by the Scrapbag Art Quilters. This is the small group, of which I am a member, that meets weekly at members' homes. Each year we have a challenge and the results are hung at the Booth Library in Newtown CT. This year the theme was Surface Design and we used the Surface Design Association's definition: "Any process that gives pattern or color to fiber and fabric. These include spinning, felting, papermaking, weaving, knotting, netting, looping, dyeing, painting, stitching, cutting, piecing, quilting, and embellishing."

The quilts were all approximately 25 inches square. The show will hang thru October 14. Please stop by if you are in the area. All pictures are clickable for a bigger view.

The quilts were hung on fabric covered screens, two on each side of a square with quilts hung on both sides of the screens.

Carolyn Cooney, our resident landscape specialist, did Sterling Woods. It hangs on the outside of a screen, facing you as you walk into the room and its visual impact is terrific.

Paula West is one of our newest members and comes to us from a knitting background, among other arts. This piece, made up of "scrumbles" made of free-form knitting, crocheting, beading and embroidery, is called Heartland.

I posted a side view so that you can see how dimensional it is.

Nike Cutsumpas' Reticulation. Nike used pieces from an older quilt to make this new one and added lots of her signature hand stitching to add more depth and texture.

Norma Schlager's Afterimage, uses shibori, stamping and stitching with heavy thread.

Nike Cutsumpas' Musical Coloration - Overload! uses many different techniques such as paper, couching, collaging, etc.

Margaret Clayton-Amey's Seafood Salad , has stenciling, beading, couching, and stitching.

Janet Bunch, who has moved to Florida, sent us Palm Island, which uses parts of a real palm tree.

Norma Schlager's Iris Redux used paint on top of an already heavily machine quilted, pieced quilt.

Heloise Wilkinson is our founding member. Now in her 90's she is living in an assisted living facility. These four small pictures were of the view from her porch in the four seasons. She hasn't attended meetings for a few years, but we often think of her with great fondness and admiration. She was always a source of inspiration.

Chris Aulicino, our newest member and Heloise's daughter, comes to us from a weaving background, which she still does. She is new to quilting, but made these two coordinated pieces for the show, Yellow Cottage Transformed 1 & 2.

Andrea Shedletsky's, Dressed for the Wedding. Her only daughter got married Labor Day weekend and most of Andrea's time was consumed with decorations, planning, baking, etc. yet she managed to produce this lovely quilt.

Barbara Drillick's Jugando en la Playa. Barbara started with four pieces of white fabric that she painted, stamped, marked, etc., then cut into strips and wove together. She mounted the woven piece onto a piece of foam board to give it some dimension.

Barbara Drillicks' My Tables. Each square has a different surface design.

A Colorful Show, Part 2

2011-09-20T12:33:00.001-07:00

Here are a few more of the quilts from the FANE show at the Mahopac Library, running though September 27, A Colorful Show.

Barbara Drillick's, A Box Of Chocolates, done with her usual precision piecing and great use of prints.

Vivien Zeph's Rex Ray Gray inspired by the painter Rex Ray's # 2754.

Nancy Mirman's all black quilt. I know it looks like shades of gray here, but it was all different blacks and many different fabrics and textures, accented by black and silver beads. It was stunning!

Andrea Shedlefsky's beautiful piece uses hand painted silks and cottons and exquisite hand sewing and bead work. See detail below.

That's it for now. Try to get to see the show if you can and see what I left out. There are many more stunning works of art to discover, including some more of my favorites.

A Colorful Show

2011-09-19T16:49:00.001-07:00

On Saturday I went to the opening of the FANE show, A Colorful Show. I talked about it in my last post. I thought it was a wonderfully cohesive show, due to the theme and the mounting of the quilts on white canvases. All the monochromatic quilts were 9" x 20" and were mounted on 12" x 24" white canvases . The white just popped off of the camel colored cork walls and made every quilt look so special, which, of course, they were! Excellent lighting was a big help, too. I am not going to show you every quilt, first because I don't have the names for them all and second because I want you to go see them for yourself and have a few surprises when you get there. I will show you a few today and a few more tomorrow. All pictures are clickable for a bigger view.

Here are three of the quilts in a row, which gives you an idea of how they were hung. I thought the hanging committee did an excellent job.

You'll probably recognize this as mine, using a small sampling of all those greens I dyed awhile back.

Carolyn Spiegel came from a painting background and uses it in her quilts. She had several different types of fabric and paint for some wonderful texture.

Anne Louise Lyman's beautiful self portrait of herself at a much younger age. Isn't she pretty? And she still is!

Carole Hoffman always does the most incredible faces and she didn't disappoint this time. This one uses a piece of a friend's hand painted fabric in which Carole saw a face and capitalized on it.

Nike's Cutsumpas's , Yellow Rudbeckia , so happy and sunny.

Joyce Sullivan and her study in gray of a beautiful swan pond.

MaryAnn Healy's, "View From an Old Irish Church Looking Down on Forty Shades of Green". How's that for a title? I liked the juxtaposition of the rough gray fabric against the green piecing.

I'm back.

2011-09-16T12:48:00.001-07:00

My friend, Janet, says I am her most peripatetic friend. I do seem to be traveling a lot lately and that accounts for the dearth of posts. This time it was a two week long riverboat cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam with three extra days in Amsterdam. It was fabulous trip, in spite of the fact that I was pick-pocketed on my second day of the trip. Yup, wallet with three credit cards and some cash, gone from my zipped purse. Credit cards got cancelled and it was an inconvenience, but not the worst thing that could have happened in the overall scheme of things like lost luggage, serious injury, etc. Life goes on.

I've been so busy since I got back on Tuesday night. I took a lot of pictures, of course, and will post some of them when I get my life back on track.

The postcard is for a show I am in, opening tomorrow, put on by the FANE (Fiber Artists of the North East) group, of which I am a member. The theme this year was monochromatic and I chose green, since I had those forty yards I had dyed awhile back. That's a slice of my quilt in the middle of the card. Stop by if you're in the area of Mahopac, NY. I'll post some pix of the show soon.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-24T04:13:00.001-07:00

Iris Redux

2011-08-23T06:22:00.001-07:00

Last year I made a quilt that was inspired by Van Gogh's "Iris in Yellow Vase". I spent a lot of time piecing and then free motion quilting, but it did not turn out as I had hoped. I blogged about it here and asked for advise from Quiltart, an online art quilt group, to see if "this quilt could be saved". I got a lot of comments on my blog giving many different suggestions and lot of emails, including one that said "this quilt cannot be saved". So I folded it up and put it away.

Fast forward to now. My small quilt group puts on a show at a local library every year and we always have a theme. This year it is Surface Design. I made one quilt and decided to see if I could revive my iris quilt somehow for a second quilt. So I spread it out on the table and found an area that had the most interesting quilting and cut out a 28" square. Then I took some pale aqua paint, actually a sample of wall paint for my bathroom, and brushed over the top of the quilt, being sure not to go into the valleys created by the quilting. And this is what I got.

I got a whole new pattern and design. I then trimmed it to 24 inches and put binding on to match the quit. I usually face my quilts, but the paint made it a little stiff and I thought it would be difficult. All pictures are clickable for a bigger view.

If you look at the details, you can see what's really going on. The blue is the paint and the orange is the fabric beneath.

More of the same.

I have a new camera, Sony Cyber-shot, and I'm very pleased with the Macro shots. You don't even have to switch over to Macro, if you get close enough to the object, it just automatically goes to Macro.

Postcard

2011-08-22T05:01:00.001-07:00

My good friend, Claire, is moving to my neighborhood, so I made this postcard for her.

Collaboration

2011-08-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

I have been an admirer of Kathy Loomis since I saw her work, Memorial Day, at Quilt National in 2009. It was a huge quilt made out of 4,083 tiny flags, one for each US military killed in Iraq at that time, and won the Quilts Japan Prize for that year. She has been in QN a total of three times, won Best Of Show at Quilt=Art=Quilts at Schweinfurth last year, has been in Art Quilt Elements and SAQA@20 last year. She has taught all over, including Japan. She also has a thoughtful, well-written blog, Art With a Needle, no surprise there since she was a journalist in another life.

I follow her blog and a couple of weeks ago she blogged about a quilt, Brown Planet, that she had started in a week-long Nancy Crow Master class. She started the quilt, pictured above, and didn't have time to finish it in the workshop, so she rolled it up in the white sheet to which it was pinned and put it away, never to be finished. She went to another Nancy Crow workshop and did a similar quilt in blues. I left a comment on her blog saying that I loved the brown version and that if she didn't want it, she could always give it to me. I was just kidding. Much to my great surprise I got an email a couple of days later saying that if I really wanted it, I could have it as long as I would promise to make something out of it and show her the results. It would be a collaboration and the quilt would be mine to keep. I said yes!

I mostly make small or medium sized quilts, no bigger than 60" square and usually much smaller. This one is huge, a whopping eight feet by four feet. It will fill my entire studio design wall. It arrived a few days ago and I unfolded it on my family room floor. She just had one pin in each strip and they had all flopped around. So I went around on my hands and knees and straightened it out and put several pins in each strip. I folded it back up and put it away for now because I won't have time to work on it now, with upcoming trips and other projects to finish. It will involve a lot more piecing, including all those tiny strips on the left hand side and in the background. I'm going to try to follow her plan as closely as possible. Wish me luck!

Please go to Kathy's blog and read all about it here. Be sure to read the comments. Mine is the last one.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-17T06:36:00.001-07:00

Lowell, MA

2011-08-16T11:18:00.001-07:00

I decided to add a fourth day to my art journey. I had a quilt juried into the Brush Gallery in Lowell. MA and really wanted to go to the opening. I couldn't find any takers so I went alone, three hours up and three hours back. It wasn't too bad; I have a good car, it was a nice day and I have my trusty GPS, which helped me navigate the confusing Lowell Connector. I also went to the opening at the Whistler House Gallery, where I had a quilt last year. Somehow, I missed the call to entry this year. I'll try not to let that happen again.

This year the Brush had a theme for the first time, The Sea, so my Ocean Treasures was a good fit. The quilt extends up out of the top of the picture. There is pale blue sky above that deep blue horizon line. I quilted lots of critters into it, fish, sharks, whales in the water and shells, crabs, etc. in the sand.

Day Three of our Art Adventure

2011-08-15T13:43:00.001-07:00

On our third day we headed home, but made two important stops, the first one to Bennington, VT to visit Nike's son and family including her adorable fourteen month old grandson. I wish I had taken pictures, but you'll have to trust me when I say that he is a good natured, smiling cutie pie.

Next stop was in Williamstown, home to Wililiams College and the Clark Museum. The focus of the visit was to see the El Anatsui exhibit. He is an African artist from Nigeria, who makes monumental sculptures from discarded Nigerian liquor tops. He wires them together and makes a sort of metal fabric, which he then drapes, pleats, and places them on the wall. Be sure to click on each picture for a bigger view.

Did I say they are enormous? It's hard to tell from this picture of "Delta", although I guess you can see the floor and the ceiling and get an idea of the scale.

"Strips of Earth's Skin" is even bigger. The piece is very flexible and we were able to make it move a little by blowing on one end. I really wanted to touch it, but I didn't.

This one, "Intermittent Signals" made me gasp as I entered the room. The golden colors just took on a glow that reminded me of Egyptian splendor. It wrapped around two walls and ended up draping on the floor.

Barbara and Nike getting a close-up view.

Some of the tops were folded and spiraled around into circles that were joined together by wire.

In these last two you can read some of the names of the liquor companies.

There were only three pieces there, but it was well worth the trip just to see these three. Of course I wanted more, but they are so huge that it probably was not feasible. This exhibit was in the newer section of the museum, a whole separate building. We could have taken shuttles up to the main building , but we opted to walk on the path that had been made, mostly wooden planks, through the woods. It was a lovely walk on a beautiful day.

At the main building we saw "Pissaro's People", the work of Camille Pissarro (1830-1903). This was a large exhibit (many rooms) of his paintings. Although he was best known as a landscape painter, he had a lifelong interest in the human figure and painted people from many walks of life. We enjoyed this and the other special exhibit, "Spaces", which were large-scale photographs by Candida Hofer and Thomas Struth.

It truly was a wonderful three days and our heads were spinning with ideas.

Art Trip

2011-08-14T13:16:00.000-07:00

I spent a wonderful, art-filled three days with three of my quilting buddies. Part of the reason for the trip was to visit our friend and former quilt group member, Judith Reilly. She moved to Brandon, Vermont eight years ago, bought an old Victorian that she has refurbished and turned the front parlors into a gallery. She also had exhibits at two other galleries in town which we saw. Her work is terrific and she is very happy in her little town with her life revolving around her fabric art. We spent the day with Judy, catching up, having lunch, touring her charming town and admiring her work.

Here's Barbara, Chris, Nike and Judy in front of her home and gallery. The house has seven bedrooms and she uses three of them as her studio.

She's also a fabulous gardener. Here we are in one section of her sumptuous garden.

Judy's quilts are always in her own inimitable whimsical style. She also had these delightful artist's mannequins that she had painted for sale in her gallery and I couldn't resist buying one. Of course these colors look great in my mostly blue and white home.

I loved the vining details painted all around.

I'm getting a little ahead of myself. That was all about our second day.

The first day of our trip we drove to Stockbridge, MA and had lunch at the historic Red Lion Inn. Then we drove to Mass MoCA in North Adams, MA to see the Sol LeWitt exhibit, A Wall Drawing Retrospective. Mass MoCA is a collection of old factory buildings that have been turned into this center for modern art. It is quite something to see. The LeWitt exhibit took up three floors of one section of the museum. We found many of these pencil line drawings to be quilt inspirational. Be sure to go to the link and look around. It is very hard to describe, but we all loved it and spent at least two hours there.

Then we went on to Nike's lovely condo in Willmington, VT where we had dinner and spent the night. The next day we drove to Judy's.

Please come back tomorrow and I'll tell you about day three of our art adventures.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-10T05:43:00.000-07:00

Silent Auction

2011-08-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

I was asked again this year by IQA to donate a quilt to the Mini Quilt Silent Auction at the show in Houston this fall. I have done it several times before and will this year, too, since I will be attending the show. It's always fun to watch the progress and see what bids your quilt is garnering.

This year's donation is Oddball, so named because one ball has a different quilting design. It uses my hand dyed fabrics, is free-motion quilted with a variegated rayon thread, and is 30" wide by 13.5" high. Click on the picture for a bigger view. Can you find the "oddball"?

Quilting detail.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade

2011-08-04T05:02:00.000-07:00

While on a recent trip I spied a wonderful scarf in a boutique. It was made of little silk squares about an inch wide joined by thread and fancy yarn. It was bound in silk and had a lovely airy look and feel. I thought that I could duplicate it and tried a small sample when I got home with no binding. I pinned the squares to water soluble stabilizer then sewed between the squares with rayon thread, then couched some interesting yarns, then washed away the Solvy. I was so disappointed with the stiff, crooked thing I had created. Not at all like the pretty scarf I had seen. Lemons for sure!

But the more I looked at it, pinned to my design wall, the more I liked it. So I made some more in different colors, but all in the same color family. They are quite stiff and could be softer if I washed out the Solvy more throughly, but I like the stiffness and sculptural quality.

The "fabric" that they are pinned to are dye-grabber sheets. I now put one in all my washes when I do my hand dyes. I have used them before in quilts and like the somewhat leathery texture they get when quilted. They are very durable, made from some kind of non-woven material.

These little wonky units may or may not go into the big green quilt that I recently started working on again. I had put it away but resurrected it last week and I'm piecing away again. I blogged about it here.

Lemonade? What do you think?

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-03T07:43:00.001-07:00

Mt. Ranier, taken by my son, Kurt.

Succulents

2011-08-01T11:29:00.001-07:00

I wish all plants were as easy to grow as succulents. With a nice sunny spot and very little water they will give you a splendid display all summer long and, if you're lucky, into the winter inside the house.

Here's a new pot I put together at the beginning of the season. I mostly leave it alone and let it get watered when it rains. It's in a pretty grayish blue pot that looks good with the blue/gray plant, the pinkish one and the trailing variety that hangs over the edge of the pot down to the table top. All pictures are clickable for a bigger view.

This little garden was put together by my friend, Carolyn, who has been growing this Hens and Chicks variety for years and is very generous about sharing. Thank you, Carolyn. You can see that the Hen in front has sprouted several little Chicks.

This was also new this year and is called "Mother of Millions".

Looking down at the plant you can see the little babies growing all along the sides of the leaves.

When they get big enough, they fall off and if they fall onto dirt will propagate into new plants. In my case they fall onto the glass table top, especially after a heavy rain, as we had this afternoon. The first picture of this plant, two pictures back, has quite a lot of babies knocked off. They were also all over the deck. Hmmmm....maybe the chipmunks will eat them.

Caught in the Act

2011-07-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

For the past few years I have grown a variety of tomatoes, called Sun Gold. They are a cherry tomato, a bright yellowy orange when ripe. They are sweet, juicy, succulent and I love to eat them warm right off the vine. I planted them quite small and have watched them get tall and vigorous with my daily waterings and weekly feedings. I picked a few a couple of weeks ago and have been eagerly awaiting the ripening of the rest. Before I went away for a few days last week, I had several that were starting to turn yellow. I anticipated a nice handful to pick when I got home. Nothing! I was perplexed. Every day I go out and check and.....nothing! I began to suspect a varmint.

Here's a nice cluster of green ones, still not ripe. This morning I saw a half-eaten ripe one on the railing of the deck. Aha, the plot thickens!

Then later in the day I was reading inside by the window that overlooks the deck and I heard a plop that sounded like a falling tomato. I looked out to see the plant swaying and a chipmunk scurrying across the deck. A little later I heard the same noise and there he was a bold as could be climbing the plant. I had to stamp my feet and make a lot of noise before he ran away. Then I went and got my camera and the next time I caught him in the act and was able to snap this picture before he took off. I'm not sure if he's the only one or part of a group of thieves.

Don't tell me how cute he is! I want my tomatoes!! I wait for them all year, but doubt that I'll have them this year. I'll have to go to the farmer's market on Saturday. Do you have any suggestions as to how I can keep them away? I have two big containers with one big plant each.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

Shibori surprise

2011-07-25T11:57:00.001-07:00

This will be my last post on Shibori for awhile because I've run out of PFD fabric and have to order some more. When I did my last batch I had an awful lot of dye left in the bucket and it seemed a shame to throw it away, so I experimented with putting in a small piece of white fabric to see it the dye was still viable after several hours. The fabric took the dye, although it was much lighter than the original batch. So I quickly sewed up two tubes of fabric to fit over the pipes, scrunched it down and put it in the dye pot for a couple of hours. When I rinsed it out, I had the nice light blue on the left. I scrunched one of the them again and put it back in for an hour or two and got the results on the right. I guess I could have done more, but as I said, I was out of fabric.

From now on, when I do a batch, I will have another batch ready to go in the now weaker dye. Maybe I'm making my dye too strong, but I was happy with that deep dark color achieved on the first dip.

And More Shibori

2011-07-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

I've been away for a few days visiting relatives in upstate NY, where it should have been nice and cool. But it was just as hot as most of the rest of the country. We had a delightful time anyway, getting to see some relatives that we haven't seen in ages. The visit was mainly for a memorial for my first cousin who passed away this winter and it was bittersweet because of that.

Before I went I did some more shibori experimenting. Here are just a few of the results.

This was done by wrapping the fabric on the poles diagonally, then wrapping with thread before scrunching down. It was much more labor intensive than sewing a tube and scrunching down and I don't think it was worth the extra effort.

Here's the sewn tube scrunched down, this time done on a pre-dyed fabric. Reminds me of tiger stripes. I did this in a couple of colors.

This is the tube sewn, scrunched down version again. After rinsing and washing, the one on the left was done a second time in the same color dye. I like the intense, close together look of the wiggly stripes.

I experimented some more with doing the sewing by machine. I put Jeans Stitch thread in the bottom and was able to get it pulled very tight before dyeing. The results are not bad, but not as good as hand sewn.

Here is a good example of hand sewn versus machine sewn. They were both done in the exact same pattern of half circles sewn on a folded strip. The one on the left is hand sewn and a much crisper design.

These last three are a few of the folded and clamped designs I tried. I accordion pleated them, pressing each pleat as I went with a hot iron. After pleating and folding, a wooden shape was clamped onto each side of the bundle and submerged into the dye. The wooden shapes bought at Michael's, came in various shapes and sizes and were quite inexpensive. I think I achieved some very interesting patterns. This first one was folded into triangle shapes and used wooden triangles. I did these in different sizes.

I did several circle ones using different sized circles and different widths of folds.

This used a fun flower shape. It's rather whimsical, but I'm not sure if I would use it in a quilt.

I'll do one more posting tomorrow with what was a pleasant surprise for me.

Good News!

2011-07-19T14:26:00.001-07:00

I was so pleased today to get the email notification that my quilt, "Of Cabbages and Kings" has been juried into the IQA show, Quilts: A World of Beauty in Houston this fall. This is a whole cloth painted quilt that was quilted using free-motion satin stitch.

Detail.

Last year was the first one in seven years that I did not have something in the show. I didn't enter because I just didn't have anything that I thought was right. This year I entered two and this was one accepted. So I will be going to Houston again this year. It's always a wonderful experience.

More Shibori

2011-07-16T05:30:00.001-07:00

These next four Shibori samples involve stitching by hand using a strong thread and then pulling it all up very tight before putting it in the dye bath. Be sure to click on each picture for a bigger view.

This one is rather tedious. I drew the wavy lines with water soluble graphite pencil and then folded on each line so that I was sewing through two layers of fabric very close to the fold.

It was suggested that I try machine stitching and this is the result. While it was a cinch to sew, pulling up the threads was not. I was so afraid of them breaking and I didn't get them evenly pulled. But I am going to try it again, using Jeans Stitch thread in the bobbin. That would make it easier to pull tight.

This was done with just straight rows of running stitch by hand, I am using that Jeans Stitch thread by YLI for all my hand stitching. It is very strong and won't break, no matter how hard I pull.

Several people thought that they saw "people" in this piece. Do you?

This is one of my favorites, although it is rather tedious, too You fold your fabric in half length wise then draw concentric half circles in a row. First sew all the larger circles, jumping from one circle to the next without cutting the thread. Do all three rows this way then pull up all the 3 threads tightly. Put in dye-bath.

After the dye bath for all of these, you rinse and rinse then take out the stitching, wearing rubber gloves unless you want blue hands. Then wash in the washing machine in hot water with Synthropol, a soap meant for removing excess dye.

Now I am doing more pole wrapping in a different manner that the ones I showed yesterday and more stitch resist and folding and clamping. For now I am sticking to blue and white, but plan to branch out to other colors or color over color. The possibilities are endless. Stay tuned!

Shibori

2011-07-15T10:55:00.001-07:00

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to do some Shibori. If you are unfamiliar with the word, it is a Japanese term for the dye-resist technique of binding, clamping, or gathering fabric so that the dye cannot reach certain parts. The results are very interesting and often unpredictable. The traditional way of doing it is with Indigo dye, a complicated and messy process, but I have used MX reactive dyes in an Indigo color. Here are just a few of the samples that I've done over the past few days, starting with the easiest.

This was a piece of fabric that was folded accordion style then tied loosely with thread to keep the stacked shape.

This piece was folded in the same accordion pleat style but bound tightly with thread to form a tight roll. See how the dye could not penetrate the center and left many more white spaces.

These next two pieces were made by sewing a 45" tube of fabric to fit a PVC pipe 4" in diameter. I scrunched the fabric as tightly as I could to compress it toward the bottom of the pole.
After the fabric is prepped, it is submerged in the dye for a few hours, then taken out, unfolded or unscrunched, rinsed and washed.

Please come back tomorrow to see some stitched Shibori with some fascinating designs.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-07-13T05:30:00.000-07:00

Creative Every Day/Blue, Day 10

2011-07-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

Why are so many of the things that we love to eat unhealthy or not good for us? You know what I mean....bacon cheeseburgers, chocolate chip cookies, deep fried anything, candy, cheesecake, etc., etc. Of course a little bit once in awhile won't kill you, but it's so rewarding when you find something that you love that is actually good for you. Like blueberries. And I do love blueberries! I eat them just about everyday. In the winter I eat frozen ones on my hot cereal every morning and now that they are in season I sometimes have them for breakfast and lunch. I recently learned that 1 tsp. of cinnamon has as many antioxidants as a cup of blueberries. So now I sprinkle cinnamon on my cereal and mix it in with my fat free yogurt or cottage cheese with my blueberries. Yumm! It tastes like dessert.

I know that I skipped a day, but I keep checking the other people signed up for this Creative Everyday/Blue and it seems that I'm the only one doing it. So maybe I'll give it a rest.

Today I went to buy PVC pipe for my shibori. I wanted 4" diameter. I could buy 2 foot lengths for $6.50, but I wanted several. A ten foot length was about $17. I asked if he could cut it for me and he could. I thought that he would put it on a machine and zip through it, but no, he cut it by hand with a saw. It took forever and I felt so guilty. I don't know if I was supposed to, but I slipped a tip into his apron pocket and thanked him profusely.

Now I'm off to do some pole wrapping. I will post the results of my dyeing, but it may be awhile. I have a very busy week coming up.

Creative Every Day/Blue, Day 8

2011-07-08T18:39:00.000-07:00

My Surface Design Challenge Quilt is finished! Whew! I had a lot of trouble deciding how to quilt this. I blogged a few days ago about the machine quilted faux French knots. Here's what I did with the rest.

I quilted "ghost circles" on all the circle areas of the clamp resist Shibori sections. They were fun to do and I liked the results. I used YLI Jeans Stitch thread which is very heavy and went over each little circle two or three times to give it a lot of diminution and texture.

I outline quilted on all these straight lines. These were made with a stamp I made by wrapping rubber bands around a wooden block.

These dots were made by stamping with bubble wrap. I just quilted straight lines between the rows. I tried several different things but this looked the best.

I'm glad that it's finished and can't wait to start experimenting with more Shibori. My two new books from Amazon arrived today and they both look like they are going to be terrific.....lots of new techniques to try.

I still don't have a title. Any suggestions??

Creative Every Day/Blue, Day 7

2011-07-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

I put in an order at ProChem on Tuesday and it arrived yesterday, Wednesday. This company is so great to work with and it's where I get all my dyeing supplies. I almost always get next day delivery. As you can see, I've ordered new blues getting myself ready to do some Shibori dyeing. I don't want to work with real indigo and these colors of fiber reactive dyes should give me some good indigo colors.

Creative Every Day/Blue , Day 6

2011-07-06T06:56:00.001-07:00

Keeping with the blue theme, here is a scarf I tie dyed. No, no, no, this is nothing like the hippie T-shirt thing from the 6o's. This is actually silk transfer dyeing. You use silk neckties that you cut up, lay on a silk scarf, roll the whole thing tightly, tie securely and simmer in white vinegar and water for about 20 minutes. That's a very brief explanation. The process is very serendipitous since you never know what the final results will look like. I covered the white silk scarf with strips and pieces of very bright blue ties. I was so disappointed when I washed it out and saw that it was mostly pale blue. So I did it again adding more strips of bright blue and dashes of red. It's OK, but I'm not thrilled with it. One member of my quilt group led us in a little workshop. She has done many and all of hers are gorgeous. I did a second one in red, but that one I like even less. I have five more silk scarves to use, so I may try it again at a later date.

Creative Every Day/Blue , Day 5

2011-07-05T10:59:00.000-07:00

Smooth Sailing

A fabric postcard I made for a friend's sick husband

Creative Every Day/Blue , Day 4

2011-07-04T10:39:00.000-07:00

Hooray for the Red, White and Blue

Happy Independence Day!

Creative Every Day/Blue , Day 3

2011-07-03T07:47:00.000-07:00

I was having a terrible time deciding how to quilt my Surface Design quilt on which I am currently working. Two sections have stitched Shibori and Paula suggested that I try French knots. I love French knots and like doing them, but couldn't envision myself doing that many through two layers of fabric and batting. So I decided to do them by machine. I used white YLI Jeans Stitch thread, a favorite of mine. It is 30 weight, which means it is quite heavy. I free motion stitched and went around in tight little circles several times to make the knot. It was really fun to do! Then I painted them with a watered down blue acrylic paint because the white was too stark.

Be sure to click on the picture for a bigger view.

Here's a piece before I did the French knots. Perhaps you don't know what "stitched shibori" is. I started with plain white PFD cotton and made rows of running stitch by hand. Then I drew the threads up tight and put it in blue dye. Wherever I stitched made a resist for the dye. After dyeing I removed the threads and this is what I got. Although the hand stitching is slow going and somewhat tedious, I like the results and want to do a lot more, using different patterns.

Creative Every Day/Blue, Day 2

2011-07-02T05:52:00.000-07:00

Although my house is full of blue and white, I seldom wear blue, usually gravitating toward aquas, turquoise, or lime green. This cute little jacket was purchased on my trip to China a few years ago. I like it because it is shibori on indigo. The jacket is well made with charming details like satin piping and knot buttons. It even has vents at the side that are piped with the satin. I paid a ridiculously low price for it. I hate to think of how little the workers were paid.

I have always been interested in shibori. I've done very little by myself and used some recently in a small quilt shown here. I just ordered two books from Amazon and plan to teach myself some of the many techniques.

Creative Every Day/Blue Theme

2011-07-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

Leah Piken Kolidos has a blog called Creative Every Day where she challenges other bloggers to do just that. She picks a different theme every month and this month the theme is the color Blue. She also has Create Art Every Day in November, where participants are to create a new piece of art every day and post it on their blog. I did it once and it was challenging, but I did keep up with it, mostly making small pieces or fabric post cards. You can also go to her blog to see what all the other participants are doing.

This theme was almost too easy for me. I love blue in its many shades and most of my house is decorated in some shade of blue and white. You don't have to make something everyday, just be aware of the color blue and post a picture. I know that I will post some pictures of things in my home, but I'll also try to be creative.

These beautiful blue Scaevola are a favorite summer annual. They bloom and bloom all summer long. I have two big pots on my front porch and another on my back deck. I also have them planted in the ground around my mailbox. I know that it's a purple blue, but it's still blue to me. In fact this variety is called Blue Fan. They require very little care, since there is no dead-heading involved. However if they are in a container, they must be watered every day or they will go into a big sulky, droopy pout. I also fertilize weekly with Miracle Grow, as I do with all my annuals.

Come back tomorrow for "something blue".

Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-29T05:13:00.001-07:00

New Fountain

2011-06-27T13:44:00.001-07:00

I've always admired the sound of trickling water that comes with a fountain. I've been looking at them for the past few years. I can't have anything too big or heavy because we have very cold winters and I have to take it inside in the fall. When I saw this little table top ceramic one in Arizona I thought it was just the right thing. I had it shipped and it's been sitting around waiting for me to put it together. I did so today and don't know why I waited so long. It makes the prettiest little gurgle and I was able to hook it up to the remote control lighting system that I use for my outside Christmas lights. The cute little bird also came from Arizona and I thought they looked good together.

Quinoa

2011-06-26T16:52:00.001-07:00

Isn't it strange the way certain foods go in and out of favor? Who ever heard of it a few years ago, but the new darling of the food world is Quinoa ( pronounced keen-wah). Actually it has been around for thousands of years, being a staple of the ancient Incas and eaten by the natives of Peru, where it grows, for years. I first had it in a Peruvian restaurant in Portland, OR a few years ago. I wondered what that little round grain was that was featured in so many of their dishes. Now it is ubiquitous, even being sold in bulk in Costco. It is a complete protein, gluten free and easy to digest. It has a slightly nutty flavor and can be used anywhere that you would use rice. I've used it several different ways, but here's what I made for dinner tonight. It made a lot, so I'll eat it for several days.

2 cups cooked Quinoa (direction on the package) I used red quinoa this time, but I've also used white. I can't see a difference in taste.
1 can rinsed and drained black beans
1 small can corn niblets or fresh corn if you have it
1/2 sweet red pepper, minced
1/2 small zucchini, minced
3 or 4 stalks celery, minced
1 cup minced fresh parsley or cilantro

Dressing.: Juice of one lemon and an equal amount of good olive oil.

Mix all together. After I plated it I added two chopped Compari tomatoes and mixed them in.

Accepted!

2011-06-22T05:54:00.000-07:00

When the Brush Gallery in Lowell, MA announced that this year's show in Art Quilts Lowell had a theme, The Sea, I thought I had just the right quilt for it. I heard yesterday that my "Ocean Treasures" was juried in.

The quilt is all pieced, using free form curved piecing and uses my hand dyed fabrics and some commercial prints. Please click on the picture to see all the critters quilted in. I used heavy Jeans thread for the quilting so that my critters would really show up. Below are some of the details.

The show will run from August 6- September 10.

Lowell has been very good to me. Over the past few years I have had four quilts juried into shows at different galleries, the Brush, the Whistler and the NE Quilt Museum. Three of them sold and the fourth one won a cash award. This one makes quilt number five.

Verdure

2011-06-19T14:31:00.001-07:00

Another art quilt group to which I belong, FANE (Fiber Artists of the North East), puts on a show every year at the Mahopac Library gallery. The show is not until the fall, but I wanted to get this piece out of the way. There is a theme this year, A Colorful Show, and we are to make a quilt of primarily one color, sized 9" x 20" that will be mounted on a white stretched canvas 12" x 24.

I didn't have to think very hard as to what color I wanted to use since I had dyed those 40 yards of green awhile back. I am using it in a another big quilt, but had more than enough to make this little guy.

I really enjoy this type of piecing with inserting very skinny strips of contrasting color.

I also had fun quilting it in very narrowly spaced lines and squared meandering. In addition to my hand dyes, I used a little Dupioni silk because I love the shimmer it gets when it's quilted. It's the leafy green on the right above with the straight line quilting.

Surface Design

2011-06-16T16:45:00.000-07:00

My small quilt group, the Scrapbag Quilt Artists, has a challenge each year which results in a show at the library. I've posted them over the years. The theme for this year is "Surface Design" with a size of 25" x 25". Here's what I've done so far. The fabric with purple in it is a folded clamped shibori that I made a few years ago and have been waiting for the opportunity to use. The dark blue with the wavy lines is stitched shibori. The polka-dotted fabric is stamped with bubble wrap and the dark blue with straight lines is made from a stamp made with rubber bands wrapped around a block of wood. Both of those stampings are done on my hand-dyed fabric. The narrow purple strips are Dupioni silk, the only element in the quilt that is not surface design.

I can't decide how to quilt it. I'm thinking of emphasizing the circles by quilting circles, either by hand with big stitches or by free-motion machine quilting. I also cannot think of a title. Any suggestions?

Busted!

2011-06-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

Three and a half weeks ago while getting my patio furniture out of the basement, I picked up a small glass top table by the side (dumb move) and the top fell off with the edge of the glass hitting my big toe. I saw stars! Fortunately I had my heavy rubber gardening shoes and socks on. I hobbled upstairs and removed shoe and sock. No blood, that's a good thing and I could wiggle the toe, not broken, so I thought. I filled a pot with ice water and soaked it on and off through the day.

It was still hurting a lot the next day and the next, but I didn't go to the doctor because I thought that there was nothing to do for a broken toe and I thought it was just a bad bruise.

The foot on the big toe side turned lovely shades of black and blue and the outside of my foot and up my calf were also painful. I was to meet a friend in NYC to see an exhibit at the Met and I cancelled that. I wanted to be in good shape for my upcoming Chicago trip the following week.

I went to Chicago (See a few posts back to read about it) and had a grand old time, but the foot was killing me the whole time. We did a lot of walking!

Yesterday, although my foot was feeling a whole lot better, I went to the podiatrist. He X-rayed it a declared the toe broken. He was amazed that I was walking on it for that long. So now I have to tape the toe every morning to keep it from flexing. No high heels (that's no problem) and no power walking. I usually walk for an hour every morning with my friend. I see him again in two weeks for another X-ray.

Moral of the story........if you drop something heavy on your foot, see a doctor. Although, if I did, he probably would have told me not to go to Chicago. We had such a good time, it was worth the pain.

I know I'll never be a foot model. Look at that foot! Actually it looks better that usual because of the slight swelling. All my veins and tendons usually stick way out.

Returned quilt

2011-06-09T15:15:00.001-07:00

This quilt was traveling for three years as part of a juried show for International Quilt Festival. It is part of my Configuration series, this one called Salsa City. I made this quilt specifically for this show, the title being, Festival Gallery of Quilt Art: Town and Country and I was so glad to have been accepted. It hung first at the Festival in Houston and then traveled to several different shows. I got notice that it was being returned and was a little apprehensive as to what condition it would be in after all that taking down and putting up and shipping from venue to venue.

Well, I needn't have worried. It was in absolute pristine condition. The whole quilt, front and back was covered in large sheets of white tissue paper, then rolled around a pool noodle. It was wrapped again in more tissue paper, then rolled in heavy duty plastic. then put in a new box.

I shouldn't be surprised. This is the organization IQA, that puts on the big International Quilt Festival in Houston every year. I've exhibited there many times and my quilts were always in wonderful condition when returned.

Configuration VI, Salsa City 50" x 52" Click on the pictures for a bigger view.

Detail. I thought I had a picture of the back, but I can't find it. I usually put a hand dyed fabric on the back to coordinate with the front, which is all my hand dyed fabrics. But I found a wonderful chili pepper fabric for this one, that I thought was just perfect. I like to quilt with variegated rayon thread and chose one that went from yellow to orange to red, and the name was Salsa. How funny is that?

I was glad to get this back and thought I would enter it into Art=Quilts=Art at Schweinfurth, but it has to be made within the last three years and this one was made in 2008. Oh, well, I'll enter it into my guild show next spring and maybe find another show that doesn't have time restrictions.

Peonies

2011-06-07T05:53:00.000-07:00

Before I left for Chicago, my peony bushes were covered with buds, the best in years. I think that peonies like cold winters with a lot of snow cover, just what we had this past winter. I was afraid that they would all open while I was away and I wouldn't have any to pick for the house. So I picked a small bouquet of the tightly closed buds, put them in a glass vase with water and put them on the concrete floor of my very cool basement. When I got home I was rewarded with these.

That Toddling Town

2011-06-04T14:38:00.000-07:00

Yes, I've been on the road again. I just retuned, late last night, from a 4 day trip to Chicago with five woman friends. I've been to my share of big cites all over the world, but Chicago has its own special charm. We just loved it! We were so lucky to have good weather and that certainly helped the trip, even though the first day was very hot and humid. We walked to the Navy Pier and managed to dodge the rain drops. My camera was still in the suitcase, so no pictures there.

The next day, Wednesday, was brilliantly sunny with no humidity, a perfect day for our Architectural Boat tour on the Chicago River. What can be wrong with a city that has a river running through it and is on a major lake? Not much, in my opinion. We boarded our boat here on the River Walk and took a two hour tour. Our guide was incredible. I don't know how he could remember all that information about the many, many buildings he pointed out.

Here's a bad partial shot of the Tribune Tower (not taken on the boat tour, but while walking around). It was splendid, looking more like a gothic cathedral than an office building.

Back to the boat tour. There are many glass, mirrored building that give wonderful distorted views of their neighboring buildings. I once did a quilt on similar buildings in Houston and called it "Houston Reflections". Should there be a "Chicago Reflections" in my future? Click on these and all the pictures to see the intricacies.

More cool reflections.

This was one of my favorite buildings, Aqua, designed by a woman and winner of several awards. You can see much better pictures and read about it here.

This was one of a pair of buildings, nicknamed the Corncob Buildings. The lower levels are parking.

Trump Tower, one of Chicago's newest and the second tallest building in the United States, is visible from many places in the city.

We had cocktails one evening in the Hancock Building on the 96th floor. Impressive views to say to least.
I loved the shadows that the building threw on the lake shore.

We had to make a rest room stop before we left and I was amazed to see floor to ceiling windows when we went in and this amazing view.

When I asked a friend, who is a former resident of Chicago, what I shouldn't miss, she said Millennium Park. Well, it was hard to miss, the entrance being right on Michigan Ave. on the Miracle Mile where we were staying. The park was enormous, with so much to see, but one of the most fun things was "Cloud Gate", a fabulous polished stainless steel sculpture. It is considered an "interactive" sculpture where visitors are encouraged to walk around and beneath it. It is affectionately called "the bean" by the natives.

Here we are inside the bean with all those distorted reflections. I'm wearing a pink and orange shirt and am standing next to Claire with white pants and a pink top. If you look carefully you can see us over and over and over and......... Be sure to click on the picture for a bigger view.

Lest you think that Chicago is all glass and steel and concrete, it a a city full of parks and green spaces. This was just one small section of Millennium Park.

I should mention the food, which was fabulous. Of course we had to try the famous Chicago pizza and a steak house, where I had one of the best steak dinners of my life.

We managed to squeeze so much into those four days..... double-decker sight seeing bus tours, the Art Institute, a terrific outdoor art fair where I bought a gorgeous necklace, the theater one night where we saw "Million Dollar Quartet", a little shopping, and lots and lots of walking and sight-seeing.

All in all it was a super trip and one that I would recommend to anyone.

That's it for now. I should be around for the rest of the summer. Hopefully I'll get some work done in my studio, which has been sadly neglected.

Westport Garden Tour

2011-05-29T16:22:00.001-07:00

I live in such a beautiful part of the country here in southwest Connecticut. After a long, cold, wet spring, we are now being rewarded with a glorious Memorial Day weekend. I spent the better part of the day on a garden tour in Westport, CT, a very affluent town, home to many rich and famous, such as Paul Newman and Martha Stewart. Martha no longer lives there, but we did visit her former home. No, I don't live there either.

The houses were incredible, as were the gardens. I only took a few pictures of the sweeping gardens, but concentrated more on the unexpected or whimsical images that took my fancy.

Be sure and click on each picture for a larger view.

I loved this color combination in Martha's garden. The new owners kept her gardener and they have tried to maintain the perennial beds as they were when she was here.

More of Martha's garden. It went on and on.

This shelf display and the garden shed below were from Mar Jenning's garden.

I loved this old park bench covered with moss and lichen with a lovely succulent arrangement.

Do you have a lavender bat house in your garden?

This house had a woodland path with these charming birdhouses.

I'll have to try this sometime when I need a quick centerpiece. Artichokes, broccoli, and mums, how cool is that?

Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-25T16:53:00.001-07:00

Canadian Cruise

2011-05-15T13:22:00.001-07:00

I just returned from a week long cruise to Canada. It was my second big ship cruise, the first one was many years ago with my husband for our 25th wedding anniversary. Widowed now, I took this trip with three gal pals and my sister. We had a nice time, but it wasn't my favorite trip. Unfortunately we had terrible weather, cold, rainy and windy. We were supposed to leave from Montreal, but once we got there, we found out that the river was too high from all the rain, so had to bus three hours to Quebec to board the ship. I don't think I like big ship cruising. This was Holland America, about 1,200 passengers. I know that's not big by some standards, but it was for me, being used to small (40 to 90 passengers) ship cruising. Yes, we had a lot of food (too much), but it seemed like there was too much down time with not enough things to do. Or perhaps I should say that there were not enough things to do that suited me. The shore excursions were pricey and not all that interesting, in my opinion. I'm sure that if the weather had been nicer, we might have had a different opinion.

I didn't take a lot of pictures because of the bad weather, but I did take a few when it wasn't raining.

These lobster ropes and buoys were on a dock in Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia. It was a lovely spot with beautiful scenery.

These next few shots are from Bar Harbor, Maine, the only day with some sunshine and fairly warm temps.

This sea gull in the park in the harbor at Bar Harbor was so cooperative about posing for pictures. I was able to get closer and closer and of course, I zoomed in .

I just thought that this was an interesting shot of granite with lichen.

One last thing. It was absolutly gorgeous here in CT all the while we were away. Guess what it's doing now..........RAINING and it is predicted for the whole week. I know that it sounds trivial to complain after all the tragic weather disasters that have been going on all around the country. So I won't!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-04T06:37:00.001-07:00

NSQG Show

2011-04-30T14:51:00.001-07:00

Today was the first day of my guild's, Northern Star Quilter's Guild, annual quilt show. There were many beautiful quilts there as usual, but I'm only showing you three.

This one, Tranquility, by my good friend, Carolyn Cooney, won Best of Show and Best Original Design. I was so happy for her. She had worked on it, on and off, for four years. The lighting was not the best so it's hard to see how magnificent it really is. It is VERY dimensional. She used painted scrim, beads, silk ferns, needle punching, yarns, roving, embroidery, fussy cutting, and much, much more. It had such depth that you felt as though you could walk right into those woods.

Be sure to click on each picture for a larger view.

This detail, which is a little washed out from the flash, shows some of what's going on. Those big trees in the foreground stand out about a half inch from the background. It was truly deserving of winning the award.

This quilt by Diana Sharkey, First Ladies Log Cabin, caught my eye and the judges' since it received a second place ribbon. It looks like a simple log cabin at first, although very well done with tiny logs and precision piecing.

Upon closer look, you can see that each block, made of contemporary fabrics, gives a synopsis of a First Lady's, life.

Here's a quilt I haven't shown before. It is mine and part of my painted cabbage series. This one, Of Cabbages and Kings, is a whole cloth painted quilt that was appliquéd onto the burgundy background. The veining and detail are free-motion satin stitching. It received an Honorable Mention. I had two other quilts in the show, but they didn't win any awards.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-27T05:32:00.001-07:00

Easter Sunday

2011-04-25T12:17:00.001-07:00

For the past few years my sister and I have gone to her daughter, Lauren's house for Easter. I've blogged about her before. She has a tiny house, but is a gracious hostess, with a flair for decorating and a gourmet cook.

Remember to click on each picture for a bigger view.

Here is her table set for dinner. The flowers in the big Easter basket centerpiece were fresh tulips and pansies. The small egg-shaped plates were for our first course of seared sea scallops.

She stayed up until midnight one night making these Easter napkins and then wrapped them in pretty pastel striped ribbon. Note the cute Easter egg place card holders.

Here's the appetizer table before they got devoured. Those little peep shaped deviled eggs were probably the best I ever had. All the other appetizers were made by her, too, and were delicious!

We were blessed with the first nice day in a long time and the kids were able to have their Easter egg hunt outside and play on the lawn. I should have taken pictures of the kids; they looked so cute. I hope you all had as nice a holiday as I did. Happy Spring!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-21T12:36:00.001-07:00

Sunsets

2011-04-17T16:08:00.001-07:00

Driving to our condo from the airport on our first day in Arizona, we were treated to a magnificent sunset. The sunset was mostly behind us and our cameras were packed away. We couldn't wait to see our next one, but it got to be known as the elusive sunset. Either we were in the wrong place at the wrong time or we were inside. But eventually we were rewarded with some beauties. The first three were taken from our patio and the rest are from a hilltop in Sedona.
Be sure to click on each picture for a bigger view. Enjoy!

Desert Plants

2011-04-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

I like to garden at home, although I don't do nearly as much as I used to. I love the lush green that we have here in CT, but I was enchanted by the desert landscaping in Arizona. We were so lucky to be there when the cactus were starting to bloom and the trees were greening up. If we had stayed a week longer, I know I would have seen a lot more floweres, but it was just enought to tweak my interest.

These Desert Marigolds grew wild all along the road sides. We picked some and they made a very nice bouquet that lasted several days.

The Saguaro (pronounced Su war oh) became a favorite of mine. They are only native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona and grow wild all through the countryside. They don't get an "arm" until they are 40 to 60 years old and then they may or may not grow more. Each plant was very unique and yet you knew it was a Saquaro. They do get a big white flower on the top of each arm, but we were too early for that. They were also used in landscaping around homes, but I suspect that many of them were there when the homes were built.

Such delicate little flowers on such a spiny plant!

These were quite small, only about an inch or so apiece.

One of several varieties of Prickly Pear Cactus. They do get a fruit that is quite delicious to eat and is also used in jams and Margaritas. Yum!

Two of the many varieties of Agave.

These Prickly Pears had a pinkish tinge to the leaves.

I thought that the strange growth on this Saguaro was very interesting. And there's that blue, blue sky that I've been missing since I came home.

This cactus looked like worms to me or maybe a brain.

I don't know what this beautiful tree was,but the bright yellow flowers were reminiscent of Forsythia.

If you know me, you know my penchant for wearing lime green. I thought I blended in very well with this cactus group.

Of course I took a bazillion pictures of different cacti, but I won't bore you with any more.

Sedona

2011-04-10T06:24:00.000-07:00

Whenever I told anyone that I was going to visit Arizona they would tell me to be sure to visit Sedona. And they were right. Whereas the splendor of the Grand Canyon was beneath the ground level, everything in Sedona was overhead. The color of the rock formations was amazing and it was everywhere you looked. Even the town carried the color since most of the buildings were the same color and sometimes even the sidewalks.

Remember that all pictures are clickable.

This is the rock formation that greets you as you drive into town from the south. I thought it looked like a wedding cake, but it is called Bell Rock. It is probably the most popular site for postcards and paintings.

This beautiful church, the Chapel of the Holy Cross, was built into the hillside. It was a steep walk to get to the top, but well worth the huffing and puffing. The church itself was rather small, but had a lovely gift shop (of course) and fabulous views.

We were also told to be sure to take a Pink Jeep tour and we did. Claire is missing since she is taking this picture. We took the Rim Tour, one of several offered. It was a two hour drive and and gave a splendid views of the terrain.

Las Vegas

2011-04-06T14:01:00.000-07:00

After the Grand Canyon we drove to Las Vegas. There couldn't have been a greater disparity between the two places. One being a spectacular display of nature and the other being a grandiose exhibit of manmade extravaganza. We had a lot of fun and saw two wonderful shows, Cirque de Soleil and Menopause the Musical. It was all glitz and glamor and although we enjoyed ourselves, none of us want to go back. And we didn't gamble one penny!

We stayed at the Bellagio, best known for its fabulous Chihuly ceiling in the lobby.

I love this Chihuly piece set in one of the lounges. Hmmm I like blue. Do you think it would look good in my house? Maybe a little over the top.

Outside of Caesar's Palace.

Outside of the Venetian.

Inside the Venetian. Notice the "sky" which is really a painted ceiling and the "statue" which is a living person. We thought that it was a real statue until we saw the money at her feet. I asked her how long she had to stand there and she very quietly extended 4 fingers. Oh, my four hours of being absolutely still. I could never do it. I know I would get an itchy nose!

We had lunch inside at the Venetian alongside the canal, while being serenaded by gondoliers, all with great operatic voices.

Of course, this was New York, New York.

My favorite hotel was the Wynn with these incredible indoor gardens. You would think that you were in an outdoor park, beautiful flowers and foliage everywhere.

The shops were all very high end, Cartier, Gucci, Channel, Armani, etc. We didn't see anyone shopping in them. Maybe if someone hits it really big at the tables. Not us!

We walked in and out of all the major hotels and they were all very impressive, one trying to outdo the other. It was very busy with huge crowds walking around outside, but we thought that the casinos did not look very busy. Perhaps a reflection of our current economy.

This is just a small sampling of what we saw. I think that everyone should go to Las Vegas once just to see it. It truly is amazing, but I don't need to see it again.

Grand Canyon

2011-04-04T17:03:00.001-07:00

Our first side trip in Arizona was to the Grand Canyon. We did go to Hoover Dam on the way, but I don't have great pictures. I had been told to not even try to capture the enormity and splendor of the canyon on film, to leave it to the experts. But I couldn't resist taking lots of pictures. I'll only show you a very few. I was tempted to scan in some postcards, but I didn't. These are all my own shots and all pictures are clickable for a bigger view.

Here we are at the top of the word. L to R: Me, Claire, Sheila, and Mickie, my partners in crime, since it should have been illegal to have as much fun as we did. The evening that we arrived at the canyon it snowed like crazy, but the next morning was clear and crisp and beautiful. One ranger told us that it was one of the best days in the year for visibility. You could see for 250 miles! We were dressed warmly and watched out for icy patches. We took the shuttle all the way around the Southern rim, getting off at each stop for walking and pictures.

We spent the whole day there, having lunch and dinner at the lodges.

We were always glad to see "critters" . More than once whole herds of elk crossed the road in front of the shuttle. They are enormous! I couldn't get a good shot of the males with their impressive headgear.

A few years ago the word "awesome" was so overused. But the Grand Canyon is truly awesome! I'm so glad that I got to see it.

Sold!

2011-04-03T10:43:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a break from my Arizona travelogue to share my good news. The quilt pictured, "Mon Petit Chou", which had been juried into the SAQA show, "No Holds Barred" at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA, has sold. It sort of takes the sting out of it's not being accepted into Quilt National.

I got an email from a man saying that he saw it at the show and wanted to know if it was for sale. This was the day before I left on my trip. I emailed him back and told him the price and that I would be away from my computer for a month. I called him when I returned and, yes, he was interested. He said that it called to him from the across the room and was pleased to see the title since he is of French heritage.

He is mailing me a check this weekend and will pick up the quilt from the museum when the show is over in a couple of weeks.

I have had four quilts juried into shows in Lowell, MA over the last few years. The Brush Gallery, the Whistler House Museum of Art and the New England Museum. Three of those have sold. I guess I can say that Lowell has been good to me.

The quilt was my first whole cloth painted quilt. I had taken a picture of a beautiful cabbage at the Emily Dickinson exhibit at the Botanical Gardens in NY. I knew that it had to be a quilt. I pondered different ways of making it using my hand dyes and decided instead to try painting it onto white cloth. All of the veining is free motion satin stitching. Click on it to see a larger picture.

I'm Back

2011-04-01T16:35:00.001-07:00

Did you miss me? I missed all of you. I've been away for the whole month of March in sunny, beautiful Arizona.

Three of my friends and I were so fed up with the miserable winter we'd been having here in Connecticut, that we decided to rent a house in Carefree, AZ. It was a wise decision and we had a fabulous time. We made many side trips from our home base in Carefree and I will blog about them in the coming days.

Carefree was a charming town on the outskirts of Scottsdale. The street names were typical of the easy-going attitude of the town. I photographed only a few.

In a addition to these, there were: While Away Road, Radiant Court, Nonchalant Lane, Never Mind Trail, Meander Way, Slumber Street, Rocking Chair Road, Peaceful Place, and Resting Road. One steep street that we walked up was called Breathless and the cross road was Huff and Puff.

Everyday we woke up to a beautiful blue sky and sunshine with no humidity. It was heavenly. We only had one rainy day out of 31, and the temps ranged from the low 70's to the low 80's. It cooled down a bit at night and that made for perfect sleeping with no AC.

If you come back in the next few days, I'll post about some of our adventures.

Winter roses

2011-02-24T05:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went into NYC with friends to see a show. We waited on the half price ticket line in Times Square for about an hour. It was freezing cold, but we were rewarded with tickets for Memphis. It was a terrific show with abundant singing and dancing. It won the Tony last year for the best new musical and I can see why.
On the way home we drove up Park Avenue to see these fabulous metal and fiberglass roses. There are 38 of them along a 10 block span, some of them being 25 feet high. What a treat to see flowers on that cold wintry day, a little tease of Spring. If you get into New York, they are well worth driving a little out of your way to see them. You can read about them here and see more pictures.