SAQA meting

On Wednesday I attended a region SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) meeting at the home of our regional director Kate Themel. Kate is an incredible fiber artist and we were treated to a tour of her studio and saw several of her finished works, ready for a show. Since the date was 9/09/09 we were asked to participate in a postcard exchange, using the number 9 as our theme. I was fortunate to get Kate's card, "Nine Lives" Be sure to click on the picture to see all her wonderful quilting. I made a card called "Nine Wiggly Pink Stripes" and neglected to take a picture of it.
We had a lively round of Show and Tell with some fabulous work shown. I showed my two latest gray quilts and told about the problems I'm having with my rusted quilt (yes, I'm still working on it). There have been so many art related occasions lately, good to get my creative juices flowing. I have a lot of ideas, now I just have to get them all done. Deadlines are approaching.

Wordless Wednesday

Almost there

Remember those sunflowers that the deer ate down to nothing earlier in the summer? This is the second planting done early in July. They are about 7 feet tall and happily looking over the deck, as I had planned. The bottom leaves look a little raggedy and there are a few leaves nibbled off, but it looks like the deer repellents I'm using are doing the trick.


I don't know how long it will be before the flowers open.....soon I hope.

Cooper Hewitt Museum

Two friends and I took the train today into NYC again to see another fiber art exhibit. This one, Fashioning Felt" at the Cooper Hewitt Museum was phenomenal. Friends had been in to see it and gave it rave reviews. We had meant to see it when we went in a couple of weeks ago to see two other fiber art exhibits and ran out of time. The show closes tomorrow, Sept. 7 and we were urged to see it if we possibly could. Forget everything you thought you knew about felt. This show took it to a whole other level. There was a yurt constructed in the conservatory, where all the walls and ceiling of glass were covered with huge sheets of silk felted panels. So hard to describe, but so beautiful to see and touch. There were gorgeous clothing items, (two jackets I especially lusted after), furniture, rugs, sculptures and more.

No pictures were allowed inside because they had a lovely catalog to buy, but I have way too many art coffee table books. This is a shot of part of the beautiful garden outside. The building itself is a joy to see, being housed in the former mansion of Andrew Carnegie. It is now part of the Smithsonian Museum. Carolyn took this picture with my camera. Isn't she a great photographer?
We were planning on eating at the cafe in the museum since the website made it sound rather enticing, but it was not, so we elected to walk a couple of blocks and had a lovely lunch at a nice place on Madison Avenue. The weather was absolutley perfect, a quintessential September day. We were surprised at how many people there were walking around. I thought that folks would be out of town on Labor Day weekend, but perhaps there were many like us, that thought it was a grand day to be in the city.

I bought this pretty felt pin in the gift shop. Anyone who knows me knows that I love to wear this color and I put it right on the jacket I was wearing. It's four inches across so it makes quite a statement. Since the show closes tomorrow it was on sale, but I would have bought it anyway.

Wordless Wednesday

Eye of the Quilter

This year Karey Besenhan is running a photography contest, called Eye of the Quilter. We could enter three photos and the winners will be printed at 8" x 11" and be displayed at the International Quilt Festival in October in Houston, TX. They were to be something that might inspire us as a quilter. I had a hard time choosing just three, but these are the ones I chose. We were allowed to tinker with them in Photoshop. I did not and now I wish I had for the first one.This was taken in Granada, Spain.


Look how much better it looks with the color revved up. Too late, I sent it as it was in the first one.

This was shot at a spice stall in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. I keep thinking I'm going to use this in a quilt, maybe abstracted. I thought that these colors were vivid enough as they are.


This is a view of Hunderwasser House in Vienna, Austria. I loved the color blocking of these buildings and of course they reminded me of a quilt. These are the true colors.

Consternation and Aggravation

Lest you think that I have been even more of a slug than usual, let me tell you that I have been working diligently. I pieced together those units of little wiggly strips in rust colored and blue fabrics with the pieces of hand-dyed fabrics that I had rust dyed. The pieces went to together with amazing ease---sometimes that happens. I produced a piece about 30" x 40" and I must say that I was pleased with the results. Then I took a couple of days to decide how to quilt it. And that's where the dilemma began. Quilting the wiggly strips and the Dupioni silk that I put in the quilt was no problem. But when I started quilting on the rusted fabric, oh, my, big trouble! The thread kept breaking, but even worse, The fabric was actually shredding in spots, especially near the seams.

I went to the source of never ending quilt wisdom, the Quiltart online group, and asked for suggestions and I got several. So today I went to the store and purchased Sewer's Aid (a silicone coating for the needles), several different types of needles, and polyester thread (I had been using rayon). I will start anew tomorrow and hope for the best. I had envisioned myself rusting more fabric and making more of this type of quilt so I hope that I can solve this puzzle.

Wish me luck and stay tuned.

Wordless Wednesday

How About This Way?

I took my quilt to my quilt group and we talked about how it should be displayed.  It's been said that a good abstract design will look good in any direction.  We rotated the quilt around each way and the consensus was that it looks best this way.  I think I agree, even though it's not the way I designed it.  What do you think?

Dare I hope?

These are the sunflowers I planted after the original ones were decimated by the deer. You can see that damage here. Now they are at just about the height that they were when chomped on by Bambi and friends. My intent was to have their happy faces (the sunflowers, not the deer) show above the deck railing and be seen on the deck and in the house. I don't know how far away they are from actually blooming, but I'm being hopeful that it happens before frost.

This has been a crazy summer for the garden. Many things rotted from the excessive rain in June and July. And now we have oppressive heat and humidity. Yuck. The yellow Margarite daisies, that I planted by the mail box with blue Scaevola, and about which I was so enthusiastic, now look very sad and scraggly in spite of my diligent deadheading. They will soon be replaced by mums. The scaevola still look good, maybe I should concentrate on them next year.

I've often said that life should be like a garden. If it doesn't work out one year, you always have the next year to do it all over again. Now wouldn't that be nice?