Pink Martini

Last weekend my friend Kathie organized an evening that revolved around a concert by the
Pink Martini musical group.  They hail from Portland, OR and are absolutely fabulous.  It was clearly one of the best theater performances  I have ever seen.  If they are ever anywhere near you, rush to see them.  You won't be disappointed.

Kathie has a very large house (that is on the market since she is moving to Florida) and she loves to entertain.  This was a ladies only night and she had a pre-concert cocktail and dinner party at her home.  Guests were requested to wear pink and there was every shade of pink from palest shell to shocking and everything in-between. We were also asked to bring something pink to eat and it was amazing what diversity there was.  She served pink martinis, of course, and rose wine.

The pictures are in no particular order, bur I hope you can get a sense of the good time had by all.  No pictures of me since I was taking them.

Tables were set up in three rooms with the expected color tablecloths.

How's this for a fabulous pink outfit on  Georgette?

Not the best picture of our hostess with the mostess, but the best I had, of her carving up the pink-in-the-middle steak.

Goodie bags were hanging from the staircase ealing in the foyer.  Each guest had a pink martini-glass name tag. 

Contents of the goodie bags.

These were not at the party, but I thought I could sneak in this bouquet of pink Knock-Out roses that I had picked that day from my garden

Thee I Wed

I went to a family wedding last weekend outside of Baltimore.  It was an unconventional wedding, as seems to be the norm these days. Is that an oxymoron? The groom's brother was married last September on a farm in New Hampshire and this one was on a farm, also.  My friend is going to one in a vineyard this weekend. We were blessed with a beautiful autumn day, the perfect weather for an outdoor wedding.

Unfortunately my juice was nearly gone on my iPhone, which is what I use for my camera now and I had forgotten my charger.  My nieces had taken a lot of pictures with good cameras and put them on Snapfish, which is giving me a hissy fit about joining, so I will have to go with the very few that I have.

Sarah and Brian taking their vows.

My niece had converted to Judaism when she married and her children were raised in the Jewish faith, so this was a Jewish ceremony with her son and bride married under a Chupppah.  It was decorated with beautiful summer flowers and the same casual floral theme was carried throughout the wedding.

The lovely bridesmaids with those same fabulous flowers.  Notice the bucolic setting in the background.  It actually was a working farm and we passed fields of corn, tomatoes and cabbage on the long dirt road to the buildings.

Allyson, the sister of the groom and the brother of the bride.

This was Courtney, last September's bride, and her partner.

Cocktails and appetizers were outside in the courtyard in front of the barn.  I doubt that this barn ever held animals because it was beautiful inside with fabulous stone walls on two sides, sparkling white lights overhead and fabulous polished wooden floors.  The round tables with gilt chairs were covered with navy cloths, centerpieces of summers flower clusters..  All very elegant.

These very large arrangements hung on the inside of the open barn doors.

The band was terrific and we all had fun dancing.  Instead of a wedding cake we had pie and ice cream, the pies being made with produce from the farm.  I had blueberry...yumm!

It's always good getting together for a happy occasion and seeing friends and family that live so far away.  It was a magical day and one that will be long remembered.  Mazel Toff!

On the Road Again

I just got Brown Planet back from its year of traveling when I was asked by a friend whose husband works for Google if I would be interested in having my quilt hang on loan at their New York City headquarters. They have a brand new policy of hanging art and her husband had seen a picture of my quilt and thought that it would be a good fit for a large brick wall they have.  Of course I said yes and it was hung on Sunday.

The quilt is about 7 feet long by 4 feet high.

The colors in this picture are true.  For some reason the first one looks bluish. Isn't it interesting that my "bricks" in the quilt are almost the size as the bricks on the wall?  It certainly wasn't planned that way.

You may remember that this was a collaboration with Kathy Loomis and that was displayed on the label. Actually they are replacing this sign that I mounted on foam core with a printed one that will be framed. The quilt will not be for sale and this space is not open to the public, but I still thought it was good exposure.  It will be there for about three months unless I need it back sooner.  Better there than rolled up on my shelf.  

Donation Piece

The Brookfield Craft Center, which has been struggling to stay open for the past couple of years has asked me to donate a piece to be sold at their opening cocktail party on October 15. It should be a nice affair with wine, food and live entertainment.  Of course I said yes, thinking I would make a small fabric landscape quilt that would be mounted on an artist's canvas.  I have done many of these before with success and knew just what I wanted to do.  I like to take photos with interesting flowers in the foreground and mountains or water in the background.  I had taken just such a photo on my recent Canadian Rockies trip. But this one gave me so much trouble.

Here is the finished product.  Down below I will show you the ones that went wrong.

This was a first attempt.  When I sew the flowers I like to use YLI Jeans thread. It is very heavy and makes a statement.  They only have limited colors and I have every one.  There are only two shades of pink and I thought the lighter pink would be too wishy-washy so I chose the darker one.  When I finished I thought they were too dark and then tried to go over them with the lighter.  As you can see it was too clunky and in general a mess. I hate to tell you how much work this was.

Then I thought I would just print the photo on fabric and sew over selected parts with Sulky rayon threads.  It was OK, but I thought it looked too much like a photo and not like a fiber piece.

Detail of the thread work.

The piece is 5" x 7" and is  mounted to an 8" x 10" canvas with acrylic medium.  Even though the back will never be seen, I had to put a nice back on it.

And here is a detail of the one I'm giving them.



So what do you think?  Should I have stuck with the photo printed on fabric and thread-painted or do you like the first one shown that is totally fabric?

I'm linking up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  Go see what other artists are up to and leave some comments.  We all love comments!  Thanks for stopping by.

Wordless Wednesday

Mounted and Finished

I mentioned a couple of blog posts back that my newest Skinny Wiggly piece had to be mounted on a canvas for our FiberWorks show.  When I was looking for a fabric to back my quilt I came across this wonderful piece of commercial hand-dyed looking fabric in my stash.  At first I thought it was perfect for the backing, then realized that it was even more perfect to cover the canvas on which the quilt would be mounted.  So much more interesting than the plain white canvas.

The finished product that leaves me free to go on to a new project.  Stay tuned.

I'm linking up with Off the Wall Fridays.  Go check out some fabulous work.

Wordless Wednesday

Welcome Home

If you follow my blog you are probably sick and tired of reading about Brown Planet, which I blogged about so often......the story behind, the making of, the award win at Houston, etc.  Well, after Houston it traveled for a year to other IQA shows in Chicago and Portland, OR.  Today it arrived home.  Just look at how beautifully it was packed!  Rolled and wrapped in tissue paper and plastic and tied with ribbon bows.  They really know how to take care of quilts and I always know that my quilts are in excellent  hands. Included in the box were the three catalogs for the three shows.

The box is another story.  It was my original telescoping box that I ordered from U-line and had used to ship the quilt to Houston.  It is quite beat up after all that travel and it will go to recycling. 

Bountiful Harvest

I do not grow vegetables.  I'm all about flowers, but I do have two big pots with one plant each on my deck of these Sun Sweet tomatoes.  I've been able to pick a few each day for the last few weeks, but they are coming in fast and furious now.  I picked this cereal bowlfull this morning and there are a gazillion green ones ready to ripen.  These are so sweet and juicy that it's hard to resist taking one as I walk past the kitchen counter.
A friend is dropping off some cucumbers from her garden today. Delicious salads all weekend.

Wordless Wednesday

Quilting Finished

I had to put this away for awhile, but I was able to get it quilted and faced over the weekend.

SW 8, Yellow to Red

I was pleased with the way the quilting came out.  Since this is a small piece, only 21 x 24, it was a good candidate for this swoopy quilting using a walking foot.

Detail

I like my backs to coordinate with the fronts, even if they won't be seen.  In this case it really won't be seen since this piece is for my FiberWorks group show in October, in which all pieces have to be attached to a 24 x 30 inch artist canvas.  I am covering the canvas in an ombre fabric.  I'm doing that next and I'll show you when I'm finished.