Nice Surprises

A few months ago I received an email asking permission to publish my quilt, "Emerald City", which had been sold a few years ago to Yale New Haven Hospital. I agreed and then I was asked for an artist statement and photo and then I completely forgot about it. I had never heard of the publication, Curated Quilts, but it is published four times a year and each issue has a theme. My copy was in my forwarded mail yesterday.

This issue's theme was House and my Emerald City was a good fit. The magazine is quite nice with heavy paper pages, several  articles , some how-to's and many gallery pages.  I was delighted to get a full page.

Then this weekend I got another nice surprise. CBS Sunday Morning did a feature on their suns and how they choose them. One of my suns was on the wall behind Jane Pauley when the segment opened.

That's mine on the bottom and it's one of my favorites. The picture I sent is below.

The fabric rays are double faced and tacked down to be curly. The face was embroidered on my Bernina using free motion satin stitch. They have now used three of the eight suns I sent to them.

I am linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

LaLa Land

Long before the movie, we called Florida "LaLaLand" For us snow birds it is truly an idyllic place to get away from the wicked North East winters. I'm down here for three months now that I have purchased a new home last March. Although it's been a little cool since we got down here last week (mostly in the 60's and low 70's) it is nothing compared to the 10's and 20' and 30's back home and more importantly, NO SNOW. Actually this morning it was 1degree in CT and it's not supposed to get above 11 all day. I will take the chilly mornings here which are wonderful for walking. I've' been doing an hour every morning.

I made a couple of quilts for this new home and blogged about them before, but I thought you might like to see them in their new home.

I made this long narrow piece to go in the alcove going into the master bedroom. I quite like the way it looks. Click on any of the pictures for a larger view.

The quilt hanging to the left of the wall unit (housing the TV) was originally made for the den, but it was too small and I think it is looking good here.

This little triangular quilt might be a tad small for the space in one of the guest rooms, but the colors are so perfect with the bedding that I think it will stay. 

I brought some of my velvet Shibori pillows with me when I came down in May and I think they are perfect in the master bedroom.

I still have some drapery panels coming for the room. I did not make the framed shibori pieces on the wall. They were from a piece of handmade paper I bought this summer. I put them in white frames and think they look great. Notice the shibori pillow in the chair.

We are almost done with the furnishings. I ordered a couple of area rugs online today for the dining area and the den. Also ordered some drapery panels for the MBR and great room. Shopping online is fabulous.....free shipping and if you don't like it, back they go. I have had very good luck. I am here with my sister and two other good friends. Fortunately we all like to shop and love the thrill of the hunt and bagging a good deal. 

We have been without WiFi and TV for over a week now ( horrors!), but yesterday we found out that you can use your iPhone as a HotSpot, so we are off and running. Don't miss the TV very much and we have been doing a lot of reading and me, a little sewing. TV's are hooked up thanks to Comcast, but they had trouble with the outside line. Apparently new construction wreaks havoc with cable lines. It will get fixed this week, I hope. I do miss the morning news.

I'm not sure how much blogging I will do. Without a sewing machine here I won't be making much new and hand work is very slow for me, but  I will try to let you know I am still alive.

I am linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

Contrast

My weekly FiberWorks group has a new challenge for the year. Each member was asked to bring in several words that could be an inspiration for a work of art. We then voted on them and narrowed them down to 12 words. Members are to make a 4" x 6" each month inspired by that word and then at the end of the year when we have our big show at the Newtown Library we are to pick one of those small studies and make it into a bigger piece.
 The first word is CONTRAST. I looked through my garden pictures and found one that I thought would be perfect.

This was taken in my garden a few years ago, This wonderful shrub blooms in the late summer and into Sept. I just loved it, but alas it bit the dust last year. I forget the name (something like charioptis) but if you know please let me know. Anyway I loved the contrast between the flowers and the background, a striking black, so I printed it onto fabric.

The black background came out a wishy-washy dark gray. I went over it all with a black permanent marker and it looked better, but a little splotchy. Then I remembered India Ink, so I put that on with a small brush and voila---very black black. If you look carefully on the right hand side you can see where I tried it out. There is a definite line about half way up, the lower half is the India Ink and the rest marker.

On this one I stitched over all the flowers and leaves with the sewing machine, OK, but I thought I could do better.

This one was embroidered by hand and I like it so much better. I mounted it onto a white canvas.

I do enjoy making French Knots and although this took a few evenings of TV work, I think it was well worth the effort. What do you think?

I am going to my Florida home this week and will be three months without a sewing machine, so I am bringing hand work. I already have my next two words, CURVES and ILLUMINATION, printed onto fabric and I will do the embroidery while I am there. Since I am taking my laptop I will be able to blog, so look out for them.

Remember that you can click on any picture to see a closeup.

Simple Pleasures

How cute is this guy? I don't know how I missed him on my other morning walks during the holidays. Maybe I was too busy chatting with my walking companion, but I was alone this morning and I had my camera, which I usually don't have. I loved that puffy jacket with the giant zipper. I'm assuming that the lantern lights up at night. They also had a pretty wreath on the door. I will be taking down my outdoor decorations tomorrow.