Wordless Wednesday

Montreal, Part 2

On our third day in Montreal we decided to visit the Botanical Gardens. We were expecting something beautiful, as most botanical gardens are, but were totally unprepared for what greeted us.  First of all it is one of the world's finest and largest, covering over 191 acres with 30 thematic gardens, greenhouses and a vast arboretum. What we also didn't know was that it was hosting Mosaicultures Internationales, a competition that was held in Montreal for the first time in ten years.  I think it must be like bidding for the Olympics.  This year there were exhibits from about 20 countries, responding to the theme "Land of Hope: Preserving Biodiversity"
I took so many pictures, but none of them do it justice.  Many of the sculptures were enormous and all were made entirely of living plants.  What follows is a small sampling.

This gigantic bird tree, made of living plants, is 52 feet high and 56 feet wide at the crown and weighs 100 metric tons. Its 14 branches hold 56 birds, each one an endangered species. It has an internal and external irrigation system

This gives little more detail.  It was hard to photograph.

This exhibit was called "The Man Who Planted Trees". The worker was meticulously replacing some plants in the front of the sculpture.  We saw this a few times throughout the exhibit, where workers were either pruning of replacing to keep them in perfect form.

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There were several exhibits with horses.  Their manes were made of plant material that blew in the wind.

Micky knows that you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find the  prince.

This serpent twisted around and even went under the path. this only shows a small part of it.

This "Mother Earth" was one of my favorites.  Again, it was huge! 

There were several exhibits of gorillas, monkeys, chimpanzees, etc.  They were all life size and made from various types of plant material.

We spent the better part of the day there and didn't even see the Japanese Gardens or the Chinese Gardens, which are supposed to be world class.  If you're going to Montreal this summer, be sure to put this on your itinerary.

Montreal, Part 1

Our first stop was Montreal, a beautiful city.  As we usually do when we get to a new city, we took a Hop on, Hop off guided bus tour.  We sat on the top deck and got blown to bits, but got a good overall view of the city and gave us ideas on what to go back and see in depth.

I'm a sucker for mirrored skyscrapers, having a made a quilt called "Houston Reflections" several years ago.  Montreal had quite few, but I only took a few pictures.

I found the name of this restaurant amusing.


There were flowers and gardens all over the city.

Notre Dame Cathedral.  It was magnificent!

The sign explains the sculpture below, one of many sculptures we saw on the street.  This  one was rather bizarre and because of the color we called it the "Butter Sculpture"

The figures were more than life size and took up a large space.  I walked all around snapping pictures.

The Beaux Arts Museum had a Chihuly exhibit that we wanted to see, but the museum was closed on Monday, the day that we were there.  We thought we might go back the next day, but we had other adventures planned, which I will blog about tomorrow.

This was Maxine's breakfast on the first morning in the hotel.  Every dish came loaded with fruit, but hers was the most artistic.  It was way too much to eat at one sitting.

Oh, Canada!

  I just returned late last night from a wonderful week gadding about in our neighbor to the north. Three of my lady friends and I rented a car and drove to Montreal for three nights and then on to Quebec City for three nights.  We had a fabulous time!  As you probably know the Provence of Quebec is very French.  All the road and traffic signs, bill boards, store names, etc. are in French.  With our limited high school French from many years ago we got along fine and most people speak English, too. It was a lovely get-away and I will be posting some pictures soon. For now I have to get caught up on laundry, gardening, emails, and all that necessary nonsense, so come back tomorrow or the next day and I promise some good pictures.

Wordless Wednesday

Pen Pals

 FANE (Fiber Artists of the North East) is having another challenge, this one called Pen Pals.  We were randomly paired with another member and we each are to make a quilt using something in our studio that we purchased and never used.  We are to consult each other by email (thus the pen pal title) and keep some sort of journal noting our progress.  The quilts can be any size and we get to keep our quilt after the reveals in September.  Jamie, my pen pal, is using a Day of the Dead fabric by Alexander Henry that's been in her stash for a long time.

I decided to use these five copper three-inch squares that I bought in Houston a couple of years ago, The copper was treated with some kind of chemicals to give this effect. I thought they were very cool but never found the opportunity to use them.  At first I though I would pair them with some blue rust-dyed fabric I made a few years ago, but I couldn't find it and now I think that I had used it all up.

So I pulled out the fabrics I had made in the Jan Meyers-Newbury workshop I attended last year.  I thought that these rust colored fabrics would work. I auditioned many different fabrics and combinations and let it simmer on my design wall before I finally came up with this,

I  will attach the copper squares after it is quilted.  Right now they are just taped on. It also looks a little wonky right now because it is not all sewn together. I may also attach some other copper things like washers or coins, but that will be decided later. I'm also thinking of using some copper colored thread for some of the quilting.  What do you think?

I am linking up with Nina-Marie Sayer's "Off the Wall Friday".  Hop and on over and see what everyone is doing.

Wordless Wednesday

In my garden this morning.

Finished Quilting

I finished the quilting on my second texture piece yesterday.  I trimmed it and it is amazingly very square.  Now I'm ready for the painting, but first I have to decide if I want to bind it first and also paint the binding.  Or perhaps I should paint it and them bind it, as I did on the other painted quilt.  Or do I want to face it after the painting?  I have three art quilt meetings in the next three days where I will bring it unpainted for Show and Tell, then I will decide what to do. It's hard to see all the quilting that I've done.  Check out the photos below.

A couple of my FiberWorks members said that I should leave it as it is, that the visual texture of the fabric and the tactile texture of the quilting is enough, but I still want to paint it and I will.

quilting detail

Quilting detail 

I've linked my blog this weekend with Nina Marie Sayer's "Off the Wall Friday" blog.  Hop on over and scroll down to the bottom and you can see links to many other talented artists and see what they have been up to this week.  Just click right here.

More Samples

I have been busily quilting away at my second texture piece, but I wanted to make some more samples to try out paint colors.  Since I am doing some redecorating in my home I  have quite a bit of  leftover wall paint stashed in the basement.

Here are some more colors tried on my original sample. In some places it's color on top of color, but I didn't really love any of them.

This is the newest sample. On the far left is the medium blue that I thought would be perfect, but I think it just looked blah.  On the far right is the very dark navy/teal that I put on the bathroom walls. Way too dark!  In the middle is the pale aqua that I am going to use.  It contrasts with all the colors beneath.  I may overpaint some sections. In the upper left corner I tried using a shiva paint stick. I may do a bit of that on the big quilt.

I have about an hour or two of quilting to go on the big piece.  Maybe I'll finish it today and then I can do the painting.  Are you wondering why I am using wall paint?  Well it is the perfect constancy and gives just the right amount of coverage. Does it make the quilt stiff?  Yes, it does, but this is a wall hanging and I don't care if it's stiff. I tired using acrylic paint but the wall paint works better and I have a lot of it.  Recycling, right?

Happy Dance

I'm doing the Snoopy Happy Dance because I just got notification that both of my entires to the big IQA World of Beauty show in Houston, TX were accepted. I'm not showing pictures because there was some discussion last year about showing your work before it hangs at the show.

But if you follow my blog at all you will know both of these quilts.  The first one is a collaboration quilt that I did with Kathy Loomis, called Brown Planet, a Collaboration.  It was entered as a two person quilt in the Art Abstract, Large category.

You have also seen the other one, part of my configuration city series titled Emerald City.  That will be in the Art Abstract, Small category.

So I am a happy camper and now have to make plans to go to the show.  I have been to about eleven of the Houston shows, skipping last year because I didn't have anything that I wanted to enter. I usually go with my sister who has other plans this year so I will be going with friends.