Fruits

Gerrie's daughter Lisa (sorry ladies, but your hyperlinks aren't working with my blogger tonight! Gerrie's blog address is: www.gericondesigns.com/weblog/index.php and Lisa's blog address is: http://www.lisacongdon.typepad.com/) is a featured artist in the latest issue of adorn magazine. I love the way she altered the purse pattern by using log cabin blocks. You need to check it out!!! I got to thumbing through the rest of the magazine and found an article on fabric stamping that got my mind wandering. I bought some fruit at the grocery store and started playing around with it this afternoon. Here are a few pics of my finished work:

I loved doing it! Felt like I was back in kindegarden again. The more I mixed my fabric paints, the more fun it was. I also tried a cucumber and a yellow squash, but they didn't do nearly as well as the citrus. I also found that the citrus responded better if cut and left to sit for an hour or so before printing.

While I was playing away in my studio, poor C and two of his buddies were replacing the lights and fencing around our pool patio. (I say "poor" because it was so hot and humid today! Even when Barker and I walked on the golf course at 6:30 this morning it was 75 and the humidity must have been at least 70%. It's good weather for dyeing silk thoough, isn't it!!)

I know I posted this pic the other day, but take a good look at this old fence:

It's history, folks!!! Yippee!!! The new one isn't fully installed as yet, but when it is, y'all will be some of the first to see it!

PEACE!!!!

Thursday ALREADY!

Busy day today! I got up early, all inspired to get out to the studio and start dyeing some things, but Barker and I needed to do a quick hike around the golf course. 6:30 AM in the summertime is such a peaceful and glorious hour! I just love it!! So, then we got to do some dyeing and some waxing, and then I had a request for a "cell cell" for a very special friend! I'm thrilled and honored to do it! Had lunch with my dear friend Joani today, and that was a pleasant break in my work time. The cell cell is almost finished - just have to sew up a few seams and drop it in the mail in the morning!

Here's a pic of our one and only hydrangea blossom of the summer:

Our Easter freeze zapped all of the buds except for this one....but isn't it lovely! I just adore hydrangeas, and have planted quite a few at this house....pinks, whites, blues, lacecaps, etc. I am so envious when we are in Atlanta and see them blooming away! Oh well..........next year! Do you have hydrangeas, and if so, are they lovely right now?

Here's a stand of my Echinacea. I wish they had a perfume. The white ones are slowly reseeding themselves, and that makes me happy. The brown stalk over to the right is a goneby foxglove, which I am letting reseed. There's also a Verbena Bonariensis on the right. I love those too, but mine always seem to get so straggly.

And here's the beginning of my Phlox:

You can also see the plump Star Gazer Lily buds, just waiting a few more days to perfume the garden.

I'm going to share with you a little quiz I received in my emailbox from my dear cousin Paula. It's quite amazing, so just follow the directions and have fun with it:

YOUR AGE BY DINER & RESTAURANT MATH

This is pretty neat. DON'T CHEAT BY SCROLLING DOWN F IRST!

It takes less than a minute. Work this out as you read.Be sure you don't read the bottom until you've worked it out!This is not one of those waste of time things, it's fun.

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to go out to eat. (more than once but less than 10)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3. Add 5

4. Multiply it by 50

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1757 ....If you haven't, add 1756.

6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.You should have a three digit number The first digit of this was your original number (I.e., how many times you want to go out to restaurants in a week.)

The next two numbers are YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)

THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2007) IT WILL EVER WORK, SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE IT LASTS

PEACE!!!

"Collections"

The very last thing my dear mother would ever call herself is a collector, but in sorting through her drawers of "things" in her Assisted Living apartment and moving her to yet smaller digs in Skilled Care, I observe that she has been a collector of a few doodads over the past 90 years. I am thrilled, because some of her collection really appeals to me, and I will treasure these things.


Here is a grouping of tape measures:



Most aren't anything really special, but I have very fond memories of that plastic apple tape measure in the upper left hand corner. It belonged to my Swedish grandmother, Augusta, and spent many years on the top shelf of her little sewing caddy. I never thought my Mother was sentimental, but she did save her mother's tape measure!



Here's another collection that I found in one of her drawers:

Keys, little locks, and wonderful old key chains........one from the church where I was baptised oh so many years ago, another from the bank where my mother served as manager and loan officer. Those keys are great, and I will use them, for sure!

On another totally different note, but yet still a collection of sorts, my new internet friend Jude sent me this little goody bag of stuff as part of the June "Create A Connection" swap. How creative a collection: two bottles of nail polish, some fizzy feet to add to a tub of water for a pedicure, a very yummily scented candle, some paperdolls to play with while I soak my feet, and a lovely silky bag holding all of the collection! I haven't had a chance to use this very thoughtful and creative gift, but when I do, you will read about it! Jude is a caregiver too, so she has been wonderfully sympathetic during my Mom's past few weeks of illness. Thanks Jude!!

I've been puttering around the house the past two mornings, just sort of treating each morning like a lazy winter Saturday. I try to organize at least two piles of things from my Mom's and do a bit of straightening up on our own things. Today, I took a break midmorning and wandered through my flower garden:

My Echinaceae are in full bloom right now, and the bees are loving them! It won't be long before my Star Gazer Lilies are alsoblooming. I have missed seeing their early July performance for several years now, so it will be very pleasant to be home for the show this summer!

PEACE!!!

Peaceful Day

C and I arrived home from our wonderful whirlwind trip to Nashua, NH last night, and I got busy doing laundry, etc. while he went off to a Vestry meeting at our church. So, we had a late dinner and fell into bed. Barker and I were up and on the golf course early this morning. It was fairly cool and overcast...quite lovely! The blackberries along the cart paths are just beginning to ripen, so I was thankful that Barker would allow me to stop and nibble every so often!

I was busy this morning just straightening up around the house, but I vowed that I would make time to sew or do something creative this afternoon. I got busy right after lunch and finished up a couple of postcards I had started back before my Mom got sick.

This is the first one, and will be a birthday card for a dear friend of mine. I had high hopes of making her a wallhanging this month, but life got in the way. I hope she will enjoy this:

The flowers are made with painted lutradur scraps from my big poppy piece that I am making. I've satin stitched over some floral wire to make the stems and the veins in the petals. I'm playing around with a different edge finishing technique. I got this idea off of the QA list from this blog: http://vdenegrequilts.blogspot.com/2007/06/cardinals.html. I wish I could remember the gal's name, but you can look it up and find out for yourself. She has fused Angelina fibers to the edges of a piece of watercolor paper and then fused/glued that to the quilted postcard, then buttonholed around the fabric. I like the look, and the watercolor paper gives a nice writing surface for the card.

Here is the second one:

I was really pleased with it, and when I showed C, he said it looked sloppy! I thought it looked happy! He also didn't understand that the 3 was a 3...he thought it was a "W"! Honestly!! Just goes to show you that what I think is so very obvious, obviously is not!!! So, this is an anniversary card for Kristin and Dave, who will celebrate their third on the 3rd of July! It's difficult to believe that 3 years have gone by so quickly!!!

I'll share this one label with you, and then I'm outta here:

I told Diane about it the other day when we were in Nashua, but I never had a chance to show it to her. I was so elated to finally get on that flight to Boston last Friday night, that I celebrated with a little split of Merlot. I really liked the label (especially the fish) but the wine tasted a lot like one would imagine a fish eye would taste!! BLECH!!!

PEACE!!!!

What a Thrill!

Our seminar with Betsy Sterling Benjamin concluded this afternoon at 3:00 PM. I have to say, it was one of the finest classes I've ever taken. She is very professional, encouraging, and of course, highly qualified to teach her subject! I learned a tremendous amount and now hope to go home and have the luxury of some time to spend honing my craft, so to speak.

Here's a pic of our pieces getting set to go into the steamer:



What great color, eh???

And here's Betsy rolling up the little package so that it can go into her rocket!

If you have the opportunity, indulge yourself and take a class from Betsy! You surely won't regret it!

OK, C and I are off to a seafood dinner....our last night in New Hampshire!!!

PEACE!!!

A Weekend in New Hampshire

Yesterday C and I spent almost the entire day trying to hop on a flight from Atlanta to Boston...we just needed two seats on a Delta jet, but there didn't seem to be even two available until shortly after 8:00 PM. Being a retired pilot, C has just a few perks left from the company for which he gave 30+ years of his life, and pass-riding is one of them. However, yesterday proved to be more flight challenging than most! I think we must have waited at the gate for a half dozen flights, before we finally got on one...and we weren't the only folks doing the same thing. There were about a dozen of us who kept gate-hopping around Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson Int. Airport! I was scheduled to be in Nashua, NH at a weekend workshop of Japanese Rozome Fabric Batik Painting and Printing taught by Betsy Sterling Benjamin at 6:00 PM. On Thursday evening, the flights looked wide open for us to fly into Boston no later than 3:00 PM and still get me up to Nashua by 6:00. NOT!!!

Be that as it may, we arrived at about 10:45 PM, rented our car, and checked into our hotel in Nashua at about 12:45 AM. Pass-riding is not for the faint of heart these days!!! We fell into bed, but I was awake and rather bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 7:15....after all, it was my day with Betsy Sterling Benjamin!! My friend Diane had driven up from Pennsylvania, and she met me and C for breakfast, and then she and I drove to Gallery One for our day of class.

I snapped this pic this afternoon as we were leaving, just so that you could see the great old mill building where we are having our seminar. It has all been refurbished with refinished heart pine floors and those wonderful huge windows to let in the glorious light.

(some of these photos will actually enlarge - you can see Jeff, one of our classmates, and Betsy in the doorway in this one!)

This is the building across the parking lot:

I suppose that is how Gallery One looked before the renovation. I am so glad that we are now putting these grand old dames to use once more!! Such character!!

Here is Betsy, placing a stencil that she had cut out (look at the detail here folks!!) on a silk scarf she had previously dyed.

Betsy, kneeling and painting on her soy wax resisted silk scarf:

Here is my buddy Diane painting around the lovely fish she had stenciled on her silk scarf:

This is another terrific scarf painted and soy wax resisted by Mary Ellen. Don't you love her colors!!

This is my scarf, partially painted:

Here is a closer view of my design:

Anyone recognize that design?? Speak up!!!

Tomorrow's class isn't until the afternoon, so I hope to sleep in a bit longer in the morning. We will be steaming our pieces and enjoying a lecture and slide presentation.

I'm having such a great time....the 10 hour wait in the airport was worth it!!!

PEACE!!!

Happy Father's Day

My Dad, Richard Chester "Dick" Hill:

Born July 12, 1913, Died October 26th 1986

He was the best! You always knew where you stood with Dick Hill...he called it as he saw it. I wasn't always pleased with his decisions, but we could always discuss things. He was a great hugger, and I always knew that I was loved!

We've had a very nice evening of dinner and conversation with Kristin and Dave...a welcomed respite from my Mom's sickbed. She is not doing well, and I am not optimistic as to her recovery. I know she is in loving and capable hands at the medical center, but it was difficult to leave her. I now pray for peace for her and for those she loves. She has had a long and wonderful life.

PEACE!!!

Playtime

I bought some Lutradur at Fiber On A Whim a while back and have been playing around with it a little bit in my spare time. Today I mixed up some Procion MX dyes, painted the Lutradur first with Matte Medium and then with the dyes. Doesn't this look cool:

I love the way the capillary action carries the dyes through the Lutradur. I think this piece may be used on a journal or notebook cover.

Along those same lines, the cover story in the latest Quilting Arts mag was about Lutradur painting and embellishing. The author of the article, Sylvia Marie Polk, had used Lutradur in her City and Guilds diploma program, and furnishes the reader with step-by-step instructions on how to complete her project.

I have been wanting to make a wallhanging to cover the breaker box in our condo, and doing a poppy piece mounted on black seemed like a plan. I sort of followed the guidelines for the QA piece, but have strayed where "necessary".

I began by loosely sketching out my poppy on a piece of newsprint in the finished size I wanted the wallhanging to be, tracing the petals onto the Lutradur, painting them with the matte medium and then the Procion MX dyes I had mixed.

Then I mixed up some yellow disperse dyes and painted a piece of bubble wrap with the dyes:

I "painted" several pieces of copy paper with the disperse dyes:

and let the paper dry. Then I ironed the disperse dyed papers onto the painted Lutradur. (sorry no pics here). This was really cool, because I'd never done it before, and the yellow added just enough spark to the red Lutradur petals.

Then, even more fun!!

I got out my stencil burner and burned/cut the petal edges. Author Polk warns the reader to do this in a well-ventilated area and to wear a mask or ventilator. I "dressed accordingly", opened the doors in my studio and went to work. What fun!!!

Then I placed all of the petals on top of the newsprint "map" I had initially drawn:

Pretty neat, huh?

Here it is on top of the black duck fabric:

It looks washed out, but it's just the light in my sewing room.I've got a skein of red laying on top of the bottom petal, just checking shades for further embellishing. This is really too much fun!!!

About my Mom: C and I spent some time with her this morning. She was a bit confused and said she hadn't slept well last night. After some lunch, she was back in bed to nap, and we decided to come home. C went back this evening to help her with dinner (and to let me play some more) and said she was a bit better and ate well. I don't know what to think about her, but I do know that I enjoyed my afternoon of playing in the dye pots again!!

PEACE!!!

Hail Yes!!

Look what we got:


Hail may be a common occurence in your neck of the woods, but it isn't here in Northeast Georgia. We are in the midst of a drought and so when the heavens opened the other evening, we were ecstatic!!!

It's been a rough week and a half for my Mom, me and C. She is still in the hospital and will remain there until at least Monday. She is a very strong willed gal, and she is giving this the old college try, but when you are 90, you don't just bounce back like you used to! Emotionally, I am ready for just about anything at this point. I leave her hospital bed one evening and think she won't make it through the night, and then the next morning I find her sitting up in a chair eating breakfast with her cute little grin on her face. Then the next morning she is semi comatose in the bed, groaning and of course, unable to eat at all. Her condition seems to change day to day, so I'm never sure what I'm going to find when I arrive in the morning. If she is discharged on Monday, she will go to a skilled care nursing facility, and thankfully, this was her choice. Her old chum Ruby surprised her with a visit this afternoon, and it was very bitter-sweet. Ruby lived across the hall from Mom at assisted living, and they sat at the same table for meals. They've been through a lot together. This afternoon Ruby sat in her wheelchair next to Mama, in the hospital bed. They held hands and cried, and talked, and laughed and cried some more. Reminds me of the old Simon and Garfunkle tune "Old Friends" (sat on a park bench like bookends, etc.). It was very sad.

So I haven't blogged.

Too sad................loosing my oldest bestest friend.

We don't have to say a word............we know what the other is thinking.

I love her so much.

When I got home from the hospital this evening, C said he thought he might go to an organ recital at our church and did I want to go? The last thing I wanted to do was go out again, and the thing I wanted most was to goof off in my studio ALONE. He and I are good like that...........he's my next best friend, but usually my very bestest friend!

So, I fiddled around with this:

The dark spots you see in the green background are large chunks of sea salt, as I was salting and painting and photographing.

C came home from the concert and took a look. "Needs to be more vibrant" he said. "Really?" I said....he is usually telling me my stuff is too bright!

So:

It's not great, it's not even good, but it's therapy: the silk and the dyes interacting again...not to mention the salt and the alcohol!!

Then we took Barker for a short walk down the little lane next to our house. The sun was setting and leaving some marvelous colors on the clouds:

Now it's time for a late dinner, and off to bed! I know it's not physically healthy, but mentally it's the best!!!

PEACE!!!

Good News Day!!!

Well this has been a mighty fine day here in northeast Georgia! I got up early, had my breakfast, and then wandered on out to the garden to do some pruning. The flowers are lookin' good! I wanted to run back in and get my camera, but knew that if I did that, I'd never get the pruning and weeding done, so..........I pruned! and then I pruned some more! By 9:30 I was finished and snapping a few pics.

My liatris are beginning to open!



These poor daylilies have been over run by the forsythia. I think that I may move them after they finish blooming...either that or prune back the forsythia.




This one has such a sunny disposition:

I love Echinacea when it is just beginning to open. I bought only two plants several years ago, and I just let them reseed all over the place. This plant has a ton of buds:

And one last daylily shot:

I may have to paint these babies too!

Good news?......oh yeah, I forgot to tell you!! The surgeon came in to visit Mom this afternoon and said that he doesn't think she needs to have her gall bladder removed, if she'll just go easy on her fat intake....NO MORE ONION RINGS!!! We can follow that order real well, if it means no scalpel!

PEACE!!!

Color!!!!

The night before Mom got sick, I had a chance to play around out in the studio with my DuPont dyes and a mixture of some black dye and gutta. Here's what happened:

It sat out in the studio until last night when I just couldn't stand it any longer, so I got it off the frame and got it steamed. Then I washed and ironed it. I just love it but wish that I could draw a bit better!

I'm only using the primary colors plus something that's pretty near turquoise, and then I just mix and blend....I like what I got!!

The flower below is probably the best of the lot (which isn't saying much is it!), but unfortunately it was right at the selvage edge, so it ran off!

I love how well the DuPont dyes react with both salt and alcohol. It just so exhilarating to paint with them! Tonight I will go home and paint my lilies and another abstract piece that I drew last night. This is a great release for me right now!

PEACE!!!

Flower Power

Before I got called off to the hospital yesterday morning, I snapped these pics from my garden:

The sun was hitting my Rubra Lillies just right, and there was still some dew on the petals.

I would love to be able to paint these....maybe next week!

(the picture above and the picture below actually enlarge - no easy task for me! - so check 'em out!)

Coreopsis....makes even a cloudy day seem sunny!




Liatris, and I've forgotten the name of the pretty little white flowers in the middle. Senility seems to be spreading around the family!!!

My favorite single pink roses that bloom all summer:

Why are they my favorite? Because I got two pots for $1.00 a few years ago. Such a deal!!

PEACE!!!