It's a "niveous" day in the neighborhood!

My favorite little Japanese Maple tree...in all seasons. !

My friend Patrick and I have been playing a word a day game for the month of  November.   We give each other a word to interpret with a photo or art or a quote.  Recently my word was "niveous".   It means "white" or of a " snowy" nature.  Being in the northern part of the U.S. I've used the word a lot....he being from the warmer southern half of the country.  Anyway we have had our first measureable snow and it is pretty.  This is what I like for Christmas Eve and day...and them it can be gone 

I won, I won!!

I follow a lot of blogs.... It is a good way to connect with other artists and see what new things people are doing.   One of my favorites is Connections by Karen Musgrave.   I have thought for awhile now thwt we share many common thoughts, feelings and ideas....   This week many have been a part of a "blog hop".   You can see all new kinds of things and people and register for their giveaways.    Karen isn't new to me but I registered for her giveaway because I like her stuff, and......I like to win.   And so, I won, I won.   It is a journal with a butterfly on the cover and anyone who knows me, knows I love butterflies and what they mean.    There is a photo on her blog, but I will wait to post a pic when I receive my prize.    (The picture above is NOT the journal....just a butterfly photo that I like)

Saturday I went to see the RAFA show in Clifton Springs,   It is awesome and I don't just say that because I'm a part of it.....it showcases everyone's work to a really high level.

While there, my husband fell in love with a Beautiful wood table crafted by a local artist.   We now enjoy this table in our living room.    A wonderful day!

RAFA opens a new show in Clifton Springs, NY

Rochester Area Fiber Artists show opens this week in Clifton Springs, NY.   I will have 3 pieces entered along with 27 of my artist friends.     The reception will be Saturday November 9 from 4-7 and we will be doing a trunk show on December 6 as part of the Festival of Lights display.   Come and visit our show if you are in this area.   I promise you will not be disappointed.

Out on a Limb - Wendy Butler Berns workshop

Wendy came to Batavia a couple of weeks ago to do workshops and a lecture.   I took her Out On A Limb class. This is my completed piece...I think I am done!

Wendy uses a freezer paper, gluestick appliqué method that was great fun.  We also worked with texture magic for the tree.  

A close up showing some beads I added for leaves.   I say I "think" I am finished because with me and beads...you never know!

My Art Quilt Show winner!!

I found out late last night that my quilt "Autumn Candles" is a winner at the national quilt show held at Old Forge Arts Center.   I entered for the first time in the art quilt category!   Awards are tomorrow, but alas, too late for me to plan to attend that event.   The show runs from November 2 - January 5.   I saw the watercolor show that was there before this show, and that was excellent.   I hope to get back sometime to see my quilts hanging in this show.

This quilt was my second quilt using the birch tree theme.   The green rectangles are fused mosaic style onto an autumn print batik.  Birch trees were cut from appropriate fabric and raw edge fused...some fraying of threads gives texture to the trees.  Snippets of red fabric are machine quilted to give the appearance of falling leaves.

The best part was when we were driving to take the quilt to the arts center we kept going by forests of trees and I would exclaim - Look - there's my quilt"!"   It was neat to see the effect after the quilt was done instead of before as for inspiration!

Salsa clarinets!

I attended the Old Forge watercolor art show a week ago!   This was one of my favorites....... Clarinets....hot and spicey!  Being a clarinet player, and a lover of color, this really appealed to me.

Old Forge

A small vacation to Old Forge after a busy guild week with national quilter Wendy Butler Berns!!

This is my Friday Workshop...Out On A Limb!

After guild meeting we took Wendy to a local diner for the infamous Beef on Weck for which we are known for in this area 

This is one of the lakes we saw today!   It is either White Lake or Round Lake. There seemed to be confusing signs in the area. 

Then we ate at Walts Diner.... Well known diner in the area. 

This is one of the displays in the famous Old Forge Hardware store.  It was so pretty but I really just loved the rhythm of repetition.

Beautiful autumn day.....more Letchworth Park pictures

It was a gorgeous day for a drive today.   I went on a hunt for more pictures of the trestle bridge in Letchworth Park.   There is talk of outting a new bridge for the trains, which could mean this one will be gone, or at least obstructed with a new one beside or near it.

This is the infamous shot from the infamous vantage point.   Almost everyone has a photo from this angle.

Further up the hill we saw one of the rare trains that cross the bridge now.   It was a long one and we never did see the end of it.   A really close look will show the conductor waving at us.

I'm always interested in lines and geographic shapes they make and find the structure of the bridge very interesting.

I was riding along with my husband on insurance claims and at one of the house se saw this guy,   I think he know "his time of the year" is near, and even closer if you are in Canada.

Rushford Lake was also pretty with lots of low lying clouds.

Beginnings of new landscape quilt - Letchworth Park

This is my picture......I want to interpret this in fabric.   First I tried to have it printed but the pixels and size wouldn't enlarge in correct proportion so it ended up very blurred, washed out and basically unuseable.

So, I decided to take the photo, enlarge to 10 x 14, mark the areas of the photo with a Sharpie Marker, flip the paper over and take the tracing from the front side so it was on white paper, divide the paper in half and scan into my computer and then reverse the scan so it was the correct orientation, divide each half into equal thirds, enlarge each third to approximately 8 x 10 and then print out the 6 8 x 10 sections to simulate the approximate size of the quilt  (when all are pasted together).   There had to have been an easier way - but in my little studio, on my computer and printer - this was the best I could do.   Now I will look for fabrics, trace once again on some sort of fusible and/or freezer paper and being my creation.   The trees, water etc. don't seem so daunting - but how I will do the trestle remains to be seen.  

To show what I've done - here are a couple of examples of what was scanned into my computer and enlarged.

"Autumn Candles". Birch trees art quilt

I seem to be in a birch tree theme this year.   This is my second one -an autumn theme,

This is the water color painting - that I saw somewhere - that inspired this latest quilt.  

About the same time I decided to do this quilt I saw an article on "tiling a background".  Since I wanted a lot of green, I decided that would work.   So I tiled green rectangles onto an orange leaf background ( no small feat I might add).  Then I raw edge appliquéd birch tree colored fabric.   I left some of the edges very raw for texture and dimension,   The splotchy red leaves are snippets of fabric...loosely quilted down with invisible thread and some edges left undone for more dimension.    I tried to add red beads....but the quilt didn't want it!  (Has your quilt ever talked to you like that?)

Very, very happy with the results, the overall look and how I really can tell it was inspired by the painting.

Where I Stand - Lapidary Show

Several of my fellow RAFA members are taking part in a show put on by the Lapidary Society in Rochester at the end of October.  The challenge was to use stones, gems, beads etc in some other way than jewelry.   Easy for those of us who always have to have a bead on our quilt.     

This is my entry!  And below is the hallway carpet that inspired it!

I walked into our hotel this summer and knew immediately I had found my idea.  No one is ever surprised to see me taking a photo of the floor or the ground.   Oh course not real stones on the floor but the blue images marching up the side looked like beads and stones to me.  Voila! Hence the name of the quilt... "Where I Stand"

ArtCGirlz Mandala Exhibit Opens

Friday night was our opening reception.   There are 8 quilts and 3 paintings done by our group.

 

This is my quilt titled "Where Words Fail...Music Speaks".  I have already talked about this on my blog, which you can read in the post done just before this one.   I invite you to ready about my journey with quilt.

  

Lori Anderson's quilt is called "Healing Shadows".  She took one of her own photos of trees and a manipulated it in a kaleidoscope program to obtain the circle.   Her background frames the photo just perfect.

 

Kathi Everett - "On Wings" - loves the "wings" graphic.   She took a graphic and she and Julie Brandon of Red Dog Enterprises manipulated this graphic on the computer as you see it now, set it against an orange background and printed it out on fabric.   Kathi embellishes it with crystals.

Martha Lorshbaugh calls hers "Zendala Mandala".   She fussy cut a fabric to obtain a perfect mirror imaged pattern.   Her real love is Zentangle and she has quilted an elaborate Zentangle on the top.

Mary Ellen Casey - "Om mani padme hum" - was our show coordinator and she did the only true round quilt and found a great way to hang it.  She was inspired by a commercial pattern and interpreted it in fabric, embellished with thread painting etc.   

Chris Keuhl  - "Sun, Sand, Surf" - had been on vacation at the beach,   She did this using paper piecing technique and added sparkle with crystals and gold leaf.   I LOVE the colors.

Susan Rathbun loves to ice dye ands et out to. Relate a perfect. Or le with dyed fabric.   She wasn't really happy with what she got, so she heavily embellished it with beads (which I love) and. All sit. "Oops, Lemonade"

I did another quilt of just free motion thread stitching on a dark background.   I couldn't get a good picture to show the pretty variegated thread I used.  I call it "The Butterfly Within"

Bethany is our painter.   She did this series of 3 Mandalas  which are very intricate, using a very tiny paintbrush.  

Green - "Ship &  Compass"

Red - "Wellington"

Blue - "Talk In Your Sleep"

Mandala - Completed At Last

Oh how I struggled with this!  It started simply enough with a challenge issued by a local gallery for my ArtCGirlz group to do a show...creating mandalas.   Since mandalas are supposed to be personal, what better than music for me to use.  I already had the theme and I had a circular patterned rust dyed fabric.  I found the center motif and printed it on fabric and appliqués to the rust dyed fabric.   Easy enough.   I then decided to stencil paint the word "PEACE" around the circle as music often brings peace....relief from the everyday stresses.   So far so good,  

I then found the saying "When Words Fail... Music Speaks" and decided to ink stencil it onto the fabric. Still working good!  

  Then I decided to machine quilt the treble clef flourish symbol....Big Problem!   Have you ever tried to quilt through rust???   My machine needle locked up every time.  No matter what I tried it wouldn't work and I decided to quit.   I folded it up and threw it In the bottom of the closet.  About the same time I began to question why I don't do more with my music....I was trained after all and the process of thinking through that led me to concur  with my decision to just stop and not do this project after all.  But like most things, I kept thinking and pulled it back out and tried again and then threw it back again. Finally I decided to add beads to hold things together.   Before that I tried the treble clef sign once more, changing needles, thread, holding my breath and barreling through.   Once I started with the beads I really began to like it more,  then I found a perfect border.....circular, mandala like and I quilted it in circles.  I kept adding beads to the point where I finally don't hate it!  So, it is completed and will hang in the show!    

You can see our show at Blue Pearl Yoga Studio Gallery on Main Street in Batavia,  all of us who are showing have had "journeys"... Personal to us, which I hope will result in the public understanding the intent of this show.

Textured Pumpkin

I love this pumpkin I found at the market. It says it is am heirloom pumpkin.  I just love the texture...it looks wooden.  Not sure how you get wood to look like this, but it is what it reminds me of!

More flowers .... Still growing!

I have 2 planters outside my sun porch door.  Both have coleus, sweet potato vine and impatiens.    As you can see, they are huge this year.  The tallest is almost half way up the window.   Granted they are low windows, but still....

More mandala hints!

Music is my theme!  I have added some beads after quilting the border very intensely!    I don't hate it any more, in fact, it is better now with the embellishments!    Now...to know when to stop!!!!

Mandala quilting continues.....

This piece continues to be a struggle.  If you believe in the intent and worth of a mandala.. I must be destined to " learn" something...but what??

I'm now into quilting concentric circles which has become almost "zen like"...the first time of any peace or serenity on this quilt.   I still don't love it, but I'm trying to complete it and not give up!   And so...it continues!