The party is over.......Quilt Show is now History

This past weekend the Museum Quilt Guild hosted its Stitches in Time 2014 quilt show.   It was a busy, hectic, time consuming weekend and I wouldn't change a thing!!!!  I love being in the mix and spending time with all my friends who share the same passion I do.   I will post some photos - but there are many more.

 

This was my overall view of the show as I sat at the raffle quilt ticket table most of the time.   It was also the view as you walked in the door.   This brown quilt - "Southwest Heritage Quilt" made by Becky Nichols, was one of my most absolute favorites.   I'm not a brown person at all, but something about the colors and patterns and southwestern flavor just drew me in.   Sadly, she told me it already has a home!

 

 

This was the best of show done by Jean Butzer.   She calls it "Using up my Stash" - and yet she says there still seems to be a stash in her closet.   Jean does exquisite miniature work.

 

This was our guild raffle quilt - won by "Judy" from Akron,, NY.  

 

This is the first of my award winners - "Subtly Christmas".   It won best piecing on a small quilt.   Since it is a Round Robin Row project in our guild, I share this award with 4 friends.   I made 3 of the rows, they made the others and I put it all together in this layout - and just a simple sashing and binding.   I designed it to "say" Christmas, not "scream" Christmas.

 

My next winner - "Best Visual Impact".   One of my favorites based on a story about two girls - one had butterflies for hair and one had bottlecaps for hair.   Neither one realized how beautiful they were.   I used REAL bottlecaps in this one and lots of appliqued butterflies and butterfly pins and buttons.

 

Inflorescence was a "Judges Winner" for me.   This was the result of a digital collage class done by my friend Julie Brandon  of Red-Dog Enterprises.  She also printed the photo onto fabric and then I quilted and embellished with beads.

Museum Quilt Guild Quilt Show

11 days and counting!   Please consider joining us and viewing our quilts, shopping our boutique, bidding at the silent auction, taking a chance on the raffle quilt and many raffle baskets, viewing the demos, shopping our vendor mall and just joining in the fun our guild has to offer.

Trip to Letchworth State Park.....looking for color,

Today was an absolutely awesome perfect weather day in western New York.   The leaves are turning, but aren't at peak quite yet.   Here are a few of only 268 photos I took today!    Some of my favorites while looking for color!

The Middle Falls

Upper Falls....a different angle than I usually photograph.   Might be my favorite

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The dam at the Mt. Morris entrance,   Some of us remember the great flood in 1972 when the water came within inches of spilling over the top.   Amazing to think about but pretty frightening then.

I managed to get a rainbow at the fountain at the Glen Iris Inn,

Love the color in this,

Wolf Creek....one of my favorite spots.

The trestle bridge....perhaps an inspiration for a "lines and angles" quilt challenge.

The brave soul on the bridge today.   This is, by the way, illegal.

Small sampler quilt for silent auction

I have been finishing some older quilts I started long ago.  They will go to silent auction at our quilt show or community service.  

This is the butterfly sampler from years who when a group of us led a workshop. I got a new quilting book by Angela Walters called Shape by Shape Free Motion Quilting.  I found several interesting ones to try.  I really like the square boxes in the sashing but they didn't photograph well.

Tropical hibiscus

I took a cutting from the hibiscus plant near the front door of the house we stayed at in Florida last winter.   Actually, I took 4 cuttings, but one survived.   I didn't have much hope for this one for many months.   After about 4 months it started to show some signs of growth, and a couple weeks ago it really shot up with two buds.  It is tropical so it will now need to be wintered inside.   Both buds have now bloomed and it is more spectacular in size and color than I remembered in Florida.

Rochester Area Fiber Artists (RAFA) Art Quilt Show opens toay

I am a member of the Rochester Area Fiber Artists (RAFA) and today marks the opening of our latest show in Brockport, NY.

I will have 2 quilts in this show - "Autumn Candles" and "Portrait in Purple"

  

 

I hope you will visit our show and our reception and support our creative endeavors!

2 Art Quilts Juried into National Show

I am so excited and honored to learn that two of my quilts have been juried into the Old Forge National Quilt Show to be held October 10 - December 5.   They are "Dead Palm  Fronds" and "Clematis on Acid".    Both of these quilts are created frin photos I have taken and manipulated in photoshop,   and then had digitally printed onto fabric by Julie Brandon of Red-Dog Entperises.  

 

"Dead Palm Fronds" is from a photo I took in Rainbow Springs in Florida.  It is very densely quilted, on my domestic sewing machine;  and I added beads to the part depicting Spanish Moss, just for definition!

 

"Clematis on Acid" is from a photo of a single clematis flower in my yard (see photo below), to which I added some distortion filters in photoshop.    It is also heavily quilted, on my standard sewing machine;  with beading to define the center of the flower.

Hibiscus overload.

Here in western New York we are enjoying a beautiful end of summer day!    This is my hardy perennial hibiscus.   It has been very prolific this year (apparently it likes a lot of water).   The flowers are always huge....easily 6 inches across and sometimes 8 inches.   As you can see..... The flowers seem as big as the whole shrub!!!!!    

Seasonal visitors....

Our seasonal visitors have been quite frequent the past 10 days.   I don't know if it is because we moved the feeders around and moved the canna lilies to be near them.....or if they are actively beginning migration,   Anyway, we have been enjoying watching them.   I struggled to get a photo all summer and this one I caught while on the phone, using only one hand on the camera...with a long zoom lens,

Daylilies.....keep appearing!

My latest day lily...isn't it pretty, and my favorite color too!

Fireworks

During the summer, if the local baseball team (The Mudckdogs) plays at home on a Friday night, they end with a round of fireworks.  Last night was the final Friday night of the season, and so in the continuing quest to learn my camera, I decided I should try some photography,   I got a few good ones, but I will say fireworks photography is a lot harder than it looks.

Here is the Muckdogs Baseball Team farewell to summer!

Hibiscus

My hibiscus is in full bloom right now,   I love the color of this perennial.

Hundertwasser inspired art quilt project!

I belong to a small group within my art quilt group (RAFA - Rochester Area Fiber Artists) that is currently working on small 12 x 12 pieces inspired by different artists.   Our first venture was Henri Matisse and this time we chose architect and artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser.   I was impressed with his use of spirals, bright colors and black as a bold contrast.   My flowers are based on a spiral multi colored button I found at my local quilt shop.   Then I found a piece of black spiraled fabric in my stash and decided to contrast the two against a bright colored landscape background.   Even the stems are spiraled.   And, if you look closely the jolting is all done with free motion spirals.

Around the Garden - despite the rains!

We have had an inordinate amount of rain this season, and not so much with the hot temps.  Some flowers thrive, some do not.   Here are a few around the yard photos.

 

 Butterfly bush, right outside the front door!   My favorite color!

 

We planted new grasses along the driveway edge.    The lawn got beat up pretty bad from all the snow plowing over the winter!   I had always wanted to do a line of grasses - this was the perfect impetus.    The task next winter will be to keep the snow plow from burying them.

One of my favorite daylilies - they are about to be done blooming for this year.

A garden in process - near the back of the property.    Trying to get some height and fullness.

Black-eyed Susans are EVERYWHERE here!    And they are prolific this year!

A view down the southern border garden.   You can see the black eyed susans with coneflowesr in the foreground, some salvia and that tall green leaf plant is an oak leaf hydrangea.    Those leaves will turn to gorgeous shades of pink, purple, red etc when fall gets here.

Hydrangea at the corner of the house.

  Closeup of hydrangea flower.

And what would a summer garden be without coneflowers - purple ones - they are prolific here also.

Trip to Letchworth Park

Saturday we took a trip to Letchworth Park.   This is a photo of the footbridge at the Lower Falls.   We were quite a distance away...... Thank you zoom lens!!!

Daylilies in profusion

My daylilies are performing quite well right now,   It's a constant struggle to keep the deer from eating the blossoms,   They don't bother the leaves, but do like the flowers.   I find it very interesting that a flower so beautiful blooms for just a day.   It's a good thing there are lots of buds this year!

Here are the ones blooming right now,   I have a couple more that will come a bit later.  It's hard to pick a favorite....the first one has such exquisite coloring, the second one is so delicate with its stripe of pink in the middle of a pale yellow, the third one is a nice deep color....but oh that last one....you have to know the purple one is my "WOW",