Window Photo at Olive Garden - Possible quilt????

I saw this photograph at Olive Garden - and had to have a picture.   I love the window and the perspective.   Not sure I could duplicate it in fabric, but I sure do like everything about it....the gradation, the circles, the colors.   Maybe I should just enjoy it as a photograph!!!!

I have learned it is from a building in Rome known as The Pantheon.  I understand the hole is called "The Black Hole" featured in "Angels & Demons".

Quilt Guild Retreat Weekend

 This past weekend was my guild retreat at Camp Asbury, Silver Lake.   For 3 days, 28 of us sewed and sewed and sewed.   The best part - is we were fed well and didn't have to prepare or clean up from meals.   It was gray this weekend, so we didn't see the pretty colors of the lake we saw last year. 

My one totally finished project - my X- Bag Purse - Made with fabric showing musicals and also a lighter "music" fabric.

I got a good start on my first row of the Round Robin Quilt our guild is doing.  Mine will be Christmas themed - I did 4 12 inch blocks and will pass this row, along with a 6 inch strip of my main Christmas fabric on to the next person to create a row of her choosing, using some of Christmas Fabric.   There are 5 people in each group, I will end up with 5 rows to put together as I choose.

The Old Italian Block from Anita Grossman Solomon's book.   I started this last year at retreat..........and didn't work on it again all year.  Still not sure I have enough blocks done for a lap quilt.

Finally - circles.   I had a pack of 5 inch charm squares - tropical print themed.....I finished several of these.   Will end up with 40 squares.....then to decide what to do with them!!!!

Ice Dye Fabric Challenge Quilt - Lenten Banner

In my ArtCGirlz art quilt group, one of our members does a lot of snow/ice dyed fabrics.   She brought each of us a Fat Quarter with the challenge to create something out of it.

This is the FQ I chose!   I immediately saw Stained Glass church windows!

 This is the quilt I created using her fabric and my idea!

 I used Angelina Fibers to create sparkle/shimmer in the stained glass windows.

 I wanted to try thread sketching - basically drawing an object freehand, using the needles as a pencil.


Finally, I have made several pulpit banners for my church.   They requested a lenten banner (I wonder how they knew I'd have lots of purple fabric - the color of Lent!!!!!!)

A simple quilt - a cross with the Crown of Thorns.

Snowstorm NEMO in WNY

Strange name for a storm....and while we had more snow than we've had in the past couple of winters, it really was mostly "just winter" in WNY (not like the East Coast).  I took a few pictures this AM, but the cold is worse than the snow I think.    I have a collection of grasses - delicate little things that blow in the wind, but are much stronger than we realize - to hold the weight of several inches of wet snow!!!

 This one is quite buried under several inches of snow!

 The stalks and seed heads - I leave them all winter and cut down in the spring.   Good for color, texture and feeding the birds.   Thankfully they don't appeal to the deer!

 Look at the snow cap on this delicate little grass!

 Love this pic - the gentle arching of the grass and the covering of snow!

 My tiny little 3 foot high Japanese Maple Tree

The top of the Rose of Sharon bush - just above the fence top!

Then....the crocus!!! Another one done!

In my previous post, I posted a picture of this quilt in progress....it is now finished.   My entry, "Then...the crocus!", for the Rochester Area Fibre Artists show at the lowermill.com gallery in Honeoye Falls, NY.   These will be on display for the month of March!

"First a howling blizzard woke us;
then the rains came to soak us;
and now before the eye can focus
....crocus!!!"   by Lilje Rogers

               
This poem was the inspiration for this quilt.   I have always wanted to interpret that poem in fabric and when the theme for this show was announced as "Winter's End" - I knew it had to be done.  The feeling for me was the stark white and lack of color we all feel during the winter ....and can't wait for it to be over.   I think we are all surprised by that first little crocus that comes up - even though we know to expect it.  

There are over a dozen different "snow" fabrics, for all different fabric types.   Some of the birch trees are photos printed on fabric, the others are just fabric.  The quilting in the back is a shadow of birch trees, to contract the rolling, waving snow.   There is also a lot of bead work - not visible from a distance - but a surprise to the viewer who looks up close.

Three lone crocus - hint at spring's arrival (fabric and beads).

The poem by Lilje Rogers is printed on an organza overlay - due credit given to the author.

While the quilt is almost exactly what I envisioned from the beginning, and did go together fairly easily once I got started, I had trouble starting it.   All pieces in this exhibit must be for sale.   I don't do this to sell - it is an avocation, not a vocation.   If I create and then someone sees it, wants to buy it, and I want to sell it....all well and good.   But it is never my driving force.   I really had to work to put that mentality aside and just create.   However, the fact is.....I really am NOT ready to sell this yet!