The Fabric of Mississippi Living

     I love to show my quilts, even if they are some of my very early works (1990-1992). It is my privilege to have these on exhibit at the Sarah Gillespie Museum of Art on the William Carey University campus in my hometown, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The featured work is "Mississippi Ag Museum in Bloom" made by me and four other quilt artists in 2016. The piece is 3 feet high by 10 feet wide in five sections. Other sections are made by J Marcus Weekley, Cathy Reininger, Julia Graber, and Rita Warnock.

Front of invitation

Back of invitation

(Correction: my quilt has returned from China)

Mississippi Ag Museum in Bloom

Tiny Baskets by Ollie Jean Lane (on right)

 

    Other works in the exhibit are from the permanent collection of the Museum. They depict the life of Mississippians doing everyday activities. A special group are by Sister Mary Bertoli, a nun from Oregon who came to the Delta to work with children for a year and wound up staying ten. Read her story here.

     The puzzle of the old dogs playing poker is still in progress. After Tarbaby chased Elizabeth onto the table and she skidded into the puzzle, causing about a fourth of it to slide off the table, it is a miracle that I did not give up then.

The puzzle sliding off the table

Rescued, ready for reconstruction

Here it is, the nearly finished but frustratingly difficult
since this whole section seems all one color.

There is an exhibit called Arboreal Musings by Linda Beach in the Art and Design Gallery in George Hurst Building on the USM campus this month. She will give a lecture this weekend and discuss her design process and inspiration. What a privilege it is to see her beautiful work!

by Linda Beach

     It has been an almost daily job watering my flowerbeds to keep the plants alive in this near 100-degree heat in September. Fall has teased us with a couple of crisp mornings. I am fascinated with this little plant called Fittonia argyroneura. The tag says it's from Peru. It was planted a year ago and lived through the winter covered in pine straw. It is producing tiny white flowers on these little stalks.

Tarbaby allowed Rahrah to snuggle up to his backside for a nap while Elizabeth kept a watch on birds and lizards out the window.

Butterflies, Art Exhibit, and Some Quilting

It's the first of September and I got to see my last two butterflies hatch. I hope they recognize my yard for egg laying, since all these caterpillars were brought over from Ellen Hall's yard, about five miles from mine. I felt like a third-grader getting excited about these beautiful creatures. Elizabeth, my constant companion, was fascinated at the butterfly emerging from the chrysalis. She wanted to touch but was calm as I kept her paw back. I think this one is female--with smaller yellow spots and larger blue area on back of wings (fourth picture). The fifth picture shows a male for comparison.

Elizabeth watches butterfly emerge from chrysalis

Butterfly on coleus flowers drying her wings

 

Butterfly on portulaca

Female Butterfly with wings open 

Male (larger yellow spots on open wings, smaller blue area)

I entered three fiber art pieces in the South Mississippi Art Association's exhibit at the Lucile Parker Gallery on the William Carey University campus. One was pictured on the invitation (far left), and another won an honorable mention.

Invitation to  the Exhibit

My pieces hanging with those of Jeanette Graham and Mary Judice

Improv Music, 25" x 28"

Pine Belt Quilters had a workshop for Leanne Green to teach us how to use a Bosal product to make this little bowl which can be molded into a curved shape. It's a clever project but took longer to make than it looks like it would. It's about 10" from top to bottom and 8" side to side.

Molded bowl, taught by Leanne Green

The Interleave Symphony is finished except for black binding (so named because one of the fabrics contains composers' names), and I decided it needs to hang vertical instead of horizontal.

Interleave Symphony in progress

Interleave Symphony, 31" x 34" ready for black binding