April Art Market

I took part in an Art Market sponsored by Parks & Recreation Department of the City of Hattiesburg  yesterday. It was a day of fun spent with other artists and craftspeople and plant lovers. There was also a plant swap and I brought home three interesting pots. 

The venue was the Hattiesburg Community Arts Center, a donated building which formerly housed the local Hattiesburg American newspaper. The building is being upgraded, updated, and remodeled to provide space for drama, art classes, and a variety of other events. It is definitely a work in progress.

My display

Thread painting

I got to visit with people and acquaint them with fiber art and explain how it evolved from traditional quiltmaking to using these skills to make "quilts for the walls." I showed the difference between piecing (sewing small pieces together) and quilting (stitching the top, batting/middle, and backing together). I showed straight stitching on a regular sewing machine and free-motion quilting and "thread-painting" where I use threads as my paints to add to a surface. Then there was Interleave, twisted trees, ghost quilting as well as improvisational pieced strips to fabric collage to create a scene or my cat Elizabeth. 

Persimmon leaves inspired by photo in my yard

Color Blocks with quilting

Detail of thread painting with Elizabeth supervising

Color Bars

Interleave technique

Ghost quilting

Ghost quilting

Improvisational piecing, mounted on gallery-wrapped canvas

Twisted Tree

I bought these handmade clay earrings from a group of talented women whose label is Eighteen-Six,  based on the scripture Jeremiah 18:6. 

The Eighteen-Six crew

Amazingly lightweight clay earrings

Music and Live Concerts

If you love music as much as I do, you have surely missed getting to hear it performed live. My church (University Baptist Church, Hattiesburg) has been having in-person services on the front sidewalk/lawn during nice weather, with piano and sometimes strings, and singing.

Sundays at 10:00 a.m. on front lawn

Services are also recorded for YouTube
Alejandro Junco and Patricia Rezende Vanuci

Easter Sunday

The first live concert I attended since the March 2020 shutdown was April 1, 2021, at the Hattiesburg Cultural Center with Klasinc&Loncar Guitar Duo (a husband and wife duo originally from Croatia and Austria), and Trio Bolero (featuring Miroslav and Klasinc Lonar and cellist Rebekah Stark Johnson). The audience was limited to 75 people and the evening was an exciting return to hearing live music.

Trio Bolero (Miroslav Loncar, Rebekah Stark Johnson, and Klasinc Loncar)

After a year-long absence, our Back Door Coffeehouse returned on April 8 with Tom Kimmel joined by Alejandro Junco. Tom is a singer/songwriter/poet who now lives in Hattiesburg and Alejandro Junco is a talented Cuban violinist studying at USM.  What a treat for us all!

Adding to the joy of my music news, The Meistersingers have resumed rehearsals and will be preparing the breath of life by Dan Forrest for a June concert, with the composer present and at the piano. 

How wonderful it is to get to sing again! We are observing strict Covid precautions and are very aware that this is how we can begin to be together safely. 

Catching Up on March Happenings

 Before getting too far past March, I should post that my Cinque Terre fabric collage won a 3rd place ribbon in the South Mississippi Art Association 44th Annual Show (postponed from December 2020) in the "Other" category.  Like many events, due to Covid this was an online virtual show, but all the pieces can be seen on the link above.

Cinque Terre, 23" x 52"

In other stitching news, I made two more leaf pieces, one for Jackie Watkins in our Southern Fiber Artists exchange group, and one as a donation to Studio Art Quilt Associates annual auction.

8" x 10" for Jackie Watkins

12" x 12" for SAQA auction

I enjoyed participating in Nanette S Zeller's thread-painting virtual class. She is a fiber artist in North Carolina and has been teaching this class in person but has transitioned to an online version. She provided excellent instruction and video demonstrations as we stitched her sunflower design in our own fabric choices.

Nanette S. Zeller's sunflower design

Update on my kitchen remodeling: When the width of this countertop was extended and the height changed, we thought a weight-bearing support was needed under the upper cabinets. We stained and inserted a wooden post but realized that the upper cabinets began to gradually sink from the ceiling. My friend Doc Anna Wan saw the problem and suggested a solution and brought a guy to do the work. The resulting "fix" in the attic eliminated the need for the post, leaving a beautiful open space. 

He also agreed to replace a weathered section of my front porch railing. He removed the section and built and inserted a replacement. He will come back and paint it all. It is great to find a guy who can do the fix-up jobs that need to be done.  

Happy Easter

Easter has arrived again, bringing beauty and hope. Alejandro Junco and Patricia Vanuci help us celebrate.

I enjoyed making a few Easter cards to send to my grandchildren. 

My yard has azaleas in several places, planted in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. This year they seem to be more beautiful than ever. 

In my side yard

This huge bumblebee spends a lot of time here

Perfect spot for coffee in the mornings

View from the street (with limbs to be picked up).
The mature trees self-prune in high winds

View toward back fence (my shop & neighbor's shop)

The tulips my friend brought were beautiful even as they faded.