Bigboy--Some Cat!

Enjoying being brushed

Bigboy loves to sit in my lap and be brushed, and this removes some loose hair; he still has plenty left, though. When I sit at the computer and he is ready for me to be finished, he stretches out on the table beside the keyboard and waits for me. 

Keeping me company at the computer

"Oh boy, it's finally bedtime."

Where Do Bumblebees Nest?

I had never wondered about this, and learned it quite accidentally. I know bumblebees are useful and desired for pollinating flowers and crops and that we don't have enough honeybees. I had even thought bumblebees were clumsy and slow and that they didn't sting. Wrong. Not only can they sting but don't die from the sting. They are not as aggressive as honeybees, but will sting if protecting their nest.

     While checking a bluebird nest box, I discovered a strange collection of dead leaves and fluffy fibers which I knew weren't the leftovers of a neat bluebird and was about to pull it out and clean the nest to get it ready for a new family. When I touched the top material a couple of bumblebees crawled out and flew past me, one touching my lip and another my arm. More seemed to be appearing and I thought I'd better move away. Then I realized the two places they "touched" were stinging like crazy.
    The next day I decided to try to close the door of the box to protect the bumblebees, and when I touched the door and began to close it, a buzzing sound seemed to announce, "She's back!" Two more bees popped me before I could get away. So, I guess they didn't appreciate my help or interference.
     My trusty fire ant bite remedy relieved the intense stinging in a very few minutes.My mom was given this recipe years ago by an exterminator:

     25 aspirin, crushed
     Add to 1 pint bottle of rubbing alcohol
     Add 1-1/2 oz. spirits of camphor
     
It works like a miracle and I'm never without it.

Tallest Lady Banksia Rose in Mississippi?

After a short, mild winter, we have had a beautiful early spring. The azaleas and dogwood burst forth and I missed getting pictures before a heavy rainstorm. My Lady Banksia rose grew higher than it ever has, climbing up into a persimmon tree and a pine.

Lady Banksia Rose

My single blueberry bush is full of little berries, which the Mockingbirds and I are watching closely for ripening.

Blueberries

Verbena-third year

The purple Verbena has returned for its third year, and the Variegated Thyme is in its second season. Even below freezing temperatures did not seem to bother these hardy plants, and the Thyme is decorated with tiny blooms!

Variegated Thyme

This Rosemary bush should be entered into a contest. I started it from a small pot I bought at a nursery about five years ago. It stays beautiful, bushy, and fragrant year-round. It will begrudgingly root where the branches touch the soil if weighted down with more soil, but it prefers to just droop over the grass and nearby flowerbed.

Rosemary

My favorite bedding plant is Blue Daze, whose real name is Evolvulus glomeratus. It blooms all summer and takes the sun very well. It shares the space with curly parsley and basil.

 

Parsley and Blue Daze

PRCC Exhibit

Pearl River Community College (Poplarville, MS) hosted an exhibit of 32 pieces of my fiber art during March 2012. These pictures are from the artist reception on Monday, March 26. The exhibit is in the first-floor gallery in Moody Hall. Charleen Null, chairman of the art department, displayed the exhibit in the glass-fronted cabinets and wall space. The windows across the front of the building provided excellent lighting for viewing, but made photography difficult.

Entering exhibit

Charleen Null, third from left

Wall of Cabinets

Martha Miles, Martha Ginn, Margaret George
 

The Atrium at Ochsner's

The Atrium at Ochsner's, 19" x 29"

I have been participating in an Ellen Lindner class called Design Your Own Nature Quilt. This piece is 19" x 29" and is raw edge appliqued. The inspiration is from several photographs I took of the buildings and plantings in the large atrium between Ochsner's Hospital and the Brent House Hotel in New Orleans. 

Detail of lower foliage

Brochure

The Hotel opened in 1954 to accommodate families of patients who were being treated at the Hospital. The  benches, fountains, and plantings in the atrium offer a comforting atmosphere to this excellent health care facility.

What Was I Thinking? Progress Report-Finished

What Was I Thinking?   37" x 37"

This is my completed piece for Karen Musgrave's challenge with a pink/brown 50s fabric, using techniques from Rayna Gillman's new book Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts: A Stress-Free Journey to Original Design.  I must admit that the random piecing, slashing, rejoining of units is far from my normal method of working, but I thought the challenge would be fun, so I participated. It's sometimes healthy to get out of one's comfort zone and see what happens.

Bigboy approves

For a sense of organization, I made two types of strip sets--pink with vertical slashes, and yellow ones. The yellow ones are somewhat joined on the diagonal. The pink/brown challenge fabric was only used as vertical strips, randomly placed about the piece.

Connecting Threads SAQA Regional Exhibit

I just returned from Little Rock, AR, where I attended the opening reception of "Connecting Threads," a Studio Art Quilt Associates regional exhibit of Contemporary Art Quilts at the Butler Center Galleries of the Arkansas Studies Institute. SAQA regional reps Deb Kuster and Michelle Jones had done a great job of arranging and hosting our first exhibit for the LA/MS/AR/AL region.

The exhibit was curated by fiber artist Amie Adelman, associate professor of fibers, College of Visual Arts and Design, University of North Texas in Denton. Amie attended the opening and the following day presented a program of her works and also discussed and critiqued each work in the exhibit.

In the Beginning, 44" x 36" (left)   Pacific Coast, 15" x 18" (right)

Amie Adelman and Martha Ginn

 The exhibit will run through April 28 and includes 23 quilts from 15 artists in the region: Barbara Carlson, Darlene Garstecki, Michelle Jones, Deborah Kuster, Georgia Lewis, Judy Tipton Rush, Margie Trembley, and Ruth Anne Yax from Arkansas; Donna Leigh Jackins, Murray Johnston, and Dorothy West from Alabama; and Martha Ginn, Sheri Marshall, Sarah Scott, and Marcus Weekley from Mississippi.

Ruth Anne Yax and Amie Adelman

by Murray Johnston

by Michelle Jones

More Ghost Quilting

I have done more of the Ghost Quilting series. These are fun to make. I start with a center square, usually about 6", and either fuse to a background or sew on borders to create the background. These pieces are between 10" and 12" square, but I have made larger ones, too. I stitch around the main elements of the center design and extend out into the (blank) border, imagining what would be there (hence "ghost quilting").

Sometimes I add Neocolor II wax pastels to further enhance the center element. It is amazing how different these can be with a change of borders.

The edge treatment is by attaching rattail cord and zig-zag stitching about three times around.

Leaf Study 2 Improvements

Leaf Study 2 with colored pencil addition
19" x 23"

After posting the philodendron leaf piece and not being pleased with the top portion, I added some shading with Berol colored pencils to the ghost-quilted leaves. Then I appliqued some leaves at the top of one of the stalks. It's a scary process to alter an already quilted work, because it can't be removed. But it's not finished until I'm happy with it.

Progress Report #2

How to get started: pull out already cut strips left from other projects that will coordinate with the brown and pink. Choose some other strips just because I like them. Sew together to create strip-sets. Pin to design wall and take a look. Think and ask questions.

1. What do I like about them? Thin (about 1") strips going horizontally. Slashes of red or wine or purple going vertically through these strip sets, preferably at an angle. Maintain some control of colors--not total random/chaos!

 2. What do I NOT like about them? Wide strips. Challenge fabric in too large pieces. In fact, I plan to limit it to going vertically to help give some structure or continuity. I even found some kaleidoscope blocks in a box; hmmmm. I wonder about overlaying some of these half-circles. More later.

Progress Report--What Was I Thinking?

I'm still making strip sets and looking at them. No pictures yet. Several participants are dyeing the challenge fabric, but I am leaning toward leaving that bright white background. Am enjoying the PINK. Leaving the white really makes the pink pop! Reminds me of a class I took one time with Marilyn Belford; we listed (and cut examples of) things/colors/shapes we liked, and then things/colors/shapes we hated. THEN we had to make a small fabric piece from each of the  groups. Yep, you guessed it--pink was in the hated group, and I made some really neat pieces with a pink theme. Maybe it's time to work with pink again. And brown. And lots of other colors I am finding in my box of cut strips left from other projects.

What Was I Thinking?

Karen S Musgrave has an interesting blog that I follow. I also had recently bought and was reading Rayna Gillman's new book Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts: A Stress-Free Journey to Original Design.  So when Karen issued a challenge using some very old/outdated fabric that she would supply, it seemed like a fun thing to participate in--even though I was far from attracted to the fabric. I signed up, and when the fabric arrived, I liked it even less than the picture, but hey, it's a challenge! Here is what the fabric looks like:

Challenge fabric

The rules are that the challenge fabric must show on the front of the piece; any changes--dye, paint, stamping, etc., are permitted; must use Rayna's book as inspiration; deadline to finish is March 1; we must take pictures along the way. I began sewing strip-sets of pieces already cut just to get something started.  Wish me luck!

Strip sets

Leaf Study #2

Leaf Study #2, 19" x 23"

 

Leaf Study #2, detail

I have completed another Leaf Study piece, using Heide Stoll-Weber's hand-dyed cotton sateen as the background. Inspiration for this piece was a photo I took in November 2009 of some beautiful philodendron leaves in the atrium of Ochsner Hospital in New Orleans.  The quilting in the background is of the meander/puzzle type, with a suggestion of more philodendron leaves in the upper portion.

About Old Age and Loneliness

Since I just had a birthday and it's the end of a year of huge changes, I was struck by the wisdom of this passage I came across in the book I was reading:

"You'd think the way people go on that if they stand too close to old age and loneliness they'll catch it themselves. I suppose that's true in a way, because you do catch it, if you stay around long enough. But you don't get it from other people; you don't get it from anybody but yourself." (Quoting Bernie McGill in The Butterfly Cabinet)

"Migration"   35 wide x 36.5 high

Detail 1

Detail 2

My flying geese quilt that I named "Migration" is finished and I'm ready to put 2011 behind me. No resolutions, but definite plans to NOT catch that old age and loneliness bug. I like my friend Virginia Butler's list of resolutions she is NOT making, like cutting back on coffee and chocolate, taking life too seriously, going shopping more, keeping a spotless house, reading more.

Sounds like a good year to me!

JavaWerks Display December 2011

My fiber art is on display at JavaWerks Coffee Shop in Hattiesburg for the month of December. When Pam Hill invited me to hang my works, she said, "it looks so cozy with your quilts there."
The coffee house is a popular hangout for Southern Miss students, and you can see lots of serious study going on there, as well as all age groups enjoying delicious coffees and teas.