Flying Fish and Morning Walks

Flying Fish: Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) is a fiber art organization I belong to. Their next conference will be in Florida and they put out a call for 250 donated fish or sea creatures of any kind, flat or stuffed, no larger than 12". So this was a fun way to spend my day. These guys are in the mail to Karol Kusmaul for the conference. They are photographed on green fabric but are free-flying. They won't be returned to the artist but will be re-purposed in some way. It will be interesting to see what will become of these.

I have waited and watered all summer, hoping for beautiful hydrangea blooms. Finally, in October, here is what I found. 

But you can count on coleus to multiply and even go to seed if you let it. 

There is very little else blooming right now. There is one lone blossom on the azaleas along my front sidewalk. I hope it is a sign of what is to come in the spring of 2021.

This tiny vine was growing along the edge of my street in several places. It is shaped like a Morning Glory but much smaller.

When there aren't many flowers blooming, Monkey Grass puts on a show with purple spikey blossoms. I love Pampas Grass if it is in someone else's yard. The fronds are very sharp and will scratch or cut your arms and legs. I will enjoy walking past this healthy plant.

Southern Fiber Artist Exchange

 I enjoy creating 8" x 10" art quilts to exchange with other members of my fiber art group. We make one little quilt a month for someone and we receive one from another member. This is the second round in this exchange.

Jackie Watkins knows my fondness for cats and she made this one for me. She called it "What's One More?" and I named it Gray Girl because it seemed a good companion to Rahrah.

I made this piece for Charlotte Timmons, using some leaves I gathered from my yard. Here is a description of the technique I used.

I gathered leaves, attached them to the silk boucle fabric with Golden gel medium (front and back of leaves). When dry, I layered canvas for backing and ecru tulle over the entire piece and added free-motion quilting stitches to the leaves in matching thread colors. The background was FM-quilted with ecru colored silk thread. The edge is finished with a facing.

I look forward to making and receiving more little treasures!

How Can It Be October?

But it is. The night temperatures are finally matching the calendar. The national news of COVID-19 and racial unrest and conflicting TV reports are fighting to take away the joy we can experience from this season. I have read some inspiring words and should repeat them here. But I'll let these leaves speak for me.

 I found some monster mushrooms in my yard one morning--as big as my shoes. The next morning they had been partially eaten by some night creature. Maybe the turtles were back?

The persimmon trees are dropping ripe fruit, making walking on the driveway a messy business. I can't reach any in the trees, and the fallen ones are too ripe and bruised. The leaves are pretty, though!

    

Searching for Good News

 After days of storm and hurricane tracking, worrying, preparing and then being bypassed without even a few drops of rain on our dry ground, I find myself trying to be thankful that my life and home were not damaged. Seeing news reports of 200,000 deaths, tragic fires in the West, and more uncivilized treatment of each other, topped off by the death of the champion of rights for all, the Notorious RBG, I am searching for positive thoughts. What a great loss to our country.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg, 1933-2020

Okay, something good to report--Mississippi's flag, the last state flag to bear the Confederate battle emblem, has been retired by act of the legislature and a new design has been chosen which will be up for vote in November. A nine-member commission settled on "The New Magnolia" flag from hundreds of submissions.

This weekend the Hattiesburg Arts Council celebrated its 50th anniversary by displaying all the works in its permanent collection along with historical scrapbooks showing activities through these years. Pine Belt Quilters had a beautiful crazy quilt in this display, with this interesting history: In about 1995 Jane Heidelberg and other members of the Pine Burr Sewing Club began making a velveteen crazy quilt. After making some squares and cutting patches for the other 12 squares, they saw this was more of an undertaking than they wanted to finish. The materials were offered to Ella Lucas and other members of Pine Belt Quilters. Over the next couple of years, quilters who loved embroidery and hand embellishment finished the blocks and assembled them into a quilt. The end result was an example of fine neddlework and  embroidery that was unique, as crazy quilts were rarely made after the turn of the century. We felt that it should be donated to a museum or organization for preservation as part of Hattiesburg's history. Patty Hall, executive director of the Hattiesburg Arts Council was happy to receive the quilt when it was finished in 1997, and it remains a part of HAC's permanent collection. 

Another 9/11 has come and gone

We never forget where we were when major events happen--some of them good, some we wish we could forget. We can choose to celebrate the ones that bring joy. I'll make it simple by just dealing with positives from the past week.  

My kitchen remodeling project that started a month ago was finished. We removed the shelf-like extension, wrought iron post, and drop-down shelf, replacing with a much wider counter.  Corbels were needed (I learned a new word!) to support the wider counter, and I wanted a wooden post under the hanging cabinet. I had to select these, order and stain them and get the installer back. 

Before

After, with wider counter top

View from dining room

With corbels and post installed

Post

Another neat happening was The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show Virtual Experience 2020. What a treat to get to "attend" and enjoy a big quilt show without all the crowds and aching feet and knees! After the two quilts came back from this show I am hanging Interleave Symphony for a while. 

It is time to work on my section of the Italian hillside piece that three of us are making. I am doing the left third of this photo. Rita Warnock and Cathy Reininger are the other participants, and they have finished theirs.  Quoting Wikipedia: The Cinque Terre, five towns, is a string of five fishing villages perched high on the Italian Riviera in the region Liguria, which until recently were linked only by mule tracks and accessible only by rail or water.

Photograph of Cinque Terre 

It's September, and I Have Turtle Visitors

It was exciting to open my local Pine Belt News yesterday afternoon and see this article by Jamie Massengale. This virtual quilt show can be seen online September 10-12 at http://www.quiltshow.com. 

Article in The Pine Belt News

Quilt Show Catalog

I love finding turtles in my yard. Yesterday this fellow was in my garage. Elizabeth had been in this same place most of the afternoon and perhaps the turtle had been the attraction. He was not there the next time I looked. Then as I walked up my long driveway to put a letter in the mailbox I saw a slightly smaller turtle in an area where I had been putting kitchen scraps for compost. In the couple of minutes it took to come back down the driveway, he was gone. I'd love to have seen this quick get-away. Linda helped me identify them as a Mississippi Mud Turtle and Eastern Box Turtle. I hope they stay close by.

Mississippi Mud Turtle

Eastern Box Turtle

Reporting on my zinnias--they are still growing taller but have no blooms. They are hip high.  The coleus is thriving, and one of the peppers is turning red. 

Best August News

The best thing that happened to me during August was having "Elizabeth, My Almost Perfect Cat" quilt shipped safely to Wisconsin and back home. She and another quilt, "Interleave Symphony," are entered in The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show September 10-12, 2020. This show is a large annual show that will take place virtually this year at this link: The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show. 

It's time to put away the Color Block quilts. These have been fun to make and it is interesting to experiment with different threads and stitch patterns. 

Although the hydrangeas have refused to bloom this summer, the grass just in front of it seems to be trying to put on a beautiful show to make up for them.