Archive for September, 2012

Two Finished Works

Sunday, September 30th, 2012

This week has been good! I finished two pieces.

“Cloudy With A Chance Of Rain” 31 x 24″

You may remember this one without the borders. I think they give it a little more presence and help the binding to blend in better.

The sky fabric is a hand dye painted piece that really depicts a Kansas summer storm rolling in. The horse is a figment of my imagination but the shed is real! It was a lucky day when I found that batik for the rusty roof!!

This was made for the”It’s All Kansas” exhibit at The Topeka Art Guild Gallery and needs to be delivered today for a show running through Oct and Nov.

The next one is not due for a week or so but now I don’t have to worry about it. It was made for the “Inspirations” exhibit in Topeka, that collaborative exhibit of artwork inspired by local photographers. Here I was inspired by two photos by Tammy Patterson, both with cows and turbines and the hand dyed Shibouri fabric used for the sky. Tammy and I have paired up for this annual exhibit since it began three years ago and have won the People’s Choice” awards both previous years, first with “Colorado Kids” and last year with “Majesty”. She is an amazing photographer! Those can be seen on my website in the Gallery.

“Prairie Power” 27 x 30″
If you followed the making of this one you may remember that I had bound it in black and was not happy with that. You can see that by following the link above. Changing it to blend with the scene is better, I think.

Catching Up

Thursday, September 27th, 2012

I keep forgetting – I meant to post this sooner. After the KVQG meeting last month, Denise S., The Curious Kansas Quilter followed me home to photograph my studio for an upcoming guild program on studio spaces. If you follow the link you can  see some of the pictures that she took.

Sunday afternoon I drove down to Bella Vista, AR to do a program for the Calico Cutups Quilt Guild on Monday. Everything went very well and I enjoyed seeing that beautiful area again and meeting some great new friends! Monday was a loooong day, as I hit the road right after the meeting and didn’t get home til  8:15 – about 4 hours driving time with only one short break for gas, food, etc. Tues was spent getting everything sorted out from the trip and getting the Silent Auction piece sent off to Houston.  Good to be home!!

 

Houston Silent Auction Quilt

Saturday, September 22nd, 2012

Here is the finished Silent Auction Donation quilt for Quilt Festival in Houston. I am pretty happy with the way it came out and I hope it makes them lots of money!

Prairie Fire Mini 15w X 17h” Machine pieced, machine quilted.

Now that that is done, I need to go prepare for my trip to Bella Vista, Arkansas tomorrow where I will do the guild program on Monday.  Looks like great weather to travel!

Gardening

Thursday, September 20th, 2012

Saturday we went to a neighboring town for a short seminar on what to do with your water garden in the fall. It was interesting but there was a lot of information that wasn’t useful to us as we don’t try to overwinter Tropicals; don’t even have tropicals as I prefer the more natural look. Because of the drought and early leaf drop we had already covered the pond with netting supported by this homemade pvc rigging. It will break down for storage. Behind it is one of the beds I am working on that is not finished and mulched yet.

Last year, with the netting just stretched across and anchored with rocks we had problems with frogs and snakes getting tangled so this should help by raising it up and leaving a space for the critters. So far, so good. I have finished the waterfall and I don’t think there are any leaks there now, but there is a leak somewhere as the water drops to a certain level pretty quick. I don’t even want to think about that!

On the way home, we stopped at one of my favorite plant farms and came away with about 20 new perennials. I tried to limit myself to things that would be happier in the conditions that I have. Salvia, Lamb’s Ear (the smooth one, with hot pink flowers), Blanket Flower, Coreopsis, Caryopteris, Plumbago and Maiden Grass. And Raspberry Wine Monarda that does require more water. I could have gone on because the fall sale prices were so good, but the thought of planting more than what I had already, stopped me! As it was, during the planting, I had to separate several bunches of daylily and transplant those as well!

The front beds don’t look like much right now, because everything is small but come spring it should be nice. The Clematis Rugoochii (SP?) is enjoying the cooler weather and the support of this little tower. There are soaker hoses under the mulch.

The Chaste Tree is also enjoying the change in the weather. The milder winter allowed it to get an earlier and more vigorous start and for the first time we are getting a second bloom!

We don’t often see this much moisture on the roses, I’m sure they are feeling much happier!

But behind them you can see that the lawn, where it was newer and not very established is really struggling and will need to be overseeded. The bare dirt is mole activity. They are also enjoying the moisture.

The Call

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

I got THE call last week! The call from IQF – Houston that my entry this year has won one of the eight top awards!! This comes with cash of at least $5,000.00, plus transportation and lodging for the show. WOW! I’m excited, it was certainly a surprise! They don’t tell which award, you have to wait for the official ceremony.

So I decided I’d better get busy and make them a donation piece for their Silent Auction. This was still on my “to-do” list but time was running out. Now it is a priority.  This is inspired by, but not the same as, the winning quilt. It uses some of the same fabrics and some different ones.

I seem to run on deadlines. So much time has been wasted since returning from the trip to Maine this summer. Perhaps “wasted” is the wrong word as I have done other things, like gardening, but quilting has been on the back burner. A couple of weeks ago with the deadlines approaching, I finished changing the binding on the turbine piece and started the quilting on the KS scene – that is what I was doing when I got THE call……

More Rocks

Saturday, September 1st, 2012

Finally, the last of the Maine Botanical Garden photos, these having to do with rocks that have been carved,

There were three of these huge boulders set in a circular orientation with minimal carving to make them look like whales, each with a blow hole that went off intermittently.

In one of the woodland settings we came upon this tub carved from a large granite boulder, the outside left rough and natural but the inside smooth as glass with intricate organic leafy shapes around the top.

The surface made a lovely reflecting pool.


Scattered throughout the garden were many small sculptures. I was drawn to this raven for it’s simplicity.

This eagle reminded me of a Kansas Jayhawk.

Here at home, we thought we had gotten the waterfall fixed, but discovered a low spot the next morning after loosing a lot of water overnight. It was an easy fix and the water level is staying up, so now I get to finish my rock work there.

In the meantime I have been continuing the garden renovations. Yesterday morning I dug up a clump of Red Hot Pokers, divided it into a dozen or so new plants and got them planted, then did the same with a clump of ” Prairie Blue Eyes” daylilies. As I dig out the gardens we are mulching and installing the black plastic edging strips around the beds. I hope this will help with keeping things contained for the future.

Last night we got another half inch of rain and it is nice and cool this morning, so I need to get outside and carry on.

I AM doing some quilting as well. Last week I got started with the quilting on the Kansas scene, but it’s slow going as I am usually done in by lunch time from the gardening chores!