How Do I Begin...

...to catch up on the last six weeks?   It's hard to believe that much time has passed since my last blog post!  I haven't been sick or away on an extended vacation - just trying to juggle it all and getting a little lax about posting (okay, maybe a lot lax!).  So I'll try to catch up as succinctly as possible.

 I'll start with the "Lace" show that was in the gallery for the month of April at the Mahopac Public Library.  Three of my FANE friends participated in the show, as did I.  I only took a couple of shots of the pieces, but here they are.  In this one, you can see two of the three pieces that Gail Ellspermann submitted, the blue lacy one on the left and the one on the left in the group of three.  I wish I had taken some close-ups, as her work is visually very interesting and detailed, made up of a variety of materials and colors.  

Below is my piece which I ended up calling "East-facing window:  February morning."  I was trying to capture those winter mornings from my childhood when the window would be decorated with frost crystals and the beams of sunlight streaming through produced sparkles and a pale rainbow of colors.

At the end of the month, FANE displayed our collection of Fiberfall pieces at the NSQG's annual quilt extravaganza.  I wasn't able to get over to Western Connecticut State Univ. to see the show this year (I worked that Saturday and had other obligations on Sunday) but Norma Schlager took some fabulous photos that she posted on her blog.  Please visit by clicking here to see the dramatic impact of our group display.

Since the fall, FANE members have been researching and sharing bios of modern artists at our monthly meetings to help us expand our horizons, gain some insight and maybe even some inspiration.  I was assigned Josef Albers and at the May meeting, I took an easy approach by reading the children's picture biography about him titled An Eye for Color by Natasha Wing.   Josef studied how our perception of a color may change depending on what other colors surround it.  He published a book about his findings titled Interaction of Color in 1963.    Using the example shown below on the cover of his book, the small tan square is the exact same shade of tan, but it looks different on the aqua background on the top than it does on the orange background below.  Josef also noted how dark colors tend to recede while lighter ones tend to come forward.

As part of our study, we could create something in the style of the artist, so I made this group of squares below.  Josef Albers worked almost exclusively with squares and rectangles and paint straight out of the tube.  I tried to keep things simple and fun by placing orange polka-dot squares on four different fabrics.  As fiber artists and quilters, we have the added dimension of fabric prints and texture.  Do the orange squares look different on the different backgrounds?  Which do you prefer?

 Another thing that has kept me busy this month has been the garden.  Now that the weather is better, I like to get outside as much as possible.  We took down a large oak tree in the backyard to let more light in, and now we have a lot of wood and branches to remove!  The people we hired to take the tree down piled everything very neatly, but right where my ferns will be growing, at the bottom of the new stone steps.  You can see the many logs piled up along the property line in the background - some of those are about 2 feet in diameter - it was a BIG tree!  They need to be split before they can even be moved.  Someone will be very busy for the next few weekends....

It's very exciting to see things turning green, blooming, spreading, and growing.  Last year I only had a few tiny blossoms on this forget-me-not, but this year it looks full and healthy.  Yay!  I also moved some of my large irises from the front of the house down here around the pond.  I hope they do well here.

And the fairy garden is looking good too!  The Irish moss, sweet woodruff, wild violets and other low-growing things are all spreading around and filling in.  It's beginning to look truly enchanted!

Cassie certainly enjoys hanging out in the garden with me while I putter around.  It's a very pleasant and peaceful place to be.

And although we removed a perfectly healthy tree and we have a huge amount of wood to move, it has opened up a nice big piece of sky above the garden.  I'm looking forward to seeing everything thrive now that the plants will be getting a better dose of afternoon sunshine!

Finally, I've been busy doing some spring cleaning and organizing.   This area under our stairs was originally a small mud room, when the girls were little and we parked the car in the garage and came and went through that door.  Then, it became our rabbit habitat for about a year.  When we could no longer tolerate the mess (and the smell!) we moved the rabbits outside and reclaimed this space.  We hung coats here but never bothered putting in a shoe rack or shelves.

Well, I finally took the time to pick up a couple of shoe shelves at Bed Bath and Beyond.  They were easy to put together, hold a ton of shoes, and can be moved easily if my DH needs to get back there to change the water filter.  What a huge improvement!  Why didn't I do this sooner?  Now I just have to pack up those winter coats....

Hope you've been busy enjoying life in the spring!  Leave me a comment and let me know what you've been up to!

Emerging

It's hard to believe April is here already!  Where did the month of March go?  I was a bit under the weather the entire month, coming down with the flu early in the month, then fighting that lingering cough, which eventually became pneumonia last week.  I'm finally getting my energy back and have caught up on most everything around the house (with the help of all my wonderful family) so now it's time to catch up on the blog!

Even though I was not very energetic last month, I did manage to finish my final "Fiber Fall" chain, this one with the Earth theme.  A portion of it is laid out on my worktable below.

Something put it into my head that I should add a little hand stitching to these, so before I strung them together, I added some detail with pearl cotton.  I didn't embellish every rectangle, but I did do quite a few.  It added a little more textural interest and kept my hands busy while I was on the mend.  These will be hanging in the NSQG spring show early next month, along with all the others made by my fellow FANErs.  I'm excited to see them all hanging together.

Of course, another great thing to do when you're lying in bed not feeling well is READ and I certainly did my share of that last month!  Some of my favorites were The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (a fabulous non-fiction choice), The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (a mystery by J.K. Rowling under a pseudonym), The Magician's Lie by Greer Macallister, Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, and The Hired Girl, a fabulous YA novel by Laura Amy Schlitz.  I also read Where'd you go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple for the Light Bite book club that I lead at the Mahopac Library, and I just started The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald.  So I kept busy while I was resting!

And now spring is here and I'm anxious to get outside in the garden again.  We've had a few mild days here and there and I was so thrilled to see snowdrops, crocuses, and these little purple star-shaped flowers.  I transplanted them all last spring and it was lovely seeing my efforts yield some beautiful blooms!  These little purple things (don't remember what they are- will have to look them up) are all over the front lawn and I hope will spread as much down in the back.

As happy as I was to see things emerging and growing, I also see lots of things that need work.  We had a couple of days of heavy rain in February and March that resulted in lots of silt washing over the pebble path as you can see below.  I'll have to see if I can clean it up a bit one of these days.

Also we've had a shade problem in our backyard almost since we moved in, and that was twenty years ago!  There are so many tall trees we could take down to give the area more light, but it's outrageously expensive, as well as disruptive to the lawn and garden.  I've singled out this one very large oak that would give us the most bang for our buck and that will probably be coming down sometime this month, before it leafs out.  I'm looking forward to getting some much-needed light back there (but heaven knows how we'll deal with all the branches.  We have neighbors that will take the larger pieces to burn as firewood but the tree guy said the piles of branches will fill the yard if we don't chip them!).

In addition to that, I want to finally finish the stone steps we started last year.  We've been scrounging the yard for large flat stones that will work as steps and have finally located another 3 or 4 that should bring us up to the top.  That'll be nice to have done!

So we've certainly got our work cut out for us as far as the yard and garden go... I think I could keep a full-time gardener quite busy!  But after the weekend, the weather here is supposed to get chilly again, so I'll refocus on interior things a bit longer.

Garden Update

  

Now that spring is really in full bloom, I've been spending much more of my spare time in the garden as opposed to the studio. It's a peaceful and inspirational place filled with quiet birdsong, dappled sunlight, and a constantly changing array of colors and textures.  In the mornings, I putter around weeding and tidying up and on the weekends I tackle bigger tasks.  I've managed to add a few more ferns and heucheras as well as some coleus for color.  This morning, this velvety clematis finally bloomed on the iron obelisk I added last summer.  So happy to see it!  I have some morning glories sprouting below, so I hope to see the obelisk covered with those as the summer heats up.

I also created a new tree door in the fairy garden (someone who shall remain nameless chewed the last one I made!).  The plants from last year are growing in nicely, including some sweet woodruff, golden creeping jenny, irish moss, periwinkle, and lots of volunteer violets.  On the top left near the rocks there's a native plant that was here before I even put in the garden, which I think is a false solomon's seal.  It looks graceful and lush, just right for this spot!

I also finally got some foxgloves!  I ordered several from a catalog last spring and they've finally gotten big enough to bloom.  The tall spikes add some much-needed height among all the low-growing plants.  There are several in bloom now, but here is one next to the entry arbor.

I also couldn't resist this scottish moss I found at a local garden center.  It's fluffy and soft and should fill in between these stepping stones very nicely!  It's bright green color and little star-shaped flowers make it a charming addition.  Can't wait to see it spread!

We had a very long spell of dry sunny weather and now seem to be in a humid, showery pattern.  These mushrooms have begun to pop up everywhere!  I don't mind them, as they look cute nestled among the hostas and other small plants.

Last but not least, I had my first iris bloom near the pond last week.  These sprang up spontaneously next to my driveway several years ago and expanded enough to be divided when I put in the garden two years ago.  They are doing well in this spot and it was thrilling to see this lovely flower, even if only for a few days.

Maybe I'll use the garden as inspiration for my next FANE piece, which has a size requirement of 18"x 36", but no set theme.  I hope to get moving on that soon, as the summer has a way of flying by!  

Spring in the Garden

Yesterday was a beautiful day and I was lucky to have planned to meet a good friend for lunch near Watertown, Connecticut, about an hour away.  I left early and stopped at Whiteflower Farms to see what I might find to add to my shady backyard garden.

The snowdrops and other little bulbs have already bloomed and died back, but other things are beginning to sprout up and leaf out.  It's so nice to see green again!  In front of the large gazing ball, you can see a bleeding heart plant already several inches tall.

Here are some muscari about ready to pop.

And some hostas beginning to leaf out (hope the deer don't find them!).

I moved the clematis, below, from another place in our yard late last summer and it is already beginning to climb the iron pergola.  It's so nice to see so much growth this early in the season!  I'll be so excited if it actually flowers!

In another part of the yard, ferns are already beginning to unfurl.

Here are the new plants I got at Whiteflower Farms.  They are all shade loving and will add some much needed texture and color.  I think I'll wait a bit before I put them in the ground.  Those deer are still way too hungry!

This weekend, the FANE show at the Mahopac Public Library is opening (I help hang tomorrow) and it is also the annual World of Quilts show in Somers, where we will display our cubes (still need to put mine all together).  I'll take lots of photos to share next week!

Heading into the Home Stretch

I've been busy working on the 4th side of my 16" cube and it's almost done.  I found that spotted lavender batik fabric in my stash and decided I could whip up a quick abstract April Shower piece.  I seem to have trouble sticking to truly abstract pieces, because I wanted to add puddles, which made the piece have a foreground, middle ground and background.  Then it needed a focal point (the silhouette) and some taller elements (the stitched trees), and now it is what it is!  Below is a closeup.

I'm still working on adding some running stitches in a pastel variegated metallic thread, which is slow going, of course, but I have one more week until the absolute deadline, so I'll keep stitching for a few more days.

Of course, I still need something to put on top of the box.  I thought I would use a piece that I already have, which is a bit small so I'd need to add a border all around, and then when I looked at it again, I decided the colors look too much like autumn so I'd better whip something else up mighty quick.  I again thought I would just paint some abstract pastel paint splotches on white fabric and then maybe add in some abstract stitching, but my first attempt ended up looking like this:

I just couldn't keep it abstract - a landscape just seemed to materialize!  I was trying really hard not to hate it and figure out how I could fix it quickly, when I realized I still had one more piece of 17" square pfd fabric and plenty of leftover paint.  This time I used a sea sponge rather than a brush and approached it more like a surface-design experiment so I think it was much more successful.  Even if I don't add anything else to it, it could serve as the top of the box and kind of link the other four through the colors.

When I stitch them all together, I plan on using a very long basting stitch so I can take them apart again and finish them as four separate pieces.  It's hard to believe I was able to complete them by the deadline.  I guess it just goes to show how motivating it is to have a goal and a deadline!  At least I am creating!

Spring III

My third piece (out of 5) for the FANE cube project is just about finished!  Once Easter was over, I was able to spend my days off buckling down on the applique of the grape hyacinths (don't you just love a lawn inundated with grape hyacinths in early spring?).  I had fun using a variety of purple fabrics and snuck a small piece of batting beneath each one so that when I did some detail quilting, they look a little puffy.  Here is a detail shot.

 I also stitched among the grass to add some texture and color, then filled in some of the spots with gel crayons.  I decided it needed a touch of yellow, as well as something in the sky, so I decided on three of those little pale yellow cabbage butterflies.  I think they add just the right touch.  The largest one in the foreground still needs to be stitched down.  I'm happy with the way it's turning out, although there are some things I would change (as usual).  I'm learning, having fun, and making art which is good enough for me.  Now I have just two more to knock off!  Hope I can keep the momentum going for the next two weeks...

Hoppy Easter!

We're only having 4 guests for dinner, but I've been prepping all week!  How do you like the little bunny dirt cups (chocolate pudding sprinkled with oreo crumbs and tinted coconut)?  Easy and cute - couldn't resist (saw them on Pinterest).

I also baked bunny buns (although they look a little like cats) . . .

and chocolate-coconut birdnests . . .

 I dipped strawberries . . .

and baked and decorated this carrot cake (I'll top it with a chocolate rabbit).

 The table is all set and the turkey breast is in the oven (do you think we'll have enough food?!?!).  Now all we need is our guests!

They should be here shortly, so Happy Easter, everyone!

Good Things!

Snowdrops!  There's still a good deal of snow in the backyard and I wandered down there this afternoon to give Cassie a little fresh air and playtime and there they were, pushing themselves right up out of the snow!

Seems like a miracle, since the big picture still looks very bleak and wintry.  Sometimes you have to look very closely to find the bright spot!

Meanwhile, I received these bright beautiful blooms from one of my little fans at the library.  We just finished up the winter session of children's programs so she gave me these as a little thank you.  They just made my day!  Now they're brightening up the whole kitchen.

After working out this morning, I stopped into Homegoods and picked up this cheerful tablecloth.  I received a birthday giftcard a while back and finally found something I could use!  It will be perfect for Easter coming up, and for the spring in general.

And it goes perfectly with the mantle decorations I put up a few weeks ago - all those pinks, yellows and greens.

 I also saw this neat metal container and picked it up as well.  I hope to fill it with some flowering plants and put it on the front step just to perk up the entryway a bit.

Meanwhile, back in the studio, I finished the robins. . .

. . . and I started on the next piece.  I painted the background with various acrylic inks and paints.  First I did a thin wash, then I added some grass-like texture, first with a brush, then using the edge of a bent piece of cardstock as a stamp.

I added some more in a darker shade of green, with less water in the paint so the grass has more definition.  Now comes the real work... adding the applique focal point flowers.