Vacation is over

Yep, it's over and done. We had a lot of fun, but of course it flew by much too quickly. The ride up to NY took 12 hours. We didn't plan well in regards to stopping for gas and meals, so we made twice as many as we should have. We got stuck in construction for nearly an hour south of Hazelton (always!!) and hit a few one-lane areas that slowed us down. We ended up taking Keri's van because it is just simply much more comfortable.

This is the reflection of Keri's van on the back of a truck ahead of us. How cool?

I love this photo and am considering adapting it to a quilt for the PAQA-S Members or SAQA exhibitions - both entitled "Reflections". I really like this.

Sarah enjoyed playing with Nana's hands on the ride up to NY. Here she was "counting Nana's bones", which were really just the veins in her hands. Nana was having fun, too.

It was cooler in NY when we finally got there. It wasn't raining, but had been. It was so good to see Allie's house again. It's the house where they were all born and raised. It was once a carriage stop on the road between Endicott and Owego NY. Allie has put a lot of blood, sweat and tears, as well as $$$$ into keeping it up. I love this house. The side view shows the pool and the new gazebo, as well as a lot of the landscaping she did herself. Not bad for 71 years old (Allie, not the house).

On Friday Keri, Mom, Sarah and I took a drive to Crescent Lake where my parents used to own a cottage. They bought the lot before I was born and built the cottage when I was very young. I grew up there, as did Keri. It's such a shame that after 60 years it is no longer ours. I hate that

Sarah will never know it. Here is a view of the lake from the side our cottage was on.

And below is the cottage. The man that bought it has never used it. He lives in Meshoppen, PA, which is about 8 miles away. Shortly after he bought it a tree limb fell on the roof (see front right side) and he never bothered to have it removed. The man across the lake that let me stand in his yard to take photos of "our" cottage said the man won't fix it or sell it. He lets friends go there to fish, but they can't use the cottage with a hole in the roof. What a shame. I wish I had the money to buy it back. It was really nice, though, to see that a lot of the other cottages were being updated and remodeled. Like a second wind...

This lovely deer was eating in the woods as we drove up the road to leave the lake. She didn't seem at all bothered that we stopped to take her photo.

On Saturday most of the family came to Allie's for a family picnic and a birthday party for Sarah. Susan, Keith and Mary arrived first and were early because they couldn't stay the night. Ritchie & Nancy, Lindy, Bobby, Jesse and Mercedes all came, too. Sarah was so excited to see all these people she had never met. She wore the new birthday dress that Grammy bought her and the new sparkly princess shoes Keri and I found at Dollar General. She had to show us how old she is now.

And she just loved the Strawberry Shortcake quilt I made for her. She didn't let it out of her sight the rest of the visit or on the ride back home.

After everyone left Keri and I took Sarah outside (finally a beautiful day) to show her around. She loved seeing the place and we had to take some photos.

She looks beautiful and very contemplative, but she told Mommy the ants were crawling up her dress!

It only took 10 hourse to get home on Monday. We left earlier, missed the construction near Hazelton, and coordinated our lunch/pit/gas stops better. It was a relief to get home, but I wasn't ready to get back to work yet. Steve stayed home with me on Tuesday to work on the porch. More on that later....

Vacation!

Wednesday, Day before Vacation. Yay. I'd be more excited if it wasn't supposed to rain the entire time we're going to be there, beginning when we hit PA tomorrow afternoon. As long as it doesn't pour down in buckets the entire time we're there. It will also be much cooler than here. It will be in the mid-to-high 70's. It's been gorgeous here this week. We had a fabulous soil-drenching rain last Sat., but need another one soon. Nice breeze. It's been great.

Keri and Sarah will get here tonight and we'll transfer Sarah's car seat to my car and pack up our stuff. I hope we get to bed early so we can wake up refreshed and ready to leave by 5:30. I will get Mom's stuff on the way home from work. I think Sarah

(insert cutie patootie photo here)

will likely go back to sleep for awhile. I bought a portable DVD player so she can watch some movies, too. It's about a 12 hour drive from Lexington, NC to Owego, NY, where my aunt lives. It's a pretty drive though, up through the Shenandoah Valley in VA.

Steve spent a good part of Saturday taking the screen off the back porch and scrubbing and scraping the paint. Monday he primed it. All but the doors and lathe. I guess it will be done by the time I get home if he isn't called to the Evans Road fire (60% contained now!) It's already looking much nicer.

Keri sent me these photos of Sarah from her birthday party (I'm these many! 3!) last Saturday. This is actually a typical scene - flying like the wind in one direction while looking in another -

Not sure where she gets that from! Except that I can walk through an empty room and hurt myself.

I worked on my new forest fire Sunday, but not going to post anymore photos. This will be for the Journal Art Quilts show in Houston and we can't show them before the exhibit. This one will be juried, so I need to really do it justice. I'm already really happy with how it's coming. Since I can't post that I thought I'd post a photo of my studio.

I don't think this will be in the new issue of Quilting Art Studios... kind of messy looking. It could use a good reorganization, but it actually works okay for me. My work table is a picnic table from Lowe's. Just the right height and lots of "spreadability".

I am looking forward to seeing family and getting away from the office for a few days. I'll be sure to take lots of photos, if they're not all of rain.

Okay - LOTS More Butterflies!

Yay! The heat finally broke! It's back in the 80's and I'm luv, luv, luvin' it! I might even get some more sun printing done this weekend if it doesn't rain. We need the rain, so I won't complain. The fire in Hyde/Tyrrell/Washington county is over 40,000 acres now. Steve said everyone will have a turn (or 2) at it, but he hasn't gone yet. They could likely call on him while I'm in NY next week.

I painted another background for the butterflies. I didn't have the right size stretcher bars and didn't it stretch it tight enough, so it bloomed near the top. I can use it for something else (cut up), but not that. I want to try the Setacolor transparent paints again, not necessarily for sun printing. I want a light background and with them I think I build layers till I get what I envision. I'll have to spread it out on a table I guess. Nowhere around me to get stretcher bars. Steve is determined to do the back porch this weekend, so not sure how much "fun" I'll be able to have. Remove the old screens, strip off the old paint, sand, prime, and paint. Along with 2 new doors. Add new screen. He'd better get it done in one weekend in case he has to go to the Evans Road Fire.

So - thinking of butterflies... I played with this last Monday. It is a free photo from Creative Commons that I have been looking at for months. I didn't use a hoop or duck canvas. I used Beth Wheeler's method of fusible fleece batting and I didn't believe it was possible, but it didn't warp much at all. Steve really likes it, too, and asked me if he could hang it in his office for awhile. Sure!




And in the same Butterfly vein, I made Sarah's birthday card. For some reason I had been totally inept at making cards for several weeks. I finally got the butterfly in my head and figured this one would be hard to mess up.

Her birthday was yesterday, but as she explained to me on the phone last night, she's having "a REAL party on Saturday!" They have secured a shelter at a nearby lake and will have lots of friends and family there. When I asked Sarah how old she was now, I didn't hear anything until Jordan said "Grammy can't see your fingers, Sarah! You have to tell her." So Sarah said, "I'm these many!" Can't wait to see her next week when we go to NY.

I got out the portable DVD player I bought for Sarah to watch videos on in my car on the way up. We're taking mine because Keri's van doesn't get as good gas mileage. Sarah is used to watching her videos in the car, so I got one. Now I have to get a bag to hold it behind my headrest.

So here is Sarah's birthday card. She won't get it til next weekend in NY. But she'll have another "REAL" birthday party up there. And it looks like the weather is supposed to be much nicer. Yay!

Fires and Fishing

It's even more stinkingnastyhot than it was a week ago. The difference is the humidity, or lack of it. It's been 98 for the past 4 days, but low humidity so at least, we can breathe.

Steve got home from Michigan Saturday afternoon. He left at 1:30 a.m. and arrived home about 3 p.m. Long drive. Now he will most certainly be called out to a 33,000 acre forest fire the touches 3 counties in the eastern part of the state. The fire is so hot it is creating its own weather system. Smoke is going out to the outer banks and up to Virginia Beach.

I figured it was time to get my forest fire picture going again, so here is the most recent painted background. I added in some ghostly trees for the back drop. I'm really pleased with it. I add some Dyenaflow (?) yellow along the horizon line to give it more firey glow.

So now I need to get to it. Along with a gazillion other projects. Wednesday (June 11) is Sarah's 3rd birthday. I won't likely see her until we go to NY in a week and a half, but I am making her a card. I'll post it when it's finished.

For some reason my creativity has been slumping. I have had time and opportunity to work in the studio, but I seem to go in and just sit there, unable to focus on what I want to work on. When I finally do choose something, it doesn't want to work. No use forcing it. I have been playing and practicing thread painting and quilting.

The weather hasn't been good for allergies, either. Wicked sinus headache so that I can't keep my glasses on for very long.

Steve said the fishing in Michigan wasn't all that great, although he did catch 100 trout one day. He also saw a seagull (in Michigan?!!) catch a pretty big trout and wrestle it to the edge of the water. Great photos!

Here is what was left of him after the seagull finished his feast.

Yesterday I noticed that my lavender is coming out. It's really beautiful. The bees enjoy it, too.

So - that's all there is today.

Okay - Butterflies

My friend, Karen, commented that when she read my last blog, she expected to see butterflies. I had forgotten to put them on the last one, so here is a photo with the butterflies. This is a different background - one I sun painted using Seta transparent paints. Not terrible, but not what I wanted. Better than the first picture, though. I think I'm getting there. I'm looking for something that blurringly hints at background foliage. So far, all of the commercial fabric I've found is too dark or, if light enough, too plain.

I like the butterflies, but they are very thick. Each is completely threadpainted over a photograph that is fused to 10 oz. cotton duck. I am in the process of making more in a hoop with water soluble stabilizer that will be much thinner.

Below is a closer view of the butterflies. The branch going off to the top is not that dark - it is the same color as the larger horizontal branch. The leaves coming off the top vertical branch will not actually be coming directly off the branch, but will be connected to a longer, narrower stem. Haven't got that far yet. Still working on background, then placement. More leeaves. Definitely need more leaves in various colors, both from bottom and sides. Do you like the leaves coming from the bottom? Not sure what else I could put there.

And here is an even closer look at some of the butterflies. Don't look at all the loose threads off the leaves and branches. The branches have been cut off the cotton duck, so the cut threads look shaggy, but that will disappear when they are stitched down.


And this is even closer. This is my favorite butterfly - 2 of them together. Thick!

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When I was helping Keri move on Saturday, Steve's mom and sister, Abbie, helped move the plants, fish, and some small stuff in their car. Abbie brought me this birdhouse to paint for her. What was that I heard about Picasso being a painter, but you wouldn't ask him to paint your house? Just kidding! Actually, I've painted several for them and our own yard in the past and they are getting a bit old and rickety. I just got so tickled when Abbie gave me the paint set to go with it. How cute is that? They must have come with the house!

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I had a productive evening last night, though it was awfully quiet without Steve. He called and said it was pretty hot, but he was going out fishing last night and was going to get them! He's having a good time, anyway.

I managed to finish the BBQ City Quilter's Guild newsletter, email it, print out the ones that have to be mailed and get them in the mail.

I submitted 3 entries to the Uncommon Threads exhibit of "Threadlines" and got that out.

I did the yard stuff - mostly feeding/watering birds and fish (no, fish don't need water.)

I played with the butterflies in the hoop with Vilene - a heavier water-soluble stabilizer. We'll see how that turns out.

Tonight I have 2 more shows to look at whether I want to enter anything. I'm trying to be more selective about shows. Rather than running around trying to make something for a specific show, I'm looking at how long they run (paying an entry fee, then shipping to and from for a 2-3 day show hardly seems worthwhile, unless it's a really BIG show), how "visible" they are, and whether my stuff fits in theme or size requirements. I'm actually building a good stock of things that I can submit without killing myself to make something. That's giving me time to spend making what I want and (trying to) make it work - like this blasted butterfly piece. And playing with sun painting.

Oh - I also over-painted the last forest fire scene I did. I wasn't that happy with the way it came out, so I tried overpainting before using up more pfd fabric. We'll see tonight when it's dry how it came out.

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Another PAQA-S meeting this weekend. We are meeting at Christine Hager-Braun's to come up with a theme for next spring and then we will visit the Durham Arts Council galleries and conference rooms. Our exhibit next spring will be there in their 2 galleries, and we will have plenty of room for our conference there, as well. I'm looking forward to that. We are also putting together our step-by-step "manual" of how to run our spring and member's exhibits, so when we finally hand this off to new people, they won't have to reinvent the wheel. I hope to take some photos of the DAC to post next week.

We had nearly decided not to have anymore Member's Shows in the fall, but we hated to lose the Page-Walker for that time period. PAQA-S is not all that large an organization, and the local people available for the hands-on stuff like hanging, publicity, food, etc., are always overextended. But, we decided we would step up to the plate and do it again. The Member's Show is much smaller, so that will be very helpful. I will be receiving the entries again. Knowing what to do and how to do it makes it so much easier.

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