I know it has been a loooong time since I posted. Too much going on, too much to pinpoint and too much to try to recount. So I'll just start this past week. So much even with that!

First - I have a new great nephew! Keith & Mary had a baby boy on July 15th and named him Kelso Ronald Woodburn. Kelso is Mary's maiden name and a pretty cool name. I am hoping they will call him Ronnie, after Keith's Dad & my brother, but he's a gift, whatever they choose to call him. So -here's Kelso Ronald - (as long as they don't call him that!)


It was a really busy weekend - Keri came down and we did the WWPW (World Wide Photo Walk - you'll have to google it - it's too complicated, but a blast!) in Mocksville at the RayLen Winery. Got lots of photos of grapes and some cool leaves (and much more) in a two-hour period.


Next - I got into my car a week ago Tuesday and my AC didn't come on. Found out that the compressor exploded in the AC system, sending shards of metal all through it - to the tune of $3,000 to replace the whole system. With 94,000 miles on it, needing $500 worth of tires, and the 90,000+ ($600) checkup, we decided to nix it and get a new one.
I do love it, but it was totally unexpected!

Sunday morning Steve and I took the new ride up to Stokes/Surry County so Steve could check out the river for fishing. It's a beautiful river with lots of rocks in it - cool drifts. I was disappointed that there were so many trees along the river bank that I could barely see the river, but I found spot where I could...


And, one of the best parts of the week! I finished the Asiatic Lily some time ago, but couldn't decide how to mount/finish it off. After some collaboration with a very talented quilter friend, we came up with this - I think the quilting is exquisite and I am proud to be partnering with her on this.



And here is a bit of a closeup (I've had to really lighten up the lily in order for the black on black quilting to show up):


Peter & Jill came back from Italy yesterday and came over for dinner. Unfortunately, they don't have their photos yet. We did have a great visit and made fun pizzas.

Duh

Thanks Zoe! She just showed me how to make a hyperlink so you can click right on the name and go to it.
www.zoenelson.etsy.com
Main Street Gallery in Blowing Rock, NC
Hands Gallery in Boone, NC
Artist Alley in Southern Pines, NC
Carlton Gallery in Foscoe, NC


Karen Fridy - Karen Fridy - http://designerstitches.blogspot.com/
Ann Flaherty - http://annflaherty.wordpress.com/

My friend Zoe Nelson just awarded me the One Lovely Blog award. How sweet! She is a jewelry artist in Boone, NC. She sells her gorgeous silver jewelry in the Blue Ridge Mountains and online in her etsy shop. You can find and purchase this wonderful artwear at these places:

www.zoenelson.etsy.com
Main Street Gallery in Blowing Rock, NC
Hands Gallery in Boone, NC
Artist Alley in Southern Pines, NC
Carlton Gallery in Foscoe, NC

You must pass this Lovely Blog award on. First, post it on your blog, giving props to the person who gave it to you. Then, pass the award on to other bloggers. I'm afraid mine might not link cuz I'm really techno-challenged blogwise. And I don't know a lot of people who have blogs, but here goes:

Karen Fridy - http://designerstitches.blogspot.com/
Ann Flaherty - http://annflaherty.wordpress.com/

Need suggestions

Here is the sign hanging on the entrance to my cubicle at my current job:

Dear Aunty Em -
I hate Kansas. I hate you.
I'm leaving and taking the dog.

Dorothy

I think that says it all.
____________________________________________________________________________

I've been working on another threadpainting. It's small and I'm not thrilled with it at this stage, but the practice is good for me. So I've posted several photos I've taken recently of the flowers in my yard, trying to decide which one/s might be most attractive threadpainted. I'm considering a series of them - since I do love making flowers in any medium.

Here's #1 - the Rhodendron (shhh, this is actually in my neighbor's yard). Nice shadows on this one.


#2 is the Wild Orchid - not too much interest here, I think. Too much same color.




#3 The Poke Berry - This is kind of neat, but a lot of the same/close colors. Could be really difficult to find threads just a tiny bit off enough to see the changes.



#4 My purple Iris - I really like this one. Interesting enough? Those striations could be really difficult...



#% - and the last one - my White Asiatic Lily from last year. This is similar to the yellow one I just did. There are no interesting shadows on this one, but the pink markings on the white are nice, some shadows on the petals, and the leaves and mulch in the background are a bit different.



So - anyone out there? Favorites? suggestions? I have some more at home I'll post later in the week.

I broke a tooth on Sunday, so I had to stay home and go to the dentist Monday morning. Of course - a temporary crown. I took the rest of the day off and got my quilts ready to send to Sacred Threads. I love that show, but getting everything ready to send is a real pain. I just realized last week that I had 2 pieces accepted! There was only one letter in the acceptance packet when I received it and since I had done this 2 years ago, I didn't read the rest at that time. So one night last week I started going through everything to refresh my memory of what I had to do and realized both pieces had been accepted! I emailed Lisa to be sure and they were. So Monday I got them both packed up, hauled them to the UPS store and said goodbye.
"The Stories of Women Are Told in Their Hands"


And my "Self Portrait"


I am so happy to have a job, which I will be starting July 1st in the UNCG Dept. of Nutrition, but it will be sad to say goodbye to my 10-year stint with NC Kids Adoption and Foster Care. Our cube farm has been the perfect gallery backdrop for all of my quilts, which I have exhibited several times a year. My new office is very small and it doesn't appear that I will have anywhere to hang even one. But - I have a job and for that I am extremely grateful. I hope everyone out there who is in need of a good job will find one.

Wow! I didn't realize it had been so long since I'd posted to my blog. I wanted to wait until I had a "real" piece of free style machine embroidery finished, and now I have one.

But first - for those of you who haven't seen it on my Facebook page -

I GOT A JOB I GOT A JOB I GOT A JOB!!!

I found out Friday at 5:00 after having the interview at 3 pm Friday. Then I got even better news - that I will be keeping my current salary! What a wonderful day!

And then today Keri called to tell my she had won $500 in the Power Ball lottery. What a terrific weekend! It could only be better if Steve were here, instead of fishininmichigan. But it's his annual trip and he deserves it. He's thrilled for both of us - now he can retire next May as he'd planned.

My aunt Allie, who visited at Easter, bought me a beautiful Asiatic Lily for my birthday. My birthday was the day before Easter and hers was the day after Easter. We planted it, but it didn't bloom til I came back from the workshop with Carol Shinn.

Here is the original photo of the whole stem blooming:



Here is the full photo (12" x 12") of my free style machine embroidered Lily. As you can see, it is reversed from the original. One of those things easily forgotten when printing the photo.



Here is the detail photo showing the shadows:



I documented my hours on this for future reference for myself. I put 36 1/2 hours in the stitching. I can't tell you how much thread I used because there are so many colors blended. I can tell you that jus in the dark green background I used 1 whole spool plus probably 1/4 of a second spool. There are 250 yards of thread on each spool. There are layers and layers of thread and it's pretty heavy, but also pretty good and flat.

I am pretty happy with the end results, but I'd love to hear comments on what you think. I need to continue practicing my fm stitching skills, but I also need to decide where I want to go with this, style-wise. Would you buy a picture like this of just a flower, or would you want something a little more interesting and unique? Like maybe a collage of parts of the flower? I appreciate whatever you offer for suggestions.

I also finished a small quilt, but I can't show that here in case certain people look here. Next month.

Thanks!

Springtime? and Workshop

I am back from Carol Shinn's workshop at the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops. I learned so much I can't believe it! But first, springtime was just beginning to peek through in the Catskill Mountains of upstate NY, but here is what greeted me when I got home.


My Lilies of the Valley opened up while I was gone.


And my Solomon's Seal in all its splendor


I was thrilled to be able to spend several days with my buddy, Karen Asherman, at the workshop. We hadn't seen each other since Lowell Quilt Festival in 2006, so it was great fun and we both learned a lot. Here's Karen at the cutting board, with a view of Carol's work table under the overhead mirror.


Here is the porch where Karen, Carol, Kathy & I shared our pre-dinner glass of wine each night. The porch was just the coolest! It was too ironic to learn the names of everyone in the class - Jeannie, Jenny, Jody, Judy, Karen, Carol, Kathy, & Leslie (and a guest named Lynne!) And of course the owners Kim and Mark! J-M. Oh - and one person who cancelled - Martha! Too funny.


This is the gob of (mostly Judy Sebastian's) thread I collected at the workshop. It will show up again in another form.

Here are Carol & Judy checking out some of the work. You can almost make out Carol's piece behind her. It's breathtakingly beautiful, but I don't have permission to post it. I know she is entering it in a really BIG show, so don't want to preempt anything.


So - here at the pieces I made in Carol's workshop. We began with just practicing the direction of the stitches (top left). She then had us stitch "across the color wheel", blending stitches using many shades of each color and keeping the stitches in the same direction. This was very difficult, but the most important for me (top right).


The next step was to draw and paint shapes on white fabric, which we then fused to a piece of canvas backing. When the paint was dry, we stitched over the picture, practicing keeping all of the stitches in the same direction. That's a lot more difficult than you would think, especially with pears. You can see the distortion that so much thread causes (bottom left) - my bottom pear looks like my pregnant goldfish! Carol suggested I do a contour effect around the pears, which turned out to be much harder than I'd expected, having to keep the stitches going in the same direction!
The last piece (bottom right) is of the center of a leaf that Carol had printed out on a iron on transfer sheet. We transferred it to white fabric and then fused it to canvas. Instead of straight stitches in the same direction, I meandered my stitching around in small circles. It gave it a more organic feel and looks more like underwater fan or coral than a leaf. Carol said the purple part is too fat and I should go back and take some out (by adding more blue/green over it), but I have moved on.

Below is the first piece I've made since the workshop. It is a Black-Eyed Susan.

I was happy with keeping the stitches in the same direction, but I really needed more shades of yellow and orange. More thread!
Here is more of a closeup:

I am working on a much more ambitious piece now, but don't want to show it until it's finished (in case it really sux!) I will photograph it in various stages to post later.