Fall in New Hampshire Part 1

This year for our 24th Wedding Anniversary we took a great trip north.  Autumn was just arriving and I was lighthearted and merry.  Those of you who know me well, will understand that Autumn is my absolute favorite time of year and I sorely miss it here in Florida.  The mornings were crisp and humidity free-it was wonderful! We packed a lot into 2 weeks so the adventure will be broken into parts with today being part one.

 

Florida to New Hampshire is a LONG drive so we broke it up over 3 days stopping in Savannah, GA and Baltimore, MD along the way. 

The stained glass was in Savannah and it was lit so beautifully.  I really should have taken a picture of this earthquake bolt I saw.  Have you heard of these?  They are the decorative stars you see on really old buildings and I always wondered what they were. In Savannah I saw one in the shape of a spiderweb-very cool.  Of course the question is were they real or a scam??

 

The Baltimore stop was convenient but also sentimental.  Jim and I met and were married there as well as our first daughter being born there.  Whenever we stop there we can't help having those, "remember when" conversations.  The Harbor has really grown and it looks like the city is making a real effort to bring it back. Yay!

 

While in NH, we stayed with some dear friends.  They own a wood turning gallery there by the name of Birch View Barn.  The work is phenomenal! 

Back in September I showed a piece I was working on here.  Now here it is in the gallery waiting for someone to come purchase it.  It looks so beautiful in that setting.

 

Our friends had a few days off so that we could get the complete tour of New England including Nubble Lighthouse in Maine.  It was perfectly picturesque!

 

The lighthouse is out on a rock island and the only way the caretaker could get there was on these lines you see.  At the far end you can see a small boat that the caretaker would get into and wench himself back and forth from main land to island.

 

I love this picture partly because it is so hard for me to get Jim into one:))  He is the love of my life and I am thankful he let me have this one for our anniversary!

 

We also took a day to head into Portland, ME.  There was a time we were almost stationed there and we had some curiosity about what we missed.  All of New England is so pretty in summer and fall....just not sure if we would have loved winter there.

 

Of course you can't go to New England and not do some antique shopping.  There couldn't have been a more perfect antique for me to find than this wonderful whalebone needle case.  The needle case part is obvious but I also love the basketweave design that reminds me of the Irish Belleek porcelain.  Plus, I have been fascinated with scrimshaw, etc. ever since 6th grade history class when we spent a portion of our year studying whaling.  What a perfect treasure for me:)

And Yet, another direction

Last post I spoke about the direction of my work; and yet, here is another direction entirely that I also love to work in.  Somehow painting the piece vs. printing a photograph before I do my thread painting makes it feel more my own.  When I wrote of this in the past, comments were very favorable toward the work and time involved in getting a good and balanced photo and they are absolutely correct.  Good photography is a skill set unto itself.  I don't claim to be a very good photographer and so the thread enhances them, in my opinion.  The texture of a thread painting is another draw for me as well.  These have become my Threadscapes and they keep me excited.

 

View from covered bridge in Indiana

This newer piece is painted on watercolor paper during a class I was taking.  Watercolor really appeals to me although I am not very good at it either-yet!  What I am excited about is the detailing I will get to add as I start painting with thread on the machine.  It may not sound like it will make a big difference but the next picture shows my point.

 

Here is Majestic and how it came to be .   When you look at the before and after, is there any doubt that the stitches add depth and richness to the painting? This piece sold promptly at the next show I entered it into which made me very proud.

 

Do you have a favorite method to work in (raw edge fusible, painting, dyeing, abstract, etc)? Do you concern yourself with whether all your work should be in the same style or do you like to have 2-3 different styles?

Today is Off the Wall Friday so please be sure to see what other wonderful styles our fellow artists are working in here.

New Art feels great

Making New Art feels so freeing. 
You may remember this piece from my 2009 post.

Tributaries Copyright 2009

I had so much fun creating it and I'm not sure how I became so sidetracked that I didn't do more of them.

Now I am getting excited again about this direction of work.  The above photo is the back of the piece and the below photo is the finished piece mounted to mat board.  It all came together nicely from having just the right sketch to just the right fabric to showcase the sketch to the beads and the mat board.

This will hopefully be going to a gallery in New Hampshire; and, as with all my work, there is a small bit of me that wants to keep it.  I just love it!  Now the hard part of naming it......

Come see what some other artists are working on here.  This is a weekly art blog hop called Off the Wall Fridays.

'Til next time:)

Back into a Gallery

 

I have to say, it feels good to be getting back to exhibiting my artwork.  I have a few pieces at a local Art Council space in Tarpon Springs, FL. Plus......

When I lived in NC, you may remember that I belonged to an art quilt group named Artrageous.  I left my challenge piece with them since there was some talk of us having a group exhibit at a local gallery in Greenville, NC.  Sure enough, here it is.

 

We are on exhibit at the Emerge Gallery in Greenville, NC.  This piece looks so much better on a white backgroud since you can really see the shape of my personal piece and the colors really pop for all the others.

For a better look at all the pieces, you can go to this previous post.
http://nestlingsbyrobin.blogspot.com/2011/03/artrageous-challenge-reveal.html

Of course, this isn't our first exhibit....Here is my Fractured Flower from the 2008 challenge.  It was very interesting to see what happened and although I didn't think it would work, it really does.

Our Fractured series was exhibited at the Inkstone Gallery in Greenville in 2009 and you can read more about these at the link below.

http://nestlingsbyrobin.blogspot.com/2009/02/fractured-flowers.html
I am very proud of this group and wish them all the best going forward!

What is your deal?



Obviously Not a photographer:)))

I am a quilt pattern designer and hear from lots of other quilters how impressed they are with my creativity and how they aren't creative at all.  Oh Phooey! 

What really gets me are the non-quilters I meet along the way that are impressed because they can't do anything.  Double Phooey!!

Maybe you aren't 'quilt pattern designer' creative but I am pretty sure there is something you do in your life that I would be terrible at.  I can learn to do just about anything but that doesn't mean I am good at it or like it either.  I have learned how to garden (ok, start a garden), but I kill the plants eventually (ok, quickly). When I was younger, I really wanted to be an Interior Designer.  My house never looks put together and I can't figure out if it is because the military lifestyle causes me to not care since I will just be boxing it back up again or if I just don't have the eye for it.  Either way it is ok because I am so busy creating quilts that can go anywhere with me.

 

My husband can cook like a gourmet chef--without a recipe!  He doesn't understand how I can't:)  I finally found my analogy when I told him, "You know how you can put in a pinch of this and a pinch of that and it tastes great?  Well, I can do that with fabric."  We are each good at something...I won't starve and he won't freeze:) 

 

I follow an author by the name of Rick DiBasio and he is starting a series of blog posts about being creative. They are definately worth a read:)   Part One is here.
My comment:  This is a great explanation and answer to that constant excuse! I don’t say that I am not creative because I am, but I am also very aware of my limitations. I can design quilts and write the patterns but don’t ask me to grow a garden or build or decorate something….Not that I can’t but it is much more difficult. We all have something that comes easier to us than others and that is our ‘creative’ area whether it be gardening or accounting.

I think what I really like about his blog is HOW he writes: It isn't flowery or sugar coated and so I relate a bit better.  In the second post he discusses how creative we are as children when we use our imagination.  When did we stop doing that? 
What are you creative at?

Purely by accident....

I came across a WIP (works in progress) blog hop this morning starting here at Freshly Pieced. How fun it was to see so many others enjoying the art of quilting.  The projects are varied as are the stories that go with them.  It is easy to miss out when there is such an abundance of blogs to choose from but fun to take a few minutes (hours) every so often and see what trends are happening.  The timing was great too since I have a couple myself.  OK, not just a couple but only a couple got photographed for today.  I actually did start a list yesterday of WIPs and it is getting long:)

 

For today though I will start with one that has been hanging around for a while now and getting closer to finished.  I wrote about it here.  One day this little Drunkard's Path will be finished.

 

Drunkard's Path by hand

Drunkard's Path by machine

So even though they are finished at this moment, they weren't until just last night.  These are fun, quick little mug rugs for charity baskets I am assembling.  I guess the WIP part is that the baskets aren't done:)  I found some cute baskets at the local thrift shop along with some fun mugs and then created the quiltlets to match so I can have themes.

Fusible Applique Flower

Woven Heart

Small Scrap Art

This scrappy piece is going to have a sea scene quilted onto it.  It was made using the scraps from a paper piece design.  (Sorry can't show the design yet since I am waiting to hear back from a magazine.) Always said I wouldn't be one of those quilters that saved every scrap but I have a hard time throwing away the triangle bits when paper piecing.  When you stitch them together, a bit freestyle, they can make some interesting designs.  This piece only measures about 10" square but with some creative free motion quilting it will be frameable.

Lastly, Hexagons!  This is the trend I noticed as I went through the blog hop and seeing others' blogs as well.  I made some once before and they were adorable at 3/4" finished but these are so much more fun when made big!  These particular ones are 4-1/2" made using Moda charm square packs.  I took out the solid squares and designed redwork to go on those since I do love handwork.  The big question was to randomly assemble or put into flower shapes and applique onto squares for a wall hang???  I am leaning toward flowers, I think:)

I linked up at Freshly Pieced...come enjoy the Show and Tell.

Hidden Stitches Summer Luncheon

Summer Luncheon, had me a blast....

Summer Luncheon, happened so fast....

Met a bolt cute as can be.....

We were adventurous in July and really shook up our routine!  Our group is very fortunate to have a quilt appraiser amongst us with a love of antique quilts.  So our July meeting took place at her beautiful home where she and a friend catered a lovely lunch for us as well.  

Our short and sweet business meeting so we could get on to the food!

As Mary and Brenda prepared lunch, everyone was greeted by Toddy who also gave home tours.....we couldn't wait to see Brenda's brand new sewing studio that her husband is building for her!  A brief meeting was conducted by Robin that mostly consisted of seeing the beautiful Opportunity Quilt blocks and borders (some now quilted) and the blocks for the Educational quilt.  Questions about how to quilt the Educational quilt will be addressed at the August meeting.

Lunch was a wonderful array of quiche, shrimp and pasta salad, greek tomato salad, Brenda's personally canned beets (YUM), and tasty desserts (chocolate cake, mint cookies, lemon bars).  As if that weren't enough, we topped it all off with an ice cream sundae bar:)))

After lunch we were treated to a bed turning of Brenda's personal stash!

Grandmother's Flower Garden circa 1930

GFG Detail



H'mong Summer quilt

H'mong detail

The quilts were beautiful and it was good to be able to ask the expert about fabric and batting choices of the era.

We got to see first quilts and antique quilts.  There isn't a photo of the Hummingbird quilt behind the kitty but trust me it was spectacular!

Of course, I was in love with this poppy quilt!!! It is so invigorating.

Our door prizes were won by Eleanor and Joan and our birthday FQs went to Pauline and Barb H.

If you think the excitement stopped there, OH NO!  We then loaded into our cars and all 7 caravaned to a couple of quilt shops that Brenda had called ahead to warn:)
Nana's Quilt Shop really went above and beyond for us with bags of goodies, a door prize, and a discount.
Quilts on Plum Lane was an adorable little shop with a very friendly staff.
It was a wonderful way to spend the day, eating and chatting and going fabric shopping with friends...MY Favorite!!