Finally Here

For the first time I have a quilt in a national magazine, but better still is the whole article about our Frayed Edges group. To see more pictures, Sarah has done a very nice job of showing and telling. I leave it to her. Funny, but I'm a little uncomfortable with the telling part, kind of goes along with how I hate to market myself. But just know I'm really happy and feel fortunate to be part of this great group.

Of Babies and Cows

A while back I did a series of "guardian angel" quilts for the new babies in the family. Seemed like all my younger siblings were having babies at the same time. I have just finished this as a baby shower gift for a co-worker. Lauren's Guardian Angel, or Four Cows, whichever title you prefer. The mother was brought up on a dairy farm, thus the cows.

I'm taking an online Photoshop course....I have a long way to go.

Transitions

I haven't posted much lately and I think my lethargy, (physical and mostly mental) is this body moving into winter. Like the bears hibernating. All I want to do is eat, carbs mostly. And I wander around the house looking for the next most comfortable place to sit. Yesterday I went for half a walk. That was about all the enthusiasm I could muster. Before this laziness and inability to direct myself hit, I finished this piece,



the first in a series of 'interpretation' pieces. Interpreted from a photograph. Wish I could show the photo, but it's not mine and I don't have permission , and in order to do that I'd have to email Hannah, and then she'd have to email her friend and then we'd wait for an answer and then I'd have to download it....where's that comfortable chair? (You'd think I was a busy mother with little ones running around !!)

Living on the Edge

That's what I feel right now about Houston. I'm really enjoying reading all the blogs of the people who attended, but still feeling like I missed something REALLY BIG. Well, I did. I found this blog this morning and the pictures of the Best of Show quilt just blow me away and make me wish I could see it REALLY CLOSE UP. And then there's Sarah's blog and her fabulous news that has sent her into outer space...so, so good news. I loved that piece from the first time I saw it. I found I kept staring at all the little details, which unfortunately don't show up in the photo.

My next stop is the official Festival website when I'm not on my way to work...tonight: glass of wine, comfortable chair, fire in the fireplace and my laptop. Oh boy!!

Hannah

Happy belated birthday Hannah!! My effervescent, always smiling, (well, maybe not first thing in the morning, but surely later at night than I am), happy to hang out with her aunt, not afraid to do scary things, neice. Wish I could have been more like you when I was your age.

What I've been doing:

In my house we jump right from pumpkins to christmas, not because I want to but because of this:



It's an advent calendar designed for my neice Katherine. It has 25 little pockets that I filled with 25 little gifts for her to open starting on December 1st. And this year all I have to do is send the 25 little gifts and her mom and dad will fill the pockets. I made nine of these for all my little neices and nephews and grandson, each one designed with them in mind. So, if you do the math that means I need to buy and WRAP 225 little gifts before December 1st. I can't tell you how WORTH IT it was to hear reports of how excited these kids were last year! This year I have had the luxury of picking things up here and there through the months which cuts down on last minute panic. And the GOOD NEWS is that I have half my shopping done, wrapped and sent, before December 1st!!!!1

Happy Halloween

We're doing a game for the kids at work...guess who's baby picture goes with which grown-up. It's been fun and interesting to watch the kids pair up baby to adult. This is me when I was 3 and to this day I still can't figure out what my mother had in mind for a costume. And it's too late to ask. AnywhOOOO.....




This is the whole group of us...what you can't see are the "grown-up" pics just around the corner. I had fun putting these together, and I think they look more interesting than just pictures on a piece of poster board.

Have a safe and happy All Hallow's Eve....November tomorrow.

Frayed Edges Yesterday

There's something about spending a whole day with friends who love to talk about the same things you do. Food for the soul. And when it's served with beauty like this, who wouldn't come away with a hundred new ideas and the energy to GET STARTED!



As Kate's son Haven said: "these dishes are fit for a king!"...handmade bowls, beautiful napkin rings and the forks! Those curlycues on the ends of them are design delight!


Kate had carved out a pumpkin and filled it with whatever was left growing outside, making a great 'harvest' centerpiece. I love the lines of her house and the fact that it's old and rich and simple. Like this picture. Can't you just see families back in the 17 or 1800's feeding their families at a similar table placed in front of these very same windows? Rich.

Kate shared this piece she'd started in a workshop with Kaffe Fassett



...not a great picture, but you can see the colorway she was working on and the influence of Kaffe and his style. We spent lots of time auditioning fabrics for the borders and then finally decided that maybe it didn't have to have one. We also spent time talking about the MAN himself and the dynamics of a class in the presence of such a PERSONA.

While we talked Hannah poked these charming little snowmen into existence....



She's preparing for a show at the beginning of December and these will fly off the shelf, I'm sure.

And Sarah, our own Sarah shared a project she's been consumed with for the last few months. Don't know if it's a secret or not, but let me tell you, the WORK and PROFESSIONALISM she's put into it so far, blew me away. How lucky are we to be in the midst of such TALENT.

And we missed Deborah, but the hook is long and we'll be reeling her in with talk of our upcoming exhibit at the Camden Library in July 07...we all need to get working now that there's a plan!

Trip to Grand Manan or The Elements of Design

We've just returned from a weekend-cut-short-by-rain-trip to Grand Manan Island, which is 6 or so miles off the coast of Maine, but owned by Canada and so it's a 20 mile ferry trip from New Brunswick. Quiet, quaint, salmon raising, dulse harvesting capital of the world. And dead as a doornail in October. Perfect. We could have been the only tourists on the whole island. I took a lot of pictures which I'll share with you while combining them with my thoughts on Deborahs blog (see Oct. 16th) about her bag of scraps, and her clever use of them. So, here goes. My Elements of Design:

LINE



This is Swallowtail Lighthouse. A former bed and breakfast was housed in the house right next to it. For a dollar the government of Canada will rent it to you if you'll turn it into a viable business, say another B and B. Problem? When the foghorn blows all night it could be a little iffy as to whether you'd get any sleep.


REPETITION





TEXTURE



SHAPE



COLOR



BALANCE



This little boat on the back is for spreading the fishing net I'm told.

UNITY (or Variation on a Theme)



NEGATIVE SPACE



Hole In The Wall, a pretty spectacular spot to camp, if you like tenting.

CONTRAST, or just plain awesome!

Halloween Postcards

Sent my cards out last week after almost forgetting they were done and on my sewing table under the piles of fabric. I've had a postive response to the cards and the corny jokes. It doesn't matter what it is or says...kids just love to get mail!

Free Day

When I woke up this morning, it was one of those glorious moments when you remember you have NOTHING you HAVE to do. So I decided to take myself on an artist's date and find some art. Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine. Home of the Wyeth's. Rockland. Home to many incredible galleries. The Farnsworth is exhibiting at this moment Alex Katz, Louise Nevelson, Charlie Hewitt, N.C., Jamie, and Andrew Wyeth, and many other famous painters in their permanent collection. But I went to see Charlie Hewitt. He's a Maine guy who focuses on the abstract, taking a lot of his surroundings growing up in industrial Lewiston/Auburn and turning them into works of art. Chains. Church steeples. Factory smoke stacks. But I liked this piece:



What I liked about it, besides the fact that it was collage, digital images, machine stitched and hand painted, was this stray thread that looks like a circle, but it's really not.....made me think did he leave it on purpose? Or like me, always finding ONE MORE THREAD TO CUT!



This was beautiful; 61 8 by 10's laid out like a quilt:


These aren't the best photographs in the world. Remember I was in a museum where they frown on taking pictures. I felt so....undercover. This one though was taken at one of the many galleries on the main street...done by a woman named Kate Winn and called Blue Dinghy. It called to me. Water. Warm sand, curving away to somewhere else. I will remember this one in the cold of winter.



It was a good day. Good day.

My Fall Ritual

I haven't been doing much creatively lately. At least not in my studio. I think I've been avoiding it. Everyone goes through times like this and I know enough about myself to know that I can't force it. The desire will come back soon. I seem to go through this with every seasonal change and since we have 4 very distinct ones here in Maine, I'm good at it. In the meantime, here is a picture of something I make every october to celebrate fall...my pumpkin totem. It will MAYBE last till thanksgiving if we don't have a really hard frost. It pleases me to pull into the drive and see it.



It's easy enough to do if you have the cool gourds and bittersweet around your area. Here's a close-up:

Cranberries

I thought I'd picked every kind of fruit at least once in my life, but this weekend I picked cranberries for the first time. I always thought they grew in bogs (they do) on Cape Cod (they do), but they also grow here on property owned by my sister-in-law's family. Martha and I went out with coffee cans and filled them to the top in less than 20 minutes. Easy picking and very dry. And when you pick with a friend, the conversation is as good as the promise of sweet fresh fruit.

Of course then we had to do something with all these cranberries, so Katherine and I set to work at 6:30 this morning making cranberry-orange muffins. She was my measurer and stirrer, my sweet neice.



And don't let that angel face fool you. This one will go far just on pure tenacity.



The finished product. Think she'd try one, the top even, with sugar sprinkled all over it???? HAH!!!

One Last Paddle

On Saturday, Bruce and I decided to pack up our kayaks and take one last paddle. It was a beautiful fall day, the temperature was still warmish by the middle of the day, HOT on the island we landed on for lunch. There are no pictures of this part of the day because of the water and the new camera...but I have great pictures of the scarecrow contest we came across in Searsport. Part of their Fling into Fall Days. I guess anything goes now with scarecrows. No more going to find an old pair of your dads jeans and an old flannel shirt. These were much more sophisticated as you can see:



...who these little girls are I have no idea, but they REALLY wanted their picture taken!



How's this one for complicated?! And the detail, obviously a Beatles fan:



very clever, those faces. This one too:



not scary though. But this one might frighten a little bit:



..if you happen to be the guy in the lobster trap! Or this one:



..yeah, that's more like it! Which one is your favorite, Charlie, Katherine and Carey? Bet I know!

Fall Flowers

I just love bringing a huge bunch of hydrangeas into the house in the fall. I put them on the fireplace hearth and it makes me feel like I'm nesting. It goes along with making apple butter or applesauce for the freezer. Pumpkins and squash in storage. Long winter nights by the fire.

Woke up this morning to the fox chasing the chickens. Instinctually, I screamed and the fox dropped it and ran away as did the half dead chicken. Under my car. Now what? I have chosen the route of 'have a cup of coffee and maybe the problem will resolve itself.' Can you tell I'm not particularly attached to these chickens, though I love going out in the morning and saying "Good morning ladies" and them responding with their little gurgling noises. Now one is gurgling...yuk.

OH YEAH!

NOW I remember....Bruce and I finally made it up past 8:30 last night, determined to stay up and watch Grey's Anatomy just so we could be part of the conversation that goes on all around us. And this is what we saw,



which was fine when I was 9 and tv had just been invented and we had to deal with that horrible vertical rolling and snow because it was all new and not very refined, like us. (It wasn't even this good last night) But now? In this technology age? We have Direct Tv and as soon as the leaves fall off one particular tree, we'll get local channels crystal clear, as they were meant to be viewed. Until then, bed at 8.

Fall is REALLY Here:

And we all survived the weekend, although I made Sarah and Andy pose for a picture in case he decides not to come back. Just kidding; of course he'll be back. Look how happy he is! Kids, rain, cold, all balanced with good comfort food, lots of wine and a fire in the fireplace which we kept going for 2 days.



today is the first day I've had real shoes and real socks on, having left my sandals in the closet this morning. If you look closely at my worktable you can catch a glimpse of my project for the day. As soon as I mail these out to my special little friends, I'll post a better picture.



As much as I hate to see summer go, there's a certain 'nesting' that happens at this time of year. Get the wood in. Vegetables out of the garden. Pumpkins on the outside steps. Pretty soon a bittersweet wreath on the door. Leaves.

Company

Not much is going on here this weekend...hah!! I spent all day yesterday cleaning in preparation for my kids and grandkids. I just feel if there is less clutter at the beginning of the visit, maybe things won't seem so disorganized when the house if full of people. It always feels full and disorganized no matter what and I love it! But everything looks shiny and the way you imagine your house should look if it were going to be in a magazine. Really, I cleaned for the 'new boyfriend'. He's not that new (7 or 8 months) but this is the first time he'll be thrown into perpetual motion in the daniels small house with 2 little kids, at least one dog and rain predicted. If he can survive this, he'll be great for Sarah! We'll see.