GiveAway

My name was chosen for the GiveAway of this lovely pole wrapped shibori-dyed silk habotai scarf from the followers of the Art Beyond the Surface organization on Facebook.

My thanks to artist Karen Turckes, one of the artists in the online cooperative gallery showcasing mixed media fine art and surface design.

You can see more of her work and that of the other artists in the group at www.ArtBeyondTheSurface.com.

Plant stand

During yesterday's stop at Wayside Gardens, I spotted this nice, tall plant stand, but didn't buy it.

Of course, the more I thought about it after I was home, the more I wished I had bought it. 

So a quick stop again today and I brought the stand and a couple more plants home.

Here it is in the corner of the studio.   I just have to decide what will go in the top tier....

Shopping for plants

I stopped at Wayside to shop for some houseplants and was greeted by this very friendly customer helper.  He was most interested in helping me check out the plants on the tables.









We were soon joined by customer helper #2.

Peeps Meeting

We held the regular monthly meeting of the Art Quilt People, and one of our members who was away, tried "attending" via Skype.

 Using Skype worked great, and we'll be using it again when someone isn't able to attend "in person."
















Mary brought in this quilt that she made by restructuring a set of blocks.
















Nancy showed us silk scarves she made from silk she acquired on her trip to Japan.


















Jeanne has been working with fabrics that she made with discharging and deconstructed screen printing.
















And Mary had several pieces of fabric that she had snow dyed.

Dresses

Nancy joined me in the studio for a sewing day, and we put together some dresses for the Dresses for Girls project.   

Nancy brought the kits from a group she works with from the Retired Rochester Teachers Association.  The fabric was cut and serged; we added the elastic and tie strings at the top, the pockets, and the hems.

The dresses will be taken to Africa and distributed to young girls who need them.

Ducks and swans

I had a chance to take some pictures during a recent visit to the nearby village of Clifton Springs on a very cold, but sunny day.

The village has a history as a treatment center featuring mineral bath therapy.  Much of the old residences have been refitted as apartments, and a new rural hospital now inhabits some of the property.



A mineral stream runs through the area and is the home to some resident ducks and swans.

Lancaster bound

My "Roundabout" quilt has been selected for the AQS (American Quilter's Society) Contest in Lancaster, PA, March 11 - 14, 2015.


Roundabout (68 x 68)













Roundabout detail

Jet Trails in Paducah

This is my friend from high school, Larry McGonigal.  He was on his way from Texas to New England and made a stop to see friends in Paducah, KY. 

And while he was there, he made a point to go to the Bank of Paducah to see my Jet Trails #10 quilt, which was purchased by the National Quilt Museum.

Thanks for the photo, Larry!

Family dinner

We had a wonderful evening with family in Geneseo and their children and grandchildren gathered from Virginia and Canada.
















Jen and Zac in charge in the kitchen.













Dylan working on one of his toys.
















And giving me some giggles at the dinner table.




















And with his headlamp so he can see when he goes outside.

Fabric Dyeing

With the mild weather we've been having, the room in my basement that has my dyeing supplies and large sink was nice and warm --- good motivation to do some dyeing!

I started with four yards each of three values of turquoise.

I separated the turquoise fabrics so that each of the three buckets had a light, medium and dark fabric.

Then I over-dyed them with three values of black.

I also kept one group of turquoise out so it had no black added, and I dyed one group of black that did not have any turquoise.






Here are the final fabrics.

Jewel Orchid

My Jewel Orchid (ludisia discolor) is sending out lots of blooms again this year, even though it is very overdue for repotting.

I bought it in Florida 15 years ago and am so pleased that it's still going strong. 

I had a report from a friend last week that a cutting I gave her from this plant a year or two ago is producing its first buds.








Each of the "petals" of the bloom produces individual orchid-shaped flowers.

Peeps meeting

Linda hosted our December meeting at her beautiful home. 

Our agenda was mostly about the delicious Xmas lunch and the other sweet goodies for snacking.

Mary showed us her quilt that won a couple of awards including Best of Fiber at the Festival of Trees in Canandaigua.  She made it from a pattern by Nancy Murty.

Otto Tomotto's

We decided to try dinner at Otto Tomotto's on Rt. 96 in Victor. 

Don't you love their sign?

We both ordered pasta entrees which were very good.

Even though I neglected to get a picture of our dinners, I captured the great plates in their wall decoration.

Winter is here

Our area received about 20" of snow over the last couple of days -- plenty enough to provide lots of exercise from shoveling the wet and heavy stuff each day. 

The water in the fish pond stays unfrozen as we have a stock pond heater in it to help keep it open.

Tree Trimming

We have a long list of necessary maintenance requirements for our property.  Some major tree work is part of the plan.















A local company was retained and came today to begin some removal.  They took down whole trees and cleared limbs around electric, telephone, and television transmission lines.














Some good-sized limbs resulted and were hauled away.  A large volunteer cottonwood tree was totally removed.














A powerful stump grinder was part of the extensive equipment they used and quickly removed any residual roots.















Some wonderful extended booms with movement controlled by the operator in the air were used -- no more ladders or scaling trunks and limbs.  Bill indicated he would like this portable model for Christmas!

We have a tree line of 20+ mature blue spruce to be replaced on the list as the next project.

First Friday

Nancy and I went to the Hungerford Building in Rochester for the open studios night.  The Hungerford has four floors of studios, and most all of them were open tonight for the large crowds of visitors.
















We enjoyed visiting Jeanne Beck's studio and chatting with her and her husband, Bob.























More of Jeanne's work.



















Nancy and I both liked the whimsical work done by this artist.













Favorite sign of the night.

Rosemary

When I went to the garden on Thanksgiving to look for herbs for the turkey, everything was snow covered.  The pictures I posted here and on Facebook prompted a friend to ask if the rosemary plants would make it through the winter.

Unfortunately, we've never been able to keep any alive, even with lots of mulching and covering.







Usually, we just harvest all the branches and store them in plastic bags in the freezer, for use throughout the year.

This year's plants that we started with in the spring were quite a bit smaller than those we usually purchase.  While both plants did well and got quite a bit of growth, we decided  they would fit in some existing pots we had on hand.

So into pots they went, and we'll see how they like "wintering over" in a cool part of our lower level. 

Here's hoping they'll stay healthy and be ready to go back out to the garden in the spring....