Bee Man

For years my husband wanted to have a hive or two of bees. His job often took him all over the world so it really wasn't realistic for him to follow his wish. About a year after he retired that wish came true. After about two years he acquired another hive and was beginning to have a loyal following for his honey. Last year something struck his best hive and he lost the whole colony. He put in his order for two more and received them this Spring. Then, his old colony swarmed, twice, he was able to capture one of the swarms so now he has four hives. So far we are not oozing honey from the eaves of our house, but we do have some good honey.

Bee Man

The final results of my husband and the bees work. The label was painted by two of our granddaughters, they were five and seven at the time. We believe we have the best honey around and most people who are the recipients agree, however, we have had people buy it because it has such a cute lable.

New Work Shadows

Today has been really productive for me. I've been working on a large piece and I told myself that I couldn't work on anything else until I got it to a certain point. Well, I finally got to that point. I've had several ideas rolling around in my head for a few weeks just waiting to get out.

In Feb. my husband and I went to California to visit our son's family. One day we went to Oceanside to visit the museum where the "Visions Quilt Show" was on exhibit. Afterword we walked out to the end of the pier and had lunch at a little diner. On our way back down the pier I notice the neat shadows of my husband and myself. I loved the photo and used it to make a journal quilt. I still wanted to do something else with the image so I started playing with it today. This is the results. Still have lots to do but I'm liking it.

Bird Tree beginning of New Work

When I was in Paducah at the AQS show in April I purchased this piece of fabric. When I saw if another woman was looking at it very seriously. I kept standing there nonchalantly looking at other pieces and saying over and over to myself, "don't buy it, don't buy it". Well, after a while she laid it down and I pounced on the fabric. I knew there was something special to do with this marbled piece of fabric. Last month I was at my Focus Art Group meeting and showed the piece to my group. I had some ideas and they shared some ideas. The ideas have been rolling around in my head for a few weeks and this is what I came up with. The birds are cut out of paper but I plan to stylize the birds with minimal detail. Can't wait to work on it again.

Some of the hand-dyed fabric from Bonnie Ouellette's workshop

Most of the gradated fabrics below were fat quarters. I decided there were some colors that I needed in yard pieces. If you know my work you know that I love bright colors, I think these fit the bill.

Some of the hand-dyed fabric from Bonnie Ouellette's workshop

I can see this piece of fabric making a beautiful day lily.

Some of the hand-dyed fabric from Bonnie Ouellette's workshop

I can see this fabric used as sky or water.

Some of the hand-dyed fabric from Bonnie Ouellette's workshop

Isn't this grape color pretty?

Some of the hand-dyed fabric from Bonnie Ouellette's workshop

Chartruse is one of my favorite colors. I was a little disappointed in the intensity of these colors but I'm sure I will find many places to use it.

Some of the hand-dyed fabric from Bonnie Ouellette's workshop

Aren't these colors beautiful?

Some of the hand-dyed fabric from Bonnie Ouellette's workshop

Some of the gradated fabrics I dyed from Bonnie's workshop

SC's Own Dairy Barn

This is the location of a dying workshop given to Lake and Mountain Quilt Guild by Bonnie Ouellette. I just had to play off the Dairy Barn. While I have never seen the Dairy Barn in Ohio I'm quite sure it doesn't look like this.

The workshop was on the hottest day we have seen this Summer. I'm not sure what the temp. reached that day but it was at least 96 degrees. The workshop coordinator worked hard to keep us as cool as possible with fans and plenty of water. Actually the barn proved to be a good location for the dying class, we didn't have to worry about spills and mess. We had an occasional piece of hay floating in the water but it only absorbed a little dye.

I left early and drove with my husband to visit our daughter's family in Mt. Pleasant. I left my fabric in the bags of dye, Bonnie said they would be OK, so I am spending today rinsing and rinsing. This is by far the hardest part of dying your own fabric. I worked mostly on gradations because of the art work I do. After they are all rinsed, dried and ironed I will post a photo.

SC's Own Dairy Barn

Bonnie brought tons of materials for us to use to make fabric. She used everything from floor tiles to plastic cake trays.

SC's Own Dairy Barn

Barbara is getting her fabric ready to dye. She is placing plastic balls in the fabric and securing them with rubber bands. After it goes into the dye the fabric will resist the dye where the rubber bands are placed. The circle will also be a lighter color. I didn't get to stay long enough to see the end results, perhaps I can get a photo later.

SC's Own Dairy Barn

Libby is dying fabric in plastic bags. She is using a solution of water, soda ash and salt. We did some gradation dying using one cup of solution to 1/2 teaspoon dye for the lightest and progressing to 1 teaspoon, 1 Tablespoon, 2 Tablespoons, 4 Tablespoons and finally 8 Tablespoons for the darkest color.

SC's Own Dairy Barn

Taking a lunch break.

SC's Own Dairy Barn

Bonnie's chains. Used for rust dying, of course.

SC's Own Dairy Barn

Bonnie is about to take out a piece of fabric that she is rust dying. This particular piece has plastic balls tied in the fabric to give it texture.

SC's Own Dairy Barn

A piece of fabric dyed using salt to disperse the dye.

SC's Own Dairy Barn

One of the many pieces made during Bonnie's workshop.

Aubrey's Visit

Our Granddaughter Aubrey, visited us last week. We had a big schedule to follow as both she and I had many projects we wanted to accomplish while she was here. I had purchased a shirt, skirt and a pair of tennis shoes to dye. She wanted to make something for her Mom's birthday and her Dad for Father's Day. These aren't posted because she hasn't given the gifts to her parents yet.

She brought her portfolio from an after school art class for me to look at her work. Included in the portfolio was a self portrait in fabric. I posted it back a few months ago, it was unfinished at that point.

Of course, all the week wasn't spent working, we had fun as well. Lots of swimming with Papa and tubing on the lake.

Aubrey's Visit

Details of Aubrey's self portrait.

Aubrey's Visit

Concentrating very hard.

Aubrey's Visit

This is an outfit we dyed while she was visiting. Shirt, skirt and shoes.

Aubrey's Visit

I went to my studio one morning and found that Aubrey the artist had struck. Isn't this cute? Sorry, it's not in focus.

Aubrey's Visit

This is a piece that Aubrey did in her after school art class. The light house is a statue brought in by the teacher. The students were to paint the light house using their own interputation.

Aubrey's Visit

Aubrey took an after school art class this year and this is one of the neat pieces she created.

She lives on the SC coast so the surf board was inspired by their frequent trips to the beach.

Aubrey's Visit

My husband thought he was being cute naming the boat after me.

Aubrey's Visit

Fun on the Tube.

A Happy Garden

This is the view you see as you come into the gate of our front yard. We have a very shady lot so most of our flowers have to be shade hardy. Obviously, we have lots of hydrangeas and hostas. I feel blessed that we do have the shade because hydrangeas just happen to be my favorite shrub in the world.

My Husband is a volunteer at the SC Botanical Garden in Clemson. He is the volunteer in charge of keeping the hydrangea garden in good shape. The garden has provided him with the opportunity to learn about the plants that he and I enjoy so much. This year our garden is the happiest it's been since we planted it. It's had lots of rain, something that's been missing in the past four years. Hope you enjoy the tour of my front garden.

A Happy Garden

This hydrangea has white, green, pink and blue flowers on one shrub. It is amazingly beautiful.

A Happy Garden

One of my sons is an artist. We are always so lucky at Christmas because he makes us something to go in our garden. This past Christmas we were given three wooden birds. I've planted them in my garden containers

A Happy Garden

This is one of our many beautiful hostas.

A Happy Garden

More of the front yard.

A Happy Garden

This old fence has such a wonderful story. Several years ago the church my Mother-In-Law attends wanted to clean up the cemetery. What they actually wanted to do was get rid of all the fences to make it easier to maintain. They had to have permission from a family member in order to remove the fences. My Mother-In-Law is one of this churches biggest supporters, and I don't necessarily mean money wise. She puts in long hard hours working to help her church. At first she didn't want the fence taken down but finally decided that she would give her OK. However, she told them that she wanted the fence delivered to her house. My husband and I were building our log home at the time and she asked if we could like to have some of the units. Fortunately none of the other children wanted any of the pieces so we ended up with enough to go across the front of our yard. We were also lucky enough to get the gate. I love this fence.

A Happy Garden

The pink hydgrangea is a biggie.

A Happy Garden

Beautiful white turning blue hygrangeas.

Water Technique

I've had a lot of request about the technique I used to make the water in the Mexico piece.

I started with a piece of cotton that was slightly wet. I painted what I hoped to be a mountain in the mist. I had it laying on a large sheet of paper and left it overnight. When I went back to the dried cotton the whole design had morphed into what I thought looked like water. The paper was quit beautiful as well. When I needed a fabric for the waterfall in this piece I thought of the hand painted cotton.

The painted cotton became the foundations fabric. I then added rocks. I felt that I needed a more shiny surface so I used a shimmery organza. Under the organza I strategically placed yarn that I had stripped into small pieces. I used a blue-green yarn that was twisted as well as a white yard that was fat in one place and skinny in another. I raveled the yarn until I had what I wanted to make the water look as if it were falling over the falls.

I used Misty Fuse on the back of the organza and fused over the rocks, yarn and painted fabric. Misty Fuse works beautifully for this technique because you can see it through the organza and it adds texture. I love Misty Fuse for lots of reasons but the biggest asset for me is that I can lift it without any trouble until I am ready to give it a final set.

I painted around the edge of the water to get a muddy look. I also painted around the rocks.

I hope this answers our questions. If not send me an email and I will try to answer your questions.

Mexican Quilt in progress

This is a more recent photo than the one below. I'm not very competent in maneuvering things around on my blog so I am posting this with the explanation below.

Mexican Quilt in progress

I have finally had time to get back into my studio and do some art work. I started on this piece at least a year ago. Since I haven't had a big block of time to work on it I've only done bits and pieces. I've left it on my design wall and have been studying what I need to do. The thing that is really bothering me now is the roots on the tree to the right. I have a close up photo of it posted below. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

The space to the left that is vacant is a very important part of the whole design. I have some of it finished but don't want to show it until I'm finished.

Mexican Quilt in progress

I am pleased with the water in this piece especially where it goes around and over the rocks. I really don't want to put any thread work or quilting in the water.

Mexican Quilt in progress

I'm having problems with the tree in the foreground. The roots are driving me crazy. I have come in with paints to make them rounded and extend up into the trunk. However, they look too small, maybe to many. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Mexican Quilt in progress

Shrubs in the foreground. I spent many hours cutting out small leaf shapes to make these shrubs. I used ultra Solvy over net and randomly sewed to make sure each leaf was secured.

Mexican Quilt in progress

Smaller rocks in the foreground. I'm fairly happy with these. No thread painting on them as of yet.

Mexican Quilt in progress

To make the pine boughs I used tulle or net and Ultra Solvy placed in a hoop. I stamped a pine bough on the Solvy and free motion thread painted following the lines. I used three colors of green YLI Variations thread to make the boughs. This thread works great for subtle changes in color.

The Everchanging River Exhibit

This section of the river was done by the group Focus. I didn't have these photographs last night when I posted my original posting on the river exhibit. Diana Pickens sent them to me this morning. I have Judy Rapelje to thank for the other photos.

If you have been reading my blog you will remember that our computer crashed and I lost everything. Not smart to back it up! I hope to continue getting more photos that will give a better idea of the continuence of the river exhibit. It will be on exhibit at NQA June 18-20. There is more information about this in the post below. I hope you enjoy.

The Everchanging River Exhibit

This section of the river was done by the Thread Heads. We decided when figuring the layout for the exhibit, to keep each group together. We then started the next groups river demensions to connect with the group before. This allows each group to show their section as a whole.

The Everchanging River Exhibit

Diane Pitchford, program director of NQA's 40th anniversary show in Columbus OH gave me the go ahead to post The Everchanging River exhibit on my blog. The exhibit will make it's debut on the quilt show circuit June 18-20 in Columbus.

I hope you enjoy.

The Everchanging River Exhibit

Opening night at The Arts Company in Seneca, SC show the owner Warren Carpenter talking to one of many visitors to the exhibit.

About a year and a half before the exhibit opened, in October of 2008 Warren asked me if I would curate an art quilt exhibit that would fill the room yet connect and undulate as it progressed. There was a window in one of the walls that he wanted to be considered part of the wall so there would be no interruption of the line. Considering the size of the four walls and the number of quilts it would take to fill them, I decided that I must work with groups that were already established. The Thread Heads of Seneca, SC. The Fringe Sisters of Columbia and Focus of The Upstate, of which I am a member, filled the bill. Bonnie Ouellette, Marge Edie and myself decided on a river as the continuing connection.

Fabric that resembled water was purchased and each member was given a fat quarter along with size limits, 18" wide and no longer than 14" to 23". They were also given the width of the river coming into their piece and the width of the river exiting there piece. They could place the river any where within the piece. There were no restrictions as to the content, it could be representational or abstract. I hope you will enjoy the show.

The Everchanging River Exhibit

In June of 2008 the three groups met to put all the quilts together for the first time. It was an exciting time for all of us. Little did we know when we first hung these that a year later they would be going on tour. For the quilt show vendors it was imperative that we prehang the quilts on a background so that they would be easier for the shows to hang them. These quilts undulate due to the river going in and out of the quilted piece at various points. This makes for a complicated hanging. TheThread Heads took on the job of hanging each quilt on an individual black background. This was no small feat. Marge Edie of Bargello fame, is also a mathematician. Without her many hours of thought and work this would have been a much more difficult job.