Nancy's Birthday

World famous art quilter and teacher, Nancy Crow, is in Auburn, NY, this week to teach her Lines, Circles, and Curves class at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center. Here, Schweinfurth Director, Donna Lamb (on the right), introduces Nancy (at the far left).




Today marks a birthday for Nancy, and a surprise reception was arranged by the folks from Schweinfurth. Class members for the upcoming week were in hiding, joined by some of us other alumnae of Nancy's previous classes, to surprise her after her afternoon visit to Aurora.








Donna's mother ends up with the party balloons. We don't know if she has grandchildren who will enjoy them or perhaps she likes balloons herself!















Barb Seils (on the right) and I carpooled to the party, and we both enjoyed seeing several people from our last class at Nancy's Timberframe Barn in Ohio. Karen Stabile (on the left) is from Long Island, and we'll see her again next Spring at the Barn, along with Liz, Priscilla, Elaine, and Linda.

Rehearsal Day

The Clothesline Art Festival at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester is a yearly event where artists are invited to display and sell their creative products. It has long been recognized as the premier show of its type in the area.


While the vendors at the Festival are usually individuals, the RAFA (Rochester Area Fiber Artists) group will be participating this year.



Ten artists from RAFA will be showing their work and will use two tents side-by-side for the weekend event.







The tents were set up in Pat Pauly's driveway and various configurations and display possibilities were considered. Here some alternatives are being discussed.










The pegboard option that Pat auditioned was voted out by the "gallery."

This view gives the perspective of "walk-by" customers. Marcia's most-recently quilted piece is hanging in the background.

Jacket Class - day 3

This very experienced group of jacket designers/sewers continued to make rapid progress as they neared completion of the task and were able to model their sucesses. Caris planned ahead and brought her black slacks to match her silk creation. We are all jealous of how she looks so young and fit!













Varda is an experienced fiber artist and completed her design construction with fancy stitching and fabric manipulation of all varieties. She has only a little finish work needed to step out in her new red jacket.















Nancy Hicks stopped by for a visit and modeled her completed jacket from an earlier Priscilla class. Beth, who also stopped in today for some sewing time, can be seen in the background getting Nancy's picture.

Priscilla's students have completed dozens of wearable art pieces of clothing as a result of these classes. She should be very proud!









The Clothesline Art Festival at the Memorial Art Gallery next weekend will feature a booth manned by RAFA members and offering their art quilts for sale. Vendors at the Festival were asked to decorate smocks, which will be displayed on the fence around the Festival. Marcia got some good ideas and suggestions from Beth and Priscilla and created this attention-getting design for her smock.

Jacket class - day 2

Donna has cut her hand-dyed linen into sections for placement on the parts of her jacket. Some will be on the front, back, and both sleeves. She is beginning to piece strips to complete the sections.





Varda has made real progress on her red jacket. We like the ruffled texture of the center shield on the jacket back. She's gotten some great ideas for this and the other textured fabrics she's making for her jacket from the book, "Manipulating Fabric."













Priscilla and Liz consult on some design possibilities. Priscilla wore a wonderful animal print shirt-jacket today, that we were hoping she'd remove and just happen to forget about and leave it behind --- didn't happen... :-(








Liz continues to add sections to her multi-colored creation. She is doing a wonderful job in balancing off the jacket pieces and blending many different fabrics.








Caris has put together her jacket from her fabulous silk fabrics. It already looks elegant, and she will have to find some fancy places and events to show it off!

Jacket Class - day 1

Varda models a jacket she made in Priscilla's recent Scrappy Jacket class. She liked it so much, she's back for another three days of jacket making and a new challenge. Many students in Priscilla's classes are "repeats" -- which speaks volumes to her inspiration and skills.













Some of the class members converse as the pieces of the new jackets go up on the design walls. Many years of garment construction are represented here and all are willing to share and advise. This group consultation is an important part of the process.





Jacket Guru Priscilla comments on the blue gingham "muslin pattern" jacket assembled by Caris. The wonderful shibori-dyed silk fabric made by Elin Nobel displayed on the wall will be the focus for Caris's jacket. It is truly exceptional in tone and texture!









Inspector Suki loves the visitors and all the subsequent attention. She doesn't shirk her duties as she checks out the pattern Donna is pinning to her flannel foundation. More of Elin Nobel's shibori fabric is on the right side of Donna's work area, and the silk on the left was hand dyed by Marcia Murphy.

Garden harvests

We prepared more stuffed peppers for dinner and for the freezer. The process makes for a long day in the kitchen and a few hours of hard work, but pays off with quick meals in the cold weather.



Some locally-grown Red Haven peaches add to the dinner table. Their pretty color is matched only by the sweet taste! We like peaches!!!










Some of our garden corn tops off the repast. We had a poor crop this year, but managed to find a few meal-sized portions -- but none for the freezer. We are not the first to notice and comment on the pleasures and satisfactions of an agrarian-based self-sustaining food planting, care, and harvest. Surely our forbearers, following the cycles of nature and weather, lived more simply than we with our complicated, interdependent modern lifestyle!

Quilting begins

It's time to finish up some tops that have been waiting for quilting.

The back of a pieced top is being trimmed of loose threads prior to quilting. The top is then ironed and will be ready for layering with batting and backing fabric.














The backing fabric has been selected and will be pieced to fit the top.












The top is squared up and ready to be basted prior to quilting.

Inspector Suki watches all from her padded chair and covered tent. Of all her spots for resting places throughout the house, this ranks near the top and is one of the first places to look for the answer to our daily (if not hourly) question -- Where is the cat?

Wednesday on the Farm

More peaches are ready for storage. The darker-colored jar in the left front row is suspicious. In the 30 minutes in the canning kettle, the lid may not have sealed. We may have to reprocess the offender or eat it right away. If the process was easy and foolproof, everyone would do it!!



Inspector Suki usually leaves this chair for human occupancy and prefers her own pillowed seat under a "tent." Maybe she needed a support for her head as she usurps this perch for her afternoon nap.










Marcia Murphy, our friend from Long Island, is a fabric dyer and surface design artist of considerable skill. This wonderful piece was a present from her, along with some of her other beautiful "scraps." It looks very much like the old-fashioned Kaleidoscope images we played with as kids!!

Monday on the Farm

The end of August and the first part of September mark harvest time. Marcia chops onions, and the newly picked, halved and cleaned peppers await being filled.









The peppers are being readied for the oven. Tomato sauce and grated cheese are added to the filled halves. We will freeze dinner portions of these entrees and will enjoy them all winter long!!






The evening was canning-peaches time. A warm water bath loosens the skin for peeling, and the jars are filled and capped. A 30-minute boiling in the canning kettle prepares the fruit for storage.









The completed product appears. We have a good quality crop this year (blemish and bruise free!), and the result is picture-perfect sealed jars. Yum! Yum!!

Sunday on the Farm

We begin the process of cleaning up prior to seeding the disturbed portion of the lawn as a result of installing a new water line to the horse barn. Long-time helper, Bill Elmer, instructs his son, Tyler, as we rake stones into piles. Bill looks on as we "break in" another generation to help with chores.







The vegetable crop begins to produce. We have almost no corn, but lots of peppers and beans, and an average crop of onions. The summer squash continues to grow, and the abundant rainfall has raised the yield.

We have sorted our peaches from Morgan Farms (two bushels plus two pecks). They are Red Havens that have pits that easily separate from the fruit and make good canning candidates. As you can see, we like peaches!














We had a visit from our friend, Monica, and her son, Justin. He is off to Clarkson this week as a freshman engineering student. Monica is a former student at the College in one of Marcia's programs and has worked for both of us at different times in her employment career. We consider her a daughter and maintain a loving, long-time friendship. She currently works as a computer resource person at both the Marcus Whitman and Canandaigua school systems. We always enjoy her visits!

Sewing Day - Beth & Pat

Bill dropped by for "show & tell", and Beth showed us the progress she has made on the butterfly vest she started in the last jacket class.














Beth showed us a large piece of Merrimeko fabric that she bought at an antique store several years ago. It's dated 1971 and the repeat on the pattern is at least 54 inches. Some of the piece is most likely destined to be in a jacket.














Pat has her jacket mostly done and got a little fitting help from Priscilla.










Priscilla helped place shoulder pads in Pat's jacket, which always help give the jackets a nice drape.

Suki decided she needed to be nearby, even though nothing captured her attention enough to keep her from dozing off.