QAQ

The Schweinfurth Art Center is hosting its 35th annual Quilts=Art=Quilts exhibit now through January 3, 2016, in Auburn, NY.  Over 70 art quilts are on display.












Betsy Lewis went with me to see the exhibit, and we joined  the audience waiting for the trunk show by Judy Kirpich, one of the exhibiting artists.












Judy brought several of her wonderful quilts and did a terrific job of explaining her inspirations and her process.

Her quilts are totally pieced; nothing is fused or appliqued.

Judy is recently retired and is building a large studio for her work.








Here is Judy with some of my favorite pieces.  The quilt in the lower left was in Quilt National.

Generator

We have upgraded our stand-by generator power source.  Our vendor took advantage of our wonderful fall weather  to deliver the new unit for installation.













Our primary supplier, NYSEG, had to be called in to temporarily disconnect the power, which meant they  had to work at the top of the pole.

















The new unit is connected to our metered pole to deliver power by underground cable.















The new machine is a "full-house" model.  It replaces the partial coverage we had before, and now the studio is covered too.  The gas tanks in the background provide a source of fuel when called upon.   We consider this backup to be a good "insurance policy."

Big Project

We have several overgrown areas around our property.  Our new landscaper, Jason, is willing and able to tackle any project, and we have made some real progress.

Here he is cutting down a clump of 20-year-old growth.











We hook a chain to the old reliable Ford tractor.  The trees are covered with heavy vine growth, featuring the clinging wild grape with long tentacles of rope-like strands -- thick and impossible to untangle.












The bucket lifts the whole mess and makes removal possible.













We have a large burn pile on the edge of one of the pastures, and Bill and Jason discuss how material should best be stacked.  The tractor does the job easily and effectively.









Some of the trees we removed were of good size.  I think these stumps have potential for a good composition.

Sodus Point

A very brisk, cold and windy day did not keep us away from visiting Sodus Point. 

I hadn't been there in years, and it was a treat to see it even in the cold.







When we were in elementary school, we could take the school bus for two weeks in the summer to take Red Cross swimming lessons here.











Here are a couple of pictures of the bay.

Cracker Box Palace

Priscilla and I went to visit the Cracker Box Palace in Alton, NY.  I had several new and used items to take for the horses, along with about 4 bushels of apples from our garden.

Cracker Box is a non-profit farm haven where all kinds of farm animals come to recover from illness, neglect or abuse.



In addition to the at least 40 horses that we saw, there are geese, ducks, chickens, rabbits, goats, sheep, pigs, etc.  Many of the animals are eligible for adoption.


The farm has a view overlooking Sodus Bay.

In addition to donations, they raise money for the animals by sponsoring several events during the year. 

Check out their site at www.CrackerBoxPalace.org.

A trip to Penn Yan

 
 









Priscilla and I went to Penn Yan to have her sewing machine repaired, and we did a little shopping on the way back. 

We saw lots of horse-drawn buggies, but this was the only open cart.  It was driven by three ladies who were shopping at the Golden Threads store.





The best "find" of our shopping came from the Edgewood Country Store -- John Deere buttons that have sent to our nephew Dylan for his cardigan sweater.

Peeps Meeting

Our regular October meeting of the Art Quilt People included a visit from Priscilla, who is now a member of the Quilt Divas in Ithaca.

Mary and Bev also took the workshop with Joe Cunningham, and these are the quilts they made.

















Jeanne's quilt was chosen for the cover of the program for the Quilts Unlimited show at The View in Old Forge.  Bev's two quilts in the show won 1st and 2nd place in the art quilt category.

Kitty Update

Our feral cat, Millie, has lots of special hiding places, including in the flower beds.  She likes to peek out from behind cover. 

She lets Marcia hold her and snuggles and purrs....  Just don't make any move toward carrying her indoors or she jumps down in a hurry!









Our other wanderer also likes it here.  Boots likes to roll in the sun.  Our vet calls him the "neighborhood" cat, but he never misses two or three meals a day on our deck.









Our ten-year-old resident kitty periodically decides she wants to play with her stuffed animals and searches for just the right one.












She leaves them at various spots around the house, and then won't touch them for weeks.  Although we have tried, there has been no success in teaching her to return them to the basket!

Garden Views

We continue to feature our canna lilies as a wonderful part of our floral display.  This view is from mid-August.

They are a lot of work to harvest them in the fall, keep the tubers over the winter, and then plant in the spring.  But they flower for a long time. 










Midsummer brings full growth in the perennial garden.  The grass garden is in the background, fronting the aborvitae of the maze garden. 

Some morning glories and clematis sneak in on the right edge of the picture.
















The late summer view of the pergola -- a nice shady spot to sit and enjoy.
















By the end of September the view of the pergola shows the autumn clematis providing a wonderful mantle.










The canna lilies hold on in the fall until a killing frost.  Then we cut the plants to the ground and dig up the tubers.  We share many of them with friends in the spring.

Class with Joe Cunningham

 

 

 

 

 

We had a fun class with Joe Cunningham, complete with his serenading us while we worked.

 

This is my friend, Betsy Alderman Lewis, who joined us for the class.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The class was held at the Baptist church, which has a great space for workshops, with lots of room to spread out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The class was "Rock Around the Block, Album Style," and these are some of the blocks I made.



Priscilla has several blocks done and is deciding whether to make more.

















Betsy has her piece all together.


















And Joe is holding up a piece completed by another student.

GVQC meeting

The Genesee Valley Quilt Club had its first meeting of the year.  The Club usually has between 300 and 400 members on its roster, and there were about 200 members at the meeting.











After "Show & Tell", where members display on stage and talk about the quilts they have completed, the quilts are laid out on tables around the room so that everyone can get a closer look.










The guest speaker was art quilter, Joe Cunningham.  (www.JoeTheQuilter.com)

After serenading us with his guitar, he showed us several of his wonderful quilts.  He has used bias tape on several of them.