Flower Pots

I wish I had taken a "before" picture of our freshly filled  planters on and near the deck that looked so pretty.... !

This is the "morning after" scene.  Every planter had been dug into and many of the flowers were outside of their pots.

I think the culprit was a raccoon, and have since learned that raccoons may be drawn to the smell of  oyster shells in potting soil.


I'm replanting and  trying smelly dryer sheets wrapped around the inside of the pots --- We'll see....

Shirley's quilt

Our friend, Shirley, is home from spending the winter season in Florida and stopped by.

This lovely quilt is one she completed while she was away.

Tulips

Thanks for these tulips go to my friend from high school, Joan, who shares my Dutch heritage.  Our relatives immigrated from the same area of Holland.

She received some special bulbs from Hollarnd and gave me some of them for my front yard.

I enjoyed watching them develop and will look forward to them coming up again next season.

Visiting Deer

We regularly see several deer passing through the pasture near our house, usually in groups of at least 3 or 4 and usually near dusk.

This gal was by herself, though, and took her time exploring  the whole pasture.

She came close enough to the fence that I wondered if she was watching me watching her!

Stampede

A visit from Priscilla wouldn't seem complete unless we made time for a visit to the Longhorn Steakhouse. 

And, of course, the real reason for our visit isn't to have dinner, but to make sure we have their wonderful Chocolate Stampede -- delicious!

Peeps and Divas

The combined group of the Quilt Divas and Art Quilt People had their regular meeting at the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn.

One of the highlights of the meetings is the sharing of work done by the members.

Bev shared the two pieces on the wall.








Pat talked about her two pieces to the left of Bev's quilt.











These two quilts were done by Anne G.











Regina showed us these pieces that she developed using fabrics she made in Pat's Surface Design class.

Peeps Meeting

The Art Quilt People gathered for their regular monthly meeting.













Pat showed us her first test of working with some heavy canvas fabric that she soda soaked and screen printed with thickened dyes.

















Linda was traveling back to Ohio after the meeting, and Cosmo was patiently waiting for her in his bed.




















Linda developed this piece from a class she took from Joe Cunningham.


















Carol with a piece she made with surface design techniques.
















Prsicilla is visiting for a few days and joined us for the meeting.

We're looking at this wonderful quilt Jeanne is finishing for a wedding present.

GVQC meeting

Priscilla and I attended the monthly meeting of the Genesee Valley Quilt Club.  Prior to the business meeting there's time to catch up with people we haven't seen in a long time.













Priscilla has offered several jacket-making classes for the Club in the past, and Jessie came by our table to show us the jacket she made in one of the classes.
















The Club has a very active Comfort Quilt project, with volunteers making quilts for donation to area hospitals and similar organizations.  At each meeting we get to see all the quilts completed during the month.

The quilt hanging in the background was made as a thank you gift to this year's outgoing president.











This is the Meeting Day quilt for this month, made and donated by Terry Noonan.  Terry chose to have the funds generated by the quilt given to the Comfort Quilt Project.

Jane's Herb Farm

One of the area's foremost experts on herbs and perennial flowers is Jane Kuitems. 

Here is one of her greenhouses where she grows her wonderful collections.











After many years of production, she has cut back to a two-day sale to the public, while still maintaining her own garden displays.











Her sale tables include only material she grows herself, and she has a long-standing  cadre of faithful customers -- which includes us!












We laugh that our visit usually concurs with rain showers, but her artistry and grounds are well worth the inconvenience of a few raindrops.  We look forward to our yearly visit!

Artist as Quiltmaker

 

The AQM exhibition opens tomorrow, and I'm honored that my Doormats #2 quilt is included this year.  Click on "2016 Gallery" below to see some of the other quilts in the exhibit.

 

 

 

 

 

Doormats #2  (50h X 73w)

 



 



2016 GALLERY        QUILT BOMBING        HISTORY        CONTACT AQM

Artist as Quiltmaker XVII // May 15 - July 31, 2016
FAVA's 17th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Quilts
FAVA's Main Gallery in the New Union Center for the Arts
39. S. Main Street, Oberlin Ohio
Free and Open to the Public

The Artist as Quiltmaker is the second-longest-running  art quilt exhibition in the world. This year's exhibition will feature the work of 32 artists from across North America, selected from a pool of over 300 entries.

FAVA deliberately chooses not to define “quilt,” thereby encouraging both established and emerging artists to submit innovative artwork, pushing boundaries and challenging expectations, whether they use traditional or non-traditional techniques or materials. Juror Mark Newport’s selection process was based on his belief that an artist should share their distinctive experiences with the viewer by combining materials, format, and content in a visually compelling fashion.

​Three groups of work were apparent to Newport: those most directly related to the history and traditions of quilting; others using the process of quilting – the layering and piecing - as a way to explore their ideas; and pieces that reflected the maker’s strong relationship to technology. Based on the entries received it was clear to Newport, “that artists working with quilt processes and exploring the quilt form are making dynamic and engaging work with many possibilities for future studio explorations.” Newport has selected a cohesive, compelling exhibition that clearly reflects the roots and traditions of quilt-making while harnessing new technologies in unexpected ways.
 

This year, we are delighted to show the works of first-time and previous AQM exhibitors

Welcoming New Artists: Joanne Alberda  (Sioux City, IA)  Andrea Alonge    (Pontiac, MI) Nancy Bardach   (Berkeley, CA) Jessica Blaustein (New York,NY) Jan Brandt   (Bloomington, IL) Anna Chupa  (Allentown, PA) Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill  (Woodbridge, CT) Vicki Conley (Ruidoso Downs, NM) Marcia DeCamp  (Palmyra, NY)  Kim Eichler-Messmer  (Kansas City, MO) Diane Franklin  (Jamaica Plain, MA) Helen Geglio  (South Bend, IN) Ann Harwell  (Wendell, NC) Angela Heath  (Charlotte, NC) Aryana B. Londir  (Phoenix, AZ) Linda McLaughlin  (Weiser, ID) Diane Melms  (Anchorage, AK) Shea Wilkinson  (Omaha, NE)

       Celebrating Returning Artists​:         Jill Ault   (Ann Arbor, MI)        Polly Bech   (Swarthmore, PA)        Elizabeth Brandt  (Holland, MI)        Eliza Brewster  (Honesdale, PA)        Bonnie Bucknam  (Vancouver, WA)        Shin-hee Chin  (McPherson, KS)        Susan Krueger  (Bowling Green, OH)        Liz Kuny  (Morristown, NJ)        Valerie Maser-Flanagan  (Carlisle, MA)        Kathy Nida  (El Cajon, CA)        Judith Plotner  (Gloversville, NY)        Ruan Robertson  (Bethesda, MD)        Maya Schonenberger (Miami, FL)        Marian Zielinski  (Macon, GA)

Special Exhibit

  Whirlpool   (70h X 73w)


I'm very pleased that my Whirlpool quilt has been selected for inclusion in the special exhibit "Hands All Around 2016 International Quilts." 

The exhibit will be part of the International Quilt Festival in Houston this fall and then will travel on to other International Quilt Festivals in 2017.

New Legacies

Mares' Tails
   (57h X 82w)














Seaweed
   (38h X 36w)


These two quilts were both juried into the 34th Annual New Legacies Contemporary Art Quilts  exhibition at the Fort Collins Lincoln Center (Fort Collins, CO).

The exhibition will open on July 8 and run through September 3, 2016.

Spring flowers

Although we had a mild winter, it is always a pleasure to see the early spring displays of color.  Here the serviceberry tree has its moment of glory.  Our new row of pines along the west side of the house serves as a nice frame.
















The nicely aged fence line on the east side of the house shows off the yellow tulips and daffodils.  Again, another row of new pines serves as a contrast background. 















Our tulips in the back of the house have been thinned out by the deer and the burrowing critters who pull up the bulbs.











Another sparse grouping around a second tree -- time for some replanting!  Our resident cats don't help as they hop the fence to use both of these spots as a convenient bathroom....













Two more of our flower beds struggle to present their spring show.  The tulips are eaten off to ground level, but daffodils and grape hyacinths apparently don't taste good for deer treats -- thankfully!