wow, Wow and WOW!

What a fantastic quilt artist! My good friend Trudy has a friend that was having a gallery showing in Brandon, Vt and thought I would be interested in seeing her works. She was right. Friday was a girl friend road trip day to visit this exhibit and a couple others showing her work, besides stopping by her studio as well as more stops along the way, wherever we wanted or were drawn to. What a great Day and the artist, JUDITH REILLY is absolutely fantastic. What a talented quilter, artist besides a very gracious lady.

Another like minded friend, Sue along with Trudy and moi left early Friday morning packed with our picnic lunches, enthusiasm, and with the sole intent of visiting Judith Reilly's exhibits. OF course a road trip also includes little stops along the way. The first stop was at Knits and Bolts. I stumbled upon a sale of Accuquilt Go! dies at 40% off. YIKES! They are never on sale and though they didn't have the particular dies I really, really want, I was able to increase my assortment of dies with that discounted price. WHat a nice surprise, I am feeling very contented at this point.

The dies I would like to get next are the Funky Flower, Tulip, stems and leaves, Rob Peter to Pay Paul, and Winding Ways. It will be after I finish my quilts for the guild's show that my intention is to play with my Accuquilt Go! and cut the rag squares for a quilt in my UFO pile. I really need to get some "hands on" time and play with my toy. I can see how this purchase will help out and speed up my creativity. With the back issues, many times cutting is a difficulty for me and this will be a huge help and hopefully keep pain in check besides the speed up the time when cutting up my scraps for humpjumping.

Of course both Trudy and Sue found a bit to bring home with them as well, even though neither are into the Accuquilt Go! yet. Our next stop was in Brandon Vt. We found a museum/visitor center with a picnic area on the lawn, so we took a nice lunch break and stretched out our legs, found out about the area and where all these exhibits were happening.

Continuing along our journey, Judith Reilly's studio was next and she was there. Heaven! Her works of art are so detail specific with just a touch of whimsey that I loved each piece. Each one seen I loved and yet the next viewed I loved just a tad more than the previous one. Absolutely stunning works of art. So for your viewing pleasure peeps, I present to you just a few of her pieces.





Judith was so gracious to us and gave us a private tour of her studio (where the magic happens). She answered every question we asked and even gave us a glimspe of the steps she does to create her works. WOW! How diverse and talented. She frames her own pieces too, amazing!



This is Judith with a little friend she made. Can you say Multi-talented! The next snapshots are of the piece of fabric she played on while we were there and a little something I purchased.



It was going back into her gallery and gift shop that I honored my "non-smoking anniversary" gift to myself with yet again with an original art work piece. I call it "Amongst Friends" but I need to write to her and see what title she has for the piece. Thank you Judith. I left her studio feeling so thankful and glad and inspired to try out some of her steps.

Our journey continued and we visited two additional galleries. The Brandon Artist Guild where many talented artists had samples of their passions. Besides Judith's work there I also found a silver artist that made the most original pieces of jewelry, Meg something (I'll have to find her business card and insert her last name later). She might be able to give a class on her technique sometime in the future, so Trudy and I both left her our names and contact info. Hopefully, we will be able to learn her steps. Of course being a gallery, photo's were not allowed, so I can't share the wonderful sights seen there.

Next up was the Gallery in the Field just north of Brandon. Yet again more gorgeous works of art. The space was amazing and the artwork displayed beautiful. Some of Judith Reilly's older pieces were visible there besides the newer ones and the development of her art was evident.




All in all, it was a fantabulous day. Thank you Trudy and Sue for sharing your day with me. This journey of ours made for a long day, but one I will cherish and remember fondly.



While traveling back home, a peculiar sight we encountered along the way just near Ferrisburg, Vt. Ollie the camel bearing witness to our journey.




Thank You Judith for all your inspiration. And as she would say, Follow your instincts and enjoy your journey or "Whatever blows your hair back".

Jane

Update, new challenge,

After my Mom visiting I realized that perhaps I could list parts of my projects and try to complete them in stages by imposing my own fab four every Friday. I had seen this idea before out in blog land and I don't know whose it was but it may help me in my creative endeavors. So last week I wrote out 4 projects I wanted done or specific steps on certain projects completed by this Friday.

To date I have 2 off my list. The first is one of the Ott light bags that Mom and I started on the last day she was here. I had found a pattern on the web at:

cqmagonline.com/vol03iss04/articles/368/index.shtml

I used it as a reference but drew up a pattern and thought it through several times. I ended up cutting a large rectangle and then cut out the top center area leaving two rectangles attached towards the outside portion. Oh no, take that back, that was the first prototype thought through.

I actually had a large rectangle and then cut out two rectangles off each top outside section.
Serged around the whole perimeter.
Sewed the one seam from the top of the bag to the bottom and then I top stitched both sides of that seam for a little detail. That part was a bit fussy but to me it was worth the effort of squeezing the bag cylinder under my Number 10 foot a bit at a time.
Sewed the bottom seam, then sewed the gussets into the the bottom corners.
Made a 1-1/4" single fold binding and sewed that on the inside of the bag, then after flipping the binding over the raw edge, top stitched that by machine to the outside.
Made a handle and then attached it to the back, just behind the flip over top. Sewed them in place.
Velcro fastenings for the closure with the top one covered with a complimentary button and VOILA!



An Ott Light Bag that helped me bust 1/2 yard of prequilted fabric and cross one of my FFF (Fab Four Friday's) off my list.

Another step to Miss Shabby Chic's Bird BOM was stitched, another FFF met.



This last snap is of an apron I completed a couple of months ago, but never wrote about it here. I fell in love with this fabric while shopping at Yankee Pride Quilt Shop in Essex Junction, Vt just before the VQF show and thought it would be nice to update my apron. Quite of a few of my aprons get so stained that I hope to keep this one tidier. I really love this one.


That's it for now. I hope to be back perhaps Satuday night and share the other 2 FFF I wish to have completed by this Friday, even though when I scheduled these I didn't know I be running into town more often! My schedule is a bit heavy. Despite DH finishing his cardiac rehab last Friday he now has injured his back and it's daily trips to town to keep his appointmkents for that. AS Rosanna Roseanna Danna used to say "If it's not one thing, it's another". Oh well, I continue to count my (our) blessings.

Jane

Good Morning

As previouosly mentioned on another post, I finished Cheryl's nephew's quilt and snapped a shot but never gave you a glimpse at the finished top. Here it is.



That's all of the quilt I could get from laying it on our bed, grrr! the effort of living in a samll home! Another friend, Carole is doing the machine quilting on her gammill named Penelope. I do promise to show you a better shot of it after I bind it when it comes back, so that is one more project hanging o'er my lil' head.

I've been remiss in my blogging lately, so I offer you my apologies. No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth, just have been real busy. My Mom was up north visiting for 6 weeks as you know and I brought her to the airport last week. That woman can really get so much done. She accomplishes so much and I have always marveled at her time schedulings and things she completes. She has lists of what she wants done by whichever dates and meets those self inflicted deadlines consistently. This last visit I had as Oprah would say an ah ha! moment. She is a task quilter while I on the other hand am a process quilter. Her satisfaction is when she completes a task. It drives her to continue to the next step. Now me, I'm liking the process so I'll putter away on the project and love my time spent while doing it, not hurriedly get through it just to get to the next stage of the project.
With the grandkids here and chaffeuring DH since his medical problem, I would get the next fabics cut for a couple of projects we worked on together before heading out the door. Between feeding the grandkids, getting myself ready for a trip to town 3 days a week, plus all the erands and business to-dos while there and then meals, besides measuring and cutting fabric for Mom to have something for her to do while we were gone, are you getting the picture. It's a wonder I kept my "calm" sanity and didn't start barking orders like a mad woman to get my list of to dos done!
Anyhow, all the projects she brought North with her were completed so we looked at some baby quilt "kits" I had in and thought we could finish a couple baby tops before she had to leave. We worked on those together. She did all the pinwheel piecing and assembled the centered parts. I did the measuring, cutting, fudging how to come up with more panel fabric and only some border assembling. The result. FOUR BABY quilt tops made!

So Peeps - for your viewing pleasure the tops that I actually found time and backings for, that I layered yesterday while DH was at rehab. I'll let you in on a little secret I did. Shhhh! In one of the medical buildings close to DH's rehab, the hospital has 2 conference rooms with tables already set up. I know this because we used one during rehab. for a stress management class AND because any time it rained and I didn't walk the city streets I used the stairs and walked hallways so I saw how often thsoe rooms were empty. Another ah ha moment, bring in the pressed tops, batting and backing and spray baste my quilts there instead of my usual moving furniture, laying them out on the living room floor and doing it on my knees.
A VOILA!





Four quilts basted! Would you believe I had 2 of the same baby kits and I purchased a couple of yards of complimentary fabric for them at the time ( I was thinking of backing) and all 4 of these quilts were made out of that. We made them even larger than the pattern thanks to some stash diving and getting other complementary fabric to make the first borders for all of them. AND I still ahve enough fabric to make one more baby quilt, albeit it will have to be a different pattern, time will tell. I'll tackle that AFTER I get these quilted, finish the UFO's I wanted to work on but slid to the side to enjoy time with Mom and of course besides finish two quilts I entered into our guild quilt show coming up in October. The patience corners and my C.O.C. (Cadyville Orange Crush). Eeeeks! I just threw myself into a panic, best get my butt moving.

Ta Ta For Now,
Jane

Going, going, going along smoothly...

My schedule is still rather busy and the days are just flying by. Actually got out to do some yard work with DH this am since cardiac rehab doesn't happen on Tuesdays, Mom is visiting a sister in Vt and the grand kids are now at day care. Felt so nice to work several hours without any interruptions, just the times needed to take a break with our health issues. We actually transplanted rhubarb and created a newer bed near the grape arbor.



The technique to make this raised bed was done by the mode I learned last year on the garden tour. A gentleman with an absolutely gorgeous raised bed gardens told me how he did his so we are trying that this year. His method was to cut the sod in a 10x10 area on three sides and then flip it onto the tops on the neighboring sod. It allows an edge around the garden perimeter while elevating the interior of the garden. He said that by flipping the sod it kills the grass especially when mulched. We did leave one rhubarb plant alone since it is rather hot for transplanting. For the rest, we actually cut off the rhubarb vegetation and nested the split roots into a manure compost before burying them with thick layers of newspapers and finally topping them off with mulch. I hope this works, time will tell.



The island garden where the rhubarb was, had overgrown badly with weeds, so I suggested we cut it down and then start working the soil. While in the middle of doing this, I thought, why bother having this garden here at all. We could have the perennials planted as edge type along the property boundary. So we plan to move the rest of the perennials in the spring, when we have more raised beds ready. It will be so much better than these smack dab in the middle of the backyard. As for the camper, instead of storing it near the back boundary of the woods, we could park it behind the garage, away from the eye sight line while on the decks,m but readily available and much handier behind the garage.

Last week while Mom and I had a few hours we managed to make these small purses. Guess what the fabric is?

They are Dish towel Bags. What cute towels. Mom brought these towels up with her from Florida thinking that it would be a fun and quick project and she was right. It took more time thinking about how to make them than it did actually making them. There is an outside pocket that has a separating seam down the center and the inside of mine, I also placed a pocket along one side, that's the aqua one. Mom place a smaller pocket inside her cahrtreuse one too.

Here are a couple of snaps of my current focuses:

Shabby Chic's BOM and I finally got the January block embroidered!

The quilt I am making for Cheryl's nephew Chris.


We did have a couple of family BBQs this past weekend. DH and our son stoked up the smoker grill and we dined on turkey, pork butt, bratwurst, kielbasa and even a few Chicken breasts. We didn't actually have all of that at one dinner, just smoked them all at once while it was smoking. Makes meals easy this week with everything all cooked, I just needed to throw some salads together. What a breeze!
While the smoker was cooling down, the grand kids decided to have a little race, even the fourteen year old had fun. Of course I was still in the kitchen picking and washing up, so they called me outside to have a chuckle too!





The 14 year old (PGS#3) actually was riding the hot Diego hot wheels too! Kids! Gotta love em!

Jane

Like it:

“Getting started, keeping going, getting started again—in art and in life, it seems to me this is the essential rhythm.”

— Seamus Heaney

Great source for counted cross stitch questions is here.

Enjoyed the 4th!

We got back home in time to celebrate the 4th at home. It is always nice to get away but even nicer to get back home. On this trip we went to Rhode Island for my brother's wedding.



What a beautiful ceremony and his bride is a sweetheart. I wish both of them many years together with health, happiness and love. The next snapshot is a picture of all of my siblings (including myself) with Mom and the newly married couple. It was grand that all of us could make it. Some traveled with spouses, some without due to other commitments elsewhere so it was nice to see all of us together for the occasion.



Before the actual wedding ceremony we spent a day sight seeing Newport, RI. The Newport Tower is an architectural structure that I have heard about on different historical documentaries and have always wanted to visit. There are mysterious conjectures of why and who built it which still remains today. Here is a link to an article about the tower with another link here which jump starts you onto more links and pages of information about this structure should you wish to learn more. Here is an additional link discussing the Kensington Runestone and it's coorelation with the Tower in Newport, RI and this stone was found in Minnesota! Common information regarding this runestone is that in 1898 the Kensington Runestone was found on the farm of Olaf Ohman, near Alexandria, Mn. Initially thought to be a hoax planted by Olaf who lived with critisism throughout his life, even being thought of as a hoaxster who falsified and carved the stone himself.
The Kensington Runestone carvings allegedly tell of a journey of a band of Vikings who arrived in the area in 1362. The debate about the Runestone's authenticity continues to this day. Alexandria chooses to claim its historical truth and therefore proves that the Alexandria, Mn area was "discovered" long before Christopher Columbus arrived 130 years after that.





Would you believe they have dogwoods here and the most blue hydrangeas I've ever seen. Luckily, my Mom was able to visit these sights with us. She is amazing especially for her age (shhh..78)!



And then here is my honey acting a bit silly. Imagine him doing this and he with an Indian heritage! LOL



Other highlights of Newport were some of the Newport Mansions. Amazing! I did get a chance to see "The Breakers" finally. This mansion was a summer home for Cornelius Vanderbilt. Of Course there was NO Photography allowed within the structure, but I was able to capture a photo of the ceiting of the lanauii(sp?!) aka the second level porch.
The mosiac tile inlaid into all the surfaces there were very detailed as you can see from this ceiling snap.
Inside the mansion was so grand: Cherubs, dolphins, acorns (a family icon), gold leaf, platinum leafing with the greek muses engraved for panels within a wall decor, the library, music room, gaming room, grand sweeping staircases all from decades gone by with the lifestyle that has as well. I really can't imagine living in that period. What a structured lifestyle and I didn't see Mrs. Vanderbilt's sewing studio anywhere!

Two other mansions we visited were Kingscote and the topiary gardens.


While visiting the gardens I inquired what the state flower was since throughout the state, BLUE Hydrangeas were in there blazing glory and evident all iover the place. The "dog earred violet" is the state flower according to the gardeners there. Here are just a few of the photos taken at the topiary Garden sight.






It was so hot that we sought shelter from the sun in some gorgeous Huge shade trees that could grow in our zone but we have never seen before.

They were the Weeping Beech, The Cooper Beech and also the London Planetree. All of them were so large that the trunks' diameters had to be at least 15 feet (guestimation) probably larger. The actual shade they offered seemed to stretch at least 25 yards and they did help ease the heats' effects.

We left early the next morning to have lunch at the ocean Ray's Seafood in Rye, NH and to visit two statues of Hannah Emerson Dustin, an ancester within my husband's blood line.
This first one is located in Haverhill, Mass. was was erected in 1879 soon after the NH statue was done.


The second one is located in Penacook, NH.


It is an interesting story of one colonial woman, to paraphrase seacoastnh.com written by link free or die "The ordeal of Hannah Dustin (also Duston) is among the most horrific in New England colonial history. According to an early account by Cotton Mather, Dustin was captured on March 15, 1697 by a group of about 20 Indians and pulled from her bed" just 6 days "after giving birth to her eighth child", Martha. "Her husband managed to get the others to safety. The infant was killed when a member of the raiding party smashed her against a tree. Hannah Dustin, her nurse, Mary Neff and small group of hostages were marched about 60 miles from her home in Haverhill, MA to an island in the Merrimack River near Concord. Enlisting the help of others, including her nurse and a 14 year old English boy, Samuel Lennardeenwho also was previously captured. The group amazingly managed to kill 10 of their captors." Dustin sold the scalps to the local province for 50 pounds in reparation" and as proof of her ordeal.
A monument to Dustin can be seen in Haverhill as well as the site of her escape with companions Mary Neff and Samuel Lennardeen can be seen in Boscowen, NH. The Hannah Dustin Trail in Pennacook leads to another monument on the island on the Contoocook River.
Years ago, a second or third cousin of DH's sent us an article about Hannah Dustin and mentioned that she was the first woman in United States history to have a statue erected in her honor. I'll have to further investigate this to verify it, but at the time, she had sent a newspaper article to us that stated that truth, I jsut don't know the source of it now. If you want to learn more of course here is a wikipedia link about Hannah and you could always google it.
I think I just found one reference, it says "177 years passed. By 1874 New Hampshire had become part of the U.S., and Hannah had become an object of civic pride -- the "Granite State Heroine." It may seem strange, but of all of the women who had ever lived in America, Hannah the Indian killer was the first to get a statue." Taken from here.

One thing of interest is that while we visited the first statue in Haverhill, Mass, while trying to find out which direction the statue was on Main Street, I asked several people including a manager of a drug store of where it could be found. No one knew. It was a shopper at the later location that said "oh yea! it's just 2 blocks in that direction."
So with that info, we went to the park that held the statue and I noticed 3 people looking at the statue and taking photos. Interestly enough, 2 of them were from California that were visiting the area and the man was related to Hannah Dustin by a great, great grandmother's aunt or something along that line. To travel that far to see it and the locals that I talked with had no knowledge of ...humm......makes you wonder.


Lastly, I did get to shop at Bush Mountain Stitchery in Ware, Mass as we went to Rhode Island. Deborah, a friend in cyber space very kindly sent me info. on where I could find them and another shop called Chris's, which I wasn't able to get to this time.
This last photo is of the items I purchased at Bush's Mountain Stitchery. Stash acquisitions were done with the Tree of Stitches SAL in mind. I didn't deviate too much in the shopping and could have gone absolutely crazy, but I am really trying to exhibit some self control. I also received a Just Cross Stitch magazine that I won from Deb's giveaway. Thanks Deborah! I really appreciate it besides the information.

TTFN,
Jane

Just a glimpse

I am still being busy around here. Mom is visiting from Florida and for the most part is staying here with us for the 6 weeks she'll be North. She has a couple of short trips away to visit with some of my siblings and their families. When she devised her plans initially, she had planned on staying here 4-5 days, moving to a brothers' home for 3 days, traveling to my sisters' home in Vt. for a couple of days, back here for several days, then to another different sister's place before traveling to my Brother's place in RI, you get the jist, her packing up and moving every few days to get to all the graduations, partys, weddings and goings on of the family.
Since she is 78 now and will be 79 this year, I told her "Mom you will exhaust yourself by doing this and wear your self out. Please plan on just staying here and when you need to get to another place, that's fine but plan on staying overnight here instead of spreading yourself so thin." (I have 6 brothers and sisters and she didn't want to slight anybody or play any favorites!) Thankfully she listened and is using our camper as her home base while she is North. A brother had an extra vehicle that no one was using, so he lent it to her so she won't have to rely on me to get her around to meet up with friends and any other activities she wants to do. I am babysitting our grandchildren besides while my daughter's day care provider is on vacation, so with the 2 and 5 year old here most days, and with Mom being in the camper, at least she has a quiet place to retreat to when the little ones get too noisy. Sometimes I think I may run there myself! lol

Check out the oilcloth bags we both made this past week.




Mine is the brown/blue one and she made the orange/green one. This bag is the perfect size and I am so glad we stopped by Patti's Quilt Shop in Glens Falls, NY on our way home after Uncle Don's Memorial service in Ballston Lake last Monday. We spotted these kits and thought it would be fun to whip up something together. So we were able to fit it in to my schedule on Thurday (remember DH's rehab, I'm the driver and the grandchildren being here, traveling, etc.., it really eats up my days.)

There has been so much going on that I promise to catch you all up at some point. The youngest GD had her dance recital on the first weekend in June. She is such a sweet heart and a wonderful child, it's a blessing she is so smart as well as talented. Our family is truly blessed and I hope modesty is one of my blessings. I know I am a proud grandmother, and know many other grandmothers who are similiar with visons of their offsprings, so I apologise up front about how these two make me feel, my heart fills with pride and I thank the Lord for them!


She had her hair styled just perfectly.




I leave with a few photos of her and her brother of that special night. I promise, I will be back soon to fill you in more with all that has happened.
Check out PGS#3 in these photos. What a cutie pie and can I say he is "FULL of IT"! I am stunned that he has a great personality so far and an amazing sense of humor and he's just 2 1/2 years old. As for real life accomplishments he recently gave up his pacifier (going into 2 full weeks shortly) and we are working diligently on the potty training (that still has a way to go but he is understanding the concept and being a bit better about trying more in the past weeks).



Thanks so much for stopping by. I enjoy your visits and appreciate all the lovely comments. Enjoy your days.

Jane

Longest Day of the year!

With the Summer solstice being today, I am grateful and so happy to let you know that our strawberry and vegetable gardens are done and IN! Phew!

With all the rain we had, most of our outside work was put on hold. Knowing that we needed to have dirt delivered by a small tandem dump truck for the raised bed and the strawberry garden, we had to wait for the earth to dry out a bit for the delivery so the truck wouldn't sink out of sight. When that happened we purchased 4 cubic yards of dirt, built the beds and then started filling them in. Check it out.


I remember when we were younger and in better health, these chores would have been done lickity split! But between DH's heart condition and my back and asthma, it takes us much longer. Oh well, the golden years.



I still think that the cross bar on the poles halfway up (they are for the irrigation-drip watering system we installed which I'll show more later) is off but DH put a level on it and says it's spot on. Must be the raised bed that is really off, but DH with the help of our son put that up. DH and I haukled in soil to fill it, something I surely shouldn't have done since with my back issues, I was laid up 2 days after doing it. We still need to trim the ends of that cross piece as well but I figure that can wait till all the living chores are planted and done and then we can come back and finish those little details.


The Strawberry garden is coming along nicely.


Check out this photo with how many berries are on just one plant and this was made within this past month amidst all the rain.


Of Course there are many other areas of the yard that we have been working at and more work is still needed. To the right of the new swingset acquired for the youngest grandchildren we had an "island" garden in the midst of part of our back yard. Since our property line goes back to the island in the River, we still have much more property behind this photo including the wooded area.



The brown in the photo's foreground is where we had to reseed the grass after the septic repairs.
The ground that is all brown in the distance is where we are having a weed problem with mugwort. Uuurgh! that is so invasive! We actually cut down everything and even used a "wooded stock" herbicide that is used for poison ivy and such. Yet the weed persists. I may go back with a pair of scissors, snip eahc weed individually and give it an IV injection of the poison to see if that will work. (This was a last ditch suggestion from our local Coop. Extension.)


This next photo shows a picture showing the backside of our pool area. You can see the new garden structures on the right of the above ground pool and to the left is the flower garden that surrounds the garage.

I still have the flower gardens to weed, a bit more plants to bed, use the weed cloth barrier besides a heavy layer of newsprint underneath that and lastly mulch over the top.

Notice all that green, TIZ WEEDZ!


With My Mom here, she and I have started working on the flower bed in between all the other happenings. DH's Doctors appointments, rehab, graduations, trips, BBQ, etc, you get the drift, way to busy around here.



See all those bags of mulch I was able to purchase at 50% off. Hopefully, I'll be able to report that those chores will be done and soon. Now that the days are becoming shorter, I guess I'll have to work faster. LOL

Jane

PS: I did check out the Kiwi vines on the arbor and I think we are going to have 2 kiwis this year! Check out these blossoms.



There also is another section of the island garden that needs attention, but I'll show more another day. I have saturated you with enough photos for one day. Hopefully my blogging will come back to a steadier flow after this seasonal rush is done. I hope to start getting to some stitching too. I really am having withdrawals from my quilting and stitching stuff. J.

Hello Again!

Just wanted to let you know I am still here. Just life has gotten way too busyfor me. I will be updating you all when I get a bit more time. Just got home (at 2am) from a trip our whole family took to NYC.

Yankee vs. Red Sox Game plus a lot more. Great time, majestic sights and special memories. Be back soon,

Jane