Midweek in May

Here’s Jack enjoying the sun… normally, I cannot snap a relaxed and happy picture of him because of his camera-phobia.  But I was half-hiding behind some inkberries and the sun must have been in his eyes.

Today is drab — more like this picture.

Quilters are so famous for not finishing things, that they have appropriated an acronym for easy reference to quilts-in-the-making — “UFO” is an  “unfinished object.”   This UFO (pictured above) was discovered this past weekend in one of my bins.  I just bound it and hung it upstairs.  It used to be part of a much larger quilt, one that was not coming together and so suffered the fate of fragmentation.

[June 13 Addendum -- I finished the little piece pictured on my Bernina above -- and here it is!]:

"Exuberance", about 4.5" x 7"

One of the quilts I submitted to the Quilters’ Connection show this year was a cut up and rearranged quilt.  I photographed it for submission when it was still a UFO, trusting that it would become likable along the way.  Well, I was wrong.  I still don’t really like it and submitted it anyway.  Whoo… that constitutes risky behavior at my age!

Anyway, I helped hang the QC show this morning and as usual, there are many, many impressive quilts.  Show opens tomorrow and goes through Sunday at The Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, MA.

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Saying YES and being GLAD

“I think you should get bitter as you get older.
It means you’re paying attention.”
Craig Ferguson

So often, with children and opportunities to volunteer, one can find oneself up to the eyeballs in unpaid work, wondering, “Did I really say ‘Yes’ to this?!!”.

Volunteer work is work, make no bones about it.  It can be fun and offer a host of positive (and often unexpected) benefits — friendship, discovery of skills one didn’t know one had, satisfaction of a job well done.  Some of my volunteer work has spun off into paid work, which is often the fantasy of an organized, creative PTO Mom.  But!  With college a mere heart beat away (three years is a heart beat), volunteering feels rather unadvised in my case (I am considering NOT grocery shopping this week to save money)…

So the question is, how can I get through this commitment to help decorate the halls of the high school for the after prom party without believing myself to be a complete and utter fool?!!!    My older son is not even a senior!!

Here’s how –

1) I am learning a lot about photoshop.

I’ve used the ‘cut out’ filter for a long time — a natural for a quilter who tends to see images in terms of blocks of color — but I have learned how to ‘bucket’ color in to areas with the express intention of making a more interestingt ‘cut out’ image.  In the Brookline landscape above, I brightened sections after cutting out and then cut out the entire image again, in order to enliven the lower right corner, which had gotten dark and uniform in the process.

2) I bought myself some paints, which I think will have benefits down the road.

3) I am so clear that I will never, ever do this again.

4) I finally got to see the inside of a neighbor’s house that I’d been dying to see.  I’d heard for years that she has beautiful taste (she does).

5) I have listened to some good music online doing my research that I never would have listened to otherwise.

The theme is all hush hush, but here is a stylized picture of the hall I am responsible for.

I have managed to find a way to incorporate my recent obsession with a collection of beech trees in Brookline…

My longstanding obsession with rooves is also making its way into this hallway.

Streetlamps are also making an appearance.  Cleaning out an armoire a couple of weeks ago, I came upon some pictures I made when I worked at a copy shop in San Francisco in the early 1980′s.  They’re a cut up and re-imaged house photograph with a street light.  This copy machine had a dial that scrambled (or skipped) passes of color, producing what is now easily done with photoshop.

It’s true we are drawn to the same images over and over, isn’t it?

color xerox, 1980

Isabella St., Northampton, MA

Beacon St, Newton Center, 2009

I guess this is yet another example of how radically computers have improved our lives.  The color xerox machine I used to make the top two pictures was almost the size of a small car, used carcinogenic toner, and did not provide a preview of the color-changed result.  Each copy cost a couple of bucks!

Since I’m behind on my Journal Quilts, some of the new photoshopped images will go directly onto fabric and become quilts!

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Finally, the green….

Morning light

My fingernails will basically be dirty for the next two and a half months… good thing I don’t generally need to be presentable!

who needs flowers?

At the Home Depot recently, I was approached by three or four people with gardening questions (it must be the dirty fingernails and the pen in my hair), and I told a woman to forget about flowers if she had a fully shaded yard and to start thinking about foliage.  I wish I’d had the picture above to show her (she clearly needed convincing).  But, why have a row of struggling, tired-looking impatiens, when you could have vigorous, glorious ferns, ginger, ladies mantle and hosta?!

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Newton Open Studios done for another year!

A few quilts on display

Newton Open Studios was this past weekend and many, many folks got out and around the city to look at art work and crafts.  It’s hard to gauge if there were more or less people than last year, but it was good, whatever the number.

It’s hard to take decent pictures with a house full of people, so forgive the focus on a few of these.  I made a lot of cards, blank books, ACEOs and jewelry this year.

A few of Dan Wiener’s clay pieces above… and Maria Mizrahi’s jewelry, below…

My pillows were a big hit, so I’m going to have to find a good source of wool felt.

Now it’s back to Journal Quilts, finishing a piece for the Quilter’s Connection show next week, lining up my next couple of gigs, and mostly — GARDENING!!  Yahoo.  After a long, dreary, cold, and wet spring, at last I was out today pulling up weeds in the sun.

Jack, the camera-shy Corgi, loves to flop himself over (he sort of tips over, cause he’s so fat) in the sun.  No surprise!  He was born and raised in Puerto Rico.   Someday soon, I’ll sneak a picture of him (remember he is absolutely terrified of cameras) so you can relish his pleasure.

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Hiatus & Newton Open Studios

Sinead O'Connor picture at the MFA

After living in the Boston area for 23 years, I finally managed to see the ‘Art in Bloom’ exhibit at the MFA.  Well, sort of.  I had an hour and it was really packed, but I saw a few and marveled over a them and took a couple of pictures…

The bouquet for this picture was amazing (my picture of it was not) — with a spiky plant capturing the stubble, an orchid for an ear, and a massing of white roses for the skin and purity.  I think this was a Ritts photograph, but I’m not sure, and I’m sorry I didn’t see who made the floral arrangement either.  The photograph is very large, which adds to its impact — roughly 3.5 to 4′ wide.

Newton Open Studios is coming up!  On May 16 and 17, my home will be open from 11 to 5.   I have lots of new work, and two other artists will be here — Dan Wiener, who makes incredible ceramics and Maria Mizrahi, who fashions tropical nuts into funky, chunky jewelry.

So the blog will be quiet until after that  (I always work right up until the last minute).  Everything for sale in my etsy store will be available here.  If time permits, I’ll post some pictures.

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