Recent Quilts

Yesterday, I finally sent baby quilts off to twin Scottish boys born before Christmas. I finished this watercolor one earlier this week. It has lots of blues and greens, colors which I'm partial to- maybe I'm trying to influence the color preferences of wee Cormac or Lorcan?



The quilt displayed by Ray (below) was made in a hurry when we found out a regular customer at Henry's Diner had cancer. The lighter squares represent the diner's tables and we had patrons sign them. The long strips between the tables represent the rug or aisles. The quilt was given to Sheila Brown (even before the quilting was completed) and we heard that she put it right on her bed. Within days, she died, and the quilt was passed on to Margaret, the lady she always sat with at the diner. Hopefully, Sheila left this world, knowing that she had a family of friends at the diner, people who cared about her. Her daily presence will be missed.We miss your colorful hats and your running commentary and your daily witty exchanges with our favorite waitress.

Snowdrops! Crocus! Spring! Oh, my!

It's nearly Spring according to the calendar, but it's showing up in my front border already as long awaited first blooms are popping open. What a sigh of relief! Winter is over! Hurray! Hurray!

Show time

My Saturday reception went well! A nice mix of friends, quilters, line dancers, gardeners, family and even a few strangers showed up to see what I've been quietly doing for the last twenty years. The cookies and punch are gone, but the show remains in the community room of the Sidney Library through the end of March. The most commonly asked question at the show was, "What will you do with them next?" and the answer is, "Fold them up, and store them in trash bags in my sewing room." (Unless I get ambitious and try to show them at an Art walk venue in Binghamton later this summer, or unless the loft gallery at the Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown is interested... but that's more work).









I even found out who sent the beautiful mystery flowers- thank you, Janet W!

Back from Philly

Made my annual trek to the Philadelphia Flower Show yesterday. Three packed buses organized by Cornell Cooperative Extension in Binghamton shuttled us safely to Philly and back, leaving at 7 AM and returning about 11:30 PM. The show was dazzling, themed Bella Italia (Beautiful Italy),dripping with a profusion of colors and teaming with flower admirers of all ages, mostly women, mostly older, like myself. It's impossible to see everything, but I ran around, snapping pictures, getting a feel for the overall displays, some of which were beyond my wildest imagination. I really liked the Botanical illustrations and pressed flower pictures and window boxes, and overblown, jaw dropping flower arrangements. I also enjoyed seeing the people admiring the displays, the older couples, pointing out every nuanced detail to each other, the small groups of Amish women traveling in tight little flocks,and friends, snapping each others' photos against gorgeous backdrops of flowers. I always enjoy going alone and setting my own pace, sometimes dashing around quickly to get an overall impression of the show and theme, sometimes limping along as my feet start hurting from wearing the wrong shoes. I spent a couple hours, resting my feet, listening to two flower arranging lectures in the afternoon.























When I returned to the show area to take one last look around before boarding the bus at six, I spotted Lisa, a fellow blogger and Flickr contact, zeroing in with her camera on the magnificent floral arrangement at the entrance. I'd seen her pictures on the web, (I discovered her when I searched for Philadelphia Flower show photos last year, and I've been a faithful reader of her great blog ever since). I thought it might be her, it kinda looked like her, she was toting a camera and wearing comfy looking boots (her trademark), but I wasn't positive. Hmmm. I knew she'd be going to the show, but thought she'd be going Wed instead of Tuesday. Finally, asked if she was Lisa; she was! We snapped photos, I was excited and nervous, so didn't do very well holding out the camera for a quick pic of both of us, but it made my day! She's just as genuine and warm as her blog, a very real, cool, talented person and inspiration. Sending out good wishes for her and Mark and extended friends and family.





My new camera batteries died shortly after that, so I just walked around again, absorbing the sights, smelling the heavy, damp, scent of flowers and picked out one more bouquet of inexpensive roses to add to the other two I had in my bag.

Each picture tells a story

Spring is beginning! Last week, during a momentary snow melt, I glimpsed snowdrops in my front border!





Neighbors passing by this weekend probably commented that we've emerged from hibernation as we sat on our sunny (but chilly) porch steps Saturday with steaming bowls of chicken gumbo.



Today, I finally hung my show I've been working on for 20 years to draw and 3 years to convert into wall hangings. All twenty quilts just fit into the Fred and Irene Smart Community Room at the Sidney Pubic Memorial Library. I took the liberty of rearranging some library coat rack units and moving some chairs and large speakers. My homemade hanging wires worked perfectly, as did the shower curtain rings attached to furring strips that I inserted into hanging sleeves on the top of each quilt. I never saw all my calendar drawings (240 total over 20 years) all in one place, and it's neat to see the results of plugging away everyday, drawing one line at a time. They add up! My quilting friend, Karen, popped in just as I finished "installing" the show, and I enjoyed mentioning the stories some of the images brought to mind. I look at them and remember when I took the photos, which child was riding shotgun with me on our "looking" rides, sitting in the corner of the living room at a TV tray or table, drawing, taking the finished product to Printer Dave, or more recently, printing each calendar on my laser printer and assembling it by hand. A good many of them are passed out at family reunions- They are truly a labor of love.

Mid February

February's chugging right along! My youngest endured a bout of dehydration and pneumonia last week and spent a night and day in the hospital. He lay on the couch listless and had no interest whatsoever in video games, our biggest clue that he needed medical attention. The school nurse checked him over and his temperature registered 104.5F. The next day our local doctor ordered chest x-rays: after another listless day, we took him to the hospital in the early evening. Our wonderful doctor Paula met us in the ER and ushered us into the pediatrics ward, where IV fluids were started immediately. We felt fortunate to receive prompt attention and to be home the following night. We've been recovering at home this past week, staying away from school and a possible relapse at the doctor's and school nurse's recommendation. D brought J a model to construct and he enjoyed gluing it together, proof that some old-fashioned fun still captures the interest of today's youth. However, I'm happy to report that he's back to playing WWll xbox games, and the annoying sound of machine guns is music to my ears (this week)!





I treated myself to a dozen Valentine roses from Aldis.



Another positive result of our enforced time at home, is the completion of my series of wallhangings featuring twenty years of my Farmhouse greetings' calendar art (1990-2009) I've been designing calendars since I drew individual ones in high school (in the early seventies) for friends and acquaintances, using steel tipped pens, repeatedly dipped into smelly India ink. I 've even hand carved the designs and dates (reversed) for a very limited edition linoleum block calendar back in 1983. Each year, since 1989, I've drawn a calendar, mainly of whatever strikes my fancy during a particular year- cats, gardens, horses, barns, wildlife, birds and my children. 2010 will feature trains, and I'm plugging away at my drawings, a little each day. I'm a believer in persistence, practice and patience. These days I use a .01 technical pen, Staedtler, made in Germany.



Anyway, I've been using our printer/copier/scanner to copy and reverse my original drawings and print them onto a special heat transfer paper. I then press them with hot iron onto muslin panels, which I've sewn into calendar quilts, a dozen panels per quilt. I've machined pieced them together and hand quilted around each of my 240 images. (Have I mentioned I'm persistent?) I started this project early in 2006, and completed sewing labels on two days ago. I still have to work on cutting, sanding and drilling holes in the firring strips I bought to hang each panel. I install them on March 2 at the Sidney library for a month long exhibit. It will be fun to see all my drawings in one place, since I keep them hidden away in black binders.

Morning Routine

Our cat, Jazz, lives in our attached woodshed, and slips in mornings as D carries in an armload of wood to stoke the stove. Jazz usually patrols the house, which includes checking sink and counters, tabletops, perimeters, unmade beds and upstairs. He loves slipping through the quilts that portion off the upstairs because he knows it's harder for us to find him- too many good hiding places, under beds, etc. After he's ponced on us unexpectedly a few too many times and satisfies his morning thirst and hunger from his feeding bowls by the wood stove, he starts phase two of his morning rounds, monitoring the bird feeders from the back of the couch. Then he'll spend what seems like hours, frozen, on guard, watching by a seam in our woodwork, for cellar mice, nimbly scaling the interior walls on their daily rounds.

Red Roses

Got another bouquet for my kitchen tables today, and tossed the old mini-carnations that lasted about three weeks! How can I resist treating myself to a $3.49 bouquet of 6 deep, red roses? My paperwhites were flopping over , so I snipped them off and added them to the vase!



Speaking of Red Rose, I always buy Red Rose tea because of the free little porcelain figurine inside! Yes, it's kind of like getting a freebie in the cereal box! I added a little duck to my windowsill collection. I have quite a collection now.



Even though I do enjoy a morning mug of tea, I inherited most of my Red Rose figurines from Esther Brooks, my longtime friend and mentor. She taught English at Chenango Valley Schools and took up painting after she retired. Her devotion, energy and spirit survive to this day. (She died several years ago in her mid-nineties).After I got my license, I used to drive over to her home on the edge of a woods, and she treated me like her dearest friend. She treated everyone that way.

For years, she hosted an informal art group, composed of mostly older women. She'd usher everyone downstairs where each would work on an oil painting. Esther would offer tips and comments. My Mom belonged to this very loose knit group of artistic friends, and it was great for her to let her guard down somewhat. If I was in town, I'd often accompany her, and I relished hearing the others talk and socialize so easily, discussing not only their paintings, but their families and health concerns, etc. Then, we'd go upstairs to have potluck lunches,(Wanda was famous for her crustless pies!) often accompanied by freshly made iced tea, with mint leaves from their garden. Esther's sister, Ruth, shared the home with Esther and her husband, Cliff. Ruth often played piano upstairs, while we were in the basement. It was wonderful!

Ruth was artistic, too. She created small, clay figurines, usually of birds or wildlife. She perfectly captured the essence of polar bears and penguins. I have an ox and a koala bear she did. Esther preferred watercolors, especially portraits. She wasn't shy about asking striking looking people to model for her. One of her best oil portraits featured an African American woman in a richly patterned, golden caftan and matching headscarf. Her portrait looked serene and proud, and it seemed life-sized in my memory. Esther loved people, birds, flowers, gardening and was always creating something! Whenever I visited, it was like show-and-tell, as she eagerly showed me recently done watercolors she'd been working on- of an old, weathered barn,or a stone aqueduct or blazing, red poppies.

Even when she moved into assisted living, she'd show me sketches of the van's driver, or relate amusing senior citizen stories, mimicking table manners of her dining room companions. I really miss Esther. I hadn't intended to write about her, but the Red Rose figurines along my windowsill loosened my memory. I think I also feel guilty that her obituary made no mention of her artistic influence on many in our community, and I didn't have the gumption at her memorial service to stand up and say how much she meant to me.(I've always regretted it) Although those who knew her, know what a great gal she was.

I finally broke down and bought a 50 pound bag of black, oil sunflower seeds for $20 at the local feed store. I was paying $4 for five pounds every two days. Our two feeders are busier than the local diner. (There are often 50-70 small birds in our yard at one time along with three sets of cardinals)



I've been plugging away at my train drawings; started another one this week. I'm also nearing completion of my quilt series, 20 wall hangings- each one featuring a dozen illustrations from my annual calendar. I can't remember when I got the idea to transfer all my illustrations onto muslin panels. I hope to have a show in the community room of the Sidney library. Maybe in March?