Goodbye Sweet Nicole

Today, I learned my sweet cousin Nicole passed away. She lived in the Baltimore area and was 36 years old. My heart is heavy. Nicole leaves behind her brother John and a family that is in shock and still grieving over the loss of 2 other family members this year. I am grateful and I thank God that I was able to spend time with Nicole in February when we gathered together as a family to say goodbye to Aunt Irene. The last time I saw Nicole, she had lost a lot of weight and I remember teasing her about wearing baggy clothes and maybe she should buy a new wardrobe to show off her new figure. She laughed but didn't say much. My brother remembers her not talking too much about herself and another cousin remembers her being tired during her visit... When it was time for her to leave, we hugged, kissed and promised to stay in touch...I will miss you sweet Nicole. 

Goodbye sweet Nicole. Rest in Peace.

July Guild Meeting

Lola Jenkins! Two words that made me happy I attended the July guild meeting. Our speaker this month was the vivacious and energetic Lola Jenkins from Oklahoma City. Lola shared her life's journey from millionaire CPA to losing both parents a husband and nearly her own life, to being nursed back to health and losing all CPA knowledge to becoming an award winning quiltmaker. Her stories were filled with humor as she touched on subjects all quilters are familiar with - from buying a second hand sewing machine and not knowing how to use it to recycling thrift store finds into quilt fabrics to faking mitered corners and why the glue stick is one of her favorite tools. She shared that if she had listened to what she calls a 'bubble buster', she never would have entered the Oklahoma State Fair and won first or second place in all thirteen quilt categories in the same year. Lola is not shy and has probably never met a stranger. Her big personality has taken her from interviews with Alex Anderson to an international quilt class with Craftsy. If Lola is ever in your area, her story will keep you entertained.

First quilt

Sharpie markers

Sharpie markers

Silhouette series - Ray Charles

Silhouette series - Nat King Cole

Half square triangles

Mitered corners - real and fake

Portrait of Miles Davis

Bob Marley hair is textured using yarns and fibers

Lots of thread sketching and use of color

Silhouette series

Colored pencils

All I asked was to take a picture in front of her work and she gave me this

More Holy Land Pictures

It is a slow process to view and edit photos for posting. Memories associated with the pictures make it difficult to scale down - you want to share what you saw yet you cannot show every detail or every picture for that matter. Here are a few I would like to share with you.

Basilica of the Annunciation

Basilica of the Annunciation

Church of Gethsemane, know also as the Church of All Nations

Church of the Multiplication

View into a Jewish cemetery. Mourners leave rocks instead of flowers.

Festival of Lights was a multi-day event held in Jerusalem.

A view of the light dome from underneath.

Mount Carmel

Stella Maris Church

Dome in the Stella Maris Church

View of the Mediterranean Sea as seen from the Stella Maris Church

Sunrise over the Sea of Galilee

These are a few of my favorites. I will continue to post as I edit.

We're Back!

Healing in the Dead Sea

This is one of roughly 2,000 pictures we took while in Israel. Here, we are in the Dead Sea, covered in mud. We we able to float in two feet of water and this was the first time I was able to float my heavy hips! A little of the water splashed on my face and I have to say, it was the nastiest taste ever and I thought my eyes would never stop burning.

Mom, Cam and I traveled to the Holy Land with 20 other pilgrims. Our guide for the week was Tony, an archaeologist with a PhD. He was a wealth of information and had even worked on some of the sites we visited. He shared so much information and took us to so many places, it will take time to digest and document it all.  To show you what a small world we live in, our guide, Tony, attended Boston University - the same school Cam attended! Of all the schools in the world! I look forward to sharing more photos as time goes on.

Catching Up

It has been a busy few weeks. I am taking a photography certificate program and I have been spending quite a bit of time shooting in my community. In the Learning to See Creatively class, the idea is to look at things differently or enhance an everyday object in an artistic way. Each class, we present our assignment and discuss our work as a group.  There are some very talented people in the class and I feel I am holding my own. Tomorrow is our last class and I have to admit, I am having a very difficult time finding two 'killer shots'. I think I will use a portrait I of a young family member and who knows what else. Here are a few of my photos:

Playing with light and shadows

Playing with contrast and intensity.

Night Writing with Cam

I noticed I am drawn to bold geometric lines. I will show more work in future posts. 

The closing reception for the annual DAFA Members show was held Monday. Here is a link to a slideshow created of the exhibit. I was the scribe for our juror, Lesli Robertson and listening to her comments on the various pieces, I learned valuable information that I will be able to consider in future work.  

Speaking of future work. I created 'Messy Geometry' for the Spirit is Ageless: 2012 Art Contest, Exhibit and Event at The Point, Center for Art and Education. It is a combination of hand dyed cotton, screen printing, fused silk and free motion quilting. I like to use Adirondack Spray Wash as a quick dye. I think the colors are vivid and bright and they have warm colors I am drawn to. I also created the screens used for the grid and dot pattern. The dot pattern was created using a technique I learned in Quilting Arts Magazine. I used sheer fabric, heat set vinyl and two different hole punches.  Cam named this piece, the grid reminded her of geometry but nothing really lined up well.  It takes me forever to come up with a name that suits the piece. Names usually have to grow on me so a lot of my work is untitled.

Messy Geometry

Detail of Messy Geometry

 I  Main Street Art Festival in Fort Worth. WOW! This is a juried event and when I am able to attend, I look forward to seeing Jeff Zachman's kinetic sculptures. This year his son,Carl, also an artist, was accepted. You can see the family resemblance. Here are a couple of pictures of the 'side show' activities.  Here is a street performer who entertained the children jumping over hurdles and telling stories. There was also a musician playing an instrument from West Africa. I don't remember what he was talking about - however I do remember he played classical music on that thing - beautiful!

Crossing over a 3 inch hurdle

Street musician

 I have been dyeing fabric using IDye from Jacquard. I will post my results later.

DAFA Annual Show

The 2012 DAFA Annual Show -Legacy in Fiber- is up and open to the public!

Jules and Lisa planning the layout of the Alzheimer's

exhibit

Lu hanging the Alzheimer's quilts

The show will run through April 23 when we will have our closing reception.

In addition to the Annual Show, there are two special exhibits - Legends in Fiber Art, and, Pathways: DAFA's Alzheimer Quilt Project. The show is at the The Point, Center for Arts and Education, 4847 West Lawther Drive, Dallas. The Point is less than three minutes from White Rock Lake so you can see the show and then take a walk around the lake. This will be a great afternoon. The Point is open 7 days a week.

While we were diligently laying out the show, storms were brewing in North Texas. The warning sirens sounded while we were working and we ended up spending time in the garage of the building next door. We were very lucky the tornadoes did not come our way however there was terrible devastation in surrounding areas.

Wednesday, I had my second opportunity to quilt some projects using a longarm machine. I am still intimidated by the machine but at the same time I am getting more comfortable with it. I love that you can get so much done so quickly. I am not trying to quilt award winning patterns; I just want to finish some of the quilts I started years ago. I completed two large baby sized quilts today.

Okay, it has been a while since my last post. A lot has happened some good, some not so good. One happy event is the upcoming Dallas Area Fiber Artists Annual Show 'Legacy in Fiber' at The Point, Center for Arts and Education in Dallas. I have 2 pieces that made the cut, Lenten Peacock and an untitled mixed media piece Lenten Peacock was a challenge I setup for myself a couple of years ago, to create or finish a piece of art each day during Lent. I got this idea from my friend Deborah Boschert. It was a real challenge and I was happy to complete several pieces that were just laying around. The peacock feather piece was one of my favorites and I am very happy to share it during the show.

I used a stencil, copper metallic paint and added stitching with lime green thread. I love the way the stitching makes the feathers glow.

The second piece is a combination of rusted fabric, matte medium, acrylic paint, book and scrapbook paper, thread and stone beads.

We will hang the show tomorrow and it will run through April 23

.

Along with the juried DAFA show, we have a special display Pathways: DAFA's Alzheimer Quilt Project. These 9 X 12 in quilts were a special exhibit at the Dallas Quilt Celebration. The quilts will be donated to the Alzheimer Quilt Initiative for sale.

Pieces of a Life

Full Circle