lots of time has passed

No sense trying to pretend otherwise. I'll just do a brief catchup. September was full of birthdays with a lot of cooking and even a trip to the beach. October brought another birthday, a quilt guild retreat, meeting with a long lost friend and catching up, spending a day with the auditor in my bookkeeping job, preparing things for Mistletoe Mart. November included teaching a new class, three days at Mistletoe Mart, a fun bus trip to the Smithsonian, going to a friend's art exhibit opening,  finishing a calligraphy commission,starting a new exercise program that I actually like and will do, and of course Thanksgiving. And who knows what I have forgotten.

And now it is December. The last few days have been such a  mix - some shopping, more eating, getting back to working on a quilt started at the retreat in October, cold dreary weather. Today I began an on-line Advent study. I so love this time of the church year - a time of preparation, a time for reflection, a time anticipating the coming of light, a time to slow down in the midst of holiday craziness. Also today (busy day), my son and I took Juliana, Josh and Bella to the ChooChooBarn in Strasburg, PA. It's a 1,700 square foot train garden that is just plain fantastic. We spent more than two hours going round and round enjoying the results of much work. Sorry, no photos yet. The link is http://www.choochoobarn.com/. If you live nearby and have kiddos in your life, do a trip and enjoy.

Here's a chuckle from the weekend: I finally bought an iPod Touch (good sale) and got a bit frustrated setting it up through my computer (no wifi here). So, I called Matthew, my 19 yo grand to ask for help. His first remark was "why do you have an iPod?" When I said 'for music and because I want one', his response was 'that's weird'.  I'm guessing grandmothers aren't supposed to get too hip or with it. It gives him something to think about.

I this this is enough. I wanted to let anyone who is still reading that I am still puttering around. I hope to have more to write about as I get back to making new art quilts and playing with fabric.

Thanks for reading. Be good to yourself in this busy time.
Karen

Fun stuff and success

First, the art stuff -- I am working on a new class to teach about messing with fabric using stamps, stencils, etc. A one-day class does not give us enough time to carve eraser stamps. So I have been playing with sticky back foam sheets. Fun and easy. Here are some that are successful.

A sorta art thing:  someone at my church is starting a Sunday class using The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. I have taught classes around TAW for 14 years in the past and can always use a tune-up. But, more than that, this might be a way for me to meet some more people there. I have been struggling about fitting into this church. for a long time. Churches are not always easy to meld into, especially being a single woman without family there. I am encouraged to find this option. 

A couple fun things around Westminster today: traffic was backed up on Main Street this afternoon behind a horse drawn open carriage carrying a bride and groom through town. It was nice to see drivers being patient and giving them time and space. Back home a bit later, I looked out my back door and saw this brilliant hot air balloon sailing close by. Nice colors against the blue, blue sky.

And, as if all this wasn't enough to make a great day, I found the missing link to make my bookkeeping reports balance. Whew! Now I can reassure my boss that I am ready to meet with the auditor to get the review started. A relief!

Almost forgot, here's the link to the CBS segment on the Stitching History project here in Baltimore. Many quilters and other volunteers have been working on this project all summer and last night, the "new" Star Spangled Banner, an exact replica of the original, was hoisted up from many hands holding it at Ft. McHenry. Mimi Dietrich supervised the creation of the stars and is featured in the video.
 http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50155101n

Thanks for stopping by. Karen

SAQA entry

The SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) auction is underway. My 12 x 12'' is on page 3A - "New Growth". Today it was a thrill to see it featured in the weekly SAQA newsletter.

The auction is a fundraiser to help keep this great organization going. If you are interested in acquiring an original quilt, check it out. Here's the link http://www.saqa.com/gallery-mini-detail.php?ID=2416

Back to work - I am working on a new class to teach. More later. As we enjoy this changing weather, let's keep the folks in CO and NJ in our thoughts and prayers as they deal with the horrid effects of weather. Karen

Catching up

I'm not very faithful about blogging - I think about it often - sorry. Today is some catch-up posting.

I've been busy on the art front. A bit ago, I helped paint an 8' x 8' 'quilt block' for the Carroll County Arts Council. A total of ten were painted by other quilters and will be displayed on barns in the area. This is similar to the Barn Quilts in Garrett County, MD http://garrettbarnquilts.org/ and 30 other states. I helped create the crazy quilt design.

Been spending a lot of time decorating scarves for the show in November. I want to finish them so that I can sew again - I miss my Janome time. Here are some of the scarves I have been creating with stencils, stamps and other mark making tools. I love this stencil from Stencil Girl Products (an angel company).

 

I really like the shading in this one.

Here's a scarf that I made last year, but it did not sell. I added some textures to it and like it much better. Hope it goes home with someone.

I finished my birthday week by seeing The Butler. I highly recommend this movie. It is well done and Forrest Whittaker deserves an Oscar - as does the make-up artist - he and Oprah age decades in this film. The film depicted some of the worst ways people treat each other - still hard to see. I've been watching episodes on DVD of Downton Abbey - lots of class issues there as well. Food for thought.

One last thing. Sunday I met with my guild mini-group. Two members gave us a lesson in zentangle making. I can easily see why so many people love doing these. Here's the start of mine.

With all the other things I need to do right now, I have to put this aside. Time to focus.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll try to be more faithful in posting.
Karen

Continuing

the birthday happenings. Little things make life so wonderful. All we have to do is pay attention and savor them. Here's some from this week.

Walking into the room where I work one day a week and having everyone sing Happy Birthday.

Emails from friends and many quilters -- even one from someone I have no clue who they are -- that gave me a smile, as if there is an angel out there wishing me well.

Waking up on my birthday in a glorious state of calm and happiness, then finding out later that my Benedictine friends were praying for me at that exact time.

Laughing with my son during our second phone call yesterday when he realized that it was my birthday and had forgot to wish me HB earlier.

Getting an email tonight from a friend after several years of no contact, reading she got married in March and moved from GA to DC, closer. I hope we can connect in person soon.

And this beautiful weather has added to my joy - open windows, sunshine and cool nights.

Having my grands sing to me again yesterday and today.

The little things mean so much. Who sang that song?

What little things are you cherishing right now?

Thanks for letting me share my joys. Karen

The birthday feast

was just great - two trays of manicotti, fresh beans from my daughter's garden and lots of ice cream. But no one noticed my hair or just didn't want to say anything about it. Folks today where I work agreed it was fun. Here's a so-so photo.

Here I am surrounded by all five grands. A great group.

And here's the requisite funny one.

Today's treat for my birthday week is to start the  

Artful Card-Making Techniques Instructors: Jane LaFazio  & Joanne Sharpe Then go to bed early and read. No work tonight. It's free and should be fun. Here's a link http://www.strathmoreartiststudio.com/. Thanks for reading. Karen

It's birthday week

A little history and yuck to start this post. Birthdays have always been a very mixed bag for me. Growing up, birthdays did not exist in my family. Since my birthday was right around the start of school, the family focus was more on getting me in school than celebrating me. Over the years, a number of family tragedies occurred on or next to my birthday. Heavy stuff. So, I tried to ignore my birthday for many years and would not celebrate it. Of course, my daughter and son would not let that happen and have always had a celebration. But I don't count the great birthday evening my son and I spent in the ER getting his eyelid stitched up and repaired after his encounter with a barbed wire fence - we postponed celebrating til the next day. Add to this, a general heaviness and even depression that have always surfaced in August -- I attribute this to body memory of my early years - stuff I wish would totally go away.

Now, on to the good stuff.

A number of years ago, I started celebrating me on my birthday. One year, I celebrated for an entire month, doing little things every day. Several years, I have hosted some of my women friends for dinner and laughter. I enjoy the family gatherings even more with all my grandchildren. There's nothing like having little people sing to you and want to help blow out the candles. Today is this year's party with a couple twists. I actually requested what I want to eat (manicotti). and I am supplying the dessert - the grocery store had Ben & Jerry's ice cream on sale, so I bought six different flavors for most of us to gobble up ( the youngest kids get plain ice cream since that's what they like).

I also decided to celebrate for a week this year and do something cool every day for me. Today's the party. Yesterday I did something I wanted to do for a while -- get a spikey haircut! (a photo will follow tonight or tomorrow - I do not know how to use the camera on my laptop). When I asked Donna to do something different, maybe spikey, she got excited and said YES! and had great fun. It is cool and I can put the hairdryer away. Fun, fun, fun! I have to go out to run some errands soon and am wearing my black t-shirt (I never wear black, even with this silver hair I have) and am stopping at my daughter's to get something from her shed. I'm curious to see if anyone notices there.

This is all part of closing in on 70 - I'll be 68 on Wednesday and have been journaling about how I want to live and what I want to do for this next chapter. I definitely want more fun, more love and more adventure. Today I'm happy and ready for new fun.

Thanks for stopping by, Karen

Sidetracked

by approaching deadlines. I've spent the last week or so working on items to sell at November's Mistletoe Mart. It's a big three day show here in my town of Westminster. Vendors have to be invited, then juried. So, my friend Alice and I will be selling lots of hand made and hand dyed items. While November seems far off, I gathered some discipline and got started on things. Started dyeing scarves and some fabrics that will be stamped, etc. next week. I like to dye a bunch of things at one time mainly because it takes over my apartment. Here's the view of things soaking in my bathtub (showers get challenging).

And the view in the kitchen. No way can I cook in the middle of this process.

Speaking of discipline, I just discovered a new flavor from Ben & Jerry's - pina colada! It took all my discipline to keep from eating the whole container. So good!!

You never know what will sell at an event. So I made some small bags and some covered journals - not hand dyes - just fabric from my stash.

While I know I need to get these things made, I really want to be working on the water and sand series. I may have to sneak in some time this week.

Thanks for stopping by and reading. Karen

Blue sky and cooler temps

inspire me to start new things. The cooler air is welcome after much heat lately.

Two weeks ago, I attended Quilting by the Lake and worked with Cynthia Corbin. I started 'knowing' just what I would do -- and we all know where that leads. The piece I thought I would finish is still in progress but needs a lot. I am focusing on a series about the coming together of ocean and beach. working with Cynthia resulted in a couple new piece getting started and a list of about ten ideas to pursue. This was a start:

that needed some images - here a sea gull laughing up into the sky. He needs stitching and maybe some paint for contrast.

I sketched a pelican numerous times for the sky, trying to find just the right size. Still needs work before I pull out fabrics.

I put all that aside and played with strips from my palette.

Combined some with small pieces from exercises during the week.

Then I wanted to create a mosaic type background.

At home, the heron image appeared. It's just paper at this point. The week since I got home from QBL got busy with helping with Four County's exhibit.

I love having ideas to play with.

Are you taking time to play?

Thanks for stopping by. Karen

Answers under my nose

All I had to do was pay attention and look.  I've been sweating over what I will do next in this new series about where ocean and sand join together. I'm heading off to do some independent study soon and really want to make something new. Where, oh where, was my inspiration? Did I lose it in one of my road trips lately? Arggh!!

Somewhere between Saturday's trip to the Sacred Threads exhibit and guiding a group through watercolor fun, that old light bulb went off. I remembered some paintings I did about nine years ago - a series called The Rivers of Prayer. One painting in particular was called Low Tide. I was never 100% pleased with it, but I knew I had done a lot of sketching and research. Aha, time to pull out that painting and that sketchbook. And inspiration bloomed BIG TIME.

As I hung the painting, I looked at it with new eyes and actually like it now. The sketchbook was full of notes and drawings of things that live in the zone where water and earth meet. Woo Hoo!! Excitement that I know where I want to go with this series.

First, time to make some background fabrics. Some ice dyes that are now soaking in Synthrapol.

And time to paint some fabric. After being in the watercolor arena on Sunday, I knew how to paint it and what things to use -- some of the many brushes from my painting days. Here's the first layer.

It feels so good to have all these things come together. It's as
if the artist in me has woken up from a long nap.
Moral of this story:  Artist's Dates are so important to fill the well. So is play. And I did both this past weekend.

How are you filling your well? How are you having fun right now in your life?

Thanks for visiting. Karen

1,000 miles

in eight days and still driving. Busy days - time at the beach with my son and his family - driving them home after their car broke down - road trip to go fetch the repaired car - glad I was able to help.

Today was another road trip to see the Sacred Threads exhibit in Herndon, VA. This is truly a wonderful exhibit. My Rootedness is hanging in lovely light (see below for the image). Many of the artists were there for the reception - I enjoyed talking with a number of them and hearing more about their quilts. I took lots of photos, but hesitate to publish them here without permission. Sacred Threads has a CD that can be purchased of the entire show with comments and many audio clips from the artists. I've emailed them to find the spot on their web page to order the CD and will publish that here. It is the next best thing to being there. It's an honor to be part of the exhibit.

Vikki Pignatelli was there autographing her new book, Nurture Your Creative Spirit. With all this driving lately, I need a restful evening and now I have a new book to read.

Tomorrow I will be leading a watercolor workshop at the St. Agnes Cancer Institute where we use watercolors as prayer. This is always uplifting for me - to be able to touch some folks and offer some fun.

Off to my reading. Thanks for stopping by. Karen

Fun

Another week has flown by, July is upon us and that means heat and humidity. Sunday was my 50th high school reunion. It was a great event - the weather cooperated, important as we were on a boat in the Baltimore Harbor. Seeing so many people brought back memories of how special our high school years were. We were the first graduating class of Overlea High School and as such, we started some traditions and set some standards of sorts. I enjoyed seeing some of the folks who contributed to the legacy of the school. I loved connecting with friends from that time and hope that we can stay in touch - email makes it easier now. Even though I had my camera with me, I got so busy talking that I forgot to take any photos there.

Prior to the reunion, I picked up my friend Linda and we met for lunch with my daughter Susan. Linda is her Godmother. My only photo of the day is of two of my favorite people.

I have spent time using up my stash making some small quilts. The challenge has been that I bought fabrics that appealed to me on the spot and forgot about matching things. This invites me to try some new combos of colors and patterns - fun when I let go and just DO IT.

Tomorrow some friends and I are doing some sun printing and just playing with paint. Back to stitching a new quilt top for now. Thanks for stopping by. Karen

Lazy, that's all,

is the reason for no posts lately. Or maybe busy. Either way, it's time for a bit of catch-up.

The last six weeks have flown by. Doesn't that happen more often than ever?

At the end of May, I went off to QSDS to study with Rosalie Dace in the master class. She is an excellent teacher, coach, inspiring person and delightful as well. I wanted to explore a new series about what happens when water and earth come together. I spent a couple days working on a way to create sand. Here's a bit of progress.

Then, it was time to add the ocean.

I came home with it not quite finished and it has been on the design wall since. More later on that project. In the meantime, I taught two classes of low immersion fabric dyeing. Both days ended with everyone taking home bags of wet fabric.

Tomorrow is my 50th high school reunion on a boat in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. My dear friend, Linda, is here from Oregon and will be my 'date' for the event. It should be an interesting day.

Right now, I want to get some fabric out and make something to use up some of my stash. Sometimes, it helps my creative process to do something unlike anything on the design wall, something more traditional or straightforward. Right now, there are four pieces on the wall just waiting for the next step. So, I'll take a detour with pink batiks and make a Linus blanket.

I hope you are enjoying this second day of summer. It's been perfect weather here for the past couple days - open window days with lovely breezes and sunshine.

Thanks for tuning in. Karen

A new exhibit

The past two weeks have been busy getting ready for a solo exhibit in Berkeley Springs, WV. I had a few new pieces and some older ones. And, of course, several needed finishing -- sleeves, hangers and labels. It all got done on time. I drove down on Friday and put 15 quilts on exhibit.

Today I got an email that one piece sold already! Exciting! Here it is.

Here are two others in the exhibit.

This is Flow.

This is Colors of the Marsh.

I have also started updating my web page. You can check on my classes and other exhibits at www.karenamelia.com The next thing to work on is a 12 x 12 for the SAQA auction.

Thanks for stopping by.

Karen

Acceptance

I just learned yesterday that one of my pieces was accepted into the Sacred Threads exhibit in Herndon, Virginia, July 10 - 28, 2013. Needless to say, I am very excited. The title is Rootedness and refers to both the roots of trees and the roots we all have.

This is one of the largest non-bed quilts I have done. It measures 35" wide by 55" high. Here's some details of the many roots, some obvious and some hidden, all intersecting and touching.

I hope you can make plans to see the entire exhibit. When I saw the exhibit two years, I was moved so deeply that I had to visit it again and again.

Now, it's time to get back to finishing some pieces for an upcoming exhibit of my work in Berkeley Springs, WV, in May and June.

Let's continue to hold so many people in so many places who are hurting from events in the news in our hearts and prayers.
Karen

 

Busy from the ballet to the Peeps Show

and sewing in between. Last week began with a trip to the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. with Abigail for her 16th birthday event. We saw the New York City Ballet perform excerpts from Carousel, a Philip Glass ballet and a series of waltzes. It was stunning. We were impressed with the Center and loved the performances. Here are some photos - first Abigail with a bust of JFK, then the grown-up shoes we chose a while ago, then the ceiling of the Opera House.

 



 

I always get nervous travelling to D.C., having gotten lost there numerous times. Our trip down was so easy and then I used my son-in-law's GPS for the trip home. It took us through the city, but got us home.

Yesterday, Abigail, her younger brother Josh and I went to see the annual Peep Show at the Carroll Arts Center. Not a burlesque show, but a creative explosion of things made with those marshmallow Peeps.  This year, this local show even got some national TV attention. Exciting! So many cool things to look at - here are some.

Of course, a purple people eater!

Around these two events was Easter. Again, I shared the Triduum with my Benedictine friends and was richly fed spiritually.

I've been working on a few small quilts for an exhibit in May and June in WV. This is another marsh scene. I'd like some feedback. I added the green shapes near the sky, intending them to be trees waiting for trunks. Now I'm not sure. Are they trees or mountains? What do you think?

Here's a related piece that I made for the Arts Council anniversary show. It's their 10th anniversary and they asked members to create a piece 10" x 10". Here's mine, similar to the one above that is larger.

Okay, time to get back to work and watch some NCIS episodes on DVD. I spent a bunch of time walking in the woods today in 65 degree weather -- AT LAST! Hope you are getting some spring in your area.

Karen

Back home

Busy weekend - lots of fun and lots of driving. The quilt retreat time was fun and productive. I made considerable progress on the color wheel challenge and almost came to like red-orange. Photos later.

On the way home (with a 40 mile side trip), I went to the monthly meeting of the art/contemporary bee with my other guild and saw some other color wheel challenge pieces in progress. Great stuff! Our twelve quilts will make a wonderful exhibit in August at the Guild's show.

And today it is snowing! Enough winter! However, I am going to take advantage of this and do some snow dyeing. I need some backing fabric for my marsh pieces - I will use some new dyes in marshy colors. This is my usual bookkeeping job day, but the snow changed that. So I get to play. Woo Hoo! I hope I'll have photos in a day or two of newly dyed fabric.

The other news of the weekend is that my oldest grandson just bought his first car. Oh, how time flies - wasn't he just putting legos together and playing little league!!!! He's a good guy and I am happy for him making this step of independence.

Karen

Ah, quilting weekend

I'm almost completely packed and hope to be on the road by 10 tomorrow morning. I will be working on the color wheel challenge for my art mini group. I was so lucky -- not -- to work with red orange. Not a color I usually work with, but I did have some in my stash -- a good thing because all my favorite quilt shops had very little red orange fabric.

After I gathered them all, I realized that I had mostly dark and mediums -- only one light. So, I got out my fabric paints and created some textures that will look and act like lights.

Not only was the color a challenge to gather, but I could not come up with a design other than the traditional orange slice. I pulled out an old sketchbook and found two possible designs. Can't wait to get started tomorrow.

I've got my camera packed and hope to have some photos to share when I get back.

Where's your sketchbook? When did you last doodle in it?

Peace to you,
Karen

A bit of catch-up

First, apologies to anyone who has been disappointed in my lack of posts. No excuses, just busy and distracted.

This past weekend was Quilt Expo - the biennial show by the Baltimore Heritage Quilt Guild. There were over 300 quilts on display and a bunch of vendors (including my friend Alice and me with our hand dyed fabrics and stuff). As many of you know, staging such a show is a lot of work and organization - kudos to the Guild and particularly Cathy Kleeman, who is a wonder at organizing set up and take down.

Here's a photo of two of my quilts hanging. I received some great feedback on all five of my quilts. Alice and I did great - a lot of people took home some of our wares and we took home more money.

Going back a couple weeks, granddaughter Juliana turned 9. Her Grandmom Judy is a fantastic baker and always finds cake designs to thrill everyone. Juliana loves pandas. Here's her cake and then a photo of her just beaming.

Life is good. I am now trying to finish a couple charity things - a quilt for Linus and a 10 x 10" piece for our local arts council celebrating their 10th anniversary and then a color challenge for my mini-group. This weekend is the spring retreat for the Heritage Guild. Lots more lining up - busy, busy, busy - all good stuff. And the sun is shining today!!

Thanks for stopping by.
Karen

Been a long time

between posts. I am a bit embarrassed but either I forget or I feel that I have little to share. No one wants to hear whining or complaining, so I stay quiet. And then I have been exploring other blogging options. Enough blah blah.

I have pretty much completed the quilting on a large piece I am calling Rootedness. Sorry that I don't have a photo to show yet. I learned a lot working on this piece. It is roughly 58" high x 38" wide and called for lots of dense quilting to portray what I want to express.

At first, I believed I had to have all the plans worked out for all the parts of it. Ha! All that thinking did was keep me from doing anything. Finally, after who knows how long, I just started with one section that I knew what I wanted to do and did it. Every time I fell into worrying about how I was going to do IT ALL, I held up my imaginary STOP sign and focused on just one area and stitched. Of course, each next section got solved before its time as I worked on some other part. Of course, morning pages helped a lot. So, this piece taught me to stay present AGAIN.

I have it hanging on the design wall and plan to work on something else today. Tomorrow I will show it to some friends for some feedback. Part of me feels it still needs something, but I have no idea what. I'll try to get a photo here soon and keep you posted. For now, it and I need some space.

thanks for listening. Karen

Accepted!

American Lotus was accepted by the Adkins Arboretum for their upcoming show. A lovely way to start the year.

I have three other shows that I want to enter. So, it's time to get those photos and labels ready, do the email entries, then finish some bindings or facings. It's the finishing work that slows me down.

The weather is very, very cold here, 15 degrees and dropping more for the night. Brrrr. One more reason to stay inside and work on new creations.

Stay warm and cozy.
Karen

Something new for the new year

I do work well with deadlines. So, I set some for myself for the next two months. And I met the first one today. There was a call for entries for the Adkins Arboretum on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with a theme of wild nature and landscapes of the Mid-Atlantic coastal plain region. Just up my alley with my marshes.

A couple weeks ago, I worked with thin strips as described by Ann Brauer in the Dec/Jan issue of Quilting Arts. I wanted to try something different that could be part of a marsh. It's not so easy to stitch 3/4" strips and keep it all straight. I like that it is a sew and flip technique and thought it could be a good background.

In some ways, it is, but not for fusing on top of the stitched strips. After I fused the leaves and flowers, I noticed that the rows underneath became part of the fused image. Not what I wanted. You cannot see the lumps but they are there and not to my liking.

I ripped the lotus flower off and replaced it with a new flower shape on top of batting and revised the shape to give it more body.

Stitching came next. I first used a satin stitch and then covered that up with regular FM stitching. I really want to remember that I do not like satin stitching with fused appliques.

The next realization was that the leaves faded into the background. I used some interference paint (has mica in it) to give the top of the leaves some punch. Stitching in the bottom of the leaves seemed to do enough.

Finally, it was time to email my entry to the Arboretum and take time to blog. A deadline met. Success!

What would a day be without a bit of frustration? It seems that blogger.com will not let me upload photos from my computer. So I have played with Picasa, not as simple, but here we are.

Time to make some dinner. Let's hope my entries are accepted.

Karen