Inspire Me!

Geninne

I've been following Geninne for years

ever since finding her lovely birds on etsy.

She inspires me

her blues, her oranges,

her artistic honesty

And now I can have her in fabric

Cloud 9 - organic

love the strike-offs 

can't wait until I can buy it!

More inspiration ...

- - - Uppercase Journal - - -

Eye Candy

Creativity on steroids

Shadows

Like you've never seen before

Visit the site for more!

And finally

Jennifer Collier

Sewn Paper - 3D

Explore!

Be Inspired!

The Guggenheim - Cattelan

I like to share my "field trips" with you,

but I'll admit I had second thoughts about today's field trip.

NYC - The Guggenheim 

 

 A six story atrium

featuring the installation -  All - by Cattelan

Disturbing, perplexing, unsettling

At first you're captivated by the immensity of it all - 

Yup - that's a horse hanging there!

there's lots of taxidermy.

 Yes, an elephant in a ghost costume,

positioned over the 2 dogs,

 A steer with motorcycle handlebar horns.

Picasso showed up - larger than life.

See the Z's for Zorro - there were many of them.

 Picasso showed up again as the focal point

in a Roy Lichenstern-esque piece.

A wall of faces - don't know the meaning to this.

I've spared you the truly disturbing

- you're welcome - 

Interesting, yes.

Have you been?

What did you think?

Stopped by MOMA - great font exhibit.

Dinner - Eataly - 

Mario Batali's massive restaurant / grocery store featuring all things Italy - YUM!

Button Worthy

One of my fondest memories growing up was laying across my Mom's bed and looking through her button box - it was a big, old greeting card box, bursting at the seams full of buttons - for me, it was like a treasure chest. I loved running my fingers through the stash of buttons, listening to the tinkling noise the buttons made - hoping not to hit a rogue pin in the process - this button obsession is not without risk you know! Mom had buttons of every shape, size, and color - diamonds, pearls, bone, glitter-y, glimmer-y jewels. And, most of the buttons had a story - what garment they fell off of, and so on. She still keeps her button box today - maybe some day I'll get it. Fortunately for me I now have my own button box - o.k. - plural - BOXES, and tins and jars, and more. What can I say - I love old buttons.

A neighbor of mine heard I was a button-aholic and decided to share her stash with me. She's not a sewer and saw no future for her buttons in her possession. A year ago she bequeathed the first installment to me, and just last week I received installment number two. I have a very generous neighbor - take a look:
Check out this little Scottie dog - it's Bakelite - chemically know as polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride - now that's a mouthful! Bakelite was an early plastic and most button collectors will do anything to get their hands on these little gems.

This bouquet of metaled petaled pearled buttons needs a little TLC, but there's potential.

This strand of rhinestone buttons is in perfect condition - the rhinestones are some of the biggest I've ever seen.

These amazing yellow buttons did not photograph well - they are luminescent - they actually glow around the perimeter.

Welcome Spring - This collection of yellow buttons just reminds me of spring - buttercups, lemons and the sun.

Here's a colorful little stash - a few Bakelite and bone added for interest.

Tangerine anyone??? Love these little gumdrops!

Bakelite at it's finest - this is a substantial offering. In all fairness, I did tell my neighbor the market value of her stash - she wasn't looking for money - she wanted someone to "look after" her collection - I understand completely!

Did I mention she threw in a few buckles as well - Bakelite buckles!

As beautiful as these little gems are I am always reluctant to use them - what if I lost one. There just aren't many things I make that are "Button Worthy" of this caliber button - you understand, right?

The Challenge is On

I've been working diligently on the design for my Layers Tweets Challenge - it can be a frustrating process - arghhhh! I've been spending a lot of time sitting at my kitchen table drawing, and just as much time erasing. I do all my drawings freehand from my photos or from photo inspiration I find on-line. I never trace an image, other than when I work with portraits.

I'm happy to report that I'm sticking with my original concept - of course I can't tell you - that would spoil the reveal. I was afraid that once I started drawing I would lose my vision - it's a spacial thing for me - this 28 x 24 inch requirement is rectangular, only slightly so - it really feels very square to me. The drawing is nearly complete, still have a small section that needs "something" - not sure what that "something" will be.


Thought I'd share this lovely photo from my garden of barren wort - these flowers are so delicate and small - you need to see them up close to appreciate their beauty. They are the loveliest yellow of yellows. Once the blossoms are spent the beautiful foliage is left to be appreciated all season.

Take a Hike

What a beautiful day for a hike - if you didn't have the chance to get out you're welcome to come along with me on my hike through French Creek State Park in Warwick Township, Pennsylvania. Not a lot of talk - just some inspiring photos - I've got my bird challenge in mind.

I love mosses - you're gonna see a lot of them.

Princess pine.
Cool tiny plant orbs - smaller than my pinky nail.
Forget the name - the foliage is as beautiful as the flower.
May apples.
Huge fungus! Love the ruffles!
Help - I don't know what this is???
Some trees were just loaded with this fungus.
Moss.
Jack-in-the-pulpit - - - I just love these beauties.
Fiddleheads were simply everywhere!
Another Jack!
Hand-hewn lumber at Hopewell Furnace in the park.
Hopewell Furnace
Orange cart in the barn
In the barn
Moss anyone?
Jack!
Hope she said YES! Isn't this so adorable - I would have loved to see the reaction on the girl's face when she saw her invite to the prom - this guy's a keeper!
These little beauties were everwhere!
We'll there you have it - my husband and I walked about 6 miles and we're exhausted - hope you enjoyed tagging along!

A Different Color Wheel

The November 2009 issue of Wired Magazine (a favorite of mine) featured this wonderful color wheel from David McCandless - it represents the history of "in" fashion colors from 2002 - 2010; the fall colors are on the inside, spring on the outside. An absolutely brilliant way to visualize color trends.
The color wheel is an excerpt from David's book - The Visual Miscellaneum - I've added it to my wish list. Take a look at his link for more snipplets from the book - I think you might be interested as well.

As quilters we can learn a lot from how other artists work with color. All too often quilters fall hostage to fabric designers who create lines of fabric in a very narrow color palette that doesn't play well with other fabrics in terms of color. But, if you allow yourself the luxury to really look at unique color combinations you can break away from the solitary "designer fabric line" mentality and get really creative with a color palette all your own.

Looking at the spring 2010 "in" colors I can wholeheartedly assure you I am "out" - today I'm wearing colors from the 2002 fall "in" colors - and back then even what I am wearing today would not have been considered "in style".

The Challenge is Looming

I am the challenge host this time around in my art quilt group - Layers: Art in Stitches. It's a lot of pressure. According to challenge lore the host is plagued by a creative block - oh no!

This it the cover of my challenge rules book - any guesses?

This challenge is all about birds. Interested in the rules - click here to learn all about them. Why birds, why so specific - - - I wanted to have a cohesive theme so that when we exhibit our pieces it looks like we're all on the same page - like we all participated in the same challenge - - - and, I love birds. As far as I can tell by the catalog pages of all of the home decorating stores, I'm not alone - this is undeniably the year of the bird.

Oh, if only coming up with a challenge entry were as easy as pushing the "Insert Bird Quilt Here" button. I have less than a month to start, and finish, this piece - yes, I'm behind - but I work best under pressure. I've got ideas and have started to sketch my design. With confidence I can say that I will be in construction by the weekend - one glitch - I need PFD fabric so I can paint my background - I have it on order at Quilters Palette - should be in any day.
One interesting twist to my challenge rules is that all entries must be on 24 x 28 inch stretcher frames - I think non-quilters are more receptive to quilted works when they are framed. I'll be blogging about my stretching efforts when I get to that stage in construction.

We had a great dinner tonight - simple and fast. It's uncharacteristically HOT here in Pennsylvania so I fired up the grill for some very simple teriyaki marinated boneless, skinless chicken thighs - I love this bottled sauce - their barbecue sauce is excellent as well.

I made 2 side dishes, both out to the April 2010 Martha Stewart "Everyday Food" - I tried to link to the recipes but they are not posted on her site yet. This issue of Everyday Food has many great recipes - it's worth picking up.

Mangoes are in season now so I made the Mango Relish (paired with fish in the magazine) - it was delicious and refreshing with mango, cucumbers, basil and lime.

I had beautiful trumpet mushrooms on hand from my local growers' market so I made the Crispy Rice with Mushrooms and Carrots - it was quite spicy but yummy just the same - if you don't like a lot of heat, cut down on the Sriracha sauce. I used brown rice instead of white rice.

Two quick photos - meet one of my magnolias - isn't she gorgeous? There's a vintage tablecloth in my mother's cedar chest with my name on it - magnolias on a gray background - I just love the color combination of the pinks and gray!

The tree is magnificent - it must be at least 60 years old - you only get a show like this when the weather cooperates. By the weekend all of those blossoms will need to be raked up - that's my job.