Metropark Daylilies Sketch

I am often overwhelmed.....It's been that way.  Too much to do in the house and the garden along with the regular living often renders me incapable of doing anything.

Once again, I have vowed to keep on chipping away at things.....working a little bit every day in the garden (trying to get the weeds under control) and in the various parts of the house which are....a disaster.

 The sewing room I fear has once again been the recipient of dumped projects and materials waiting for me to get in there and properly put things away.  It is so bad that I can't bear to be in there.

You'll recall this photo from a couple of weeks ago. It is my basis for entry into the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network's Dayton Metro Park show. I intended to get right at it and do my drawing.  But it didn't happen...largely because I couldn't bear the thought of going into the pigsty which is my sewing room/studio.

Today was my usual quilting group.  While I have been chipping away at a queen sized traditional quilt, I also brought along the supplies to get the drawing done.  The sketch above is what I intend....although I will fill in the front with more day lilies and the trees still need some tweaking.  I was merely roughing in some shapes which would be interpreted by stitching and various bits of cloth....but in looking at it, I think it still needs some tweaking.

I often have a problem.  I often am slavishly devoted in absolutely re-creating what I see, regardless of whether or not the composition could be improved.  Thus, I am adding in more skyline on this to bring some blue in to contrast with the orange day lilies and give more flow, and more day lilies as I think it will make it more interesting.  I'm also moving some Queen Anne's Lace from the middle of the field (where it was growing because it got more sun) to the foreground to add some more interest and contrast in shape and texture.

I will probably do two of these, one a complete abstract, another less so.  My friend Chris reminded me that this isn't due until February.....but I know me....and I don't want to be last minute Lisa.  Besides, who knows what curve balls life with throw me in the ensuing months?

Getting ready to approach a Dayton Metropark Quilt..the wonders of Daylilies

Do you ever get focused on something an become sort of obsessed with it?  Well for several weeks I was going to write about  my last failed class, but I wanted to work it through on line....and could I find the drawings? Noooooo.

So, here I am.  Bear with me...my fingers are numb and it is very hard to type..I make all sorts of typos and I hope I catch them all.

The Miami Valley Art Quilt Network is getting ready for it's third series of art quilts inspired by the Miami Valley.  This time, we will be doing quilts inspired by the rather extensive Dayton Metro Parks.  There are many....but I have been to only a few.   Since it is sort of hard for me to get around, especially on uneven ground, I decided to go with a shot I already had.  This is a meadow  Englewood Metropark, right across from the Aullwood Nature Center. I took it a couple o of years ago when i still walk well.  My daughter was out running, and I went along to shoot photos.

These are common day lilies, Hemerocallis fulva, usally called "ditch lilies" in the Midwest.  They are escapees, originating from Asia, but they were brought over by the early colonists.  Bright and cheery, they are not true lilies at all, but take their name from the lily shaped flowers which last only for a day.  They have tubers, not bulbs, and the tubers, as well as the flowers are edible.  I've eaten them...not exactly one of my 'must haves" although I suspect deep frying the buds would probably taste pretty good as I have not much much that deep frying doesn't make something more edible.

This shot sort of makes me think.  I think it needs a few more lilies, although I like the wild grape and other 'weeds" growing along the edge.  I will do some drawings..

While they are invasive species, they are easily killed by round-up, or by digging so you get all the tubers...if you are patient, not terribly difficult...and by no means as hard to do in as Japanese honeysuckle or Japanese Bittersweet....or kudzu ...or a variety of other nasties.

Here, you can see them growing in a ditch not far from me on Nashville Rd.  I think this is the most significant patch I have ever seen, and I wonder if it wan't given a little "help" from  the owner.  The ditch is a drainage  ditch. The tall stuff behind the one with the barn in it is elderberries.

I find these very cheery, and when you find a patch with some chicory blooming in front...it is just spectacular...the soft blue of the chicory and the orange of the day lily is just fantastic!

Of course, I have lots of day lilies in my own garden, and in the spring when I am giving divisions away, and can't remember what I have planted where....I usually shrug and say well, it is probably a dark maroon one, or an orangy one.....but mine are not your run of the mill orangy ones....

I'll be sharing a few with you as it is day lily time....although day lilies bloom in my garden from late May through the end of September.  Even though my friend Martha pooh-poohs them because they get scruffy looking after they bloom (you need to pull the dying vegetation on them), I just love them.  They do so well in my hot, clay, full sun kissed beds....and while they are in bloom..well. they just delight me...dark ones with green eyes, orange ones which are practically fluorescent,  watermarked ones, ones with toothed edges, pink ones with shaded maroon centers.....what fun!

Lots to cover in the next weeks.....and I hope to show you this as I work, along with Aullwood's show, the MVAQN Redux and a bunch of other things....

Bear with me....I will disappear for days as the drugs wipe me out three days after chemo, but I will be back....and forgive the slip of the fingers.

Dayton Landmark's Part II St. Mary's Church Completed

So...I am finding that I am really bad at taking process photos.  Here's what my semi finished piece looked like on Friday.....before I did the background quilting and cut it back.

I struggled a little bit, trying to figure out how I would do the ornate brick work at the tops of the towers.  I decided that the easiest way would be to make little lozenges of net with black Mistyfuse to make the regular brick project.

Here you cn see it after I've quilted it which added the shading lines....and you can see that I have added more detail with threadwork around the window cornices.

And here's the finished piece....only I discovered that I somehow made it an inch too short! That's what comes of measuring it alone while feeling nauseous!  I measured it twice...and goofed.  At least the quilting pattern I used in the sky is pretty much straight lines...so I can add a piece in and fix it so that the sky portion is just an inch taller.  DUH!  To quote Burns, "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley,"

Come back tomorrow, and I'll be having a give away!

Once again, I am participating in Nina-Marie Sayer's "Off the Wall Friday" posts.....go to her website and check out the other participants!

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

Working on Design

Recently, a lot of chatter has been going on over at the Quiltart message list about technique and design.  I feel that quite often, it is easy for quilters to be seduced by techniques and to ignore learning the elements of good design...or to explore other areas of the quilting world for that matter.

You see, techniques are fun.  Learning the elements of design and finding your voice....well, that's more work.  I own several books on design, and have thumbed through most swearing I was going to take the time to work through them....even buying a bajillion erasers to carve into stamps as suggested by one of the books.  Good books on design include Lyric Kinard's Art + Quilt; Jane Dunnewold, Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan's Finding Your Own Visual Language;  Ann Johnston's The Quilter's Book of Design; and Joen Wolfrom's Adventures in Design.

The Miami Valley Art Quilt Network is hosting workshops.  In the past, they had one group which met in the evening in Centerville...which usually takes me about 45 minutes to get to.  Therefore....I often didn't go.  Sue DeSantis and I often grumbled about starting a new group on the north side of Dayton...particularly this fall when the night-time group changed their meeting place to Yellow Springs, which is even farther away for us.  So, Sue set up a meeting held the last Friday of the month on the Northwest side of Dayton.  Five of us have been meeting following the same lessons and format that the south group is doing...The two people who are leading the southern group, including one who has taught elements of art before, hand over the assignments and exercises to Sue, and she leads our group.

We are working through Joen Wolfrom's book.  Carroll Schleppi and Marilyn Doyle set up what we are supposed to do.  So far, we have been reading through the book and doing a couple of the exercises here and there, usually with some more restrictions thrown in by Marilyn.  I admit...sometimes I feel like I am a petulant child.  Especially with this last exercise.  Marilyn gave us the pile of color chips and we were supposed to pick one of our least favorite colors...I chose the dusty pink...which I don't particularly like...and think of as puke pink.  We were then supposed to add up to 7 colors to go with it.  This was my color chip line.  Then we were to make a quilt based on one of the exercises.  To be fair, the size requirement was 8 1/2" x 11"  I initially wanted to do them 12" x 12" as I thought that it might be easier for my hands to handle.  I was thinking, though, I prefer a rectangular format for the most part and the other aspect of  Carroll and Marilyn's madness is that we are going to put an exhibition up in one of the church galleries once we have finished.  Therefore, I thought better of my larger size and thought for the sake of looking well when they hung the show, I would do the recommended size.

The next part came a lot of thinking.  One of the options was to do a designed based on the Fibonacci sequence or Clifford Circles.  I researched it and my head was swirling with the math....Nope.  The colors reminded me of the organic patterns from the 1950s.  I remember in particular a set of end tables my mom had in black, pink, gold, white and sagey pink with shapes reminiscent of protezoa.  So....I did a sketch...and this is what I came up with.  I kind of liked it...but...by this time, I was right up against the deadline.  It was Thursday evening...and the class was the next morning.  So...I thought this would take me too long...especially if I wanted to do a good job on it.  I also thought that once again, I was over-thinking this.  So....I just decided I would dive in and just do it.

So, this is what I came up with.  I am not quite done with it, as I wanted to put a series of gold beads down the diagonal running left to right with the batik piece in the middle...only the house seemed to have eaten the beads I had in mind.  While looking for them, I did find some others that I want to put on as a fringe...and I also wanted to add some hand stitching with perle cotton.

I admit, I was being pushed by a comment that either Kathy Loomis or Karen Musgrave made a week or so ago...about people who signed up to do things...then didn't.  I admit, I am way behind in doing the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge, the Sketchbook Project and Sew Cal Gal's Free Motion Challenge.  But..I have resolved that I am going to really try harder at doing this.  Even though I balk, it is only through doing the work that you will get better...So, there you have it!


Once again, I am participating in the Off-the-Wall Friday's quilt posts on Nina-Marie's website.  If you follow this link, then you'll be able to see others who are posting on fiber arts as well!

Aullwood: Maxine Thomas and Maude Haeger

Maxine S. Thomas, "Japanese Spring", 24.25" x 20" $225

Maxine Thomas and Maude Haeger are two more of my friends.  Maxine is a member of the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network and lives in Jamestown, Ohio.  She, like Maude, is also a member of the Studio Art Quilt Associates.

In Maxine's other life, she is a lawyer and she spent time in Japan as a Fullbright Professor  which influences her work.  In addition, Maxine almost always uses a bright color palette.

I saw the beginning of this piece in a thermofax screen printing workshop Shelley Brenner Baird held for us earlier this spring.  The "woven" background and the ginkgo leaves are both commercially available screens which then then printed on the fabric with thickened dyes.  She added more elements later.

Once again, Maxine's artist statement says it better than I can:  "Ginkgo leaves remind me of the trees I saw in Sendai and always bring back warm memories.  The art of Japan is very special to me and my quilts are ways that I can travel back to Sendai through art, illusion, emotions, texture and color.  Quilts appeal to my lawyer's notion of what is right and useful and my artist's love of freedom and whimsy.  Applique's discipline is new to me and I have done stenciling here for the first time.  The end result is my celebration and summons  to others to take their own evocative journey.

Maxine S. Thomas, Spring Iris I, 29.25" x 20" $250

This piece celebrates Maxine's spring garden.  She photographed her iris, then hand painted them on silk and rendered them into this quilt.  This is one of a series she is working on which "pays homage to (her) garden."   Even in the deep of winter, looking at the quilts will bring her back to the garden and spring and all that comes with that.


I had the pleasure of meeting Maude Haeger after writing about her work at last year's show.  Maude lives in West Chester, Ohio, so it is a ways from Aullwood, but not in midwestern terms.  After writing her, I found that her husband was also fighting cancer and we met at Aullwood to discuss that, and lots of other things besides! Maude is a teacher and is an exuberant, life loving person.

Maude Haeger, "Sunshine in the Garden, 58" x 40.5" NFS

Maude dedicated her Sunshine in the garden to her husband Walter, who has supported her in her artistic endeavors throughout their marriage.

"This quilt was created during the time he was going through chemo and radiation.  I was, of course, very worried and was not sure of what was going to happen. Walter loves it when I use bright colors and he loves gardens.  I chose to work on this piece as my way of pushing the cancer away.  Our earth is beautiful.  It also has sad and bad things in it.  We have to choose what we will concentrate on.  I like to try to overcome bad with beauty.  It is worth the effort of trying."

Maude Haeger, "Volcanic Rift in the Sea", 65" x 34" $1,000.

Her other piece, is just as rich and jewel like as this one....and I really love it.  Maude has illustrated the cracks in the ocean floor, a volcanic rift which oozes lava and gases.  I am afraid that this photo really do it justice as it glows with the reds, blues, and violets...

Maude heavily machine quilts her pieces, often using decorative threads.  She has also added quite a bit of beading to this piece to really make it come alive.

Here's a detail of her work...all of those little red dots are beads...

Dayton Landmarks Quilts: #4 Dayton Skyline

Dayton Skyline by Ronnie Doyal

I have dreaded starting this post.  For one thing, it is the largest slice of all the ones we interpreted in fiber.  For another, the person who had the first slice, the one of the far left didn't get it done.  So...it is a little problematic.  In addition, when we hung the quilts at the Schuster, we were at the mercy of the brackets we used to hang them over...there was no fudging to make the quilts be hung close together.  We had to split them into two groups because it would have been too long on one batten...and probably would have required us to use a 2 x 4 in order to support the weight.

So, here are six of the originally planned 7 panels showing the skyline as the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network saw it. When we hang it at the next venues, the two center sections will be closer together.

Kate Burch did the first panel.  I was amused by the fact that so many of the quilters in this group chose to do a pieced background.  Kate's perfectly pieced squares set on point really do give the illusion of a lightly clouded sky from a distance.

When I was looking at the slice photo, I kept on wondering if Kate left us a secret message in script on the trees.


No, it's just shading that she did with her free motion quilting.  I've tried to show you in this closeup below....you still don't see it well.

Ginny Crabtree did this next section. Ginny is one of what I think of as the newer MVAQN members, although I think she joined us about 4 years ago. Ginny has really progressed in her development as an art quilter.

I am particularly taken with Ginny's steeple, and the detail that she used above.




Debra Bentley's section is really fun. I love how she made her sky and the change of shades in the trees. The glass on the building in the foreground is masterful, as is her alignment and handling of the windows in the multi-sided building.
































Sara Lynne Walsh is another newer member of the group, who has moved to the Raleigh/Durham, NC area. Our loss. I love her use of masses....she uses large segments of pieces to evoke the image...and her color choices are always dead on. While I am one to add many fussy details, Sara Lynne communicates her ideas in big blocks. I just love it!  Her choice of batik for the sky is also just perfect.












Pam Geisel IS one to add fussy details, and to do it with superb precision. She usually incorporates traditional piecing in her backgrounds, but she adds elements which are perfectly aligned.















Joan Sterr always does interesting work. She, like Kate Burch, made her sky from squares set on point, but Joan uses pieces with more pattern and value changes than Kate did.






Below is a detail showing the ribbon she used for the metal bits and the prints for her trees and sky.

I hope to get the last segment done before we hang the show at our additional venues.  Tomorrow will be the last slice quilt from the current works.

And I thought this was Supposed to be Easy.....

Carillon, left side by Lisa Broberg Quintana, right side by  Sue DeSantis

Last week Thursday, Sue DeSantis, Carroll Schleppi and I went to David Lorenz' studio to take the photographs of the "slice" quilts we did for the Dayton Landmarks Project with the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network.  Ronnie Doyal took photographs of places in and around Dayton which are familiar landmarks.  We divided the photographs giving each quilter a portion of the photograph to interpret in cloth.

Most of them are finished.  Since we are waiting for three segments to be done, we decided that we would shoot them as individual slices and then Ronnie showed me how to merge them using Photoshop.  I have Photoshop Elements(PSE)  7 loaded on my computer, and had purchased PSE 9 in June but hadn't loaded it because I thought that this computer (c. 2003) was going to die at any minute.....it still might...  I had Barbara Brundage's "Missing Manual" for PSE9 so I thought I was in pretty good shape.

Not.

For one thing, I spent hours trying to get PSE9 to load, chatted on line with Adobe techs, and finally called to find out why it wouldn't load.  According to the telephone guy, PSE9 has some incompatibility issues with PSE9.  So....back to figuring out layers, magic extraction tools, making a blank document and joining the segments....  I decided that I would do Sue DeSantis and my piece on the Carillon in Dayton as it only had 2 segments.  Sue had completed hers first, and I did mine second.  

Well....I don't like the job I did with PSE7....and I certainly don't like the 18 hours of time it took me to make the join...but I'm hoping that the next segment might work better...You'll notice that I matched the tops OK, but the bottom overlaps and I can't seem the grab that part and move it over..there's only so much that that little hand tool will do for me!

There's nothing so painful as banging ones head up against a desk trying to figure out the method while hearing all the other things I need to do snickering in the background.  Harumph.

Carillon, photograph which the above was based on, by Ronnie Doyal

You can find information on Carillon Park in Dayton  here.http://www.daytonhistory.org/

The Artomat! A Novel Idea to Sell your Art

Sara Lynn Walsh's Artomat work

What would you do with an old cigarette vending machine?  At our last Miami Valley Art Quilt Network meeting, member Sara Lynn told of a surprising use.  Clark Whittington, an installation artist, took a defunct cigarette vending machine and fitted it with boxes to sell his artwork.  Originally intended as a temporary exhibition in a local cafe, the idea took off and Whittington started the Artomat organization.


Whittington gets artists to do small pieces of work which fit into a cardboard box he supplies.....the artist decorates the box and returns about 20 boxes with pieces of similar, but not identical work.  Whittington loads the vending machines, over 90 active machines, with the artwork.  Purchasers pay $5 and pull the knob to drop down their investment in a mini piece of art.  The artist receives half of the purchase price.  He calls his group "Artists in Cellophane."  Please go to the website to see examples of the vending machines and the types of things he does as well as the entire history.

Sara Lynn and the box provided to fill for the Art-o-mat

What a cool idea.  The machines are very retro looking and who doesn't like a grab bag? There's something that just makes you want to whip out your money and feed the machine so it can feed your soul.  


On the other hand, one wishes that the price could be a tad bit higher...The pieces of art are about the size of an artist trading card.  They must be 2 1/8" x 3 1/4" x 7/8" (54mm x 82mm x 21mm) in order to fit into the machine. I don't want to downgrade the art.


It is, a way to get your name out there...and it is a way to get people to take notice.  But, does it demean the art?  Does it give the concept that the pieces are just throw away?


On the other hand, it is just downright fun.  I think, if I can get my head above water, I'll submit some just because I love the concept, and I love the old vending machines.


Sara Lynn is leaving our group and will be going to Winston-Salem to work for Artists-in-Cellophane.  She's only been a member of MVAQN for about 2 years, maybe pushing three, but she's really fun and I love her funky ideas.  Winston-Salem is such an artistically rich place, I'm sure she'll have a great time.  I wish her well.  Sara Lynn has an Etsy shop, but at the moment she has had to close it while moving.  You can find it here, just check back occasionally to 
find out when she's open again. 

Miami Valley Art Quilt Network at the Dayton Metro Library

Yesterday, Carroll Schleppi, Maxine Thomas, Christine Landis and I hung the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network's show at the Dayton Public Library.  Carlette Baynum, the library's coordinator asked us if we wanted to hold the show now in order to coincide with a special even at the New Lebanon branch on March 12.  Normally, we have a little more time to get things co-ordinated...but I think the show looks pretty good. Nine members of MVAQN have items in, for a total 21 pieces. The show will run from March 2 through April 13. All of the photos on this post are ones Carlette took.

It is an interesting show and might be appropriately named "Old and New."  Some of the artist put in early pieces while mine literally had the sleeves sewing in while waiting to hang.

Here is Chris Landis' "Lone Maple," my "Gold Bars," and Maxine Thomas' "East Meets West Friendship Quilt."   Here's the information from Maxine's label:  This quilt is a rich combination of collage, beading, embellishment, patchwork, appliqué and quilting folding. It is both hand and machine quilted. Hand and machine quilting, charms, and buttons provide further improvisational embellishment.

 

This quilt grew out of my experience in Japan. While there my quilt group put together a friendship quilt using traditional patchwork and with all of the club members’ names in Japanese. When I returned to the US I asked my quilt group to sign squares to put into this Japanese inspired quilt. I now have two friendship quilts one in Japanese using traditional patchwork designs and another in English with Japanese inspired designs.

I think you've seen this one before...but it is my Redwing blackbird....and I have been hearing the spring calls of the birds so I think that my beloved friends will soon be back...

Chris' "Spent Coneflowers" which she did as her answer to MVAQN's Coneflower challenge.

 

Kate Burch did this piece entitled "On Walkabout" in 2008.  Here's her descripton:  

Applique, machine quilted.  Cotton and polyester fabrics; machine embroideries embellished with glass and bone beads; footprints stenciled with Shiva Paintsticks.

This quilt was inspired by Australian commercial prints with Aboriginal designs.  The "walkabout" is an Aboriginal rite of passage in which a youth goes alone into the bush for six months, retracing the paths of his ancestors and recreating legendary historic deeds.

All but one of the embroidered Aboriginal animal and symbol designs were digitized by the artist, guided by copyright-free clip art from Dover press.  One design, the "bush onion," was pre-digitized by John Smigh Gumbula, an Aboriginal artist.  

I am afraid that the present course of chemo therapy is really throwing me for a loop.  My eyesight is blurry enough that I was having trouble threading my needle to put on the sleeve even with a needle threader. In addition, my fingers just don't work right.  They are tender, but the tips are also numb...a strange combination which doesn't make for easy sewing.  After hanging this show, I went home and had lunch then slept for 2 hours; made dinner, then went to bed at 9:30 and didn't get up until 8:30.....most annoying. 

Monkey Puzzle Trees

This summer, in answer to a challenge, I started a small 20" x 20" rendition of a Monkey Puzzle tree. The challenge was to do something with a tree from an angle that most people hadn't looked at it before and to use a method which we didn't usually use....In addition, the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network put out a challenge with the theme of "Puzzle." I thought, ahah! I'll do one little quilt which will fit both challenges. I'll use hand stitching which I don't usually do and since it's small, I'll get it done in the week's time I needed for the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge. I also thought this would work well as I was going to Connecticut and wouldn't have my machine available.


Well, I used variegated perle cotton thread on a piece of synthetic slubby linen from the 1970s. I outlined all the leaves in violet with back stitch then used running stitch in variegated greens long the leaves. I shaded using a variegated darker, almost sage to forest green DMC embroidery floss (3 strands) for shading the leaves at in a long/short stitch combo. I finally finished it at the quilt retreat this weekend. It took me the better part of the day to do echo quilting around the leaves by machine. I had previously done machine trapunto on the leaves, only putting a single line of quilting down the middle of the leaves and outlining each leaf. The echo quilting is done with a variegated King Tut in red/violet/navy.
Here's the real monkey puzzle bud end of a branch. You can see where I quartered it and designed the quilt based on it.

The Monkey Puzzle tree is Araucaria araucana and is native to Chile and parts of the Andes. It grows in zones 7b to zone 10 and is sometimes used as an ornamental in the U.S. and other places, I think in particular Australia as that is where most of the comments on this tree seem to originate on the web.

I have seen several in Washington state, in fact, this particular specimen is not far from my sister's house. It has an open habit and is sort of odd looking.
I think the oddest thing about them is the "monkey" I think it may be a fruiting body (i.e. "cone" ), but I'm not sure. According to people who have them in their yards, they aren't the nicest plant to deal with. The have very sharp needles (some describe them as being razor edged) and the "cones" can weigh up to 10 pounds each....I don't think I'd like to stand underneath one and get bopped by one! The trees can grow to 70 feet tall by 30 feet wide.

Here you can see the brown "monkey." Interesting...but I'd rather have my quilt, thank you very much!

Quilty days and hot stuff

This week is a very quilty week. Friday, we hung a show of the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network's work at the Glen Helen Nature Center, 405 Cory Rd., Yellow Springs, OH. It's a small show, but it is a fun show. m At left is a grouping of coneflower quilts done in response to a challenge. (Far left: Diane Boley, small framed and large quilt is Ann Diller's work, and the one with squares is Joan Sterr who calls this one "Move Over Andy") . Sunday, we had the opening.

Tonight, I had a MVAQN board meeting and then the Monday Group met and showed the work completed on Lyric Kinard's Art + Quilt.

I didn't get any of my homework done as I'm still fiddling with the Chiaroscuro piece and my sewing room is so disgustingly awful with debris all over everywhere that I don't really much want to go in there. I made Pozole today with the last of the tomatillos and harvested some Cow's Horn peppers. I bought them on a lark. I had no idea how hot they were but the picture looked cool.

Cow's horn peppers are curved, like cow's horns. I tried to find how hot they were. Today, I found out the hard way. I tested it a little first. Nothing happened, so I didn't don my latex gloves like I do when I know that a pepper is hot. After about 15 minutes, my hands were on fire and they got worse if I ran water over them. After much scrubbing, pouring milk over them and rubbing with oil, I got most of it off and it didn't hurt. So I thought. Until just a few minutes ago when I rubbed my eye. Guess what? The oil is still there, at least remnants of it. Not a good thing.
Now, I'm sneakily putting these at the end...This is a group of us just before the opening. At left is Diane Boley, in the center is Fran LaSalle and next to Fran on the right is Cathy Barnes.

This next panel has Fran's "Something Fishy" , a small piece I have done called "Cellular Junction," below the fringe on mine is a Frog done by Ginny Crabtree, next to the fringy thing is Kate Burch's "Frog in a Bucket," below the frog is another frog by Fran LaSalle, and then my "Standing on Sacred Ground." The frogs, like the coneflowers were done in response to a bi-monthly challenge where words or techniques are chosen at random.

Aullwood: Carroll Schleppi

Carroll Schleppi is another one of my Miami Valley Art Quilt Network buddies. Lest you think that the show only had MVAQN members, I assure you it had plenty of others as well....I just have an easier time getting permission to post photos from people I know.

Carroll has been making art quilts for quite a while and came to art quilts first by doing her own thing rather than working within the traditional guild structure.

This particular piece is entitled "Homage to Anne" and was done as a memorial piece to Anne Hubler (1929-2009) who was the president of MVAQN for many years and a force in the art world in Dayton and had influence across the country. Carroll tried to incorporate Anne's method of sewing little bits of fabric, often donated from other MVAQN member's scraps, onto a background by hand. I accidently incensed Anne ones for referring to this as "snippits."

Carroll considers Anne one of her mentors and had this to say: "I thought of the beauty of the Sun setting and leaving the beach darker but with the lasting memory of a glowing sunset."

This is Carroll's "Falling Limas." Carroll participated in a MVAQN "class" where we worked our way through Jane Davila and Elin Waterston's The Art Quilt Workbook. For her series, Carroll selected beans. Carroll is a rarity as she considers lima beans one of her favorite summer treats.

Carroll grew a lot with her workbook pieces, and one of the best things is that she sold her first piece which was part of this series.

She also practiced using flanges on the piece.






Her last piece in the show is "Out of the Depths." Inspired by a photograph of sea life from the Monterey Aquarium, Carroll "envisioned the creature rising from the depths and reflecting the beauty of the sun through the water on its 'blooms.'

Carroll is a retired mathematics professor from the University of Dayton.