Orange explains it all

several things

2012-01-27T13:12:00.000-05:00

my first English paper pieced block in the rose star pattern

After completing my first block of the rose star pattern in the English paper pieced technique last week, I was hooked. I found myself wanting to cut and baste and sew up more. The various possibilities of color combinations and patters became a fixation that I couldn't resist giving in to this week. I chose several more sets of fabrics and cut them out and made cut paper for them then slowly began basting the cut shapes of fabrics onto the paper pieces. Now they are packaged in individual bags ready to go. I can begin hand stitching them together when ever I have time and motivation. It's easy to carry along and start and stop once this fussy cutting and basting are done. Here are a couple of the sets I have ready.

center panel is some Toile fabric (line etching style print on fabric) of a woman washing clothes in a creek

center rose clipped from a leftover scrap of chintz I used for my AIDS quilt panel back in 1993.

I also did some sketches this week and a little embroidery on the big Crazy Quilt project but the warmer weather is making those dark wintry fabrics seem too heavy to be appealing at the moment it's 61ºF and a bright sun is shinning after a thunder storm passed by this morning. Winds are picking up speed and the warmer unseasonable weather will likely be swept away soon. It's odd having spring weather in the dead of winter.

green vine on the blue plaid (lower left area) and mauve and green ropes on the maroon paisley(upper right side)

Mouse Ear Antheriums a tropical treat used for a special Ikebana workshop last weekend

purple tulips

flowering quince Keith brought home from Manassas and forced in the warm house

This warm weather leaves me wondering if the spring flowers will come up early or if there will be a real winter cold snap with snow and ice in February the month of the year Washington DC historically gets the most snow.

International Sketch-crawl #34 Washington DC

2012-01-23T14:19:00.000-05:00

studies of the various gourd hats

We went to the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery and American Art Galleries for our day of sketching. 14 Artists showed up and met in the great atrium where a lovely crowd was gathered for a veggie event that included the Indigenous Gourd Orchestra from the Richmond Virginia area. They proudly proclaimed that they grew and made all their gourd instruments. We set down to sketch them when they began to play. All the members of the orchestra had hats fashioned from gourds too! What a great bunch of music men they were and they had us all rocking to their tunes.

moving targets: the music was a lot of fun, drawing the music men was too

Washington DC sketch crawlers showing their sketches to the camera woman

Then we before we went upstairs to draw in the great Lincoln hall we posed for a group photo or two. The gourd guys came rushing over and wanted to get photos too since they noticed we were making sketches of them during their concert. I guess they wanted to see what we were drawing before we vanished into the museum.

sketching with pencil for a change

this is where Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Ball was held in 1865

artists sketching while enjoying the Naguchi seating

From there the group went upstairs and drew in the great hall. Then to lunch and back for a little more sketching. Where I soon found I was running out of energy to draw and not feeling very good about my results decided it was time to head home on metro before it got dark and cold.

second floor sketch of hall where the "Puritan" bronze statue stands on a marble pedestal

EPP stands for English Paper Piecing

2012-01-22T10:20:00.002-05:00

in the beginning there were just these pieces of fabric basted onto paper

I chose reds to make it a little like a rose color

big manila envelope paper is a pretty good type to use

edging the red rose with pure white muslin shows it off

next make a few dozen more to create a quilt top? Oh my that was a week's work for just one.

I recently found bloggers doing English Paper Piecing the exceptionally detailed technique of patchwork quilting by hand. After thinking about those posts and reading them carefully I decided to join the "rose star quilt block party" on Flickr.com following the directions in the self sewn: rose star tutorial to make my rose. As of Saturday it has been a week since I began the rose star. I chose reds as my rose fabric color using fat eighth yard pieces I bought recently with the idea of a red and white quilt in mind. Then the cutting and basting began a little at a time. It took a long evenings work to get started on the fun part which is sewing together of the edges of the paper backed pieces by hand. This can be done anywhere there is light enough to see what you are doing. I did all mine at home and at Mom's this week under my new floor lamp with the goose neck she gave me for Christmas and puts the light where I need it to see. There is still time to join the group! Block party is for anyone willing to take the challenge and post a few photos.

reverse shows all the manila envelope paper I used to piece the pattern.

Flamingo Gardens Ft. Lauderdale treasure

2012-01-17T17:49:00.000-05:00

At last I have about 120 photos edited from our visit to Flamingo Gardens while we were in Ft. Lauderdale the first week of the year. I didn't want to start up without all of them sorted and ready to use. I don't want to post them all in a blog so I have loaded them on my flickr. page in a set called Florida 2012 with the other pictures from the proceeding three posts about our visit. Follow the link to go see the remainder of the images. Below are about 43 I liked a lot. I have three movies I will post separately later of the birds putting on a show.
This place is all about Birds! Trees too but mostly Birds and a few native cats, otters, alligators and turtles.

Barn owl keeps mice under control in barns!

Swallow Tail Kite from the Gulf of Mexico area

Bird man shows us a swallow tailed Kite

Hawk that was rescued

Black vultures in a cage recovering from wounds

Rescued Barn Owls

Roseate Spoonbill climbs the tree next to me

Brown pelicans lounging in the sand and comforts of the aviary

the amazing male Wood duck so colorful it looks like Disney did the coloring

white ibis were lovely in the aviary ponds

whistling ducks were squeaking

Snake headed bird or Anihanga swims under water for fish then dries it's wet feathers in the sun.

Red headed duck male is one of my favorites and I have seen them passing south here at home in Wash. DC

Walking tall with wings stretched out the Wood storks were displaying

Wood stork puts on a show for the others in the aviary

Roseate spoonbill

brown pelican

Cormorants preening in the aviary

Flamingos are not native to Florida but these are 18-22 years old and were rescued somewhere nearby.

Bobcats pacing round and round the cage waiting on dinner?

Native Bob-cats in a cage were moving all the time. this one is on a tree trunk where it was scratching before something nearby caught it's attention

wild wood storks

river otters swimming around in their pool

Pea-hen watching the male near by

Young male Pea-cock making a display for the Pea-hen.

Bird island open to wild birds mostly white ibis

Ibis flew over to investigate Keith and I on the deck

Friendly Ibis

Peacock in the grass

The first ever I have seen Sandhill Crane!

first Alligator we saw

rare endangered Florida Panther

huge vines in the trees

Black and white birds of paradise flowers

Keith taking photos of the big tree

black bamboo

pretty color flower at the entrance.

Flamingos are what color?

2012-01-14T14:33:00.000-05:00

Fort Lauderdale

2012-01-11T19:19:00.001-05:00

New years day 2012 Keith and I decided to hit the beach after a late lunch at the Floridian on Los Olas Avenue in old Fort Lauderdale Florida. It is one of those places that stays open 24-7 and 365days a year and a hot spot with the late night post party crowd as well as brunch queens. It was fun and we found a cool park just down the block on one of those canals that are like streets for the neighborhood of Downtown Ft. Lauderdale.
I was impressed with the trees and water and the nice flowers at a church across the street. We left there and went to a parking lot at one end of the beach drive A1A and walked the entire length of the beach down to where Sunrise boulevard intersects the A1A and turned around and walked back. There we found a cool sunset with palm trees and a couple green herons hanging around the piers.

the path into the park was very inviting so we walked over to see what we could see...

We saw the canal turns by the park and there was a lot of passing traffic.

spanish moss hangs in some of the trees

Bird of paradise show their blue tongues when they bloom before they are cut.

orchids blooming in a planter box by the church

High-rise hotels and condos are spectacular but they block the afternoon sun on Ft. Lauderdale beach.

see how shady it is in the afternoon on the beachfront!

this shows the walk we were on which runs along the edge of the beach with a short white wall that opens at intersections to let swimmers in and has little open showers to wash off your feet before you put your shoes back on after swimming.

Monster buildings really change the feel of the beach front. They look a lot like the giant cruise ships that pass by leaving and coming into port.

Keith carried his heavy camera and long lens to get some good photos

one of two green herons I spotted there and under the pier where I was standing

sky turned orange in the end

that is the other green heron flying over to meet the first

This was a day with a high temperature of 81ºF and we really enjoyed extra low humidity that made it extra nice for a long walk. Great way to start our new year. Sunshine warm weather and exercise walking with lots to see along the way.

2011 ends in Florida

2012-01-08T14:22:00.001-05:00

View of the saw grass glades from the top of the levy at the edge of civilisation in Weston Florida

Keith and I had the good fortune to get a week in Florida for Christmas from my Mom and with his help I got to fly down and stay a week in a very nice time share apartment. We for the first time in our 13 years together spent new year's eve in a different place. It was great fun seeing bright sunshine warm temperatures and fireworks mixed with holiday lights on palm trees and balconies. I also acquired a new Kodak point and shoot camera from him for the trip and future documentation of our creative projects. I used it down in Florida and brought back several hundred images of the cool stuff we saw and experienced on our visit. I don't want to show them all in one post because I am still editing them and it's too many so I will begin with the sketches and location shots of our first couple days.

We arrived in the afternoon after getting up very early to meet the requirement to be screened early for the flight out of National Airport in Washington DC. We picked up a rental car from Enterprise after a lengthy ride in a cab out into the city of Fort Lauderdale.
It was a nice little Dodge and then ventured to find our home for the week in Weston at the intersection of Alligator Alley and the Vacation Village complex of 20 plus time share buildings right on the edge of the Saw grass region of the everglades. This entire area was stolen to make space for new construction from the natural shallow waterway of the grass covered everglades and is subsequently under a 99 year moratorium on new building as the nation tries to restore the water flow of the glades. It was filled with lakes and ponds and canals of water going along all the roads. The Levy we visited and saw from the air as we flew out and over the airport before landing. It was exciting to see where we were headed from the air before we drove there. We went grocery shopping and found registration eventually and got to our 4th floor unit by about sunset. The first night we unpacked and made dinner and got settled in and fell asleep pretty early.

Keith caught in caught in the headlights with the rental car he drove us around Florida in and a branch he found of dried leaves.

Living room area with door to the deck that faced east. Internet connection was important to allow Keith to keep posting photos of his daily ikebana arrangements on the 365 days of ikebana.

Giant King sized bed we had in the bedroom with a door to the deck

view of the Vacation Village Heron II building and our pool. Our Heron I building looked the same as this one

Keith collected some flowers from the hedges around the community for his ikebana

I sketched the flowers he brought in in the glass of water on the table

Jasmine flowering was my first sketch of the trip

I took along a new panel of crazy quilt to embroider on the trip.

sketch of flowers and lily pods all from the time share gardens

delicious pears we at as desert with a galette each night

sketch with dried leaves and pod found on walks in Keith's ikebana

Then on the second day we went exploring right in the area. I noticed on the map a state park across the highway from our development called Markham park. It was a 5 minute drive from our apartment and we wanted to get out and take a nice walk somewhere besides the long heavily landscaped boulevards of the community. As luck would have it the park was on the edge of the Saw grass glades and backed up to the 30-50 foot tall levy that keeps the flood waters out of the city. We got in for $3.00 and asked where we could walk and were sent to the "nature walk" area next to the levy which was planted with native plants and flowers and was "safe" but told to be very cautious if we went outside the park because wild life was everywhere. Alligators and snakes and scorpions... and the park couldn't be responsible if we got hurt or eaten. So we watched our step very carefully. The view didn't look very interesting but on closer inspection we discovered thousands of tiny flowers and lots of beautiful orange mostly butterflies! Birds and no snakes or gators. We spent a couple hours in the sun enjoying taking photos and walking and just soaking up the 81ºF afternoon sun. The trail was mowed and about 4 feet wide and the levy had a big gravel road on top and the sides were trimmed so we could see down into the watery saw grass areas and back to the other side where there was a canal and campers at it's edge.

orange butterfly on a wild flower

the trail through the nature walk area was well mowed and the shrubbery was about 3-5 feet tall on either side.

beautiful tiny wild red tassel flower

water level ruler at the canal by some control equipment and a cross over to get to the levy beyond.

Egret on the edge of the canal across from the camping area. We saw it from the top of the levy.

White egret on the edge of the canal didn't mind us 15 feet away

bright sunshine made it hard not to squint at the camera but what a view!

saw grass and water lilies in the shallow waters with a few cattails on the edge we learned later cattails are not native to this area and are considered invasive plants that crowd out natives...

tiny black butterfly wasn't bigger than my thumb nail

honey bees were collecting

butterfly on a red wild tassel flower

There were so many butterflies and they were flitting around these white wildflowers it was hard to catch them still because they didn't tarry long on any one flower. Getting close was essential because from a distance they just blended into the scenery of green and white with dots of color. The bright sunlight made it hard to see them without careful attention. It was a great way to begin our vacation out in nature and away from the noise and city life we normally lead. Warm weather and the breezes of soft fresh air and all that at the edge of civilization safe in a great little state park. It was a magical way to being the visit and then after dark we found the movie we have been waiting to see. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. We ate and went to see it for New Years Eve. Got home before all the excitement of the last minutes of 2011 and shared a nice supper with sparkling cider.

sketchy lead into Christmas

2011-12-22T13:28:00.002-05:00

fading roses next to the amaryllis still going strong

Red piano roses, my favorite holiday treat from Keith.

Mom's new Christmas Cactus

flowers and card on the book case next to my desk

beige roses and red amaryllis

There we have an armload of flowers sketched over the last couple weeks. Lots of red roses and amaryllis and a few white and beige roses. I was doing great then all of a sudden last Friday night asleep in bed this weird thing happened to my mouth. I got some sort of sore lump in the cheek. It was naturally a weekend infection and I didn't want to go wait in line at the ER so I waited for a walk-in appointment at the clinic Dentist Monday morning. By then I had a fat face and a lot of pain that Tylenol and Aleve were not helping and I was beginning to feel sick as if the infection in my mouth was making me sick all over. Fever came later and the swelling continued for another 36 hours after I started antibiotics and pain killers. Then like magic after a plate of home made chocolate chip black walnut cookies I had a nap and woke up with no pain... From that moment forward the swelling receded and the fever began to lower. I didn't do any sketches for a couple of days because the pressure on my head just made it too difficult to get to work on a sketch. Well that is over the swelling is almost completely gone and the pains over. I did continue to do some casual embroidery on my newest crazy quilt panel which is coming along nicely. Now I am collecting my things to go out and spend the holiday with Mom and my brother in Manassas. Sketching will happen. Flowers are ready to go and cookies are being consumed all along the way. More waiting in Manassas I hope!
Merry Christmas to you all.

busy discovering

2011-12-15T16:39:00.003-05:00

Freer Museum: Japanese black lacquer tea box with inset mother of pearl and brass wires

This past week has been busy discovering new people and places and enjoying the many projects I have under way. My partner Keith Stanley has made great efforts to stick to his plan to keep making a new Ikebana arrangement each day and photographing and posting these for the world to see. That is a huge commitment of effort and time and daring to promise one's self that you will do this for 365 days consecutively with no holidays! I want to salute him for his efforts and success with this creative Ikebana blogging project as well as completing his teacher training certificate to be certified a full Sogetsu Ikebana teacher . If you haven't seen it, you ought to take a few minutes to review some of the 150 arrangements that have been done since he began. KeithStanley.com

As a result of his work and displays on the Internet he has made friends around the world with similar interests in Ikebana flower arrangements. One in particular who also just completed his training to be a Sogetsu Ikebana teacher is Lennart Persson who also blogs about his work in Norway The Nordic Lotus Ikebana Blog. The fun part of this friendship for me came this week when Lennart and his husband Svein arrived in Washington DC and contacted Keith to say they would like to meet us. We spent a couple days visiting and touring together while they also visited a 19 year old niece who is here studying journalism for a year in Northern Virginia. We shared a visit to the Sackler and Freer Asian Art Museums with a tour through the lovely Peacock room decorated by Whistler and currently installed with a huge collection of Asian ceramics. Then last night we took them on a special nighttime tour of some of the big monuments and the Christmas tree at the Capitol. They were great fun to visit with and we found we had lots in common, not just ikebana flower arrangements.

Keith, Lennart and Svein at the Moon gate garden between Sacker and Freer art museums

Keith passing by one of the displays of Japanese ceramics

Chinese brush painting of plum blossoms and pine

Japanese 12th century temple guardian figure

Demon suppressed by the guardians

another demon underfoot all wooden sculpture with polychrome decorations

Svein and Lennart at the MLK memorial camera ready

Svein and Lennart at the MLK memorial

The new MLK memorial is very dramatic at night

four of us at dinner taken by the waitress at Svein's request!

Svein's photo of us at Jefferson Memorial

We finished up our evening tour at the huge and colorful Christmas tree on the lawn of the US Capitol grounds. I didn't get photos of it but it is spectacular and Keith mentioned how he had missed seeing it for a number of years. There it was getting cold and we were hungry so we drove over to an old favorite spot of ours to eat dinners late. The neighborhood bar and restaurant Mr. Henry's was the perfect way to finish up our tour. Both Lennart and Svein are ministers in the Norwegian Anglican Church and they were very excited and delighted to find the offices windows of Caldwell Real estate Brokerage full of delightful Christmas decorations. Apparently this is much more elaborate decorating than anything they have in Norway during this holiday season. Svein took lots of photos and promised to share them with us when he gets a chance to download his cool Olympus camera, a digital that was modeled to look much like a vintage camera.

In between visits with the Nordic fellows I have been working on bookbinding, crazy quilt patch working and my daily sketches.

8.5 x 5.5 inches my new sketchbook covered with paper stained to look like old leather.

Inside the new sketchbook is the Williamsburg marble paper we bought in late October

New sketch book has Tortoise shell colored glass beads

Virginia's red cedar branch I did back in 1999 is added in now

foxglove or digitalis embroidery adding in to the new block

New crazy quilt block before the line embroidery is added

Several new blocks laid out together almost ready to attach and embellish

Inching forward

2011-12-03T13:19:00.001-05:00

Crazy Quilt details

I have been working on quilt projects most of this year little by little. I was lucky to have time and space to spread out and focus on my first real piecework quilt at the red house by the Chesapeake bay a few times this fall and completed it in record time. It came between the long term project that I began when I was twelve a yo-yo quilt which I finished in July. Then I had a crazy quilt I began in 1999 that I had to set into deep storage due to some physical disabilities which made embroidery and complex abstract piecework very painful. After my trip to Williamsburg and completing the Fairhaven Summer Quilt I decided it was time to try a new design of my own which is based on the fencing design I liked there. I also pulled out the crazy quilt pieces to take with me for a long weekend at the bay. Lucky I did because the sewing machine got jammed up and I didn't finish as much as I had hoped to do on the Williamsburg project. So I began working a little hand work again on the crazy quilt blocks. It is always fun but I know I have to go inch by inch not great leaps and bounds to prevent injury to my neck now. How ever it is a delight to work on it little goals come with great pride and reward each time I finish a line of embroidery it feels like a home run or a field goal! I also delight in the images I can make of the close work to share on flickr. and facebook. So I thought it would be fun to show some of them today. I recently bought some dark red velvet to do the edges and hopefully will be able to buy enough to use it as the backing for this elegant creation.

Lavender lacy medallions with yellow-green circular blanket stitches (center)

Added orange blanket stitch triangles on purple square and the lace medallions with lavender circular blanket stitch in the blue green check (center)

Yellow on the purple is a new stitch called Basque stitch

yellow green herringbone on purple plaid plus red french knots was fun to do (lower left)

All the crazy quilt blocks spread out on a double bed in Manassas last time I began work looked pretty close to ready to assemble

Wide view of the room where I worked on the crazy quilt in 2009-10

November wrap up

2011-12-02T14:24:00.001-05:00

Sketch of my bed at the bay under the Fairhaven Summer Quilt now completed

A house with a great view at the Chesapeake Bay

I was so stretched in November that I didn't get time to post news about some of the good stuff I wanted to do so I am taking a little time now to do it here in early December.
There was a trip to the Fairhaven Cliffs and a few days alone in the Red house with a few dozen lady bugs and my completed quilt. I took new materials and worked on the Williamsburg project. I also dug out my Crazy Quilt from the past eleven years and did a little more work on that huge project. I realized I didn't have enough time to do them both so when the machine jammed up I turned to hand embroidery to finish my time at the bay. Then there was a week of volunteer work at the Pyramid Atlantic Arts studio making boxes with my friend Kelly O'Brien for the Moving Parts project. With Gretchen and a couple of volunteers who dropped in we worked for five days almost all day finishing up as much as we could. It's not completely done but we took a big leap forward with 17 fully completed clam shell boxes! Only 26 more to go and since Kelly lives in Germany now we will wait till next summer when she comes back to do some more intensive work towards the goal of 50 completed box sets. In the middle of the week Keith and I went out with a fully cooked organic turkey and some delicious pumpkin pie and feasted with Mom and my brother David and spent the night. Next day we went shopping and I got some more quilting fabrics for the two projects I am working on now and some for a future project. The sale was great at Joann's Fabrics 20% off everything including sale prices! So I splurged and got some red velvet for the Crazy Quilt. I need more so that will be a good wish list item for my Holiday gift list. Then I went back to finish up boxes and in the mean time I have been trying to finish up some binding work of my own journals and sketches.

arrived at the bay in the rain

got to work on the green and white strips

Gray skies didn't discourage and the low tide was amazingly low!

A very handsome house at the top of the hill on the road overlooking the bay

view of the bay from the high ground by neighbor Foust's house

Red house view from the beach with no green leaves or kudzu

clay cliffs

17 clam shell boxes under weights drying

17 clam shell boxes ready to wrap and store at Pyramid Atlantic

Some of the work I finished on the Williamsburg Quilt project

something that belongs in every work of art, sparkle

In the next post I will show the sketches I did the last week riding metro to go volunteer at Pyramid Atlantic Arts Studios....

November metro sketching

2011-12-01T15:11:00.001-05:00

This has been an exciting month with lots of running around. I went to the bay for a few days to work on my new quilt. Then came home and volunteered for a week on the Moving Parts box building project at Pyramid Atlantic Art Studios in Silver Spring. Since my time at Pyramid wrapped around Thanksgiving I decided to ride metro up to Silver Spring each day allowing me some time to sketch and keep my daily routine out on the road. Here are some of the sketches that are in my little pocket sketch book from those commuter days and nights at the end of November.

Lady in beige

Woman with groceries and big circle earrings

The month began with this fellow writing on metro

early in the month this Asian man was my subject downtown on metro

Lady in hound's tooth design jacket and black scarf

head to toe figure guy on metro was my favorite

cell phone dominates the activity of metro riders

night before Thanksgiving travelers showed up on metro this one was so tired she was falling asleep between stops

decked out in lots of color she was wearing knee high boots

best head of the month is the guy in the foreground

Extremely tall guy didn't fit on my page so his neck got tucked in his shoulders

This woman bugged me by eating fried chicken on the train so I drew her

elder Asian couple riding metro

Now it's time to start a new month. November was part of the change from the garden months where I transition to indoor working like these sketches from Metro.

orange red and gold walk through brookland's trees

2011-11-15T16:52:00.001-05:00

small leaf linden gets yellow

oaks in gold orange and scarlet red were in the square in front of Brooks Mansion

the doorway in the distance is the Brooks family Mansion

I believe the District of Columbia's emblem tree is this scarlet oak the color is so red for several days each autumn before they turn brown. I wish we had more of them.

All these trees in one little square area next to Metro parking lot and in front of the the Brooks Mansion that are slated to be cut down to make way for more housing in the not too distant future. It is a nice little square of urban parklike land that happens to belong to the Metro who can do as they please with it in the end. They even planted fruiting plum trees along one edge of the square of land which are picked each year by neighbors and visitors to the area who know when they are ripe. I was just passing by on my way to the post office and knew the colors were going to be pretty good so I took my camera along to see if I could capture some of it before it's history.

walk at the battlefield

2011-11-14T17:08:00.001-05:00

jogger running up the to the Stonewall Jackson monument

This past Friday morning November 11th 20011, I was home in Manassas, the scene of one of the first major battles during the civil war 150 years ago and where there is a large national park on those battle grounds. I had an hour free on Veterans day and decided to go take a walk in the park. It's been a good while since I was up there and this time I discovered a new trail leading to a new section of the park I didn't know could be accessed by walking down this new trail through the woods! Perfect time of year if not the perfect day for a walk there. On the main ground site it was painfully windy and cold 36ºF wind chill they said as I was driving away at 11 in the morning after my walk! I had the small Kodak handy to make a few pictures and enjoyed a woodland and over field walk for 45 minutes by myself. There were a number of runners, joggers and dog walkers there too but I was one of the early birds at 10 AM.

cannon on the ridge overlooking Henry house and Manassas Mountain in the distance, beautiful woods ablaze with color between the field and the mountain.

cluster of oak trees looking kind of red orange stand against the intense wind which made the flags stand straight out this veterans day.

as I approached the woods this red grassy field and the colorful trees beyond built my excitement to see more leaves

The entrance to the trail a wooded section of the park behind the visitors center.

Look carefully at the blow up to see the deer in the woods

It was a doe but about 100 feet further down the trail as a jogger came towards me a buck sauntered across the trail between us and seemed to be limping a bit. He had about 5 antlers on his head.

golden leaves of a young beech tree which may be as much as 15-20 years old they grow very slowly

at the edge of the forest were several more fields along the trail I followed

This reddish grass is one of my favorite things in the fall fields .

The field beyond the trial's edge seen from the woods casting shadows in the foreground

Lots of colored leaves but they didn't photograph as well as they looked with the naked eye.

I want to go back and try one of the long walks. They have one trail that is a full 5-6 miles long! Woods and fields and hills and valleys and Bull run the creek that surrounds one edge of the battlefield is another place to visit during the early spring. It has some great wild flowers that bloom just before the leaves come out on the trees. Next trip will be a winter walk. Maybe on Thanksgiving weekend? Or perhaps during Christmas holiday visits.

Yorktown Va

2011-11-13T11:04:00.001-05:00

On one day during our trip to Williamsburg we decided to drive the short drive down to the third corner of the triangle of historic areas called Yorktown. This is where the American Revolution ended and English surrendered to George Washington and the Continental American army and French naval forces that brought them down. After a visit two years ago Phyllis and Mildred said we would enjoy it and they would come with us. We had a lovely sunny day and the drive was nice and not too long. We arrived and found the area by the York River where they had visited with my sister and brother in law and his mom.
We decided to go check out the historic area on top of the hill and the Mom's just hung out and shopped by the river.
Before we went up we saw the tall ship which was at pier seeking riders for a two hour cruise ($30 per person) it was tempting but costly. Maybe on some future trip we can go for a ride on the tall ship Alliance. I have always wanted to see how it feels to be on a big sail boat like that after reading of all the harrowing crossings our ancestors took back and forth to Europe in these small wind powered vessels.
Keith and I enjoyed a cool local gallery full of crafts from local artists. Quilts pottery even some glass work and naturally lots of watercolor and prints of historic areas and views were in the gallery. Then we just walked around looking at what was there and the many buildings that had been restored and rebuilt. Soon it was time to get back to the river side and eat a great meal with the two ladies who brought us out there. We had a view of the river in the restaurant and saw the tall ship go sailing by during the 2 PM cruise!
We also saw the coast guard doing drills at the piers. They were pulling up to the pier attaching ropes to the piers then unhooking them and driving back out and in again over and over. Three or four boats were all doing this at the piers. I enjoyed the visit and had a very good walk up and down the hill that day. We all slept well that night.
This is the end of my Williamsburg photo essays. Hope to go back and next time with a better camera and even more time to explore all the nooks and corners and museums and historic houses and gardens that are so intriguing and interesting and always evolving with new discoveries and new stories of how the new world was in the 1700's in the colonial era.

Phyllis, Keith and Mildred seated at the river walk where there were plenty of benches to rest upon. Notice they all wear dark glasses.

Keith working hard to get a close up of a moving target

Monarch butterflies love the nectar of lantana flowers

One of my favorite butterflies on asters by the river walk

two of the coast guard ships pulling in and out of the piers

Three coast guard boats drilling docking maneuvers under the massive bridge

coast guard ties up the speed boat....

Two sail boats at the piers, the little one in front only had one mast.

the tall ship up close from the pier

the back door to the corner house

brick wall around a big formal garden nice to a very large colonial home

up on the hill a few historic houses

The first sail went up on the three masted tall ship as we were heading back to eat lunch

Finally as we were waiting on our food the big tall ship went by with full display of it's sails! Really nice way to end the perfect touring afternoon.

Williamsburg II

2011-11-09T13:42:00.000-05:00

There was a first day on our visit to Willamsburg when we toured the gardens and just enjoyed the beautiful light on all the old and reconstructed buildings. I get a kick out of looking and making photos of all these patterns colors textures and compositions.

Pomegranates ripe and ready

pomegranate flowering in a pot

tomaotes

beauty berry a native to Virginia

cool porch design in a back yard view

lady in red riding sidesaddle

gate with a hedge overhead

fancy backyard

Lady riding in a towncar

handsome out house

another white mulberry leans over the street

passing colonials

lady with a hen

hen on a leash was with the lady in red

Orange leaves against the red wall

kitchen garden and out houses for smoking meats and keeping milk cold

hen house

Sheep

Tavern kitchen garden

white mulberry tree trunk cut back but not down

unusual fence design framing the lovely hedge and yellow leaves

Love that blue sky against the red and orange

The old courthouse under the cotton puff clouds

new idea quilting

2011-11-06T12:00:00.001-05:00

I had an idea as I was finishing up my Fairhaven Summer Quilt project last week for a design based on a fence pattern at Powhatan Plantation in Williamsburg, Virginia. I saw and photographed a few of the fences and one in particular faciated me for many reasons. I recall there was a moment when I realized as a kid that not all fences were put together the same way. These designs are very geometic and thus very good for flat designs like in a fiber art project such as a quilt. My father once told me about a design he and uncle Herb put in the banister around my Grandparents front porch... he also talked and pointed out some of those classical colonial designs he had studied when we went to Williamsburg in a book to me at some point. So this idea has roots in my childhood when I was learning about Architectural history from my father.

the railing at Powhattan to the left of the doorway.

making green and white striped fabric to begin

folding and cutting to create triangles from the stripes

assemble the short sides of the triangles to make a square

the resulting new quilt block design

new friend resuced

2011-11-06T11:46:00.002-05:00

across the street the first look at Doug and his new dog "Jazz"

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting my pal Douglas Kingsbury and his new rescue dog . It was my job to get some photos of him since Doug has had his hands full taking care of this new 3 year old rescue Airedale he hasn't had an opportunity to get it's picture. I can see why since Jazz as they were calling him is very busy and interested in everything almost like a puppy. We went for a walk and then came home to see what sketched beginnings of paintings Douglas had to show and visited with Jazz a little too. He has only been in his new home for about a week. I have to say he was very friendly and I fell in love pretty quickly with his charming good looks and sweet disposition. I think he is going to be a great pet once he gets settled in and learns the signals Doug and his husband Bob are trying to use to educate the dog on how to behave in a busy urban setting. After the date with Jazz who will likely be getting a new name soon that sounds something like Jazz. Doug and I had a nice lunch and went to the free day at the Phillips to see the ballet paintings and sketches and a couple sculptures by Edgar Degas. It was a perfect fall afternoon for friends dogs and Degas. I took the metro to and from Mount Pleasant and did sketches both ways. We walked a lot and really had a fun afternoon. I look forward to seeing more of Doug and his dog in the future since the dog will help ground our world traveler a bit for the next few years.

Douglas Kingsbury and his new dog

he was a whirl wind in the kitchen waiting for his lunch ... and reminds me of Tin Tin the European cartoon guy who had a dog like Jazz!

He has a very expressive face and body language.

one sunny autunm afternoon in Williamsburg

2011-11-06T11:30:00.000-05:00

heritage breed cattle red and responsive if you talk to them

orange leaves and a surviving original house of a wealthy colonial lawyer

spectacular skies and colors

orange maple leaves by the court house

tourists taking portraits and the orange tree with magazine in the background

my favorite walkway is a whole block long with ancient boxwood hedges on both sides

The hedge starts next to the Powell house which was recently turned over to Colonial Williamsburg foundation by the last surviving resident owner

Gates and gardens are always interesting

heritage sheep first breed to have long haired wool

broken brick courtyards were the work yard between house and kitchens outback

dappled autumn light on the patterns of white

more colorful leaves and a cool banister fence design

split log fencing

wood workers house?

palace

spectacularly red with berries

gates need some sanding and fresh paint. the weak economy is hurting CW

close up of the berry laden holly tree and palace gate to the stables

Orange is part of autumn

2011-11-05T09:27:00.000-04:00

Turkey Thicket play ground across the street from our apartment is orange

upright oak has a nice green vein in the yellowing leaves

forest is only a couple blocks from our apartment

yellow catches the sun when seen from the forest floor

view out my window where I sit at the computer

all over the place

2011-11-04T16:04:00.000-04:00

riding down the road with Keith and Mom I got to draw in the backseat next to the bucket of flowers

I have been traveling and taking photos a lot the past couple weeks and I got overwhelmed by the volume of pictures I had to edit this week while watching the trees in our neighborhood turning my favorite colors everywhere... I would say this is an important time for a guy who likes orange to be recording the colors in the dramatic sunlight that comes this time of year.
We went to Williamsburg VA and visited Yorktown and Jamestown Island with my mother and her pal Mildred for a week. We did a lot of outlet shopping to replace clothes that don't fit us any longer due to the great weight loss we managed to pull off this summer. We even ate out a lot more than usual but did our best to stick to the rules for the last phase of our diet. But I could write and write volumes of stories about what we did and what we saw but they are always better with pictures. So I want to divide it up. Make several posts and try to catch up a little at a time. So I will begin with the trip to Williamsburg.

Keith and I on a cold rainy afternoon in Jamestown Island National Park

Powhatan Plantation House at dusk subject of the sketch below

I sat in the dark on a rock in a drainage ditch to get this sketch before the light was completely gone

Our digs at Powhatan time share were surrounded by great branches of berries and patterns of colonial Virginia

The puzzle table was a unlikely subject for a sketch

Mildred was just working intently on putting together the puzzle and seemed to be ready made as a subject.

James river lapping waves on the island drive

marsh was high from rains

Nearly so high that water as to wash over the roadways

Pygmy deer stag passed over the road with a full set of antlers!

The marsh and river beyond at tip of Jamestown Island

Orange pine needles covered the edges of the roadway

grasses are reddish orange in the marsh this time of year

The leaves were just beginning to show the colors of autumn

Keith was cold in his fleece as the wet wind blew on him

Much more comfortable at the Williamsburg Market place shopping center later...

I am going to stop here. This covers the Jamestown Island tour but you can see the full set of photos on my flickr.com page. This link will take you there...
Woodcut55onflickr.com

Lunch with Kermit

2011-10-21T15:59:00.003-04:00

Today I had the privilege of going to meet my friend artist Kermit Berg for a preview of his new exhibition at Washington DC's Gallery Plan B on 14th St. at Q St. NW and going to lunch to catch up on some of what I have been missing since he moved to the west coast a couple years ago.

Kermit is a fine artist who uses Adobe photo-shop and digital photographs and manipulates them a lot to create many layered collages of urban scenes. He was the first person I knew who embraced the computer as a tool for making prints and his art. This show is focused on a trip to Japan about 18 months ago. They are layers of office building reflections in dark windows and lights. There are what looks to be airbrushed graffiti like lines and dots Incorporated into the layers but honestly it is nearly impossible to label them with any certainty one thing or the other. I love Kermit's work because it is so details without showing all the hours of work he puts into creating the final prints. He is the sweetest Midwestern guy who is fluent in German and he spends a lot of time in one of my favorite places, Berlin, Germany. I met him in a Washington Cafe because he was reading a German newspaper one day back in the 1990's and we hit it off as art pals right away.

Tom at gallery plan b

Today he told me a little about the show and introduced me to Tom who is taking care of the gallery this afternoon. We liked him in his bright blue fleece jacket sitting at the desk in front of one of Kermit's Tokyo prints. The colors were well balanced...
We went to lunch in a little Crepe restaurant on 14th St. my friend Tom Palmer introduced me to a few months ago and had delicious crepes filled with mushrooms cheese and avocado. Kermit's two person show is opening Saturday evening 6-8:00 PM, I plan to attend with Keith before we rush home to do our last minute packing for our next trip. Mom and her best pal Mildred are taking us down to Williamsburg, Virginia with plans to visit Richmond's Fine Arts Museum one day next week in addition to all the cool stuff there is to see in Colonial W'burg and the discount shopping. I am looking forward to being in the Colonial village again. Today I had my sketch book and camera on my trip downtown on metro and walking and here a few things I wanted to share:

sailor in uniform napping on the metro

delightful colors on a home on Wallack St. NW

detail of Wallack St. NW home

coleus on Wallack St. NW

10-21-11 morning sketch of begonia in the studio

quilt in the hoop getting stitched together

I like the way the patterns look up close

2011-10-21T15:23:00.001-04:00

routine stuff

2011-10-20T23:51:00.000-04:00

Quilt in the hoop looks interesting on the diagonal

I like looking at the various fabrics side by side

bright color arrived in the studio yesterday

I laid out tools to begin covering a new sketch book and completed that task today

orange is here too

I like the way the bowl of orange and yellow glows blue like a halo

Panorama from the sketch-crawl I lead last Saturday on the Metropolitan Branch bicycle Trail

Army Corps of Engineers plant along the side of the MBT

Power station for Trains along the MBT

Coffee drinker reading spread sheets in the cafe this morning

metro rider reading a news paper

return trip on metro during evening rush hour

third week at the bay

2011-10-17T16:23:00.000-04:00

quilt top

quilt back

one of the inspirations for the Fairhaven quilt was the amazing colors of the sky over open water

I spent a third week at the Chesapeake bay red house alone the beginning of October. Molly invited us back to finish our retreat that we interrupted by hurricane Irene. It was almost a month hence and things were a little different but much the same in the house this time adding heat over night as the night time temperatures were below a chill. Once I got all my food and artist and life materials packed and loaded up the drive was quick. The red house was just like we left it last August 27th after the power failed and we had to pack up and come home to the city a week early. Keith couldn't come with me this time so I was prepared for a different kind of experience. I packed up the quilt I began and took it back with new materials for a back design and added an ironing board and card table to expand my set up to be more user friendly. Before all I had was a side table for the sewing machine and a stack of twin beds for "table" space and ironing. This time I had a goal of finishing the top design sewing and making a back and getting them put together with a sandwich of cotton batting in between so I could begin quilting here at home. I also took my big sketch book for morning watercolors and my journal for morning pages. Food and water to drink.... casual clothes and flannel bed sheets.
I arrived to find Molly was in the city and Cappy was there alone. I got my things unloaded and got right to work making my dinner. Then I ate it and walked over to tell Cappy Ruppert that I was there and show him my sketch book. He hadn't seen any of the work I have done from the first visit. We enjoyed a nice visit over some decaf coffee. Molly arrived back from her big Wash. Project for the Arts (WPA) party excited to tell us all about the people and places she had seen. We stayed up late discussing everything we could think of about the time since our last meeting. I told her my plan to finish up the quilt top first.
I completed a daily watercolor sketch each day. I worked all day every day except one on the quilt parts and stopped to cook, eat and walk to enjoy my experience of the Fairhaven community and did a few artist visits with Molly and neighbors who were all very supportive of my work. On my walks I met a wood worker from Arizona named George. He is doing some extra fine finish work on his brother the architect's house at the top of the hill. I also met a neighbor of his Farley who has a lovely garden I stopped to photograph and found her nestled in the steps next door on a walk the next day. She was kind of hidden from sight soaking up the afternoon sun. It was fun walking in the late summer sunny days. It had been cloudy the first part of the week. I had a visit from three of the Ruppert grand children who helped me get a start on the quilt parts placement in my design. They are going to make a quilt with other grand children and Molly next summer! I was helping them get a feel for how to begin.

The Fairhaven Cliffs

My quilt workroom

View of the bay on Sunday the first morning was cloudy

Monday was cloudy too

Teddy wearing dad's long striped soccer socks, Christian and youngest brother Michael placing strips of fabric on the felt board helping me design the layout of my quilt top.

cloudy day view of the bay from Foust's house

Clouds come and go thick and thin....

Foust's house garden native hibiscus is red.

native flowers by the road

view from the bridge between the bay and the lake looking back at the cliffs up the bay side.

Same place as above looking towards the lake near the bridge

a road up to the Fairhaven Flats

container garden using drift wood container an idea that will be stolen for my own garden

Blue herons like this spot to fish on the bay we saw them daily

The cliffs from the end of the pier

early morning view of the hill beside the red house

watercolor sketch of the same...

a white tailed deer with small antlers appeared twice on the hill to graze in the afternoons

On the road by Tacaro a brick baron's estate near by begged for a bicycle ride or a walk. I settled for a drive to save time to work on my projects.

field of pumpkins and cattle seen on my trip out of Fairhaven on Tuesday to get groceries

close up of the cattle and pumpkins in the field

Last day this boat had been moored in front of my window all night and set sail as I was having lunch.

dozens of these butterflies were feasting on local asters everywhere when the sun came out.

numerous monarch butterflies were seen passing by my window and I caught this one on Foust's butterfly bush

actual view of the work station for sewing and ironing

My drift wood brought home to make a hens and chicks container like the one at the bay.

the drift wood has very cool inner recesses that will be covered with sand, pebbles and sempervivum and sedum this time next year.

detail of quilting work with pearle threads

hoop on quilt and some of the pearle threads I am using to quilt by hand

I am very grateful to Molly Ruppert for this generous gift of lodging in the red house at the edge of the bay. What a treat to be given and share with her the lovely Chesapeake bayside life. I dream of having a house of my own like this but even a short visit is a blissful experience. Now I have my work cut out to get the Fairhaven Summer Quilt completed. I began quilting as soon as I got home and settled in I know it isn't going to take as long as the yoyo quilt did because this quilt is well on the way towards completion. Special thanks also to Steven Stichter for his advice on working with pearle embroidery threads which he used in his amazing creations. I went to see him last weekend and got a fast review of his work and all the questions I needed answered in less than two hours.

in the studio

2011-10-01T12:21:00.000-04:00

sunrise at the bay seen from the red house

Back out on the porch today to draw with cold wind and showers it's like November not the first of October. This afternoon I am heading out to the red house in Fairhaven Cliffs to spend a week alone. I am going to miss my partner who has too many things to do in town this week to join me but we both like having time alone. It's a chance to do things at our own pace. This morning the ikebana arrangement he left was the subject of my sketch. I will miss having flowers arrangements to turn to as I draw but there is the bay view which will fill in it's place or other curious things that I don't have access to here at home. I am looking forward to some time to spread out and get to work sewing on my bay project this week and visiting with the Rupperts.

in the garden this morning

2011-09-30T10:09:00.001-04:00

red leaf banana and canna lily sketch

Beautiful sunny weather returned inviting a visit to the well watered garden. It's cool and the chill is coming but today was lovely in the shady back yard. I went out to see what I could find to sketch and the banana with red leaves was so dramatic I chose it again. Shade made the photo of the drawing look blueish. A scan will capture the real colors best.

rocket golden rod first time blooming in our garden

blackberry lily seed pods over hosta and pink sedum

spider who's net I discovered between flower beds by walking into it...

asters

bananas and flowering canna

in the studio

2011-09-29T11:46:00.002-04:00

Tropicana rose etc. on gray seamless paper

Today the last rose from the garden was crying out to be featured in my sketch book. I set up a small seamless paper to give it a little more focus and got to work. First I draw with my water based ink - fountain pen. Then I begin mixing and filling in the colors stating with the background usually.

the set up

final sketch happens to be on the first page of a signature in my hand made sketch book. See the glass beads that are sewn between signatures?

trimmed to focus on the sketch

I am pretty happy with the results but I think after looking at the photos I could have used the orange of the rose hips on the rose instead of the salmon pink I chose if I was going for exact reproduction. I also see that the burgundy leaves were darker at the bottom near the pink sedum. Looking at it with naked eye I could not make out that shadowy area. That is one of the examples of how photos change the real and flatten things out that your eye sees better and with much more detail of shading.

drawing

2011-09-28T16:45:00.000-04:00

Keith reading at the laundry

ikebana arrangement

I have been drawing sketches daily for over a year now. I began after my male figure drawing group had been on break for a few weeks last year. We left the Warehouse gallery space and were between venues when I decided I wasn't drawing often enough and I needed to do something to keep my skills sharp. I started drawing little things around the house like NYC artist Danny Gregory recommended to us in his books years ago. First with just sepia-black ink then sometime last year I added watercolors to the daily sketching. I make my own sketchbooks. The size at first was small. I began using little 5.5" by 4.25" books I call "pocket books" because they used to fit in my jeans hip pocket. Initially the drawings only took about 10 to 15 minutes. Sometimes if I chose a complex subject it could take me twice as long but it always seems worth the effort to draw something every day. Drawing this way began just for myself only because I wanted the practice. I feel like drawing is a meditation technique I am lucky to know how to do and not using it daily is a waste. I soon realized that I need affirmation and showing my work always makes me fell better about myself and my work. It also elicits complements and everyone likes those. I am lucky to live with Keith who is a floral designer and a great gardener which means we have flowers around the house and yard nearly all year long. I love flowers and really enjoy the challenge of drawing them. Still life seems to be my most comfortable form of daily sketch for me at this point. I have been thinking that my membership in some of the Urban Sketchers groups is a bit odd. My work tends to be still life not urban life. I don't do much with cityscapes or buildings and I don't hang out in public places very often since I live in what is almost a suburb which doesn't have a Starbucks or a nice cafe with interesting people to draw. I do draw metro riders bumps and jarring lines included free of charge by the erratic drivers of the trains. I sometimes sketch visitors to galleries but people are always moving in the city and it's hard to get good representations of them unless you can get them to sit or stand still. I don't get to ride metro everyday or visit museums and galleries or cafes regularly. So flowers, fruit, bottles and stuff around the house are still and don't change quickly and make good study subjects for a simple morning meditation with pen and ink or a pencil usually colored with my watercolors.
This year I enlarged my sketchbook to 8.5" by 5.5" and it takes a little longer to draw and paint in a bigger sketch allowing more room to make detail. I even made myself a special project book, a huge book to use out at the Chesapeake bay retreat thinking about how much time I would have there without the computer nor television to distract me. That book is a 10" by 13" and required bigger brushes and more time to finish even simple sketches. Size matters and I got a recommendation from Janis Goodman that I should draw my plants really big, like on the wall big. She didn't know that I live in a shared one bedroom apartment and have no room to create such drawings or paintings and even if I did where would I put them? How would I afford frames to protect them or show them? Big has many draw backs but I gather it also adds importance to the finished product if it is big. I enjoy small things and ever since I left collage I realized I was going to have to work smaller than I did back at Pratt Institute in the 1970's.
Showing work on Facebook and Flickr.com has been a lot of fun and I have received many clicks on the "like" thumb or the "favorite" star from all sorts of friends family and even strangers. I want to share my sketches and I am thinking I ought to do something like my partner Keith is doing. He has decided to show his flower arrangements daily on his own website. www.keithstanley.com for an entire year. I am wondering if I shouldn't do the same here on my orange blog. Daily sketches of my drawing books posted here instead of the postings on Facebook where I am always distracted by other interesting posts. On Flickr.com I often get side tracked and many times inspired by looking at my contacts photographs from around the world.
Drawing daily doesn't mean I am going to post every day. I find the routine is kind of hard to keep up while traveling. I can draw but having access to post them and time to edit the photos of them is often impossible when I am out of town. So I am going to allow myself the luxury of posting daily sketches as soon as I can not every single day of the year. I will start with today's sketch of the arrangement Keith did yesterday. It is fun to see the sketch and the photos of the sketch subject side by side. I often find that looking at the finished painting next to the subject in a photo of the two together gives me tips on ways that I could improve the painting and drawing. In today's sketch I see the begonia leaves are much too light a green so I went back later and added more. Your comments are welcome here just like on the other venues where my drawings appear but I want you to know that I have to approve them to avoid spamers from sending ridiculous messages via my comments section.

Metro riders bouncy and moving

metro riders

National Gallery of Art waiting for a lecture by David McCullough

Metropolitan Branch Trail walk tour

2011-09-21T17:52:00.001-04:00

Quest the visual artist who talked about her mural projects on the trail.

Quest's van she is painting

Quest and Spokesman for EverybodyWalk.org

The meeting point at 400 S. st. NE for tour of trail and free lunch in green boxes

waiting for more tourists

Tour leader Heather Deutsch is center talking to participants about the tour

waiting to get walking...

walking to get to Quest's mural about half a mile up the trail

A mural project along the trail and some wild flowers

Quest talking and pointing at a mural project she managed on the trail

She works with kids and they designed her mural then painted it with only one hours instruction in spray painting.

The biggest mural in DC is as long as a football field at the parking lot by the trial near Rhode Island Ave.

one of seven totems recently installed at RI Ave. entrance to the trail

Another cool mural at the head of the trail where it enters Brookland. This mural's theme is the Anacostia rivers history

We all turned around and walked back to S. street

Today I took a chance and went to tour the Metropolitan Branch Trail with a walking group. Heather Deutsch from the City came and told us all about numerous things along the trial. She says that since the cameras went over the trail and police have been patrolling more there haven't been any more muggings on the MBT. Media often over hypes these sorts of crime stories. I was really pleased to have a big group to walk the trail with me for the first time. Now I have seen there are places that would be great sketching along the trail and more and more art going up all the time. This is a great thing to have near my home. We saw about 10 bicycles pass while we were walking and a few walkers too besides the tour group. They headed downtown to the Kaiser Health center but I was tired and needed to come home to get some work done so I said good bye after 1.5 hours touring. The mural artist Quest was cool and moved here from West Coast where she says people are more friendly but she has only lived here for three weeks. She has a work live space in the new Dance Place artists residency building on 7th St. right next door to Mr. Lee's garage where we get our car worked on regularly. It's also on the road that is designated part of the MBT near our Brookland Metro. I heard about the tour on facebook. Free lunch was nice and healthy from Ridgewells a DC catering company. Thanks Heather for a great tour!

an adjustment

2011-09-21T17:33:00.000-04:00

Felt hangs on a pole, a new quilting aid.

Home from two weeks at the Chesapeake Bay as I settled into our one bedroom apartment I quickly found I needed to get a felt on the wall to work on the quilt blocks. First problem was our vintage plaster and lath walls. I couldn't push a pushpin into them to hold up my big white felt. This great 6 x 6 foot white felt I used at the red bay house so effectively for the first time is now essential for designing the layout and considering the colors and shapes of any quilt. I knew I would have to find a way to get the felt on the wall before I could continue working on the this newest quilt in earnest. I let it sit and day dreamed about possible solutions.

view of the entire pole hanging near the ceiling

I tried pushpins first and that was impossible. Then I tried some duct tape, and that worked for about ten minutes! Then down came the felt little by little, one corner slipping loose re-stuck then another and it was clear that I found something duct tape can't do! The sticky duct tape pulled loose from the felt but not the wall. Then I thought again about what could work without putting massive holes or sticky glue on our walls. I have one wall in my bedroom that is free of artworks in frames. I decided I would dedicate this wall with a rod quilt hanging system for my felt or finished quilt work from here on in... I went the next day to the local hardware store and bought an eight foot long wooden closet pole as straight as could be found, in addition to two eye hook screws. I got it home and drilled holes into the ends of the pole. Then I screwed the eye hooks into the ends and added picture wire loops to hang the pole on picture hooks. I use an European type of picture hook (see a picture of hooks here) which have pin like nails with a brass hook, these are best hangers I ever found for plaster walls. I learned about them from my years as an art installation worker where we had to be very concerned about damaging clients walls. These picture hook nails don't break the plaster like normal nails do because they are very sharp, thin and extra hard steel. They can be reused too and don't leave a big hold in the wall when you pull them out like other hook and nail hangers.

I set up the sewing machine on the porch table. I then got the felt, folded and pinned one side over and sewed a long channel to hang on the pole like a curtain on a rod. Strung it on the pole then climbed up and hung the felt on it's new rod about six inches from the ceiling.
While I was wondering what to do about my felt hanging situation I had a conversation with a social worker from the Veterans Administration who said that quilters she knows work with a whole room of their house devoted to the purpose of quilting! We sure don't have that kind of space but I am doing the best I can by giving one wall to felt for designing. I still have to iron on top of a carefully padded dresser. And as you can see a lot of other stuff.

ironing board area at foot of the bedroom

Then I run out to the back porch studio where the light is great and the sewing machine sits on the work table while I am using the space for sewing. It's kind of a long walk from bedroom corner to the ironing station then out back to the sewing machine and back for each new seam I sew but I don't know how else to do it right now. The trouble is the best light my old eyes need for detail work is on the northwest facing all glass porch.

Check out the new block I created after I got the felt hung and began working again. I wanted to show that things were kind of jagged and giggled at the Bay the two weeks we were there. Our first earthquake shook us seriously and made the house feel unsteady under our feet and flying branches broke a window pane during the hurricane. Otherwise the experience was a delight and even those things were adventure full of adrenalin.

first time adding a Y intersection where three seams come together at the base of the V insert.

This still needs to be refined and tried a few more times to get the hang of sewing V shaped inserts. I think it is not bad for a first try with no instructions. It is engineering fabrics to do what I want them to do. Suddenly I have a new understanding of what piece work is all about in quilting.

the sun is back

2011-09-09T15:39:00.002-04:00

I am sitting here at my desktop looking out the window seeing something delightful we have not had around here lately, sunshine is once again casting shadows on the wet tall overgrown green grass out in the field across the street.
It is a wonderful uplifting feeling to see that simple dark light pattern once again after so long an absence. I am feeling so light and my energy came flying back after a lot of dark days and gloomy feelings.
After my trip to the bay for two weeks where we were run out by a power failure due to heavy rains and winds from hurricane Irene, another storm named Lee swept over the Washington DC metro area moving much slower. Lee's remnants moving in from south west combined with other low pressure systems meeting it from due west to make this a soggy week to remember. It isn't over yet but the rains from Lee are about to give way to more seasonal weather!

In the meantime my sketches have been harder to find subjects for around the house. Low light and not much access to the outdoors makes it a real challenge each day to choose a subject. I settled into a couple days of sketches of our plastic/rubber clogs that sit on the porch floor waiting to carry us out into the soggy yard. Keith has a first pair that were dark green and I had two sets of bright red over the last 12 years. They don't wear out but because they are joined in a joint down the middle, they split in time right up the center of the top of the shoe. I tried to repair the first set with duct tape which held for about a week but as soon as I went to dig in them the seam ripped the tape like a pair of scissors. I tried glue and that broke, then glue and tape... and in the end we ordered a new pair and disposed of the first set. The second set broke then the green ones also broke all in the same way. Then Keith found they don't make these type anymore in Germany so he found a newer version by Birkenstock also from Germany and they came in real orange with a steel toe! Clearly a work shoe for European gardeners and folks who have to be in wet floor situations. I drew them both and managed to get the green shoes repaired with monster brand glue but we don't do any heavy digging in the repaired shoes. They work well for a quick trip to the compost pile or a run to recycle a bag of plastic and glass containers out back. They make a pretty good subject to draw and paint due to the colors and that challenging shape.

I have always admired the wooden clogs Paul Gauguin carved and painted back in the 1800's I have admired his many times in the National Gallery of Art's cases. see Gauguin clog image on the NGA's website here >> http://www.nga.gov/fcgi-bin/timage_f?object=112663&image=10723&c=

Now I am going out to enjoy a walk in the sunshine of late afternoon!

retreat with a hurricane

2011-08-28T19:58:00.000-04:00

Molly's red house is down under the hill in a valley that leads directly to the bay side beach.

I have had the most wonderful two weeks full of fun creative and colorful experiences. My pal Molly Ruppert and her big family have a few homes out in a community called Fairhaven Cliffs, Maryland very close to Washington DC on the Chesapeake bay. She asked me late last spring if I wanted to come have a few weeks artist retreat in one of the houses that is normally a rental that was vacant this summer. I responded that I would like nothing better! When and what were the conditions. She wrote and said I could have a house with three bedrooms and all we might have to do in return was to mow the grass once and I could bring whom ever I liked to my retreat.We choose the last three weeks of August since Keith was out of town much of July and was very busy in June. August suited me too because this time of year in the city is typically very hot and muggy and mosquitoes are king. The garden is tired and dry grass is brown and dusty but I also have my annual birthday and what better way to celebrate than a retreat to make art at the beautiful bay.
We packed up two Sundays ago and took food, pillows, sheets, art supplies and all sorts of exciting ideas to the bay house. I even took mom's feather weight Singer sewing machine to see if I might have space to make some fabric art. I also bound a special book for my daily sketches at the bay of large pages from the spare papers I have been saving for years for other projects that have accumulated in the folios in our studio. It was a perfect beginning. We ate a big dinner at Molly's the first night after we got keys and settled into our Red house. The folks in Fairhaven call the houses by their colors not addresses. The Rupperts call them by the family member's name that owns them.

So we had the red house the place is an old beach house that was just perfect for us to make art and not worry about messing anything up. It is more space than I think I have ever had to work for more than a few hours at a time. I had a whole bunch of rooms to live in and a yard and the bay .... it was ideal. Nature is all around the house the hills behind are covered in a vine called Kudzu which is kind of creepy but also sort of magical in that it makes everything very green like topiary trees of mysterious shapes.

from the end of the pier looking back at the cliffs and the beach and in the distance the red house.

looking at the house and the yard and bay beyond from the roadside above.

Kudzu grows right up to the roadside and covers everything including dead tree trunks...

at dawn the sun showed me a kudzu bear and elephant at the edge of our yard!

first Wed. afternoon a regatta of sailboats appeared on the bay

the first crab skeleton I found on the beach

Our resident spider named Charlotte, naturally worked on her web daily.

Keith worked every day on amazing arrangements with materials he collected right there in Fairhaven. Gardener neighbor Juanita Foust was very supportive and offered us anything we wanted from her garden and several other yards of vacant homes up for sale.

butterflies were abundant and posed for my camera nicely.

dawn on the bay was spectacular as the half moon hung over head and the sun came up red as fire

Not only did I enjoy making photos and drawing and painting each day but I also undertook a big quilt project inspired by the bay windows and the many colors and patterns of the experience of being in this great place for two weeks. I saw exciting patterns and colors and went right in and added them to make up a bay window inspired work. I worked almost every day a few hours if not longer on the sewing in a room that was intended for guests none of whom ever came. I used the empty single beds as my work tables and sewed on mom's machine until it gave out. Had to drive it to the sewing machine doctor this past Monday and there I found another one older but more valued by collectors. Who collects sewing machines I wonder? Anyway I could not resist using my birthday gift money to buy the sleek 1935 Singer featherweight sewing machine to get right back to the bay and work on the project that I was so deep into by the beginning of the second week. Now I have my own and I can leave mom's at her house for projects out there... it's perfect.

my birthday gift the singer sewing machine in perfect working condition.

for my birthday I also got these beautiful antique plates like one I had to eat on as a child. The chocolate raspberry butter cream with brown sugar whipped cream was also a real treat but tasted even better on the depression era crackle plates.

Then Tuesday morning while eating a delicious breakfast one of my teeth broke off! It didn't hurt but I was concerned it would so I called for a dentist appointment and had to drive back to the city very early Wednesday for a walk in visit. Then later Tuesday you all know that we had a 5.8 earthquake that shook up the east coast. It didn't stop us for long but we were really scared when the oil tank alarm went off in our red house. We found it and turned it off and rushed to the land line phone to call Molly but neighbor Juanita saw us and asked us if we were OK before we got the call dialed and explained that the shaking was an earthquake not an oil tank about to explode! What a relief it was to learn that our house and this wonderful vacation was not going to blow up all our fun. I got my tooth fixed and got back to work on my bay windows project soon as I got home and settled but we had to start getting ready for the weeks next disaster headed our way. Irene a hurricane was on the way. We decided to stay as long as we could to see what it was like if the neighbors were safe we figured we could be too. We shopped for supplies, cooked frozen meats and made ice to keep things cool... filled up big bottles of water for when the power went out and we had no well water to flush toilets. It was kind of exciting but not nearly as alarming as watching the news broadcasts full of doom and gloom about the terrors approaching the east coast would be had we been able to see them. We took all needed precautions and worked to use our last hours of power before the storm.
Irene arrived on the Atlantic coast miles from the bay about eight and the winds were strong, the rain fell in sheets all afternoon and into the night. We tried to ignore the sounds but the crash of a branch through a window and the flickering lights were alarming. We fixed the broken window with a little duct tape and a black plastic bag and one of those old fashioned window screen devices that held it in place. The lights went out right after we got the glass swept up from our broken window. The next part was sitting next to the open windows listening to the wind blow the trees soggy leaves and crashing branches falling & splitting. I suggested we read by our hurricane lantern in the bay room and we did for a few hours then about 10:30 we went to bed. It was black outside so we couldn't see anything and it wasn't safe to go out to look to see what those crashing sounds were. As long as they didn't land on us we were good. We woke to lighter rain and softer winds a tree had fallen and a few branches were broken. Fallen leaves were everywhere the car was waiting and the roads were soon open. We took a last walk on the beach then a tour of the little community of houses and checked on our neighbors. Then packed up our studio and the food and headed home. The trouble is there won't be power back for days if not weeks. No water, no power and only charcoal to cook with is too much of a hardship to give us time to be creative. We had a great two weeks with some really high drama moments but many more fun hours of simple walks on the beach or visiting with Rupperts and each other. I spoke to Molly this afternoon when we got home and she says we can come back when the power is restored for the third week she promised us. I said Hooray, that is just what I was hoping we could do because a retreat this much fun is very hard to give up for any reason. So hurricane Irene wasn't so bad to us after all.

the night before the storm arrived a beautiful view of the bay.

cliffs before the storm at low tide.

the tree that fell by the red house covered in ivy is barely visible but the root ball shows in the mud at it's base.

Keith standing in front of the fallen tree this morning

cliffs at the end of the beach after the storm

bay after the storm

at the base of the clay cliffs leaves and balls of various colors of clay rolled in balls upon the sandy shore

across from Molly's house a real broken maple tree

sail boat that washed up on the big beach across from Molly's house

watercolor suggestion

2011-08-11T11:40:00.000-04:00

August 10th rocks and melon sketch

Rocks and melon sketch pen & in with watercolors

garden studio: with journal, sketchbook, pens, water-brush, round watercolor palette and coffee

Yesterday I got up late and went outside to write in my journal. I wasn't inspired to try to draw any of the flowers. I walked around looking for a subject, I bent down to turn the mysterious fruit that has been slowly growing in the banana tree pot all summer and it came loose from the dying vine in my hand. I had been thinking about drawing my big river rocks which I use on my table to prop up my books when I write. I thought to myself "how about adding in this colorful melon or squash in with the rocks?" Done, decision made, I sat and drew it with the same sepia ink I use every morning to draw the flowers. I added colors from my limited round palette box, made the photos and rushed inside to go get them downloaded and put on the Internet. This is part of my daily routine this summer. Only change was the subject from flowers to rocks and fruits of the garden.

Later in the day I got a great comment from my pal Tom Palmer who saw the sketch on face book. He suggested " wonder how this would look if you just drew light pencil lines, then erased them. Probably like a watercolor!" I thought about it and realized that in the morning I move very much on rote routines. I always use the same materials and same books and usually draw the same places and subjects. Clearly it was time to think about a change. I have a full watercolor palette and I have been thinking about using it more but it is much larger than the portable round palette I normally use and a little less convenient to tote down to the garden. Today I switched back to the big palette and the subject of river rocks. I have been collecting daily on my walks. I started collecting them for our flower garden's wet spot by the drain spouts. I often leave the rocks washed up just sitting around the house and garden before I install them in the garden spot by the downspout. I collect them for a solid mulch that won't wash away in a heavy downpour. I enjoy touching these rocks and looking at them carefully and thinking about how they can be arranged. Today river rocks feels like a new drawing series theme that might be a good transition to more abstracted simple paintings.

I tried the real watercolors and the small rocks I had on the table inside. My sketch paper isn't very friendly to real watercolors which are much wetter than what I normally use. Pencil lines from my drafting mechanical pencil are very fine and precise. Don't show up in the finished product even without erasing the they are faint. Thanks to Tom I took a step outside of my routine. I am happy and I noticed that my partner's flower arrangement today also features rocks! He likes collecting them too. Check out his arrangement today 8-11-2011 to see how he uses rocks with flowers and on the 10th a mystery fruit. Keith Stanley's 365 days of ikebana arrangements

set up on the table inside studio

Here is my set up today. Inside the porch studio which is delightfully cool this morning, with coffee and a fan to help blow the wet watercolor dry as I worked.

round river rocks Aug. 11th 2011

river rocks Aug. 11th 2011

August begins

2011-08-08T18:41:00.000-04:00

It's already the 8th and I feel like it just started. This is such a hot summer it kind of makes me feel like winter when it's too severe to enjoy the weather but we manage to get out in spite of the high heat. I have been going out mornings to draw. Keith is doing his flower arrangements and I my sketches and other routines. I had an exciting experience this past week. Since I post my photos of my work on flickr.com the folks from around the world can look and comment or just mark a photo as a favorite with a red star. One person who's flickr.com profile moniker is "Life Under Quilts" starred on of my photos of a quilt block so I went to see what she does and was delighted by her work. She had a block I really liked and thought I remembered my friend Steven Stichter making while he was at Penland School of Crafts on a quilting intensive for two months years ago. It was one that caught my attention then and again on life under quilts many quilt photos. I took her name for it "ribbon block" and searched on Google to see if I could find out more about it or a pattern. Nothing like that block showed up. So I was telling Keith about it and he suggested I write and ask her how she did it directly which led to a very exciting response the next day.
She had done those blocks as a tutorial and had photos stored away that she had not used but since I asked she would post the whole thing on her blog the following day. See the post here: Life Under Quilts Blog Sure enough, she did and I was in business.
Cut, pin, sew, press, rotate...

cut, pin, sew, press, rotate...

cut, pin, sew, press, rotate... and in a couple hours I had one of my own. I finished it up and I felt so good. I have it on my big embroidery hoop right now doing simple hand stitch quilting on the first pieced pater block I ever made. It's kind of larger than I expected but I used wide ribbons since she didn't say what size to use. I think I doubled the width of what she used. Next time I will try it thinner and maybe at angles instead of squared up. I like the sort of spiral thing that happens and the depth that can be seen in the space it creates. This is the block before it is quilted.

In the mean time one of the artists I met on the last International Sketch Crawl at Union Station asked me to make her a vellum and print paper sketch book in my Coptic stitch style. I went up to Pyramid Atlantic to cut the paper and some boards on Friday. Gretchen was not there but I saw that Jose the director was back from his summer vacation and Jake Muirhead the intaglio print studio director was getting prints cut before he takes off on his annual summer family vacation. He looked at my July garden sketch book and suggested that they would be nice intaglio prints and I told him I was thinking about that but the color was driving me this summer. Maybe you could hand color them he says, even though he doesn't like hand colored prints personally. Then right after he left there was an intern sitting with a stack of intaglio color prints done with line etching and aquatints. They were yellow and red ink and beautiful dahlias. She explained how they were done ant that they were part of the "print exchange" that one of the other leaders at Pyramid Atlantic was running. I have missed out on that but I have been busy in the garden and with my sketch crawl buddies and my own quilting extravaganza at home.
The book for artist Angela Newman is going to be very difficult to sew. These vellums are hard to handle because they slip and slide when you stack them. I got the covers ready and the paper/vellum. Now I just need a cool day's weather on the back porch to take up the challenge of wrestling them into the binding. I love her drawing style and she has a nice blog she posts on regularly her work while she is in DC before she takes off to Italy later this year to serve in the US Air Force! This is a link to her post from Union Station where she used Vellum as an overlay to make a drawing with extra depth. Very impressive take a look?
I will not make boring art

Angela's book covers ready to assemble and one section of the vellum folded

the finished covers ready to go in the press to dry

Soon Keith and I will be spending some time at the beautiful Chesapeake Bay in a little cottage. We are both trying to figure out how to take our work on the road, keep up our diet--exercise routines and manage doctor appointments while watering our garden from out of town. Anyone want to babysit some bonsai and potted plants?

July come and gone

2011-08-02T18:21:00.000-04:00

I was busy drawing and watering the garden and quilting new small squares in July. I filled every day with creativity beginning first thing in the mornings. One sketch a day, mostly garden drawings with watercolor over my water based ink sketches. They seemed to get better as the mornings progressed. What was really fun about the challenge was posting the pictures on face book every day and hearing lots of positive feedback and seeing the other artists posts too. I also belong to the international group of artists who do sketch crawls and there was one such event on July 23rd when it was 101ºF in DC and no one wanted to be outside to do anything. We decided the best and safest place to draw that Saturday was at Union Station the historic train station of the capitol. It has fantastic air conditioning so we never felt the heat until we were outside and there were lots of different foods to choose from and coffees and bathrooms. Perfect place to hang out for hours doing drawings. Lots of people, architecture, sculpture and shops. I also met a few delightful new artists who came for the first time. I think we all had a famously good time sharing our day drawing and talking and showing our drawings. My best was of a hat stand. I saw a hat I wanted two weeks earlier and did not buy it because I was so sweaty from a long exercise walk on the national mall. That day I didn't want to try it on with a dripping wet head and then decide it wasn't right for my head. It was sold when I returned with the sketch-crawlers but I asked if there would be more. "Maybe next month" was the answer... so I sat and drew the whole stand to focus my memory on the spot and I do plan to return.

4 of the artists who came to international Wash. DC group sketchcrawl #32

first sketch was a sculpture up high over head in the station

Quickly some kids waiting on something with luggage and the "texter" with his mobile

We took a nice lunch break and shared a big table in the food court. Everyone ate what ever they wanted and then we shared some stories and our sketches. After lunch we went off for some more drawing hour and a half upstairs in the train station.

the amazing hat stand!

On my way home I kept sketching and got this tall woman tucked up in a metro seat by the window waiting for the train to pull out on our way north. Tourists from Indiana spoke up loudly next to me to point out to me that I was drawing and offered the news that they were the children of a professional artist in her 80s!

The girl with Express bag on Metro Red line train.

I worked on lots of sketches in our flower garden. A few were done in Manassas while I was out visiting my mother on her birthday and a couple towards the end of the month were of other subjects just to add some last minute variety. I was running out of pretty flowers to work from by the end of July the hottest July on record for DC.

one of my favorites! Orange of course...

done in a rush before the Saturday all day sketch crawl

Dan Vera gave me that great turquoise as a sample when I visited to share my sketches with him the day before!

This daylily has an orange-yellow that has outfoxed me for a couple years in photos and watercolor. I think I finally have it right but the photo doesn't do it justice.

Manassas has some nice day lilies in pots

Mom's birthday roses were begging to be in the sketch book

Still life in mother's kitchen ready made.

August I continue to draw each morning. I am still posting on facebook and my flickr.com if You want to follow along on the daily journey. Keith has begun a year long flower arrangement challenge on his website. He is making an ikebana arrangement each day and photographing it to show on his website. Keith Stanley dot com Amazing stuff he is doing! I am so excited to see him get busy and make his creations without so much stress and worry about getting it all perfect, it is anyway quite perfect but the point is he is sharing his work liberally this year!