Out and about

Another rainy day here in Maryland but that's ok. I just planted my garden this week and I am hoping all this rain makes things grow!!! Especially the pumpkins! The boys wanted to try growing pumpkins this year so I figured why.....will see what happens.....

The last few weekends I have been out and about at local events and thought I would share some of photos....

Two weeks ago I went to the American Visionary Art Museum's Kinetic Sculpture Race. It was alot of fun and the entries are so cool to look at. The sculptures are human powered for 15 miles through the downtown area and face a water test as well as an obstacle course. We went to see the water test....

Here's Fifi the 13 foot poodle....

The Platypus entry....

The catepilar from Alice In Wonderland....

Some kind of mutant dog.....hmmmm....

Lucky the elephant....

the human element to Lucky.....pedal harder!

The catepillar takes to the water.....it was really funny watching some of the entries hit the water.....they had to go around the pier and back out again. Not all of them  made it.....

Part of the fun for the day is to dress up......when I saw this costume, I knew I had to get a shot....

Yup, those are thread spools she is wearing.....and I love the tutu!!

Then last week it was off the BMA for textile day. They had lots of hands on activities for people to try.....

The boys tried out screening printing....

While they were in line waiting a turn.....I saw this on the back wall.....

Vincent's Starry Night done up in mixed media by kids......

I LOVE this!!!!

Looks like clay decorations, glitter, felt......

This would be so fun to try out.....a play day project!

That's what's great about doing projects with kids. They have no "rules" in their minds about art yet and just do what feels right.....try going fabric shopping for a project with a kid sometime. They have some interesting choices than can really make a project "bloom".

I saw this table in the museum.....it is over 150 years old. The craftmanship is amazing.....and it was all done in  a time when there were no power tools, computers, etc etc.....

And it's a circle with wedges.....imagine if it was an off center circle with wedges. Now that would have been interesting......I wonder if they tried things like that back then or stuck to the tried and true....

Have a good Thursday!

kathy

The circle in nature

My friend Amy has been on the hunt for circles lately. Man hole covers, clocks, portholes,  you get the idea.

Now I have always had a fondness for circles. Hence my interest in the New York Beauty block. I always am cutting out the curvy and spiky patterns when I see them in magazines. But I also reallllllly like organic forms.

The uneven edges, the irregularity, those things add a level of movement and excitement to an organic design. 

So when I was talking my dog for a walk this spring, I thought I would be on the lookout for circles in nature.

And they are really hard to find!

I came up with these......

Kinda of a circle with spikey edges....

A real irregular circle within a circle with the tree stump....

Yet another circle but this time with ruffles edges....

Now this one is closest to perfect circle.....but the edges are still off a bit....if I could fold it in half, both sides would NOT be equal.

It was really hard to find circles in nature.......interesting.....

Are they a mostly man made shape? 

Do we humans find circles so pleasing for the regular perfect edges they give us?

If two pictures were made up of same colors and design but one had perfectly round circles and the other had organic circles would each invoke different feelings?

What would those feelings be?

I think this would be interesting for me to explore more.....

My faithful dog enjoyed our walk.....but sometimes got in the way of my photo taking....

Poor flower.....

I leave with with circles on the brain.....have a good Monday!

kathy

Charm Pack Challenge

I joined the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild a few months ago and we are doing a Charm Pack Challenge sponsored by Robert Kaufman Fabrics.

I have a month to do the challenge. The rules are pretty simple:

Must use some of each color

Must use a new technique that is new to you

Can only add solid fabrics

Now I've been thinking about this and I want to go with either Curvy Flying Geese or Snakes.....

I actually really want to try both.....hmmmmm, maybe make two mini quilts for the challenge????

What do you think?

My good friend Amy is in the BMQG too.

She's very talented.....that apple she's about to take a bite out of? Its fake, she made it with wool....

Impressive huh!

Have a good day!!

kathy

Glass making Fun

I recently set up a glass making workshop for our cub scout pack at McFadden's Art Glass.

His stuff is amazing!!!!

Here's an example.....

How fun is that!!! I want this sink in my bathroom!!!

They offer all kinds of glass making workshops for the general public so if you are ever in the Baltimore area, be sure to make this is stop on your must see list. I made a pumpkin and glass ball before, so fun!

 There is a gallery and restaurant on site too.

The boys had a great time make glass pendants or marbles.

Even my 14 year old had fun and he wants to go back for more in depth instruction. That says something if your teenager wants to go for more!

While wandering around, I saw these.....

My kind of flowers.....yep, those are some random dandy lions mixed with glass flowers. 

Have a fun Monday!

kathy

Post Easter

I love Easter.....the chocolate bunnies, the colored eggs, the daffodils.....

My favorite cupcake store " A Flavor Cupcakery" made these for Easter.

Too cute for words!!!! And bunnies, being bunnies, multiplied!

The pink cupcake? That's a raspberry lemonade cupcake. Perfect for a hot summer day, you can bet I'll get more of those!

Then  little egg dying action....

Aren't they pretty!!!

I finished a t-shirt quilt up Easter weekend too for a client. Her daughter is graduating from college in May and she wanted a quilt made from her favorite t-shirts.

It turned out really good!

Have a fun day!

kathy

Spring Break

School's out for the whole week! No packing lunches, no 6:30am trips to the bus stop, no homework to review, horray!!!!! I think moms like spring break more than the kids!

I'm sitting out here on the front lawn on a cloudy day watching three small boys attempt to climb up a tree with a rope......and they created a pop up RV with a wagon and some old cushions.

The past month I did some traveling......headed to NYC to see the red and white quilt exhibit and three days later flew to Florida for my hubby's 40th birthday. 

The red and white exhibit was impressive! Over 500 red and white quilts....hanging everywhere! You can get a free app for Iphone with pictures of all the quilts. Its called "Infinite Variety". 

These are my faves from the show......

The interlocking design really intrigues me.....

And I was looking at this and realized that its a unicorn!!!

My all time favorite from the show......the circles! 

Then we took in some sites!

Here's me and Janine at Time Square!

So hard to photos oneself with a jiggly hand!

Chris taking a break from walking....

The view looking up from the ground....

The view from the chair I was sitting in.....

Remember that red and white circle quilt I said my favorite from the show?

When I was on the subway, I saw this.....

Hmmmmm......I think its a sign I should do something with arcs within circles, what do you think?

I even own a wedge ruler that I was going to get rid of until I saw these and the possibilities enter my mind.....

Have a good day and if you are in Minnesota, get your shovel ready. I heard you are in for more snow.

kathy

Aprons

I just finished an apron for my friend Kate at work. She is taking it to a bridal shower today. So cute!!!

And while waiting at the checkout line to purchase the needed apron items, I saw this:

Aprons Gone Wild!!!!

Of course I bought it to feast my eyes on all things apron......now I need to whip a few more up.

Mikey got creative with this ice cream sundae.He gave new meaning to the word overloaded....

There IS ice cream in there somewhere!

Have a great day!

kathy

Southern Comforters

This is not a new drink nor is it related to Southern Comfort Whiskey.....its a quilt guild located in Bowie, Maryland. Though I do wonder if the gals that started this guild up had a fondness for Southern Comfort. Hmmmm.......interesting question to research!

I did my very first trunk show with them in February and it was so much fun!!!!!! They are a fantastic group of ladies!!!! Thanks for having me come ladies!

Then I came back and did a workshop with them......we did the Triple Star quilt.

And it was so much fun!!!! Everyone had such interesting colors and I can't wait to see how they turn out!

But I forgot to take photos of people's blocks, I'm such a yogurt brain.....so Southern Comforter ladies, if you send me photos of your blocks, I can post them here to share with everyone!

I did take photos of the crazy things that happened during the class though. Figures huh....I always go for the weirdness......

Take lunch for example....

 Potato Chips on a Stick

Now how odd is that???? They were VERY tasty!!!!

Then there was the bunny incident.....you know bunnies are.....first there were two bunnies in my M and M bowl. Then I turned my head and this happened....

Next time I looked over.....

Geez, I thought I was going to need a bigger bowl the way things were going......

But then......

And that took care of the bunny population!

During the class, Amy was fabric dancing again......so I dared her to race through the parking lot with her ribbons of pieces. 

Things got a little tangled in the end....the sacrifices we make for art.

Finally a new cool way to keep everything in order and together for the trip home.

Great idea that I am going to go share at all my classes!!

I am teaching this class again at MAQ if you want to join in on the fun!

Have a great day!

kathy

Blue Christmas

Next up I finished and bound this one! Here's the back.....

Ready for the front????

Isn't that cute? Course Christmas is LONGGGGGG gone but there is always next year!

I decided to be lazy and not stitch down the edges of the applique. Just fused them in place and then I quilted it up with metallic thread. Which gave me a little trouble so I had to play around with tension, needles etc but it all worked and I think it was worth it.

I quilted what I thought looked like blowing snow......see?

I opted not to do swirls since I always make those....or maybe these look more like clouds......hmmmmm. 

I stitched over the lettering too to keep it all in place.....

Now to wait for next Christmas and get this baby on the wall next to my Blue Christmas Tree quilt, which was done in honor of the King.  As in Elvis.....maybe I need to get a blue Christmas tree to go with it. Now that would be fun!

My current fave Crocs......debating my spring Croc color.....yellow, pink, red????? What you think about it??

Have a fun day!

kathy