April 22...

The warm mornings of Cocoa Beach did not fly along with me on my return to Rhode Island! It was 29 degrees this morning...quickly up to 49.

Since my return I have raked millions of leaves

son Pete has been building our new chicken coop inside existing shed

working on getting our bees in order

planted peas and just got our onion and potato starts yesterday

working on some pillows

playing angry birds...somebody help me!!!

May 5th...

I have been trying to get to this for some time now. After installing new op system and new iLife, my iphoto is soooo slow and driving me nuts...so prepping pics was annoying!!! But onward.

We have been celebrating Sue's birthday (peeking out of the new chicken door) for days with wonderful company and food! The real day was yesterday and she has the next 5 days off! Yea!!

The chicks arrived  a week ago. They grow so quickly it is unbelievable.

Bees are settled

Chicken coop for new peepers is coming along

Spied frog eggs in the pond...

Potatoes, onions, shallots, spinach, lettuce, peas in...beets, carrots, more lettuce, leeks going in and plant sales this weekend. Look out, danger...

Leaving for Paris in 6 days...

The garden is just erupting, some of the daffys need dead heading already...

While I was in Coca Beach, we went to visit the

Jeanine Taylor Folk Art Gallery

and we bought this painting by Theresa Disney! Have been looking for something and was thrilled to see her work in person! Such good color and attitude. We love it!

So yoga and walk this morning and then back here to plant seeds, build a chicken yard, deal with daffys, new garden area, check on the chicks, enjoy my girl, maybe relax a bit!!

  

Linda and Tracy’s Fabulous Summer Creative Fling

July 22 -24, 2011

Charlestown, Rhode Island, 02813

Three days of creative inspiration, really really good food, lots of laughs, new friends, the ocean, gardens, shopping...and more. We will be using fabric, paper, paints, stamps, sewing machines, embellishments. And there will be another secret collective project.

 $400.00 includes instruction/guidance and amazing food!!!!

Friday

9:00 Charlestown Farmers Market • fab muffins etc

10:30 Start @ the Studio

Fabric/Paper  Painting, Splattering, Stamp Carving and Printing.

Subject to Some Changes!!

lunch

Continue Morning Fun!

dinner

free studio time

Sat

8:00 breakfast

Patchy Face Pillows....Combining Fabric from the previous Day!

Using faces as  a Guide...your own or made up,

we will combine fabrics, paints, words, stitches, threads....

lunch

Continue Project

dinner

free studio time

Sunday

Charlestown Flea Market

11:00...brunch

work

secret project....

dinner

Take advantage of local beaches, fabric stores, ice cream!

Local Motels/Hotels - Should Make Reservations ASAP

Surfside Motel

General Stanton Inn

Hathaway Cottages  Mostly Queen beds and a futon but within walking distance of the event!

Any questions, contact me through comments

xxxxxx....

The Wonderful Weekend!!

We had such a great time with the women that were able to make it to Little Rhody this weekend. Linda and I had been cooking and freezing goodies. By Friday morning the studio was organized and ready to rock! The table was set, name tags printed, Valentines around, goodie bags put together, beverages in place, gelatin slabs and paints waiting patiently.

Friday afternoon we played with said gelatin and made lots of fabric and paper to be used at a further date. 

Gelatin, Paint, Fabric

Stephanie and Loretta

Sandi and Bev

Lots of laughs, dinner, stories, and the troops went off the the Surfside for sleep and a bit of trouble with the hot water!  Back in the morning for breakfast and sewing!!

Judith and Sue discussing Bees!

 Linda kicks off Saturday Morning with her new Quilt!

Judith Creating!

Sandi looking Fresh and ready to go!!

 Stephanie Stitching Away!!

 

Betti Concentrating...

Kathy and her Fabulous Bag!!!!!!

We continued to eat good food, snacks, found gifts on our plates at every meal, had a little birthday celebration for Loretta, saved threads for the birds, made bags and wall hangings, shared dish washing, oohhed and aahhhed at each others work and it was a long and raucous goodbye. Not before we set a date for summer.

Group Made Souvenirs!

Thanks for everything girlz! Linda and I are working on the summer gathering already and will put the information out into the world as soon as we get it together!! 

Off to Florida next week to see Midge and Al. We should be able to do some good work!! Thinking about silk screening and sunshine...see you soon girlz!

New Pillows!!

My sis, Allison made me a pillow (seen above) for my birthday. She created some of the pieces while still in Florida, and finished it while she was here at Christmas. The crazed pink young lady was "free -stitched" with her trusty Bernina. The message "Everything was fine until my sister moved to Florida" was transferred onto the fabric. Some of the smaller pieces with the black background were created with screens and silk screen paint/ink. She (the pillow girl) is still very distressed, but feeling better now that she is living in New England.

I was then inspired to make a pillow for Sue who

has been doing ALL tasks around the house in addition to going to her regular job since the beginning of December. I returned from a week in Florida, and have been almost useless...so she has cooked, taken care of chickens, rabbits, snow issues, bills, laundry, on and on and on... I managed to sit at my sewing machine and do a bit of hand sewing. The girl on the pillow was created from a gelatin print on fabric. I used my beloved Bernina Stitch Regulator to draw around the girl and write the message.

Linda was just here and we have been working on the details for our Fabulous Fiber Weekend that is coming up here pretty quickly. Working out details for food, goodies, projects etc. It is coming together!! Better take a rest!

The Holidaze!

 

Well, it has been quite a ride since our very successful and entertaining Studio Sale at the beginning of December. It was off to Florida to surprise the sisters, which by the way was a complete success...the surprise that is!! The weather was of course better than the great north east, but cold...icicles on the palm trees!

Midge, Allison and I took a weekend collage class from Derek Gores. Worth checking out his site. The work is amazing! The room was filled with women madly tearing up magazines and transforming them into portraits.

 The piece on the top above, is Allison's. She had started it at home in fabric, and mixed it up with paper during the class. I used a photo of my son Don to do the piece below. Still have work to do on my piece, but it is coming along. An amazing two days of hard work, squinting and learning.

 

We had a great time guiding sister Beth with a potholder project, did some gel and screen printing! I also got to meet some of the Florida creative friends with back to back luncheons. 

I think i had pizza every day! Watched bad tv, watched Al patiently knit a sock using her ipad as a teacher, did a bit of stitching and more eating! It was somewhere in there that my belly started to feel "full".

I returned home, plopped down on the couch and slept for 4 days, downed a couple of laxatives, had waves of abdominal cramping for the same number of days, no appetite. Finally went to a clinic, more laxatives and set up abdom ultrasound. Two days later...the blessed Solstice...Linda drove me to our new clinic right down the street...the next docs favorite lax, gatoraid, lab work and piece of pizza for Linda. We toasted the Solstice! 

Next day, my blessed B'day, lab work showed something going on and the doc sent me to the ER for an ultrasound. By 9 that evening, i was tucked into my hospital bed very grateful to know that i had a blown appendix that had collected itself in a magical pocket in my belly!

Midge and Al showed up to be on the patient support staff. Midge ended up driving to NYC very early Christmas morning, so we didn't see her until late in the week. By New Years Day the extended family was together here enjoying each other and a wide variety of snacks!! 

 

So now, the "pocket" is drained and i will have the pesky thing removed on the 25th! I consider myself very lucky and grateful to be here!!!!!

Al's New Heads Above!

Back to the Basement to Sew. Pics very soon!

Studio Sale on Friday December 3rd 5-8!!!

We decided to join forces with our little community store and another local artist to help celebrate the upcoming holidaze!! Mills Creek Market will have maps to get to the other spots. Please pread the word. I know that that is a big job for all 26 of my followers and one of them is in Cambodia!!

Putting product together like the olden days...cleaning, decorating, cooking etc.

It is a good way to get the house cleaned and organized!!

Now off to the dump and the library and then back at it!

Stay warm!!!

First Freeze and November!

We had our first frost last night, so with that knowledge in mind, Sue and I picked the rest of our eggplant, peppers, and green tomatoes. We took the last of the plants inside, covered the outside lettuce, and jammed the green house with more lettuce, and tropicals...

Now I have a large basket of eggplant to whip up into something yummy and freezable.

The tomatoes can go into a bag and may ripen up! Lots of beets were pulled and the garlic still has to get put into the ground. Pronto.

 Last weekend we extracted honey and now the jars are in the dishwasher and we have another 4 gallons to jar up and label, trying not to get little dribbles of honey on the outside of the jar!

THE STUDIO 

 

In the studio, I have been playing with my gel printing. Have been playing with faces and thought about trying a doll body. I the photo above, you can see a couple of examples of the fabric print (the first print) and the paper version (the second print).

Not only is the paper version very cool looking, but it also helps to remove the paint from the gelatin, making it ready for your next print.

I added a piece of batting to the fabric version and did free motion stitching around the edges and features of the doll, adding stitched hands and boots. I cut out the shape, stitched her up with a backing, stuffed and closed up the edge. Took my embroidery floss to her and love how she is coming along.

Got to go and get straw, bunny food, chunchies for the chickens and saucers for the plants.