Update on the Statler Fountain Piece from July

When I last worked on this I was surprised to see it was way back in July. Well now I have finished it and got it mounted.

Let me give you some history on why I did this piece.

Statler Fountain By Ulysses Anthony Ricci, 1888 - 1960, sculptor

A Gift of the Hotel Statler Company, Inc. to the City of Boston in 1930 as part of a beautification project for the Statler Park, Stuart Street at Park Square.

Description:
Bronze, art deco fountain in the shape of a Roman tripod brazier. Woman in classical robes stands in the middle of the upper bowl holding a cup from which water originally flowed. Large bowl is decorated with signs of the zodiac in relief. Lip edge is decorated with egg and dart molding. The legs are decorated with semi-draped male figures above grotesque decorations and terminate in lions' paws. Basin at foot of fountain, now a planter.
Originally, water flowed from the cup the figure holds, into the raised bowl, and then into the basin. Fountain is no longer operable. A bronze dedication plaque originally on base is now missing.

Not long after I took photos of the fountain, I was horrified to find that it had been taken down and the Park torn up. I have not seen the Park since, but do plan on visiting again to see if it had been restored to it's original grandeur.

Check out more nice work at Off The Wall Fridays

Comfort Quilt

After a long hiatus from actually having fun and not getting anything done, I finally finished my Comfort Quilt challenge with the Material Mavens.
So here it is................

It was an interesting word to work on and I did find it hard to find anything, except for all the regular ideas about comfort.

It is made with Inktense pencils and Dye-na-flow inks. I really had fun doing it too.

GREEN Man

Let me introduce you to the Green Man - subject of my latest Material Mavens Challenge. The Challenge word was GREEN, I thought about this a bit and while walking in the woods the other day, got my final idea.

Luckily it was finished yesterday, right on time, but I still feel like I skidded to a stop at home plate, breathing hard to get this done :)

This is my second rendition (the first I just wasn't happy with the outcome,) so this time I did some mono-printing of the leaves I had found on the trail. 

His face was fairly easy, but the "feel" of him being a part of nature just wasn't there. He looked more like a green sun to me, so I just had to think a bit harder.

He is also posted on The Material Mavens site with all  the others.

AND of course, there is great funs work at Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday!

He Sees FISH!

I just posted this over on the Material Mavens site - it is reveal day again!

Yes, an odd name for something in the cell category, but my son works in a Pathology Lab and this is his view of the microscope in a dark area with a color florescence that can be changed depending on what you need to see/know.
He posted this pic on facebook one day after the "word" went out and I said that is a cool picture, and proceeded to make it.
I used cottons, fabric paints, inktense pencils and of course thread.

Check out Off The Wall Friday over at Nina's!

And a week later....

I actually have been working on the Statler Fountain. I do a lot of my work in my head, I am sure others do too, then I execute the ideas I come up with. So far I am happy with the progress too.

The next two weeks I have to go back to the real job again, writing 80+ letters of acceptance or regret to the artists in or not in the exhibit in the fall. (I haven't told my printer yet, but she is new and can handle the job) I still need to find two sponsors for two categories of awards - once that is done I can relax for a couple of weeks. It should be the end of August by then - time flies when you are having fun :)

I am going to get my self a new bicycle. I tried it again after trying to bike about 10 years ago and now that I have been walking on my treadmill, I can so flat or gently rising surfaces - so why am I not? Tried one of my sons old bikes and had a blast, but it doesn't fit me right, so now I get my own again.

Don't forget to go see the wonderful work of other folks on Off The Wall Fridays!

Long, long time, no post!

It has been since May! I have been steadily working on my "real job" since then and it has been pretty intense.
I finally have a little time to work on things, so picked up the Statler Fountain and started quilting it. The thing is, that I was also procrastinating about some of it. MY PROBLEM is that I'm always trying to make everything PERFECT, at least to my eyes.

I have to try to remember that I really enjoy the making of art and not think of it as "will someone else like it?" At this point, I shouldn't give a flying fig, but it is a hard habit to get out of.

So how many people do you know that have seen a flying fig? LOL!

Anyway, I put extra stuffing behind the fountain figure in order for it to stand out more and then went to the store for some grey thread. One of the colors I never have, along with beige. I keep forgetting to get some, so I bought four spools of successive color gradations.

I also went to my local quilt shop on Saturday morning for their Yard Sale, which was not in the yard. Didn't find anything there, but then went up to the store and got fabric and batting for the next and future projects.

Got my jury review work back and hung a piece in my kitchen next to the tree quilt - looks good too.

I'm looking forward to the NE Quilt show in Manchester in August :)

Check out other talented people's work at Off the Wall Friday!

Canyon - Sue's Cousin

I always wanted to find a dinosaur skeleton. When the new word went out for "Canyon," what

else could I do?
So I went to a very nice canyon and did a dig and found a huge T-Rex I call Sue's Cousin. Sue is the biggest T-Rex skeleton found yet and she was found by a kid too! I'm a big kid!

I used a lot of strips of fabric to show soil layers and to give you that feel of age. Then "dug" some of the fabric away to reveal my find. I used an outline stitching to achieve this and then painted in the dino.


You can go to The Material Mavens to see the rest of the Mavens "Canyon" quilts.

AND don't forget Off the Wall Fridays!

I hate it when that happens!

So yesterday morning my DH and I went out to cut some branches from a couple of trees. Fine, while he was up on the ladder, I was goofing around with making rock sculptures. I was supposed to be holding the ladder. I was called to task :-P

Off I rushed to stand holding the ladder like a good helper (who would rather be playing with the rocks.) Occasionally looking up to see the progress being made. Last time I looked up it seemed like I may have been standing in the wrong place. Because DH gets a bit cranky if you don't follow directions, I said nothing and just sort of cringed into myself waiting for the branch to fall. Did you know that from 25 ft. up branches look a lot smaller then when they crash down and hit you?

Yup, luckily for me, I the cringing and ducking my head in towards the ladder made the branch hit me in the shoulder instead of the head. I'm pretty happy about that, and now have a technicolor shoulder. Luckily it hit on a muscle and did not break anything - I'm VERY happy about that, but do have a sore shoulder. Could be that way for a few days - we'll see - I did ice it immediately and a few times thereafter, so it does still work, just not as smoothly as before tree fall.

The roofers come today to put on a new roof - but first take off the old one to see how bad/old the base layer is.

Purple Tree Process 1

Here's a pic of the Purple Tree I started last week, in between house repairs and other goofy things that need doing.
Any opinions as to the shading? I am not sure yet, but keep cutting up fabric and disgarding - you know, the planning stage.


Check out other work at Off the Wall Fridays

And a fun surprise.......

This is not the first time I have posted this piece. It was made for my son and daughter-in-law for

a wedding present last October. Well, I entered it into the Daughters of the American Revolution National Fiber Arts Contest and won 3rd place! WOOT! WOOT!
Just sharing the news and tooting my horn :)

You can see more great work at Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday, even though it is not Friday anymore.

Trying to clean out the barn......

And I came across my hand quilting frame again. It is too nice to toss, I do want to sell it, but don't want to ship it wither (too big.)

If anyone knows anyone or any group who could use this, have them contact me. It is being offered at a reasonable price $300.


It is  a fine piece of furniture, not made from cheap wood. (maple and cherry)

The Statler Fountain progress

After a week of off and on thinking and working on it I am at the window stage. I need to put definition on the windows, but am not sure if this is what I want yet. I did a lot of stitching to bring out her details and the fountain details. I had to fight with myself to not overdo it too. My reminder is that there will be embroidery on it as well as some stitching here and there to create the building that she is standing in front of.

I will add Angelina for the water, but that is not really decided on yet either.
Ah, decisions, decisions........
Check out Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Fridays!

New Work!

I started this yesterday or maybe it was the day before - anyway, it is a fountain I saw in Boston that I took a pic of. I always liked this fountain - it is so art nouveau. I did some research and found out that it was a gift to the city for a small park (it is triangle shaped) and it just looks so perfect for the area.
It was copied from a statue in the collection of the Smithsonian Art Museum in 1930.
So, now it is mine in fabric. I plan on doing a lot more to it, but had to finish up some other work first - then I can just go forward with this, but I was so pleased on how it is starting out that I had to share :)

Been busy all week, but wanted to share this on Off The Wall Fridays!

Grackle update - FINISHED!

So the Common Grackle that I did about a year ago, and made his beak into a honking huge thing, then remade the beak and didn't like how it sat, then I cut the whole piece in half and took out the offending parts. Here it is all finished and ready to gallery mount.
Now I think it is fine - not fantastic, just fine and it is passable per my standards. In other words, I'm done and glad about it.  :)

See more cool works at Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Fridays

Off the Wall Fridays and Material Mavens

This is a 2for - I am posting for two reasons. I usually do Off the Wall Fridays, but today is also the REVEAL day for the Material Mavens, of which I am a member too.

Every two months the Mavens have a challenge word to interpret, this reveal word was Communication.
Here's my piece:

Communication - Music

Communication – I thought what better way to communicate then with music? Music is the universal language and is understood by all. It communicates feelings and thoughts and brings them to everyone who listens. What better way to interpret communication, I asked myself.

So I started with an idea of Gregorian Chant. An old and not well known or used form of singing and the voice is the instrument of communication. There are many forms of chant, but this one I heard at an early age and enjoyed the sound. To depict chant, I put it on an interpretation of an Illuminated Page for a manuscript, and of course used the letter “C.” It could be for the word communication or my name!

Other modern musical notes were added using fabric I have had for years and of course, circles – because everything goes around and comes back to you.

See more at The Material Mavens and don't miss the pieces at Off the Wall Fridays!

Resurected work # 2

I worked on this scene and changed a couple of colors as well. I think I will do a bit more embroidery and beading and another reed to hide his tail trimming. He's not stuck down yet so I can change his position, if I want to.

Andrea asked if I could show what it was before my alteration.

I liked it then............this was before I mucked up his beak or did much sewing and made it into a huge ugly thing, so...............


I cut him out of the picture and re-adjusted his beak (sent him to the plastic surgeon) and now I will applique him back onto the piece. Of course the piece is much smaller than it was and I couldn't fix his beak as it was - AGAIN - so had a brainstorm and just trimmed him out of the section I removed from the center.
I also changed the colors of two reeds and the main color of the cat tail. Now I can at least finish it. :)

Resurrected work

I finally decided that a piece I made maybe 1 - 2 years ago was too good to waste. So I cut out the offending section. It was offensive to me - I rule my world - I declared it a good piece with a flaw, so here it is.
I am planning on putting a few more reeds and stitching it together from the back. This piece already has batting and quilting, so it will be done by hand. I think it makes a pretty good composition once I cut the bird with the HONKER beak out.

See more wonderful talent at Nina-Marie Sayres Off the Wall Fridays blog.

Poppy and Lily update

Well, I am done the Orange Day Lily Buds. They are embroidered, beaded, colored, quilted and couched.

Yarn was couched along the binding. I do like the look and am pretty happy with it.


The Poppy, is still in the works - I have some more thoughts on that, and will put it down and think about it.

None of the flower heads are sewn down yet, so are kind of flopping around, but I think you get the idea.


Hop on over to Nina-Marie's for her Off the Wall Fridays

Beaded flowers

This week, I finished beading the flowers. It took a bit of time, but I like the outcome. Next is to add the little green ends and then quilt this little piece. I plan on putting a binding on it too.

You can see more great work at Off The Wall Fridays!

Off The Wall Friday

So this week I have another new piece. This one is the center or smaller quilt piece that will go onto another background when assembled.

I took some photos of some daylily buds last summer and just liked the way they looked. Then decided that it wasn't too interesting to many, so thought an interesting composition would be in order. I will be beading this when it is appliqued onto the black, then putting a binding on it - at least that is the plan, but you never know, plans do change :)

Hop on over to Off The Wall Friday for more!

This one is it!

After lots of fiddling around with different ideas, that I tried, I think thisway worked and I am finally pleased with it.

So now it is on to making the second smaller center and doing more stitching, etc. I see with this picture that my buds are all the same height, so that will change.

I like taking photos of my work and then be able to evaluate them from the camera's eye instead of my own, which is partial and works up really close.

Check out more at Off The Wall Friday!

The Learning Curve

So I went out on a limb to try something with my poppy. I stiffened it with Paverpol and shaped it then let it dry.

Verdict - it is now a concrete flower. Looks pretty when held, but not conducive to sewing onto a fabric background. Looks too heavy and can't be positioned to advantage. I will chalk this up to my learning curve and call that one done. Back to using other types of stiffening materials and will probably end up with goo 'ol Misty Fuse and a second layer - I like how it can be handled and is probably more user friendly for my needs right now.

On a fun note - the center was fun to make and looks awesome! I get a +++ for that at least  :)

Off the Wall Friday

Finally! I have started working on something again, my MoJo took a vacation and now it is back.

This one is a 10 X 10 and as you can see, it is a poppy. I struggled getting this going, then after I went to a museum and got an infusion of friendship, came back and started this. (and a handbag, another piece that will be 9 X 11 and a challenge piece that is 12X12. The last three are in piles right now. :)

It may have some buds or not, no decision on that yet. As most people, I need to work as I go and do what "feels right."

Check out other fun and beautiful work at Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday!