Zip Line Adventure

Puttering around on google looking for interesting things to do in our area, I discovered The Adventure Park at Sandy Spring Friends School. It looked amazing and we put in on our calendar for a Memorial Day outing.

Wow...

It was awesome! Here I am on one of many many many zip lines.
You can also see all the bridges and platforms made of ropes/logs/net/swings/tunnels/pegs/ladders/trapezes/etc etc etc! The design, engineering and creativity of the park are quite impressive.

Jeff and I did the Black Storm course together. It was rated "black diamond." Only one course in the park was more difficult.
It was absolutely exhilarating and required as much arm strength, balance and mental resolve as I could muster.

My best friend, Lucy, and her family joined us. Everyone had a great time.
There are courses for every size and skill level, ten courses in all. Our admission gave us three hours in the trees and we each did about three of the courses. I'd love to go back again!

Here is Claire maneuvering over one of the more difficult elements.
You actually have to reach out with your leg and set your foot on those pegs sticking out of the posts which are swinging from the cables above.
Jeff took this photo of me from a higher platform. I did not take the escape route you see marked above me.After, we all drank lots of water, got an ice cream cone and came home completely exhausted.

A Bit About Me!

I am the featured artist on the Dinner At Eight blog today. Leslie Tucker Jenison and Jamie Fingal curated an art quilt exhibit titled, The Space Between. I am honored that my quilt, Fence and Flourish, will be included.

Over the past several weeks, each of the artists in the exhibit are profiled in a wonderful Q&A format on their blog. It's quite inspiring reading!

Studio Guest

My friend Helen came to visit last week. Here we are in my studio.
And here we are in Sunday school in 1976. I am in the plaid dress on the left and Helen is in the pink dress in the back row.
Helen is now an Episcopal priest. She is taking a 16 week sabbatical funded by the Lilly Endowment. As part of her sabbatical schedule, she wanted to spend a few days of guided creativity with me. She has long been an enthusiastic supporter of my work and has always encouraged me to explore teaching and sharing my art in unique ways. We had two and a half wonderful days (and some late nights) in the studio.
We painted fabric, created fused collages, explored surface design, tried hand embroidery, used a variety of embellishments and thought about composition and design.
Benjamin ran around taking a few candid pictures.
Here I am contemplating whether to add some embroidered vines or some square sequins on my piece.
Helen tried several techniques that I don't think she thought she would enjoy... and then liked them more than she thought she would. Isn't that was exploration is all about?! We also fixed fresh artichokes which she liked more than she thought she would!
Here are some of Helen's completed pieces. She was very focused and truly took each of these pieces exactly where they needed to go -- all the way to labeling and preparing them to be hung.
I especially love the long piece that was created with fabrics Helen painted on the first day, composed on the second day and quilted and finished on the third day.

Layers

Here's a peek at a section of a quilt I'm working on. It's for a show at the Camden Library this summer. The Frayed Edges (my small art quilt group in Maine) are exhibiting together. Part of the show will include a set of four triptychs on the theme "letters." This is part of the center panel of my triptych.

I'm thinking about things like envelopes, packages, door steps, walk ways, openings, messages...

Book Give- Away

My friend, Jenny Doh, is giving away TWELVE copies of our new book, Twelve by Twelve: The International Art Quilt Challenge.

She also included a special feature on Crescendoh with spotlights of each of the twelve of us. Check it out here.


We are so excited that TWELVE more books are going out into the world! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post on Jenny's blog. She'll draw winners on Saturday evening. You do have to have a US or Canada address to win. These books have been provided by Lark, our publisher. We've been so impressed and thankful for their enthusiastic support of our book.

I've talked with lots of people about the book and it's getting great buzz. People say it's very different from most art quilting books. We found a way to tell stories about creating together, yet independently. About inspiring and supporting each other. About successes and less-than-successes. About growing in unexpected ways both artistically and personally.

Remember, you have to go to Jenny's blog to enter the drawing!

..or you could order a book from Barnes and Noble or even from my etsy shop!

Outing in Baltimore

We ended our Baltimore adventure with lunch at Cross Street Market.
It's an urban market with veggie stalls, flower vendors, cell phone shops and a variety of food options. I had tacos. Benjamin had French toast and Jeff and Claire shared ribs and mac and cheese.
Jeff also bought a hand twisted soft pretzel to enjoy on the way home.

But before that, we visited the American Visionary Art Museum. (I didn't take time to upload my pictures in order or fuss with rearranging them. That doesn't bother you, right?)

It was fantastic. No pictures were allowed inside, but I took plenty outside.

The museum celebrates untrained or self-taught artists. I looked on their website for a description or mission statement. Maybe you really just have to go to see what it's all about.
The outside of the building is covered in fantastic mirrored mosaics. Here's a self-portrait...
The current main exhibit is "What Makes Us Smile." It was really wonderful and quite interesting. You know, there's a notable difference between what makes a smile and what makes us laugh. There was an entire room devoted to farting including a bench covered with whoopie cushions that automatically re-inflated after being sat upon. Guess who loved that?
There were several pieces by Chris Roberts-Antieau who is an extremely prolific applique artist. Her work certainly makes me smile!
The vibe and the style really reminded me of the City Museum in St. Louis and you know how much I love that place, right?
It was a fun day with my little family of four.

Beginning a new quilt...

I started a new quilt this week. I've been pretty productive lately. I'm motivated and I think I feel summer creeping up on me -- during which I probably won't be creating too much. So I have to make the most of these last few weeks of school time.

I started flipping through my sketchbook looking at various thumbnail compositions and pulling out fabric.
I was really wanting to use this piece of loosely woven cloth in deep purple, rose and off white. I bought it at a beautiful shop full of imported items from Thailand in Wiscassett, Maine. You see it below the white house shape in this photo. I was building my whole palette around that piece.
But, I was having trouble making it play nicely with the other colors, prints and fabrics... so I pulled it out. Much better.
Isn't it funny that the item that feels like the cornerstone of a piece in the beginning --- a fabric, a theme, a shape --- might need to be set aside? You can't get too attached, I guess.

In other studio action, I felt like my floss selection was out-of-balance. Here I'm trying to see what's missing.

Family!

With so many members of our family in one place for Kristofer's baptism in Phoenix last month, my parents decided to hire a professional photographer to document the event and take some portraits. We are all delighted with the results!
I posted a request for recommendations on Facebook and someone suggested Stacy Kokes. I browsed through her photo galleries and fell in love with her style and way of telling a story though pictures. She was perfect for our family and our event.

This is one of my favorites from the day! How cute is he?!

More cuteness!

I really love this one too. A great portrait of our sweet foursome.My parents were thrilled to spend such a fun weekend with their THREE grands.
We have lots of snapshots too, but sometimes the eye, the light, the style and the clarity of a professional is very much appreciated! Thanks Stacy and thanks Mom and Dad!

Tall Plants...

When we were in Phoenix over Spring Break, we took a side trip to the botanical gardens. It was a great afternoon. I am especially drawn to tall, stalky shapes and I took pictures of several to add to my inspiration folder.





We don't have plants like this is Maryland!

Baby Nephew!

The week before Easter a bunch of my extended family gathered in Phoenix for my nephew's baptism. It was our first meeting with baby Kristofer! We think he is just a delight -- and his mom and dad (my sister and brother-in-law) are also most excellent.

Two handsome boys...

Handsome Uncle Jeff. He loves babies.
Sweet Claire totally enjoyed holding and making faces with Kristofer.
Here I am with Kristofer. Doesn't he have the funniest little expressive face?

We also enjoyed time with Grandma and Grandpa, plus cousins who we haven't seen since our wedding (19 years ago)! And lots more family and fun times. I'll share more pictures later, but for now... it's all about Kristofer!