Some have requested that I show the creative changes I made to the linen camp shirt which I got at the thrift store. Here are some photos showing the embroidery (with natural linen thread) and the crochet trim I added. I was able to lenghten the sleeves about 3.5 inches this way! [Cropped fabric from the lower edge of the shirt and used it on the sleeves.]

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I'm getting started on the bird themed art quilts today......Jane LaFazio's online class.

Life goes on.... [blogger totally removed the last post during their maintenance yesterday. It was about the elm tree being cut down]

So, moving right along, here is today's post!

This wonderful heavy handmade wooden bench was made by Wally Clark and belongs to my nephew. We are storing it for a few weeks as the nephew is moving. Wally used tree branches and parts of an old church pew. I like it right here, under a painting I once did of the woodpile behind our house (40 years ago!)

This week we had a similar woodpile in our front yard here, as the ancient elm was cut down.

It was tempting to keep some of that wood for Wally.....no telling what wonderful things he could have made from it!

The "indigo dog" portrait art quilts are almost finished...they just need the hanging sleeves on the back!

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A cross-section of the mighty elm which stood in our front yard.

Below, Mr. P showing just how big the trunk was!

Photo in this morning's paper.....the Dalai Lama arriving here yesterday!

NOTE: the security guard!

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Our good friend, Karen has a birthday this weekend. She has requested this flourless chocolate cake for her celebration. Looks good to me!

From Mother's Day 2009.....now a blossom!

"Sorbet" peony! Delightful!

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Working on my art projects.....I found a soft corduroy shirt in a thrift store.

The colors and design were just what I needed for the frame and back of my wool and raw silk pillow

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Still working on the "Indigo Dog" portraits of Juniper! Adding black machine stitching and will be quilting with large hand stitching too.

Jane LaFazio's classes are great!

Trying new ideas in Jane LaFazio's on-line art quilt class.

Working this week on a pet portrait on canvas. This (above)is the work in progress. I am trying 2 versions!

The pet is in the photo below, Juniper, who belongs to my son and his wife!

Full blown beauty!

One large peony in a small glass vase (on a raw silk cloth).

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I have finished stitching on the little morning mist in the Ozarks art quilt. This was really fun! Our next art quilt is done with wool felt.

I'm a natural.....

lover of natural fibers, that is! I cannot "abide" (as my grandmother would have put it) polyester!

So I was delighted to find wonderful 100% linen shirts at the local thrift shops! They even have pearl buttons and each was less than $3.00! My "inner hippie artist" wants to embellish them a bit more and make them uniquely "mine"!

While I was at the large fabric store where I work part-time, yesterday, I checked on threads to use for this. I found LINEN embroidery floss!!!! [It is being discontinued...so I may need to buy it all--Ha!]

There were only a few soft natural colors, but the green works perfectly, I think, on my green linen and the taupe is great on the natural linen. I am considering using the cotton crochet thread to further embellish and make the sleeves of this former natural linen "camp shirt" a bit longer...we will see!
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I have also enrolled in another class with Jane LaFazio! this one is on experimental art quilts...and will have more fun opportunities for embellishment and stitching!

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this is a landscape quilt, about 8.5"X11". It is called "Morning Mist in the Ozark Springtime".

Off to stitich now!

A collage finally finished. This is from the on-line class I took with Jane LaFazio.

It is on watercolor paper and uses other papers and my sketches and paintings. The sparrow was painted first on muslin then fused to the collage with fusible webbing. The pomegranate in her hand is stenciled, then beaded. It is about Kishimojin a Japanese Buddhist goddess who is the protectress of pregnant women and young children. She is usually shown with a pomegranate in her left hand (symbolising fertility!)

This seems an appropriate subject for my artwork this time, as I will be the proud grandmother of three new babies by the end of this coming summer!

sometimes things just happen......

These May Day flowers were meant to go to our daughter for her birthday tomorrow...May 1st. However, they were delivered here today by someone's error. So we are enjoying them and are happy to share them on the blog.

[Now, for the energy to paint them!!!!...I'm still a little tired from all those hours of watching the wedding! LOL! and knitting while watching!]

I was browsing the Internet for "royal wedding fabric" (there seems to be some, but hard to find!) and came across this charming pincushion. Lots of fun!!!!
Kits are available here!

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I am happy to say that the sun is out today! Of course, the devastation in Alabama and Georgia is heartbreaking and terrifying. My prayers go out for all in that area.

What a difference 24 hours can make! Yesterday at this time, I was looking out into a torrential downpour. The water was gushing down the rocks across the street and making tiny waterfalls as is flooded our street.

Today, though the sun is not shining, and we may have severe weather tonight, I have been with the camera enjoying the peonies!

This quilt was completed earlier and delivered to my daughter when I visited a few weeks ago.

This is a rainy Saturday before Easter! I have just put the ruffle on this second crib quilt for the twin granddaughters! This second one is vertical in orientation, the first was horizontal.

Both have large, "wagon wheel" type appliqued flowers and contemporary fabrics!

Here is another view of the same quilt, before the ruffle

The little darlings should arrive at the end of June. So these will be ready for them!

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As soon as our rainy weather clears, we are to have a large old dying elm tree cut down from our front yard. Here, one branch is trying to grow and leafing out, near a little bird house which is stuck in the tree. [The bird house is permanent now, squeezed by the large branches!]

As far as I can tell, no birds are living in it.

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A plan for Easter brunch....because aspargus is in season and we love it!


The recipe is here !

Enjoy! Have a lovely Easter whatever you do!

My "homework" from the art class with Jane LaFazio.......

It is a small book, made from an 18"x12" piece of Lutradur and folded to make these pages.

Here it stands near a vase of greenery, and I am loving how the light shines through the pages!

I have filled it with a few quotes and lore about butterflies. For more about it, see my "Arty Collages and Dolls" blog .

NOTE: I just want to say, that I did not make those run-on paragraphs in the post below....I had them spaced and doing well....then Blogger took out all my spacing....Hmmm.

I am so happy! My trillium has returned again this spring! Here it is in the hostas at the base of a statue of St. Francis! You see, I thought it had been accidentally destroyed early last summer by an "over-zealous" weeder who shall remain nameless!

To me, this is my own little "Easter lily" this year!

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I think that it's the little things, the little moments that make our lives authentic! So, I was recently delighted to be able to attend a lecture at our local library. The speaker was escorted in with bagpipes and wearing a kilt! He is one of my favorite writers, Alexander McCall Smith! His topic was "The Very Small Things of Life" which he writes about beautifully in his several detective series. His characters are known for sitting and having peaceful discussions over cups of tea (bush tea in the "#1 Ladies Detective Agency" series, set in Botswana), and though he says his publishers have sometimes suggested it, his books will NOT be having car chases or other such escapades. McCall Smith is a world respected expert on medical ethics and he was in our university town as a speaker for the law school on that subject. He was truly delightful and funny! If you haven't read any of his books, give them a try!

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In my small world, I have recently enjoyed making a hand carded linoleum block stamp for a little bird....who knows what adventures she will come across in my collages and art quilts!?!

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Another small delight didn't start out that way!---It started with my yearly physical exam. Not delightful but necessary. Requiring the shedding of my clothes and donning a loose fitting garment. Afterward, having dressed, gone down the elevator, across the parking lot and driving home, I realized I was wearing only one of my favorite small gold hoop earrings. Oh, no! So I called the Dr.'s office and they checked the dressing room. Yes, they had an earring! I drove back up there. No, it was a different earring...oh well. Walking back out to my car, I remembered that as I had walked out a few hours earlier something had brushed my hand. I had looked around then and decided that it was a pine straw blown down by the wind. Now, remembering that, I decided to look down at the pavement as I crossed to the car. As soon as I cast my I eyes down, I saw the shining golden earring! The lost was found, and undamaged! Persevering paid off! **********************************************************************

Lastly, the delight of finding just the thing you had been wishing for.... I love floaty cool skirts for summer weather. [and I have a bit of an "inner hippie!"]

Yesterday when our houseguests took us out to breakfast in our funky college town, the bakery we chose was next to a little boutique. Hanging in front, spinning in the breeze was a great skirt.....

of course I came back for it later and am enjoying many things about it...light, colorful recycled silk patchwork. Goes with everything!

New patchwork skirt can be found here.

I'm just home from a trip to visit my grandkids on part of their Spring Break....a beautiful time of year! The pollen was really heavy, so they washed my car!!!

They had a new soft-serve ice cream machine to enjoy....and the "almost 12-year-old granddaughter" became a master at making it!

Her little brother was a master at eating it...in his own style of course!!!

My granddaughter was busy with her friends and her cell phone, but the grandson was good at shadowing me...he is also a master at stopping up toilets with too much toilet paper and locking bathroom doors when no one is in there....oh the fun and challenges of early childhood!

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It was a good trip, a long drive with lots of wisteria and dogwoods to see....

this fabulous arbor of wisteria was a Crowley's Ridge rest stop on the Interstate in Arkansas.

And once I reached my own front yard, I was rewarded with a much anticipated sight....

remember these "Main Performance" daffodil bulbs given to me by my friend, Paula?

They are blooming...large and bold and bright yellow with just a hint of orange around the "trumpet". I hope they come back bigger and bettter each spring!

Now back to making those quilts for the twins to be born in June...2 little girls in the family I just visited.

[My son and DIL are having their first in late August. We will be told the apparent gender of that baby in a couple of weeks....]

Looking forward to a great summer here!