April art times! And recap of life!!!!

This is now finished and hanging in my studio! Influenced by artist Faith Ringgold!

I am working to add patchwork and stitching on this art piece too!

Using a sashiko needle, I am able to embellish the painting with per level cotton stitches!

The patchwork border will come later...
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This week I have been able to do other art too!

Friends came and we did watercolor....

Featuring a fabulous tulip bouquet from the local farmer's market.

Moving from watercolor to acrylics ....

These are finished now....?...I think!

And 2 smaller ones...which may still see some finishing!

The store where I have a part time job is closing....so I will have even more art and creative time.

I have plenty of fabric, and am making scrappy quilts and quilt tops for various family members and for charity!

And sewing for grandchildren!

Sophie in a dress I made!
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moving towards grey hair....saving $$$$ as we are on Social Security!
I thank God for my many dear friends, especially those with whom I share such good times!

With Karen at a birthday for Tracie!

With Gayle and her granddaughters, friends Sally and Liz, at a French restaurant in Carthage, MO.
April is great, and today is friend Sally's birthday!
Our lilacs...on a windy day!

Hope to be back with more good things soon!

Wow! Real Senior Moments!

It has been an amazing week! Valentines and more!

 

Today is our 43rd wedding anniversary! Things are good!

One week ago, two days after retiring from his job of the last 12.5 years, husband, Steve had a small stroke!

(He wasted no time in using Medicare!)

Lots of tests and a couple of days in the hospital...he is on the mend!

Here we are sharing our dessert at the restaurant tonight. Of course, we are trying to eat very healthy things now...but the dessert was a free gift to us because of the occasion! One dessert and 2 forks....no calories that way! LOL!

 

We really did enjoy it!!!!

 

We have flowers from our son and daughter in law! They are opening, I will have to paint them!

Steve's periphrial vision was affected. So he is not legal to drive for a bit! It will improve.

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I have been having hand and arm pain...so am giving this quilt to a co-worker who has a little girl. She will have to sew the binding down! That will make it mean even more to them!

Here is our youngest grandchild...so cute! He will be crawling soon!

Across the continent ....My son in law sent this cool photo of one of the twins, "Nina bird" and himself!

Love that they send us photos! Would love to see them more!!!

Here are the twins 3 years ago when they were 20 months old!

"Nina bird" is in the car, Sophie is pushing her.

 

I sent these little leggings and tops to the twins this week. Hope they enjoy them! I am trying to sew up some of my stash!

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I am working on adding a patchwork border to one of my collage paintings. Like Faith Ringgold does.....

here I am testing fabrics for the border...back later with the result!

 

Making pages for art journal and Smash books

I love to play with images! SMASH books and art journals are part of my inner teenager, I think!

Here is the newest Smash book which I got from K&Co. It actually has several pages for each month, chronologically arranged.

The inside is New Year's Day

Next a couple of January pages..

A Christmas card with a painting by Jimmy Carter.

Just chillin, hanging out with friends...

 

A page about a sweater I finished knitting.

Then February, I can't make myself cover up their groundhog .....Gayle and I went to see the Maya Angelou life quilt at Crystal Bridges.

I bought the little primroses in the photo! I love how the pink looks with the orange mandarins!

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A larger format than the Smash journal, my art journal is a multimedia sketchbook from Strathmore. I decorate the cover with photos of art and colorful paint chips.

Inside I have many large messy pages....often these are ongoing, I will continue to paste something in to fill up the page as I find these pieces...

 

 

This one has my thought on turning 65 and getting Medicare....still adding. The circle of blue reminds me of the earth. It was done with a gelli plate, a monoprint.

Colored watercolor pencils and stencils are the backgrounds of these pages about our travel agent daughter, Laura.

This is a page with magazine photo and little daisy stenciling! Part of that page was done using a bent toilet paper tube for a heart stamp.....

Some pages are done by dragging an old credit card through spots of paint just squeezed out of the tube.

 

Like this!

 

Now, before this turns into one of those "days when it took me all day to not get anything done",

I am heading downstairs where my sewing studio is,to sew for the twins!

 

Saffron pumpkin buns and winter quilts!

With cold winter weather, I felt like baking today! These were a big hit!

A friend had given me some saffron, then I saw a chef making pumpkin buns with saffron on P. Allen Smith's show....I found a similar recipe.

In my pantry, I also had this specialty flour from Italy. The flour is made from an ancient wheat called einkorn.

I got it at our local Natural Grocery store and was anxious to try it! It has a less offensive protein than the gluten found in modern wheat!

I do not have a stand mixer, with a dough hook so I "kneaded" the dough in the big crockery bowl with a wooden spoon for quite awhile...until it was ready for it's rising time. ( watched some TV while doing this!)

After rising and being rolled up around their filling, the rolls baked up perfectly, very moist with the canned pumpkin as an ingredient!

Here is a link to the recipe: http://www.thekitchykitchen.com/?recipes=/pumpkin-saffron-rolls/

These will be our breakfast tomorrow, Saturday!

I plan to sleep in, so it is nice to have the breakfast all prepared!

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A couple of quilts have been finished lately, crib size! This (above) is a scrappy 16 patch with turquoise lattice.

I used a bright busy fabric for the binding! See a small piece of the blue background binding fabric in the lower left of this photo...(below).

It gives a very nice effect!

The other recent quilt is this one for a baby girl who is coming into the world this March!

It is called "Baby Bricks" and can be made using a fabric "jelly roll"! Mine is just from my scrap bin of 2.5 " strips!

Above our fireplace I now have a favorite wall hanging. Inspired by Sujata Shah's Cultural Fusion book!

These blocks were being tested before sewing together.....

This is Sujata's original called "Winter"! I love the soft grays, but the pink just "makes" it for me!

Here is Sujata hand quilting on another of her wonderful quilts! She is coming in October to do a lecture and workshop for our quilt guild!

I am so excited!

 

Time to find my quilt/covers for tonight...the heat is turned down and it is time for a long winter's nap!

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Sunday update.

I finished knitting my "Queen Street Sweater" using a pattern in Knitscene magazine (above) Issue winter 2015.

Mine is in yarn by NORO a blend of silk and rayon. A tweedy green as that was the only color with enough skeins at the local yarn shop!

The unusual pockets were what caught my eye in the pattern....

It actually fits nicely and I am very pleased with. It's the appearance and the feel, soft comfy and not too warm...just right! (Silk is a good insulator against cold winter days!)