ANOTHER WALL OF SUNFLOWERS

 Darrell hung the ongoing collection of Sunflower art I've been accumulating for a while now.

ART TUESDAY

 I joined Andrea Chebeleu of Watch.Learn.Play today to make some art for a while.  I'm not sure if I just made a mess or what!  There are parts I really love, so maybe I'll just cut it up and use it somewhere else.

So much fun!  And that's the point.

And, since it's Tuesday, I joined Cheryl Arkison for one of the last Quilters Playcation 2024 improv blocks.  I was doing so well, actually following her instructions and making a block that would look almost like hers and then I trimmed it and no!  I trimmed it a quarter inch too short.  I give up!

QUILTCON SUNDAY

Stood in line to get my breakfast and coffee at Starbucks, with everyone else.  Then it was off to a lecture with Carole Lyles Shaw entitled Geometric Abstraction.

I met up with Claudia and her friend Anita.  We all went to Durham.  Anita was meeting up with an old friend for brunch.  Claudia and I went to some art museums.  First was a wonderful Art Deco Hotel, 41C, downtown Durham.  They had an electic collection of interesting art.

The Art Deco Lobby

The restrooms, with see thru walls.

But, luckily the glass would become opaque. 

Then we headed to Duke University to their Nasher Art Museum.  It was a very interesting building, too.  It was five-sided and the structure inside was a marvel, connecting the five 'buildings' which contained various exhibits with an open atrium.

I didn't take many pictures in the exhibits, but really enjoyed them.  We all headed back to Raleigh for a late lunch.  Claudia had found a great little place where you could get breakfast biscuits with egg, cheese and added bacon for under $9.  I splurged, it was delicious.

Then Claudia was nice enough to drive me to the airport.  I arrived a bit early because I was getting nervous.  I walked back and forth in the small airport, then sat and sketched the others waiting for the flight that wouldn't leave until 6:50pm.  It was the only non-stop flight I could find.

Good-bye Raleigh. Good-bye Quiltcon - until next year!

 

TROLL IN THE PARK

 The Danish artist, Thomas Dambo, has installed one of his trolls in Lincoln Park.  We've been watching the construction process over the past week.

Today we walked down to the beach (along with hundreds of fisherpeople).  

This is Bruuniden, playing her flute in homage to the Orcas.  She is wearing jewelry of shells and tree bark, made by local artist John 'Coyote' Halliday.

I sat down to sketch her.

OWL BODY

 I bought the pdf for the Dastardly Owl pattern on Ann Wood's Handmade site.

I scrounged around for a few fabrics and made the body this morning.

Here's how I left him.  Those are pins where his eyes will go.

I rummaged through my Grandma Jennie's button collection and found two black buttons to use for the eyes.

I'll get to those tomorrow.

After lunch I made another page spread in my Junk Art Journal.

I'm having fun.

ART JOURNAL

Some friends mentioned an Art Journaling program of prompts and inspiration.  Since I don't feel like sewing I thought I'd check it out.  It's called Care December put on by Everything-Art.com 

So, today I made a 'junk journal'.  I found an old hard-bound book, cut the pages out and inserted some papers I had in my paper files that I haven't used in years.  I even sewed them into the cover.

That was day one.

 

GEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM

One of the main reasons for visiting Santa Fe New Mexico is to see the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.

Outside of the museum is this wonderfully huge tree.  There was a plaque nearby, saying the tree has it's own instagram tag #doublecottonwood

FIRST THURSDAY

Granddaughter Hailey (10, soon to be 11 in a few weeks) is staying with us for a few days during her spring break from school.

I cut the fabrics and she sewed them together to make this cute pillowcase.  This is the first time she used a sewing machine.  Good job!

I wanted something simple to work on so I pulled out the neglected Alphabet quilt blocks.  I see I had left a note that I was waiting for Kona Coral color to show up last year to use on the J block.  So, I got that out and made these blocks.

This being the first Thursday of the Month, we took Hailey downtown to the Art Walk.  First, was dinner at the Cuban restaurant, Cafe Con Leche on First Ave S.

Hailey has never been to an art walk.  I think she enjoyed it.  There was some very interesting art and people to see.  The building that used to house Elliott Bay Books was having a big party for First Thursday with art and performance art and just odd people walking about.

Hailey took advantage of an exhibit that let people take their pictures using various props.

We saw some interesting art.  I didn't think about taking pictures until late in the walk.

The glass circles on the sidewalk

CATCHING UP

Spent today trying to catch up.  I said I was going to work on each project every day.  So, of course, that hasn't happened - not even once.

First things first,  a beautiful morning walk with Art on the Beach.

The Block Heads 2 put out three block patterns today and I did them.

KANSAS CITY ART MUSEUM

I flew into Kansas City Missouri on Saturday to meet up with Darrell.  He had been teaching in Indianapolis and flew to KC Saturday morning.  I didn't get in until 4pm.  He was waiting with the rental car.  We went to the hotel, but they weren't ready for us, so we went out for dinner.  The original plan was to get bbq (when in KC you must get bbq, we're told).  But the lines were out the door into the street, so we headed down the road and found a Cajun restaurant.  They had the best jambalaya I've ever had.

Sunday:

Our plan was to spend the day at the Nelson-Atkins Museum.

Waiting for the doors to open

In front of the doors, waiting...

Big Monet!

This was my favorite - the one I'd take home.

Here is the G&G Vitrine that we came all this way to see!

Beautiful courtyard.

We stopped for a rest and a snack in the courtyard

Even the restroom was a work of art