Sunday, July 28, 2013

Art-in-the-Park, Holland, August 3

Glamour Girl with Grass Hair
and Rose Pin
Please join me for a wonderful day at the 44th Annual ART-IN-THE-PARK in downtown Holland, Michigan's Centennial Park.  I'll be at Booth #259 at the corner of Central Avenue and 10th Street from 9am to 4pm with many new dolls and hand printed fabrics, plus hand printed and painted jackets and silk scarves.  Look forward forward to seeing you there!


Sunday, July 7, 2013

Indigo Dyeing - Part 3

Mokume (wood grain) piece by Lou Wolf
Awase-nui (linked circles) piece by Lou Wolf


Lou Wolf has been a part of the indigo dyeing group for the last two years here at  my house.  These two small samples, meticulously stitched and pulled, were done at this year's dyeing session on May 5.  Lou is a quilter using the kaleidoscope technique of making round mandala quilts.  Her work can be seen at Synchronicity Gallery in Glen Arbor, Michigan, as well as many quilts shows, such as the August 2012 American Quilt Society's conference exhibit here in Grand Rapids.


Friday, July 5, 2013

The July Garden

Cosmos in pink and deep carmine along with white
and blue larkspur hardly compete with the tall spires
of Olympic Mullein and lavender.
Summer is my favorite season and so far I have been spending a great deal of time outside in my gardens trying to not just get plants in the ground, but massive amounts of weeding, even still getting seeds planted.  This image below I just took from my deck high above the backyard.  ( Please disregard the hose....)  

My front garden probably gets more of my attention because it's easier to get to and I always walk out front first thing in the morning to see the sun come up.  The Olympic Mullein is blooming and filled with bees.  The lavender is truly beautiful and, with the Butterfly Weed blooming in brilliant orange across from it, this part of the garden is bursting with color.  I do love intense colors, and I will admit to loving pink.  I once tried to have all pink in my garden---really boring, since of course, it's the complement of opposing colors that recreates the dynamic effect.  So, as plants are added and they start blooming, I'll add more images; hopefully even some of fabric since my goal today is to not only finish trimming the last two yew hedges but to clean out the garage of the hated cottonwood tree's snow but to  organize it for my annual summer garage studio work of printing and painting fabric.

My backyard, heart-shaped garden features mostly Rose Campion right now.
The Golden Yarrow rises above in the back left and lemon-scented day lilies
just started blooming this morning (on the right).