"Sunday Woods"

"If you see something beautiful in someone, speak it."
Ruthie Lindsey

I follow an artist/teacher named Shari Blaukopf from Montreal, Canada. Once or twice a week a post pops up in my e-mail....and I'm always swept away. Today it was into "Sunday Woods," a beautiful painting of the first snowfall in Montreal...a nice follow up from my post yesterday  about the snow carpeting my woods in Maine.

I immediately sent her a message thanking her and letting her know how much I appreciate her art. I'm going to do that more often....thank people who bring me joy.


I love her paintings but especially love her sketches.  If you go to her website you can check out her work.....and you can read all about her process on her blog.  She's amazing!

Her floral sketches makes me melt....

  

...and her seaside sketches make me smile. Thank you for your beautiful art Shari!

First Snowfall

We had our first snowfall of the season while we were in Maine this weekend...a little earlier than usual.

It looked lovely carpeting the woods behind the condo....




...but it didn't seem quite so pretty when we got back to Lexington this afternoon.

We hadn't gotten the ginkgo leaves up...so the crusty melting snow and soggy leaves made for tough shoveling.  Oops!  I hope we get some warm days for melting so we can get the clean up done before real winter sets in. 

The ginkgo tree is finally completely bare....it was a good season!

Happy To You!

It's Margie's birthday today....so as we say in our family "HAPPY TO YOU!" When our oldest son was young he used to sing the birthday song as just "happy to you...happy to you...happy to you"...and so it lives on.  

Margie had to share her birthday with the first snow storm of the season....so it shifted the plans a little. But we had a nice little celebration in her apartment and it will continue into tomorrow. She's a young 87 today...and getting younger every day!

We feel very fortunate to have Margie near by and look forward to sharing all the holidays and celebrations with her.  Like he daughter Alyson told me...."she's fun at a party!"

It seems like a good time to chime in on some excitement ahead.  Margie temporarily moved into a senior living facility near our condo in Maine last May...and soon will be moving to a brand new facility that has been under construction forever! It was supposed to be finished in September...then it was October...now it's late November. She's been very patient!  We hope to have her moved in after Thanksgiving and we'll finally get to really set up her apartment.  We only unpacked the essentials here...and hung only one picture so she's been living "lightly" but doing just fine.  It is time to get her more settled and surrounded by things that will make her house a home.  So stay tuned!

There is no question that she is her son's mother. Paul's gift to her was that stack of books under her birthday tarts in the photo above.  Margie, like her son, always has stacks of books on the coffee table. Happy to you Margie!  We love you!

A Good Thing

Several weeks ago I was without my computer for several days and it was kind of nice being partially unplugged.  Instead of browsing my usual computer sites with my morning coffee I started a puzzle and was reminded how good they are for me.  Ten minutes here twenty minutes there...it's good to pause and do something manageable....and somewhat mindless.

I love my cozy puzzle spot in Lexington. I can watch TV if I want to...but today I just enjoyed the quiet and the view of the carpet of ginkgo leaves out the window.

This 1000 piece one has been fun...colorful books with gold foil accents and fun titles. My favorite title is "Breakfast Epiphanies"....in bright pink.

There's not much more to go....just a little in the top corners. Per usual I will stretch it out and savor the finish.  I have several waiting in the wings....fall and winter are puzzle seasons for me....and puzzles are a good thing.

Rethinking

Although I liked the variety that the Sumac piece brought to the focal wall....I think the new Joy piece fits in pretty well.  Fall Birch has sold as well as the glass piece to the left of it I called Summer Rainbow.  They will need to come down at the end of the month so I need to start rethinking this wall for December.

Gratitude

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." Melody Beattie

Late yesterday afternoon I walked downtown and caught the sun setting behind Hancock Church on my way home.  What I didn't realize is that I caught an airplane flying overhead too. I'm already celebrating the beauty of the sky through the bare trees....I love every season.

The Crafty Yankee gift shop always has lovely window boxes...I think kale is one of the prettiest plants this time of year. I'm so grateful for the beauty of the season.

Ginkgo Day!

Today was one of my favorite days of the year.....ginkgo day!  The large ginkgo tree in my front yard in Lexington dropped almost all of it's leaves this morning in just a few hours...and I loved every minute of it!

 

The leaves glowed in the afternoon light. 

I love ginkgo day!

"Joy"

I've used this design and quilting pattern again and agin....but this one has a whole different feel. It's bright and cheery and hopefully will work on the focal wall to replace the sumac piece.

It may be my favorite stripe stack piece so far. I'm going to call it "Joy."

The simple tone on tone top stitching at the top was hard to photograph....but seems just right in person. 

Gourds and Stitching

I just added my favorite fall decoration to my window sill....Margie's wabi-sabi gourds.  It's one of my favorite stories...and you can read it here.

When I got back to Lexington this afternoon I started top-stitching my latest piece.  I stitched and stitched and stitched....on into the evening.  Binding is tomorrow.


 

Sumac

This sumac on our walk this morning looked pretty sad....but the leaves still have their vibrant color. My sumac piece has sold and has already gone home with its new owner. 

Since there aren't many pieces on the focal wall with stripe stacks I decided to do a square piece in bright colors to replace "Sumac." I think it will go well with this glass piece....both have periwinkle blue elements. I'm going to have a lot of sewing to do when I get back to Lexington tomorrow.

"All Stacked Up"

Several weeks ago I cut a pile of strips for a project that I was going to seam rather than fuse and I'm just getting to it. Over the last couple of days I've been sewing strips together to create a large focal piece for the show. 

I cut the strips pretty narrow so it took a lot of them to get it to the size I wanted and that means it took a lot of sewing. Half way through I was wishing they were a little wider. 

I finished the seaming today in Portland....but the top-stitching will have to wait a few days until I get back to Lexington. The top stitching will soften the transitions and give it nice texture. It's approximately 21 x 38 so pretty good size.

I think I'm going to call it "All Stacked Up."

I layered several stripes then transitioned with solids.  I used ombre solid jelly roll strips that I cut in 1/2 the long way then sewed back together in the opposite direction to distribute the color. I just realized this picture is upside down from the way I plan to hang it. It will be good to have "All Stacked Up" all wrapped up!

Wandering Wednesday

I've talked about "Field Trip Fridays" and I'm declaring today "Wandering Wednesday." Two friends and I headed to Sudbury, MA to check out some shops, have a nice lunch, and soak in this absolutely beautiful day. There is something about a creative excursion with good friends that lifts my spirits and reminds how important it is to pause....and play. Thanks Linda and Anita...it's just what I needed!

My husband can still surprise me....but he is also very predictable. Just yesterday I changed over a few little halloween things in my kitchen to a few fall things. 

Decorating my window sill each season is one of my favorite little puttering projects.  I don't have a lot for just fall....but I do have these little Winnie the Pooh blocks that say "GIVE THANKS" ....or at least that's what they're supposed to say.

Every year....without fail....Paul rearranges the blocks.  I put them back....he rearranges.  I do think his effort is kind of endearing and I'd probably be disappointed if he didn't bother.  Surprises are nice....but so it predictability.

Here's what just got put away.  Before long it will be decked out for Christmas. Yikes!

Carpet of Color

I loved the colors in the sunshine the other day...but they were just as beautiful this morning even though it was misty and gray.

A few days ago Paul and I admired this tree around the corner full of beautiful leaves. Now they're mostly on the ground and the carpet of color was spectacular.

The wet leaves on this shrub looked they were coated with varnish...and I love the variation of color.

I made another photo piece today to replace the one that sold.
 

I fuse the stripe stack onto a pice of gold ribbon at the horizon then onto a piece of stabilizer before I do the stop stitching. Because the ribbon doesn't have fusible webbing on the back this creates a little pocket I can tuck the photograph...then I top stitch that last line along the top.

I ended up adding a few more strips to the bottom because I wanted the photograph oriented a little higher.