Hello,

  Summer solstice was Tue and now we are officially into the  summer season.   That also seems to mean more and more out side activates.    I found I did not have much time in the studio this week and next week looks the same.  The yard gets more attention for one thing and I love it.  I have lots of flowers blooming and the world is full  of greens.    I have also been to lots of picknicks lately.  We had a big Birthday party on Sat and we will have a second family event in two weeks to celebrate the July birthdays.

I did attend a FAD meeting this week and got some help with a few works that I had questions about as well as enjoying the socialization.   The Pixies had a video meeting on Wed and we had a good time sharing our works.  The project for the Textile Artist Stich club is coming along.   I am starting to really fill in the spaces now.

I also put in some time on the second hand piece.   I tried to create a totally different feel for the hand surround.

 

 

My other activity this week was to start summer dyeing with Liz.   We spent one day checking and cleaning out old dyes  and one day dyeing.   I am in the wash out step now.

Progress Report:  Dancing This work is  31.5″ w X 39.5″ h.    I started this work at my friend Sharron’s a few weeks ago.   All the figures are hand drawn from photos of ballet dancers.

 

 

This close up is of the big figures hands on the  right side of the quilt.

I enjoyed the process, but at this time I do not  have any ideas of new directions to follow.

Against the Wind   I am now in the process of building a  free piecing background for the birds of this project.   It takes a lot of looking and thinking to do  this, almost more then doing the birds.

New Work   I got a new book last week  that  is  authored  by  an  artist  I have  long  admired.   Irene Roderick has had many works in Quilts =Art=Quilts so I have had the opportunity to study her work, but the book sure makes it easier to follow her thinking.    I  now  in the process of doing some of  the exercises she suggests.    They are techniques I am familiar with, but my goal is different this time. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

College Memories Spring 1969

March was the beginning of spring term and Eric and I decided to get married at the end of the quarter. So it was a whirl wind of activity for both of us. He would be graduating at the end of summer school, and I would take classes and then only have my student teaching to complete my degree. My most rigorous class that term was Comparative Religions. I did not know a thing about Hinduism, Buddhism or Islam, so I learned a lot. The class I enjoyed the most was Sound and Light, a class designed especially for Art and Music majors. There were lots of experiments and the teacher explained things well. I got an A in that one. My three art classes were Sculpture II and two night classes. Tuesday was Nude Drawing. We started out each evening with short two- and three-minute drawings. The posing time expanded gradually ending with and hour and a half at the end of the evening. I filled several big news print pads and they are still in my portfolio. My other night class was Ceramics III, on Thursday. That class was lots of exploring of mixing glazes, so I did lots of throwing that term to have work to experiment on. It was fun. With Eric around it was back to lots of movies. I remember seeing Flower Drum Song and really liking it as I had listened to Mom’s record for years. Among the other movies we watched on campus were Chalk Garden , Gypsy, East of Eden and Friendly Persuasion. We went downtown to see the big his of that spring, Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet. Bill Cosby also entertained us that spring in Emens Auditorium. We had seats in the second row and enjoyed ourselves very much.

I spent a lot of time at home that term sewing. First I made my wedding dress. It was white full length silk with woven diamond pattern in organza on top. I then made two bride’s maid’s dresses, a blue and white stripe with little flowers woven into the blue. They were for Ellie and Margaret. Last I made a little white dress in the same weave pattern for Kelly, who was to be my flower girl. Eric’s youngest brother, Scott, was the ring barer and he wore a suit like Eric. Dean would be the best man accompanied by Gene. Larry spent the spring transcribing “What is a Youth” from the Romeo and Juliet record album, as there was no sheet music available yet. Later, Larry would it at the ceremony while a fellow music major accompanied him on the piano. There were so many preparations and details to attend to I felt like I was always moving. We tried to keep the costs down and I do remember thinking that $70.00 for flowers see like a huge sum. I did have a wedding portrait taken and it appeared in the paper. We wanted to have the wedding ceremony in the Unitarian-Universalist Church–it had such a glorious setting with a glass wall that looked out into a green wood behind the front of the sanctuary. Eric and I had to attend several marriage counseling sessions with Dr. Kelly, too. It must have taken, as we celebrated anniversary number 53 on June 7 this year (2022). Finals arrived and were taken, the last being June 4–three days before the wedding. All the family was there, of course. Dad had set up for all of my extended family to stay at one of the conference centers that Ball State owned near by. Eric’s father opted for the local Holiday Inn for his half of the family. Eric and I had decided to rent the upstairs apartment from Mom and Pappa Mayor for the summer and I moved in after the final exam. We had our rehearsal and it went well. Afterward, Bob, Eric’s dad took us all to dinner.

Keep Creating ,

Carol