Missing My Florida Fiber Friends

These are my friends who I  have so much in common with. We all love to create with fiber, paint, dye and share. They were all there for me at my Florida Ice show to help out with the crowd. 
Right now we are all spread out around the country. Sure do miss each one of them.

Beth's Recent Visit

As my friends visit I am taking new photos of them with the new quilt in the background.

I couldn't believe I had not taken her picture in front of the quilt since she has visited several times since it was hung. When the two of us get together we have so much to talk about and show each other we run out of time and I forget. This time I got it.

I Just Realized I Have Made Over 2500 Blog Posts

 My post on 12/11/2019 was my 2500th post.

How fitting it features my friend Carol Gordhamer.
We grew up 1.8 miles from each other in Wisconsin.
We never met until we lived about 25 miles from each other in Florida.
My life is full of small world stories and I have enough of them to write a book.
I keep finding or remembering new ones all the time.

Two Very Special Sisters

Pat and Denny are two very special ladies.
They are two of my newest friends and I am so thankful to know them.
Pat is a quilter and Denny makes beautiful jewelry.

Lunch With My Hometown Friend Carol

I finally am close enough to settling in that Carol and I were able to have lunch at Toppers.
We always have so much to share.
Carol is SO talented and if it involves fiber or art SHE can do it.

Great To See My Friend Eileen

It was great to see my friend Eileen Mirr today. It's the first chance we have had to see each other since I returned to Florida. We are long time friends from Wisconsin and our lives have overlapped in so many ways and still are.
She also recognized the quilt as it hung in my husbands office and they both worked at the same school.
I took 4 pictures of her and they all were great. It was hard to decide which one to use. I chose this one because it really shows off her gorgeous hair, her vibrant outgoing personality and her shirt looks great with the quilt.
We each settled in Florida almost accidentally. And add to that we only live about 10 miles from each other. 

Long Time Friends We Followed To Florida

Lynn and John stopped over today to help me with something.
This quilt hung in my husbands office and Lynn was his amazing assistant. It was actually completed in 1995 for the schools open house and his new office.
I am glad to have a wall large enough to display it again.

Another Vistor

Two trim men...who is the oldest or are they the same age?

Denise returns with Jamie. 
Lots of fun seeing people I've missed all summer.

First Visitor With Newest Quilt

I remembered to take a photo of my friend Denise with the new quilt when she visited. (Lynn visited yesterday but we were so busy talking I forgot to take a picture)
You get to see more of the quilt than on the last blog post that showed it.

Lunch And Show & Tell ART With Girlfriends

It is always so much fun to get together for lunch and show and tell with my talented friends.

Beth has challenged herself to do a project with 5 different ideas. I really wish you could see this in person as there are so many special ways she has used her materials and the way she has created the picture. She has experimented with so many different techniques and materials and this shows how she has mastered them.

The elephant used a batik method.

Robbie has been taking a color and design class on line from a lady in the UK. They work with paper. The class sounds excellent and a lot of fun. This is one of her pieces.

This was an exercise where they learn to use tints, tones, shades, etc.

They are doing layering of paints and dyes. They also are using finishes on them.
Another part of the class is learning to design, cut up and make your own compositions.
The class is a year long and from what I have seen of Robbie's work and what she has told us, I would consider it a master class.
Unfortunately this was our last get together as Robbie and her DH will not be returning to Florida next season. I treasure getting to know her and spend time together. We still will have email, Facebook and our blogs.

An Enjoyable Visit

I had briefly met Muriel Lynch and knew she was someone I'd like to know better. It took time for us to find a date we could get together.
One thing we had in common was that we had both gone to University of Wisconsin - Stout, although not at the same  time. I also know someone else who was in her class at Stout. It was a surprise that both of them mentioned knowing the one same person without me even saying the persons name.
We both enjoy working with fabric. 
We didn't begin to run out of things to talk about and time passes too quickly. I hope I'll be seeing more of her in the near future.

Granny Is Giving The Girls A Quilting Lesson

It's girls night out and they are visiting Granny to learn to quilt.
I hope she is teaching them well so they will finish some of my works in progress.

College Sorority Sisters A "Few" Years Later

How exciting for all three of us to be together after all these years. Donna and I live within about 10 miles of each other in Florida and Marilyn was in the area. It was so great that we were able to find a time for all of us to get together for a visit, catch up and have lunch before Marilyn and Rich headed back to Wisconsin.

Marilyn's husband Rich also went to school with us. He is such a great guy. He brought Marilynn over here and then spent time with their really special dog while we all caught up and had lunch.
It is so great when you get together with long time friends and they still are as special as they once were. Donna was the first person I met when I arrived at my dorm room as she was one of my room mates. She still is as exuberant as she was then.
If I am not mistaken Marilynn lived on the 3rd floor of the dorm while Donna and I were on the second floor. I remember lots of special times Marilynn and I spent together and things we did. You may have seen the post from several years ago last time she came for a visit and brought me a red plaid pleated wool skirt she bought from me in college.  How special she still had it and even more so that she could find it after several moves in their lifetime.
I feel so fortunate to be able to reconnect with long time friends.

Robbie Porter Payne Day On My Blog

Robbie does amazing beading. She worked on this squirrel for at least two years. It was beaded and she has a system for putting it on a background.

I am sharing this closeup of this piece so you can see the dyed background, the machine quilting and the hand embroidery. She LOVES doing handwork.

She is currently taking a year long online class. She had so many examples to share with us. These are just a few. They are done with paper, paint and dye. She is making her own stencils and making compositions with the papers.

You can see Robbie's blog here: https://robbiespawprints.blogspot.com/

I am so fortunate to have such talented and creative friends.

We Are Three Of A Kind

Robbie, Kay and Beth all love to play with fabric, fiber, paint, dyes, design and  creativity. We each have our own way of doing this.

We all are continually trying new things and even revisited things from our pasts.

Friday the three of us got together for lunch and sharing, showing and telling.

It was an amazing day with each of us having things that were so different that what the other two were doing.  

Robbie does some of the most amazing beading I have ever seen. She is constantly trying new things and currently is taking a year long class online from an artist in the UK. Beth is an accomplished doll artists. She also does a variety of surface design techniques and is continually trying so many new things.
All of us make quilts, with each of us producing totally different types. I hope to be able to share some of the pictures I took at our get together on future posts. Blogger is still making me fight to put up a post so I feel one photo is my limit right now.
Robbie has a blog which I am sure you will enjoy: robbiespawprints.blogger.com

January To December, We Had Moments To Remember!

In January I finished this miniature quilt that I had started about 20 years earlier. The quilt is about the size of a piece of notebook paper. Each log is 1/4 inch wide. It was a great way to use color to create a show stopper.

FEBRUARY was a time to dye fabric, design and create quilts while I enjoyed the Winter Olympics. It also was a time to enjoy seeing my Florida friends and family.

MARCH marked the opening of FLORIDA ICE, my solo show at the Ocala City Hall. The opening reception brought guests from Florida, Wisconsin, North Carolina and other parts of the country. What a high for me to be able to share my work in this beautiful setting with those who appreciate fine art.

APRIL brought my son Greg and daughter in law Julie to Florida for a visit and to see my show.

MAY
On May 10th, 2018 at 2:30 pm the 1,000,000 visitor visited my blog. No, I do not know who it was.


JUNE
My entire Minnesota family was able to visit at the same time. This rarely happens anymore as jobs and school and activities prevent it.


JULY
In July I hung a variety of fabrics on my design wall so that they could tell me what they wanted to be and some of them did.

AUGUST
In August I had some home updates done. I gathered various things I had collected and this is one of the cabinets that new life was breathed into.


SEPTEMBER
A major studio purge and reorganization was finished in September.


OCTOBER
My Florida family celebrated Halloween in style and costume. Of course food also was an important part of it as it is of all our celebrations.




NOVEMBER
Thanksgiving with the Florida is always delicious. These are the youngest members of the family and they are all so special.


DECEMBER 
I had always thought this was a high school student in Edon, Ohio dressed up as Santa Claus. I have spent the last 10 or more years trying to find out who it was. With no one knowing who it was we have come to the conclusion it must have been the REAL SANTA!.

I finished 28 quilts this year. 3 of them had been started a LONG time ago and the others were new. My goal is to finish more than that each year, but I have learned in a year I have a solo show I am lucky to get anything finished unless I need to finish if for the show.

How Can You Say Good Bye To A Special Friend?

55 years has gone by so fast.
We have lived close to each other in 2 different states.
My dear friend Jean Antes is moving to Colorado to live with her family while she is still vibrant.
I know they are looking forward to having her close.
EVERYONE loves Jean.
She was the first person I met when we moved back to Wisconsin 55 years ago.
We would never have found our way to this part of Florida if it weren’t for the fact that we visited them when they moved to Florida 25 years ago.
She is always a joy to be around. How many people do you know that can visit you for 2-3 weeks and when they leave you hate to see them go.
I made one last visit to see her before she leaves.
Goodbye dearest friend, I will see you in Colorado.

Where Have All The Bloggers Gone?

So many of the people I have followed either no longer blog or blog once or twice a year.
The bloggers that I loved and followed were my inspiration to start blogging.
It has been a great way for me to create a personal diary and I share it online with all of you.
Del Thomas is a blogger from California who I continue to follow.  I met her when she was travelling cross country and we spent a little time getting acquainted. She is not only a quilter but a collector of wonderful quilts. She thinks nothing of getting in her car and driving miles and miles to take a class, see a show or visit friends. She recently talked about the diminished interest in people blogging.

She had the nicest comment about my blog:
I read several blogs regularly and others that I catch up on when I have some extra time.
Kay Sorensen  quiltspluscolor.blogspot.com is a super blogger who keeps up with the statistics and enjoys hundreds of visits each day.  She leads a very interesting and varied life in Wisconsin and Florida. Kay makes spectacular quilts and is a very nice lady.  When I was driving cross country once I took a detour up to Wisconsin, because it was one of only two states I had not visited (Alaska is still missing).  I called her and she took me out to dinner and showed me her studio and some of her great quilts.  It is a precious memory. 
You can follow her interesting blog at: delquilts.blogspot.com/

Yes, I still follow several bloggers and I have met the majority of them in person. Some are close friends and others are online friends.
I love my blogging friends.

Florida Ice, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, That’s All The Time You Have Left To See It……….

This was taken at the opening of Florida Ice.
These are two of my high school classmates from Wisconsin living in Florida.
Gloria Harden is on the left and Pat Brodsko is on the right. Pat also attended the opening of my solo show in Wisconsin in January 2017.
Someone else who was at the opening also attended the WI show opening.
Do you know who?

My Talented Friends

I already shared the work Beth Sherman and Robbie Porter Payne did with my Dye Dogs.
In addition to sharing those we each shared what we had been working on.

Beth has done a lot of research and work recently with bleeding tissue paper. She used it on fabric and other surfaces. Some of these pieces were ones she did previously and now layered the color on from the bleeding tissue.  I was very impressed with all the different ways she used it.

This is a quilt Robbie made a while ago. I believe it was for a nature challenge. I was impressed how tasteful if was with so many different stitches and embellishments. It worked because it had a limited color scheme, yet many values of each color.
It’s great to have such wonderful girlfriends who enjoy the same things I do and continue to add to their repertoire.