Spring Bird in the Summertime

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This artwork was created by an unknown artist from Sri Lanka--batik, wax applied to fabric and dyes applied.  The wax holds the dyes in sections.  This art was acquired by my friend, Kim Hammer on her travels to Southeast Asia.  My part of the art is to create an art quilt by adding batting and backing and texture through quilting.  I also added some of my own poetry to this piece as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this photo, the top of the art--leaves, the batting--the cream color layer and the back--turquoise and gold fabric that I'm cutting.  All three layers are pinned together and then stitched by free motion machine together. Free motion means that the stitches are guided by the stitcher--sometimes I call in stitch drawing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The bird sits at the edge of her nest,

She takes a moment to look at the five perfect eggs about to hack

She breathes in the spring air and settles down to sit, to warm the eggs

Her gaze becomes soft,

Her thoughts stay with the present moment

There is no where that she needs to go

She stays in this moment of stillness

Calm, relaxed, ready"

MaryLee Eischen 5/2022 

 

If you look closely, you'll see the stitching around the bird's feet and around the eggs.  In the nest of many lines of stitching to add lots of texture.  There was so much stitching on the lower portion of the art quilt that the dimensions were altered.  The lower portion was smaller than the upper one third of the quilt.  I was not sure how to fix this problem with the quilt.  It hung the quilt on my design wall for about two weeks as I worked on other art until an idea came to me.

I decided that I could stitch on the background in the upper portion and create the breeze blowing and add swirls around the words and the leaves and stems on the upper part of the quilt.  The color of the thread would be close to the background.

Here's an images of the stitching around the words, "in her eggs."  That heavy stitching made all the difference.  And the top and bottom of the quilt came into alignment.

 

 

 This is the hanging device that makes is easy to hang on the wall.

 

 

The completed Spring Bird Art Quilt measures 21" x 33".

Sunsets to Treat the Eyes

6/21/2021 Sunset on the Mississippi River in Winona, MN

6/18/2021 Sunset on West Lake Winona

East Lake Winona

6/18/2021 Sunset on West Lake Winona

6/9/2021

Is it a bird? An angel? A ghost?  What do you see?

Mushrooms in the Woods

 

Winona, Minnesota has been blessed with rain over the past couple of weeks since early July 2021.  And there are many mushrooms popping up.

These two tiny ones are growing on bark.

This one is growing on soil next to a rock.

Dawn and I out hiking and finding mushrooms and rocks.

Prairie Moon Museum

Stone and concrete sculptures created by Herman Ruscha, a farmer in his retirement.  The sculptures have been freshly painted.  Take a look.  It's just about 5 miles north of Fountain City, Wisconsin. The address is 52727 Prairie Moon Road
                 Cochrane, WI 54622
                 (608) 687-8250 or (608) 248-2987
                 Daylight Hours

The stone planters are huge and impressive.

Herman Rusch, artist looking over the sculpture garden.

Silly Times in the Summertime

 Kinsley peeking under the chair arm with Norris

My silly little friend, Kinsley and her Mom, Abby came over to play with some art and henna hair, yesterday.  Oh and to meet our cats, Norris and Tara. Norris is the more nervous of our kitties.  He was so calm and tolerant of this excited little girl.

Abby took these pictures of us.  Here we had applied the henna to our hair; we put on a plastic bag and a towel over the big mess. We had it wait a bit for the color to apply.  We came over to show Norris.

We had to get Abby in the picture fun with a selfie.

See the strand of henna--orange color in Kinsley's hair?

Norris is under there some where.  

Did you notice there are no pictures of Tara?  Yup, she ran away. Under the couch and then down the stairs into the lower level.  Maybe another time. If you haven't met Tara yet, check out Tara and Norris here.

More art making and fun with Kinsley and Abby in the future.

Summer Flowers and Memories

This mock orange bush in full bloom yesterday when I walked by it sent a rush of memories to me of my Grandparent's garden.  They lived in the town that I grew up in  Sleepy Eye, Minnesota and they had the largest garden.  Some things that I loved about this garden were the stepping stones that we got to hop from foot to foot to keep the fresh tilled soil ready for planting.  They also had this amazing bush, a mock orange that created a lovely fragrance.  A person needs to come up close to take in the fragrance.  It is not as fragrant as a lilac.

I'm also back in my studio and looking at things to create next. Check out the Ancestry Art Works to take a look a some old pictures  of my grandparents that I incorporated into quilts.

Here's the mock orange bush at its full height and beginning to rain down some petals.  These beauties won't be out long.  Hope you get a chance to find one in your neighborhood.
Flowers are blooming.  These next couple of pictures, I don't have an identification, but I like them all the same.

                                   This blue wild indigo grows in my yard. 

Happy exploring the neighborhoods.  Let me know what you find on your walks.