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8 comments
I'm Just Sayin
Photos of the Week
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Critique Group
Challenge: Shimmering Click to view larger image.
Claudia says: I captured the lighted tree in our local park. Then later, as we walked on the beach and I saw the Gulf shimmering and captured a sunstar. With much experimentation I combined the photos using each one as the bottom layer but was not completely happy with the results so I wondered if I could embed the sunstar photo and then erase the sky from the picture and maintain the shimmer of the tree. So I did and it worked. The sunstar is visible and the shimmer of the Gulf is as well but I also have the magic of the night.
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Photo Challenge Class
Challenge: Celestial Celebration Click to view larger image.
This morning's sunrise was the best Celestial Celebration I could think of. I reviewed the week on Panorama because I wanted to shot the whole sky and needed a refresher. I edited in LR then PS and reduced the size. |
Featured Quilt: Let Freedom Ring
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Let Freedom Ring by Ricky Tims TRY THE JIGSAW PUZZLE Choose your own difficulty. Click the 9-patch grid to change number of pieces. Click the circle arrow to make the puzzle pieces rotating instead of stable orientation. Also, there are tips under the "?" on the upper right of the puzzle. If you'd like a full screen version, click the button below. Have fun!
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Photos of the Week
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52 Week Challenge Class
Challenge: Silence Click to view larger image.
In early winter it is not uncommon to get morning fog. It rained all night Tuesday. On Wednesday I could not see my neighbor’s house, but the morning chores of coffee and walking the dog the fog around the house lifted. A good fog does impart a silence to me. I drove up Green Mountain here in Huntsville, AL, and it was extremely foggy halfway up (all of 600-foot change in elevation). Given the weather there was no one at the Madison County Nature Trail. It was lovely albeit very wet. Oh, one more bit of learning, when the breeze blows in the woods the trees will “rain” on you. When shooting in this environment one should always have a dry lens cloth to eliminate droplets on the lens (first water is not good for cameras, and second tiny drops create little fuzzy halos on the photograph). Yet another “Duh!” moment for me.
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52 Week Critique Group
Challenge: Tickled Pink Click to view larger image.
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Featured Quilt: Summer Storm in Clay County
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Click on quilt for full view.
Detail of the quilt:
I grew up in Wichita Falls, TX. My dad's parents were in the next county over, Clay County. They lived in flat lands on the edge of live oak forest. The house was white with a red roof. We had windmills to draw water up for cattle. The ponds, murky red from the red clay of the Texas soil, were commonly known as 'tanks'. I used a bit of artistic license here and made the water blue - after all, if the sky reflected at the proper angle, it would be blue. The area had plowed fields and from some vantage points you could see for miles. Look closely on the horizon. A boiling summer storm is definitely approaching.
My first year quilting, 1991, my grandmother, (Myrble Virginia Chesher Tims) passed away. It was in September of 1991. I was only a few months into quilting - but I was addicted to it. My dad had also started quilting. After her death, dad went to sort through her belongings. In the attic of the old house he found a box with bits and pieces of fabric scraps in odd shapes and sizes. They all fit into a shoebox. Dad gave the box of scraps to me and I decided to use her fabrics to make a wall quilt as a tribute to my grandmother and the family ranch. Hopefully you'll notice it is hand quilted.
I fell in love with the vintage fabrics in that box. Especially the western themed fabrics. The windmill bases and the same fabric used in the border was from one of her dresses. It is cotton sateen.
As each year comes and goes, I think about the connection I have to those who blazed a way for me. The end of a year is time to reflect and connect dots that help us to understand where we came from - and perhaps provide a bit of guidance as to what direction we should take moving into the future. This quilt helps me to remember my grandparents and the times we shared in the little house in Clay County, TX. May the flames of love never be extinguished. May they never be fully past and gone. We'll take a cup of kindness yet! I hope you will agree.
Happy New Year!
Auld Lang Syne - (Days Long Gone)
Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,
and never thought upon;
The flames of Love extinguished,
and fully past and gone:
Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,
that loving Breast of thine;
That thou canst never once reflect
On auld lang syne.
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
TRY THE JIGSAW PUZZLE Choose your own difficulty. Click the 9-patch grid to change number of pieces. Click the circle arrow to make the puzzle pieces rotating instead of stable orientation. Also, there are tips under the "?" on the upper right of the puzzle. If you'd like a full screen version, click the button below. Have fun!
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