Colors of Louisville

Here's more color from my trip to visit my sister in Louisville, Kentucky. She lives in the Crescent Hill neighborhood with a delightful street lined with independent shops and restaurants within walking distance. I loved the basket room at a fair trade shop there.

This basketmaker caught snippets of fabric in the stitching, which might inspire me to do the same in my coiled fabric baskets.

The consignment shop down the street featured very colorful Derby dresses with outrageous hats in its window.

The stroll to the stores was full of spring blooms.

One day we walked around a lake in a nearby park, above. The trees were dusted with delicate new green leaves.

Another day we walked around Old Louisville, with its grand old mansions and gardens.

The "Pink Mansion" used to be a men's club built in 1891 as the Gentlemen's Club and Casino and was a bastion of male debauchery. But that ended in 1910 when the Women's Christian Temperance Union bought it and painted it pink! Now it's a private residence surrounded by pink tulips.

Its neighborhood was full of pink and purple flowers.

We went to several galleries and museums, including this one filled with contemporary art. This piece is by Jeremy Vessels and is called "O'Keeffe." It's made of recycled skateboards and maple. I forget to get the name of the one below, but it sure is energetic.

Terry and Dennis live in this beautiful old Victorian. Their backyard is full of song birds like the robin and cardinal in the trees below. I had forgotten what it was like to hear songbirds!

 

But let's not forget food! We had lunch at the Wiltshire Pantry, which has amazing artistic pastries. (This was only one of the bakery cases I ogled on the trip.)

And food leads me to the "Eclipse Cookies" offered at Terry's neighborhood bookstore:

We watched the eclipse from Terry's backyard. It didn't get totally dark but it dimmed enough that the streetlights went on and the air felt cooler. Their dog, Ella, took it all in stride.

My son and his wife drove to Indianapolis for the full experience, where they said it got pitch black. They watched from a park full of other eclipse fanatics. I approve of their colorful blanket!

Have a colorful day

My art opening in Louisville

My sister Terry is an artist in Louisville where she's a member of PYRO Gallery. This month, each gallery artist was allowed to invite another artist for their annual invitational, and she invited me! So I entered two of my quilts and flew out to Louisville for the opening last Friday. (I finally got to wear the artsy vest that I bought earlier this year in Tubac.)

You can see Terry's two water lily paintings and my sea star quilt behind us, and below is Terry and her husband, Dennis, with her gorgeous painting.

With 36 artists exhibiting there was a big turnout for the opening, including one artist who entertained on a keyboard with some lively boogie woogie. 

Terry was on the refreshments committee so we stayed the entire three hours, which led to some chair and phone time toward the end. It was a lot of fun, and the art was very diverse.

Here are more of her water lilies in her cheerful kitchen. She also has a thing for chickens, so I took pictures of chicken art throughout the house.

The first two are by Terry and the last two are by other artists.

I'll do another post on Louisville, which was bursting with spring flowers and tree blossoms as well as being on the path of the eclipse. It was my first time there, and I was impressed with the grand old homes and fun shops and restaurants.

Have a colorful day

Desert wildflowers

Our wildflowers are in full bloom and are carpeting the desert and roadways with orange, blue, pink and white! The patch above is in a parking lot with Pusch Ridge in the background. What you can't see is the busy highway between the two because I crouched down when I took the photo.

The next ones are from my hike yesterday on the Sutherland Trail in Catalina State Park. There are poppies, lupine, clover, desert marigolds, penstemon ...

Each turn in the trail revealed

more gorgeous views.

We had plentiful winter rain here in the Sonoran Desert, gifting us with a good spring wildflower season.

The rain also filled our washes and creeks, creating streams for hikers to negotiate where normally there is only dry gravel and dirt. We used stepping stones, logs and outstretched helping hands from strangers, but sometimes we just had to slosh through and get our shoes wet. The park was crowded with families on spring break.

 And last night, the desert sky was painted with other colors.

Have a colorful day

More spirit doll fabric

 

As I mentioned in my last post, I got the urge to pull out my fabric paints and stamps and make more  spirit doll fabric. Some of the paint is so old (as in 20 years) that it's all dried up, so I think it's time to go through them and dispose of the old bottles. But that's a project for when the summer heat makes it too hot to go outside.

I especially like using bubble wrap to stamp dots. You can sponge several colors of paint onto one piece of bubble wrap for extra interest.

Here's some of the fabric I made. I chose the two blue ones to use in spirit dolls. I think the one with the checkerboards is a mess, but maybe it can be redeemed with more paint.

To emphasize some of the stamps, I stitched around them.

This is where they are now:

I also made this one, and I think I'll call her "Spring Spirit." She needs a few more feathers before I take her to the gallery.

I gave her a necklace with rows of gold metallic machine zigzag stitching.

I'm also still doing the Mediterranean diet. Here's a mushroom/spinach frittata that I made for book club from a Mediterranean cookbook. I haven't lost any weight, but I am eating a lot more veggies and have cut out most of the white carbs. I still cheat with some desserts, which is probably why I'm not losing weight.

Have a colorful day