Monday, August 6, 2012

A beautiful blue sky for our Monday....

Ken is already preparing for his upcoming classes for 2012/2013.  The kids drove to South Carolina last night and we received a phone call that they were tired but I could hear the three girls squealing and begging to go down to the beach!  I worked in my studio and had a wonderful visit with Ted Handel and then Sandy Gartner came in for a quick visit.  I should have remembered to share some of the "Where Women Create" Somerset magazines.  She is working on her studio and organization of her materials.  I made preparations for a morning stenciling experience down at Dawes Arboretum with my dear Community Connections group.  I have cut black foam core so the iridescent blended paints will add a special reflective design element.  I am supplying the stencils and paints so I am hopeful everyone will experience a feeling of success.

I picked up some wonderful multiple colors of DMC floss to add the three dimensional cotton flosses to add to my quilt from the Merinda theme series.  Little by little I am beginning to feel the rhythm of this work.  The marks are made and captured by my slow but hand quilted stitches and selection of mother of pearl bead embellishments.  When I came home Ken had grilled some great hamburgers and hot dogs for our dinner and sweet delicious Branstool peaches for dessert.

  the blooms on the vine..... sweet glorious colors invite the visitors into the visitor's center....
 The ancestral tree with bare branches is protected by the shadows from the beech tree in the morning sun....
 Yes this whisper is completely wrapped around the beech tree's limbs...it is still up but will take TLC to reposition this last few weeks....70 mph winds are powerful....
 This whispers is high in the limbs and appears to be hanging in there...the shadow play is almost poetic....
 The moth whisper is still fluttering after two months of incredible summer storms...
 Shadow play once again in this whisper in the Kentucky Coffee Bean tree...colors seem to be holding true...
 Butterflies dance in the morning sunlight in the All Seasons Garden...
 Flutterbies ...a small child's description of the flitting butterflies in the garden....
 The sunlight plays beautifully on this small whisper in the All Seasons Garden....
 The blues in this graceful whisper seem to be a bit lighter but I will not really know until I make a comparison to my test strip from the beginning of this journey....
 Sister Tress are standing tall in their places....
 I love how we installed this yellow whisper in this tree...at times it appears to grow out of the body of the tree.....
 Simple lovely Black Eyed Susan flowers...they seem to be so prolific this summer....drought resistant and beautiful....









The second Beech tree suffered a major break high in the tree...I understand why the leather straps failed in this particular location....
I am sharing some of my whisper works after two months of crazy weather and high winds.  Laura told me we lost two more panels in the last episode of 75 mph winds last week.  The leather bindings have broken and I will pick these two panels up tomorrow and throw them into my handy dandy washer....they should be as good as new after the laundry experience.  Have a great week in your studio!  Peace,  Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart

3 comments:

  1. I must have missed something in my absence, don't quite get the concept of whispers. But from the photos, they appear to be like little vertical flags in your trees, I love them!!!!

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  2. This is a living residency at Dawes Arboretum. I dyed 100 yards of cottons and then the community painted and stenciled and layered fabric paints on the fabrics. They were then installed into the trees...some are 14 yards long and meant to be a reminder of the fragility of our environment and human fragility! Thanks for stopping! Peace, Mary Helen

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  3. Fantastic garden flags- they lend a magical feel to the landscape! Love this vision!

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