New York Botanical Gardens

Last Saturday we were in NYC and had the pleasure of visiting the NY Botanical Gardens in The Bronx.  

It was a beautiful day to spend a few hours in such a lovely oasis.  I had not been to the gardens before, but it has been a destination I have wanted to visit for quite a long time, so I was very glad that I finally got to go there.  

Here's Russ, Nora and Ari in front of the conservatory.

In the background you can see two of the large sculptures in the courtyard.  There were four of these sculptures, each representing one of the four seasons.  I'm sorry I can't recall the name of the artist, but the idea is that they are conglomerates of fruits and vegetables of the season positioned to form a rather organic head.

Here is summer:

I actually thought they were kind of creepy.

We took the tram ride that took us throughout the grounds and we got off and walked in several areas.  As the tram made it's circuit, the narration gave us information about the plantings in each area and we also got a bit of the history of the gardens.  There are some historic buildings on the property, and lots of the prominent natural rock formations that are similar to those in Central Park.  Though it was obvious that it was late summer and some of the plants were preparing for harsher fall and winter weather, we did find some lovely roses in the rose garden:

I had to include just a couple of pictures of the roses.  

We spent a lot of time in the vegetable and herb gardens which include an area where children can garden and there is also an outdoor demonstration kitchen and little hidden areas with tiny chairs or other things that children can sit on and explore.  I guess I didn't take many pictures there, but I did have my camera out when we went to the beautiful, glass conservatory building and the lily ponds behind it.  I don't know if the lily ponds are leftovers from the Money exhibit I heard so much about last year, but I thought they were particularly lovely.

 I thought these large tray-shaped lily pads were particularly interesting.  

And here is a picture of the conservatory dome:

And finally, a nice photo of Nora and Ari:

Two Takes on the Same Technique

Last May I took Laura Wasilowski's "Zen Doodling" workshop through the Asheville Quilt Guild.  Laura is the co-founder of the Chicago School of Fusing and she is a prolific blogger.  You can visit her blog at Artfabrik.com if you want to purchase any of her hand-dyed fabrics or thread, or just see images of her work.

Laura uses bright colors and fanciful images in her wall art.  Though there may be some actual quilting, especially in the backgrounds of her pieces, she relies on raw edge fusing to hold things together and then embellishes, usually with equally bright colored floss that she has hand dyed.  

At the workshop, we used Laura's fabrics and got a sample of her threads to bring home to finish the piece.  Here's my completed wall hanging, measuring about 15 inches square.  

The design was based a series of doodles I did in class.  Though the fabrics were fun to work with, the color scheme and the design are not really to my liking.  I did add some leaves to make it look a bit more organic.  And the colors ARE brilliant!

Here are some details:

I find that when I take workshops, I need to remind myself that I am there to explore a technique and that I often will not be happy with my first attempt, but it gives me a few more tools to use on future projects.  And so when I got home, I did complete this project.  I enjoyed the embroidery and then just happened to have some coordinating buttons, which I think add to the piece.  

So, now that it is done, I will likely hang it in my sewing room for a while as a reminder of the workshop.  But it's really not something that suits my taste.

Recently, the framed print on our hotel room wall (no kidding... you never know when inspiration will hit) appealed to me and I thought I could create something similar using Laura's techniques.  It was more linear and organic, with hints of leaves, and tones that evoked my home's decor.

So I gathered my fabrics and this is what I came up with:

It's 18 inches square, and yes it really is square.  Right now it's just hanging from a piece of furniture by a binder clip, but it's pretty true to square.

Here are some details:

The front was fused to batting, then I did the embroideries.  I finished the edges by folding them over and fusing a piece of fabric on the back to hide all the thread ends.

Though the fuse is lightweight, it does add a bit of stiffness to the piece and if hung like this (well, right side forward) it would lie flat.
So, after looking at this hanging from my antique cupboard for a few days, I've decided that maybe it needs a little more embellishment, especially on the left side.  So I am auditioning some beads or buttons to add.  I know, I already backed the piece, so threads will show unless I'm really careful to hide them.  But the piece will be framed, so the back will never be seen... or if I am really bothered, I can just fuse another square of fabric over them and hide them.  (One of the really nice things about Laura's technique is that you can hide just about any mistake with some kind of fused "extra.")

So, back to work on it some more.  And then I will have to do the framing.  A bit of luck bought me this frame at an estate sale this weekend and I think it will be perfect.

The frame has a few nicks and dings, but it's basically fine and came with glass and two mats, so I will have some options.  I'll try to remember to do another posting when the piece is finished, matted and framed!
To be continued...

High Time for Labor Day Lunch

 We've had a pretty busy Labor Day weekend, which started with a few hours on Friday at Highland Brewery to welcome in their new Oktoberfest beer, Clawhammer.  

Saturday we were in Hendersonville for the Apple Festival, one of our favorites of the many celebrations in the neighboring towns.  And then Saturday night we enjoyed the final Shindig on the Green of the season and Ann got to go on stage with her friends and Mountain Jam Circle colleagues Alice and Cheryl to show off the raffle quilt.  

Sunday we golfed nine holes at Highland Lake Golf Course with our friends Ed and Carol, feeling kind of sad that this course will be closing at the end of the month.  And then in the evening we enjoyed the first couple of innings of the Asheville Tourist baseball game until we were surprised with sudden heavy rain that sent us home early.
  

I thought today would be a quiet "stay at home" day.  I went to a class at the "Y," as I usually do on a Monday, and Russ took a run on the parkway.  I guess the lure of the Blue Ridge Parkway got to him because he came home with the suggestion that we drive to Pisgah Inn for lunch.  I would never turn down that offer, so off we went!

In spite of the holiday crowd that was there, we got seated rather quickly and even scored a window seat!  (Russ must have winked at the hostess.)

I got to enjoy this view of the mountains to my right:

and Russ to my left:

In the interest of equal time, here's me:

And here's my Monte Cristo sandwich:

(Some of it came home with me for tomorrow's lunch.)

We remembered that last time we were here, likely this spring shortly after they opened for the season, it was so foggy that we couldn't see anything outside the restaurant.  So even though the cloud cover was a little heavier than we would have liked today we still got a spectacular view.

A tourist couple that we struck up a conversation with outside offered to take our picture, so I figured I had better include it in this blog post, too.

And here is a view of the restaurant from the area where we were taking the outdoor photos:

Before we left, I took this photo of some Mountain Ash trees with their brilliant berries.  Whenever I see a Mountain Ash, I think of my dad, as this was a favorite tree of his.  Many of the Mountain Ash trees near the Pisgah Inn are quite old and because of the exposed setting near the mountain top they are quite weathered.  The best stand was actually across the road, so I had to take this photo from some distance away, but you can see the pretty contrast of the green leafy foliage and the bright red/orange berries this time of year.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is truly a treasure and 

we are so lucky to have it right down the street from us!