At the end of our sleepover (see earlier posts), we all went to the Maine Coastal Botanical Gardens.  We had been there once before, and dream of someday getting enough work together that we can have a show, perhaps with the majority of the pieces done based on what there is to see in the gardens.  Warning:  TONS of photos!

The gardens opened maybe 2 years (?) ago, so are still settling in; there is a birch allee which we didn’t see this time but has about 25 different varieties of birch.  Maybe I’ll get there in early autumn next year and see all the golden leaves!  There are also beautiful outdoor sculptures throughout the garden.  This magnificent piece greets you as you arrive:

and a different view of the two:

There are some lovely kitchen gardens and ponds near the visitors’ center:

Aren’t the vertical walls of lettuce and herbs cool?

Here are another pond and a close-up of some lettuce of some sort…great visual texture for a quilting pattern, eh?

Then, the small bunny sculpture nestled amongst the kitchen garden, hoping there is no Farmer MacGregor nearby:

The pond was SO still you can scarcely see the glassy surface of the watery shallows; yes, the river rocks are under the water:

Then of course there is me taking a picture of Deborah taking (or checking?) a picture:

and another set-the-timer-and-dash-and-try-not-to-gasp-moment (L to R:  me, Kathy, Hannah, Kate and Deborah):

There was this cool sculpture where you stick your head inside a hole and make a sound and listen to the reverberations of the rock.  Deborah kindly demonstrates using the lower of the two holes:

and here is Hannah checking HER photos!

There were some cool dried leaves–Solomon’s Seal I think –that would also make a great quilting pattern or stencil / screen:

A porcupine sculpture:

and a view of the gardens:

Here are two views of the same plant—the yellow leaves in the shade, the read in the sun!

Then we have Kathy in the woods by the water:

and Deborah in the woods, not by the water, but by the glass ball sculpture–standing to be the bottom part of the “i” to the ball’s “dot” of the “i”:

I love the waving grasses…these too would make a lovely screen for printing:

And Deborah and Hannah in front of them:

We still look happy, I’ll note…tho a bit tired!  Kate…how the heck do I not have a photo of you?  You must have been climbing about!

Finally, it was time to lunch before we dispersed to various corners of the state and the States.  Kate had found a WONDERFUL spot (a small neighborhood “grocer”) with awesome lobster rolls (think tuna salad except with lobster instead, in a hotdog bun) and equally good (being thrifty I went for spending less) popcorn shrimp.

Ah, lunch, an outing with friends, tons of photos, art to be made!  Life is GOOD!

Wow…a week has evaporated.  At least I have the excuse that it was Thanksgiving!  Ours was small–just the four of us–but wonderful and tasty and there was lots of gravy!

Back to what now seems like a thousand years ago…the last Frayed Edges get together at Kathy’s house, when Deborah came from Texas to visit!  For some reason, I woke up even though I had the chance to sleep in.  Sunrise was about 7:00 am, so I woke to see this when I went downstairs:

and

WOW!

Kathy always decorates her home for the season, and this was no exception.  She changes the artwork (almost always hers!) over the fireplace.  Isn’t this just lovely–I adore bittersweet (the vine with the little red berries and orange husks)?

During breakfast we all looked happy, sorta sleepy, content, and busy.  From left to right:  Kate, Hannah and Deborah:

And here is Kathy:

Before we packed up, I took a picture of some of the ornaments we made:

Before we headed out to the Maine Coastal Botanical Gardens, Kathy wanted to walk down to China Lake, which is about a hundred yards or two through the woods you seen in that photo at the start of the post.

Talk about GLORIOUS!  Here are some more pics, some a bit tipsy thanks to using a rock as a tripod and the timer (and running like mad to get down the dock and seated before the shutter tripped!):

And here is a totally funky treetrunk–makes me think of the Ents in the Lord of the Rings:

Next:  I’ll share our visit to the Maine Coastal Botanical Gardens (talk about inspiration!), a bit about what I’ve been doing to keep busy (I’ve actually done some art quilting!), a postcard swap, and–drum roll–TWO giveaways to celebrate the holidays!

The weekend after I returned from Houston, Deborah Boschert flew up from Texas for a glorious Frayed Edges reunion.  It is SO WONDERFUL that Deborah can manage to get up here…almost every year!…since she moved to Texas.  We miss her daily presence, so appreciate her visits so much!

Deborah visited various ones of us spending the night (tho Camden is too far flung for her to reach, alas!), but on Sunday we had a wonderful sleepover at Kathy’s house!  Thanks bazillions to her hubby, Bruce, for taking a night away with his family so we could run amok!

Kathy always decorates for the season, so it is lovely to visit.  Look how she used candy corn to anchor the bittersweet—lovely!

Since our sleepover was on a Sunday night, we had various family-kid obligations (well, Kate, Hannah and I did).  Hannah missed lunch, but here we are:

Then I had to decamp to Topsham, where Deborah used to live, for Eli’s last two soccer games of the season–and learned that her daughter used to play on the very same fields (directions:  go to the parking lot, then take the path through the woods to the fields… I kid you not, those were the actual instructions!)!  Here’s the goalie supreme (red shirt) in action:

By the time I got back to Kathy’s house, Hannah was there, and Kathy’s book group at the China Village library was over.   We had a blast making ornaments… I was the poop in the group and didn’t get kits made–just too much to do and too stressed after Houston and getting the pre-ordered books out, but the others came up with such wonderful projects….Here’s Deborah working on a felted wool rose-ball (from Hannah!)

and of course we indulged in some potent potables… I don’t even remember what this drink was (Kate brought it) except that it was tasty!  I am SO not a drinker of mixed drinks, so I don’t know what ANY of them are!

as we got up to go to dinner (we did potluck…I brought lunch, Kathy did dinner, Kate did breakfast, Hannah brought munchies) I loved this picture:  the chaos of friendship! Stuff and gifts and projects and crafts everywhere!!!!

and then two shots of us at dinner (which was delectable…but why am I the only one to have seconds????)

and then another of Kathy’s charming goodies…a little needle felted wool cozy, with embroidery and stitchery and beads and buttons…. sigh…. beauty on a daily basis wherever you turn in her house! 

It was my birthday not too long ago, so Deborah brough prezzies to celebrate assorted birthdays over the past year…. here we all are with our lovely pieces:

Don’t we all look so happy?!!!!  What a wonderful day… And that was just Sunday!   I decided I’d split the visit into two posts, then started processing the photos and realized I’d best make it three!  So I’ll share the rest of the visit over the next week or two.

Sheesh…ya think my life has been on fast forward?  Just checked and I have photos for blogposts from July and August….. posts I never had time to write!  So before I get to Houston and Festival and the Frayed Edges in October, I’ll share the summer fun!

We were a small group in August.  Deborah, of course, was in the beastly heat of Texas, and Hannah was home with four girls, so she didn’t make it to our August get-together.  But Kate, Kathy and I finally had our “dyeing day” which we had originally planned for last summer (!).  AND we got to celebrate Kathy’s birthday (photo above).

Then we got to the fun, messy stuff!  I set up tables in the back yard, and mostly forgot to take pictures, but thankfully Eli took a few, especially the following day when I had more time to putter. He got one of me on the “mixing table.”

(Marie…don’t those rasty clothes I’m wearing look familiar?  Marie and I used to dye in our garage in Friday Harbor before I left Wash. for Maine!)

Here is one of the mottled pieces I did.  On the right you can see the edge of the trampoline, which (covered with plastic) held our dyed wonders!

Here’s the same piece, dry:

I wanted to try a bit of shibori, cloth that is tied to create resists.  I used those glass “pebbles” that you can buy to  put in the bottom of vases or for mosaics and crafts, and tied them with yarn.  It took nearly 3 hours after Kate and Kathy left to tie up a yard of fabric.

I  deliberately didn’t tie some of the pebbles too tight, as I am not fond of white fabric showing on my dyed fabrics.  I wanted just a bit of dye to seep under the ties so the resist would show, but not too much.  Here is the cloth batching in a plastic tub:

And looking at the bottom of the tub:

Finally, it was done, and I LOVE it!

I even ended up using it as the backdrop for a photo in my book (to order, click on the link in the left sidebar, and yes, I ship outside the US)!

Here are the socks and shirt I did the day after the Frayeds….  the purple socks went to Deborah, since she couldn’t be with us.  You can see them on here feet here Teeheee!  The pink and yellow socks were for Hannah for her birthday in late September, and the upside-down rainbows and shirt are for me!

And here is the rest of my dyeing days results.  I find that for my art quilts, I prefer “blendy” fabrics, not hand-dyeds with sharp crystallization patterns–at least for most things.  You’ll find that many of my fabrics from this session are blendy and “stash fillers” to plug gaps in my selection.  without further commentary:

Hope you enjoyed…I sure did!  Now to find time to quilt with it!

We were a small group this time, what with Deborah in Texas and Hannah home with kids (end-of-school stuff), but we had a wonderful time!

One of the first things to greet us besides Kate (we were at her house this time), was this glorious bouquet of flowers, including a lupine which are now blooming with riotous abandon across the state:

As usual, I forgot to take a picture of lunch, but you know it was good when your friends have such wonderful smiles:

Kath and I had a good chuckle at first when we saw this:

It turns out it wasn’t (as I figured, like it would be at my house), a frazzled mom grabbing something that was knocked awry and putting it up wrong, but in fact Kate’s son’s deliberate take on art.

Kate shared with us her new chicken coop:

And we got to see her still-growing chickens…just think, your OWN fresh eggs!

Her house also happens to have an outdoor shower… wonderful for our summers.  Of course you know an artist lives here when there is  a lovely-colored drop cloth drying on the fence:

Given that it is summer and three of us here in Maine have kids, we’re likely (SOB) not to get together again until August, but finally THIS year we are going to have our dyeing fabric day in my back yard…I can’t wait!