Since moving back to Charleston--in the middle of the hottest summer ever--I have been looking at my walls. When we remodeled this house, I kept the colors neutral so that everything would go with it and, I think, keeping my options open in case we decided to put the house up for sale--which we did.
Well, it didn't sell; we are back--and I've been looking at the walls. And there is no time like the present, when company is coming and you want to spiff up the place to make a change. I started small--my office/guest room but, believe me, it was a BIG change.
When I showed my husband the paint chip, I could see that he was trying to maintain a neutral appearance as he no doubt thought that I was losing my everlovin' mind. BUT, since I'M the painter in the house, I get to choose the colors that go onto the walls. That's fair, isn't it? Well, that's the way it is anyway. I know that chartreuse isn't exactly what one would normally call a "neutral" color, but surely the purple that has joined it calms the whole thing down, doesn't it? Well, maybe not, but it makes me happy and I've decided that that is what is going to determine ALL of the colors that land on my walls.
And, of course, after I finished with the walls, I needed to add a little decor to tie things together. I already had made the quilts, but I made pillow cases to match and then delved into my stash of orphan blocks and came up with supplies to make two decorative pillows and a wallhanging. Several years ago, my friend Rita spurred me on to start a memory quilt--which never made it to completion. But I was really happy with the block with entwined wedding rings that I made to commemorate my wedding and now it is happily hanging on the wall as a finished little quilt. And one of the pillows represents my love of gardening with machine embroidered vegetables and the saying, "2 Percent Inspiration, 98 Percent Perspiration (pretty accurate, I think).
Well, that's all the painting for a while--except that I'm contemplating adding a little something "extra" to the walls. (My husband is rolling his eyes over that, too, but he's a good sport.) I'll let you see it when it's done.
The installation was a Bottlecap Mandala by Bryant Holsenbeck, an environmental artist from Durham, NC. Back in the day, when I was a potter, I used to see her at Craft Shows with her handmade baskets--but this was on a MUCH larger scale--20 feet in diameter. The entire mandala is made from recycled trash and is arranged artfully to create a thing of beauty and inspiration. It is also created in an effort to demonstrate just how much detritus we leave in our wake on a daily basis.
The first photo is the view of the entire mandala from the third story of the building. It looks quite small in this photo, but, remember, it is quite large. As you look at the pictures from the floor level, you can identify some of the recycled items that make up the structure-- beer bottle caps, bread loaf closures, powdered ink bottles
, milk bottle tops, pickle bottle tops. And notice the layers of tops that form a three dimensional element. The installation was quite thought provoking in terms of all the waste we create and how we deal with it as a society. But it was also very inspiring to see what we can do with this trash when we set our minds to it. If you're in Charleston before the installation closes on November 19th, stop in a take a look. It's well worth the effort. 
Like most of you, I've heard about the Gee's Bends quilts for quite a while and was looking forward to seeing them. Now, I'm not much into sloppy work, so I had a little prejudice before I went--but quickly got into the spirit of it once I was there. These quilts are so strongly graphic. They just really grab you. And although some of the fabrics they use are not conventionally used by quilters, they suit the quilts. We saw a video while we were there where some of the women were interviewed and one of them exclaimed that she didn't know what they were talking about when they described her quilt as a work of "art." She said that it was JUST a bedcover. Well, bedcover or not, the thing that struck me was that these women were letting their inner spirits be expressed while not being concerned about a bunch of rules held by conventional quilters and, as a result, ended up with a quilt that--while being made from whatever happened to come to hand at the moment--was more than just a bedcover. It was art from the soul. How many of us truly do that? Do we worry about what others are going to think about our work or do we just let it flow? Well, there was a LOT of flowing going on here.
After we left the library, we moved on to Creative Sewing--a really nice quilt shop/sewing machine dealership--also in Columbia. I managed to restrain myself there but when we got to Hobby Lobby I found myself immersed in the beads. I add beads to many of my quilts--nothing fancy--just what I feel it needs at the time. I had said myself over and over again, "Self, you do NOT need another time consuming hobby or interest." Well, I just couldn't help it. I came across a book that I absolutely could not resist. The pictures were so wonderful and, hopefully, fully explanatory that I was visualizing a wonderful necklace hanging around my neck. The book is Beaded Colorways by Beverly Gilbert. And, of course, if you get it on Amazon it is not as expensive (but I couldn't wait. And also, the last time I DID wait, the book cost more because it was out of print.). And then, of course, I had to get more beads because, after all, I am now working towards a goal of making a necklace. Oh please, protect me from myself! If I were you, I wouldn't be holding my breath waiting for the pics of the finished project but it'll be there someday.
so often and THINK about finishing it but, well . . . .you know. But here it is--at last--out of the drawer. I think I can hear it catching its breath. 
