Home alone once again

for now.  I would be shouting with joy,  but I am of mixed feeling about the fact that I am.

I've had Justin with me more or less non-stop since last October.  He left last night for a driving trip to Louisville to see friends and family before he raises his right hand and swears himself into the Navy on April 12th.   He will also make the drive from Louisville to Missouri to see his Mom and brothers before returning here to Florida on or about April 3rd or 4th.   If I am missing him some now, I know I will miss him a lot when he goes off to basic training. 

I didn't sleep as soundly as I normally do since he was driving through the night, but once I knew he had safely arrived in Louisville  I spent the morning cleaning and returning my place to my space, more or less a studio where I live and can be more productive  in rather than a place that accommodated another person in the space.  So I am going to take advantage of my alone time and works, work, work before he returns.

I finished painting a 44" x 36" piece last might.  I want to paint 2-3 more pieces in this size range or a little larger in the next few days. Then I will quilt, quilt, quilt.

I borrowed my daughters little Mini Cooper ( haven't had as much fun driving a car since my VW bug died in the mid 70's) and drove myself up to DeLand for the opening reception at the DeLand Business and Conference center.  It was very nicely done.  The usual cheese and fruit assortment, assorted small cakes that I dared not touch and an open wine bar and cash bar for the harder stuff.  I had water.

It was 90 minutes well spent looking and talking to those who had come for the opening which included some of the other artist with work in the show.  I reacquainted myself with a couple of the artist that I've met here and there.  

 One of my students from the Kissimmee Quilt Shop class was leaving as I arrived and we passed a few minutes chatting.  Most of the work on exhibit were  small pieces in the 18" sq inch or less size.  There were two "Whisper Challanges"  I think.

What is a Whisper Challenge?  It is a group project with the lead person being the only one to see a picture that will be the design influence.  That person make a quilt from that influence and passes her finished piece to the next person to be the influence for their piece, who in turn passes their piece on to the third person and so on and so on.  It works like the game we placed as children with one person whispering something into your ear and you turn and whisper what you thought you heard to the next person in line and the last person says out loud what they heard and yes, the last quilt in the process had no visual relationship to the picture that influenced the first work.  For that fact as I was looking at the progression, the influence was lost totally by the third piece.  Interesting concept.  I wonder if you could play the game with yourself with any success?

My work and some woven pieces and some really interesting silk tubes that hung from the ceiling were the largest pieces displayed.  Sorry did not get the name of the artist who created the tube or the woven cloth pieces or a good image of their work.  The lighting wasn't good enough.

I took some pictures of a few of the pieces that caught my eye and then there was the rocks in a garden in front of the Business Center.  WOW... They looked planned, like art but they were real.  Work of the Master Creator.

I have two grand children with birthday this week, Joslyn in Providence turned 18 on the 6th and John Christ in MO turns 20 today.  Boy they are getting old.  Happy Happy sweeties.