Summer Fun

This past Wednesday my DD and I drove to Boston where my cousin Lisa drove us to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. In 1903 Isabella Stewart Gardner opened the museum she built to house her collection of paintings, textiles (tapestries and lace!), sculpture, and on and on. The museum contains many famous works of art including illuminated manuscripts and much religious art. The building is four stories high and at the center is the courtyard shown above. The galleries or balconies are on all four sides of the courtyard going up the four stories with a glass roof at the top. Oh, how I wished I could walk in that courtyard!

After a delicious lunch at a pub in Charlestown, Zoe, the GPS, and I made our way northward to Maine once again. We stopped at "Knight's" in Cape Neddick, right on Route 1 so it wasn't too far off track. I bought these fabrics and an Eleanor Burns book called Radiant Star Quilts. I've been busy designing my own "radiant star" for the living room. I want to use teal blue and red violet fabrics. My living room walls are a buttery yellow so I think it will look nice. I just bought a new loveseat and sofa so I need something new on the wall.

I've been working on a new applique piece. The original picture is from a fairy book published by Dover. The parrot is just a solid piece of fabric but it is a batik so I tried to take full advantage of the color variations. The flowers are made from "sky" fabric, well a sunset sky. I will make a couple of flowers out of a yellow print for a little variety.

I recently bought a laptop computer and it was fun to sew on my piece this afternoon while watching "The Quilt Show." Life is good!

Have you noticed how dreary the weather has been? I think we have two seasons now: Winter and Dreary. Well, the good thing is my sewing room is comfortable instead of 90!

Enjoy the Dreary!