Going out of town ... again!

(Above: Photo by Joanie Battaglia of me as Ophelia in my performance art piece/window installation. Click on image to enlarge. To see an entire collection of photos ... mostly shared on Facebook ... from this "First Thursday" art event, CLICK HERE. This is a link to a Flickr! set ... all images include photo credits if I didn't snap them!)

Although I haven't been blogging more than once a week, please don't think I'm not busy! I am! Steve and I went to Washington, DC last week, came home to a pile of work, and are now preparing to leave town again! This time we are headed to Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. My youngest sister Sonya and her husband Vipin live in the house my parents raised our family. My parents now live in a beautiful, custom-built log home by a 10-acre lake that they own! My sister Wanda and her husband Reinhard are coming from Munich. We will all have a blast.



Yet, I'm not returning directly to Columbia. I'm flying out of Pittsburgh next Monday for a week's visit in Birmingham, England. My elder son Mathias has a principal part, "the second Seminarian" in Carmina Burana. He's a first artist with Birmingham Royal Ballet. I'm hoping to see the show several times during my stay. (This is my all time FAVORITE piece of music ... and Mathias is dancing this role on my 52nd birthday, June 24th!)

Last weekend I stitched during the car ride. I finished hundreds of little running stitches on the rest of the antique scraps of quilts that I got from Connie Akers in Texas. The light blue leather gloves are vintage and came from a local auction of used household items. I've decided NOT to make this into an art quilt diptych. I've got another plan ... for later in the summer! While in my studio (yes ... I go every day when "home" ... even if for just an hour or two!), I've been working on the free-motion embroidery for my largest grave rubbing art quilt to date. Thus far, I've got well over 15 - 20 hours into it! I'll finish after my return on June 27th.



Well ... I put the two "glove" pieces into the share bedroom. I don't know why I call it that. It really doesn't have a bed in it. I should start calling it the "In Process" room. This is also where I store all the artificial flowers recently collected from cemetery dumpsters. Some of the giant black trash bags are filled with dissected flowers ... waiting to be washed. One bag is fill waiting for me to remove all the wire and plastic stems. Yet, one of the other bags is filled with the hundreds of socks from the remains of the State Mental Hospital laundry. (They've all been washed already!) The big box contains the neglected Christmas tree and decorations from this former facility. Please note the pile of tattered American flags. I retrieved them from the cemetery dumpsters ... and have another plan for them too!