Massachusetts!

(Above:  The interior courtyard at the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

My husband Steve and I just returned from a fantastic trip to the Boston area.  I've only been looking forward to this since I was about nineteen years old!  Seriously!  Going to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has been on my "bucket list" since studying Italian Renaissance art in college.  The collection is amazing and includes works by Botticelli, Fra Angelico,  Piero della Francesca, Cellini, Michelangelo, and Raphael (to name a few from this particular era) but also works by Titian, John Singer Sargent, Matisse, Rembrandt, Degas, Whistler, Tintoretto, Andres Zorn, and too many others to name.  The very building is magnificent.  Yet, the reason for the trip wasn't this museum!  It was the opportunity to conduct a two-day workshop for Quilters' Connection in nearby Watertown, Massachusetts.

 (Above:  Trunk show for the Blythewood Historical Society.)

First, however, I gave a trunk show of my Grave Rubbing Art Quilts for the Blythewood Historical Society.  That was last Tuesday afternoon.  Steve and I headed north directly after this fun afternoon. 

 (Above:  My HOT workshop for the Quilters' Connection.)

The HOT workshop was on Thursday and Friday.  I also gave a my "Beyond a Series" lecture for the guild's monthly meeting.  This workshop was the first time I had a past workshop participant return for a second experience.  I am ever so grateful to Laura Brady ... not just for returning but especially for an amazing gift!

 (Above:  Me with Laura Brady's incredible Max the Miracle Cat fiber art piece.)

Laura usually does dogs, greyhounds in particular; but for me, she made a fiber art picture of Max!  It is AWESOME.  To see more of Laura's fabulous work, visit her "Skinny Dog Stuff" Esty Shop.  When I'm teaching, I often say that I want every participant to bring her own style and aesthetics to my technique, to find her own unique way to explore with polyester fabric and heat, and to become a better artist because at least "one little thing" from the workshop made a difference.  Well ... Laura has certainly done all of this and more!  I am so proud to hang this piece in my dining room  THANK YOU, Laura!

 The rest of this blog post is simply a few of the images I shot while enjoying the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.  I really do hope to return some day because a couple hours are not enough to take in the place!