Rainbow Garden

This is a quilt donated to the Quilt Studio as part of their donation for women
of valor-- 40 Service quilts It will be forwarded to a quilter and then returned
to me for the binding. It is a twin bed quilt and utilized my batik stash. There
is lots more and another quilt is in progress. I still have my 12x12x12 to do
for April and a few post cards as well.

March 2007 Portfolio 12x12-- Lily

 

Lily- 12x12 portfolio March 2007

I completed the journal portfolio piece for March ( a little late). It comes from one of my photographs from my garden. I transferred the image onto cotton thru my printer. It's the first time I have tried this method. I hope you like it.

Recovery is going good after surgery on my foot last Thursday. I gave up the crutches and the walker today and with just a padded boot on my right foot I have hobbled around the house. This is faster than I had originally thought. This quilting project has taken my mind off my problems. Yesterday I spent time on EQ5 designing another for the 40 Quilt project - girls coming home from trauma. (see Quilt Studio)

Same Day surgery

Here it is Friday and my life has changed again. I had same day surgery yesterday (a very long day) for melanoma. The surgeon did excise the 2 little spots on my right foot but he found another little spot on a lymph node in my groin. The good news is he got it all out and there is none left. The bad news is I have to return to my oncologist for more therapy. Melanoma is very tiny and doesnt always show up on a Pet Scan (mine was negative) so when it re-occurs like mine did, you have to progress to a type of therapy which wipes it out for good. My body is
strong and in good shape right now. I had to resign my job as a bank teller since he didnt think I could stand on my right foot for many hours. He wanted me to concentrate on the therapy first.
This surgeon doesnt hold back and tells you straight out. Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Ctr in NYC is known for fine care and so far they have been good to me (two times now). I resigned my job this morning and somehow it feels like I have released the stress; I have been
trying to juggle new job and cancer issues at the same time. Later when I am better I will look for another job.

Now I have time to quilt and do textile art. There are projects piled up in my sewing room. So much I want to do- journal quilt 12x12 and post cards. I have a quilt retreat in April - a quilt class with Laura Breitman in May and another class in June. I think I have a twin bed quilt due in May for young girls (Quilt Studio) too. All this is possible.

Any one had melanoma? Let me hear how you are doing.
Thanks to all those who sent good wishes.

Lighthouse at Kauai 1992

For my 12x12 Portfolio submission here is the actual photograph which I took. Someday I want to try this one in a larger format. Hope you like my rendition. 

Kauia Lighthouse February 2007 12x12

This is definitely late but my intentions were good. What follows is the actual photograph I took in Kauia in 1992. This is my 12x12 submission. The delay occured with another bout with melanoma and the start of a new job. Life always gives me ups and downs. But I am still here marching. Now I am pushing to catch up with the work I had planned on doing. 

Baby Confetti

This is the top for the baby quilt I have prepared for the 40 Service Quilt Project. The
quilt will be donated to the Children's Home in Bethesda Maryland. The outer border is slightly larger so that it can be wrapped around to the back and thereby become the binding. The batting should be cut maybe a half inch smaller than the top. I have fabric for the backing and alkong with the top, it should go out this week. The pattern came from a book called "Tried and True -New Quilts from Favorite Blocks" the actual pattern is called "Nine Patch Nuance" by Lynn Ahlers. 

New year starting

Well this year started with a visit to the oncologist in NYC and he agreed that I had 2 little spots of melanoma on my right foot. (same place as before) These last 2 weeks have been tense and frightening. The PET scan and cat scans were done this past Monday and on Thursday my doctor called to tell me they came out negative. Great news for the start of 2007!!! That means those 2 little spots will either be cut out (same day surgery) or there will be a therapy using a serum prepared from the antibodies in my own blood- immunotherapy. It is much easier and there are no side effects because they use your own blood. It has a good success ratio.

So now I can look forward to starting a new job and waiting for my son and his wife to have their first baby- I'll be a grandmother!!! This year should be a great year.

The pictures I added were taken on the second day I went to the city and it was a glorious sunny crisp day. I was using my new camera Nikon D40 digital SLR and it worked perfectly. As you may have noticed from the past- my photography is a part of me and has been for many years. This camera finally brings me up to the present digital camera standard and of course after shopping around this was the best buy for money. It is not hard to use since it has several automatic features. My prior camera was also a Nikon SLR but it used film.

At present I am sewing a baby quilt for a donation for a Childrens Home in Maryland. My art quilt work is in between things looking for a new inspiration. Maybe these NYC photos would help. There was a 12x12x12 portfolio challenge which I sent in 1-12-2007. There is always something.

NYC streets- near Lexington and 53rd street

"Relections" 

NYC streets- off Lexington-- Reflections

 

NYC streets- near Grand Central Station

 

NYC streets- Chrysler building

This was recently done in January 2007 with my new camera Nikon D40- digital SLR. This gives me ideas for another piece. I have a few pictures taken that day- more to follow 

Detail photo - Fall Tree January 2007 12x12x12 challenge

 

Vanderbilt photo for 12x12x12 challenge

Since the theme of my challenge is Photo vs Textile Art , I believe these next two pictures are of some value. I was at the Vanderbilt Mansion in the late fall with a photography group. This comes from my Nikon camera FM2 which uses regular film. In this age of digital cameras, it's odd that I still use a regular SLR camera but it has been with me for more that 20 yrs on many vacations and field trips. My photography is as much my art work as the textile work is which is where the idea for this challenge comes from. As textile artists we should utilize the camera for those special moments and creative ideas. 

Detail photo of Fall Tree- 12x12x12 Challenge January 2007

 

12 x 12 x 12 Challenge January 2007

Fall Tree is my first submission to the 12 x 12 x 12 challenge. It was based on some photographs taken at the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park NY. In addition another smaller version of this piece was done as postcards last year. Let me know what you think. 

Post Cards coming out

I am pushing post cards since they are due by 12-15-06. They are very small art pieces
but they have ideas I can enlarge and go further.

I sent a message to quiltart.com that I wanted to pass on to those of you who read my blog
The subject is inspiration and art themes.
Inspiration comes in an instant and when you least expect it. It impels you to see the idea.
It begins with fabric and then it grows as you see that creative idea blossom.-- never knowing where it will take you. There is a special joy for you to suddenly yes- there it is. It comes in a
dream and you wake and there it is- it wont go away.

Art Themes are sometimes easy and sometimes hard. I believe for me art themes come easy from those "dreams". I find for me abstract challenges are difficult to visualize since my mind
works best in reality than the abstract. Visits to the Guggenheim Museum or the Whitney in NYC display more abstract or modern art and each time I find them difficult to appreciate. Yet the art at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC or the National Gallery in Washington DC reveals paintings which are beautiful. Art themes work best in those areas where your creative inspiration thrives.

Post Card Fall Tree#2 11-2006

This is the second one of the "Fall Tree" series. In reality it is the first one I made.
The inspiration came from a walk around the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park NY
where the fall trees were raining down leaves. I tried photographing it but the
raining effect just didnt come out as I had visualized it. It seems to me this could be
expanded into a Journal Quilt for November with the falling leaves floating down. 

Post Cards Fall Tree 11-2006

This is another example of postcards going out in the next swap- Post L'Arte 4. This will be
done as a series. Let me know which one you prefer. Ultimately they will all be going out but I
intended on keeping a few of my better ones for the web site.-- www.jeanneoberrieth.com 

Fall Leaf Post Card 11-2006

I just started my post cards for the Post L'Arte round 4 and came up with a quandry. I dont know which one I like better. A and C were done with light backgrounds and one bar of black. B' was done with black as the background and the light accent fabric as the bar. Also B' has been outlined in gold accent thread where the other two have not. So here is question- which one do you like- A' - B' - or C'?