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A couple weekend ago, Rich and I went to an antique car show, something he use to do with my dad on a regular basis. Sadly dad is long gone, and Rich hasn’t gone to many shows since. However, I agreed to go with him to a show in southern NJ. While he enjoyed all of the beautifully restored cars, I was far more interested in the rusted relics strewn along the property edges. They, along with the late afternoon glowing sunlight, had me climbing through all kinds of weeds and trees to take shots. I found it all peaceful and beautiful, the way the autumn coloring so complemented the decay of the cars.  In that junkyard of sorts, I found beauty and even some hope.

On the Friday before my birthday, Rich, my mom, and I wen to the NJ Pine Barrens for a cranberry harvest tour.  We did this one in a privately-owned, working farm along Route 563 in the Chatsworth, Burlington County, NJ area.  First we heard an excellent talk by Brenda Conner.  She explained that cranberries were American’s first super-fruit, used in 1550 by Native Americans.  Then we went onto a special bus and went out to the narrow sandy dams surrounding the cranberry bogs.  Joe Darlington, her husband (and co-owner of the farm) was at the mic giving us more information. She and Joe are fifth generation cranberry farmers! I was surprised to learn that Ocean Spray is a co-op, owned by some 700 farmers, with Brenda and Joe being two of them.

The entire tour was excellent! The only downside was early in the morning it was a bit overcast.  Additionally, for insurance purposes, no one was allowed off the bus, but could go onto the bottom step for taking pictures.  We capped the tour off by returning and tasting a lot of excellent Pine Barrens Native Fruits, my favorites being the cranberry and walnut jam and the tru-blueberry jam.

This was taken later in the day, and you can see how much the sky brightened up.

We also returned to nearby Whitesbog Village in Brendon T. Byrne State Forest, home of Elizabeth White’s blurberries — the first place in the world where blueberries were cultivated — and did a walking tour.  Rich and I have been to Whitesbog Village many, many times this year, and every time is a treat!

I just love the area, and I’m so glad that we finally was able to see an actual wet harvest!  I’ll be posting more pictures, as Rich and I returned the following evening and the weather was even more lovely!

I took a lot of photos this past Saturday of some cranberry bogs.  It was a beautiful late afternoon and evening, with crisp weather, clear skies, and a gorgeous sunset.  I’ve been having a great time this year photographing many scenic locations, visiting various parks, wildlife sanctuaries, bogs, and salt marshes on a regular basis.  My eventual goal is to add a section for photos on my website.  Some people have written expressing an interest in buying prints.  Let me know your thoughts on the idea.

I love getting out during the summer to photograph nature, especially butterflies, birds, and landscapes.  I keep meaning to post more images, instead I’m out shooting!  Here are a few favorites.

The show’s opening reception is this Sunday, September 7th, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Etui Fiber Gallery in Larchmont, NY.

I’m very happy to have three small works included in this show, especially considering how few shows I’ve entered this year.  All works are for sale, and two were made specifically for the show — Butterfly I, and Butterfly II.  If they don’t sell at the show, I am going to offer them for sale through my website.

Here is one of the two Butterflies.  Each are float-mounted on 8×10 watercolor paper and framed in a shadow box.  You can see more images from the show here.

This summer has been glorious, and I have been out every weekend exploring different parks, especially in the Pine Barrens region in Burlington and Atlantic Counties.  We’ve also gone to various reserves in Cape May County. I have taken hundreds massive amounts of photos,  including landscapes, birds, trees, salt marshes.  However, I still look for butterflies. While I didn’t get any butterfly pictures in June, the later part of July was better, and August thus far seems great.  I will post more pictures from various parks, but thought I’d share some butterflies from yesterday in a nearby park.

While in Historic Smithville (in Burlington County, rather than Atlantic County), Rich spotted a red-tailed hawk.  I initially thought I saw a rabbit or squirrel.  Then, as I got closer with camera in hand, I realized it was a hawk with a squirrel! His outspread feathers were absolutely glorious!

As I got closer, it flew off with the squirrel!  It landed in a field nearby.  Rich told me I could approach it because it had its prey and would protect it.  Normally, when I try to photograph a red-tailed hawk, it flies the moment I approach it (and I approach slowly and quietly).  However, this guy did not move!

He watched me, with his head twisting more and more backwards (think Linda Blair in The Exorcist) to follow my every move.

As I slowly got closer to him, he continued watching me.

He looks quite displeased with me, like he’s going to attack me at any moment if I don’t leave him alone.  My camera is not a force-field, so after taking a lot of photos, I left him.

Linda Seward’s new book is out, and I’m so honored to be included in it! That being said, I wondered how she was going to cover the vast topic in her 255 8.5 x 11″ full cover book.  I’m happy to say that she did an exceptional job with it.  The book is divided into 8 chapters — Art Quilts, an introduction; The Basics and Beyond; Surface Design; Patchwork; Applique; Quilting: Embellishments & 3D; and Finishing.  Within each chapter is a wealth of information crammed in, yet clearly explained.  There are over 1,000 step-by-step illustrations in the book along with gorgeous photos of quilts to inspire.

My piece, “Fashion Lines” is included in the Surface Design chapter (page 99; that’s it above on the right).

This chapter provides the essential steps on a wide variety of topics such as dyeing, immersion dyes, direction application dyeing, natural dyeing, indigo-dyed shibori, applying paints & inks, dyes & alternatives, stamping, painting, stenciling, screen printing, monoprinting, discharging, foiling, batik, water-soluble resists, acid etching, marbling, rusting, snow dyeing, cyanotype, image transfer, image transfer ideas, heat distressing, and more!  I know she was through in her research because she contacted me several times relating to my small contribution to make sure everything was as accurate as possible. If she did that with me, I believe she did it throughout her book.

Steps are clearly-illustrated.  You get a good overview of a process and enough information to experiment.  Based on your skill level, you can either do what you envision and move on or you may find that you’re so inspired that you want to dive deeper and learn more about a particular technique.  I’m so impressed with this book that  I find myself periodically picking it up, jumping to a particular area, and thinking, “Oh, that looks interesting. I want to try that!”

Information truly meets inspiration in this must-have book for anyone with any interest in creating an “art” quilt.   It retails for $24.95, but you can get it from Amazon for less.

There is currently a series of butterfly-inspired exhibits going on at the Texas Quilt Museum.  The exhibits are housed in two of their galleries, and the show has been going on since the beginning of April and will run through the end of this month.  As part of the show, the Museum released its first ever exhibition catalog featuring all three exhibits.  I was very honored to get an invitation from Sandra Sider, Curator, to exhibit my quilt, “Monarch: About to Fly,” which is part of the “Invitational: A Flutter of Butterfly Quilts” exhibit.

The catalog from the exhibit is available for purchase from the Texas Quilt Museum’s website, where you can also find more information about the show.

This wonderful video was posted today, and I just had to share it!  “Thirty years ago Macintosh promised to put technology in the hands of the people. To celebrate Mac’s birthday, this film was shot around the world in one day, entirely on iPhone. Here’s to the next thirty.”

And put technology into the hands of people it did!  Wow!