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Yesterday was a fabulous weather day in central, NJ.  Today was also great up until about 3 p.m. Both days I spent a few hours photographing butterflies.  Here are a few favorites from today.

I took these photos at the Grounds for Sculpture in central, NJ.

These are the individual blocks that make up my beautiful butterfly quilt. There are several blocks that I cannot identify the maker, and they are SO pretty.  Nancy Billings, Vivien Zepf, Ginny Greaves, Susan Klang, and Nita Markos, please let me know which block is yours. I again thank all of you for this incredible gift!

“A gift of love from our heart to yours.”

In today’s mail I received a large Priority Mail box.  It came from Lyric Kinard, who sent me an email a few days ago confirming my mailing address and that I’d be home to receive a “surprise.”  While I knew a surprise was coming, I had no idea what it was.  Thus, when I saw that box, I felt a wave of excitement.

I opened the box to find a card written by Lyric. It was a “gift of love from our heart to yours.”  She wrote about my earlier cancer diagnosis, relief that all went very well (I was extremely fortunate), and how she and others wanted to offer support in the form of a quilt — “a gift of love from our heart to yours.”  She further wrote, “You are one of those people who quietly goes about making the world a better place with your generosity.  This is just a small token of our love and appreciation for you.” Yes, I had tears in my eyes!  Then I slowly unwrapped the gift, and  there it was — a large quilt filled with butterflies!  I have such a thing for butterflies and immediately thought, wow, how perfect!” At 65″ x 47″, it’s a comfy snuggle-on-the-sofa size!

Although I feel totally undeserving of such a generous gift, I am very, very grateful for it.  The quilt has blocks made by Nancy Billings, Sue Bleiweiss, Traci Bunkers, Lisa Engelbrecht, Jamie Fingal, Ginny Greaves, Mary Kerr, Susan Kiang, Kristin La Flamme, Nita Markos, Barb McKie, Virginia Spiegel, and Vivien Zeph.  The beautiful fabric filled with butterflies and connecting all of the blocks was screen printed by Lyric!  Plus it includes her “Fly” motif, which I always liked in her work and am happy to now have one of my own!

I will thank each of you individually, but wanted to share this beautiful gift and thank you all here, too.  The overall view of the quilt doesn’t do the quilt justice.  I have photos of each block, which I’ll add here soon.

I love TED talks.  I find them inspiring and excellent food for thought. In this talk, David Kelley talks about creative confidence and how flip comments from others can often plant the seeds to kill creative confidence in adult life. He tells the story of a school friend who was in the middle of making something when another blurted out “that’s terrible.”  His friend was quickly embarrassed and trashed his project.  I’m sure everyone has such a story.  I certainly do, and more than one or two of them.   Mr. Kelley then goes on to talk about “guided mastery” and encourages everyone to “let ideas fly” and to “touch the snake.”  Wondering about the latter?  Watch the video! It’s only 11+ minutes and totally worth it.

And, if you’re looking for another good TED talk, I recommend Elizabeth Gildbert’s talk called Nurturing Creativity. I wrote about it in 2009, I still periodically watch it (as it’s filled with good lessons that I need refreshers on), and you can find the link to it here.

Poster created by Cindy Friedman

A collection of work from the Fiber Revolution group will be heading to Johannesburg and then to Botswana. My piece is in the second row, second from the right (orange/blue piece)

It’s that time of year when I’m out at least every weekend in search for butterflies and other interesting things to photograph. The weather has been very hot, so I only stay out for an hour or two before I stop.  I took this photo in a field of cone flowers in central New Jersey.  In the coming days/weeks I’ll be posting more.

Soon I’ll be offering for sale my Nikon D80 body.  Watch for it, if you’re interested.

This is the original image.

I posted these images on another site about a month ago. Since I haven’t posted in a while, thought I’d share them here.  I took the images in May in central NJ.  For the past couple years, there were plenty of poppies because of the construction of a new hospital. That construction tore up some fields, and the poppies blossomed. Since the construction has been completed and the earth is now settled, not many are coming up.  Even so, I was able to take some shots.  This is how I played with the above image.

First I darkened the edge a bit to keep the focus on the poppy.

I added a frame effect and like this as is. It’s already printed and in my journal.

In this I kept the first frame, added black, and changed the tonality. However, I still like the softness in the above image.

For the remaining images, I played around with what I call step and repeats — that is I play around with sections of the image in Photoshop.

Another version

And another

and another

And another

And another

I do have some of these images printed and in my sketchbook with some notes.  I was also experimenting with some small prints on fabric.  However, I haven’t yet stitched a thing.

Libby began a spiral into severe medical issues on April 30th that included a ruptured aneurysm, a 7 hour surgery to clip the aneurysm, and a stroke that required additional surgery.  Libby is a true superstar in the art quilt world, and she needs our love and support.  While I’ve been following her updates on Caring Bridge, my own medical issues prevented me from posting here sooner.

If you are able, please visit Caring Bridge to read her story and updates, and please consider sending a small monetary donation to help with her medical expenses.  On June 8th, Libby’s sister wrote the following, which I am sharing here:

“Contributions – Angels Needed
Written Jun 8, 2013 4:28pm by Cathy Arnold (Libby’s sister)

As Libby’s recovery plan is beginning to take shape, it has become clear that this will be a long and unpredictable process. Medicare will only pay for a portion of the cost of the rehab. She does not have an auxiliary policy. The burden of paying for the long term rehab and care will fall to Lester and the family.

Thank you to all who have donated to CaringBridge in tribute to Libby.  Although those contributions do not go towards any medical expenses, they have helped to make possible this website communication.

If you would like to make a much needed contribution towards Libby’s rehab and other extensive medical expenses, it would help ensure that Libby is provided with the best medical care possible.

A bank account has been set up at JPMorgan Chase Bank. The name of the account is the “Libby Lehman Medical Fund”. Checks, Money Orders, or Cashier’s Checks should be made out to “Libby Lehman Medical Fund” and mailed to her sister, Cathy Arnold at 2220 Stanmore, Houston, TX 77019. Please include your name and address if it is not on the check. If you wish to use an online secure transfer method from any bank called Chase Quick Pay, please email Cathy’s husband, Bill Arnold at bill.arnold@rice.edu, and he will provide you with proper instructions.

Bill Arnold and Bill Askey, Libby’s brother-in-laws, are the Trustees of the Fund and the only signors on the bank account. To the extent possible by the amount of funds in the account, they will be responsible for issuing checks to pay for any medical bills that are presented by Lester. The Family is very appreciative of all cards, letters, quilt pieces, and contributions received on behalf of our beloved Sister, Libby. She is a real treasure to all of us, and we all want her to be able to recover to the best of her abilities.

Thank you so much.” Cathy Arnold, on behalf of Libby & Lester Lehman

I continue to feel very fortunate by the amount of love that I have received (and continue to receive) during my recent medical crisis, and my hope is that I can help pay that love forward to Libby.