More of the Matisse Series

I am having trouble deciding what to call this series. . . . . This one shall be called Les Matisse #3. The original Matisse that inspired the printing block is called Les Velours (Velours translates to velvet, according to babblefish.com.

I love the colors in this piece. I just left it with ARTfusion Gallery in Bigfork, Montana! Hope she is able to find a buyer who falls in love with it!

More Backyard Flowers

The lily is another plant that seems to do well here. I have had such luck with the white lily I transplanted from my mother's garden, that I jumped to purchase this red one when I saw it at the nursery.

More iris.

This rose bush is a new planting. I have not been successful with roses here in the past, so I am trying again.

So far so good.

Red Rose Garden Series

The Red Rose Garden Series is quilted and bound.

This one has a horizontal orientation.

Red Rock National Wildlife Reserve

We arrived in West Yellowstone last night, so we had the entire day to spend taking in the local scenery before the rehearsal dinner tonight. It was cloudy and drippy this morning, so we decided on a road trip instead of a hike.

Looking at the map, we thought we could do a loop into Idaho and to Red Rock National Wildlife Reserve. This appeared to be a paved road, but it is actually a rather rough gravel road up over a mountain pass - about 20 miles into an expansive mountain valley.

Although I grew up just about 100 miles away from this Wildlife Reservation, I had never heard of it before! The focus of this region is bird habitat. We saw lots of Mountain Bluebirds, some swans, and crows.

There were still some small patches of snow near the road.

But the wildflowers were spectacular!

Wild iris covered the hillsides in certain areas.

The Upper Red Rock Lake seemed rather shallow, but I can see how it would be a special habitat for water birds.

The mosquitoes were swarming when we stepped out of the car to shoot pictures!

More about this road trip later!

Bridal Shower for Sara

My older sister, Jackie and niece Abby hosted this fabulous bridal shower for my niece, Sara.
Sara is gluten intolerant, so all the food was gluten free - no small feat! (awesome for many of the other family members - including me - who also have food issues). Isn't this the most beautiful buffet?
Jackie and Abby cooked for many days to prepare everything!

Not to mention shopping for decorations! Wow!
The place was decorated to perfection! We tease Jackie about it a bit . . . we sometimes just call her Martha (Stewart) when she gets carried away!

Well, anyway, everything was flawless and every bite was delicious. A beautiful event.

Sara and Dave's Wedding Weekend

My niece, Sara is getting married this weekend in West Yellowstone.
Family members arrived in Bozeman yesterday to kick off the weekend with a bridal shower.
We were invited to Dave and Sara's place in the afternoon, and some of us took advantage of the opportunity to deliver wedding gifts.

This (king size?) scrap quilt was made by my mother (center left - the lady with the purse).
Everyone was recognizing scraps from their quilts (or other handmade items) that had been made by my mother!

I really love this scrap quilt pattern!

Iris

I have been building up my iris garden, adding to it every year with new rhizomes.
The iris is one of my favorite flowers, and they do well here. Thriving on minimal water.
Furthermore, the deer do not love them (although I have had my blossoms eaten in the past! But not this year!)

June is such a busy time that I rarely get my iris photographed before the blossoms begin to fade. This year I was a little more proactive. I LOVE the one above - those dark purple petals look like velvet! Gorgeous!

This one is also a favorite - and I've not had it blooming before so I am really enjoying it.

I've added so many different iris to this backyard terrace that it is now a total delight for the month of June!

Backyard Waterfall

Last fall, we got rid of our hot tub. We were no longer using it, and had grown tired of maintaining it so Joe sold it to a neighbor. That left a gaping scar on the back yard landscape.
I thought about this space for quite a while and considered planting an apple tree or creating a rose garden.
Then, one day I woke up with a decision - a waterfall. I went to work on it right away. I dug a small pond, and stacked concrete blocks as a foundation.
Joe and I scoured the hillside for stones, and I stacked them up, using a garden hose to make certain I got them stacked right for good water flow.

We built a bench along the front edge to hide the concrete hot tub foundation - it creates a natural place to sit and watch the fish and birds. My new favorite spot for my morning cup of tea!

A quick trip to Lowes was all I needed for supplies. It was finished in less than 24 hours!

I've picked up water hyacinths and goldfish for the pond. I planted iris, shrub roses, chokecherries, and black eyed Susan's between the rocks.

Joe rewired the hot tub electrical supply - converting it from 220 to 110.

This has been a lot of fun - the wildlife it attracts is just astonishing! Such a lively place - lots of birds, chipmunks, etc. stop by for drinks and a bath! What a great extension of our home!

Ode to Matisse

I am really enjoying this series!

I've just felt "in the zone" whenever I work with this imagery.

I've been experimenting with different quilting designs. Stay tuned!

Yellow Roses with Dragonflies

I've finished quilting the Rose Garden Series.
Here are two pieces with blue dragonflies.

They are all bound and ready to show!

Random Blocks

I printed a lot of scraps and pieced them together randomly using more scraps.

I used some plain (unprinted) strips and blocks to fit everything together - and added borders.

I may come in now with more printing in the strips and blocks - perhaps overlapping the border. Not sure. I need to contemplate before I do more.

Matisse in Orange

I liked that first piece so well that I decided to continue with the series. This is the second one I did. A more conventional rectangular shape.

Matisse in Purple

I enjoyed working with this imagery. It has been fun trying different color combinations.

Matisse Inspiration in Gold

I posted this previously as a work in progress. Now it has a border on it and I like it even better.

It is now about 90" wide - only about 28" high. Kind of a crazy shape, but I like it. It inspired me to keep going with the other pieces I printed.

Flathead Lake Fishing Trip

Flathead Lake, Montana

My mother grew up at Ronan, Montana, near Flathead Lake. As a child, she fished this lake with her parents, who were avid fishermen. With her 80th birthday approaching, I wanted to take her back to Flathead Lake to fish for big Lake Trout. She had previously admired a trophy Lake Trout on my wall, which had been caught by my father-in-law in Canada when he was 85.

Our trip was a great success. Here is my mother with a 34" Lake Trout, the biggest we actually got in the boat (I had a larger one on the line and lost it). This length fish had to be released back into the lake.

My largest catch was this 29" Lake Trout. This size was legal to keep. We wanted some to eat, so we kept this one.

My dad is really not much of a fisherman, but he came along for the trip and stepped in to help me when I started getting tired reeling in a very large trout.

It was kind of chilly in the morning, but here we are with our fishing guide, Tim.