I have NOT fallen off the planet....

I'm baaaaack! Well, sort of. I haven't posted in months - this tax season was a BEAR! One of the things I really dislike about tax season is that the serious side of my brain takes over and my artsy playful side goes into hibernation. Well, tax season is finally over and I'm planning on getting back to my studio & the things that make my heart sing - like the hum of my sewing machine, sticky, paint covered fingers and all of the amazing things I've been stashing in my studio forever, waiting to "become" something wonderful.

For now, I'm in recovery mode. Tax season really beats the heck out of me. I'm not complaining, we are very blessed to have a vibrant & busy business (how else would I have money to buy fabric & paint???). It does, however, take a little "getting over". First we have to catch up on all the things we've been ignoring because they weren't urgent, then off for a week of R&R. I'm bringing my journal & a huge assortment of markers & pens. I'll draw, doodle & imagine to my hearts content, hopefully waking up my "creative core" and coming home with more ideas than I know what to do with.

For those who were following, my step-son, Scott, and his kidney donor sister-in-law, Leslie, are both doing GREAT. Such a beautiful story of selflessness. We are forever grateful for Leslie and for the medical team that took such great care of both Scott & Leslie.

Spring is my favorite time of year - I love watching the little specks of green leaf buds appear on barren branches and the sway of daffodils in the springtime breeze. My springtime wish is that my creative self finds a renewal, much like what I am seeing each day, as my grass grows greener and my gardens awaken.

For now, I'm off to do some imagining. Happy spring!

Unconditional Love & Sacrifice - Organ Donation

My Step-son, Scott Ellspermann, will undergo kidney transplant surgery this coming Thursday. His sister-in-law, Leslie Goss, is a match and has selflessly agreed to donate one of her kidneys to Scott. A friend of theirs wrote the post below - I can't improve on it so I copied it here:

Unconditional Love & Sacrifice
The Ellspermann family….AMAZING! Have missed them so much since their move to Wisconsin. Scott & Sherri were plugged into many aspects of First Farragut United Methodist Church…but had been doing great things with the Student Ministry. Scott was my all-star photographer (documenting events via PHOTOGRAPHS has not been the same since his departure) and a leader, and Sherri was a leader as well. Britney, now a Sophomore (CRAZY), was a big part of the ministry as well…and still is! She has flown down to Tennessee for every winter retreat since they left for Wisconsin. Spencer and Hunter were often hanging out at the church as mom and dad were doing things with me. They bring a TON of energy to the Ellspermann family! I pray that the family that I have one day can mirror the love for Christ and for each other that the Ellspermann’s live out!
The Goss Family! Barry and Leslie are mom and dad! They are both involved in a lot of different things at First Farragut. Barry is the treasurer here at the church and also a youth leader in the student ministry. Leslie sings in the choir and is also a leader with me. They are involved with almost every event put on here at the church, including playing Santa and Mrs. Claus @ our Breakfast with Santa morning in December! Brandon is a Senior at Hardin Valley here in Knoxville and works with the audio/visual ministry Sunday mornings. He is also VERY active in the youth group. Austin is a Freshman at Grace Christian Academy and is also VERY active in the youth group. I always ask Austin, even though I know the answer, “are you coming to youth group tonight?” “DUH MARK!….when am I not here?!”, is the response I always get. He’s right! Love those guys! Barry & Leslie are brother and sister! And Barry and Leslie’s mom Frankie and her husband George are still active and involved here at First Farragut! The family love and connection to FFUMC is powerful and real!
It wasn’t until the Ellspermann’s moved to Wisconsin that I found out about Scott needing a kidney. I began praying immediately! Our high school missions team was in New Richmond, Wisconsin this past summer on our way home from a summer missions trip to Urban Plunge in the Twin Cities. They were amazing hosts as some kids stayed inside and some stayed outside in a camper city that was set up in their back yard! We absolutely TOOK OVER their house. I kept apologizing for the mess and all the work they were having to do and Sherri kept asking me to let the group stay longer! I’ll never forget hugging Sherri and Scott as we left….Sherri and Britney were crying asking us to put them in the trunks of the cars to take them back to Knoxville! They are such a special family.
Word came out not long ago that the kidney transplant was being moved up as Scott’s numbers were in decline. Then came the amazing news. Scott’s sister-in-law Leslie would be his donor. WOW! When I announced this on a Sunday morning at the 11:00 service the entire sanctuary erupted in applause and cheers! It was a powerful moment. True love and sacrifice, just like that modeled to us by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, is being lived out in its greatest form by Leslie Goss. An opportunity presented itself and she responded just as Jesus would by putting the well-being of another in front of herself. I remember being in tears when I heard the news. These families and their kids are so special to me personally. As a man of God in full-time student ministry, now in my 8th year, I have been blessed to have some very special relationships! I hold the Goss and Ellspermann family very close to my heart. Their love for Christ, for family, and for the local church are inspirational.
A few weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about these families. I went into my living room to pray. I had an overwhelming feeling that I was suppose to travel to Minnesota for the transplant surgery to support these families as one of their pastors. I pitched the idea to my lead Pastor and the rest is history. God made a way for me to make the trip, and early tomorrow morning I will board a flight for the Twin-Cities. Leslie is flying up today. Her husband Barry flies up tomorrow. The surgery will take place Thursday morning in Minneapolis. I am excited to serve these families, to pray with these families, and to be a part of this with them. I’m humbled that they are allowing me to be a part of this big event.
Please be praying for those of us who are still traveling up there. Pray for Leslie and Scott as they have final testing completed tomorrow in Minneapolis. Pray for the doctors to use their amazing skills on Thursday morning and to be empowered by the Holy Spirit! Pray for those who will be waiting for good news and for all those who consider Scott, Sherri, Barry, Leslie, Brandon, Austin, Britney, Hunter, and Spencer, to be family and friends. Thank God for these families and for how they have taught us all about unconditional love and sacrifice!
You can read updates here on my website @http://markaronowitz.wordpress.com/ and you can also check on the First Farragut United Methodist Church facebook page as well. I will make regular updates during the week and on surgery day! Thanks again for your prayers!

Is it too early to dream of spring?

Week after week, snowstorm after snowstorm, my daffodil bulbs buried beneath mountains of snow... I love living in a "four season" part of the country but this winter has been brutal - and we're only halfway through it!

My favorite season is spring. I love watching the teeny bright green dots appear on the barren branches of trees and the tips of snowdrop leaves poking through the still cold ground. Every year we have dozens of daffodils added to our garden (they are the only spring bulb the deer don't eat) and I love watching them sway in the cool spring breeze.

Squirrels and chipmunks scamper across the yard in search of food as robins yank worms out of the soil.

One of the things I miss the most about the flower shop, and that I love the most about spring, is that earthy flowery scent. You know the one I mean, the sweetness of flowers mixed with musky soil and a fresh spring rain. When winter starts to get to me, I just have to close my eyes and I can conjure up that sweet aroma.

Flowering shrubs are a favorite of mine - sadly, they are a favorite food of the deer that inhabit our neighborhood. This winter's heavy snow means that the deer will be eating everything in sight, even the things they normally leave alone. I long for big azaleas and rhododendrons but know that it will be a losing battle.

Wildflowers and perennials peek out of the soil, soon to burst into bloom and the moss on the rocks becomes greener each day. My sweet lily of the valley fill my day with their heady scent as the japanese iris pop open next to forget-me-nots. Ahh, the joys of spring!

All things come to those who wait... so, I wait for winter to pass so I may enjoy the gifts of spring. Until then, I bundle up and head to work, thankful that tax season is during winter for me. A few pots of hothouse hyacinths will get me through the next cold weeks... no, it's not too soon to dream of spring!

Favorites from Festival

My sore feet were testament to the hours I spent walking the Houston Quilt Festival show floor, studying the hundreds of quilts on display. It takes several trips through the show to really absorb everything - the quality and range of work is amazing and there is something to be learned in every aisle.

This year's Best in Show quilt exhibited the most amazing quilting, black thread on a white background, a bold move as every mistake would show more clearly. The stitching was amazingly close together and there were countless stitch patterns on the quilt. I was fascinated at the quilter's mastery of stitching - her award was well deserved.

Quilting skills are like any other skill, it takes countless hours of practice and many "uglies" before mastery is achieved. I am in awe of quilters who have the amazing patience it takes to create a work with detailed applique or microscopic stitching, like the quilt above. The quilt show exhibits an enormous range of work and techniques, traditional and contemporary, painted, pieced, dyed, discharged, embellished, the list goes on.

Here are some more images of quilts (or pieces of quilts) that caught my eye. My apologies to the artists for not having their name, or the name of their work, I didn't take notes as I took photos.

The Lily of the Valley quilt was one of my favorite quilts in the show. Dozens of batiks were used to create a realistic image of one of my favorite flowers.

As an aside, I'll tell you why it's one of my favorites... First, who can resist the amazing scent of the Lily of the Valley? I have a small patch of them in my garden and many a morning, I pick one stem as I leave home to run errands. The scent fills my car as I go about my morning, just delicious! My Mother carried a bouquet of Lily of the Valley when she and my father got married, a match made in heaven, IMHO. When we were young girls, maybe only six and eight, my sister, Valerie, and I decided we would pick my Mother a bouquet of Lily of the Valley. We proceeded to pick every single stem of flowers in the garden, snipping them just below the last "bell", leaving no stem to go into a vase to drink up water - what did we know about picking flowers? Mom was gracious in accepting our gift, followed by a little lesson in how to pick flowers, with stems. I also love them because they are among the first flowers of spring - the best part being that they totally take care of themselves once established in a garden. Yummy flowers shown in a fabulous quilt.

This long and narrow quilt was another favorite. I loved the unusual shape the arts and crafts feel of the image and the color palette. Again, the artist used a wide variety of fabrics to create texture and depth. I adore this quilt and can only wish that I will someday be able to find the patience it takes to make a work with this kind of detail.

This parrot quilt was AMAZING. The feather texture was so realistic, countless tiny pieces of fabric and a mastery of color and light made this a quilt that I studied for a long time. Again, I long for the patience it takes to make a work like this!

Well, that's the end of my HQF highlights for today...

One of the things I like to do as I walk a quilt show is assess my own quilt skills. I walk around saying either "gee, I could have made that" or "holy mackeral, that's way over my ability". I usually fall somewhere in between, confident in my work but knowing that there is so much left to learn and so many people whose skills are far beyond my own. Mostly, what I leave with, is a sense of wonder over the countless ways that quilting has evolved, from a functional source of warmth to a work of art, and how the making of quilts has grown from hand stitched scraps to all of the amazing techinques that are now used. The sky is the limit with quilting, I can't wait to see what's next!

Shopped till I dropped!

After my initial post, I never got back to blogging about my visit to the Houston Quilt Festival...many weeks later, here it is....

For a quilter, there is nothing like fabric shopping at the Houston Quilt Festival. If it exists in the quilting world, it is there.

The first day I shopped, I bought some hand-dyed wool selvedge bundles from Mary Flanagan Woolens. As I passed by her booth again, I decided that I just had to have more of them - when will I ever see them again? Since they are only $2.50 a bundle, it was not an expensive decision (which is a good thing because, well, the picture speaks for itself, lol). I didn't know what I was going to do with them - I just had to have them!

Cherrywood is one of my very favorite booths - their hand-dyed fabrics and delicious bundles of coordinated colors are irresistable! I've been using their fabrics for a lot of the stencil techniques I've been coming up with and love that the fabric/dyes respond well to everything I put on it. I sometimes purchase through their web site but there is nothing like "hands-on" fabric shopping.

Two other booths that I always make a point of visiting are Laura Murray Designs and Artistic Artifacts. Laura Murray takes apart vintage kimonos and overdyes the fabrics. The results are fabulous, interesting pieces of silk that can be used for all kinds of projects. I'm a big fan of her "scrap bags" - they are always full of great pieces and unusual colors. Laura Murray is also a Paintsticks expert with terrific books & videos on the topic. Artistic Artifacts sells a wide variety of vintage fabrics, trims & goodies and their booth is an endless adventure. My favorite item is their bundles of hand-dyed vintage textiles. They take old doilies, hankies, dishtowels, laces and other vintage textiles and dye them in coordinated, gradated bundles. Each bundle is unique and contains a LOT of fabric and trim. I've used them to make tote bags, quilts, vests, garment embellishments, gifts, and more. The hardest part about shopping in their booth is maintaining self-control (yeah, right, as if I can... at least I can pretend that I tried!).

Another thing that caught my eye was the booths full of hand-dyed wool. I tried to talk myself out of starting to collect yet another type of fabric but, in the end, I folded (ha ha, a little fabric pun). Before I left Houston I had made significant progress on a "penny" quilt mat and I'm working on another one, trying to make it using all flower shapes. I'm going to work on it while I'm on the mend (it's all hand work) and will post pictures of both next week.

I also bought two new gizmos towards the end of the year - the L Letterpress machine and a Felting/Embellisher machine. I've yet to unpack either but am looking forward to playing with both (of course, I had to buy roving in a lot of colors to use with the embellisher.... I swear, it all started when I was a kid with that box of 64 Crayola crayons. I was never satisfied with the box of 16, I had to have the box of 64, I needed ALL the colors...an addiction that continues).

Needless to say, I did my part to support the quilt industry while I was in Houston!

To catch you up on my sudden disappearance... I had been having some problems with weakness in my left arm which was getting progressively worse through November. Steve & I went on a Carribean cruise after Thanksgiving and I nearly dropped a plate after going through the buffet line. One doctor visit led to another with a whole alphabet of tests, CT, MRI, EMG, etc., all resulting in the decision that my weakness was caused by pinched nerves in my neck from two herniated discs and a bone spur. On January 3rd, I had surgery to fix the problem and I am now at home, recovering. I can already feel an improvement in my arm and am relieved to have the surgery behind me. The weakness was exhausting & I have done very little in my studio since October because of it. My goal is to recover from my surgery and regain energy for creative endeavors. I'm thankful to have such wonderful doctors who have been genuinely concerned about me and how to make things better.

Time for a little rest... I'll post again next week.

Houston Quilt Festival

Last night was the opening of the Houston Quilt Festival show floor - it's as amazing as I remember! I haven't been for a few years and I didn't realize just how much I missed it until I walked in last night.

I decided to spend the first night visiting my favorite vendors so I could shop from their best selection. When I'm at a show, I shop only for unusual supplies and things I need to see or feel (shopping on line for fabric just doesn't always work). I loaded up on hand-dyed fabrics and scrap bags (I love scraps!). One of my favorite finds was at a vendor who hand-dyes wool. She was selling bundles of selveges - they have wonderful lettuce like edges and were very inexpensive. I have a couple of ideas brewing about what I'll do with them.

As I hauled my treasures back to my hotel I thought I had shopped enough & that my next day would be spent just enjoying the quilts. However, after a little playing with my new finds, I'm hungry for more. I'm sure I missed a lot last night - visiting the show floor will be a new adventure today. There's plenty of time to look at the finished quilts tomorrow...

Last night, I picked up a one pound bag of long skinny scraps at the Cherrywood booth (amazing hand-dyed fabrics). As I was considering the colors, another quilter looked at them and asked me "What will you do with those? They are SO skinny!". I told her that I don't have to know what I want to do with things, the possibilities are enough for me.

So, here I am in Houston, shopping for I-don't-know-what, bringing home the adventure of new materials, to continue my journey to I-don't-know-where, finding joy in the possibilities that surround me. Quilter's bliss.

More tomorrow...

My yarn garden...

The book from my last entry was "100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet" (I did only crocheted flowers as I don't knit). I had fun shopping for the yarn and selected lightweight ones, like baby yarn and sock yarn. The book doesn't give specifics on yarn types or hook sizes so it was a matter of experimentation & finding what I was comfortable with. I settled on an "E" hook. I have my Nana's tiny hooks that she used for making doilies & teeny tiny flowers but I can't yet master using such a little hook (and I treasure the teeny flowers I have that she made even more!).

So, here's my little garden of flowers. I have no idea of what I will use them for but they were fun to make. My favorite is the large daisy-ish flower. The marigold (orange flower) is my least favorite - I don't think I'll be making any of those again! The instructions in the book were very good - even better were the illustrations showing small schematics of each flower, stitch by stitch. I know I will be referring back to this book for future projects.

On to this week's book.... "layered, tattered & stitched" by Ruth Rae. I love the look of a torn edge, be it fabric or paper. This book features projects with raw, sometimes frayed, edges. It sets aside all the rules of quilting that involve square corners & finished edges, encouraging experimentation and the creation of rich, layered projects.

I recently picked up some new hand-dyed vintage textiles at a quilt show - perfect for using in projects from this book. Check back to see what I've come up with!

Anyone heading to the Houston Quilt Festival? I am happy to report that I am going this year and that I even managed to score a room at the Hilton Americas (the one attached to the convention center). I haven't been able to go for a few years and I am super excited about the trip. There is nothing like the HQF! Hope to see you there!