Thanksgiving with Family in Vermont

Wild Turkeys on Thanksgiving Morning in Townshend, Vermont

It was a wonderful week of visiting family, cooking delicious goodies, munching irresponsibly, eating overly, and playing happily. To add to my delight, we had snow Thanksgiving day! As a Minnesota native, snow is welcome anytime after October 15th or so and up until April 15th. Before or after those dates, it occassionally snows, but it's not nearly so welcome...

Chipping Sparrow in the snow
Our son hosted the family gathering for both his family and our daughter-in-laws as well. The 1920 60" round oak dining room table that has been handed down to this 4th generation was well able to seat the 16 guests from PA, DE and NJ. Five carloads of folks arrived at different times - each avoiding the snow/wind as much as possible to arrive by Thursday morning. Some drove 12 hours, others 5-8 hours. All were delighted to be there and celebrated in fine style. Maria, their Russian foreign exchange student, fit right in with the younger generation by snow-rolling the youngest boy after he continued to dump snow on the newly shoveled driveway... She was a tad overwhelmed by all the conversation, but her sense of humor bubbled over repeatedly to our crazy family antics.

Snowy Cardinal
We're back home again - no snow in NJ and the forcast calls for rain... good sewing weather, don't you agree? I'll be working on two separate quilts - a Double Irish Chain for our youngest granddaughter, at her request, and the memory quilt for the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival special exhibit.

Blue Jay up close and personal

Fiber Revolution at the NE Quilt Museum

Fiber Revolution, one of several fiberart groups that I belong to, had trunk show last weekend for the opening of our exhibition at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA. The show is entitled "Fiber Revolution: A Survey of Styles" and is on display until January 7, 2005.

Here I am holding up one of my earlier art quilts, "Becoming" c2001 10 1/2"w x 41 1/2"h

This one is called "Rising" c2003 20"w x 22"h - in the 204 SAQA show in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Having never participated in a trunk show before, it was wonderful to see how many different approaches were offered by our members during the show. Some brought only new work; one brought her art journal with several pieces to demonstrate the movement from drawing to finished piece; several brought various pieces from series' they are presently working on; and I described and showed the changes in color, style and symbols in my work that marked the movement from clinical depression to good health in my art.
It was a wonderful opportunity for me to meet FR members - we are widely scattered over 5 or more states and do not have regular meetings, as such. Thus meeting one another generally takes place at show openings, such as this one.

Judy Cuddihee, co-pres of Fiber Revolution, with "Opening"
Behind her is a quilt done by Carolyn Lee Vehslage based on gardens of the world.

I'll be visiting family in Vermont for the coming week, so no more news notes for at least one week!

New Work

cPat Dolan 2005
In preparing for the exhibition, "Nearness of You: Memory and Commemoration in Quiltmaking" curated by Keisha Roberts for the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival XVII (Feb. 2006 - click on title above to go to the website for more info), I've been working with old photographs to create a new quilt. Several weeks ago I posted some of the photos I'd been scanning for this purpose - most of the photos were taken by my grandfather (1881-1972)and record much of my maternal family history. I've made 11 small pieces that I will be putting together in one quilt. Here are some of the mini-quiltlets following the printing process, the transparency printing, and the quilting. They will all be mounted together to make one larger quilt.

Here are some of the men from my mom's side of the family... cPat Dolan 2005

I call this one "Recipes" - for obvious reasons! They were scanned in from my maternal grandmother's hand-made cookbook and were some of her favorites.nsparency transfers, and machine quilting. cPat Dolan 2005

Election Night, November 8, 2006

Shawangunk Ridge, NY

Wednesday's all day adventure was to Sam's Point Preserve and the Ice Caves at the Shawangunk Ridge, NY State Park - a part of the Open Space Institute, Inc. and The Nature Conservancy. The photos will say more than mere words... enjoy!
Steps in the Ice Caves

Wooden plank inside the Ice Caves - over deep crevaces, etc.

The view of the ladder before climbing...

The ladder from the top after climbing...

Opening 3

Opening 1

Rocks in the woods...

Rockface

Shawangunk Ridge

The Lake

An unidentified bird - one of a pair seen in the upper plateau along the lake shore.

The bird again - if anyone knows what kind of bird this is, please enlighten me!

The pair together on the path...

Here's proof I climbed the mountain!

And this is the view I was looking at while sitting in the above photos: Blueberry bushes on the mountain top amid the scrub pines and 3 million year old conglomerate rock.

View from the top as sunset approaches...

Happiness!!!

I just heard from Linda Frost (of Kansas Art Quilters) that FabriQuilt, Inc. has purchased my "Kool Kats" quilt! I'm delighted - so is my dwindling bank account... Ever since I quit my teaching job, which paid for my art supplies, my funds have become seriously depleted. That's what happens to any/all of us when we get near fabric stores, right?

I've been working, too!

I'm working on a memory quilt using Pop's old photos, as mentioned in previous entries. Here are a few of the 8.5 x 11" panels that are ready to quilt.
PEANUTBUTTER COOKIES c2005 Pat Dolan

LAKE ELMO ANCESTORS c2005 Pat Dolan

THE KIDS c2005 Pat Dolan


Below is a hand-painted silk scarf that I painted over a year ago. Since I don't really wear silk scarves, I thought I'd turn it into a wall quilt. Here is a detail of the quilted scarf:

BROWN SILK SCARF - 11x72" - detail c2005 Pat Dolan

It's Back to Autumn Scenes Today

The weather is beautiful - so my camera and I were at play. Enjoy!