Category Archives: Scissors

Curvie Cuts, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Scissors

June 2025

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Hello,

It has stopped raining here and warmed up nicely.    The flowers are  blooming in every direction.  This seems to have been a super year for Iris as there are so many big ones open in our neighborhood.      I enjoy the bird song as we walk in the mornings and I have even been out to trim my hedge.   The season has really changed.     I only hand on line meetings this week.

Progress report: Past Times- Grandmother’s Gloves  This work is 49″ w X 51″ l.   I have been working on this hand project for about 9 months.   The doilies and handkerchiefs  are from the family box that cousin Casey sent me.

The gloves from both sides.   I asked for help with how to finish this work and Kathy suggested it have a lace boarder.  I like that solution.

 

 

 

 

 

Lap 11- 25   This lap quilt is made from mostly leftovers from the Sisterhood of the Scissors retreat challenge fabrics.

 

 

 

 Three Trees( group   challenge)   This work is 12″X12″.      It came from mixing tow ideas.   The Marcia group meets once a month and we decided to do a set of four small pieces.   Nothing over 12 ” square.   It is based on a  book about painting by Paul Bailey  called Experimental Nature in Acrylics.   We all got to make our own limitations beyond that.    My rules were to use only trims from the Ethel Whittemore bag  and follow the one third rules from Paul’s book.   I colored my four backgrounds with Ink tense pencils  at Angela’s play day last month.   One done three to go.

Spot On   I am to the quilting sage of this project.  I want to add some hand work too.

 

 

 

 

 

Cut It Out- test piece   Liz was passing forward this yellow screening.  It did not get picked up by anyone and when I got home it ended up next to some of the fabric from the dye class.   I did this test piece to see how it will work.   Now I need to begin the real thing.

 

 

New Work    I enjoyed playing with pink and sense I feel like it took on a life of it’s own when I was laying it out  I am going to try again with some different fabrics.

 

 

One last celebration of spring.

Keep Creating

Carol

Applique, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Scissors, Scrap Happy Quilts

Rainy Spring

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  Hello,

We are having a very rainy spring around here.  The flowers are really blooming though.     It has been a very quiet week for me with only the regular zoom meetings and such.    So I did a lot of work in the studio.

 

 

Progress Report: Dreaming

I really enjoyed working on this one.  It started with a close up of a piece of clay sculpture.   This is a new way of beginning for me and  I think I will do more work from this point of view.

 

 

There is a lot more quilting on this work than I usually do too

 

 

 

 

Red Tide   This work is 15.5 ” w X 25″ t.   I tried a new presentation for this one.  It is stretched around a foam core board.  I did this so I could stitch the piece through the foam core and it would not sag.

 

 

 

I sure enjoyed working with all the texture on this one.

 

 

 

 

Lap 9-25  I took  this work and  six other lap quilt s off to the nursing home on Thur.   They seemed pleased to get them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lap 11-25   This is the next one.  It will be ready to quilt some time this week end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scarp Happy   I am putting together a lot of leftovers to make a scrappy back for this next project.

 

 

 

 

Cut is Out – possibility     I pulled out these fabrics from the ones I dyed in Pat’s class two weeks ago.  I think they go together and will work for my nest scissors project.

 

 

 

 

 

Handworks  Adding  the blanket  stitch in navy blue makes the spirals come out form the background.  There is really too much clutter in this one.   Hopefully this will make it work.

 

 

 

 

 

New Work  I found these four heads  at the bottom of a box of scraps.   I will see if I can make them work in a new piece.

 

 

 

 

 

Grandmothers Gloves    I finished the last square in this project and then I put them all together like a quilt as you go block system.   Now I need to add a binding .

 

Keep Creating .

Carol

Applique, Collage, Cut Away, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Scissors, Shows

Indian Summer

Hello,

We have enjoyed two wonderful days of Indian Summer here in central NY.  The temperatures were above 75  and I finished most of my yard work on Wednesday.   All the lawn furniture is put away and   first run at sheading leaves is done.

 

 

 

 

Then on Halloween the FAB  group  with Judy, Nancy and Sharon up to Old Forge to see the Quilts shows at The View in Old Forge.      Most of the trees had abandoned their leaves in that part of NY, but the shows were all stimulating.   I loved this work because the apple green shape on top really adds depth to the work for me.

Sharon had three works in the show.   This is one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

She  won an  Honorable Mention for one of her works.   This is great.

 

 

 This work was also in the Schweinfurth show last year.

 

 

There were many works with great raw edge applique of very small pieces that I really enjoyed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found this work really intruding too because of her use of overlapping  nylon net circles  to created different colors on the background striped fabric.

 

 

Marcia Decamp was in this show.   This is her work.

 

 

 

 

 Julia also had a work in this show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The show upstairs was a small repetition from Genesee Valley Quilt Group.     This example of wool applique was especially enjoyable to me.

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed the strong graphic  feel in this work too.

 

 

  In additon there was  a SAQA show called “Imagery in Fiber”.   It was fascinating too.     Most of them had a bit of Photo transfer in them.      This work is by one of the gals  who was in my dyeing class last summer.

 

 

I spent all afternoon on Monday playing with collage .  I limited myself to using something from the Gelli plate play days of a few weeks ago and an images of a bird  in each of them.

 

 The play was fun and it change with time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My friend Patti, had moved to Penn Yan and she left me with a parting gift of two boxes of oil pastels.  I added the rule that I had to use them in the works too.

 

 

 

 

 

I think I will try to do a little collage work every  Monday for a while.

 

 

 

 Progress Report:  Cut Away   This work is  35.5″ X 42″.      The background fabric ( deep purple and blue) for this work is hand dyed by a fellow artist.

 

 I really enjoyed doing all the pebble quilting on this project.  I also learned that my machine likes some metallic threads better that others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lap #5  This work is pin basted and  all ready for the quilting   step now.     I need to deliver some of these lap works to the nursing home soon .

 

 Lap # 6    I have cut the strips to fill

in   around theses squares for this project and will get moving on it soon.

 Bleaching         I    still have pieces form the rock series that I want  use as bases for for additional stitch work.

 

 

 

I did a little free motion  work over roving   to create  sea shells.

 

 

 

 

 

Then I did some punch needle work for this next project.

 

 

 

 

 

 I plan to add these two elements and  other stuff from my collection of goodies , plus stitches and buttons to create  and work that will be my little commentary on  Coral Bleaching.

I hope you adjust well to the day ight savings time change this week.

Keep Creating

Carol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Applique, Clear Cut, Cut Away, Lap Quilts, Scissors, Uncategorized

Back to NY

Hello,

We are home form our California  and Oregon Trip.   It sure was fun, but as always there is no place like home.

Our first visit was to Sacramento , where my husband’s brother and wife live.   We were greeted by this display outside their front door.  There was music too as the skeletons danced and  played St James Cathredel.

 

 

 

They have a great fish pond with some of the biggest Coy fish  I have seen.   Cindy rings a bell and they all swim up to her to be fed.   We went wine tasting and enjoyed our time with them.

 

 

We took off on Friday morning north to  Bodega Bay.  Yes, that’s were the film “The Birds” was filmed.   I liked these  fellows from the window were we had Fish and Chips for lunch.  There were seals in the bay and lots of sea gulls on the roofs of the water front buildings.

 

 

We then  drove north along the twisty highway  1 along the shore.   I love the sounds of the waves crashing and the sun was beautiful too.

 

 

 

 

We stayed in the Windflower Hotel that night.    The flowers  were in such a vivid color.  It was beautiful.

 

 

Then we drove inland to highway 101 through a state forest of big Redwoods.   That road was twisty too  as you can see they road crew did not cut the trees, but dodged around them.    At times it was quite dark from the dense cover.

 

 

 

Next stop was Crescent City .   We stayed in the Northwoods  Best Western that night.   It too is on the ocean.   This sculpture was in the parking lot.

 

 

 

Leaving Crescent City, we turned land through Smith State park and again enjoyed the views.    This road too was full of S curves, and switch backs as it ran along the Smith River.

 

There were steep hillsides of shists as well and we drove into a fresh little landslide that punctured both of the tires on the left side of the car.    Several folks stopped to give us aid, but we needed towing .

 

 

Called AAA and they sent tow truck – but do to a bit of confusion and the fact that there was a second little land slide it took the truck  four  hours to find us.  It was also Sunday  so the tire place was closed.  The tow truck driver kindly drove us back to the  Northwoods Hotel  were we spent a second night.

We ate dinner at the Fisherman’s  Cafe and enjoyed our walk along the shore were there were lots of boats.

The Tires got replaced in 15 min when the car got in and we were off again.    Back through Smith State Park .  We drove through a section where 3 three  years ago,  there was a forest fire.   Still very desolate.    Having lost a day we drove up US 5  to Portland.  That took all day.  I am a true believer in GPS as I don’t think we could have niigataite the drive through that city with out it.  It took us directly to the hotel.

Then on Tue we went to see my brother and his wife in Vancouver WA.     Cindy is also a bit of a needle woman, and although she dose not consider herself to be a quilter, I was very impressed!  She out lined   quilted this panel beautifully.

 

 

 

We went to the Cove Restraint for a late lunch that day too and enjoyed ourselves.  There was a beautiful view of the Columbia river.   Then back to the hotel and a good nights sleep.

Our last bit of excitement was on the flight home.  We flew to O’Hair in Chicago .  Landed in plenty of time, but our gate was blocked, so we sat on the tarmac  for 45 min.    The  hour time allowed for changing gates was getting short  The piolet asked folks not in a rush to let those of us with close connections  off  first.    And they did!    So I waved   and thanked  all the seated people as we exited the plane,  Then having landed at  Gate 3 in concourse   A and our Syracuse connection was at gate 1 in concourse  B.  We had 10 min to make that run.    We  hot footed it  only to arrive and discover they were holding the plane 10 min for us and one other passenger.  We were so glad to get home last night event though our bags did not make it.  They came at 11:30 today.    Thank you United!   It was enough of an adventure for a while.

I did do a little work on the week end before we left however.

Progress Report: Clear Cut   This quilt is 45″ X 45 .5″.   I have not attached the sleeve yet, but I am calling it done.

I like how the organza shows through the layers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cut Away   I did a lot of pebble quilting on this before I left, but there is still about a third to do.

 

 

 

 

 

Lap 5    This top is all done now and ready for layering.     I so enjoy these little play exercises.

 

 

 

 

 

Roundie   I did this little guy in preterition for the trip.  It seems more timely now even though our run through the airport did not include bags.

I have a lot of yard work to do now  as lots of  leaves have fallen ,  but I enjoy being out in the crisp autumn air.

Keep Creating

Carol

 

 

 

 

Applique, Clear Cut, Cut Away, Scissors, Sisterhood of the Scissors

Sisterhood Retreat for 2024

  Hello,

I came home yesterday from the Sisterhood Retreat for this year.    We  had a great time as usual.   The weather was beautiful every day and several of us walked  and enjoyed the views of the lake and surrounding landscapes.

We went to the Windmill, a weekend farmers type market,  on Saturday mooring.  We had a great lunch and enjoyed the event.

 

 

I purchased some lovely deep purple roving .    Joyce got herself a new pair of patchwork    pants  that she wore to our night out for dinner on Saturday evening.

 

 

We all worked away on  various projects.

Kathy  was the most productive.  She had a different theme for every day.

 

First she did Halloween work .   This is one of several she worked on.     Then she moved onto the a group challenges for ROFA  called Drop.     Both Joyces and Deb worked on that challenge too.  It was enjoyable to see how differently the three of them interpreted that subject.     The last day she worked on making sweater mittens for a sale she will be in later this fall.

 

 

Liz had several projects .  One was old blocks and they are a fun collection.

 

 

 

 

 

Joyce collected sticks on one of our walks and used them in several of the many dolls she was working on.

 

 

 

 

Kathy   was a busy camper using every min.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was so nice out of doors that I spent time on the Poarch as did most of us.   There was a nice clear plastic  barrier so even when the wind was blowing it was quite pleasant out there.   That did make for interesting  images.

 

 

We went to Ann’s for dinner on the last night  and she got to show off her barn home to Liz, Deb and Kathy.

 

 

 

 

It was a great final evening to a fun time.   Liz made  Smore Pies for dessert.

 

 

 

Progress Report:    Line Shirt     I worked on this project on the poach several days.   It was blank when I started on  this outing.

 

 

 

 

 

Roundies       I did this fellow while Kathy went out in her little boat.

 

 

 

 

Clear Cut    I made great progress on this piece.   I started the zigzag applique yesterday after I got home.

 

 

 

 

 

I only need to do the center of seven of the  finger wholes and  I will be ready to quilt it.

 

 

 

 

 

Cut  Away     I can see now that I need a new back layer under the cuttings.  I could not get far enough away from the work to see how poor the contrast is at the retreat.

 

 

 

Cut/Print      I printed these blocks   of scissors  before I left, but some how  they got left behind.   They are all ready for the next project none the less.

 

 

 

 

Photo Play   In the newest issue of Quilting Art’s Magazine there is an article by Margaret Abramshe on PICSART that Joyce, Liz and I tried .

 

 

 

 

It is a complex program with lots of suggestions and I am sure I will be at it a long time.     Here is just a first example  with the original on the left and the altered  image on the right.

 

 

 

 

Lastly I want to include a shot of the house where we were  from the bottom of the parking lot.     As you can see , the land rises steely away from the lake. I enjoyed myself but it is good to be home.

There will not be a post next week as I am off with Eric to visit family  on the west coast.

Keep Creating

Carol

Applique, Cut/ Print, Fish, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Rough Cut, Scissors, Uncategorized

Working Away

Hello,

Mother Nature is starting to paint our trees with color around where.      I love  the daily changes even though I know that raking will soon be a big part of my days.

It has been a very quiet week  for me  with only the Textile Talk yesterday and the Pixie meeting.

Tomorrow I depart for a five day quilt retreat so I have put a lot of time into preparing for that event.

Progress Report: Rough Cut     This work is 40″ w X 37.5″ t.     All the scissors are cut form wool this time.

  Some have frayed out  more than others.  And several just felted when I washed them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tropical Floor    This work is 27.5″w X 21″t.   I sure had a good time building this  project.   The fish are all free motion thread drawings on roving done with neon threads.

 

 

I am sure I will do even more of this work in the future.

 

 

 

Lap # 4        I now have four of these done.   I want to do a couple more before I drop them off at a nursing home.   These are always play events for me.

 

 

 

 

 

Lap #5   Yesterday I pinned out  out these blocks as starting points for the next lap project.

 

 

 Drawing   Now that Susan has reminded me how much I like to draw I am   trying to put that idea back into my routine.

 

 

 

 

 

Line Shirt      I saw a shirt for $179.0 in a catalogue this week and I love it.    But not the price. So I decided to try something similar myself.  I had also come across a new technique were on stitched across a squire to give the stitch some texture. So I am trying that on this project too.

 

 

Cut and Print       I took the Gelli Prints form last week and printed  scissors on top .  Angela suggested that one could make stencils with Tyvek, so I tried that too.   I was trying to work out a new Scissors project -but the print that is pinned to the left just dose not work for me.     At m\least not with the prints.   So I will try to work the piece out at the retreat.

Roundies     I realized I had not done any hand applique in a while , so got busy and tried my hand at a little of it.  I am pleased with these little guys.   I will keep playing until I run out of gas on this  one.

 

 

Enjoy the changing season and keep Creating

Carol

Applique, Drawing, Fish, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Rough Cut, Scissors, Scrap Happy Quilts

Cooler Days

Hello,

I am experiencing the cooler days and nights that come with fall.   It is raining here today too, so all I want to do is cruel up with a book.

It has been a quiet week.   Victoria, Liz and I did go to Angelia’s house a play in her studio one day.    We were doing a second day of Gelli Plate printing fun.  She showed us how she printed these  colorful cards. 

 

I spent the time printing on fabric for a new Scissors quilt.

 

I did the Textile Talk this  week and  Zoomed with the Pixies too.

Progress Report:  Scrap Happy   I finished this queen sized quilt for my daughter this week.   I still have enough squares to make a second so I did the row line up work for that  and I am working on a new backing.

Rough Cut  I am quilting away on this scissors piece now .  The wool is fraying out like I had hoped too.   I m sure I will finish it soon.

 

 

 

 

 

Tropical Floor   I can see the end of this project too.  I sure enjoyed doing the bead work here.   The piece has lots of textures  that I love.

 

 

 

 

 

Lap #4 series 2   I cut the 2.5″ and 4.5″ filler strips yesterday .  I will sew them together and then begin the building of this  project.

 

 

 

 

Drawings    I did a drawing of my last  Geranium blossoms this week .   I hope I can keep it going over the winter tis year.

 

 

 

Sometimes it is difficult to stop drawing when I get started.

Keep Creating

Carol

Drawing, Finger Lakes Fiber Artists, Fish, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Rough Cut, Scissors, Scrap Happy Quilts, Stretched Works

Sky Light

  Hello,

We have a sky light in our bathroom  and this morning when I was there , I saw a squirrel  on  top of  the space.  He stopped to check his front paw and I admired at his soft white fur in contrast with his black feet.   He did not stay long and my eye then moved to the branches of the oak above.  It has grown from a small finger sized twig that we planted over thirty years ago to a wonderful tall full tree that nearly crossed that sky light that in near the center of the back of the house.    That thought lead me to think of the many trees that we have planted in our yard  over our long lives here.  We have so many now that a vegetable garden is impossible.  I did have one in the back for many years and the tomatoes were so plentiful, I had  to give them away to the neighbors.   Over time I have traded that for hours of shade and lots of raking.   I love the trees so I would not trade any of them and the squirrel that they attract.

Last Saturday was the Flinger Lakes Fiber Artist meeting and although we were a small group, folks had lots to share.

Victoria has finished her box project and it is wonderful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anne is still   working with her challenge piece, and  making progress.

 

 

 

Maureen dusted off her  watercolor paintings shills .

 

 

 

And because it was there I had to take a third look at the wonderful show at the Schweinfurth.    It is so powerful!

There was the opening of the Assiated Artist show on Sunday and I was handed a nice prized along with the promise  of s solo show in June.

 

 

 Sharon, Victoria and I meant to do some planning for the La Moyne show  in Jan .      Sharon is working on this piece to be a part of that event.

 

 

 

 

The Sisterhood of the Scissors and  the Pixies had on line meetings as well.

Progress Report: Stream Bed     This piece is 24″ wild X 20″ t.  I finally decided what way was up  on this piece and added the wire to the back.     I sure enjoy ding these  hand pieces and  I pulled out the stuff to start another this morning.

 

 

These works really play to my strong interest in textures.

 

 

 

Rough Cut    I have moved on to the next scissors project.  I sure hope the wool frays a lot when I wash it so there is even more texture here.

 

 

Tropical Floor     I did the free motion drawing on the roving and Angelina to create the fish and stitched them down.   The sea weed is made from some of the dyed wipes I did earlier this year.

 

 

Scrap Happy    I am doing the hand stitching on the binding of this work now.  I am sure I will finish it  this week.

 

 

 

 

Lap quilt   I got this work all assembled this week and  I am working on the quilting here.

 

 

 

 

 

 Drawing     I did this  with ball point pen, my favorite  tool.     Susan of the Pixies challenged  us to draw plants.     Not sure what I will try next.

 

 

 

 

Take good care of yourself.

Carol

Drawing, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Scissors, Scrap Happy Quilts, Short Cut

Full Week

Hello,

I am having a full life at the moment.  I started on Friday by going to meet with my fellow retired art teachers to the Everson for lunch and a view of the galleries.     Many of them are being set up for the next exhibition, but one of the  open ones  was loaded with  work from the perinate collection.  It was a joy to see some of the old pieces that I recall and some I had forgotten about.

There was a great ceramic show too and I loved this owl plate.

 

 

 

Then on Saturday I went off to contribute my work to the Associated Artist show  and  I  helped with the hanging.

 

 

 

This work is by my friend Adam Vural  and a part of the show.

 

 

 

Sense I seem to see owls everywhere, I took this photo of another of the artists work.

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday I discovered that I had won the Best of Show  award for Tide Pool .  I was amazed.

On Tuesday, I went off to a play date with Angela’s.    She continues to create wonderful felted work  and she won a Purple ribbon at the State Fair.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a good time playing with printing with  Gelli plates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angela also showed off her latest piece that  she did in memory of her dog, Jetta of 17 years who passed away .

 

 

 

My last adventure this week was a trip to the Syracuse University Art Gallery.  I was especially taken by this work of an Indian woman artist .  It is about how life for the women changes when she becomes a widow.

I did sneak a pixie meeting and my on line  class  in this week too.   It has been a bit crazy.

Progress Report:  Short Cut  This work is 35.5″ w X 46″ l.      The scissors them selves are cut form a metallic fabric .      The edges are zig zag appliqued down with a  yarn captured with the stitch.

 

 

I have several more ideas for this series.

 

 

 

 

Lap # 13    I am building away on this project.

 

 

 

 

 

Scrap  Happy   This Scrap Happy is for my daughter.  It is all assembled now and ready for  the extra  quilting.

 

 

 

 

Stitch Club     I worked on this bit of hand work this week .   Limiting the pallet to white is a difficult thing for me, but I sure like the texture challenge.

 

 

 

 

New Work    I got out more of the roving and  did  a bit more work capturing it under wash away and stitches.   It is ready for the water now.

 

 

 

 

Drawings   The pixies have a bit of a push toward drawing now.      I did these two this week.  Robert suggested storms so that is were this one came from.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laura, wanted to try scissors. drawing .

 

 

Hopefully this week will be a little bit calmer .

Keep Creating  my friends

Carol

 

 

 

 

Applique, Cut Up, Hand work, Lap Quilts, Pixies Group, Scissors, Textile Artist Stitch Club

Fall is Approaching

1 Comment

Hello,

I have had a busy week.   Last Saturday I went off to the Schweinfurth Art Center to their new show opening, Beyond the Surface: Contemporary  Artists ad Printed Textiles. I was lucky to attuned the Artist talk beforehand as well.  It sure enriched my viewing of the work.    One of the artist, Krystile Lemonias ,  mixed wood cuts with her quilting process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another artist, Sarah Fairchild,  mixed foil and flocking  with her printing on fabric.

 

 

 

A third   artist, Gerri  Spika,  used deconstructed screen printing with her work  fiber work.  I know how to do all three of these techniques.  The show has made me rethink things a bit.   These are only small examples of the eight  artists in the show.     I highly recommend a trip  if you can make it.

The  Pixies meant as did the QuEGs.    It was all stimulating.   I also listened to the  Textile Talk this week that was about the  Beyond the Surface show.

Progress Report:  Lap Quilt    This really is the last of the blocks from my friend Ethel.     I had to make some solid ones to fill this project out.

New Lap  I can’t let these projects go, so I pulled fabric for the next one yesterday.   It is such free play for me and they go to a worthy cause.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Green Lichens  This work is 18 ‘ w X 24″ l.     It is the next one in the stitch work series that resulted from my Joyous Embroidery  class.   I did have a good time as usual in the process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cut Up    Only one more pair of scissors to cut out a apply and then I can move on to the next step.     I am having so much fun exploring this shape that I already have ideas for at least two more of them.

 

 

Stitch Club    I got and email form Stitch Club offering a free class so I took advantage of the process.  Lots of new ides here.

 

 

 

 

New Roving    In searching for some fabric I came across some  roving and Angelina that I had set aside for a new project.     So I am off on a  further exploration of this process from two  summers  ago.

 

 

 

Repair    My grandson drought me some of his clothing that needed repair.  I am epically prod of the patch I put on his Lakers shorts.

 

6X6 I came  across this mammoth  that Mom had made for a museum project in the bottom of a drawer.   Such a shame for  it to be in a dark, so I decided to feature it in one of my entries for the Rochester  Art Center fund raiser for the spring.

I hope you are enjoying the season and  creating a bit too.

 

Carol