Nice week

Last week was spent with a visit from my step-son who is on leave from Iraq... his 2nd tour. He got to spend some quality time with his dad and they went to see the Indians in their winter training home here. Ned even managed to get Evan to eat Mexican and Indian food....neither of which I am fond of. Friday night we went to see a performance of Cavalia which is an offshoot of Cirque Du Soleil but with horses. It was wonderful. Evan left on Saturday morning to go back to Ohio to spend time with his mom and other family members. He has one more week of leave before he has to go back to Iraq.
Saturday night we had a small dinner party and our guests slept over. We all drank too much, but it was so much fun! For those who are interested, the menu was Spanikopita (my special recipe) and guacamole as hors d'oeuvres with Proseco. The meal started with melon and proscuito, then sweet and sour sauteed shrimp over rice with grilled vegetables and a Traminer Riesling. Dessert was brought by our guests... an old fashioned bundt cake (laced with something) and a lovely Cabernet to go with it. I washed a lot of wine glasses! We had pancakes for breakfast.... I cannot recall the last time I had pancakes. It was a lovely, relaxing evening.

This week it is back to work for my Pamela Allen class. The latest assignment has been a tough one for me and I mostly have a dog to show for it. I am working to salvage it.


OOOPS: My hubby just told me I got the wines out of order... the cab was with the meal, the Riesling with dessert.... I told you I had too much to drink!

Almost blown away

I like the quilts I make but I do not think they are in any way spectacular or cutting edge. My skills are still developing and sometimes I have ideas that I cannot execute. That said, consider my shock when I opened this month's American Style magazine to find the picture of the quilt I donated to the SAQA auction as the quilt someone chose as THE example of the 230 quilts that were received! Yeah, you could have blown me over. The quilt is called Ginkgoes in the Wind and I posted here about it June 17th. I am a little jazzed.

Busy week

Last week flew by. I signed up for another online class with Pamela Allen. This one is called Still Life is Boring NOT. I figured there was still a lot I could learn from Pamela. I am not disappointed. I am learning basic art principles and that will always help me. We started with the requisite black and white piece. I am happy with the way it is turning out. I have most of the stitching still left to do. This weeks assignment is to use muted, grayed out colors that had stripes and such on them. HA... like I owned any! I had to make a run down to my local quilt shop (OK, so I am contributing to the local economy) and pick up a selection of fat quarters.

This one I am not as happy with. It looks like a bad take off of a Matisse. Now of course if this had been a signed Matisse and it was hanging in my house, I would be in love with it. Go figure. None of the stitching is done on this. I plan on doing mostly machine stitching except for the hanging plant that will be in the bowl on the shelf.... what shelf you ask? Yep, this is a bit more abstract than I would like. Pamela likes it.... so maybe I will send it to her when it is done.


Next week my stepson arrives for a visit. He will be on leave from his 2nd tour of duty in Iraq. The 2 weeks total he will be home will be the only 2 weeks we sleep well till he gets out.

Back to stitching my black and white still life.

What's For Dinner?

I was feeling in a funky mood this weekend... my sewing machine is on the fritz again and giving me agita. It is going to be sent back to the corporate headquarters to see if they can fix it. I decided I needed to do something upbeat so I made a charity piece for Fiberart For A Cause.
I have called it What's For Dinner?

It looks like I am finally succumbing and joining Facebook. I will probably up and running this evening. Off to my bridge game now.

I am settling back down to earth

I have stopped hyperventilating, I think..... My quilt Through Rose colored Glasses is being used as part of an article on Landscape quilting to be published in the July/August edition of Fons and Porter's magazine Love of Quilting. I just got the contract yesterday. To say I am ecstatic would probably be an understatement! I even get an honorarium for this. Breath.

Now I need to get back to work. I am finishing up a piece for FFAC. I just have to bind it and I am done.

My sewing machine is on the fritz again but this time they are sending it back to corporate to see if they can get it to work correctly.