Those charity quilts are coming along. This week I quilted and bound the big one and yesterday got the binding strips sewn onto the last small one.The hand work won’t take long. I am SO ready to start the next Inspirations piece!

I have also been knitting and completed 2 more sweaters from that fun one piece pattern; one for a new baby girl and one for her big brother.

They are knitted exactly alike, just with larger needles and yarn for the bigger one! Quick and fun!

Yesterday I entered two more shows and discovered that it was too late to enter one that I had planned on. It is surprising how long it takes to do show entries. They are all different so it never becomes routine.

A new book is out, “Cutting Edge Art Quilts” by Mary Kerr. I have quilts in it and my copy finally arrived. It is a beautiful book and I have enjoyed looking at all of the amazing work!!

“Just Dandy” is in the Topeka Designer’s Show House and I have reports that is looks wonderful there. I hope to get by and see it soon.

I was really glad to be asked to participate because it is good for people to see how nice quilted art looks in a home setting.

In between all that I am still battling the weeds, a never ending war that I seem to be loosing. Now that the weather has turned hot, with no rain all week I am having to water the new things.

Saturday I got back to the sewing, tweaking what was already sewn as these past two weeks of just looking at it made me see some places that could be improved. Also sewed a few of the section seams. This morning’s e-mail brought a couple more leads on the fabric search so perhaps I need to wait a bit longer before cutting background!

Yesterday afternoon a friend and I went to see the musical Parade, a show I had never heard of, and it was VERY good! So no sewing yesterday.

Probably not today, either, as I need to prepare two quits for shipping – “Colorado Kids” to AQS, Lancaster and “Who, Me?” to IQA for Celebrate Spring. Last week I sent “Foxglove Fairy” to Mid-Atlantic Quilt Fest.

We have a crew of workers here installing new Pella windows so today  looks like a good time to go to town, anyway!

I really did think that someone, somewhere would know where some of that Wheat batik was when I posted it to the QuiltArt list with thousands of members. It was gratifying to see the number of quilters who responded with offers of similar fabrics. But I already had similar fabrics and was holding out for THE one. Along the way I followed all of the leads and even ordered a few that I thought might work as it became apparent that the right one was not going to surface. The one on the left is the one I wanted and the others are possibilities. But they are mostly lighter in color than what I wanted. The current trend with the blues is less grayed than the one I was looking for, But the white dog contains some beige-y blues so maybe these will be even better.

Thanks again to all who tried to help!!

So now, I guess I am ready to carry on and reconnect with the cutting and sewing using the fabrics that I have. With my luck, once I cut and sew the “right” one will come along!!

In the interim I have been busy with tax prep, designing some new work and hand quilting on the Oak and Acorn quilt. I have entered some more shows and shipped some more quilts.

My contract for teaching a five day Picture Piecing Design workshop at Empty Spools, Asilomar a year from now has arrived. So for those of you who are intrigued with this process, I hope you will consider signing up for that. It will be a wonderful place to spend a week in February 2014!

I keep forgetting – I meant to post this sooner. After the KVQG meeting last month, Denise S., The Curious Kansas Quilter followed me home to photograph my studio for an upcoming guild program on studio spaces. If you follow the link you can  see some of the pictures that she took.

Sunday afternoon I drove down to Bella Vista, AR to do a program for the Calico Cutups Quilt Guild on Monday. Everything went very well and I enjoyed seeing that beautiful area again and meeting some great new friends! Monday was a loooong day, as I hit the road right after the meeting and didn’t get home til  8:15 – about 4 hours driving time with only one short break for gas, food, etc. Tues was spent getting everything sorted out from the trip and getting the Silent Auction piece sent off to Houston.  Good to be home!!

Here is the finished Silent Auction Donation quilt for Quilt Festival in Houston. I am pretty happy with the way it came out and I hope it makes them lots of money!

Prairie Fire Mini 15w X 17h” Machine pieced, machine quilted.

Now that that is done, I need to go prepare for my trip to Bella Vista, Arkansas tomorrow where I will do the guild program on Monday.  Looks like great weather to travel!

As much as I hate doing it, I am making good progress getting the books caught up. There is always such a feeling of satisfaction, mixed with chagrin at having let it slide once again.

I’m disappointed at not being able to see very much of the equestrian events in the Olympics this year. Well that is not a surprise as they don’t usually cover it very well, but it does leave me plenty of time to work on those books!

This is McLain Ward of the US Team, I believe.  My internet coverage timed out before the event finished so I don’t know how it ended. How unsatisfying!

The highest I personally have jumped a horse is 3.5 ft and it felt like flying. I can only imagine how this must feel!

When I shopped on Friday in two different shops, I found three possibilities for the sky binding on the Turbine piece one of which just might work! I have sticker shock at the current prices of fabric and am glad to have a huge stash to rely on most of the time. Neither shop had the fabric that I was looking for for the Ks scene so I ordered that online.  The shipping was more than the fabric which was pretty expensive already – as much for a half yard as what I paid for a whole yard when I started on this crazy quilting path!

My favorite summer Olympic event is Equestrian and it is sadly overlooked by the TV coverage. We don’t get the sports channel that is carrying it so I’m getting some on-line but my service is not of a level that makes that very satisfactory. I can get news and action clips that are better than nothing though. I also like Gymnastics and that IS well covered so I have been enjoying that this year. How about that team gold for the ladies!!

On the sewing front, I am at a standstill. I finished the Kansas scene, but I’m thinking that I might add some borders.

I need some more fabric if I do that though, so I’ve set it aside for now.

For the Turbine piece, I wanted to bind it in fabrics to match the sky and the prairie, but I have only a tiny piece of the sky fabric left and it is a one of a kind hand dyed shibouri. So I went for the black but it is too confining; it sort of fights the feel of the wide open spaces of the prairie.

Right now the binding is sewn to the front but only pinned on the back. I thought I would live with it awhile and try to like it, but it is not working.

Friday I am meeting friends for our annual trip to a fabric store and lunch out. I will look for fabrics suitable for these two projects, so everything is on hold now for a few days.

Meanwhile I will work on the books and listen to the Olympics.

Yesterday I spent the morning judging the quilts at the County Fair. Judging is not something that I enjoy doing, but it does make one appreciate the whole process a little more! There were a lot of great quilts to consider and this white work quilt by Jean McDonald ended up being my Best Of Show. It is an original design, machine quilted and trapuntoed made for her husband to commemorate his years as a Navy Commander. It has many meaningful designs worked into it including the four ships he commanded during his career, if I understood correctly. Of course I did not know all of that until the ribbons were awarded. There was just not much to fault in this quilt!

It’s hard to get a good photo of white work and I had to get at an awkward angle to even get it this good. It really hung better than it looks like here!

Today I can get back to working on my current piece. This is an old farm implement storage shed near here. I made it shorter, cleaned out the machinery and added the horse. I’ve been wanting to do this for some time, but only just recently found the fabric that I needed for the rusty roof.

Sorry it’s a bit out of focus, I didn’t use the tripod and I do know better!!

Last week was a very busy blur!

On Monday I drove into MO for a lecture and workshop with the Lee’s Summit Quilter’s Guild. What a fun group of ladies! That always takes at least three days, getting ready, going and then putting everything away afterwards.

There was also an Art Guild meeting and a theater date to go to. We saw “Every Little Crook and Nanny” which was really good with a twist at the end that no one saw coming.

One day it rained most of the day which was wonderfully welcome and perked up the gardens immensely. I spent an hour or so pulling weeds the next morning as conditions were perfect. The temperatures even became more bearable with highs only in the 90′s but now they are back up into the hundreds again.  I have been reading a book about making gardens that are easier to take care of.  I hope I get some good advice!

I have been busy between other things working on the Bignonia and it is all quilted. Yesterday I cut and sewed the binding so perhaps today I will get that finished.  I forgot to get a photo of the finished top before starting the quilting so have nothing to show you yet, but it looks good!!

Sunday afternoon I cut the grass pieces. I don’t know when I will get the time to sew them, but there is no rush, it’s not due til Oct.

I have been doing a lot of computer work, getting the things ready to send in for the Seasonal Palette portfolio. I thought they had to be there by the first of June but no, it’s the first of July. So for once I am ahead of the game as it is going out today!!

Last year I missed the entry deadline for Houston because it is June 1 and that just seems too early for a show that isn’t til fall. So I prepared that for this year, and it will go out today too. I wanted to enter “Longhorn Splashdown” but it I goofed and entered it somewhere else so it will not be available. Again – Houston requires the work to be there in August for an October show, so it messes with my mind. This is the last year that one will be eligible to go there, too. Juggling these things is a full time job!! I couldn’t do it at all without my spreadsheet to keep track of everything.