In late April, I started having trouble getting online. When the provider found out that my husband had ordered an upgrade they would not help with the old system at all so for a week I was totally offline. When the scheduled day arrived for them to come and install the new system it was snowing. Hard. In May.

So they canceled and we had to wait to be rescheduled. When we were finally back online I discovered that AOL no longer worked. There went another few days as I worked with my “new best friend” in India who called me every day at 4 for 3 or 4 days. I got to where I could understand him pretty good and now things are seemingly back to normal. Knock on wood.

During that time I was pretty busy though. Maybe tomorrow I will show you. You will be surprised!

Yesterday I taught a Picture Piecing workshop in Topeka, that ended at 3 o’clock, which is exactly the time that my very first great grandson’s first birthday party started. Everyone was kind enough to hold up the important parts til I could get there. I am not at all sure this will work, but maybe— I tried to take a few photos with my new iPhone  (because I forgot the camera AGAIN)  but I don’t know what I’m doing and I got videos instead!  Nope, sorry, that didn’t work, I don’t know how to post videos. Why would I even think I could?

On a brighter note, I was able to get a good start on the Keynote program and some other computer glitches are getting worked out.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Yesterday I settled in to get serious about learning to do a Keynote presentation on my new MacBook Pro. It is so different from using a keyboard and quite frustrating! A couple of hours in, I got a weird error message that I couldn’t take care of myself, so, having paid for support, I called the Geek Squad number. My impression of the lady who answered was that she didn’t know about Macs as she insisted that my installer should return and take care of it. That is scheduled for Wednesday so I can’t do much til then.

So we went to town and got a couple of books that should be helpful when I do get back to working on Keynote!

And 10 more bags of mulch which I AM qualified to work with!! For the past two nights we have had frost so have been covering certain things that I am especially concerned about. Most things, however have to fend for themselves. The new peach tree has ONE peach – I hope it survives!

Quilt Inspirations has featured “Don’t Piss Of The Fairies” as a humorous quilt. I love what they have written about it! Check it out!

Yesterday I finished the quilting on “In The Bleak Midwinter” – I was unsatisfied with the sky – skies are hard!- so spent much of the day before picking out the stitches so I could redo it.  With a little luck I’ll get the binding done today and a picture for you tomorrow!

Then we went to town and bought a MacBook, I’m determined to be able to do Keynote programs and since the iPad didn’t work out for me I think this is the way to go.  Remember though, that I am one of the world’s most technologically challenged people so I expect some bumps in the road.

Things are looking up! My computer is back to where it was before I tried to upgrade it. I can now use my QuickBooks and Photoshop again, and that is a great relief. I am a truly technologically challenged person and rely on my trusty repair people to keep me going. Unfortunately they have grown to the point they really don’t want to be bothered by small jobs like mine and their prices reflect that.

In the meantime, March was a busy month that somehow seems to have gotten away from me. I had two guild programs to do and with two more this month, things aren’t getting any easier! I have been doing lots of garden work, planting, weeding, mulching, trimming as we have had some lovely weather this spring. I decided a small orchard would be nice so we planted another apple tree, two plums and a peach.

I am now in the midst of quilting “In The Bleak Midwinter”.

I made this piece for the Kansas Art Quilter’s exhibit, “RED”. We have these sunsets where just a streak of red gives the snow that rosy glow, and even in the bleakest of times there is really much color to be seen if only you look for it! The sky is from  a wonderful piece of hand dye that I got from Linda Frost and I also used a piece of hand dye painted fabric that I did years ago for the distant snow. The rest is commercially printed fabric.

It’s good to be back!

Well, I haven’t been doing so well lately with this blog!

I recently decided that I should get an iPad – it sounded easy – NOT!! Turns out my computer operating system was not right, so I upgraded it. Then had to upgrade other programs, til I came to one that said I needed another operating system upgrade! That’s when I took the iPad back and returned it. It wasn’t til a few days later that I discover QuickBooks with all my company data wouldn’t open in the new system and I can’t upgrade QB without an Intel processor, which of course I don’t have! Now this morning I discover that I can no longer access Photoshop!!

So I can’t show you what I’m working on.

The new Vinca quilt has been finished for a few days – finished unless I decide to add some beading to the centers! It’s only 10.75″ square, so how long could it take! It looks appliqued, but it is pieced. There are two different backgrounds, they give the look I wanted,  but they are too similar to each other. The fabrics in this are mostly hand dyes with a couple of batiks added.  I liked the hand dyed blue for the flowers because of the shadings in it even though it is not the proper periwinkle color.  It was not necessary to finish the edges as they are going to mount it behind a mat with an 8″ opening, but I  just couldn’t let it go unfinished like that. I hope they don’t mind!

My previous problem with posting was due to my own technologically challenged status and I guess I have been procrastinating trying to post again, lest I prove my incapacity. But – it went well, as predicted by my wonderful web masters at Gloderworks!

In the meantime I have been keeping busy catching up on other things, like doing the books in order to get the sales tax in on time, entries and general decluttering. Considering the things I have been doing, it occurred to me this morning that what I was REALLY doing was avoiding facing this blog photo thing.  So now that is behind us, we can move on!

I think replacing the lighter background with this darker grass helps to make the fawn stand out better.  I was able to use several of the hand dyes that I made last month, in the sky. It’s hard to find leaves on sky color and sky colors to coordinate with the leaves that I DO find!

I was very flattered to be nominated for ‘Kreativ Blogger’ recently, but unfortunately don’t have the time to try to figure it out, technologically challenged as I am! I did have the computer guru out to calibrate the color in my monitor so that is hopefully better now.  I have not found the time to change any of the pictures in my website yet, though.

Christmas cards are starting to come in and I have not even started yet! Can it be that Christmas is less than three weeks away?  I guess my blog is about a year old as I was in the throes of last year’s shopping when I started it. All I need is more time, like everyone else!

“Burlingame Fire” is finished right down to the last hand stitch, and it’s time to look at the next deadline, which must be “In Full Bloom”, Feb 29. I’ve had a piece in this exhibit since it started, so I must try again! Nasturtiums have always intrigued me with their unique shapes and bright colors. A happy little flower that will do well even in poor dry soil. I have a photo that I took in 2001 in the files to work with, so I pulled it up and converted it to black and white for the design process. You know and I know that one should make a copy to play around with, but did I do that? No. Of course not. When I asked it to print, the computer quickly saved it. The color is gone forever and it was my only copy. Oh, well. I will color this piece guided by memory and my available stash. Could be a good thing!

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I’ve been wondering why the comments have not been appearing – duh! I have to approve them! Who knew? Sorry about that, someday I will know what I’m doing. Maybe.

Hooray! Yesterday I FINALLY finished the quilting on a rather large piece that seemed to take forever. It is currently being blocked and I hope to get on with the binding later today. It’s about a fire that happened last spring in the historic town of Burlingame , KS. It was inspired by a photo taken by the fire dept, used with permission. No recent pics, but here is an in progress shot.