Watermelon Wine made it safely home from NC with an Award of Merit for Best Rendering Of A Face! Next it goes to PA National.

The poor Clematis Rugoochii that was stripped has produced more leaves and some new flower buds. I am helping as best I can to keep it watered and dusted with sevin. The weather was so hot and dry for awhile but now it’s cooler and even raining, today. For August it is remarkably green still! The Surprise Lilies jumped up and are blooming all over the place, they are especially pretty coming up through the Mt Fugi phlox which hides their long naked stems. I went out to get a picture but everything is so wet and bedraggled right now it is not so pretty after all!

Work on the new project is slow. Auditioning fabrics takes the most time and I have piles of it on the cutting table. At last count I had used 13 different grass fabrics so far. But each day a little more gets done. Yesterday, between watching the Olympics, I did a lot of sewing together of pieces and sections so it is coming together nicely.

We are sweltering here in Kansas; for the last few days temperatures have reached 98-100 with heat indexes around 105! Yesterday afternoon with a possibility of rain the temps dropped the breeze came up, and it was quite lovely outside. I watered a few plants that were looking stressed, plants that have been only recently planted, and a good thing, too! The rain never came. I sat on the deck and noticed that the first blue blooms of the Chaste Tree are out. I love blue flowers. The blue Balloon Flowers are in full bloom now and my Clematis Rogoochii (sp?) which was blooming it’s little head off the day before was stripped to it’s skeleton by some insidious creature. I hope it can recover!

Mostly I stayed inside and quilted, and the poppy quilt is nearly done!

Wednesday I taught a hand quilting class. It seemed strange, felt like it ought to be Saturday! But the class went well and was fun. I think it actually jump started me and I got started on a new design. This beautiful poppy was in the park in Vancouver – don’t you love the way light plays with flower petals?

This will probably be a new pattern. I have just started to cut the fabric; still have not sewn anything though.

Other accomplishments last week were finishing up the books to date for sales tax and getting a quilt sent off to the Asheville NC show. Because it was very late coming home from being in Florida for the I-4 Corridor Exhibit, I was forced to pay $85.00 to ship “Watermelon Wine” Next Day Air in order to get it there on time. But since it had been accepted, I felt obligated to have it get there if at all possible. I think keeping one’s word is very important and I only wish everyone felt that way as I had specifically checked before entering it to be sure it could be home on time. I had assurance that my quilt would go out as soon as the show closed, instead it didn’t go out til the 8th, arriving home on Friday afternoon. Not only was this an unnecessary monetary drain, it was very stressful. Not very professional at all!

This fun site just came to my attention for all you animal lovers out there. Just click here
and answer an easy quiz question to provide free kibble to shelter animals!

2-7

It’s been a time for catching up this week. Time to send “Lady Godiva” off to her gig at The Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival and to prepare more entries. My acceptance letter arrived for “Just Dandy” to go to IQA’s Celebrate Spring in IL. Only a month ago it was in the process of being made!

Yesterday we got 9″of lovely fluffy snow so it was a perfect day to stay inside and update my website. Being new at it, it was not without it’s frustrations, but now you can see “Just Dandy” in the Gallery.

The nasturtium piece is coming along nicely and I finally got photos of the finished “Burlingame Fire” so you can see what a difference the quilting makes!

“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!