Yesterday’s work:

Normally I can do a piece like this in a month, but this one is taking longer. Partly, I think because I  do not have a pressing deadline.  This is for an exhibit in the fall, and I probably should not even be doing it right now, but I just couldn’t wait.   What I SHOULD be doing is taxes, but that doesn’t excite me at all!

Today I am expecting a visit from a reporter doing a story about a quilt that is going to some show. Probably AQS, they send out press releases, but I’m not sure as I have three quilts going to three shows right now. Anyway, I had to stop work yesterday to straighten up my mess when all I really wanted to do was sew!!

The entry for “Spring Burning” is on it’s way to Houston for “Celebrate Spring”! I hope it makes it by the 14th which is the deadline for receiving. It should have gone earlier, but it just was not possible and I think it will make it unless something goes terribly wrong.

I’m taking the day off, going to town for lunch and a movie with a friend, then before I get started on the new project, I need to tidy up and get the books caught up for my next deadline – sales tax!

We are really enjoying our “warm” temperatures, I think we made it up above freezing yesterday.

The dogs interrupted their playing to pose for me.

We got OUT yesterday!  The temperature even got up in the 20’s and this whole week will be above freezing!   The wind sculpted drifts are really quite pretty if you can get past the inconvenience of it all. 

Our road runs east and west so the north wind sweeps the fields and dumps it all in the road.

Especially at the tops of the hills  where you pray you don’t meet up with someone going the other way!

Amazingly, once you get out to the main blacktop roads they are for the most part clear and dry.  The gravel roads, however, stay snow packed and icy for a long time.

I did not get much beading done over the weekend so that’s the plan for today. Again.  Time is running out!

The other day I was on the deck brushing one of the dogs and saw a Rose Breasted Grosbeak at the sunflower feeder. What a beautiful bird!! I have seen one before but they must just pass through on their migration as they only stop for a snack. Still no Bluebirds this year, they must have all stayed at Gwynette’s house, but the Hummers and the Orioles are hitting the feeders hard.

The roofers were here for a day and a half. They really have it down! Strip off the old and put on the new, clean up and be gone. If it hadn’t rained I think they might have finished it in a day – of course there were a bunch of them. Glad it’s done, now I can choose a color to paint the house.

Reading the QA list this morning I realized that the deadline for IQA entries is next week! Somehow that didn’t get on my To Do list. So I took care of it this morning. I have not done any sewing since finishing the Bluebird quilt and all of the quilty stuff is on the back burner right now. I will not start anything new until I return from my trip with Del to the SAQA Convention next week and the opening of Quilt National.

I decided since my last horse died last fall and I have no plans to get any more that I should try to get rid of the tack. So I have been cleaning tack. Boring!!

Yesterday was gorgeous! Who could believe temps in the 70’s in late February? After my walk, I stayed outside for a couple of hours pulling weeds; it was just too nice to be inside. If only the grass in my lawn was as lush as in my flower beds! The snowdrops that I planted last fall are blooming – so pretty!

These ones were growing in Wales on the grounds of Manorbier Castle and inspired me to try planting some here. In comparison, mine are pretty scraggly, but I hope they will thrive and multiply to become a yearly reminder of that fantastic trip.

Working at a very leisurely pace for me, I have finished The Merchant’s House, blocked and trimmed it, and it awaits binding. But now there is no rush. I’ll post it when it is finished.

There are two more deadlines soon, but they are both for small works. Yesterday I made the sketch and working pattern for the SAQA 12″ square. Last year I made that fairy quilt for them – “Don’t Piss Off The Fairies” – this year I’m doing another bird quilt. I’ve been wanting to do a Yellow Headed Blackbird and now’s the time!

Well, I have been busy! Busy trying to get my entry for Tactile Architecture done in time to meet the deadline of Feb 20. Sunday I finished the piecing and decided that it was not going to happen and I would just submit it to Town And Country instead. Monday morning I checked to see the particulars on that exhibit and found that it is not offered this year – must have been a one time thing. So I thought what the heck, I may as well try to get it done after all. In the past 48 hours I have quilted 30! Everything hurts and still it is not done so I am throwing in the towel. I could probably still make it if I put in another long day and Expressed the entry, but TA is just an exhibit with nice exposure but no monetary rewards so I will forego it this year. Won’t have anything for In Full Bloom this year either and it is the first year in a long time that I will not have entries in these two exhibits.

But on the brighter side, “Spring Encounter” was juried in to Celebrate Spring! and will be in Chicago in April.

This morning AQS informed me that the images I sent them were not big enough, (nothing that explicit about size in the entry instructions) so I am not sure where I stand with them. but I will have a piece in Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival.

You know, sometimes I wonder if it is worth the hassle!

Here we are a week into 2009 and I hardly even know what day it is, I have been so busy meeting deadlines. In fact I missed a much anticipated meeting with friends because I simply forgot to look at my calendar!

If I was one to make resolutions I guess I would have to make one to try to keep up better, but in fact I know that I already do the best I can, I just have too much to do, but nothing that I want to give up. I have enough stress without imposing resolutions on myself!

This morning when I tried to get into my blog to post, I could not get in. Now I can, but it looks entirely different so I guess this will be a new challenge to conquer – can I figure it out?

The deadline for “Celebrate Spring!” is quickly approaching so yesterday I tackled that. They require a photo,  but when I got to that, my photo printer ran out of ink so that necessitated a trip to town to buy more.  My little HP Photosmart prints the best pictures! So now that entry is ready to go out today.  One to AQS went out last week. So, early in the year already, I have two entries pending.  “Form Not Function” opening tomorrow with “Mon Grand Pere” and a couple of things in the mail, both coming and going. So with a little luck you’ll find my stuff out there somewhere.

Well!  It has been some time since I checked in here. I guess I am a one trick pony with a one track mind – once I get started on a project it is all I want to do.  I finished the hand work on the binding Thursday, “Mon Grand Père” is done! The entry requirements are different from any others I have done and took some pondering, but that is done as well, and I sent it off Saturday morning. So – it is out of my hands.

Next project? I need to get a better photograph of the Poppy quilt to send off for the cover and write the pattern and get that off to the printer. Fall Market will be here before we know it!

Even though it is August still, (barely), fall is in the air. Hot afternoons turn chilly as soon as the sun gets low.  I have enjoyed a few late afternoons in the hammock in the shade garden where it is always breezy and cool with Stephen King’s latest book. “Duma Key” is the kind that I like, that he writes. Of course I am only half way through, so it may be too soon to say that it is about real people, not monsters as he sometimes features.

It’s sort of distracting to try and read out there because of all the birds to watch, especially the hummingbirds! One actually came and hovered about a foot from my face and checked me out. Mostly they zip and zoom like mini fighter jets being very territorial and stingy with the feeders.

Yesterday I taught a Machine Quilting workshop at a local shop – it’s always fun and gratifying to see the progress attained in such a short time, I know if they practice they’ll do great!  AND, what a great opportunity to buy more fabric!!!  I found four new batiks that may make their way into my next project.

“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!

1-15
Sales tax is finished, ten days early! What a relief that is, and now I also have a good start on the IRS thing as well. I still do that myself as I wear many hats in this business. Since finishing “Just Dandy”, I have taught a class and started a new Coneflowers sample, caught up on many of the things left undone during the marathon that caused the first couple of weeks of 2008 to become just a blur, and even wasted a couple of days being just plain decadently lazy! I’m itching to get on with the next quilting deadline…..But first I will clean up the studio – it’s a perfect drizzly turning into snow kind of a day here – no distractions there!

Well little guy is somewhat of a distraction- he is a destructive but cute fellow who is not bothered in the least by the squirrel guard or the angry birds he has displaced. I don’t know how much longer the feeder will stand up to his daily assaults!