Birthday fun!

It's been a wonderful birthday week.

I was able to spend four days sewing with friends last weekend.

I finished quilting Colorado Hummer, a 12 x 12" mini.

And New Zealand Metal, also 12 x 12".

And a lot of quilting on All I Want for Christmas..., 27 x 34"

Hubby sent me flowers,

and Sarah and I posed under the birthday hat.
(It was Julie's birthday too.)

My son and my coffee friends sang to me,

...and Gerald made me a sour cream raisin pie! Sigh!

Thanks for all the surprises and good wishes.

I feel very blessed.

New Zealand Manhole cover

My twenty-year-old neighbor, Maggie, is living in Wellington, New Zealand for a year. She posted this photo of one of the manhole covers back in July. I thought it would be a fun 12x12" quilt for our twisted stitcher challenge.

I drew it on some batik fabric and carefully cut it out with tiny scissors so I would have a positive and a negative of the image. Here's the positive.

... and the negative.

I'll get one of them quilted before the deadline.

Busy Busy!

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted to my blog. I've been really busy with my graphic design business and getting my son in the groove at school. There are four fiber projects I've worked on but none are finished. Here are two I can show you.

This little 12x12" still needs a humming bird.

Here's a peek at my design for the 2010 Quilter's Guild of Dallas Block Challenge, Texas Boots Baltimore Style.

I did finish a few of these wool and felt pincushions.

It's been raining for seven days.

There are mushrooms popping up everywhere.

These cute lilies showed up in the neighbors yard overnight.

Rusty is sooo ready for the rain to stop.

New work

August has been a very good month for graphic design, but I've spent very little time on fiber art. Well, yesterday the stars aligned and all my clients were busy proofing their projects. I found myself with time on my hands. Yeah!

I've been wanting to make a quilt from this photo of my son for years. (He's almost 17 now!)

Back in May I served on a Q&A panel with Sue Benner and Barbara Oliver Hartman at the Professional Association of Quilt Appraisers conference in Fort Worth. The appraisers wanted to ask art quilters (both full-time professionals and a part-time quilter, me) how we produce our art in order to better appraise art quilts. It was a very enligtening day. I learned alot from these two very talented quilters.

During her description of her art, Sue Benner mentioned that she sometimes draws directly on the batting when designing a quilt. I've been thinking about the possibilities since May and decided to try it with this one. I'll let you know what I think. So far, so good.

I've been wanting to make 12x12" quilts of some of the photos I took in Colorado this summer. I love poppies and thought this green hand-dye would make a good background.

I also love these bleeding hearts and have started quilting this one.

I've had a hard time deciding what I want to do for a Short/Wide challenge and have finally found a subject that speaks to me.

While all this creativity was spewing out, the air conditioner in my 250-square-foot studio was slowly dying. This morning my dear hubby helped me decide that we were better off buying a new window unit than trying to get the old one fixed. We managed to snag the last one in stock that would fit in the hole. Since the stores are busy selling out summer and beginning to stock Christmas, we bought the display.

I quickly grabbed all the stuff in the path of the AC and piled it on the drawing table...

... and across the room on the floor, ironing board and sewing table.

TaDah ... it took the better part of the day but I have a new air conditioner.

Thank you dear! I'm so lucky to have a handy hubby.

Tomorrow's mission -- clear the clutter and sew!

Progress

Kathi came to town last weekend to sew with Linda and I. Kathi worked on two garments, Linda made a blouse and a Christmas gift and I pieced my "Circles of the East" appliqué blocks.

I've been appliquéing these "Circles of the East" blocks for the last 12 years. The background fabric is hand-dyed pima cotton. The block pieces are commercial and hand-dyed cotton.

Last summer I dyed the sateen sashing in lilac along with six yards of sateen for the borders. I intend to appliqué the borders but haven't designed them yet.

These pretty passion flower vines are outside Linda's front door.

Gorgeous!

Twins

I'm a Great Aunt to twin boys who were born to my niece on Friday, August 1. The babies are early and tiny but doing well.

Friday was also my sister's birthday. Happy birthday Grandma Tina!

Double H High Adventure Base

In June, Berek went on a Boy Scout high adventure trek to Double H Scout Ranch southwest of Albuquerque, NM. The trek was made up of eight scouts, two leaders, and one local guide. These photos were taken by Kelson.

There are no established trails so the scouts used compasses, maps and GPS tracking to find their way in the rugged 10,000 acre ranch.

The highest elevation on the ranch is 7,000 feet.

They came across several critters and evidence of critters.

Berek had a great time.

For more photos, go here.