Orange 03-01-10

Terry Grant has been talking about orange - one of my favorite colors. So here are a few orange things in my life.

"Cactus Flower" Del Thomas 2000 61"W x 48"L

I designed this quilt in Ruth McDowell's class in 2000, took the design back the next year and refined it. But still no fabric - by this time I had three 32gal plastic bins full of orange fabric. I took the design and the fabric out to Corky's house in the desert and did a four day construction marathon. No people, no interruptions, no excursions - sew, sew, sew. This is all pieced, there is no applique in this quilt. The first thing people notice is that it is very ORANGE.

Someday I will do a poppy quilt, I'm sure. Some years the poppy fields in the Antelope Valley look like this - glorious.

"Green Trails" Del Thomas 2005 36" square
This is the only quilt top I have ever completed in about 40 classes at Empty Spools! It was a Sylvia Einstein class with a most compatible group of students. I couldn't believe that I was actually sewing the blocks together on the last day. I am easily distracted in class because I live alone and work alone, so all that creativity and energy just does me in. The various shades of orange with the red, yellow and green make this quilt glow.

Someone gave me this 'quilt ladder' which leans in the corner of my working space. I started draping orange fabrics on it several years ago, but it hasn't turned into anything. They all don't go together, they are just there for inspiration. I'm always trying to find a word that rhymes with orange, but the closest I have come is sponge.

Corky was in the Orange County Register this morning! While he and his mommy were at the vet so he could have his acupuncture treatment there was also a photographer and reporter from the paper doing a feature story on acupuncture for pets. You can see it at:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/acupuncture-236582-woods-cancer.html
Click on PHOTOS tab at top.
The Poodle Parents and I think that Corky is living a longer, healthier life by having a treatment every three weeks. He tolerates the needles very well, but finds it hard to hold still for the fifteen minutes they must stay in place. I am considering human acupuncture for my arthritis, if I could only decide which part of me hurts the most!