Turning Leaves Sep 28, 2007

I took this picture of a redbud tree last year about this time. I was visiting my friend Mary in San Jaun Bautista - several hundred miles north, so the seasons are ahead of Placentia.

Finished quilt 09-27-07

The deal with Journal Quilts is that the quiltmakers are asked to not post images of their quilts online anywhere until after the exhibit has its opening at the Houston Quilt Festival the end of October. In lieu of showing the front here are a couple images from the back of the quilt.

In recent years I have started fusing the label on the back of the quilt before doing the quilting. This is to make the label unremoveable. I always intend to make a fancy label to stitch over this strictly functional one, but I seldom find the time.

And all of my quilts have a bird on them somewhere. It could be a part of the printed fabric on front or back, inked on w/fabric marker, hand or machine stitched, or it might even be the image on the front of the quilt. I sometimes cannot find them on the quilt after a year or so, but the little bird is there -hiding.

I did just make it to FedEx before the overnight shipping deadline. I REALLY cut it close this time.

Doctor Day Sep 26, 2007

Some things are better just done all at once. So every September, my birthday month, I have the medical tests all women should have after a certain age and a visit with my doctor. Today I had a bone scan to see how the Forteo injections are working to prevent more broken bones and I had a complete physical. My doctor assures me that I passed the 'mental faculties' part with no sign of deterioration - so I can stop worrying about that. I still think one of the causes of my forgetfulness is lack of sleep. I just cannot sleep more than three hours without a trip to the bathroom and then it is almost impossible to get back to sleep. She suggests a visit to a sleep clinic. Maybe I will have to do it.

I had a note today from Joan Sowada a Wyoming quiltmaker whose small (1 foot square) quilt, "Pink Purses in Rome", I purchased from an online auction. I admire her quilts - they are amazing. You can see more of her work at http://www.avacenter.org/usergallery.php?ID=10

My Book Group met tonight. I joined this already formed group in the late 1970s, maybe 1978, and four of the original members have continued all these years. I don't think there have been more than a dozen members at any one time, and in recent years we have been seven or eight. Our monthly meetings in the homes of the members are really more of a friendship meeting with a very short (and sometimes no) discussion about the book. Each month the hostess chooses the book for the following month, so we have a very eclectic reading list. This month the book was "Gonzalez and Daughter Trucking Company" by Maria Ampero Escondon, which we all seemed to enjoy. It is an unusual fictional story with strongly defined characters and a somewhat startling conclusion. Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart is the book for October. Currently on my nightstand is "An Hour Before Daylight" a memoir by President Jimmy Carter telling (as far as I have read) of his family and childhood in rural Georgia during the Depression and war years. And John Grisham's new book "Playing for Pizza".

Still at it! Sep 25

I suspect you all know how it goes...

There you are, working as hard as you can and things keep going wrong! The thread keeps breaking, you break an needle, you run out of the right color thread, your machine jams...... I think it is gremlins who know when we are in a hurry. It is hard to rip stitches out of hand dyed fabric or batiks or sheers, so there are no mistakes on this quilt. Just 'revisions' as necessary.


The Poodle Prince has been handed off to his parents to go home to LBeach. I already miss him. But he does require care, which is why they have a Poodle Nanny! He was quite soulful today because I didn't have time to just sit and rub his back, ears, tummy, chin.. whatever. But he is very well behaved dog and doesn't complain very much, mostly he just stares at me sadly.

I'm not doing French Marigolds, but these are some of the colors I am working with. I'm sure it's not a surprise to anyone who knows my work! Red, orange, yellow fabrics dominate my fabric library. Sometimes I think maybe I am a fabric collector rather than a quiltmaker, but it is great to have such a varied collection when I start a new quilt.

I think my 'wings' are clipped. Sep 24

I have always been a night owl. After ten o'clock my brain clicks up a notch and I am much more creative and accomplish more. But now I can't see well enough to do fine work and years ago I gave up trying to pick fabric or thread after the sun goes down. I've read many theories about why some of us are chickens and some are owls, but I don't think anyone really knows why. It is sometimes hard to switch from owl life to 'normal' life, something that becomes necessary to live in the world most people occupy. It takes me forever to make a quilt now because I am not motivated in the morning and have to quit when the sun goes down. I need to readjust my brain, huh?

I am still working toward the Friday deadline for the Journal Quilts. I think I will make it, even if I have to pay for overnight shipping. Of course, I have known about this deadline for a year! So, why do I wait until the last minute? Another unknown, but I seem to get worse as the years go by.

This picture was taken one year around the end of October whilst driving south on I-5. Looks like covered wagons stretched out across the prairie? No, these are bales of cotton waiting to be loaded in the fields and shipped - wherever! Each one will fit in the trailer of a big rig. It is almost cotton picking time this year.

Pushing a deadline Sep 22, 2007

I've been using my new box of pencils today. They are very nice, but I miss the stand-up 'easel' type box of the old set. And I discovered there is no grey included! I may have to run out tomorrow to find a couple greys. The pressure is on for the Sep 28 deadline for the Journal Quilt challenge from the Quilt Art online group. I've tried three different designs with no success and this one must be the final one and I must get it done so I can ship it to arrive by Sep 28, Friday! One of the rules is that the quilts cannot be shared until after they appear at the enormous Houston Quilt Festival. And that isn't until the end of October! Maybe I will finish one of the rejects and post it.

While I worked this evening I watched/listened to the first installment of Ken Burn's "The War" on PBS. I was only seven when WWII ended, but I do remember some things about it and they aren't pleasant memories. I wonder how these surviving servicemen can dredge up their horrific memories and not have nightmares. Maybe they do. I was seventeen when I worked behind the scenes in a library and saw books with pictures of the victims of Nazism and they still give me nightmares sometimes. I imagine that as long as there are egomaniacs in positions of power there will always be the threat of war.

I still hope to drive up the east side of the Sierra on Hwy 395 sometime soon, at least to Bishop. Here is a photo taken at Bishop Park campground in October 1989 showing how magnificent it can be when the aspen are in full color.