Br-r-r-r-r-!!!!

Texas is NOT supposed to be this cold!! As I mentioned before, the Fort Worth Stock Show is going on.  It runs through the coming Saturday; and there is almost always at least one week when the weather is just terrible!  This is the week...on Saturday when we were there it was 80 degrees..today it is barely 20 degrees with ice every where.

And it is Super Bowl Week...Oh, the hype!!!  The Packers and the Steelers are in town with all their fans who probably think we Texans are real pansies because this kind of weather is right up their alley!  It is too bad that the weather will curtail some of the planned activities though as I know a lot of time, money and effort have gone into them....not that I planned to take part...I am more of a passive observer of the festivities!!!

My kaleidoscope: "Totem" 

My studioQ group met yesterday...when the weather was still nice!  What a creative bunch of ladies!  And my kaleidoscope quilt was pieced enough to show. Here are some of the various works from some of the gals:

The front of Beth's journal...we are encouraging each other to keep a journal of ideas.

Bethany has been experimenting with stamping with fruits and veggies...this is her Mushroom print.

Susan had several things to show...this is a mini made from leftover scraps.

And Heather showed one of her quilts from her Nancy Crow class.

Needless to say, I have not gotten out of the house today, so all the activities that I had planned to do this week are dwindling...not that I am complaining!  I love staying home and now have an excuse to do so!  In fact, I am pretty sure I am going nowhere tomorrow either!!

Some Accomplishments....Finally!!

"Know that every human being must cross a very narrow bridge.  What is most important is not to be overcome by fear."    Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav, 1772-1810

This quote comes from book I just finished.  "Day After Night" by Anita Diamant.   After reading several mediocre books (except for Alice Hoffman's) it was really good to read a very moving book.  It takes place in a dentention camp in Palestine in 1945...based on true events.  The book revolves around four young women in particular but many others also as they try to overcome their horrible experiences in Europe and trying to get to live in Israel.  I highly recommend it for all!!

Monday, I am hosting the Studio Q meeting.  This meeting will be in place of our January meeting although it is February 1.  Then we will have another meeting the last Monday of February...our usual meeting time.  Because we have two meetings coming up, we did two "recipes" this month.  The first one..on the left is for the topic "The Color or Shape of Pain"...and the second one..on the right is for "Earth Awareness".  I guess I didn't have to have both done and will probably not show both on Monday as I think the second one is really for our later meeting.

Usually the host of the meeting does a demonstration of some kind...I am going to do some monoprinting on a gelatin block!  It is an activity out of the August/September "Quilting Arts" magazine.  I made my gelatin block today....pretty cool!  I am going to practice printing on Friday and will post some pictures so you can see what it looks like.

Busy week coming up....Tomorrow we go to play poker with our poker pals; Saturday, Andrea is coming over and we are going to go to the Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo..it is a matinee showing, then everyone is coming back here for dinner and to celebrate Marti's birthday which is next Monday.

And the weather is due for a change....it has been nice..in the 60's, but tomorrow it is supposed to be rainy and get cold.  We usually have some bad weather during the stock sho time.  Saturday it is supposed to be sunny but cold..high in low 40s!  That may not seem cold to some, but it is to us!!

More trip pics...wildlife in Denali

Our bus tour was from 6:30 AM until we got back to our Denali River Cabin at nearly 7:00 PM. The trip took us up into the very end of the road into Denali National Park. At the end of the road where we turn around, there is a beautiful lodge which is on the site of the original roadhouse, Kantishna. They fed us a great lunch and had a display of a dogsled team.

No one can drive more than about 15 miles into the park without permission or an escort. They are really striving to keep the park pristine and natural and are doing a wonderful job! We saw so much wild life and our driver was great about stopping and letting us look. We were not allowed off the bus when we saw the wild life which was OK by me...especially when we spotted the grizzlies. These pics are just a few of the wonderful creatures we saw.

This red fox was on the side of the road; he ran off then just stopped and looked back at us...beautiful!

This was our first grizzly...he had a buddy on the other side of the road, couldn't decide what to do then he just rushed down the hill and ran right in front of the bus to get to his pal! We had at least a dozen different grizzly bear sightings. Several were mama bears with cubs...all the berries were ripe and the bears were eating, stocking up for the winter to come.

And this ol' boy was wandering down the side of the road as we were ending our tour and heading back to town. He was so close, we could almost reach out and touch him! We saw so many others...caribou, wolves, beavers, Dall sheep, and birds of every description! I'd do it all over again if I could!

Now, back to the present...I am working on and about to finish my summer quilt exchange...and have drawn up my ideas for my two "recipe" blocks. Daughter from CA is at Yosemite Park for the night, tour tomorrow, and heading out to meet her dad on Thursday.

Continuing on for today

I like to use color...did you notice? I also am registered with a Bernina Yahoo group which is very interesting and helpful. We have occassional postcard trades, the current one being "USA Inauguration". I just mailed mine yesterday; made six of them. See below:

I made the background fabric with the freezer paper, muslin, inkjet printer method. I get a kick out of doing my own.

I also have a joke I got from my Yahoo! group: What do you get if you cross an agnostic, an insomniac and a dyslexic? Someone who lies awake at night wondering if there really is a dog.

Being a bit of an agnostic myself and a borderline dyslexic, I thought it was pretty funny!!

I am lucky enough to have met and joined up with a wonderful group of quilters. We all belong to the TVQG and organized a "splinter" group because of a common interest...art quilts! So I will be talking about what we do quite a bit too. We are registered as "studio Q"; we started out as the Creative Crones but some of the younger (under 50ish) members didn't like the association with "crones" so we changed to accommodate all! I like both names, thus my blog title! One of the first things we did together last year was to pass around a beginner block and each member add a border etc. to it. When we were all finished, we had a drawing to see who would get the completed wall hanging. This year we all wanted to have something to show for our efforts, so we started out with everyone making a block of their choice and passing it around each month that we meet to be added to. We will have a "reveal" and get our own back in a couple more exchanges! Then we hope to have a group showing of "Art quilts from studio Q" at our quilt show in the fall.

Our first group wall hanging-"Out of the Box".