This and that!

I have been working with all the pictures I have downloaded to my new Mac laptop...For some reason, many of the folders of pictures that I had put on the external hard drive for storage were duplicated...sometimes more than once. So I am trying to get them all straightened out on this computer.....there are literally  thousands of them!

This picture from an old slide was taken when we lived in Alaska in 1964-66...we had only been married a few months when Dick was transferred there courtesy of the Air Force.  And then we made a return visit to the area a year ago...46 years later.  Since the quilt I am now working on is from the fabric  I got in Juneau, and has totem poles on it, I thought this was appropriate.  I have the kaleidescope  nearly finished...just need to put all the sections together, then add some sides and get it quilted.  I haven't decided whether I want to add beading or not...will see.

Busy week coming up...Friday night we are going to dinner and a concert with our daughter's in-laws, Saturday we are all going to the big Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo, there will be about 12 of us, then out here for a BBQ dinner to celebrate my oldest daughter's birthday and other daughter will be spending the night as she lives about 80 miles away....a little far to drive back home late;  it is always good to see her for a long visit anyway.

 Then Monday, I have the studioQ bunch here...that is my art quilt group..Monday night is our granddaughter's National Honor Society Induction.  Tuesday there is a Diabetic Support Group meeting which I may attend..not sure.  Wednesday, my third class for Diabetic Education...Dick has been going with me which is a big help to have an extra set of ears to hear all about it.  Thursday is our poker bunch, meeting for dinner and card playing. And I think that is all for awhile...so maybe I can get some really constructive quilting going!!!

Random Ramblings

" Despite the cost of living, have you noticed how popular it remains?"  Anon.

Sunday On La Grande Jatte-1884 by Georges Seurat

Such a thrill to see this painting at the Chicago Art Institute last week...when I was a kid, I did see it but after having taught art for 32 years, I had a much greater appreciation for it...knowing something of the artist and the history of the period.  My mom was also very fond of this particular work of art and had a print of it hung in her living room as long as I can remember. (I wonder what happened to that picture?)  I also really enjoyed the musical "Sunday with George"...I haven't seen it live but many years ago, PBS filmed a production of it with Mandy Pankin in the starring role. 

North Crowley Spring Band Concert

Somewhere on that stage is my granddaughter, playing the French horn.  NC held their spring concert last Saturday. The middle schools that feed into NC had their concerts first...then the high school.  I am always amazed at how wonderfully those kids, from 7th grade on up can play!!  And kudos to their band directors!!  They have to have great patience to work with all that noise...then to make it into something beautiful...what a feat!!

My guild has a members only challenge quilt each year in conjunction with our quilt show which is in September.  This year the theme is a scrappy quilt, using 50 or more fabrics.  It can be any size, any pattern, with a minimum of applique and embellishments.  Coming up with 50 fabrics is no problem...I have started on what I think will be my entry...and that may be the only thing I actually get done to enter the show this year!

Our speaker at our meeting this week is Paula Nadelstern, who creates kaliedescope quilts...she is having her workshop on Saturday...I have signed up for it and am very excited to attend and see how she makes the magic happen!!  I am working with fabric which is totally out of my comfort zone....Pink and lime greens!!!  But I hear it is good to break away into something totally different once in awhile!!  We'll see!

Looking Kind of Wintery!

 This is what we woke up to this morning!  What a surprise!  Very pretty, big flakes of snow fell for about three hours, then the sun came out briefly and it all went away...that is the kind of snowstorm we like!  It is forcast to snow more later on in the week; this is kind of early for Texas!

And I shot a deer from my kitchen window yesterday!  (with my camera). This is probably the culprit who has been eating my flowers!  and she was having such a good time, she forgot that day time had come!!  Usually we don't see deer much after dawn..this was about 9:00 AM.

Thanksgiving week is over and all the company and  most of the food is gone...we had such a great time with all.  My daughter Andrea is also a quilter so she went with me to my StudioQ meeting Monday.  Our "recipe" ingredient this time was "Time".  I made an hour glass out of fabric and clear plastic, filling it with rice,  to go with my blocks on games...I may even complete a quilt of that nature with all of them sometime!

Another fun thing we did this past weekend was to go to Blue Mesa with all the family for their brunch.  I still had not used my birthday coupon from them so it was a good time to go.  Surprisingly, they were not just swamped...at least not at 10:00 when we went.  Usually there are long lines...I guess everyone was still full from Thanksgiving.  If you live in the Ft Worth area, you can go to the restaurant website http://www.bluemesa.com/  and sign up for their Chilihead Club.  They will send you a coupon on your birthday for a free brunch, and you will get monthly coupons for various items on their menu.  Blue Mesa is our favorite Mexican restaurant!!!  The cuisine is more New Mexico rather than Tex-mex.

Some of my favorite triip pics!

I have more pics to show...and will continue to do so if noone is too bored with looking at them! Just say so if you are! We had such a great time and would highly recommend this trip to anyone that I just want to spread the word as much as I can!


We made a stop in Ketchikan AK on our way to Juneau...a pretty good sized town for those parts. Dick and I decided to pass up the opportunity to shop...mostly tourist traps! and took a hike up this really steep hill in a neighborhood near the docks. There was this really pretty little park. We had learned in one of the ranger talks that we were in the Tongas Rain Forest....very temperate weather during part of the year...and very moist. So this kind of vegatation and moss were very common....very different for us so we found it fascinating!

This is the Kennicott, the second ferry we traveled on...also a very wonderful experience..each ferry we were on had rangers on board who gave little talks about nature, the animal life, the topography of where we were traveling etc. We really enjoyed those and it help make the time just fly especially on those days that were kind of rainy...not many of them though!

Mendenhall Glacier near Juneau AK..we had an over night stay in Juneau while waiting for out second ferry on up to Whittier AK. It was raining the day we were in Juneau...typical weather...they say that the locals get nervous if it doesn't rain for three days!!! This is a fabulous glacier...one of the largest in the world. From this view point we are over a mile away from it...maybe farther!

We had our poker bunch in for a slide show and dinner. tonight..always fun!! And now time for bed....tomorrow I HAVE to work on my quilts for the show...it is getting close!

Living in Birdland!

If you click on this picture to enlarge it, you will see three Painted buntings...one on the window, one on the feeder, and one on the vise below the feeder! These are all male (I had to read up on them) so I am hoping their lady friends are around too, perhaps building the nests! They are so pretty to watch...we are just inundated with birds this spring: cardinals, mockingbirds, sparrows, Eastern Bluebirds, bluejays, doves, barn swallows, purple martins....a few hummingbirds (there will be more at the end of the summer)...and of course, our local pair of road runners who visit us nearly daily. Then we always have a variety of those just passing through....robins, cedar waxwings, meadowlarks. Now if we can figure out a way to get the redwing blackbirds to move on without scaring everyone else away, we will have it made! The blackbirds are such pigs! And they keep the little guys from the feeders!!

I have a pair of mocking birds busily building a nest right outside my studio window in a yaupon tree. I am marking progress, looking forward to the "family's" arrival! Mockingbirds are such good parents! Very devoted to their young!

On the sewing side of things, I am working on my Inner City. I did machine quilt the blocks because I discovered as I was pulling the paper out from the back, I guess I was a little too vigorous and also pulled out some seams!! But I have decided to hand quilt the red border so will post it when finished. And am working on my Series of wheels...this assignment is on using the computer to create a fabric picture which I have done before but not to this extent. Will also post it when further along.

I am finishing Ann Packer's "Song Without Words".... kind of a downer...the last three books I have read have been rather depressing...I am going to the library tomorrow and must find something lighter for a change!!