Good Morning Maine!

Good morning, Maine! So happy to be here.

Took a morning walk...

Had breakfast...

Took in another beautiful bouquet by Robbin...

 Enjoyed just relaxing...

After last night's rain, so did George.

Roy Reminder: Green

Robbin's Maine garden bouquet

ARE YOU GREEN?
(excerpts from the World English Dictionary)
Noun:
1. any of a group of colors that lie between yellow and blue in the visible spectrum in the wavelength range 575-500 nanometers.
2. a small area of grassland, esp in the center of a village
3. an area of ground used for a purpose: a putting green
4. plural: edible leaves and stems of certain plants eaten as vegetables
5. plural: freshly cut branches of ornamental trees used as decoration.
6. a person, esp a politician, who supports environmental issues
7. slang: money
8. slang: marijuana of low quality

Adjective:
1. of the color green
2. vigorous, not faded
3. envious or jealous
4. immature, unsophisticated or gullible
5. fresh, raw or unripe
6. unhealthily pale in appearance

Jennifer and I will be playing the Searching for Roy G Biv Challenge next Thursday, August 16. Hope you will join us this month. Click here for the rules. As usual, I will be giving away a specially designed piece of my printed fabric in the challenge color...but you have to play to be eligible. Come on...it's fun!

I'm off to Savannah to pick up my folks and head up to Maine for the family reunion...I can smell the sea air...

What is it about quilts?

Detail from Little Trickster

What is it about quilts?

I am not a quilter, though I think I have a quilter's sensibility.

Detail from Blue

Many of the designs that end up on my dolls look a bit like quilting blocks...though some more like quilting blocks gone askew...

Detail from Rammie

Last night, I gave my Playing in the Kitchen talk for Friendship Star Quilters in Gaithersburg, Maryland. What a welcoming group!

After my talk, there was show and tell, where members get to come up and show what they've been working on or share quilts with the group.

Now, I am truly a lover of art quilts. But there is just something about the utilitarian quilt...all that work, patience and love embedded in the fabrics and designs. All that tradition being passed between generations. Quilts for celebrating good times and to give comfort to a sick loved one.

There is just something about that that is very special!

The Storm Before the Calm

Today starts my crazy week.

Tonight is the first lecture, Playing in the Kitchen: Resists from the Kitchen and More.

This morning I ironed some of the larger resist samples for the show and tell after the Power Point.
I have to say...I am a bundle of nerves. That is usually how it goes with me and lectures. I will probably be running to the bathroom to pee several times before I get up in front of the group.

It's very strange... I don't feel this way about giving a workshop. With workshops, I really feel in my element.

Also strange is that I spend hours and hours studying my lecture notes, trying to memorize the perfect turn of phrase to describe a technique and then... I get up and usually wing it! Of course, after spending all those hours...I'm not sure winging it is exactly the right turn of phrase (tee hee).

I have to do this all over again Wednesday morning, followed by a 4-hour workshop.

Then I'll be out the door at 6 AM on Thursday, heading for the airport and down to Savannah to pick up my folks.

With fingers crossed, I will be heading to Maine on Friday....ah...

Butterfly Watcher

Here is the view from my kitchen window.

Rather than a bird feeder, I have a butterfly feeder.
It is a wonderfully overgrown butterfly bush.

It gives me great pleasure to look outside my window and watch all sorts of butterflies and bees feeding on the flowers.
Occasionally, I see bees that mimic hummingbirds in their flight.

Today, there were a number of Swallowtails, which is fitting as it is the official state insect of Virginia. I bet you didn't know that there were official state insects!

I journeyed outside to get a closer look and although, they were a bit skittish, I was able to get a few closeup shots.

I wonder if there is an official title for a butterfly watcher?

What do you desire?

Robbin, my brother's S.O. (which I think is the P.C. way to refer to a girlfriend these days), sent me an email yesterday entitled, Beach Vacation!!!. After the question about pillow preferences (which I must say was the first time I'd ever been asked that question...how thoughtful!), Robbin asked the following question...

Any other requests, needs or desires, while you are here?

I jumped on the desires...

Desire to relax a little
Desire to see the ocean
Desire some nature walks and talks
Desire some good food and good company
Desire some yoga*

Of course right now, I am desiring chocolate, as I revise my Power Point presentation for the Monday and Wednesday lectures on Kitchen Resists.

I am looking forward to my other desires being fulfilled soon.



*Robbin is a yoga teacher

Organizing Chaos

Workshop kits in process

You know that feeling...when you have all the elements, all the bits and pieces out there. They are beginning to get into their appropriate piles but aren't quite there yet. That's how the last couple of days have been.

I am about to jump into a busy week in a busy month. As a 54-year-old, I am making another attempt at mastering multi-tasking. I have my Post-It Note list (what did we do before Post-It Notes?!). I finally got two different workshop handouts completed, a magazine article proposal written and sent and am now in the throes of organizing kits for two workshops. The next job is tackling the update to my Power Point program on Kitchen Resists which I will be presenting to two different quilt groups next week.

I have to admit, that despite the nerves (especially about the lectures), and eating too much chocolate, I am getting things accomplished. I even have the kits for a workshop I am giving later in the month (after I return from Maine) just about together. I am really trying to stay on top of things, as I keep anticipating the inevitable monkey wrench.

Two sets of workshop kits, finally organized.

I love what I do, I love creating painted and printed cloth. I love sharing my knowledge with others. I love writing about what I do. But..there are times when I would just like to have nothing going on or in the works...I have this image of laying out on a sunny beach with the soothing repetitive shooshing sound of the waves on the rocks and sand...Oh Maine...I am SO ready!!!

Kittery Point, Maine