I've Been Busy...

First, I'd like to thank both Vicki Welsh and Lisa Ellis for sending pictures taken at Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival. wow. I feel like a star! You're both terrific!!! This quilt is on to New Jersey, for their Festival this weekend. I expect it home some time next week.

While my quilts are out and about, I'm doing things like go to Costco. I had my camera with me. Costco has cute birds. :)

Back at the (walnut) ranch, Chupa has been observing a LOT of activity.

Our middle son left this morning at 4am, on a grand adventure. He has relocated from Davis, CA to Little Rock, AR, or at least he's in transit. He should get there by Saturday (his 25th birthday), and starts work at 7am on Monday. yikes! Talk about a tight schedule!

His departure was delayed a bit, as he was unable to find moving crates to his specifications. He made his own. He allowed pictures of his hands, but balked at anything more. That's okay. He has skilled hands.

This is his first crate, made of cedar fencing. He made a total of three. The other two were not quite as large.

While the people worked, the plum tree has not been slacking. There were a few bees, but apparently they were camera shy. At least I figured out how to get a clean, crisp close-up. Now if I can only repeat the process when I shoot my quilts.

The remodel is progressing. Today they finished up the shower floor. I was a bit frustrated to find out that the lovely accent tile that I chose was not ordered until Monday of this week. It should be here on Friday. It's coming from Florida. *sigh* (The door frame will go up tomorrow, after the vanity is installed. They didn't want to ding it when they polished the floor.)

"Polished the floor?" What we did was have the concrete polished, stained and sealed. After all, this is a workroom. I am thrilled with the easy-to clean surface, as well as the way it reflects so much light. This building fairly glows with natural light. I wonder if there will be any space to stash a quilter?

The contractor and his (twin) brother are in the process of installing solar cans. They are much easier to install than skylights, and add a crazy amount of light to the interior. I'm ready to have some of these installed in my house house. It would be nice to turn it from a cave into a home...

And while all this has been going on, I've almost finished a little quilt. I will show it to you after this weekend. I am currently binding it.

And today we juried the quilt show. Oh, you must come! It is going to be wonderful! We will have more than 240 quilt vying for approximately $3000 in premiums. Mark your calendars now, for April 13-15.

This post has been brought to you by the color purple...



Hope it was worth the wait!

Today, It's All About Yellow...

Yellow narcissus,

the first miniature rose of 2012,

abundant primroses,

daffodils,

perky pansies,

and a brand new workroom.

What could be better to brighten a grey day in February? I can't think of a thing...

P.S. Thank you so much for the well-wishes regarding "The Flower Fades." I'm still pinching myself. wow. See me smile!

This Time I Cried

This quilt is currently hanging at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, along with my quilt "Tahitian Tradition: Ti Fai Fai." I will admit that I was hoping for a "Best Handworkmanship" award, and of the two, I thought Tradition was the likely contender.

I pulled up the website this morning, and just now read the winner's list. oh. my.

Best Hand Workmanship: #3032 The Flower Fades by Suzanne Kistler.

I LOVE this quilt. It has a lot of meaning to me, and I've sewn a lot of myself into it. This was its 4th show, and it hasn't shown well. I've continued to enter it, primarily to share its message, not to win.

I feel truly humbled and blessed, and didn't have anyone to tell...

Thanks for listening. :)

Getting To Work

I've given up on trying to get anything accomplished in the Studio. There's just not enough room to streamline, so I've oozed into the living room. This is temporary.

Patches for baby quilts are being pieced and pressed. The remote is there because I watched Hawaii 5-0 last night, and House, while pressing and pinning.

The sewing table is cleared for sewing. I will not show you the entire "studio," as it is a disgusting pigsty of a dumping ground. Okay, so it's not dirty, it's just super dooper messy. It's best to wear waders, if attempting to cross the room.

Just thought I'd show you that I am attempting to work on something...

#901

Can you believe that this is my 901st post? I can't. When I started this blog, it was my intent to focus on quilting, and in particular how it reflects my faith. Funny, isn't it, how life gets in the way?

This morning my palm trees looked like this.

Four hours later, the four trees looked SO much better!

But waiting here with the tree trimmer meant hours before I was able to get over to the walnuts to see what the painter was up to.

Along the way I took this picture.

And this one, of future peaches, hopefully edible.

And this one of my favorite accessory on the barn,

And then I was in the workout room. Well good! They DID put Polar Bear on the ceiling!

We had several discussions about WHITE vs. Swiss Coffee. Swiss Coffee not only sounds brown, it looks brown. I prefer a white ceiling, thankyouverymuch! :) (The hole in the ceiling is for a solar tube, which will function like a skylight, in less space. We're just waiting for them to cut a hole in the roof...)

This is the garage, done entirely in Swiss Coffee. White wasn't necessary in here, as this is for parking, not for playing.

My doors are Polar Bear white. yay!

This is the before, with primer, of the workroom.

This is the after. It's called "Skylark." I like it very much. It will look even better, once the papers are off the windows and the solar tube is installed.

And this is the bathroom. It's supposed to be the same color as the workroom, but apparently the halogen light changes the color. who knows? At least it's blue! :)

Since this area is for working, but not working with color, I wanted it to be something that would be uplifting yet peaceful. I gave the boys their choice of basic color (they chose blue) and then I put two tints on the wall for them to choose. I think they chose well. I think I like it.

Tomorrow...we begin the floors. Stay tuned.

P.S. Quilting? What about quilting?

Today I am piecing baby quilts, as I just found out that a baby was born quiltless on Super Bowl Sunday. How is it that I am ALWAYS behind? Hopefully I'll have pictures of quilting later this week.

P.S.S. Don't forget to send in your entries for Best of the Valley. The postmark deadline is this Friday, 2/24/12.

Rain Today, Sort Of

I'm not sure if it's Farm Show that dictates rain, or rain that dictates Farm Show. All I know is that they go together like peas and carrots. I spent this morning and yesterday morning in this building, quilting.

Here we are, yesterday, working on our opportunity quilt.

Here we are today, again working on the quilt. We do it backwards, quilting from the inside out. I know you usually do that when quilting by hand or home machine, but in a large frame? Usually you quilt from the outside in. But if you're relocating repeatedly, and storing the quilt, it works better for us to quilt from the inside out.

It was gloomy outside. I love this picture.

This one? Not so much. But I like the blimp, flying among the tree toppers. (At least I think that's what they are.)

At the walnuts, we have texture. It needs to dry and be sanded before I can try out my sample paint color. It's cold outside, so it's drying very slowly.

The painter IS out there, caulking the outside. The contractor would like him to paint the interior ASAP, but the wet mud on the walls makes that a bit difficult.

I finished another quilt-for-hire today. The quilting designs don't show up too well here, but they look good in person. I'm not so sure I like my new camera.

This is the back of the quilt. If you click on it, you can see the design much better. I think it is quite balanced and lovely. Let's hope its owner thinks the same.

And that's what I've got for today. Hope you enjoyed the show...

Happy Valentine's Day!

How do you celebrate? Do you celebrate with LOVE?

We celebrate with cow love. My husband has this neverending passion for cows, so he is often on the receiving end of cow-themed trinkets. Our old barfing cow creamer broke, so I found him this replacement. He also loves chocolate covered sunflower seeds.

I put aside my for-hire work (sitting idle in front of me) to make him a valentine.

This is the finished product.

This is the back.

And just in case you think the cow love goes one way, it doesn't. He loves cows, he gets cows, he also gives cows.

And there you go. Happy Valentine's Day!

Enjoying Nature

For the past several weeks, as I've driven out to the walnuts, I've watched these sheep graze their way through the alfalfa fields. This was the first time I've had my camera handy and no traffic, so I pulled over to snap their picture. They've been sheared within the past month. When they first appeared, they were much woollier.

The sheetrock is slowly being mudded. I arrived just as the workers were leaving. Next step: texture. I wonder how many days that will take? This little pocket is in the garage. It's the "mechanic's bay," where the boys will be allowed/encouraged to work on their vehicles. The idea is to contain the process. They are agreeable.

Just outside, the persimmon tree is dropping its fruit. It is a bird magnet. This little guy was kind enough to hold still while I struggled to zoom my camera. My camera has been on the fritz since I dropped it in Tahiti. I've ordered a new one, I can't wait for it to get here!

I'm not sure you can even see this guy. There were several of them, flitting back and forth so quickly that is was literally "now you see them, now you don't." He's in the center of the top 20% of the frame, just to the right of a persimmon. If you click on the picture, it will get bigger, but I still can't guarantee that you can tell what the little guy looks like. ;)

I think this is the same sparrow-like fellow from the first bird photo. Or his friend.

The walnuts are winning. They have the first iris to show petals. At home, my iris are still in the bud-only stage.

#1 Son has been very busy, clearing a place to plant his row crops. His assistant thinks that he's making her a special bed. Note all of the doggy prints back and forth on his nice, neat dirt.

"What?" yep. She's sure this is all for her. She was quite shocked when he bumped her on the behind when she started digging a hole.

And that's all I've got for you today. Hope you enjoyed the show!