I'm Not Lost!

I finally have some time to post. Been really busy at work since I got back from the Mancuso quilt show in Manchester. I had a great time. I arrived Thursday around 11:30 and walked around the show and vendors. I really enjoyed the exhibit by SAQA and the one by the European quilters. I ran into Susan and Marilyn there. I was finally able to get into my room about 3:00, so I took everything up and then went to the talk by Carol Taylor. It was a retrospective on her quilting career. It was interesting and I really enjoyed being able to see her quilts up close. I went to take a picture of one and the strap on my camera caught on something and it dropped and broke. I was so upset, but was determined not to let it ruin my time away by myself. That night, I put on my jammies, turned on the tv and worked on my journal quilt.

Friday, I had the class with Carol, it was fun. This is what I have made with some of the pieces from the class. Because it was just a one day class, she showed us different improvisational blocks to make but we didn't have time to put them together. I didn't use all the blocks that I made. Some of the techniques I had done before. I really liked playing with couching yarns down. She also showed us a technique for inserting really skinny lines (less than 1/4") into blocks. I will be trying that in a quilt sometime. It was nice just to be able to go and play with my fabric for a day and not be interupted!!!

Then it was back to the real world, I had to be to work on Saturday at 5:30am. YUK!! I can't wait till after Labor Day when work will slow down some!

My Bags are Packed

No quilt pictures yet, but I do have some of Newfound Lake just down the road from us.

I'm off to the World Quilt and Textile Show in Manchester tomorrow. Tomorow, I will do the show and visit all the vendors. Friday, I'm taking "Improvisational Scrap Quilt" with Carol Taylor. I was supossed to take a class with Rosalie Dace from South Africa instead but she had to cancel her classes. I've heard that she has had some health probelms.

I'm looking forward to my class. I was having a hard time choosing between Rosalie and Carol to begin with but I enjoy taking classes from teachers from other countries - you learn alot about quilting in other places. That's why Rosalie ended up being my first choice. Maybe she'll be here next year.

I found out that there is free internet connection in the rooms so I'm taking Gary's laptop to keep up with my e-mail.

I'm also bringing my journal quilt to work on tomorrow night in the room. I'm really looking forward to having 2 days off on my own with just myself to worry about. I can do what I want when I want!! Be as messy or as neat as I want. No dinner to fix, house to clean, laundry to wash, kids to get after.

Better get some of my stuff loaded in the car tonight.

Back from Cape Cod

I don't have any quilt pictures but I have some pictures from Cape Cod. This is my favorite picture. I think I will eventually use it for a landscape.

I took these pictures after playing on the beach at low tide. It was a very fun day.

I though the marks the water made in the sand was neat. Reminds me of a tree or maybe roots.

This was taken after the tide went out. It's hard to show but there was water still running through this and it looked cool.

The next two pictures show the ripples that the water made in the sand as the tide went out.

Vacation Time

Just a quick post. Tomorrow we leave for Cape Cod. Gary's parents 50th wedding anniversary is this year so everyone os going to Cape Cod this year. Gary has 2 brothers and a sister. They will all be there plus kids. It will be nice. We haven't had a vacation since before we had kids and that was only a long weekend. I have put together a small journaling kit to take with me. I have a small journal, some watercolor pencils, markers, paintstick, a few papers and small pieces of fabric, some tissue paper and a few paint brushes. I have no idea what I will do with these but I'm going to try and do something creative.

I haven't had much time to work on things what with work and Gary's surgery stuff. I have worked some on my journal quilt and I think I now have it worked out and will be able to finish it when I get back. I was really starting to wonder if I would be able to meet the deadline. I really like the way it looks.

Since I can't show you that, I will show some fabric that I painted today (should have been packing!!!) and put ferns on to sun print. This first one is a piece of fabric that was dyed green. I painted over it with blues and a leaf green. I like the lacy look to it. I may add some stenciling or stamping. The colors are brighter than they show in the picture. This piece will make a great background piece.

This piece was a piece I had taken a second print from a monoprint. You can just see some of the leaf shapes from the monoprint. I used ferns that weren't so feathery for this one. I wish I had picked a few more but onece again I will problably stamp or stencil on it.

I liked sunprinting on fabric that was already dyed or painted. Before I had done it on white fabric and the prints of the plants were just too white against the painted background.

Well, I'd better go pack.