Monday--Memorial Day

When I got home from work Friday, these were waiting for me in the mailbox:

Some garden photos, day lilies and hydrangeas. The hydrangeas are my favorite color, periwinkle, and I especially love the contrast with the orange.

Another hydrangea, plus a verbena bon..something. It was one small plant two years ago, but has reseeded EVERYWHERE. The bees & butterflies just love it, so it can spread wherever it wants to.

Friday is my class day at the Charlotte Quilter's Symposium--I'm taking a class with Carol Taylor that I signed up for in January. I dyed a bunch of fabric Saturday, then washed and ironed it yesterday in preparation. I've only taken one quilting workshop before, so this will be a kind of new experience for me. The Symposium is a statewide thing, held in a different location in the state each year--Charlotte is less than 60 miles from my house, so it won't be too hard to get there!

http://www.charlottequiltsymposium.org/workshops.html

No Focus?

Do you know what I like about blogging? Here I was thinking that my projects as of late were lacking focus--but when I see everything here, it's a graphic representation that circles have been my focus!

I tend to make a lot of things on weekends, but then feel too "blah" after work every night to really get into finishing things. I'm so much of a morning person, usually by 2:00 in the afternoon I'm already slowing down.... I printed and painted most of the day last Sunday.

Some stamped fabric, I want to dye it but haven't decided on the background color yet:

More circles, fused onto interfacing, then zig-zagged to finish off the seams and outside.

I'll probably make some type of wall hanging with them.

Then, here are some leaf prints I made with a lino stamp that I carved a few years ago, then painted the background w/setacolor paints:

This one has an unpainted background still. Maybe I'll dye it?

Last one, a print made from another lino carving from a while back, and painted with setacolor paints.

Finally finished something!

I started this small quilt back in March, got it all done except for the binding, then it sat there waiting ever so patiently for me. It's finally done, and shipped to my sister for her daughter's shower coming up in June. I like the back side as much as I like the front!

I also made two matching pillows, but forgot to take pictures of them as I was so focused on getting them all packed up and shipped out.

Needlework extravaganza

Headed to Albemarle, NC, Saturday to attend a quilting vendor show at the Stanly County fairgrounds. It was a beautiful day, a peaceful drive about 40 minutes from my house, in a very rural area that has definitely seen better days. I didn't take any pictures inside, as it was kind of crowded, but I got some nice pieces of batik fabric, and enjoyed the morning.

I've been working (off an on) on this wholecloth piece that I batiked last month. I'm almost finished with it, here's some pictures of it from a few weeks ago. The thread is YLI Soft Touch that I bought at a quilt show a couple of weeks ago, I really like how it sews. The thread is purple, periwinkle, and blues, not green (the green is a chalk pen I used to draw lines initially when I was trying to "plan" my quilting design).

And, finally, I have to mention the drought conditions here in NC. All weekend, Tennessee, an adjoining state, had rain, rain, and more rain. In contrast, we haven't had any major rain for at least a month, and things are dry, hot, and dusty. My flowers were doing very well until this past weekend, when it was in the mid-90s and no rain, and low humidity--the news people on TV called it a "Flash Drought". Yesterday we had a very minor rainstorm, which ended up being only about 1/4". Not enough to even make a difference. This is the hardest thing I've dealt with since moving to NC five years ago--I never wanted to live in a desert, but feel like NC is becoming one after 4 years of very dry weather.