sooner or later

We had brunch this morning with my daughter and the grandkids at a new place in Richmond and it was pretty good. We went early and the kids ate well and behaved nicely. Almost no food landed on the floor.

There was a really interesting old building out back. Looks like a journal quilt about to happen.


And what are these? They were in the yard behind the restaurant.

My daughter is in a sewing phase and I off loaded a lot of stuff, thread, zippers, interfacing, fabrics and doodahs so she can keep going without spending any money on supplies. Her new year’s resolution. My stuff is already paid for and gathering dust. She may as well use it and possibly sell the products at the sale in a couple of months.

Typing that just gave me heartburn… what am I going to be selling? Only a couple of months away! Aaaak. Too busy focusing on the day-to-day finishing of little projects, I haven’t thought about my own handwoven items for the sale.

I had lunch with Livia from North Texas on Friday. She was in town with her grandkids and we met up at Joe’s Crab Shack. She brought me the next round robin book (it's about Time, no she wasn't late bringing it... it's about TIME!) and we chatted about all kinds of things. She gave me sage advice and a few tidbits of information about how most people gain 40 pounds while on a cruise. Delightful. Doom and gloom setting in - must not let this happen to me. I am mesmerized by food. I think I gained weight when I went to see Like Water for Chocolate. I know I felt full when I left the theater after Waitress and actually burped after we saw Ratatouille. I should maybe plan to take a suitcase full of crafts supplies and just hide out on our balcony with an ipod and a camera. Eat only what the grill king brings back hidden in his beard.

By the way, you missed some great steaks on Saturday night. The grill king leaves mine without any spicy rub and I really like them with just the amount that rubs off when he stacks them on the plate to bring to the table. The perfect amount of salt and seasoning.

We really need a high chair at our house. The tiny tank was desperately unhappy with any arrangement we tried for feeding him. Didn’t want to sit on anyone’s lap, didn’t want to be in the playpen right beside the table. He is really independent and wants to feed himself. And he wants to be part of the action – at the table, reaching for everything within two feet of him.

This great tutorial should get much of the credit for my finished April journal quilt. I'm really pleased with the binding technique and it would have been harder to learn without a video cast or a demo in a workshop. I do okay learning from books and diagrams, but believe me a demo is dynamite for getting to the finish line fast.

This is the reverse. I used cotton flannel as the filling for the quilt sandwich and that was a mistake. Don't do this again. The white flannel bits followed the needle out the back and showed up as specks on the dark fabric. I thought at first it was because I used metallic thread on top, but no it did the same with regular thread. I covered up the white flecks by sketching along the quilting lines with a metallic marking pen (archival, blah, blah, blah) and so it appears like I intended to do that not that I was covering up a huge mistake. I do like the back a lot now.



These photographs from the Houston International Festival in April were my inspiration. The theme for 2007 Festival was of course China and there were a lot of great exhibits and shows. These are replicas of the Chinese soldier statues found in a tomb. We had a great time that day. Almost stayed too long.

Now this was fun and easy this morning! A call went out on the quilting groups for blocks to cheer up Joshua who was in a bicycle accident. His mom has to assemble and quilt them. Not sure how that works with her sitting bedside and driving back and forth to the hospital. But hopefully he'll be home soon. The description was to chose fabric a teen-aged boy would like. I don't know Joshua but I don't know any teen-aged boys who aren't hardwired for music.

This was kind of a kick for me because I had just picked up the music notation fabric in the remnants bin at my local Hobby Lobby - and it was just sitting on my machine table. I have been sorting and organizing my fabric into bins and boxes. So I was able to open a box and peruse the contents easily because they are stacked so I can see the edge of every neatly folded piece of fabric - not just the one on top! Whipped this block out in just a few minutes. Yay, it's already on its way to Maine.

Souvenir from the New Mexico trip a few years ago. Carved in Peru from cactus wood, this frog is playing a horn and usually hangs jauntily from the light in my frog facility but it was hard to get a good photo of him from that angle.

Blackberry Lilies



These are wonderful flowers. Only need a little help standing upright when it rains so much. Each day one or two blossoms open and then when they are done, they twist themselves tightly closed as you can see in the close up.

Afterward, the seed pod that grows looks exactly like a blackberry only not juicy and tasty. The birds ignore them and I haven't noticed any volunteers so I'm not sure what is happening to the seeds. Perhaps this year I should try to collect some and watch their progress closely.

I emptied another bobbin on the swatch swap warp tonight and filled another to be ready for the next weaving urge that hits.

I am a bit bothered by people who wait till the last minute and change their idea around and then wonder why they can't possibly finish a nice project in that fashion. A group project started months ago and simple enough but now some can't remember just what it was they were supposed to do and others say they simply forgot they had the item in their possession for five days and did nothing with it. Three reminders and three answers of, oh yeah, I'll bring that in to you. Hmm.

I don't really care if they look the fool next week. I don't plan to swoop in and save the day. I've completed my contribution. Let the rest of the pages be blank. Perhaps we can call it a "do-it-yourself" birthday gift?

It's hot. It's July. The a/c is not working in my office at work. Everyone else is freezing; I have two fans pulling cool air to my end of the hall. And yes, I did have some cheese with that whine. And crackers.

I think my brain is suffering from the heat. I can't get into a rhythm on this blogging thing lately. I mean do you really want to hear what I had for lunch? Don't answer that.

The best thing I did lately was a dress for a paper doll as the sign in for a round robin on Girly Girls.



Then this is for an altered canvas round robin that is just beginning in a couple of weeks. I have had to hide it from myself until the mail date because I would really like to just glue things on it myself. I really need to do more collage. Either that or mosaics. Or maybe paper mosaic collages.

Or maybe go weave on the samples that are due in a month.

Pouring down rain this morning early. I went out just before it started and soaped down the car and scrubbed so the rain could wash it clean. Now if a good wind storm would come through, I would leave the doors open and it would blow the carpets clean for me.

Pulled a few weeds and tidied up the garden. These are in a pot by the front sidewalk, third year they have bloomed.



Then a bit of time on the computer. I spent last evening starting a new project. Beading with the turquoise and copper paper beads I made. Not thrilled yet with the plan. Still working that out.

We had agreed to baby sit so we also had to vacuum and baby-fy the room. If we curtail his traveling pattern and provide lots of toys he is easy to control. Responds well to NO! Says NO! back to us and folds his hands over his chest and looks gilelessly as though he wasn't really at fault. It was just his wayward hands.

The rest of them went to see Harry Potter's latest movie and then the grill king fired up the grill. I was better organized today for some reason, all the side dishes and condiments got on the table and we even had dessert arranged. M ate plenty of enough things so she could have some. It didn't rain much on the grill while he was cooking. But we had some fabulous thunderhead clouds to watch.

I even got some weaving done during a short period when I let Grandpa handle the little guy. I am feeling very confident that I will be done with the swatch swap on time this year.

The little tank didn't take a nap all day and, for the more than two hours he was with us, was on his feet and moving the whole time. He did enjoy tossing all the magazines out of the basket one at a time. No damage, just made for a slippery floor for him after that. So we had to call a halt to that fun. He has gotten more than his fair share of bruises.

Now that they're gone and the dishes are cleaned up, I think I am going to hit the sack early tonight.

My daughter and I took the day off together. Lunch out - just the two of us, then off to the crafts museum to see the basket exhibit at the Houston Center for Contemporary Crafts.

There was quite a crowd of folks there to hear a talk by the gentleman who made the custom pool cues. But the big draw for us was a showing of a private collection of contemporary baskets including some names of people I have admired for years. How wonderful to have been able to collect these over the years and enjoy them and then to show them. A couple of the baskets could have used a bit of housekeeping, a bit of dust here, a few strings untied there which were not meant to be untied. And for this show, there was a lot of variety in shape, materials, theme, style, and techniqes.

We bought the complete catalog and the photos are wonderful - much better than we would have been able to take given the gallery lighting IF we had even been allowed to take photos. So many techniques I'd like to try, so many bits of inspiration, such a variety of media, shapes, sizes, colors.

Brilliant way to spend the afternoon. I'd like to do something creative right now, but I must clear away the dust from my own art collection (the TV, the kitchen counter, etc.) as we are having company tomorrow for dinner and the tiny tank is staying for a few hours with grandpa and grandma while mom and dad and M go to see the latest Harry Potter movie. We saw it last night, so we graciously offered to baby sit. Those points are really adding up.

This is my spread in a vintage girly girls book. I tried to make it girly but my daughter and I agree it is not exactly in the same style as the rest of the book. She thinks it's because I used torn edges and did not use stock images. I don't do stock images. I tried to use some and they just didn't look good to me. Started this spread over twice. It's pretty textured because of all the stuff I painted over. I like it now, it's my style, that will have to do.

A porcelain frog with a fabulous glaze by a local potter - Lebeth Lammers. A gift from my sister on my birthday last year.