What a ride!!!

Did you think I'd dropped off the planet? Actually - I feel like I've been traversing half the planet. I know we drove half our lovely country! from North Carolina to Washington state. And loved every minute of it!

I've learned a number of things. One is that I still love Chicago! I love tall buildings both from way down on the ground and from waaay up in the sky!

I adore wide open skies and twisting mountain roads! I truly miss watching thunderstorms move across the sky.

I thought the ten days of car travel with three teenagers was easier than one day of air travel with two toddlers. Especially after discovering that those toddlers get carsick on those twisting, winding, mountain roads!

And - for some reason I didn't think I'd ever in my life have the opportunity to see a mountain meadow full of wildflowers again. Why, I don't know. It made me cry for the beauty of it. 

The beautiful mountain passes were tempered by seeing half of the trees dead. One of my loved ones believes it is the environmentalists fault - that they have restricted the spraying of insecticides that would save the forests. (He didn't explain how they survived before the spraying started.) I've read articles saying that the subtle shift in temperatures is allowing the beetle larva to survive and thrive. Sigh. What have we done to ourselves? We did get to see the beginning of a few western wind farms. We need MORE technology and innovations like that to rid ourselves of fossil fuels. This said of course, as I drove and drove and drove and consumed many gallons of fossil fuel myself. Sigh.

Bigger sigh - on now to six weeks of nothing but heads-down studio time to make the artwork deadline for my book.

cheers!

Blue Ridge Quilt Festival

Hello Friends - it's been an amazingly crazy month. June just flew by. I spent a week getting ready for the Blue Ridge Quilt Festival and had an amazing time there. Wonderful classes and students! 

Four fabulous days. Fabulous hosts. Here is the view from driving down from their lovely home.

I kept running down during lunch and after class and playing with the Handi-Quilter 16. The sit down model. I must have spent several hours playing. I quilted through a lot of their sample sandwiches, bought the nastiest, most difficult metallic thread I could find, went a thousand miles an hour, went slow, fell in love.  

Guess what baby is going to show up at my house!?! They could have had it delivered to me in a week but I'm on the road - more on that in a couple of days. It will be delivered a couple of days after I'm back home from our current trip. I would have had it delivered sooner but it will take a couple of days to clear out a spot for it.

Surface Design Sampler Platter

In Charlotte this time. What a great bunch of ladies! It was HOT, HOT, HOT - even with the air conditioning but they stuck with it and made some fun stuff. Mostly we played!

Saying Goodbye to my Cozy Spot

Sigh. It's hard to say goodbye. Sometimes. Not this time. I haven't blogged much as you would be bored to tears seeing a picture of the same thing every day. I've been spending all of my time writing, and writing, and writing, and writing. 

(picture here - tomorrow after my final edit)

Thank heavens for the best group of friends in the world who have been willing to watch my children so I could write, and write, and write, and write. I drop them (and a check) off for the morning then head to the library and my favorite corner. Glass wall, couch, table, plug. No telephone, TV, housework, kitchen full of food, or other distractions that keep me from writing at home. I'm terrible with the self-discipline thing so I really did need to head out to get the writing for this book done. And... (drum roll please...) IT'S DONE!!!!!

Now on to the fun part. Making the art. Have to unbury the studio again first.

Eeeek!

The old, ancient, rusty, barely holding it together, program that I use for my website is broken. Fortunately the website is OK, I just can't update the site and haven't figured out what, oh what shall I ever do yet. Wasn't planning to take the time to build a new site yet. I had intended to learn dreamweaver next year as I really don't have time before then.

My new Mac baby wonderful best friend of a laptop has i-Web which I could learn in about two seconds but am not sure if it is robust enough for my website. Probably. If the old NetObjects - forever ago version could do it I suppose this wouldn't be a problem. Anyone have several hundred extra hours they could loan me this month? I'm hearing my book deadline rushing towards me like a freight train!

The Runway

Thought I'd share what fun we had in Virginia during my wearable art lecture. I haven't had models for the works before and believe me, what a difference. Clothes are meant to be worn and to move. 

It was a thrill to see each lovely lady come out with a great big smile, swishing and swirling. 

"Spice It Up" looked so wonderful on Annette Kennedy that it decided to take a vacation at her place for a while. She is a featured artist at a local gallery's opening reception so "Spice" decided to get out and party instead of sitting lonely in my closet. It's come back soon.

(gotta run... I had three other pictures loaded but for some quirky reason they are sideways. I'll fix em later.)

Surface Design Sampler Platter

Thought I'd share the fun we had a couple of weeks ago. All that dyed fabric had to go somewhere! Some of it got chopped up into kits for a very fun, very frenetic, very crazy class called Surface Design Sampler Platter. It's a class with a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Stamp carving, stencil cutting, screen printing, foiling, beading. Mostly we have a really lovely time playing like five year olds and getting our fingers all messy.

Here is Elizabeth Gibson after some serious stenciling.

Maren Lindberg came up with something absolutely beautiful.

Ellen Goodloe kept having these wonderful little fits of ecstasy during the beading process. I think I want to hire her to just come to each of my classes and be that happy!

Joan Clemmons was concentrating like crazy during class then all of the sudden the last half hour - kaboom! She went a little crazy and started printing and foiling everything she could get her hands on. Even the background fabric that usually goes on the inside of the sketchbook.

Kim Beatley worked after class and was kind enough to bring her completed sketchbook cover the next morning.  Absolutely gorgeous!

Altogether a very fun class. I leave exhausted but inspired every time. This is why I teach. I love to see people's face light up when they find something they love!