I am sorry that there has been some trouble seeing new postings. I have switched to the updated blogger (same address) and hope that everything starts to show up.

The American Chesapeake Club National Speciality will be in Colorado Springs, Colorado in September 2007. I have committed myself to making at least two wall quilts as fundraisers for the event. I have started making 14" square blocks for this purpose but would love feedback from people. I think the wall quilts will have either four, five or six blocks in them. So, please look these over and let me know how they are coming.

Quilting the Dog Been printing of chesapeake bay retrievers so I can develop several quilt panels to show people my ideas. I am always amazed when I get in that mode where the ideas are running over each other and I can barely keep up by taking short notes of my ideas - I am not sure why that does not happen more but early Sunday mornings are the best time for it. Thinking of that, it was also the best time to write papers for me, guess my mind is clear then. Found a picture of me and my chessie Ceil running agility. Always loved this picture and wanted to share it.

Had our first snow fall and my chesapeake bay retrievers really enjoyed it. Time to show some of my latest pieces. This piece is based on the ceramic work by Clark Sorenson. He does various flowers as urinals. I did this one since my co-workers wanted to see it and one wanted to remember her home in Hawaii. I love the idea of it and think it came out well. I also worked on a chessie piece - need to do a number of them for the Chesapeake National Speciality that will be in Colorado Springs next spring. This one has a few problems so I am going to do another one to fix the problems - mostly I need more contrast.

Still have not taken the pictures I want to post but had a wonderful time at the Chesapeake Bay Retriever National Speciality in Wilmington Ohio. A rather odd place to go for a dog show but it was a sweet little town and turned out to be the hub of DHL Delivery so it was pretty well off. As always, the dog show had it ups and down and but it grand to see friends from across the country and to see the best chessies around. The house is still dirty but I have gotten back to my sewing machine - could not believe how much I missed it. Life is good.

Can not believe so much time has past without posting. I have been working but been sending much too much energy at the paying job and not enough at the quilting work. I have finished my father's piece up and shown it at my color theory class - silence again which I will accept in the positive sense. Went to the opening of the "Orange you Glad" exhibit at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum. It is very strange and very uncomfortable to see my work in public and to see people commenting on it. I even had to give a few minute talk about what I was thinking when I made it. Sitting next to a woman who had lost her adult daughter this year did not make it easy to talk about my grief for my dog. I have also been a docent there and gave tours through the exhibit - I found that I normally did not tell people that I had done the piece. I do not like to put people on the spot, probably the same urge that makes me want to give or leave people wrapped presents so they can open them when I am not around. Privacy is very important to me. I have been doing some quilting work and finished my color theory class. I will be posting the pieces and talking about them.

I have had several requests to see the quilt that was accepted. I am sorry, I had not even thought to post it because I had done that sometime ago (I have no idea what post. So, I will repost it. In addition, I have gotten my father's piece up to the binding stage. Very proud of my first portrait quilt and I know that I would never have gotten there without the quilt university class by Marilyn Belford. Got to show that one too. And just want an old college roommate and best friend to know that I always think of her.

Came home to find a letter from the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, Colorado accepting my piece for an exhibit they are having (Orange you Glad) from August through October. This is a first for me - accepted into an exhibit - I am even going to show you the letter!!!! WHEEE

Still working on the portrait of my father. It has been a surprising hard process and I am not sure why. While I have never done a human face, I have done lots of dog portraits. I think the emotional component has to be getting in the way. The original had him in a coat, white shirt and tie. I always think of him in his blue-grey shirts so I put him in one. I think it looks like pajamas but that seems appropriate as well. Anyhow, I have now fused it and it is ready for thread painting. This is the in-process work.

So it is the 4th of July. Always interested me that we reverse the day and month for this one - more military. Anyhow other than having more stitches put in my young dog Echo (when will she learn when it is time to stop annoying her grandmother Aspen), I have been working on my fathers portrait. I had a very hard time starting, my reluctance stopped me for days. I finally started on Sunday and decided it did not matter where it went, it just had to go somewhere. My first effort has him looking like he had his picture taken from jail after being a terrorist. Happily, the instructor has given me some advice and I can start to fix it up. Attaching the picture just so you can see. Also got back the brown "stack the deck" quilt from the machine quilter Karen Neimi. She added aspen leafs and it looks lovely. She would like me to finish the binding before mid-August so she can enter it in a show. I think that would be pretty neat.

So it is the 4th of July. Always interested me that we reverse the day and month for this one - more military. Anyhow other than having more stitches put in my young dog Echo (when will she learn when it is time to stop annoying her grandmother Aspen), I have been working on my fathers portrait. I had a very hard time starting, my reluctance stopped me for days. I finally started on Sunday and decided it did not matter where it went, it just had to go somewhere. My first effort has him looking like he had his picture taken from jail after being a terrorist. Happily, the instructor has given me some advice and I can start to fix it up. Attaching the picture just so you can see. Also got back the brown "stack the deck" quilt from the machine quilter Karen Neimi. She added aspen leafs and it looks lovely. She would like me to finish the binding before mid-August so she can enter it in a show. I think that would be pretty neat.

Home from work and wondering about how I manage my life with a full time job, lots of dog training, quilting and friends. I chose not to work for over two years and felt like my life was full. Now, I feel like it is also full but I do not feel like I am rushing around. I have cut down on fabric petting time - just work on various projects. I did complete my color theory class project. The month of June was about creating either a "warm" piece or a "cool" piece. I decided I would use yellow (definitely) 'warm' and practice my fabric fusing. I used a gray mottled background and really felt that cooled the picture down. So, I used the same elements - red dot, curves and a second circle, and created the same type of piece all in yellow. Did not like the two pieces until I started quilting them but I have become attached to them. I think they represent some major elements in my life and I did not even know that was what I was doing.

I tend to accumulate fabrics. Two weekends ago I was not feeling inspired so I decided I would just play with my brown fabrics and use some of them up. I did a basic stack and wack and had a lot of fun. The top is going off to be quilted by Karen Niemi today. Just wanted to show this because this was fun and crafty.

Father's Day. Not a day that I have celebrated since my father died a long time ago (I was in my mid-20's). At that time I was not getting along with my parents so I had no idea that he was damaged from earlier chemo. Since then, over the years he has come and visited me and we resolved many of our issues. I just started a Quilt University class called realistic portraits and I decided to do his picture. I was leaning to a picture of him when he was thin and sick. Last night while I slept, I realized that he would have wanted a picture when he was healthy, had a mustache and was in a blue shirt. I found a picture to use and all I have to do is change the shirt and let his pale blue eyes shine.

I have definitely confused myself. Two years ago I went to another quilt guilds show and was blown away by the quilts there. They put the show on every two years and so I went to their next show last Saturday. I know the quality of work was the same, but all I could see is that the vast majority used patterns and then used a machine quilter. I did not see the originiality that I was expecting but saw basic color combinations (i.e. blue and yellow) and set patterns. There were a few wonderful pieces but they were the exception. This really bothers me because I have to have been the one to change and I do not know what the change means.