And I'm not (purposefully) describing my posterior, either! You know it's been a long time when you have to 'sign in' to blogger before you can post. Aye yi yi!
July is flying by and I've been so happily busy! Life is, for the very most part, good great! Since the last time I posted was July 8, there's just no way to do a single post that covers *everything* (even if I just limited it to the quilting part of my world), so perhaps I'll do a series of posts this week. LOL! Listen to me! ;)
I'll start back on the 11th of the month . . . I visited a local guild -- the Madison Station Quilters -- who had Kathy Shaw from Shawkl Designs as their guest speaker. Kathy was my mentor through the crazy quilting course I took through StitchMAP, as well as the author of the curriculum. Which means she's GOOD! So when I heard she would be in town, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to see her in person!
Would you believe, I neglected to get a picture of her and I? Or of her?!? Where was my head??! I did manage to get some pictures of her extraordinary work:
I was totally captivated by her 'tea' themed block, can you tell?! Not surprisingly, because that's the block *I* want to do next for my own!
This stunningly embellished Elizabethan lady of royalty took over 400 hours to complete. Just the lady herself. WOW!
And she had loads of beautiful blocks that she's received in swaps, too.
She commented at one point that she'd swapped out some of her best work! LOL!
I made a few purchases, too (I mean c'mon -- we want to support our speakers, right?!?):
I already had her book, but I picked up the sketch book and the monogram pattern set. I brought her book with me so she could sign it!
And the sketch book is really a simple but genius idea ... it's filled with graph lines to just sketch out ideas -- embellishments, seam treatments, block layout, whatever!
Having done that with my first cq block, I know what a help it is to do that!
As I left the meeting, I had a fun, totally random surprise.
I know, I know ... you say, "A bench? C'mon, Denise, you need to get out more!" But I happened to have designed that bench with the "M" for Madison City monogram (when I worked in the ornamental iron business)! I'd forgotten all about the fact that there were thirteen of them at Madison's City Hall (which is where the guild meets)!
I do have things blooming on my design wall . . .
This is an adaptation of a quilt pattern (Laura) that's up on Michelle's Romantic Tangle. She's done an armful of different baby quilt patterns this year and I fell in love with Laura! Yes, I made mine smaller. It's what I do.
And things are blooming on the outside, too! Isn't this Tiger Lilly pretty?
It's the first time I've seen this plant up at our site (and we've been here three years); I guess I finally got enough of the weeds cleared away for it to have some breathing room!
And flowers aren't all that are blooming . . .
Sweet little baby! Just snoozing away, not ten feet off the walking path. Isn't he precious?!
And on that happy note, I'm outta here for now!
:)
