Being Green

Several years ago I gave my lifelong best friend Gretchen some big fabric shopping bags to carry her food home from the market. She was green before it was fashionable. When we first met, she and her first husband lived on a farm in Freedom with no running water or electricity. She reduced, reused, and recycled out of necessity. Last time we were together she asked me to make a few bags for her daughter and daughter in law for Christmas. They're big, but not so big as to be too heavy when full of the weeks provisions. Easy, easy, easy to make, and such a good idea. The really hard part for me is REMEMBERING to take mine into the grocery store, (along with my list)!




Life is speeding along in one big creative streak all of a sudden. I spend HOURS, happily, in my studio just making things. I work on the big quilt for a while and as soon as I finish a section I can't wait to start the next. It more than makes up for all the times I thought I'd never have another idea, or the desire to see another piece of fabric. Well, that last part might be a slight exaggeration.

Salamander

Been a little quiet on this blog lately due to this guy and the "big quilt". The challenge was 'salamanders' and this is what I came up with...not sure it looks like a salamander or a fish with legs, which now that I look at the picture (the legs) need to be highlighted with something dark to show up more.

Motherly Dedication

These guys are getting a little too big to be so clingy, I think. I went into the barn the other night to put the chickens to bed, and they were not to be found until I looked up and there they all were, on a crossbeam. Made me laugh. This will definitely be a piece of wall art someday.

I am working on the big one, but lost a day yesterday. Sometimes the stars don't line up right, or the atmosphere is too thick, which is what my head felt like. I was under the weather (where did that come from anyway?) and so I didn't get much accomplished. I'm optimistic for today and have a long list starting with my 7:30 dentist appt. Guess I'd better get movin'.

The Bubbles Finished and one more:

I should have taken this picture a little closer so you could see the machine quilting which completely covers the surface, but then you wouldn't have been able to see the button bubbles of which I need to add just a few more here and there. I've started working on the second horizontal section of 4 and pieced 3 more scenes. Sewed the frames on and realized I didn't piece in the little 1/4" bright color which I think looks like a mat within a mat. Ripped them out and vowed to pay closer attention.

This is Mbingo, on the southwest? side of Africa. Cameroon. The family that has commissioned this quilt spent 6 months working and living in the hospital and community. Mbingo is the name of the huge green mountain behind the very distinctive red roofed hospital, and for those faithful readers who may have caught the post on Churchill and his birthday cake, this is where he comes from. I'm finding that as I create these pieces I have GREAT ideas about where I'd like to do the quilting or add a little embroidery, but as I sit down to actually do it, my mind is faced with the proverbial BLANK SHEET OF WHITE PAPER and what if I do it wrong or worse yet, what if I start it and it looks terrible! This is where I take that leap of faith and know that anything can be creatively covered up if it's that bad.

Look like a basket on her head? Or badly placed hair.

Name this Photo

Any clever ideas? A beautiful inspiration....