Horse Creek Festival

I am making plans to go down to Davenport, Florida, show some quilts and set and talk awhile on the front porch. The first ever Horse Creek Festival will be November 11 and 12, 2011. I am so excited to go and be a part of their Florida Heritage celebration!

I'll be presenting my trunk show, A Florida Quilt Collage, several times throughout the Festival. I'll also have an exhibit space hopefully full of quilts!

Visit www.horsecreekfestival.org for more information. Looks like we are gonna have one fine time!

Happy Birthday!

I recently celebrated a birthday of a significant number. If I am lucky, it will be my halfway mark. I am hopeful.
I got 2 birthday gifts, both of which are perfect!
A good friend gave me a Keurig one cup coffee maker. I drink one cup in the morning and one cup in the afternoon. Up until receiving this gift, Gerald didn't especially like seeing the coffeemaker sitting there with one cup of coffee all day, waiting for me to microwave it and drink it in the afternoon. It kind of grossed him out. I don't mind drinking warmed over coffee, as long as it hasn't been scorched. Well, now I get to brew a fresh cup in the morning and another in the afternoon. smile. THANK YOU TAMI!!!!
My second gift came as a complete surprise! Out of nowhere, okay out of the mailbox came a package from my friends Rich and Beverly Hilton. It was a Big Sister! No....not a human big sister, silly! A bigger (and better) fussy cut ruler. Go check out their website! http://www.craftybev.com/ Now I can fussy cut even bigger blocks, and center them with my Big Sister, and do all kinds of wonderful things!!!!
THANK YOU BEVERLY!!!!
I am so glad that I have friends that know me so well! Over the past week I have been inundated with well wishes and wonderful lunch dates and lovely little goodies from all my friends. Life is good.

Photo Contest results

I won with this one. Yes, it was Mother's Day when the photo was posted. Did I play on emotions by entering it? Yes. But.
The most important thing anyone has ever said to me or about me concerning my art is that it invokes emotion. I had never thought of it from that perspective before. Until then I was just following my instinct to make pretty things. If it felt "right" then it must be right. I knew, subconsciously, that it invoked my emotion, that's why I was making it. I just hadn't thought it through, that it would affect (or is it effect? I always get those two mixed up.) others' emotions as well.
Since then I haven't changed the way I make quilts, or art in general, except that when I'm done I wonder, "Does this invoke emotions?". I like looking at it from that perspective.

photo contest

Okay, if I haven't said so on this blog, I have a job. Not the jobs I have been doing for years; quilting, sewing, working at the church, taking care of children, parents, hubby and pets. No, it's a paying job. I get a paycheck every couple of weeks, and I have to report to work on a schedule, and follow rules and such. It's not so bad, after the initial shock wore off.
There is a photo contest at work. I have a new camera. The contest is monthly and the winner of the previous month gets to pick the topic of the current month. This month's topic is "Old Tombstones". The winner from last month's "Storm Clouds" has chosen this topic and already posted her challenge. It is a picture of Lester Moore's tombstone in the Boothill Cemetary of Tombstone, AZ. The site is very touristy, many many people take the same exact photo, standing in the same exact place.
I have lost 2 months so far. I would like to eventually submit a photo good enough to win. Here are my photos of some "old tombstones", tell me which ones to submit. I can submit two.

Praying Angel


Little Lamb



Mama


Sunlit



All Lined Up


Little Girl


Question: Do you think taking pics of tombstones is morbid or fascinating or morbidly fascinating?
There is a graveyard in Fernandina that is very old and beautiful to boot, called Bosque Bello. It has some prominent residents, and some very interesting life stories within it's fences. I could take an afternoon to go there and have a photo shoot with dead folks. They don't make sudden movements and they aren't worried about their makeup. These photos were taken in a small cemetary just a half mile away.

Lazy Sunday

After a late breakfast at Barbara Jean's, Gerald and I took a leisurely drive down A1A. We stopped at Kingsley Plantation to stretch our legs.

As we browsed the bookshop, the ranger announced the upcoming house tour. We strolled on over.

We didn't realize how rare house tours were. Apparently, because of structural integrity, only small groups are allowed once a week. Here, the main staircase has had to be braced with posts and beams.

Kingsley Plantation is one of the only sites that slave living spaces have been preserved. Coquina and tabby building methods, brought from Africa were used to construct each 'house'. Slave structures throughout the south were traditionally built with the cheapest materials, so they are long gone. These materials, however, have stood the test of time.

We wondered about their way of life as we peered through one of the many holes in each wall. Were they for circulation? for keeping watch? Were they there when these homes were inhabited? Did they have wood timbers in them? no clue.

When the bugs got too bad and the sun too high, we drove on. A quick ride on the ferry, and on the the beach.

Things springing this Spring

dusk