Keeping busy

The Yulee Tuesday sewing group is working on a quilt to raffle to benefit the Youth Group's camp funds. Here is a preview. There are over 20 members in the group, less than half are members of the church where we meet. On Easter Sunday, 3 of the sewing group will join the church membership! I like our church. Everyone there is welcoming and friendly. Lots of good people there.

I have been trying my hand at watercolor lately. This is one area I feel I need a teacher. I have read books and studied techniques, but I'm just not getting it. I feel like there is something huge missing.

Whirlwind Tour

Well, I can't stop now! I've been all over Florida (and Georgia) in less than 6 days and have lots to share. After the Panhandle I came home, dumped everything in the living room floor, got a good night's sleep and took off for St. Simon's Island, GA. It is a beautiful place, but then so is every place I've been this week! They have a nice lighthouse. I visited the Golden Isles fiber arts guild. I like the way they have their guild structured. It has 8 disciplines, not sure I can remember them all. I'll try. 1.quilting 2.surface design 3.weaving 4.spinning 5.wearables 6.applique 7. beading 8.?


I'm not sure I have those right and I can't find a link on the net to help me. Anyway, the atmosphere was relaxed and void of any tension, enjoyable evening. Nice ladies.


Home again to unpack and repack. This time down to the Quilters of Alachua County Day Guild for a program and workshop. This time, for the first time, my sister is going to accompany me. She doesn't sew or quilt. I think she enjoyed the program and helping (in technical ways, like tape and extension cords) for the workshop. Then we drove the long way to one of my favorite spots in the world. Okay, I haven't seen much of the world, but it's still my favorite spot. The Lake.
A little fish camp my Papa bought in the late 50's. Not much has changed there, and that is a very good thing. Here's Oscar the hungry heron, waiting on me to catch his lunch! Good luck buddy!


Here's Lee, having commandeered the neighbor's boat after trying unsuccesfully to start both of ours. A Quick trip through Blue Creek takes a while. The pace just naturally slows down when you pass through the channel gate. Fishing must be good today, lots of boats and people. Almost the first wildlife we run into is this monstrous gator. We decided after hangin' out with it a while, it must be a she. She has attitude. No matter how close we came, she just sat there, claiming her log. We took dozens of photos and video with the bow only 7 or 8 feet away. Still she sat. Finally, Lee just couldn't stand it and had to splash her with a paddle. She splashed back with her tail. Here are just a couple of the hundreds of turtles out sunning on logs. The smallest were about 3 inches and the largest was close to 12! I love to see the ones with algea growing on their backs and the ones with bright red or yellow markings. I could drift down the creek all day. Lee drives too fast! We saw many baby gators who still had their stripes and quite a few more medium gators. You can tell it's almost mating season, they are holding their ground longer than usual when we approach. We saw 2 other mongo sized ones other than the first picture.

Back out into the St. Johns.

Here comes a nice boat.
Off the Lake and into the river.
They wave, must've had luck on the lake. Nap time at the Lake. Sandwich and a beer at the local diner that changes names every time we come. It's bike week in Daytona 30 miles away, so we see mlc (mid-life crisis's) on their Harleys and Hondas. No young good-lookin' ones though.

Mosey on home in the late afternoon.

Another shot of the gorgeous Mornings that I spent at Camp Timpoochee. Okay, I'll admit, it was hard for Timpoochee to come rolling out of my mouth with out me thinking things like Hootchee-cootchee on the Withlacoochee in Chatahoochee. Or at the very least, Coochee-coochee-coo-coo. BUT~after I saw several ladies say it with pride and not even a little grin, I realized it was a common name there and was used without prejudice. I'll try harder.
Here's a link to my new friend Doretha (like Aretha with a Duh) who is an amazing lady. She, along with lots of others, put the quilt retreat together.
http://www.drmeowbeads.com/

and here's a link to a magazine article about her that is wonderful.

http://www.emeraldcoastmagazine.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=305&Itemid=91

She and all her friends were very cool. Here's another friend, Holly, who is a yarn artist (my words, not hers). She starts with raw materials and ends up with colors and textures of yarns that are all new to me and something I would like to explore more. How 'bout you?

http://hollyeqq.livejournal.com/

Sunrise at Camp Timpoochee is a bee-U-tee-full thang! But then, so was just about everything at Camp Timpoochee quilt retreat, hosted by the Flying Needles Quilt Guild in Niceville, Florida. http://www.flyingneedlesquiltguild.org/

I had the priviledge of being the guest teacher for this year's retreat. I worked hard, but was treated like royalty from the time I arrived to the time I left.
I thought I'd be roughin' it with my friend/teacher's aid, Dottie, in a cabin. We brought all sorts of things we didn't need. Here is our cottage...

Then it got better! The retreat organizers stocked the cottage with goodies, made our beds with wonderful handmade quilts and decorated with fresh flowers!

Dottie is obviously happy with this set up, as am I! I met lots of new friends and hopefully inpsired some quilters. I didn't take lots of pictures of class time because I was so BUSY! Not until color theory class, where I get to stop teaching so much and become a cheerleader. I grabbed my camera and started snapping the improv quilts while they were creating them.

That last one started out as a pic of crop circles, evolved into olives with the color choice and finally became a retro beetle, complete with polka dot eyes.

There is no way, in just one post, I can tell of all the fun we had at Camp Timpoochee. Plus I'm late for church now! talk more later.

Emerging artist

I am applying for a grant from a foundation that helps emerging artists to grow. A friend called and said she heard about this foundation and all she could think about was calling me. I had to provide pictures of work samples, including works in progress. This is my work in progress right now. It's a painting on muslin that will be a quilt as soon as I quilt it.

I put together the entire grant application in less than a week, as the deadline is very near and I'm leaving town on Wednesday. It will be in the mail Monday. If awarded a grant I will be able to finally take art classes! I have so wanted to learn the 'right' way to do things for so long! I may not actually do it the right way, but at least I'll know what I've been missing all this time. I just know this would help me develop as an artist.

I learned during the past week the value of having great friends. I sent out a group email to several people to ask for a reference letter. I only needed one or two, so that would allow most of them to pass if they were too busy. I got 2 excellent letters of reference. What was so great was most of them replied and gave me encouragement and edification. I went back to those emails several times as I got bogged down and discouraged. I even used some of their words in my resume and proposal statement. Even when they were professing not being able to help, they were helping more than ever! I thank God daily for being surrounded by beautiful friends.

Squares, circles or leaves?

Which do you like? I'll be teaching a color theory class next week. Shapes don't have anything to do with color theory, but they do have something to do with design. After we cover as much color theory as we can stand, everyone will make a small fused quilt interpreting a picture in fabric. My color theory involves being aware of colors, (and shapes) that are pleasing to you, with lots of suggestions on where to look for the color scheme of your next quilt. I came up with this fun class idea about 3 years ago. Mark Lipinski's Quilter's Home magazine has been featuring this same 'theory' for a few issues now. It suggested paint cards and wallpaper samples from the home improvement store, or eyeshadow packs from the drugstore. good ideas. How about you favorite potpourri?

Table settings and camera settings

Oh! Here I am! I have been lost for a couple of weeks. My camera battery is dead and the charger is on vacation. I don't know where, I hope he comes back soon. I finally decided to use Jessie's camera. Her camera is brand new and shiny, my is old and bulky. I am amazed at how easy the new one is to use. It may be time for a new camera for Mom!

This is a piece of fabric I found at Joann's. I bought it to make a bag for Athena. I don't know exactly how it happened, but it's now serving as a tablecloth. Just letting the wrinkles fall out. I really only meant to share one photo. I added all three to see which one I like the most and now I don't know how to remove the other two. Which photo would you pick? They all seem a little dark, but that is to hide the dirt and/or mess in the background.

Notice the stainless steel chair in the background of 1 and 3? I acquired 4 of them on a recent trip to North Carolina for very, very cheap. Just the frames. I made a posterboard pattern and my Dad and I cut the seats out of pressboard. I already had some nice fabrics to choose from. Now the problem. OMG, I had no idea how much foam costs! It would cost me another 25 bucks a chair for just the foam! Am I cheap or does this sound like a reasonable amount?