(1).png){kind=small}
.png){kind=small}
.png){kind=small}
Catching up, more March and April
Gosh, I must say I am thrilled at all the work that fell out of the sky onto me this past spring, but it is nice to be able to take a breather, blog a bit, sit on the sofa with a bit, sit on the porch and enjoy the summer breeze (ok, so at the moment the breeze is imaginary but I can hope one wafts in soon ans disperses the hot and muggy weather that is doing us all in as I type this…hopefully by the time this posts to the blog the “hot, hazy and humid” forecasts will be done and we’ll be back to glorious Maine summers).
This is a bit of a catch-all post to catch you up on life, so in somewhat random order….
In April I lectured in Massachusetts, then taught in Rutland, Vermont. As you might guess, the class was Hawaiian Applique by machine which I will be teaching TWICE in Southern California this month! Didn’t this student do a beautiful job with her satin stitching on the turtles block?
Here’s the classroom, on the lower level of a hospital center! Thanks to all the ladies who came–what fun!
And here’s a taro leaf block, another of the “small” options in this class. Lovely!
As luck would have it, my route (yippeee!) took me from Massachusetts right past my friend Jacquie’s house on the way to Rutland, where I didn’t have to be until the evening lecture. So of course I got to make a small detour and visit, and of course she fed me (Jacquie is a MUCH better and more inspired cook than I am). When I arrived (late, I’m Sorry jq!) she was on Skype with her daughter Melanie, who lives in Germany, so I got to visit with Melanie too! We had so much fun yakking and sharing that we forgot to pull out Melanie’s elderflower cordial that she made, so I’ll just have to manage another trip to Vermont.
I LOVE this picture…which I managed to take with arm extended. It only took about three tries to get a decent one, too!
In April, Eli’s track and field season began. Here’s an early season meet (the deciduous trees are still bare), with him throwing the javelin. Look at that glorious sky and that beautiful boy-child (OK, soon to be young man) of mine! So proud of him–this is his third varsity sport this year, as a Freshman! And he qualified for States, making it three for three. Well done, kiddo!
Earlier, in the spring snowmelt and rain, our driveway (3/10 of a mile long…there is this big rectangle with lots all around it, and one long skinny driveway to the lot in the middle which is us) washed out, really badly on the bottom. So we sucked it up and paid serious money to put in a proper ditch that would deal with all the water. Cost about as much as (OUCH!) a nice used car! Here are the markings from when DigSafe came to show where NOT to dig:
Getting ready for ditching on the uphill side of the long driveway. The red shows where there are utility pipes (electric and phone/internet) underground.
Then, here are a couple more shots of me prepping for filming the Quilting Arts DVD on May 1 (my full blogpost on that is here):
Setting things up as they would be seen on camera, in the “stuff you’ll need” part of the DVD at the beginning.
And working on the preliminary quilting for the piece I would quilt on the set. I needed to have the tomatoes in various stages of being quilted to demo the difference from unquilted to partialluy done, to done, plus one to work on while filming.
So that’s a bit more of why I’ve been so quiet these past months–LOTS of work and family life. Life is good!