Something About Nothing

The latest word in my 12 x 12 Quilt group was "Peace." Each member is to interpret the word into a 12 inch square quilt. Here is my entry: Thought Process: When I think of Peace the word seems to morph into "peaceful" and when I think peaceful I think trees, forests, nature and cemeteries. It may sound morbid but let me explain. Cemeteries are quiet places where one can think without much interference. Also my mother and I have always enjoyed going into cemeteries and looking at the names, dates and inscriptions on the tomb stones. We wonder about the people each tombstone represents. Who were they? How did they live? How did they die? Recently my family and I went to Washington DC. While there we visited Arlington National Cemetery . The Cemetery is 200 acres of grass, trees and white tombstones and although the surroundings are very peaceful, the immediate effect upon entering the cemetery can be anything but a feeling of peace. Despite my facination with cemet...

My friend Juliette over at Chickpea Sewing Studio is giving away one of these lovely wristlets because Bernia has published her tutorial on how to make these lovelies. There are also directions on making a dog leash. I saw the wristlets in person this morning and they are so beautiful. Head on over to Chickpea Sewing Studio and leave a comment for your chance to win one of the three above, or go to the tutorial and make one of your own. I'm definately feeling the need to make one or two or three.

The Utah Arts Festival has been going on for many many years. A long time ago a friend at church was one of the directors of the festival and I volunteered to paint children's faces. I returned each summer for a couple of years putting in a few hours here and there. I'm not sure why I stopped volunteering - perhaps because the twins were born. We make it to the festival about every other year nowadays. This was the year so my three girls and I headed off to the Arts Festival between rain storms and as always we saw some amazing art. I am always amazed at how clever people are with their art, like the recycled metal sculptures. I definitely recognized the cloth on the children's clothing. I also love seeing art which makes me wonder if I could do it too - usually the answer is "no, no I can't" and that is why I love seeing it. The figures on these Peruvian pieces are so small and have wonderful little details. Each "house" tells a different story...

When I started paging through old pictures for today I came across a group of Mom pictures. . . And now I'm feeling sentamental and missing my Mommy. She's been gone 7 years now and somedays it feels like yesterday, other days it feels like an eternity. Love you Mom!

We picked strawberries today at Day Farms . It's the last of the season so the berries are a little smaller, but oh so delicious! Rows and rows of strawberries with asparagus gone to seed on the left and in front. They are so cute hiding amoung the leaves. After picking we went back to the barn. One of the girls enjoyed the experience more than the other. Weighed each container of strawberries and put the money into the green box. They operate on the honor system. My hand got a little red but not as red as they will get when I make them into jam this afternoon! We picked up a list of other vegetables we can pick later in the season and I believe we will return. It was definately worth the drive. They will have strawberries again in August!

At the beginning of June, I somehow discovered an event near my home that sounded like a lot of fun. The Face Off at the Urban Gallery was to be an event in which nine local artists would be given 18 hours to create masterpieces on 9 garage doors outside a place called Neighborhood House . I really wanted to go and so I took my two youngest, my neighbor, her dog and a dog we were tending and we went off to check it out. We like it so much we went back two more times! I took a lot of photos and had plans of posting them all but decided to limit it to a few and post a slide show of the rest. When we arrived on the first day most of the garage doors were in the very early stages of being painted. We watched for awhile as the artists painted - mostly with spray paint. You can see the beginning photos in the slide show. When we returned the next day most of the doors were in their final stages. We watched as one artist put up an enourmous stencil and sprayed away with black paint. When the...

When we think of flowers, we usually think of women, but this beautiful Iris makes me think of Fathers. The house that you see in the background belongs to my sweet neighbor and this Iris came from her father's house over 350 miles away. He loved and tenderly cultivated many Iris varieties during his life and when he passed on, my neighbor took a number of the Iris rhizomes from his home to share with family and friends. I was honored to receive one and planted mine in my front yard last summer. One day a few weeks ago my neighbor called and told me to come out front immediately. Bewildered, I hung up the phone and obeyed her instructions. My neighbor and her husband were standing over this Iris, her father's Iris. The Iris was now a tangible link to her father. He had loved and cared for this very flower and now, for this brief moment in time, it was here reminding us all of the love a little girl had for her Daddy. Happy Father's Day to all the great Daddy's out ther...

Here I am with my favorite beverage. You have to look at this photo closely because there is a cute checked puppy on the couch which could explain my obsession with making Melly & Me animals. I wonder who is on the front of that "TV Preview" on the coffee table. . . *Deep Sigh* I loved my tricycle. Now I just love the city- ness of this photo with the stairs and laundry in the back. The house in the next photo is where we lived when I followed the neighbor boy to his Grandma's house and we got lost. I remember the little boy yelling at me to go home and I didn't know where home was. He threatened to push me down a very deep hole. I was so traumatised. Obviously this picture was taken before we ran away because I'm sure the trauma would still be evident on my face.

Melanie Testa's latest Video Prompt on the Quilting Arts website encourages a warm up by drawing with your left hand. A couple days ago I drew a number of things with my left hand and was surprised at just how well my left hand could manage. Today, since my other projects are completed, I decided to try the left hand drawings again before I move on to the next step. I found a photo of a butterfly on a chewed up leaf and drew it with my left hand and then colored it using my daughters markers. I then did the same on the right. I used the wrong red marker on my right hand and so the red parts have blended in with the blue but all the same I'd say it was a successful exercise.

Other than keeping up with children, dishes, laundry and garden (which the rain has been taking care of) I've been a little busy making some fun projects. This little gal is Clucky and her brood from Melly & Me . She is a plucky little gal with her hands full (er I mean wings) of four little ones. She's a hard working mother and is already teaching her children the finer points of music. And since Black Sheep was "born" at the same time she has also taken him under her wing at the piano. I finally finished the circle quilt I have been working on for my oldest daughter. It only took me 6 months. Unfortunately this quilt got pushed to the back burner more than once and then the sewing machine I quilt with jammed up and I haven't had it repaired yet. I took the quilt to my friend Juliette's house and quilted it with her fabulous Bernina Aurora 440 QE machine . I didn't quilt anything fancy as I was just wanting to get it done (Sorry B) but I do...

As I was searching through old photos I found an album of my childhood and decided to share. Look I'm holding my head up at just a few weeks old! I love this little dress I'm wearing. And I love the design on the couch too. I was such a happy baby. Here kitty kitty I want to chew on you. And now Me and Grandma in my first photo booth shot.

Summer vacation is like New Years around here. It is met with late nights, much rejoicing and lists of resolutions. I started this summer by recycling an envelope into my "Summer To Do" list. I have a list of all the pre-paid, pre-planned activities I've arranged for the summer: Piano Lessons and lots of practicing Volleyball camp Art camp Batik class Dye class Free Motion Quilting class Brindy's Wedding (wow, more of those are for me than the kids, that is a switch) A List of dated activities I would really like to take advantage of: Lavendar Days Arts Festival Urban Gallery Garage Door painting Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House Farmers Market And finally the longest list - things I would like to accomplish this summer: Visit Renea (and maybe the beach while we are there) Go strawberry picking Make strawberry jam Eat out of the garden Weed the garden (gag) Clear off the back patio so we can do lots of crafts outside Hang the kids art in the hall Quilt, quilt and qu...

One of the blogs I follow, Chickpea Sewing Studio , posted about another blog called Sew, Mama, Sew . Sew, Mama, Sew is celebrating June as Sewing Machine Month. SMS is asking their readers to blog about their personal sewing machines. The idea is to have an easily accessible resource of people's opinions of various sewing machines. SMS will compile a list of everyone's reviews and post it on their blog. I thought this was a great idea and so here I go (take a deep breath because I own 5 machines). 1. What brand and model do you have? Singer 6105 How long have you had it? It was purchased in about 1981. How much does that machine cost (approximately)? I think it was about $150. What types of things do you sew (i.e. quilting, clothing, handbags, home dec projects, etc.)? Mostly garments with a few curtains and quilt tops. Actually I quilted a couple of whole cloth quilts on this machine without a walking foot, they were disasters, but still loved and used. How much wear and ...

Today is an exciting day! We don't get dressed up and dance around just for nothing. . . Nope! My babies are growing up, in more than one way. I'm very pleased to annouce that today is promotion day! After today my babies will belong to the junior high crowd. Say a prayer for us.