Our neighbors must wonder what we are up to. Today, Mr. C rented a truck. He drove it to the house and put it in the driveway. We took the dog for a walk and saw one of our neighbors who said: "Guess you have a lot of packing to do?" We nodded in agreement.

Then we got in the truck and drove to the storage facility. We were the only ones around. Our room was on the third floor so we had to use a dolly and go up a freight elevator, load it, come down, unload – several times. There was music piped into the building. It was very eerie. I have heard that they pipe music in to Chernobyl to relax the people that visit there or do work there. I did not find this  music relaxing, just annoying.

We then drove home and unloaded all the stuff. It was so good to be able to put my hands on all the stuff from my studio. I had even packed my Palm Pilot charger so I couldn’t use it all this time. I ordered the beads that I want to finish the latest quilt and hope they get here by Wednesday.

I finished the machine quilting today. And I am ready to start beading.

The little circles will be jelly fish after i finish beading them.

Tomorrow, after 9 am PST, you must visit my daughter, Stephanie’s, new online shop. She will have her wonderful stuffed critters for sale.

I made some progress on the new tropical fish quilt that I am making for the auction next Saturday to benefit the homeless and at risk women’s shelter at our church. I am really frustrated because I need to do a lot of beading on this, and I just realized that all my beads are in storage. I also have a gift certificate for $50 for Fire Mountain Gems and Beads (part of the president’s gift from my guild) and that is also in storage. I made out an order on the web and was going to have it Fed-exed and I realized I didn’t have the certificate. Duh! Mr. C is going to empty the storage locker tomorrow – it had to be done sooner or later.

Since I have made one of these, I am doing things differently. First I sandwiched the background with muslin on the back and machine quilted it in my favorite water design.

Then I added the collaged fish and the underwater plants that I fussy cut from commercial fabric.

Tomorrow, I will free motion quilt these elements and add some decorative yarns for texture. And then I will hope that some beads show up!! After the beading I will add another back to  cover up the mess I make when I do the beading.

You all know how much I love the serendipity of blogging. Today I got an e-mail from Kathleen who currently lives in Paradise, CA. A friend pointed her toward my blog because she and her husband of 43 years are moving to Portland this coming Friday. They are moving to a neighborhood that Steve and I love, Alameda. She is a quilter and was even president of her guild. Can you believe it? My friends keep telling me I am leaving paradise for Portland: she is really leaving Paradise!! We will get together once we get moved.

There is a used craft supply store in Sebastopol called The Legacy. The donated stuff is sold and the money is used to support  the Senior Center. Today I picked up Janet and we took a bag of stuff to donate: yarn, unfinished needlework, artificial flowers, etc. While there, I had to look around and I found a folder of prints of the most amazing stitchery pieces by an artist named Martha Mood. I looked her up on the Internet. The original tapestries sell for $2700 – 4500 on EBay!

When I saw them, I just knew that my daughter Lisa would love them. I tried scanning these, but I installed Tiger on my computer and it won’t work until I install a new driver which I had to order. So these are photos taken with my digital camera.

I love the trees in this one. Each tree has a piece of fabric on which she has stitched the outline of the trees and branches.

I found this interesting information about her and her work;

Her involvement with appliqu?ɬ© stitchery was
prompted by the fortuitous gift of fabric samples from a designer
friend in 1959, at a time when Mood was reading a book on the
creative possibilities of stitchery. Her earliest work was quite
simple, merely glued arrangements of fabric shapes that nevertheless
demonstrated her mastery of composition with color. She later
began to experiment with embroidery, which gave an extra dimension
of color and texture to the surface of her appliqu?ɬ©s. She
used a m?ɬ©lange of "found" fabrics such as denim,
velvet, silk, lace, old blankets, and used clothes in her wall
hangings and amplified the textural richness of her embroidery
by using yarns of different width, braid, and twine. Flowers,
children, nudes, and wild and domestic animals were frequent themes
in her wall hangings; she also made ecclesiastical banners and
abstract works inspired by Matisse’s cut-outs and the cubist collages
of Picasso and Braque.

Janet and I also went to one of the local quilt shops where I had a gift certificate. I spent it and more!! I am working on a beaded fish quilt for an auction next week-end in support of The Living Room, the day shelter for at risk women and children that is at our church. We are having a big Mardi Gras thing – so I have to come up with an interesting outfit to wear. I have two of the fish collaged and fabric selected for a third. Today I bought background fabric and some fabric that I can fussy cut for underwater tropical plants. I will get it all assembled and quilted tomorrow. Then I can sit and bead and watch the Olympics this week.

I had my 50,000th visitor some time in the wee hours of the morning. Who are you people? Why do you stop and visit my blog every day? Just kidding! I am happy to have you stop by for a minute or two and share a bit of my crazy life.

I am watching the men’s figure skating and am so disappointed with Johnny Weir’s performance – think it was because of the dorky outfit he was wearing. Did you know that I am a figure skating nut (not participating – watching). I could easily be one of those fat judges! I loved Canadian, Jeffrey Buttles skate – well deserved bronze.

Today, machine quilter extraordinaire, Harriet Hargrave, spoke at our guild meeting. She is an excellent speaker – way in to traditional quilting – but her work is flawless. I really enjoyed hearing her speak. She is doing a two-day workshop starting tomorrow. I learned a whole lot about batting today.

My Five Fancy Fish Frolic is down in San Jose at a gallery show to benefit the San Jose Quilt Museum. The curator called today to say that someone was very interested in it but needed something more vertical in size and did I have anything? Well, no, but I could make one! She is going to talk to the interested party and get some measurements and get back to me. I need some hand work to do so beading another fish quilt would be fun.

I sent Karen Koons, my contact in Alabama, a jpeg of the prototype. This is her response to me:

It is perfect!
Jane (other staff) and I had tears in our eyes when we saw it.  When you look at these pictures you can see why, too. Here are some samples of our consecration service of the new building.  Make sure and also note the chairs as well as the red and green walls.

Know that the altar will be in front at times and other times it will be vacant, but I think it is more than appropriate!
We love it!

Now, I have tears in my eyes!! Here are a some of the photos she sent me.

That red wall is where the commission piece will hang. Notice the lime green on the chairs.

Notice that lime green wall in the back – my kind of paint choice!!

My heart beats strong seeing these young people singing and knowing that they will be singing praises in front of my work in the future. This is such a wonderful gift that has been given to me.