Long time, No Blog!

Things have absolutely been crazy here and I mean Crazy! Here is a brief rundown......July second... get oldest daughter and grandson from bus station...Stacie has surgery and spends twenty four days in the hospital while I keep Daniel and work at my new job.....We have weekend company twice, Stacie finally gets out and then I get the phone call from my youngest daughter Lisa...."mom, the reason Mark and I are having marriage problems is because we both have drug problems and you better come to Portland tonight and get the kids because we cant take care of them.....I have now had Olivia, age six and Andrew eighteen months, since the twenty sixth of July. Lisa and Mark are getting a divorce and Lisa just entered and inpatient rehab....I also have gone from working part time to working full time...Do I make art? Hah! What is that? Actually I do, just have to squeeze it in when I have the energy...I am trying to get things running smoothly and that is a job in itself! Daniel and Liv start school soon and Stacie got a job and is doing well..She helps me a lot with the two little ones. I am going through all the legal custody things and arranging school and counseling and trying to do laundry, groceries, clean and all that too...I finally told Stacie that I have to sew or make something for at least a half hour a day or I will go bonkers!!!!I have finished a charity quilt for a girls club..They pieced it and I put it together and quilted it. I also made an embellished outfit for our stores fashion show and an auction that we are part of to benefit hospice.....It is a vest with paint sticked fabric and an art purse...The picture is of it hanging in the store...I also was published as an inchies artist in Quilting Arts magazine! Woo hoo! Can you find my inchies? and I am posting a picture of Liv that I took for the fun of it...We were playing at being fairies for an altered book spread for Color me Silly" My altered book group.....One day soon, I will get caught up and more organized! Until then, it is one day at a time or I will lose my marbles for good!!!!!Thanks for hanging with me!!!!

Altered photos for an altered book and quilt tops!

I did another altered book spread for my "Color me silly" group...The theme was altered photos and the color preferred is orange. This was pretty fun to do, but I had to think about it a lot before I started. I used a picture of an orange tulip in my garden in full bloom and then a picture of Andrew, my grandson, from the same time frame and called it "in a child's eyes." I like the picture of him a lot. He is looking out the window at a flower and the light and shadow are playing across his face. On the tulip side, I used two of my fabric charms. I thought they added a nice touch. Things have been crazy around here! I am working more and I now have my daughter, (who is doing great by the way...) Daniel, Olivia age 6 and Andrew, 18 months here....It has been fun, just challenging...and boy, do they eat. It seems like I am either feeding them, or doing dishes and it is nonstop! Andrew is the most work but he is so darn cute that I don't mind. He is my little shadow. I had to clean the sliding doors today, his hands are all over them. You could tell how tall he is by the handprints. I know how fast they grow up though, so I am just enjoying the moment........and finally, the debut of my One block Wonder quilt....I have talked about it a lot and I put it on a piece of fabric today to get the layout right. Now I have to sew the rows together, fill in a few more spots and then do borders...So far, the way you see it it is about a queen. There are a 135 blocks in what you see and more to come. I also have three dimensional cubes to put on the border. This is by far the hardest and most intricate quilt I have ever done. For one thing, I hate to pin anything and that is all you do! Pins, pins and more pins...It has been a lesson in patience but the kaleidoscope effect is stunning. Mine is the green and orange, blue and pink and my friend Laura's is the black with orange , brown and green. She made hers from one Asian fabric...Ok, all you artists! We need feedback...Does anything stick out...How is the blend? Let me know what you think before we start sewing these babies together!!!!!!!