As usual....

As usual I let too many days go by, and then I have too much to write about all at once. Thank goodness for photos or I'd never remember what we've been doing! LOL

Last weekend the weather was cool but sunny...in other words...gorgeous. On Sunday The Tramp mowed lawns and then we lit the burn pile. While I waited for him I brought out my stitchery and sat in the sun for a while with the dogs. I finished the first of twelve redwork Santas.



Ivy, per usual, worked on her doggy calendar poses.



I gazed at the trees and the stunningly beautiful blue sky.


Then I moseyed over to check out the pecan tree.


And we have pecans bursting out of their pods!


What fun for a "city kid" to start harvesting her first crop! LOL


I also re-treated the fire ant nest in the compost pile. Yick!


And found more nests are still appearing. :-(


Then watched the burning. All in all, a day full of pleasant accomplishment.


Monday, Mom, Dad and I went to the State Fair to check out the needlework exhibits.


I fully realize the State Fair is not a quilt show but we were very disappointed by the quilt display nonetheless. The quilts were hung on rug racks. Even the little wall hangings! We couldn't get close enough to see them properly or discover who made them and what won in what category. I was particularly dismayed that the two big "rug rack" displays meant that a worker was grabbing the sides of the quilts and yanking or frankly "flinging" the racks along to show the quilts to visitors. All day long for eleven days! I'm sure glad one of my quilts wasn't up there! :-(

I know the point was to make it possible to see the large quilts...and it turns out I know many of the ribbon winners from the quilt guild but I had no idea since nothing was labeled. It seemed hardly fair to the quilters who worked so hard.

This week I got my backing put together and got my Orange Crush mystery quilt marked and pin basted. Big job!


I also appliqued and quilted a cute autumn wall hanging. The pattern is by Joined at the Hip.


Last night we went to see Walking With Dinosaurs at the RBC Center. Wow.

I took a few pictures with my cell phone. These are the best of them.







And lastly...today I went to an all day workshop with Lyric Kinard on fabric embellishment. Lyric lives locally and managed to fit us in before she leaves to teach at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. Lucky us! We had a great time. The class included stamp carving, stamping, foiling, photo transfer, stenciling with freezer paper shapes, screen printing and beading. The samples were fun to experiment with.


I particularly enjoyed learning to carve a stamp from a plastic eraser.



And then had even more fun starting a small art quilt. The stamping and foiling is done and now I need to do the beading.

Gosh I'm tired! G'night.