Well, another year at the Quilt Festival has come and gone, and I did very little quilt related "stuff" at VQF!! Honestly, I did about "this much"...which is on par with just about none....and I had the most fabulous time!
Today I'll share just a little tease- no quilts- but a very wonderful time at the Vermont Wildflower Farm. Nature has a way of calming the soul. The slight winds, the few drops of rain,even the big old bull frogs that I swear were right under my feet at the pond,but wouldn't make any kind of appearance (they just sang their sweet songs to one another).
Here is a peek of early summer in the Meadows. Imagine what late summer (or earlier in the spring) had to offer! I did have photos tagged earlier, but the tags didn't upload. I will have to go through at a later date and add comments. I don't, however, really think Mother Nature needs much in the way of comments!
Vermont Wildflower Farm, June 2008
Jun 30, 2008
Jun 24, 2008
Vermont Quilt Festival
Well, it is finally here! Time to pack up and head for Burlington, Vermont and the Vermont Quilt Festival . I can hardly wait for the day to end so I can finish the packing (clothes, that is...the sewing machine and fabric were packed yesterday!) and go over the mental list to make sure I have what I need for my last quilting vacation for this year. St. Michael's college -my beautiful home away from home awaits...
...the quad is always so pretty! Even on a foggy morning. This year I am only taking one class- Piping Hot Piping with Susan Cleveland. Class is all day Thursday, so there will be lots of time to relax and head in and around Burlington. I think I may even search out one of Jo Morton's classes and stick my head in for a look see. I know several people who are taking her class, so I can say Hi, but not be too disruptive, or at least I hope not!
I need to track down Bonnie Blue Quilts and then go say hi to the boys from Woodstock, and I'll be happy. After Paducah, there truly isn't much I need...but Bonnie Blue has such wonderful stuff. I should remember to pull a pattern I want to collect for and then get some backgrounds etc. I just love their reproductions! Must own most, if not all of their patterns..don't want to buy a second (or third ) copy as I've been known to do!
So it is off and away tomorrow...fun, laughter, wine, a b'ay dinner for my favorite traveling companion and roommate, and who knows what else! Oh yes, QUILTS! 5 days of immersing myself into the glorious world of quilting...that should jump start my creativity once again.
Jun 23, 2008
Crafting and A Trip Through the Past
I've gone and done it now! I have given in to the allure of scrap booking. I've always wanted to do it, and have been doing some digital work,but now I'm taking my first technique class called 52 Card Pick Up at Big Picture Scrap booking(www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com).
Our pre-class assignment was to construct a book/deck of cards to highlight the 52 techniques we will learn over the course of the summer. Here is my first attempt at "art":
I'm very happy with how it turned out. This photo shows the cards fanned out so that you can see the insides a bit more AND my use of eyelets to keep the tabs in place. Oh how I loved using those eyelets!! I even now own a crop-a-dile !
Today is our first real assignment- the first technique card to go into our book. It uses paint, embossing ink and clear embossing powder to create a resist. Since I am trying to organize not only for the last beginner quilting classes I'm teaching tomorrow, but for my trip to the Vermont Quilt Festival from Wednesday am - Sunday pm, this week's assignments will have to be put on hold til I get home. I'm itching to get creating, but it will keep. Once I get home, I also need to finish the re-organization of my room to accommodate this newest hobby of mine. Maybe I'll find a few extra hours to put in my days?? Nah, didn't think so!
As to the Trip Through the Past part of this post...
Last night I finally got to see Across the Universe, the Julie Taymour film set against the late 60's. I had gotten mixed reviews from my two daughters: first born was a bit bored, last born loved it.."how could you not?" she asked..."it has Beatles music!".
Well, I was far from bored, and Beatles music was good- a perfect soundtrack for a film that absolutely blew me away. OK..sure... it was the typical teenage love story-boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy loses girl, boy and girl come back together and they live happily ever after. BUT what was amazing was that I lived that movie. Maybe that is why I was so into every frame? Every weird, wonderful moment?? It was absolutely amazing...
I WAS them...I knew too many Maxes..
I had several friends who had Daniel as their brother
There was a Jude...
I lived the war (Vietnam), the protests...Columbia University's demonstration of 68, The "May 4th Massacre" at Kent State. I watched Vietnam unfold in my living room. I cried as Jimmy's (Hendrix) guitar weeped. I experienced Janis(Joplin) from the 4th row of a very young SPAC.
SDS,the Days of Rage,The Weatherman, Chicago 7 , dog tags, leather bracelets with the name of a soldier- we wore them until our soldier (hopefully) came home....
Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary---we "turned on-tuned in-dropped out". Yes,we were either "on the bus of off the bus"...
Does today's generation truly know what it is to have traveled Across the Universe??Then again-this generation may not be as naive as we were way back when.
More sadly-- history repeats itself. This generation has Iraq. They sport rubber braclets for a cause...."Live Strong"...their music tells a different story and in a very different way...
And life moves on....the more it changes, the more it stays the same.
Our pre-class assignment was to construct a book/deck of cards to highlight the 52 techniques we will learn over the course of the summer. Here is my first attempt at "art":
I'm very happy with how it turned out. This photo shows the cards fanned out so that you can see the insides a bit more AND my use of eyelets to keep the tabs in place. Oh how I loved using those eyelets!! I even now own a crop-a-dile !
Today is our first real assignment- the first technique card to go into our book. It uses paint, embossing ink and clear embossing powder to create a resist. Since I am trying to organize not only for the last beginner quilting classes I'm teaching tomorrow, but for my trip to the Vermont Quilt Festival from Wednesday am - Sunday pm, this week's assignments will have to be put on hold til I get home. I'm itching to get creating, but it will keep. Once I get home, I also need to finish the re-organization of my room to accommodate this newest hobby of mine. Maybe I'll find a few extra hours to put in my days?? Nah, didn't think so!
As to the Trip Through the Past part of this post...
Last night I finally got to see Across the Universe, the Julie Taymour film set against the late 60's. I had gotten mixed reviews from my two daughters: first born was a bit bored, last born loved it.."how could you not?" she asked..."it has Beatles music!".
Well, I was far from bored, and Beatles music was good- a perfect soundtrack for a film that absolutely blew me away. OK..sure... it was the typical teenage love story-boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy loses girl, boy and girl come back together and they live happily ever after. BUT what was amazing was that I lived that movie. Maybe that is why I was so into every frame? Every weird, wonderful moment?? It was absolutely amazing...
I WAS them...I knew too many Maxes..
I had several friends who had Daniel as their brother
There was a Jude...
I lived the war (Vietnam), the protests...Columbia University's demonstration of 68, The "May 4th Massacre" at Kent State. I watched Vietnam unfold in my living room. I cried as Jimmy's (Hendrix) guitar weeped. I experienced Janis(Joplin) from the 4th row of a very young SPAC.
SDS,the Days of Rage,The Weatherman, Chicago 7 , dog tags, leather bracelets with the name of a soldier- we wore them until our soldier (hopefully) came home....
Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary---we "turned on-tuned in-dropped out". Yes,we were either "on the bus of off the bus"...
Does today's generation truly know what it is to have traveled Across the Universe??Then again-this generation may not be as naive as we were way back when.
More sadly-- history repeats itself. This generation has Iraq. They sport rubber braclets for a cause...."Live Strong"...their music tells a different story and in a very different way...
And life moves on....the more it changes, the more it stays the same.
Jun 20, 2008
Back To My Regularly Scheduled Crafting
Time to get back to crafting and let the political climate here rest!
Actually, there hasn't been much time to do any sewing/quilting/crafting. I have managed to work through the ridiculously huge stash and thin it out quite a bit, but I still feel as if I could do more. The biggest change to my sewing room is a slight rearrangement of furniture and"stuff" so I could put a small desktop for my laptop and other hardware in my space. This necessitated buying storage units for the new crafting...all of a sudden there is an explosion of scrap booking and stamping items!I've decided to extend the scrap booking ideas into card making. I have time for all this, right?? Ha! Who am I kidding...but hey, a girl has to do what a girl has to do! Right now I am planning out a "Book about Me" and an altered address book. I found the chipboard book project on a sale rack and have had fun thinking up ways to put it together. It is like quilting, just with paper!
Pictures to come soon...Have to get the camera dock hooked up again!
For now, I've best get moving and get some "real work" done!
Actually, there hasn't been much time to do any sewing/quilting/crafting. I have managed to work through the ridiculously huge stash and thin it out quite a bit, but I still feel as if I could do more. The biggest change to my sewing room is a slight rearrangement of furniture and"stuff" so I could put a small desktop for my laptop and other hardware in my space. This necessitated buying storage units for the new crafting...all of a sudden there is an explosion of scrap booking and stamping items!I've decided to extend the scrap booking ideas into card making. I have time for all this, right?? Ha! Who am I kidding...but hey, a girl has to do what a girl has to do! Right now I am planning out a "Book about Me" and an altered address book. I found the chipboard book project on a sale rack and have had fun thinking up ways to put it together. It is like quilting, just with paper!
Pictures to come soon...Have to get the camera dock hooked up again!
For now, I've best get moving and get some "real work" done!
Jun 8, 2008
We Cannot Let This Moment Slip Away
This is why I've been proud to back Hillary Clinton:
with this speech she made me proud to be a woman, she made me proud to have supported her, and she made me proud of the fact that I tried to raise my children (especially my girls) to know they CAN be what ever they want to be...all it takes is hard work and perseverance. Sometimes we don't meet with success, but it shouldn't stop us from trying again....
so now, I'll work (to quote Hillary) to make Barrack Obama our President.
I know that declaration will make my girls happy *smile*
with this speech she made me proud to be a woman, she made me proud to have supported her, and she made me proud of the fact that I tried to raise my children (especially my girls) to know they CAN be what ever they want to be...all it takes is hard work and perseverance. Sometimes we don't meet with success, but it shouldn't stop us from trying again....
so now, I'll work (to quote Hillary) to make Barrack Obama our President.
I know that declaration will make my girls happy *smile*
Jun 5, 2008
A Moment of Seriousness
I hate to throw my politics around..but I'm saddened (as well as worried as to what could happen come November)by the turn of events that will most likely occur over the next two days...question is will Hillary "suspend" her campaign or "concede"?? It makes a difference. I have been and will continue to read the thoughts of others as the DNC draws closer, and found I had to agree with this writer (only a short portion of his comments below):
<
1. Hillary Clinton has now officially won more votes than any person to seek the presidential nomination of EITHER political party in history, and her candidacy accurately represents the will of the people who voted in the Democratic primaries and caucuses.
2. Hillary Clinton won ALL of the major states except Illinois.
3. Hillary Clinton finished the primary season with momentum, out-performing expectations in several races such as, most recently, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, Puerto Rico, and South Dakota (see Obama’s predictions spreadsheet); Obama, in contrast, is wheezing across the finish line with a downward trajectory that bodes poorly for the general election.
4. Hillary Clinton assembled a coalition of loyal voters that can guarantee victory against McCain, including white women, hispanics, catholics, jews, and lunch-bucket workers.
5. Barack Obama is still a relative unknown, remains unvetted by the media, and is teetering on the brink of being clobbered by the GOP, RNC, 527 Oppo Teams due to his treasure chest of bizarre skeletons.
In light of these cold, hard facts, Hillary Clinton bloggers and supporters will continue doing what we’ve been doing: Passionately making the case that Hillary Clinton will be the best President, that she has a superior chance of beating John McCain.>>
Can she take this to Denver with out causing more harm to an already compromised Democratic party?? Should she?? I don't have a crystal ball...but I think no.
Will we be able to sit a democratic president come November?? Lord, I can only hope so.
I will now go back to the regularly scheduled musings of a middle-aged quilting blog lady who shows pictures of her quilts, gardens and house...at least for now.....
<
1. Hillary Clinton has now officially won more votes than any person to seek the presidential nomination of EITHER political party in history, and her candidacy accurately represents the will of the people who voted in the Democratic primaries and caucuses.
2. Hillary Clinton won ALL of the major states except Illinois.
3. Hillary Clinton finished the primary season with momentum, out-performing expectations in several races such as, most recently, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, Puerto Rico, and South Dakota (see Obama’s predictions spreadsheet); Obama, in contrast, is wheezing across the finish line with a downward trajectory that bodes poorly for the general election.
4. Hillary Clinton assembled a coalition of loyal voters that can guarantee victory against McCain, including white women, hispanics, catholics, jews, and lunch-bucket workers.
5. Barack Obama is still a relative unknown, remains unvetted by the media, and is teetering on the brink of being clobbered by the GOP, RNC, 527 Oppo Teams due to his treasure chest of bizarre skeletons.
In light of these cold, hard facts, Hillary Clinton bloggers and supporters will continue doing what we’ve been doing: Passionately making the case that Hillary Clinton will be the best President, that she has a superior chance of beating John McCain.>>
Can she take this to Denver with out causing more harm to an already compromised Democratic party?? Should she?? I don't have a crystal ball...but I think no.
Will we be able to sit a democratic president come November?? Lord, I can only hope so.
I will now go back to the regularly scheduled musings of a middle-aged quilting blog lady who shows pictures of her quilts, gardens and house...at least for now.....
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