Finally, some news!

Let’s face it; I’m not cut out for daily/weekly blogging. I have been away for so long I’m sure you have dropped my site from your sights. If not, thanks for sticking around.

I have been very busy this summer and a lot of things have happened, but I won’t bore you with most of them. While almost everything is good, they are important to me but probably not to you.

Number one:  We adopted a stray mini-schnauzer/terrier mix about six weeks after we lost Windsor to illness and old age. His name is Geordie (like Georgie with a "d") and is a real sweetheart. He’s about two and a half years old and has a warm, loving, and mellow personality – very much like Windsor. He likes to bark when he gets excited, and we are working on that, but other than that he’s a perfect fit for our family.

Here he is in the birdbath.  All new members of the household get their first picture taken in the birdbath.  This is right after I gave him a trim – he’s been on the groomers table before, so well behaved!

Number two: I continue to serve as the president of the Denton Quilt Guild and lots of activity has been swirling around that. The biggest activity for me is that I will be a tour escort for the International Quilt Festival of Ireland next June and have been recruiting travelers to join me. Let me know right away if you are interested, space is limited! Here’s the link

Number three: The company I work for, Reaper Miniatures, was able to raise nearly $3.5 million in funds to start a new line of plastic gaming miniatures and bring the production to Texas. It was a wild and crazy month of watching pledges roll in and the enthusiastic comments from our supporters.

Number four: I just finished some contract work with University of North Texas -- UNT on the Square. I was asked to attach rod pockets to over a dozen beautiful African textiles to enable them to be hung. It was a joy and privilege to handle the amazing ceremonial cloths from Ghana. The exhibit opens this week

Thanks for sticking around.  What have you been up to lately?

Long Time Away

It's been a long time since I posted anything to my blog and I'm sure that if you are following me, you must be wondering what has been going on.  Or, you might have given up following me because I have been incommunicado.   Either way, here's an update.

Remember these sweet pups (Windsor on the left and Lindi on the right)?  Here they are in my husband's office.

 

 And here they are on vacation with us last October.  They didn't enjoy the actual beach nearly as much as my husband and I did but they enjoyed all the new sights and scents.

 Well, Windsor is no longer with us.  He was suffering from pancreatitis at Christmas-time so we put him on a special diet.  The special diet caused bladder stones.  The bladder stones were pretty bad and caused a blockage so we did the only thing we could.  He's been gone a week and a half and we are all missing him terribly. (R.I.P. my sweet boy)

Lindi is now a working dog.  She has gone to work with me and with  my husband on alternate days and is enjoying all the great attention.  I am so lucky to have a pet-friendly place to work.

Thank you for checking in and checking up on me.

Looking Back . . .

This is Holy Week.

Canterbury Crossing Tower

In our house, it is the busiest time of the church year because my husband is an Episcopal priest. We have extra services at the church almost every day and sometimes more than one service a day. It is the week that defines our faith, and recalls the last week of Christ’s life. This year, Easter also coincides with the Passover, so everyone in the Christian and Jewish faiths have their mind’s eye focused on Jerusalem and the Holy Land. However, my husband and I look to the “Other” Holy Land, England because the Church of England is the Mother Church for the Episcopal Church in America.

Nearly 30 years ago we each took our first trip to England – I went in the spring and He went in the fall. My trip happened to coincide with Holy Week, so I remember where I was during each of the days in Holy Week every year. I also recall Holy Week as the time when my maternal grandfather died and so does my mom.

Canterbury Nave

I was a pilgrim. On Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter) I was in Canterbury Cathedral. I remember looking down at the worn stone floor and wondering how many thousands of pilgrims had come this way and experienced the cathedral for the first time in the midst of a Mass, just like me. It took my breath away. Later, as I toured the cathedral, I was taken by the fact that at the chapel dedicated to Thomas Becket there was a call to prayer on clear plastic wrapped around a column saying, “Pilgrim, prayer for martyrs of our own time.” This sort of thing was repeated throughout the cathedral.

The next Holy Day in Holy Week is Maundy Thursday. I remember being in Lincoln Cathedral for a Maundy Thursday service.

Lincoln Cathedral

My friend and I sat in the choir and heard the Lenten liturgical music written by William Byrd while he was the organist, choirmaster at Lincoln in the early 1600s (Click here to sample some of Byrd's music for Holy Week). One of the reason I was in England was to hear just this sort of music in its “natural setting”. This place also propelled me into a whole new direction in my life. I discovered the exquisite beauties of Gothic cathedrals but with a human touch.

Click on any image in this post for a closer look

Most cathedrals seem perfect, but there are so many inconsistencies at Lincoln, I fell in love.

Good Friday was spent in York Minster. My friend and I went to the noonday service for Good Friday and sat in the choir. Again, it was very moving and beautiful. There were no tourists allowed, and no photography, but I remember that I took a shot of the crossing tower just as I was leaving the quire.

York Crossing Tower

I have lost my photograph, but here is a similar one. York is incredibly beautiful, light, white, high – perfect. I saw the cathedral in the spring before the fire in July of 1984. My husband saw it afterwards.

Holy Saturday I was ill and did not go to church, but I did watch the special service televised from Westminster Abbey which I had visited before.

Easter Sunday I was at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

St. Paul's Cathedral in London

St. Paul’s is not Gothic, it is baroque with all the swirls and flourishes and the acoustics are amazing. It was the perfect place to experience and celebrate Easter and to end my first Pilgrimage to the other Holy Land.

Have a blessed Easter.

Looking Forward . . .

Holy Week has begun and it is busy in our household, but in two weeks I will be on a four day retreat with my quilting friends. I have been making plans for what I will be working on while I have the time. Several years ago I started a project inspired by a line of fabrics based on William Morris wallpaper designs.

As I was working on the quilt, I encountered a problem and designed some appliqué pieces to “solve” the problem, but they “grew like Topsy” as my mom would say, and no longer will work in that application. I found a stained glass window designed by William Morris and translated it into fabric using the inspiration fabrics (above) for color selections.

Here's my interpretation of the design:

Actually, I made it into two panels:

Here are some details.

(Click on any of these photos for a closer look.)

Notice, I put the girls on a diet to slim them down and gave them both nose jobs!

Saturday I stopped by one of our local quilt shops where I have signed up for a William Morris Block of the Month. I had my appliquéd ladies with me and the owner took me to the back room where she had some gorgeous William Morris fabrics set aside. I purchased some of the fabric to complete this project . . .

and was inspired (again) to create a companion wall-hanging from another window pattern.

I have just started the process for these panels, but I am excited about these new pieces. Lots to do on Retreat!

Gridlock Treasury

My quirky little QR code quilt pattern is in a nifty little treasury! How cool is that?

Thank you Deb Babcock of BlueSkyPotteryCo for including me.

At the Quilt Show

On Saturday I spent the day with my mother and Irina, my new sister-in-law. We went to the Dallas Quilt Celebration, the annual Quilt show. I had two quilts in the show in the Masters categories and I was not alone. On this little stretch of display wall are small wall hangings from several of my art quilter friends.

From left to right, Tonya Littmann, someone not in our guild, Tonya again, Mary Runyon, my QR quilt, Marie Mitchell, and Becky Jackson.

Below is the other quilt. I don’t generally make “large” quilts, and seldom bed quilts. But I am so proud of this one – it got a wall all by itself at the end of a row. No ribbons, but a great location!

The quilt is a wedding gift for Randel and Irina, my brother and new sister. She is such a sweetheart and my brother is so luck to have found her.
I had a friend quilt this for me, but I quilted the flower vase block and added their names and wedding date.
Here are details . . .
So, that’s what I have been up to lately. How about you?