Friday, March 17, 2006

Chicago entry-
I've been hesitant to post this quilt yet, but I guess it's ok to do so. This quilt was entered in the "think Spring!" competition for the Chicago quilt show coming up. It did get juried into the show.
This was my first time entering a national competition. It's important to me to see how my work stands up against others in the same field. So, my goal was to enter and get into the show. I had no expectations about winning a prize. I am excited to be attending the show. This will be the first time I've gone to a quilt show on this scale. I've only ever seen pictures of quilts at shows either online or in magazines. I want to walk through the show, enjoying the other quilts there, turn a corner and see mine and Bam! Catch my initial reaction to it. Does it belong? Is it just ok or pretty good? I want to see all the vendors and see if there's something wonderful I can't find here locally to use. I want to try some of those quick workshops that are being planned and then, the part that's the scariest, I want to meet some of the people I only know from online.
Of course, I'm still not sure what I'm doing with my kids that weekend, but I plan on biting the bullet and asking for help from some of their friends' parents. That's a first for me too.


Travel Challenge-
Off topic chats often inspire challenges. This was one called "travel challenge" where we could make a travel poster (or post card) to celebrate where we live. I live in a rural area in SW Missouri and I suppose I could have put the name of my town on the poster, but it's really not why people come to visit here. They come for the Lake and all the activities associated with it.
I remember back when I lived in Florida, they were selling "water shoes" so you could go shelling without hurting your feet. I never thought a second about purchasing those shoes until I moved here. They are a must! The entire lake is ringed with rocks of all different sizes and all of them are sharp! So, when you come to visit our beautiful lake, don't forget the water shoes!

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Spring Storms-

We've been in the midst of quite a drought. We've had very little snow this year and our lake is lower than I've seen it in the 11 years I've lived here. But, it's Spring now and with that generally brings some strong storms. We got one on Saturday that was very intense. I'm full of superlatives about it. The most hail , the most rain in the shortest amount of time, the never before seen river flowing in our backyard, over and through our stone wall,and around our house, only to cross the road and head to the lake. The most beautiful mist rising afterwards.
I've included a few pictures.
My poor hubby! He is from the Cleveland area and knows next to nothing about flowers and gardening, but had to have pink plastic flamingos and a gazing ball in ours. I'm not sure why he thinks the pink flamingos are a nod to me being from Florida. I don't bother to tell him that native Floridians don't care about pink plastic flaminogs, the tourists from Ohio do! Gazing balls are firmly an Ohio thing. He finally got his gazing ball last year, but he dropped it when he was remodeling a flowerbed and broke it. So, recently, he replaced it, only to have this hail storm break it. I loved the picture my DD#2 took of it broken. You can see her in it as well as the poor beaten down daffodil and the pink flamingo as well.
Meanwhile, my DD#1 was away for a band competition all day. The bus trip was directly in the path of all of these "possible tornado producing storms" which made me a bit anxious. She came home talking a mile a minute about the whole experience. Since that's so unusual for her, it had to have been a great day. She seemed satisfied with her scores.
I'll be working this week to put together the final touches for the children's art show at my church this weekend.

mist from melting hail
Gazing ball-fractured

Hail and the daffodills