Good News!

It's been a while, hasn't it? I just can't believe how fast the time flies, and I can't seem to put my finger on where the time goes!

Wabi Sabi is the piece shown above this entry. It is hanging at the Sabatini Gallery in Topeka, KS "Covers Blown" exhibit along with two other pieces of mine. I went to the opening reception, and everyone was buzzing about my pieces. It was so wonderful to see people looking closely at how things were done, and asking questions about them! Sort of a validation of the number of brain hours I spent figuring out how to represent my mental thoughts in a visual way with fiber, you know?

The gallery did a beautiful job of hanging the exhibit - the lighting was fabulous and the venue will draw many people from the community, too. The reason I am showing you Wabi Sabi is because it will be going to a new home. It SOLD!!! I am pretty excited about that, let me tell you!

I've been getting projects cut and bagged for our upcoming Rochester, Minnesota Mayo Clinic trip. So far, I have 8 projects in various stages. Do you think that will be enough for two weeks? LOL! I even have two quilts that will be bound in the car when I am not driving. We don't anticipate any unexpected events to occur this time. Just a day surgery to for a little repair on an incision, and then a week-long annual post transplant checkup. So I should be able to plow right through a bunch of stuff!

Other than that, our yard is looking like a professional is taking care of it! With all the rain we've had, everything is just luscious! I decided that now would be a great time for pictures of a few of my favorite things like I did last spring.

This is my newest birdhouse, hanging on the garden shed. I really love the "chimes" made of kitchen utensils. You can't see it, but the clapper is a "church key".

The daisy bed has been invaded by some sort of wild yellow flower that I'm not quite sure of, but they can stay as long as they continue to balance the color like this.

We have 10 or so Sweet Bay Magnolias around the house, north and south sides. I'd like to have more of them, and I will probably replace some large Kanardi Junipers with magnolias next year. They are the latest blooming magnolias, and they tolerate the extremely cold temperatures and ice we have here in the midwest. They smell absolutely glorious when they bloom, too. They are a bit early this year, but they are gorgeous! And the aroma? It drifts in my bedroom windows at night, and makes me dream....

This chicken with hens and chicks in her is from my mother's house. The hens and chicks (and I think I see a new little rooster) are many, many generations of the same plant that my mother grew as I was growing up. When anyone remarked on them, she would just break some off, hand them over and they are now growing in all sorts of friends and relatives gardens. By the end of the summer, this pot will be over-flowing again, looking for new homes to go to. I have it sitting at the head of our driveway, beside the walkway to the back deck, and I see her every day. It makes me smile to think of how many chicks are growing somewhere else because of my mom's generosity. It also makes me a bit sad because I really miss my mom.

So now, I will be back to getting bags and boxes and fabric ready to go. My brain seems to be working overtime, and I've almost gotten a new art quilt designed in my head. Now, to get it out to the paper design wall. Hopefully, when I get back, there will be something on paper! I am going to use my poem: Where Sharon's from as a starting point. Unfortunately, I don't think this piece will be for sale, like "Her Mother's Daughter" in my last entry, but I must need to work these things out, I suppose. Here it is again:

Where Sharon's From
I am from apple dumplings,
from Capezio shoes
and phosphate drinks.
I am from the laundry flapping in the wind
and the penny pinching.
I am from the pink hollyhocks,
the double blossoms perfect
for making a clothespin baby's skirt.

I am from the scrabble dirt farmers
and wide hips and big feet,
from Rollie and Isabel
and all the Unknowns in the genealogy charts.
I am from the stubborn and the strong.
From "work before pleasure" and
"idle hands are the devil's workshop".
I am from vacation bible school
with baptismal blue Bible gifts.

I'm from the Heartland,
tacos and enchiladas,
pot roast on Saturdays
and fried chicken on Sundays.
From my Papa's softly whispered "Bonita Chiquita",
and my Father's arc welded steel,
and my Mother's sudsy hands.
I am from forgotten
black and white pictures,
misplaced names and places.
Faces that look at me from the mirror of my life.