Another adventure begins

My precocious little golden boy, my first baby, my whip-smart rugrat...has been suspended twice from kindergarten over the past few weeks.   He is a square peg in the round hole that is public school.  So we just made the decision after weeks of thought to pull him out and start homeschool.  I've been preoccupied with all that and not in the mental place for blogging.  But with that decided, we shall see...

BTW this book is fantastic:
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Jadeite 2563

Matches my turquoise Fiestaware perfectly.  So springy!

Daffodils and Eagles

Last weekend we took a serendipitous trip up to La Conner, which happened to also be the opening weekend of the annual bulb festival.  The tulips were really just starting, but the daffs were glorious!  Had a great time wandering the public gardens.

And browsing the antique shops.

And eating rainbow sherbet

And soaking up the not-completely-cloudy skies.

Then when we got home, this guy was waiting for us:

Not a bad day. 

Not too much stitching done again lately, but plans are in the works!

Mirage

For a "fantasy" themed landscape quilt challenge over on Valerie Hearder's yahoo group. 

Why yes, I am getting a little tired of the eternal winter around here-- gray, dark green, shadows, and rain-- so this is where I went to in my own personal fantasy.  The exact opposite, hot and parched.  Is that an oasis in the distance, or am I hallucinating from the heat?

This is a small quilt, about 10-11 inches by 11-12 inches, and uses a variety of hand-painted fabrics and commercial quilting cottons.  The shading on the dunes was painted by yours truly using Shiva paintstiks, and the dunes were appliqued down using a fusible web.  I hand embroidered some tiny french knots to add texture to the "desert floor" and machine top-stitched the distant mountains and water of the mirage using metallic machine threads.  Then I added beads because I can't help it, it's gotta have bling.