I Like #235

 It's been a really chaotic couple of weeks, but amid the work stress I fit in a quick trip to my family in New Mexico which was really wonderful and refreshing.  My parents are kindly keeping Spooky and Blue since my house will be re-tiled next week.  I miss them very much, the house is so calm with just Bentley, but I think he likes the peace.

As usual, we did lots of walking/hiking while I was there.  The dogs love it.

In Lincoln National Forest

Higher up in the mountains in the National Forest we went and hunted Christmas trees with my parents and cousins.  I didn't bring one back this year, but we got one for my parents and uncle.

The view from the Christmas tree hunting area.

My dad split wood and I helped haul it.  Hopefully they'll have enough for the winter, it's been so warm lately I think they will

Driving down into the surrounding desert to see my Grandma and more dog walking!

Mom and I made some cute baskets out of the wonderful artist postcards we collect.

I helped mom get her Christmas lights up (Dad hates that task)

And I got the lights up at my house.  I love the festive glow.

We had a hard freeze in OK over Thanksgiving (of course all this week it's been horribly warm, today is going to be 78!!).  The freeze killed everything except my beloved petunias.  So glad they were hearty enough to live through! I have some white ones that are still going too!

I'm not having an indoor tree this year because of the tiling project, but I set up this small tree that belonged to my grandmother on my back porch.  It provides some lovely sparkle on my porch.  I might move it inside after the tiling is done.  Makes me happy to see it, and think of my grandma!

Bentley is getting extra snuggles, he's really been struggling to get around lately.

Beautiful trees on the walk into work

It's such a blessing to have my family to support me while I struggle with things at work.  I'm so grateful for them.  For more things to like click over to LeeAnna's!

I Like #234

 This week has been a back-to-routine week, after some late October travel.  Mostly I've been desperately trying to catch up at work and in the evenings haven't had the energy to do anything except snuggle with the dogs.  But the dogs are such good snugglers, it makes everything feel better!

Cash and Brett came over last week, and Cash and Spooky rumpused for hours.

I've started sitting more on the armchair than the couch (since Spooky has unstuffed a bunch of the couch. However, that means both Spooky and Blue sit right on top of me.  

Bentley is good too, he's just hanging in there. 

I'm so pleased that after a dreadful summer in the garden and the loss of all my dahlias, the fall flowers are really nice.  All annuals, but so lovely.  I have zinnias and salvia and petunias and marigolds and begonias all just blooming away.  So nice.  I don't get to see them very often since it's dark when I get home and leave for work now, but today I'm working from home so its wonderful to look out the window at them!

There were two audiobooks I listened to this week and wanted to share.

One is Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism by Elsa Sjunneson  I learned so much from listening to to the author talk about her experiences in a society in which people with disabilities are still excluded from so much and ableism is so entrenched in our worldview.

And the other is The Light Ages, by Seb Falk.  I'm still in the middle of it but am really enjoying it.  It's about the history of science in the middle ages.  Super cool.

I recommend both of them!

I hope there are things to like in your weeks, and for more good things, click over to LeeAnna's!

I Like #233

 This past weekend was the Quilt Festival in Houston and my mom and went for a couple of days.  It was really wonderful to see some of our SAQA friends in person, see tons of beautiful quilts, and stock up on some supplies.  People in general were really good about wearing their masks, which was good.  

There were way too many great quilts to share them all, but here were a few favorites of mine:

I loved this exhibit of eyes put on by Sacred Threads, each pair of eyes was from a different artist, maybe about a hundred in all and all deliciously different. 

Artist Timna Tar had a solo exhibit of her wonderful animal quilts.  They were all wonderful, but my favorites were these two: 

The Hare Apparent, Timna Tarr

The Duchess of Dirt, Timna Tarr

Traditional Hand-drying Noodle Maker, Hsiu-Pei Hsieh


I absolutely loved this dimensional piece by Bob Mosier in SAQA's show Microscape.  

All the dimensional white is thread work.  So amazing.

Xylem Plant Cell, Bob Mosier

I was very pleased that my quilt that was hanging in Houston as part of SAQA's show Connections was sold!  It will travel around for three years with the show and then go to a new home.

My sister's kids wanted to be a washer and dryer for Halloween so she made them these super adorable costumes.  So fantastic!  It was wonderful to see them when I dropped off and picked up the dogs, even for just a few minutes.

Spooky loves being at my sister's, but he was also very snuggly with me when we got home.

And finally, I managed to blog about my recently finished SAQA trunk show piece this week.  See more about it here.

Click over to LeeAnna's for more things to like!

Gourds #4, SAQA Trunk Show

There was recently a call out for the SAQA Trunk Show, and I wanted to make a 3D piece for it.  The SAQA Trunk Show is a collection of small art quilts (divided into trunks) that anyone can check out for a nominal fee and then share with whatever group they're interested in.  Common examples include quilt guilds, local SAQA pods, etc. but this year we're hoping to have a broader audience for the trunk show.

Since the pieces have to be small, many of my 3D approaches wouldn't really work.  However, a few years ago I made several small 3D "gourds" loosely inspired by mariner's compass and other star blocks.  Here are the original three; they're too big for the Trunk Show, but I thought it might be an approach that could be shrunk down.

I started with some leftover bits of painted fabric, made a quilt sandwich and then marked my star lines.  After quilting, I cut out the star and started sculpting!

Here is after just putting in some stitches to help hold the main parts of the form.

To help it hold its shape and not collapse, I coated it with fabric stiffener and used pencils to create little curls.  Here's the final piece, it's about 9x10x4 inches.

Now I just have to pack it up and get it sent to SAQA!  If you're interested in getting a trunk to present to your local group, you can find more info here: https://www.saqa.com/resources/saqa-trunk-show

 

I Like #232

 Welcome to another week of things to like!

This week we were excited to wish my younger cousin bon voyage as she starts a new chapter in her life; she's an aquarist who used to work at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago but is moving to Abu Dhabi to help them design and build a huge new aquarium there.  What a super cool adventure!  She's the littlest girl in the front of this picture from Easter c. 1992 (that's my sister and me in the back).  Good luck Sage!!

I have a pot of begonias that is still blooming; I think I'll try to bring it in and overwinter it.  We'll see if I can find space in the house by a window!

Bentley and Blue got into a small tussle this week over some food molecules in the bottom of a bowl (you can see a small injury just to the side of Bentley's eye), but a couple hours later they were snuggled right up together on the dog beds.  Craziness.

And here, Spooky had been barking non-stop straight at Bentley for several minutes.  I don't know if he wanted Bentley to play or wanted Bentley to get off the pouf, or wanted the little dog bone on the pouf (about which Bentley cares not at all).  Regardless, I love Bentley's serene face; he just completely ignored Spooky.

I went to our annual Diocesan church convention this weekend.  Some parts were inspiring and some more boring business meeting, but I got a lot of knitting done, including finishing the sleeves on my sweater.  I'm now on the border.  It's very long (all the way around the edge/bottom/hood) but it does mean I'm almost nearing the end!  Of course then I'll have to weave in the 800 ends, but that's just life!

I hope everyone had a good week!!!  Click over to LeeAnna's for more things to like!

I like #231

 Welcome to another week of things to like!  The weather here has been perfect this week, 70s in the day and 50s at night. I love that it's cooling off but not cold.  I've been enjoying getting out and wearing my hand knits (although my office is sweltering which is too bad). 

We went to the OKC philharmonic this weekend and the show theme was humor.  It was really a fantastic and delightful performance all around, with pieces centered around the Carnival of the Animals.  So much fun.

Another good piece of news this week!  We have tracked down several of our older homebound parishioners who disappeared from their last known addresses this week.  We had been very worried about them, and it was great to find where they were (most had moved into nursing homes or assisted livings but weren't well enough to notify the church).  So wonderful to find them!!

Our lab went out to lunch at my favorite pizza place this week to celebrate the grant we got last month (we'd had to reschedule the lunch several times) so it was great to finally get to go all together!

My one big pink zinnia bush (it's adopted bush-like proportions) is really still going gangbusters in the garden.  It's complemented by a giant marigold bush-  I feel like these two wonderful colorful mainstays are giving the finger to all those wretched bugs that killed off everything else in the garden!

I really loved seeing this furry magnolia tree thing as I was walking to my car the other day at work!  I walk past it often, and have frequently seen these structures with blossoms, but I don't recall ever noticing this furry version.  So cool!

I am going to be installing new flooring in my house right after Thanksgiving (talk about chaotic) but I picked out the tile this week after much deliberation, and I'm very happy about that!  I hope the project goes smoothly, more on that later I'm sure!

I loved this Gollum meme a knitting friend posted on instagram this week.  I really truly hate weaving in ends, and my current project has billions.  Of course I'm still knitting on it, (it's never ending) but someday I will have to weave in the ends.

Blue and Spooky wanted to run away with the glue covered chopstick in my hand.  They are a hoot.  And they were leaving Bentley alone which was good.

I hope everyone is having a good week!  Click over to LeeAnna's for more things to like!