Home again, and back to work!

The Vallejo Artists' Open Studios weekend (November 12-13) is in my face big time, and I still have a lot of work to do on my main piece for the exhibit. It was very warm today, and the last thing I wanted to do was sit under a heavy quilt and a hot sewing machine lamp. I would have much preferred to be back at the hotel in Santa Clara... in the pool, or, at the very least, sitting on the edge of the pool, with my feet in the water, sipping a Jack & Coke. But, alas, that wasn't an option, so I turned on all of the fans and set to work here in my studio at The Hermitage. Every time I sit down to machine quilt these days, I thank The Goddess for my new Pfaff Expression with it's 11-inch arm and huge extension table. It makes my life so much easier, even in hot weather. At this point I'm about 40% finished with the quilting, and will probably finish that phase by the weekend. At that point I can make the hanging sleeve and bind it and be done with the grunt work. Then THE FUN starts... embellishment! I'm going to embellish this quilt to within an inch of its life, and if I'm not finished to my satisfaction by Open Studios weekend, I'll just keep working on it over the weekend, and let studio visitors see "The Artist at Work!"

Another thing for which I'm hugely thankful is The Pomegranate Seed, Vallejo's fabulous bead store located in the art district downtown. Let's take a moment for a plug here... this is a wonderful shop, with a wonderful array of beads, friendly, knowledgeable staff, and lots of classes. I'm particularly excited by their small, but high-quality selection of African beads, which is what I need for this quilt in progress, as well as the quilts in my head. So... PLEASE... if you're a beader in the Vallejo area, check them out and support them. I want to see them SURVIVE!!!

Lastly, I'm thankful for the new M&Ms peanut butter pieces. Not only are they beautiful, but they're melt-in-your-mouth creamy and delicious! I couldn't get through my quilting day without them!!


For those of you who want to see more quilts from the PIQF show, I have lots more photos to post, and will do so over the next few days. They all need editing, so it's going to take me a while to process them. For you critter fans, to my delight, I found a few critters I'd missed, so I'll share those as well.