Thank you for the sweater love! I really appreciate your comments! I have a lot more knitting to show you, hopefully I'll get some photos locked and loaded for next week. I also have some questions to answer, so stay tuned.
I hate to use excuses for my lack of posting recently, but really, how often do you get to say "the garbage truck ate my internet." (Meaning--those supersized trucks keep pulling down the cable line that goes from our house to the pole across the street). This has happened 3 times in the past month or so. Seriously, I now brace myself every Monday morning (garbage day) to be without phone, cable tv and internet until Tuesday afternoon or even, heavy sigh, Wednesday. But I think this last cable guy got the line up higher so the problem will be solved for a while. Hopefully.
I went to the
Chicago Quilt Festival last weekend. Several people had asked my if I had a quilt in the show this year and I told them no. So imagine my suprise when I walked in and saw a friend who told me that my quilt looked great! I told her, I don't have a quilt in the show. She said "Oh yes, you do!"
This quilt, Trio, won the Master of Contemporary Artisty award in the
IQA show in 2001. It won me $5,000 and a trip to Houston. It was my only trip to the Houston show, and I made the trip with my then 5-week-old baby Molly and my
sister. That was such a special and exciting trip and I treasure those memories!! The quilt is now in the permanent collection of
Quilts, Inc. and they picked it to bring along and decorate their booth. I got to meet Ruth Moya, the show operations manager (above photo, in the middle). She was handing out a questionaire to show-goers.
She is so nice! And it was great of her to take my picture, so I got an unexpected me-with-my-quilt-at-a-show photo. And my clothes matched my quilt, even though I didn't plan* it!
So, in case you couldn't tell, from my enthusiasm and liberal use of exclamation points, it was a nice treat to see this quilt again and to have a quilt in the show after all.
Speaking of quilts, I am often asked when I'm going to make a big quilt again. Well, the answer is.....soon. The trouble is, sometimes soon, for me, means a few days and sometimes it means a year. But I'm working on it. This school year has been much busier than I expected with the kids (you experienced moms are shaking your heads and laughing at me, I know) and of course, the yarn takes a lot of time too. I'm feeling a little rusty at the quilting but trying to get the wheels turning again.
In anticipation of starting a big new quilt, I have been spending a lot of time spring cleaning the studio. Clearing out the cobwebs and clutter (literally) has helped clear out the clutter in the brain. You know, the voices that keep telling me that it won't be good.
I spent several days ironing and folding hand-dyed fabric that was messy, disorganized, wrinkled, and scattered around the studio in several piles.
Doesn't that bookshelf look yummy and inviting now? So which stack would you start with? The pinks and oranges?
How about the blues and greens?
I think I hear this stack of periwinkle calling me.....
*Would I normally plan my wardrobe so that I matched my quilt--of course!