Warterlogue

I found a new toy/tool.  It's called Waterlogue and need an I-platform.  It turns your pictures into watercolors.  There are about a dozen special effects.

This picture of my niece was cropped from a larger photo.

Here are flowers from my yard.
 I'm thinking rying to reproduce these in paint.


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This is my sister's house, as seen from the front.

And the house from the back.  This is the Travelogue effect.






And the car I hope to buy next month.

Easter Visits

This year at Easter I had special visitors.

Lizz and Rachel came over for lunch on Friday and brought their sons Lane and Madden

The boys used the table that was mine as a little girl.  They liked the teapot that comes with it.

Sweet boys.

 Madden especially liked my Teeny Beanie Baby 'mingos.

He and Lane invented a new game - they moved the vanity bench next to the guest bed, climbed up onto the bed using the bench, and then jumped off the foot of the bed, over the footboard.  Such fun.






On Saturday, I went to my sister's for the traditional Easter hamburgers and pinata bash.

We also had an egg hunt, an egg toss, and cascarones to smash on each other's heads.




Then on Sunday morning, I was visited by a real bunny - what a surprise that was!

Glad my garden has raised beds.  Wonder how high he can hop?

Sally Collins Workshop

Last weekend I went to a two day class held by the Austin Area Quilt Guild.  The teacher was Sally Collins and the subject was precision piecing.
I've been quilting for a bazillion years, and precision is not my forte.
For this class, I was determined to really pay attention, to try to do things exactly as the instructor directed, and to actually learn something instead of just going for a good time and maybe an idea or two.
Sally is a really good teacher.  I was able to do really good piecing as long as I followed her rules and processes.  It's slow.  Very slow.  But accurate.

Because my car had some problems, I caught a ride with a fellow guild member.    So, when I set my machine up and it wouldn't go, I had no choice but to sit and listen and make do.  I managed to get most of my three inch basket block pieced by turning the wheel by hand.  Talk about slow - this is REALLY slow.  But it looked good.

That evening, I finished the basket using my Singer Featherweight.  And I looked at my block and realized that the colors I had chosen were too pale for its intended use as a pincushion.  So Sunday morning I proceeded to piece another block.  I went to the class in the afternoon and pretty much finished the pincushion.  It is not perfect, but it looks damn good.

I put the pale block on my design wall and let it speak to me.  It said that it didn't have enough contrast.  I had just seen a post from a friend about a class that SHE had taken, in which paint was used on fabric.  I had also read a blog post from a quilter I admire in which she talked about accenting a block with paint.  And I said what the heck.  So I got out the fabric dye that I bought at quilt festival probably 10 years ago.  There was no pink, but I diluted the scarlet and carefully added a little dye to the 3/8 inch triangles that needed more color.  It looks better to me now, and I know that I can continue to make it darker if I need to.

Will I continue to use her processes?  I don't know.  I'd like to think so, but I do know my limitations. 

Spring is here

I've never seen ajuga blooming so well.  Must be all that attention I give it.  Yeah, right .

I found the chair out by the trashcans in the alley and nabbed it.

I have purple iris along the west fence; this yellow one is next to the garage wall, as is this poppy.




I planted some herbs in a pot - hoping that at least the basil will do well.