morning coffee on the back porch in July

Monkey

photo.jpg
Originally uploaded by martha_bilski

The monkey is done. It was my thread for today. We are going to dinner for a belated anniversary dinner. Maybe sewing some blocks for DJ later. I am feeling tempted to begin another swap, but maybe making a few blocks will save me!

so many things

I want to do so many things and I am feeling just incapable of doing anything. I want to paint and draw and write and sew and take classes and go kayaking. All these things are available but I do not have the time to do them all. How do I choose?
There is not enough time in two lifetimes to finish all of the quilts that I want to make. Why do I want to make them? they are not high art. I am not chilly. I will not sell them.
I wrote a couple of pages in the doctors office. That will have to do. The boobs are scanned and there are no new or worrisome things. Good to go for another six months. The writing is mundane and boring. What else to expect while waiting for a sonogram of your boobs.
We visited the nieces yesterday and they are always a joy. They are pretending not to want to have their pictures taken.
I will sew some today and wrap some things for mailing and that will be my afternoon...

fun with leaves and poetry

Every summer I want to do this and I wait till the leaves are too dry. I have been saving the rice paper and have plenty of paint-I am a hoarder of paint-so today I just did it. Make prints while the sun shines. Mike was concerned that I would use too many leaves and Bailey thought it strange that I just got up and began doing this with no discussion. Little did they know I had been scheming for many summers now.
Mary Oliver wrote a poem with a line that says,
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"
Read by Garrison Keillor, on his podcast called The Writers Almanac, available for free on Itunes, or from this link.

Sky through the southern window

Swaps and murmerings

I am working on my swaps. I have received a cross stitched square from Cyndi and it was so nice that I have not been able to finish the one I am doing for her for fear it will not be good enough. I am also doing birthday siggies. All of my christmas siggies are ready to mail. I need to get them to the post office. I am almost caught up with birthdays tho ~~so that is good.
I have not worked on my tris in a week and I want to do seven different DJs. in seven different colors. I also want to write a book a poem a movie and paint portraits of strangers applying lipstick in the mall food court.
I almost had a picture but then she moved.
She was murmuring softly to herself in between applying the inner color and the outer lip liner color. She had a protruding mole on her upper right lip which she covered with the liner. And a little mirror that had a clip which hooked around her index finger leaving her other fingers free to hold the lipstick cases as she inspected her work.
her heavy cleavage was exposed and she was dressed entirely in black~what used to be called a twinset , black pants and shoes. all black except for for her bright red lips whose color was probably named after a wine, or a flower or mythological beast.
She was entirely oblivious to the cacophony of the food court as she sat stock still before her tiny mirror.
o the promise of the perfect color of lipstick.

This is fun

I don't know if I could do 725 of them like Janyce did for her prize
winning quilt at the vermont quilt festival . But a couple or three
dozen would make a cool wall hanging or baby quilt.
Minka has a picture on her blog of the whole beautiful thing. I used a cd to draw the circles on my nickels which left a less than quarter inch for a seam allowance-which was plenty.
Hanne shared a link with a tutorial in pictures....