What Is It?

Here's the deal: Below are two pictures of the same subject. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to identify it. It is not enough to say "animal, vegetable, mineral". You have to be specific. In the event that several people are correct, there will be a random drawing to determine a winner. You may enter as many times as you wish, but you cannot use the same answer each time!



Remember: To be eligible for the prize, you must leave a comment as to what you think the object is. Within the body of the message leave your first name and city in case you do not have a Google account. It will be very difficult to draw a winner from several Anonymous senders! The contest will officially end at midnight on Saturday, August 2. This should give everyone time to play!

I am eagerly anticipating your participation! I think you will be surprised at the answer to this riddle...but you'll have to wait til Sunday to find out. Tee Hee, this is just toooooo much fun!

Almost Monday--Again

For those of you who worry that I don't get enough quilting done--take heart. Today I finished the center to two quilts. One is in fall colors, and the other is a black oriental floral with alternate squares of pink mottled that was started many years ago. I decided to change the inner border on the oriental one from green to a pink batik, so I didn't get to add borders today. I also need to find the appropriate border for the fall one. But it felt good to be in the sewing room, working with my featherweight and listening to Randy Travis's new CD, Around the Bend. For those of you who don't know--are there any of you?--I LOVE Randy Travis! He is my all-time favorite singer. I even have a picture of him--with his autograph! And...I got it when my BBFF Cindy and I went to see him live about a year and a half ago. We had seats so close to the stage that we could easily have thrown ourselves at him and not been stopped--but we behaved ourselves--that's our story--and we are sticking with it! LOL

Since I posted last, I have taught precision machine piecing, pressing and rotary cutting on two different projects, helped lay out blocks and cut borders for the year-long machine pieced block of the month class that is just finishing in a nearby city; taught my method of hand quilting to 9 students AND was the entertainment for a baby shower where we sewed blocks for the mom-to-be.

Then, lest you think I am a lady of leisure, I mowed the two acre lawn--but that was fraught with difficulty--I got about 3/4s done with the big mower when one of the blades bent, causing it to make strange crop-circle-like divots in the grass. So I ended up mowing the rest of the lawn--at least 1/2 an acre--with the hand mower. But I got it done! "I am woman, hear me roar", well, maybe not, I'm too tired right now.

Here are some pictures I took this afternoon--I love catching the bees in the pollen!



The next time I post (in the next day or two, I promise), there will be a "test". I'm going to post a picture and see if anyone can tell me what it is! The answer will be revealed by week's end--who knows, there may even be a prize involved. But you won't be able to win if you don't leave a comment.

Til then--remember to take care of yourself--thread your needle and have a bit of stitching fun. It'll help keep you sane--OK, at least it won't hurt you!

Sunday Update

How was your weekend? I spent half of mine teaching and the other half getting ready to teach this week! With 3 full-day classes and one half-day, I need to stay organized and try to pick up the right combination of bags for each day! I probably have the largest supply of the extra-large LL Bean totes of anyone I know--and I load them down for each class. I also have one bag that goes to all classes--it contains extra rulers, markers, my picture book, rotary cutter, scissors, sandpaper boards, a first aid kit and lots more. I am enamored of the Coast Guard motto: Semper Peratus--Always Prepared.

How's this for rude? I had a student in my hand quilting class last week who said that she had taken hand quilting from a different teacher, who told her, before the class was over: "You might as well give up, you will never learn this"! Talk about demoralizing! Luckily she didn't listen and came to my class--where she did an excellent job and picked up the technique like nobody's business! So if a teacher is rude to you, don't give up--find someone else who can make your quilting dreams come true. There's nothing like the smile on students' faces when the AHA moment comes and they realize that they can indeed do it.


A Reminder: PLEASE remember to close the guard on your rotary cutter before setting it down, or between cuts. It is so easy so think nothing bad will happen to you if you don't, but in the blink of an eye you can do serious damage to yourself or a loved one. Better safe than sorry. Some of you already see me standing over you (even when I'm not physically there!) telling you this--do not make me come over there!

Have a wonderful start to the week. Let's expect great things to happen every day! And let me know what you are up to--I love getting mail (comments).