starting over

According to Blogger, it's been almost 7 months since I've last been here. Seems impossible, but I'm sure Blogger is telling the truth.

And after all, a whole lot has happened in that time. Of course that's what a blog is for...sharing all those bits and pieces of life as it happens. Unfortunately, for various reasons I just wasn't really able to do that.

My life has changed in many BIG ways during this time and quilting has had to take a back seat to lots of other goings on. The changes were absolutely necessary, but sadly my creativity disappeared during those months. I'm relieved it's coming back. My head is once again filling up with applique designs that should soon be in process. Roses, always roses...but other motifs as well. I can't wait to get the designs on paper and then of course cloth.



There are other changes in my life as well. I'd spent all my years in the San Francisco bay area and while I always had a rose and perennial garden, there was the steady sound of a freeway in the background and all the other noises that go along with living in crowded suburbia. These days a fair amount of my time is spent in a place where all I hear is birds. And breezes. No rose garden, but lots of oaks, pine trees and canyon views. Deer and bobcats wander around. What I spend time looking at has affected the colors I'm now drawn to...I still love bright happy fabrics but these days I'm wanting to experiment with a more subdued palette.


I've brought Bittersweet back out and had a great time making a Delectable Mountains quilt--out of Civil War fabrics! Not one piece came from my stash--and that quilt may be the only one I've ever made that doesn't use any fabrics with roses on them.



I've made quilts with bluebirds on them but have never before been able to look out the window and actually see bluebirds. These are Mountain Bluebirds so aren't quite as bright as their eastern cousins, but they're a thrill for me every time I see them.

Even the eggs are different up here. Fresh from hens belonging to a new friend and instead of plain white, they're brown, pink and an aqua that's so pretty I have a hard time using them.

I now have a sewing machine in each of 2 counties. Life is good.