Another Quilt Top

Hello again from Westport Island, I keep thinking I will be on line in a timely fashion only to find life gets in the way. I am on the home stretch with my goal of having 12 quilts for a show in August. I took 3 to a machine quilter to quilt them and chose patterns that will go with the finished quilts. That was a fun experience as this is my first venture into the machine quilting realm. The next 2 will go to another machine quilter in Northport. I am working on 2 small and 1 twin with hand quilting. Plus have been going to a home sewing machine quilting class. What an interesting time that has been. My machine balked right off. It snarled the threads jammed the needle and was very much like an adolescent in its behavior. Once home and with some beautiful all cotton thread the machine has been a charm Now it is operator error that holds me back. So I have made lots of "sandwiches" with muslin and batting and another slice of muslin and am "practising" until my stitches look more or less even. They are controlled by the pressure on the foot pedal. I needed to slow down and that has been difficult. But I like to think I am improving and once I have a piece for show and tell will post it here.

On the web site front I have someone working on it as I type. The whole project is to learn how to update it myself. Especially to add new work and shows as they come not a year later and then say oh my word I need to update! This is what has happened now. Things look so old and I have lots of new encaustic paintings to put on the site. I will have an encaustic piece in Isalos Fine Art Gallery in Stonington, Maine for the Ames Pond Show. The opening night is July 6th. If you are near Stonington I invite you to come see the show. I still have encaustic postcards at the Deer Ilse Art Association Gallery in Deer Isle. They had a fund raiser where 2 of mine sold and they are keeping the unsold work over the summer so lots of good art for a worthy cause and not so much money. They are selling for $50.00 a piece and artists all over sent in post cards for this fundraiser. I think the number was over 600 cards.

Well, the garden calls and needs attention. All the rain and sun have added weeds to places I never expected but the overall look is one of lushness as the lupine are in full bloom, different colors this year as a pale pink has crept in. Foxglove are in bloom with the lemon lilies; blue and yellow Siberian irises, white anemones and a few primroses still blooming away,

Have a great week now that summer is just about here. Diane