Buggy excitement stewing in Georgia

While I was looking for something else, I came across a box of oatmeal that's been the happy home of a host of bugs since it was opened a while ago. There was also a batch of sorrowful cloth soaking in the soda ash just waiting to be raptured. I put them all together with a little magic and dye powder and this time tomorrow we'll see what's brewed up in all this heat and humidity.

survivors

Here are the tadpoles that Colin vacuumed up out of the pool. They are living in a 40 gallon container at the edge of the woods. I sincerely hope that they head for the creek when they climb over the side, and not the pool where they started. No doubt I'll be cursing them once they are screaming through the night with their parents, still, more frogs=less mosquitoes.

more QN thoughts

Thanks to Deidre Adams for posting a fine overview of QN 2011. When I first attended QN the biggest impression I got from seeing the quilts in person was the impact of the sheer size of  the majority of the pieces.

This time my impressions are the overall confidence and intent of the art. Because of the rule about keeping these works unpublished before the judging, I imagine that many of them were created with only this venue in mind.
 
It makes me wonder about my own level of confidence as I imagine designing and building several significant pieces with no input from anyone at all - a secret undertaking with no one to confide in except the mirror which could easily be a font of delusional bullshit!  I am so accustomed to sharing my process and where it takes me that working under cover like that looks like a grim, joylessness sentence. And just imagine getting rejected, three for three, after spending two years in that solitary cell. All the more reason to congratulate all the participants once again.

Sunday

I

It's not all drudgery! Put some old cloth into the soda ash soup in preparation for discharge experiments. Spent some time in the pool and sun today, burned up some burgers and kabobs, lingered over the NY Times and finished rolling up the latest batch of magic cloth burritos. In a little while Jim and I will be leaving for Turner Field to see the Braves play the Reds. Woo woo...Night games!

ps- it's really great when the home team wins!

Go Judy!!

This is my friend Judy Martin with her entry at Quilt National.

For those who might not know, getting into QN is the Holy Grail for art quilters.
 
The only shot that would be more perfect would be to see her with this quilt wrapped around her shoulders in a big hug.

Congratulations Judy!