More bits and pieces:

Alzheimer's Quilt Auction for August is different, and special.  They're auctioning the quilts that traveled in the exhibit Alzheimer's:  Forgetting Piece by Piece.  Many of these quilts were made by well known quilters.  Check out the link and bid if you can, starting tomorrow.

This obituary, of Ardis James, whose donations started the University of Nebraska center for quilt studies, appeared in the New York Times a few weeks ago.  I knew about the center, but nothing about its founders.  What's interesting is how much her life experiences as a quilter were like those of many of us.  She loved fabric:  who doesn't?

Recently I bought a small painting from my friend Libby Fife, who blogs about her painting and other creative endeavors here.  I'm so happy to have it framed and on my wall.  The frame came from Dick Blick, very nice, very inexpensive.

I've been working on ribbon medallion centers for my guild show:  here's the first batch, the white ribbons.  The rosette and streamers will be the polka dot fabric with ribbon accents.

And finally, I got a new haircut, the shortest I've had for years.  Apparently it makes me look slimmer, which I am, but no one had noticed before.  Unfortunately, as Nora Ephron says, "I feel bad about my neck."  I also feel bad about my glasses, and my teeth, but one can't dwell on that stuff.

Not So Much...

That would be my answer to "What have you been doing?"    I spent two weeks staying at my sister's.  She had eye surgery which required a week in a facedown position afterwards and another week of very restricted activity.  My role was to take over the responsibility for my mother who lives with her, as well as help with housework and cooking.  I didn't take any handwork, and away from my usual computer access, I was limited in following what other people have been doing.

I've been home a week now, and am catching up around here.  In the heat, our basement is a good place to be, and I've spent quite a few hours updating mailing lists for my guild's upcoming show.  These little bags for the member boutique are the only creative thing I've done.

The pattern is the Cash and Carry bag from Atkinson Designs.  It seems odd to use a pattern, since I made and sold so many little bags like this, with no pattern.  But for this, I didn't see any reason to reinvent the wheel, and it's nice to have all the thinking and measuring done for you.  This pattern has very clear directions, although there's really nothing except the zipper insertion method that you couldn't figure out for yourself; that gives very nice results.  The results would be even better if Janome had a zipper foot with a clear stitching guideline.  Why don't they?  And why is the accufeed foot designed so there is no easy way to figure a quarter inch seam? 

My next project will be the medallions for the center of our prize ribbons, and then maybe I'll work on the Greek Key quilt, fast becoming a real UFO.  Stay cool if you can everyone, and if you can't, be careful.