I'm having foot surgery today. Dr. Hayes is going to sand off a bone spur and re-shape my big toe. It is my sincere hope that I'm going to bounce back as quickly as I think I will. So today I'm going to share a lovely new flower from my backyard. I've just put in a passion flower vine and so far it's doing well.

The lady who sold it to us said we'd have passion fruits. We'll see about that.

We needed shade next to the pool and there are no good places to put posts that would hold up a patio cover. What to do? I found Backyard City online – they make sail shades!

We needed on custom-made so we followed directions, drew a diagram and sent it off. It came last week and Steve installed it. And then he re-worked the installation a few days later.

Steve used a jack hammer (we are on rock) to make the hole for the pole that you can't see on the far right. He made braces and attached them in the attic to the roof rafters. Then he put huge eye-bolts through the roof to hold the other two points of the shade. He only had to change move one of the eye-bolts two times to get the tension right! This wasn't easy and I sincerely appreciate the effort he put into getting it just right. Seriously, how many college professors do you know who can do this sort of thing?

The shade moves as the day goes by. My studio windows don't get so hot. The pool is a good temperature for swimming. Now I just need time to go outside!

"New fabric" are two words that will make a quilter's heart flutter. You're
hearing it here first – we'll send a newsletter tomorrow. You may notice
that I've
rearranged our fabric pages by color groups. If you go to these pages
you'll see some lovely dots.

The fabric home page has the Packs O' Dots and fabric that didn't fit in with the colors on the other pages.

Blues and greens, reds and pink, yellows and orange each have their own page. These are some seriously happy pages to look at!

I flew into the Greensboro Airport last Thursday. There was an exhibit of art and furniture. I'm not sure if the 'Phillips Collection' named is the Phillips Collection Museum, but it could be. What was sort of unusual was that you could get into the exhibit and sit on those chairs if you wanted to. I was in too big a hurry to sit, but I did take a couple of quick photos.

They look kind of comfortable but I'll bet those strips get dusty at the edges. Not sure how I'd deal with that. 

By the time this post goes up I'll be on my way home. It's always nice to go home to my very fine husband and my own bed. I'll post more next week – enjoy your weekend!

I've been in North Carolina teaching for a week. First at Randy's Quilt Shop in Greensboro, then I visited the Brunswick Quilters in Shallotte, and now I'm in Wilmington with the Quilters By The Sea. Each of the quilters in my classes have been wonderful and we've had lots of fun!

I've seen the ocean twice – and sat on the sand once. On the way to the beach, the pattern of the fence pickets on the sand made me stop and pull out my camera…

Even better in a close-up:

I am a bona fide member of the American Quilt League! I am joined by 3 team members: John Flynn, Hollis Chatelain, and Sue Nickels. Last year the four of us each made a miniature quilt that was auctioned off and the proceeds all went to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. This year there are eight quilters on two teams and all eight of us are competing in the World Series Quilt Challenge.

Sue, Hollis, John and I each got to invite a person to be on the 'opposing' team. I am happy to tell you that Judy Mathieson (my invitee), Caryl Bryer Fallert, Mary Sorenson, and Ricky Tims have joined in the fun. You can read more in the official press release here.

Some of us (but not me) have already started their competition quilt. All eight quilts will hang in the AAQI booth in Houston this fall. All eight will be auctioned off. One of these quilts could be yours so start saving your pennies/dollars now!

You can root for any one of us before the quilts are even made! Click here to go to the World Series Quilt Challenge page and click ROOT for details. Help the American Quilt League bring home the championship – and that would be raising the most money in this fight to find a cure for Alzheimers.

I am going to start work my quilt when I get home from teaching in North Carolina. I
will post about it to keep you informed.