After much thought I've about decided on the quiet background.

I'll admit that the busier backgrounds are what I use more often, but scale is imporatant. As you look at the pictures you may not be feeling the impact of the small scale that I get when I stand right in front of these houses.

The reverse appliqued window to the right of the door is just a tad over 1/4" x 1/4". I still have to add the trees and that will fill the blocks even more. I'm leaning toward rickrack and/or ribbon for 'grass'. The embellishments will be in scale with the houses. The more I looked at the busier backgrounds the more I worried that the cute details would be lost.

The thing to remember is that you want the applique to take center stage, not the background. I say this in classes and I realized yesterday that I needed to say it to myself as well. Whatcha think?

I've been working on the house quilt. My initial thought was to use these backgrounds with strong, mostly solid fabrics for the houses.

Then I started putting houses on them I wondered if they were too busy…

…so I changed some. This is a bit better.

I have the backgrounds cut at 6" x 6". They finish at 4" x 4" so there is a lot of fabric there that will be gone later. The thing is that I don't want the houses to be overshadowed by the background. So I tried this, which was OK.

And I tried this which is good but a little boring.

While the houses really show up on this last, quiet dot I'm torn because I like the second set of busy backgrounds too. But I plan to use some embellishments on this quilt and they might get lost if the backgrounds are too busy. Feel free to let me know which one(s) you prefer.

Austin College (where Steve works) celebrated April Fool's Day with its 4th Parade of Fools breast cancer fund raiser last Friday. Sadlly, I missed this parade.

This year six faculty and staff dressed up in costume for the parade.  Steve wasn't actually one of the six – he tells me he was a prop, playing Patsy to John McGinn's King Arthur of Monty Python and the Holy Grail fame. Steve already had the coconut halves and a backpack so there you go!

Here is another shot. Notice the concentration and obvious skill with coconuts!

Just in case you can't remember the sound of Patsy, you can hear it at the beginning of the movie clip  from YouTube, below.

Mom’s albums are at my house because there isn’t room for them in the duplex. Lucky me!

We spotted this photo of my mom and dad on their honeymoon. I don’t remember ever seeing either mom or dad on a bike – but this proves that they rode a bike at least once!

I think this photo was taken in Sun Valley, Idaho, in 1954.

…is my entry for the Alzheimers Challenge Auction. My quilt is due August 1 and I think my entry will be the one that shows up at Ami's door on that very day. This year's challenge has a hockey theme and we even have pictures!

This is a project that I can build in front of you as I go (no secrets!) so I thought you might want to see the line drawings for my house blocks.

This is the page from my notebook that I worked from:

I'm going to add rickrack and ribbon and beads and buttons to dress up the houses. The blocks will be 4" x 4". The 2" borders will have these words:

I'm not sure how I will put the words on the borders. I'd like to applique them but it will depend on the time I have to finish it.

I applique at night and I took the last stitch in my current project on Friday night. Tonight I should be cutting out templates.

Seriously, 7 days have passed and while I thought about writing a post, I never was able to stop long enough to do it. Here’s a quick catch-up:

Lafayette was wonderful! I left during a flashy thunderstorm and am back in Texas where it may not rain until fall. We are looking at a long, hot, dry summer. It happens.

I spent a full day catching up on the papers on my desk. Now that I have both mine and mom’s it takes longer. Her stuff is still in transition so it seems that there is always another address to change or call to make. That will get better.

Linda and I have worked on finishing the manuscript for the next book. Here’s a small sample of what you will see in about a year…

I quilted some more. Still loving the Sweet Sixteen. I promise details in a few days. This is where I hope to pick up today:

It is still in the machine where I was when I shut down Friday afternoon.

We had everyone for dinner last night: Chris and Lorna and Jack, my mom and sister. Jack stayed overnight and we watched Star Wars and ate popcorn – what a night!

This morning Jack and I took mom to Lowe’s to buy flowers for her flower beds. Mom’s birthday is on Easter this year and I’ll be out of town. I often plant flowers for her for her birthday and mother’s day combined. We all went back to the duplex and got them in the ground. I’ve also done some planting at my house – and, yes, I have a gnome. I just couldn’t help myself.

And, last but not least, I’ve started amassing the stuff I can’t forget to take with me when I go on the road again. I leave April 15 for Toronto where I teach for two different guilds. I leave there and fly to Paris (via Boston) where I’ll meet up with Linda, and Linda’s sister (Judy) and cousin (Paula) for 5 days! After that Linda and I go on to teach at the quilt show in Nantes. This is one of those trips where instead of packing more it’s important to pack less. So I’m trying to really be careful about what I pack, hence the growing pile on my dresser.

I promise to write more posts this coming week. I do think there’s chance that things may be a little less hectic!