I'm happy to be home! However, I came home to a cranky computer. I've spent most of today with tech support. I did learn a new thing (who knew my actual computer had a cache that ought to be emptied once a month!) but I was unable to do what I had planned to do today. Deep breath. Sigh. I did not go ballistic at the tech support people :-). But now it's OK.

On the home improvement front… I painted a couple of brass fixtures for my friend, Laurie, at Habitat for Humanity. They have a bunch of these in their warehouse, different styles, and they want to sell them. She asked if I could make people want to buy them… Imagine that you have a dated, brass fixture like this:

You can spray paint it! I used the paint I had. This is a matte white – I think it would be more fun in gloss, but this is not bad at all.

This is a different fixture in gloss red:

I would use round bulbs. There is more that you could do but it's dinner time and I really am hungry :-). I think you get the idea. My message to you is: spray paint!

I took pictures of patterns yesterday and this morning when I was out walking. These are all patterns in metal and I thought I'd share:

If you've heard me lecture, you've heard me say that I pay attention to what I see because I often see something interesting. Some of what I see might be good in a quilt. The diagonal lines (above) could be quilting or piecing lines. It looks like the size of the diamonds might be different above and below the squares. The designs in the squares could be applique! The scalloped line at the edge is nice as well.

I loved this manhole cover. Look closely at the way new lines are added to the wedges to the outside of the circle.

This would be fun to piece.

And then there's this one. I've posted it on flickr, facebook, and tumblr (see, I'm using all of my current social media platforms!)

What got my attention first were the circles. Then I read the words. Sanitary sewer… couldn't that be a very clean sew-er? That's us!

I had some time this afternoon to work on my tumblr page. Oh, please click here so that I don't think the time was spent in vain :-). If you don't follow me on twitter, instagram, or facebook, you'll see the photos I've posted lately. The tatooed chicken is sort of worth a look. 

A short story about the chicken… it's big and up on a sign pole in a not-so-lovely part of Hot Springs. I had to circle back to take the picture. A patrol car was parked underneath the chicken and I was pulled into a scary-looking liquor store parking lot in front of him, with iPhone out snapping photos. I wondered what he was thinking… but I just had to get a photo of this tatooed chicken! The print you can't read under the wing says 'Don't be a chicken' — meaning just go ahead and get a tatoo. I didn't.

I've also started a show & tell group in flickr. This page has real fun potential. Again, please do click here. I've posted the first photo. Click, add your photos to the group. Come back often. I'm going to love seeing how you use our patterns but I think you all will enjoy seeing what gets posted even more!

Enjoy your stitching tonight. I'm going to come back to the hotel after dinner, turn off the computer and sew hexagons together.

I'm in Little Rock, eating breakfast and getting ready for a day of teaching. I'm looking forward to it – the ladies in the class are very nice and they are excited! I think we'll all have a good day.

I just saw this video on The Quilt Show site and had to share because it almost hits home. I've been working in the last few days to be more connected social media-wise. I'm trying to figure out how to mesh facebook, flickr, tumblr, twitter, and pinterest with my life. Just setting up all the accounts so that they talk to each other is making my head hurt. I've spent some time with my head in my various iDevices but I can thankfully report that I have not taken any photos of my food!

Connie asked yesterday how the doors were coming along. It's as if she read my mind! I finished the applique on the last door last week. (Click on the photo to enlarge it.)

I am going to sash/border and quilt each door individually so that they can be hung in a variety of ways. Or… remember the Tick Tock blocks I showed you yesterday? I could construct a 'building' around each door. That could be very good as well. Elanor has laid claim to these quilts so I suppose I should ask her what her preference is.

Tonight Steve and I are going to a charity even at Cowboy Stadium which I hear is spectacular. In fact, I may tweet about this! I forget about tweeting but I can do it. We meet friends at the party bus in Plano for the longer ride to the stadium. You may see bits of that too.

Next week I travel to Little Rock and Hot Springs Village, AR where the scenery is lovely and the quilters are excited!