I take pictures of people I don't know… much like I have seen Japanese tourists do when I've been on vacation. I used to not understand why they wanted images of people they didn't know, but I understand better now. People are fascinating to look at!

I took this young woman's photo because of her outfit, which is clearly a costume. She was playing on the street for tips. Where do your eyes go?

There's a lot to look at, but I always focus in on the tights.

This next woman was posing for photos… I don't think she was posing for me exactly, but I took her photo anyway. You can tell that she is HAPPY! And her outfit is pretty cute, too :-)!

There is a lot to look at in this photo as well, but I always come back to the figure. Did you know that that is why people are in so many ads? People like to look at people. A bar of soap, for example, just doesn't hold our interest.

I took the next photo in Times Square as well. I love the mix of the complementary colors, red and green. It looks like Christmas (but it's not).

Many thanks to those of you who voiced an opinion on yesterday's photos! Today I have one wonderful image. I took this during a break while I was teaching class in Newport Beach a while back. The classroom was in the community room of a condo complex if I remember correctly. This wonderful fountain was in its center…

I am still stunned at how well it turned out! (FYI: you can always click on a photo to see it larger.)

LIke you, I take pictures of things that are 'pretty'. I file them away in my computer, and then I forget where they are. Yesterday I began going through folders of photos, looking for images that might be good in the color book. This week, I'll share some of these pretty pictures. 

I took these photo in Nebraska, right after a storm. The light really was pink-gold. And there was a double rainbow!

Do you like one image better than the other?

Today was one of those days. You know the kind… you have plans to get a lot done and then things happen. My day wasn't a total loss—I did get some writing done—but other stuff (mostly of my own making) kept popping up..

We needed a new screen door on the front of the house. We bought one a week or so ago and it needed to be painted. It's going to get cold tomorrow so I thought I'd get the thing painted. No big deal! The painting went pretty quickly, about an hour. I also made cookies because we have folks coming for dinner, another hour.

Then I thought to myself "Self, surely you can hang that screen door!" And as it turns out, I could. And then it got interesting.

We had gotten a 2-part screen door. The door itself has two openings. The bottom one is designed to accept a decorative/supporting wood insert. The insert was painted and ready but when I set it in, it didn't fit! It should have fit, every bit of paperwork said it would. But it did not.

Back to Lowe's where I got a different one. Luckily, I checked it this time before I painted it because it doesn't fit either. Sigh.

So, it was my own fault that I lost a good part of the day but the screen door is in place (without the insert, but there you go) and the cookies are ready.

Tomorrow should be a more productive day. By that I mean a day in which I focus on work and ignore the other stuff. (I have to ignore the instant gratification monkey.)

My mom has been working on a Welcome to the North Pole quilt for a little more than a year. She finished the blocks about a week ago. I had promised to set them together for her, which I was able to do last weekend.

It's pretty great, don't you think!

When she started this quilt, I would do my 'applique teacher' thing and make suggestions about how to do one thing or another. Sometimes she took my suggestions and other times, not so much. She made a lot of stuff up on her own—and it works!

I had gone through my fabric and taken her a variety of choices that I thought would work in her quilt. Darned if she didn't make it work. 

Mom thought about using felt for the reindeer and the antlers and that worked well. She went to JoAnn's and got some fuzzy stuff (minky?) for beards. It's cute! She'll do more embellishing after I get it quilted. That will be in the spring, after I get the color book finished. This year she's going to hang the top as it is now. 

Now she's ready for a new project. I've drawn a pattern for her from an antique butterfly pattern. Eventually that will go up on the website because if mom likes it as much as she does, I'll bet some of you all will too :-).

Have a great weekend!

Lori F. won the copy of Quilt Essential and I have sent her an email. Lori, all we need is your address and the book will be on its way to you. Congratulations and happy reading (and sewing!)