I'm making progress on my quilt which is good because the deadline is drawing near. I've got pictures of a few of the other quilts that I'll share over the next few days. But here's mine:

There are still flowers to add and I have to quilt it. Click on the photos to make them bigger and you'll see more detail.

I've shown it in my recent classes and every time I try to explain it I choke up. Who knew this was going to be so emotional?!

You may be noticing that this is not my usual invisible hand applique. In our book, Applique Outside the Lines, I had begun doing more expressive stitching. I'm still needleturning, but I'm stitching with perle cotton in exposed stitches. I like it! You're going to be seeing a lot more of this from me.

For more on the World Series Quilt Challenge, click here.

It is still crazy busy at my house. It probably is at your house too so I am not going to complain. Today, I'm just sharing something pretty. Isn't it wonderful that orange has come back! I'm not sure where it was all those years when I ignored it.

Same flowers, different pose:

Click on either photo and they should open for you, bigger.

I know I have not posted enough in the last week. Here's my excuse and I think it's a good one… Steve is out of town. He and our oldest son, Chris, are camping and hiking in Colorado.

When he's gone I am forced to fend for myself. Now, I know that that I am a very lucky woman in that Steve does all the cooking (except cakes) and all the grocery shopping when he's home. In the summers he does most of my errand running too. All of this in addition to having a real job. Seriously, I know I am blessed. But when he's gone I can hardly keep up!

So I thought I would share the photo he sent, taken yesterday on the summit of Mt. Elbert. It is highest peak in the Rockies in the North America @ 14,000 feet. I'm glad I'm not there because I can't breathe above 10,000 feet. I wonder who took the photo?

This is my last photo from Columbus. I took these at the North Market before I left town. I wanted to buy some but had no way to get them home.

Those raspberry reds against the turquoise blue make me very happy….

I'm at the airport, waiting on a plane to go home. I did go back to the North Market this morning for more hot sauce. I got their web address. You can find CaJohns at www.cajohns.com . It looks like they make all of the hot sauces that they sell.

I took a photo of this lovely lady yesterday. The green of her shirt with the blues in her bag caught my eye and she was nice enough to smile for the camera. I'm sorry to say that I forgot her name – but she saw this post and got in touch! Patricia Dignan is from NZ but has lived in Cincinnati since 1963. When we ran into each other she was with her daughter (who was also lovely, but not dressed in this great shade of green).

I played with photo in an app called Colorsplash. It puts a photo into greyscale and then you 'paint' with your finger to bring back the color. This is way too much fun!

Sent from my iPad

I had a 2 hour lunch break between classes and went to the North Market. This building is full of stalls full of tasty things. I got the best ice cream from Jeni’s (http://jenisicecreams.com/). Apparently Oprah loves their ice cream too.

I found a stall full of hot sauces. MY husband and sons LOVE hot sauce.

I got got several bottles for stocking stuffers. I’m not saying what I bought as I don’t want to spoil any surprises. I resisted this one but I may have to go back for it tomorrow.

Lethal ingestion!? It’s sort of hard to resist.

Sent from my iPad