Lorna and I took Elanor, Jack, and Bear to the Dallas Arboretum yesterday. The weather was perfect, the pumpkins were pretty and the new Children's Adventure Garden was a hit!

I took my 'big' camera especially so that I could take photos of the kids…

There was face painting for the kids. Jack really got into character!

Elanor was a little less into it.

Bear perched on a mushroom, with help from his mom…

But mostly he watched from the stroller…

Amazingly enough, Lorna and I were ready to go before the kids were. They really enjoyed the interactive exhibits and activities in the adventure garden. Even though it's more than an hour away, we'll go back. 

My stash lives in a small closet. The shelves are 5' wide and 12" deep. I don't let my fabric grow into other closets. When the shelves are full, I sometimes stack fabric on the floor. Well, it had gotten out of control. The closet floor was completely covered with a stack of fabric that was about 18" tall.

I am visiting an English class at Austin College later this week. The students have read My Jim by Nancy Rawles and are going to make a quilt for the author as one of their class projects. I'm going to give them a quick couple of classes on how to applique a block. When I say 'quick', I mean 2-3, 1-hour classes. I voluteered to bring fabric making this an excellent time to thin the herd of fabric in my stash.

I realize, now, that I should have taken a 'before' photo but it was just too emabarrassing. Here is the fabric that got culled:

And, another view, to help show how much fabric this is. FYI—the tallest stack is 12" tall.

None of this is 'bad' fabric. In fact, it was hard to cull much of it. But a funny thing happens when I do this… even if I like a fabric a lot, once I put it in the pile to go away, I no longer love it. In fact, I'm not sure why I had it in the closet in the first place. It's weird, but true.

The stacks of fabric in front are ones that I think the students can work with. I don't want to overwhelm them, but I do want them to have choices that can work together.

My stash now fits on the shelves. It is more organized. I know what I have. That doesn't necessarily mean that I won't have to hunt for a particular piece, but there you go.

FYI: If you click on the link for Austin College, some of the banner photos are from the dedication of the IDEA Center, the spectacular new science building on campus. Steve is Dean of the Sciences and he is so very proud of the new building and of the work going on inside it! He's in some of the photos.

There's a new quilt show! The Small Town Quilt Show — in a Big Town Way, is sponsored by High Valley Arts Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to encouraging excellence in the arts, including visual and performing arts.  

The Show will take place June 26-28, 2014 at Zermatt Resort, Midway, Utah. This three-day event is for quilters, sewers and lovers of the art of fabric at all levels and interests. I'm one of the teachers and I do hope to see you there! Click here to see all of the classes. Signups have just begun.

And here's the pretty picture! I can't remember where I was when I took this but I imagine that a happy farmer owns it. How could he not be happy!

Here is a different farm, in Colorado, also lovely…

It's hard for me to imagine what it would be like to live in such a remote area. But life plopped me in Sherman, TX, and I never thought I'd live here, either. Home is where you make it.

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?