I met Bette Bradley at the Flying Geese guild a few days ago. At show and tell she showed this quilt…

I have never seen a Halloween version and wish I had thought of it myself! If I am remembering the story correctly, this is not the only Halloween North Pole quilt Bette has made and I think she made this with another quilter.

It may be that you don't know our book, Welcome to the North Pole. Click here to see it. Surprisingly enough, this book is the one of ours that has been in print the longest. I think it is still popular because it is very easy to personalize. And it's cute!

I wanted to get more, better photos of Bette's quilt, but couldn't. I'm hoping that you can see some of the details in her quilt in the photos I did get. Click on either of these photos and they should open up larger.

I just love it!

I read an interesting op ed piece in the NY Times today: "Are We Living in Sensory Overload or Sensory Poverty?" by Diane Ackerman. She writes about noticing, on a walk through the park, that so many people's eyes and ears were glued to their devices and that they were missing so much of the beauty around them. It's a piece worth reading. Here's an excerpt:

"…As an antidote I wish schools would teach the value of cultivating presence. As people complain more and more these days, attention spans are growing shorter, and we’ve begun living in attention blinks. More social than ever before, we’re spending less time alone with our thoughts, and even less relating to other animals and nature. Too often we’re missing in action, brain busy, working or playing indoors, while completely unaware of the world around us. One solution is to spend a few minutes every day just paying close attention to some facet of nature. A bonus is that the process will be refreshing."

In my lectures I try to point out the importance of paying attention to what you see. I find that the things/shapes/colors that make me stop are worth at least of little bit of my time and attention. Even if they never end up in a quilt, what I see informs the quilts that I make. That said, I am also guilty at times of paying attention to my iPhone instead of the actual world around me. 

I very much enjoy my digital devices. I use them to stay in contact and to record many of the images that strike my fancy. They are oh so handy! I just have to remind myself that sometimes it's better to look and not record. That said, here are some images that I've captured and have been meaning to post. 

On my walk yesterday morning, the colors on this power pole made me stop. I love the mix of blues and whites and browns. Then I looked up.

The pattern of the wires, etc., was really nice. The lack of color, in comparison to the colors on the pole below it, was also interesting.

Farther down the street were these blue utility 'objects.' Isn't the picket fence behind them nice? The fence was completely out of place where it was, but still – nice. I'm pretty sure the colors are what made me stop but I also like the mix of shapes and lines.

I saw several of the circular pipe-like things with dots/holes that I'm guessing are for ventilation of something below ground. I was in Costa Mesa, right next to Newport Beach. I think this shade of blue belongs to one of these cities.

There is something about aqua that I can't seem to get enough of. I'm sure I'll get over it but I don't know when.

This fountain was outside of the the room where I taught class yesterday for the Flying Geese Quilt Guild in Newport Beach. We had a lovely day and the splashing water outside sounded so nice!

The only time I had my camera out was before class and I the only thing I had time to photograph was the fountain. And sure enough, it was the many shades of aqua that drew me in. The fountain looked to be made from some sort of agregate rather than concrete.

I don't usually think of mixing purple with aqua, but isn't this great! 

Last for today is the picture I took a few weeks ago showing the front of the library in Kansas City, MO. The whole front of the building was covered in 'books'. It absolutely worked. It made me think of my son, Chris, who loves books more than anyone else I know. So Chris, this one's for you:

I found a new, wonderful, time-sucking spot online. This photo is just one of the amazing images from the facebook page, Animal Story.

Also check out the Blue photos. Nature really is stranger and more interesting than I can imagine…

Finding this site is not the only thing I've been up to. I spent most of last week working on a photo shoot at C&T. Here is Diane Pederson, the C&T photographer, in the room where we did the shoot.

I spent a good part of the time sitting in a chair about where Diane is standing holding stitching in my hands over the card table behind her. Diane got in place over-around-next to me, focusing in on what I was doing. All in all, she took more than 200 photos in our 3 days together. While the set-up isn't lovely, the photos really are very good. You'll see, in about 10 months.

We worked almost non-stop and I didn't have time to pull out my camera – except one morning. These pallets outside, near where Lynn parks, looked really good to me. All those lovely lines… they're a good inspiration for quilted lines. 

I'm in Newport Beach now, in an amazing hotel near the John Wayne airport (the Ayres Hotel). Really, this room is fantastic! The furniture is lovely, the bathroom is full of marble and is really clean (always a plus). There's a jacuzzi tub but I don't think I'm going there. No time to sit and soak. The art throughtout is nice – reproductions of old masters-looking paintings in what looks like actual oil paint. They are surely prints, but not bad at all.

Tomorrow it's back to work. I teach first for the Flying Geese Quilt Guild. I hope to find time to post. It's not always possible, but I'll try!

I left hot and muggy Sherman, TX, early this morning for clear and cool Berkeley. I'm staying with Lynn, my editor, and her husband for the next few days. It's very nice of them to put up with me.

I had the afternoon free so I walked a mile or so to downtown Berkeley. Found a few stocking stuffers (it's not too early to shop). This book should be a present but I have to say that it's going to be hard to give it away:

I took pictures of the flowers on either side of Lynn's driveway. I might be able to grow these in Sherman, but they wouldn't be as pretty:

Cropping a photo like this presents interesting options. In the shot above you can see more of the flowers – and those sweet peas are definitely pretty. But I think the photo below tells the story better.

And then there are these guys. They look like a kind of thistle, or poppy? 

The texture and color of the stucco behind the plant makes it all the more interesting.

They remind me of figures and I'm not sure why. But I like this image a lot.

Tomorrow is the first day of a 3-day photo shoot at the C&T studio. Linda and I have turned in the manuscript for the 4th edition of the New Applique Sampler and these are the photos that will go into it. The new edition should be out in a year, give or take. I'll do my best to get some photos to show you what it's like at a photo shoot. It's not nearly as glamorous as it sounds!

I'm scrambling to get ready to leave town tomorrow. I'll be at C&T for a photo shoot until Saturday and then I fly to souther CA to teach at 4 different guilds! It's going to be a busy, but fun, trip! As luck would have it, I opened the new MS Living magazine yesterday to see Butterfly Martha!

Which brings to mind the first time I really noticed the Martha ads… remember glitter pants Martha? I was about to leave town then, too.

Whatcha think about this one? I think that's all Martha, not just parts of Martha on someone else. She looks a bit thinner. Good for her if it's really her! She looks younger too – easier to pull off in print (thank you, Photoshop). 

I showed Steve. His immediate reaction was that the butterflies had been Photoshopped. They are way too big, completely out of scale. Trust a field biologist to see that.

I'll post from the road, probably mostly using instagram. Those images are supposed to go to twitter and facebook. I set them up to post to the blog but haven't checked to see if they really do. I hope so!