I've been thinking about the design of the quilt I am making for the World Series Quilt Challenge. I thought it would be fun to share my progress with you. So far I have an idea and a very rough sketch. I often start this way. I know it's not pretty, but it is what I do.

I wish I made notes in lovely letters, but I don't always do that either. I type a lot better than I write. If you can't read it, my scratches say: "When I am empty of my memories – please pick them up and keep them safe for me." It is this idea that I will try to put into my quilt.

I've had my foot surgery. I've been home on the sofa for a few hours. The numbness is wearing off and the pain meds are helping. My foot isn't exactly happy, but I'm OK. You know what's helping? I'm listening to radio from around the world (French radio as I write this).

I have an iPhone and one of my husband's colleagues (thank you Don) told me about the ootunes app. I am surprised at how easy this app is to use and at how well it works. I'm nowhere near my 'real' computer but it may be that I can use it from iTunes too. I don't know if it's an app that will work on other smart phones.

Right now my phone is sitting in the new Bose SoundDock. I had been pondering the best/easiest way to take music outside and this is it.

So, for those of you who are looking for something different music-wise, I hope you enjoy this!

I'm having foot surgery today. Dr. Hayes is going to sand off a bone spur and re-shape my big toe. It is my sincere hope that I'm going to bounce back as quickly as I think I will. So today I'm going to share a lovely new flower from my backyard. I've just put in a passion flower vine and so far it's doing well.

The lady who sold it to us said we'd have passion fruits. We'll see about that.

We needed shade next to the pool and there are no good places to put posts that would hold up a patio cover. What to do? I found Backyard City online – they make sail shades!

We needed on custom-made so we followed directions, drew a diagram and sent it off. It came last week and Steve installed it. And then he re-worked the installation a few days later.

Steve used a jack hammer (we are on rock) to make the hole for the pole that you can't see on the far right. He made braces and attached them in the attic to the roof rafters. Then he put huge eye-bolts through the roof to hold the other two points of the shade. He only had to change move one of the eye-bolts two times to get the tension right! This wasn't easy and I sincerely appreciate the effort he put into getting it just right. Seriously, how many college professors do you know who can do this sort of thing?

The shade moves as the day goes by. My studio windows don't get so hot. The pool is a good temperature for swimming. Now I just need time to go outside!

"New fabric" are two words that will make a quilter's heart flutter. You're
hearing it here first – we'll send a newsletter tomorrow. You may notice
that I've
rearranged our fabric pages by color groups. If you go to these pages
you'll see some lovely dots.

The fabric home page has the Packs O' Dots and fabric that didn't fit in with the colors on the other pages.

Blues and greens, reds and pink, yellows and orange each have their own page. These are some seriously happy pages to look at!

I flew into the Greensboro Airport last Thursday. There was an exhibit of art and furniture. I'm not sure if the 'Phillips Collection' named is the Phillips Collection Museum, but it could be. What was sort of unusual was that you could get into the exhibit and sit on those chairs if you wanted to. I was in too big a hurry to sit, but I did take a couple of quick photos.

They look kind of comfortable but I'll bet those strips get dusty at the edges. Not sure how I'd deal with that. 

By the time this post goes up I'll be on my way home. It's always nice to go home to my very fine husband and my own bed. I'll post more next week – enjoy your weekend!