On Feb 1st the sun came out

and the temperature rose to near 70 degrees. It didn't last long, but for two days the neighborhood was filled with the sound of children playing in the street in their t-shirts and believe it or not some dads were out in their shorts. While they played outdoors, John and I were ferrying back and forth from the great room to the garage with the boxes and bins filled with Christmas stuff which is finally out of the house.
John hoisted the boxes and bins up to where Lyn sat perched at the top of the pull down stairs to the attic space over the garage. With Christmas out of the house it seemed that mentally I was finally making way for a new dawn.

SHE'S BACK... She returned on Feb. 2. The she if you are wondering is the
artist me that prefers music on her I-pod to television and who likes to put her hands on fabric and use paint and who likes her sewing machine and the sound that it makes as she runs lengths of of fabric under the presser foot and who really loves to see the textures created with free motion quilting. .
I've missed her.
This is the quilt that the organizers of a children's charity I support wanted me to donate for their upcoming auction. While it is a very early work of mine, I still like it and as I said before, it hangs on Lyn bedroom wall. Lyn said it would be okay with her if I let them have it. I just couldn't.
This is what I made for them instead. It is smaller 30" x 40 about 1/2 the size of the first one. But...



Where did the avid knitter go? HMMMMM.
Oh I am still knitting, but knitting for the last four days is back in its time slot. The hour or two I am in bed before sleep descends. Knitting is such a Zen activity that I think beginning somewhere around the lst of November I Zenned myself into another place where quilts were not welcomed.

I'm still honoring my resolution to eat healthy and as a result I have lost 15 pounds since December 31st, 2008. Have no fears you can still recognize me. I have pounds and pounds and more pounds to go before any of you will look at me with a blank stare. I am most happy to report that saying no to potatoes and food with sugar added and fats has become easy. No ice cream cravings for almost a month. I never thought I would every be in that place.
It's true, after 21 days of doing anything a habit forms at least for me its true about the food. My allergy to wheat is so bad that saying not to bread, cakes and cookies have been no problem for years.
I have started exercising too. But that I have not grown fond of and I still have to talk myself into it. So far I have not found anything that distracts me enough during the 30 minutes I have worked up to each day thatmake the time fly. Not even my favorite music on my i-pod or a can't miss TV program. Both of which things as far as time passing would seem to fly by but not when I am huffing and puffing and perspiring. Why is that?

I'm here blogging while I wait for the paint to dry so I can heat set it and then on to the cropping so it looks like the image you see here and then the facing???? Maybe binding and finally the dreaded sleeves.

It is suppose to warm enough here tomorrow that I might be able to spend some time in the garage dye area, wet cleaning all the winter dust from my tools and supplies as well as removing the stuff that has found it way to the top of my print table which is such a handy put it down here place for the other two people who I live in this house with.