I drove to Kissimmee

on Saturday to teach a class; free motion quilting 101 at Queen Anne Lace Quilt Shop. I failed to take my camera out of the bag it was toted there in so I have no pictures of the 10 class participants who were trying to relax, breath and practice. By the end of the day there were all in a better place than I was after my first free motion quilting class. They were good students.

Besides failing to take any pictures I also forgot to take a dose of Singular before I went there fore I had my customary attack of cat allergy, drippy eyes and stuffy nose by the time I left the shop so I was not in the mood to go shopping on the way home.

Sunday, Rene and I went to IKEA and I brought three wire basket racks to slide under my work table. They are silver/grey and match the table legs just like I had planned it all along. Now, I am waiting for the 60 yards of PFD I ordered from Robert Kaufman to arrive so I can dye a bunch of fabric. Tomorrow I am mixing my dye stock solutions and I will start on what I have in the house now.

I brought a red stool to sit on at the easel and four 13" x 13" x 15" fabric baskets to help hide some of the many balls of yarns and unfinished sweaters, shrugs and shawls that I have put on the back burner for now with the promise to myself to get back to all of them later.

I have a piece of fabric stretched on my make shift easel and plan to start painting on what is drawn tonight. Sorry I do not have any pictures to share. My daughter Rene borrowed my camera so she can document the lack of progress being made by the contractor from He----.

So as soon as I get my camera back I'll give you a peek at what I am working on.

Since I am not moving

I made some decisions about my apartment and how I can make the area that is my studio space more efficient. First thing, I need to get myself at least three of those wire basket drawer units that IKEA sales. I plan to stop and shop on my way back from teaching in Kissimmee on Saturday.
Both bird pieces seem in a previous post are quilted, blocked and trued up. They are both on the design wall. I will keep them there for a few more days while I decide if they would look better if cropped more. Both still need to be faced and need sleeves put on and you know how I just love doing those two things.
I've spent my time this week moving between quilting on this small piece 26" x 28"and organizing the shelves in my studio space. And oh yeah, vacuuming, dusting, cleaning the bathroom, keeping a doctor's appointment so I could get prescription refills. Why didn't I just have her call them in to the pharmacy.... They charge $10.00 for every drug they have to phone in. Of course this is an out of pocket expense where as if I go to the office and the Dr. listens to see if I still have a heartbeat, the insurance company picks up the tab. All this cost me was 2 hours of my time.
On Tuesday I woke with an idea that I had to try. The night before I went to sleep telling myself that I could be more productive if I could find someway of sitting down to dye paint rather than standing and bending to reach. It's the bending to reach that prompts me to take breaks ever so often. So I came up with an easel sort of thingy set-up. Will give you a look at it when I next have something in the works.
I've spent quite a few hours updating my website but there is still more images I want to add. But that will have to wait until next week.
I love to dye my own fabric and now; knowing I am staying put for a while, I can get back to replenishing my dyed fabric stash. And when I come home with my IKEA drawer units, mask, gloves, dyes, here I come.

Walked, looked and walked some more. The Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival we did.

It was a great day to be out and about. Several times I wished I had remembered my sunglasses and a hat. Both were definitely in order. It was clear sky sunny and 75 degrees by 2 PM. But I had neither, so Rene and I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible as we made our way down the middle of Park Avenue; the main street in Winter Park that was sealed off to auto traffic from Garfield Ave. to the north and New England Ave. to the south. It was also very crowded and the smell of tempting stuff to eat waffled through the air. But we being unadventurous and I in need of a potty choice to stop at the far north end of the Art Fair's perimeters for that and to eat a late lunch at Panera Bread. I did remember my camera, yeah!!!
I have been to many art fairs through the years. I think the one in Louisville in October, "The St. James Court Art Fair still tops my list and rightly so since it is one of the nations best. This one in my opinion is a real close second as far as the quality of the art and craftsmanship of what is being sold, as well as the number of booths, food vendors, entertainment and activities for children .
Two thumbs up on the location. Most of it was confined to a park, but the open air dining along the main street gave you a real sense of the city "Winter Park" and all of the business along the main street were open for business and were offering sales items out front on their sidewalks.
Here are a few of the artist and their ware that caught my eye. I have tried to attach an artist name to all of the up close photo's and yes I did ask permission. Only one artist requested that her stuff not be photographed after I had taken a couple of shots or put on-line so I won't.
When I go to art fairs I always look for something that makes me smile. This booth pictured above did it for me today.
No matter where I go, I can always find flowers. Today was no different. The azaleas are in bloom all over the area. These were the only quilt I saw and the artist is from St. Louis, MO. All commercial fabric with large floral prints. Click on the image below and you should be able to read her bio information
Loved the sculptured dresses that you can see in the top two photo's below.

I saw this hat and was reminded that Derby Day "a Louisville, KY" thing" is fast approaching. And I thought of my friend Valerie W. In Louisville who can wear hats like no other woman I know. Hey Val, you would look great in the red one. It was made by Ingnatious Creegan & Rod Givens of Petersburg, VA They had so many wonderful ones I told them they should open a shop in Louisville for from April 15th to what ever is the Thursday before Oaks Day or for those not of the KY horse scene, Oaks day is the Friday before Derby Saturday and the Derby is always held the first Saturday in May. No matter how far one ventures of home, you can never leave your roots and mine are deep in Louisville, KY dirt.

Saw lots of glass and wood, but these two artist works caught my eye .
This is a collage of the day and our getting to and from the car and the people that were out and about with us. Hope your day was a good as mine.

Starts... stops... and making changes

That pretty much describes my last week. I stated quilting on the second bird quilt and hated the quilting on the bird. Let me back up. It wasn't the pattern, it was the way the thread looked. It was too heavy and seemed to be laying on the surface rather than sinking into the quilt. So I decided to rip it all out.

Easier said than done. What took me 15 minutes to do, took three day of off and on working at it to get it all out. During those time when I was sitting and picking and pulling and snipping and picking, (you get the idea) I thought that it was time to do something with my out of date website. And so I began to do that when no matter what combo of user names and passwords I used I couldn't get access. Finally after a 1/2 dozen e-mail sent to my web host to get the information I resorted to calling them. Lo and behold, I was using the right user name and at times when by change I combined it with the right password, I still could not get in and neither could they. So they reset everything.

Mind you I am no better at setting up a website than I was when I did it originally a little over 4 years ago, but the web host has made the process a little simpler in that time and if you are interested you can go visit http://www.juanitayeager.com/ to see.

In the mean time, my eyes will be glued to the NCAA tournament games. I am a U of L fan, but don't have much hope of them advancing too far along the path. My ears I am reserving for the slew of audio book I checked out of the library yesterday.

Now that Rene is back from almost two weeks of business travel, we are going to the Winter Park Art Fair on Saturday. The weekend promises to be sunny and in the mid- 70's. GREAT.

I will take the camera and give you a full report.

The life and times of

me and John James Audubon.

Of course there is no comparison, but at this moment, my life and curating an exhibit based on his work is foremost in my head. I love birds, I love to see them flying and I love their little quirky walk. Since last July, I guess I have seen up close more birds than at any other time in my life, now that I frequent the lake where birds of many varieties, (mostly water birds) are in abundance But I can't say that I like using them as the subject of my art. So when I was asked to curate an exhibit based on his bird drawings and his life, I had to think long and hard about how I was going to depict one or more of his beloved subjects while staying true to my graphic style of working. So here is what I have done to complete two pieces that need to be done by June. This one untitled so far measures about 38" w x 42".

The one pictured standing on his head below measures 44" w x 32" L. The first one is on cotton, the one below on silk. I plan to start quilting the second one this afternoon.

You can see I continue to paint my long stemmed abstract flowers. There is something really soothing to soul in their creation. But the real fun comes when I start quilting them heavily and adding ink for shading. This one with several others I have completed will go with me to Virginia Beach next month as class samples for the class I am teaching there at the 54/40 Quilt Guild's bi-annual retreat.

What's happening on the condo rehab?

For one I am not moving. Why? I have the contractor from HE double L.

He put in the wrong flooring for one. Laminate instead of the wood flooring I wanted. He is using the cheapest materials he can find. When I ask for wood bead board he put in pressed board with a random width look that I did not want. When I told him to take it down, he hasn't. He put in the wrong ceiling fans. Not the ones I gave him both pictures and the stock numbers for. The ceiling fan in the room I was going to use as my studio space has no light attachment. NO LIGHT..... DUH!!! and yes he knew that room was suppose to function as a studio. He painted it white for GOD sake. The bathroom light fixture was placed off center from the sink. Just about everything he has touched will have to be re done if I want to live there. So I am not going to move there. I am going to put it on the market and sell it and look for something else. A place that will need minimal adjustments to make it functional for me.

In the mean time I will carry on where I am. After all my lease here isn't up until the end of September and I do love where I am. Having the condo wouldn't have given me a better life,just a different way of living it.