I was a red-orange person for years

it was the color I reached for first when selecting fabric.  My love of this color continued on when I began to dye my own cloth and now that I am painting it remained my favor.  Not every piece I paint is some hue or value of red/orange but a lot are.  But of late I find that the first tube of paint I pick up after Sap green is a blue. 
     Why blue and why now.  I'm not sure.  But one thing I am certain of is my choice of color is not because I am a little down.  I am going to chalk up blue as exploration.
I began this piece before I went to Brooksville.  This is where I left it then.

Now it is done and ready to sandwich.

it measures 43 wide by 60 long, of course that measurement will change after it is quilted and cropped down.  It will also look a little different with the addition of more paint and inks that can't be added until after the quilting is done.  Will give you another look see in a week or so. 

I took the long way home

on Wednesday after leaving The Villages, FL after being there for two days teaching and doing a trunk show for The Quilt Guild of The Villages.  How or why did I do that... my GPS somehow got reprogrammed and when I selected the home button it directed me south, instead of southeast to who knows where, but after an hour and 1/2 of driving and nothing that was coming up looked familiar, I put my home address in manually and discovered I was near Tampa and further away from home than I was when I got in the car and started home in The Villages.  Of course getting home on I-4  through Orlando at the tail end of rush hour traffic was no joy, but finally 3 hours later, 1-1/2 hours longer than it should have taken me, I arrived home safe, sound and just a little more tired than I would have been had I took the right roads in the first place.

The Villages.  What a neat concept for a community. The Quilt Guild of The Villages has over 800 members and is a collective made up of 18 smaller guilds (or bees)  that meet at different locations in The Villages. 
Everyone, well not every one was zipping about in golf carts.  In this community he carts  are not reserved for the golf course.  The carts have their own paved path with underground tunnels to cross from one side of the auto roadways to the other. and they are everywhere.  They were parked in front of shops in the market squares as well as bars,  restaurants and coffee shops.  Most looked like what you'd imagine a  typical cart  on a golf course would look like while a great many others were full of personality, like little VW's or Smart cars.  They were soooooo cute.  I wanted one.  I was told that some of the gasoline powered ones can zip along at speeds up to 35 miles an hour and are considered street legal.   The other thing I found neat about the community; I wished I'd taken a picture was a lot of the homes had garages with small door separate from the regular sized ones just for the carts to enter.

The guild put me up at the Water Front Inn which was a very nice place with a tropical theme.  Think Hemmingway.

No one in my class admitted to be in witness protection so here is a look at the some ladies who were in my Wednesday class.

 

Several of my students arrived at the class site via their cart.  This is one of them.

 

I am home for a 11 days and I plan to get back to the painting I left on the easel and try to get it quilted before I am off to Boca Raton on the 19th. 

 

Happenings

I've had a birthday since I last bogged.  My daughter Rene, son Mike, daughter-n-law Maryellen, Mel for short and grandson Josh went out to dinner to celebrate the day.  Josh and I share the same birth date and so it was a doubly good treat for us all to be together.  Mike and Mel have returned home but I couldn't resist taking his picture while he was here.  He travels with his camera and I was able to get him to take some professional quality images of a few of my newest pieces which I am hoping to get on my website soon.  It has been a long while since I updated the site.  I feel a bad.  Updating it was on my 2013 list of things I wanted to get done this year. 

    Here is a picture of my son Mike.   The "killer" chair got him as it does most everyone who sits down on it for any length of time.  I avoid it like the plague especially when I want to get anything done.  Comfy... a stuffed sleeping pill is more like it.
     I  started painting but had to put it on hold for a few days because I went to Brookville to vend at a small quilt show.

     I was not so sure about my chances of selling my work there once I saw the place where the show was being held, but I was quite pleasantly surprised.  Got a warm welcome.  Got to talk to a lot of the guild members and everyone who came to see the show that was held at a golf course.  I was one of only 9 or 10 vendors but sales were good, so I am promising never to pre-judge again.  Josh, the grandson went with me as muscle. You need those to haul quilts and I needed him to operate the I-pad with the square-up.  It was a good thing that  his I-phone operated as a hot spot since there was no Wi-Fi on site to connect to even though I told there would be.

I had about 25 feet x 8 feet of vending space so I was really spread out with my quilts and hand dyed fabric. 

     Brookville is 80 miles from my front door,  but it took over two hours to drive west toward the Gulf,  because there is no good way to go other than across SR50 which is a heavily traveled, traffic light laden roadway. 
     I am home today, doing laundry, making a grocery list and getting organized to go teach in The Villages on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Between these little task I am making more hexagons.  Yes I am still at it thanks to my friend Lois who let me come raid her stash and slice off 3" x 22 inches pieces from as many of her  red fabrics I wanted.  She has a "lot" of fabric and I got through less than a quarter of her reds but that has been quite enough to keep me busy for the last past week or so.  The pile of hexagons is growing.