Random Thoughts

It's been a busy few weeks and June is over.  With temps over 100 degrees today, I'm not looking forward to July and August.  And, could we please have a little rain?  My whole world has gone from green to brown and it's not a pretty shade.

The garden has ruled my world this week.  I've put corn and peas in the freezer that we'll certainly enjoy this winter.  My biggest chore, however, involved peaches--lots and lots of peaches.  We live close to a peach orchard and Robin and I try to make peach preserves every year.  I don't know what I was thinking, but I bought way too many and ended up spending two full days and one evening making peach preserves.  They are delicious.  If you're ever in the area near Woodbury, GA in the summer, you owe it to yourself to find the Carroll Farm Peach Orchard.  They have different varieties that ripen throughout the summer and they're all wonderful.

Some of my earliest memories involve sitting with my mother, aunts, and female cousins on our front porch on summer evenings and working together to shell peas, peel tomatoes, shuck corn, or work to prepare whatever was in season for canning.  We didn't have a freezer in those days, so everything went into jars and had to be heated in a pressure cooker to seal.  We also didn't have air conditioning--thus the evening work time.  Those were  our groceries through the winter.  I don't remember my mother ever buying canned goods at the store.

Funny thing is, it didn't seem like work because we were all involved and we shared lots of fun and a bit of gossip during those sessions.  My time with Robin and the peaches was like that.  The day went by in a flash and we got so much done.  I accomplished half the production on the day I worked alone.  Face time is so much nicer than Facebook.     

I picked up my art quilt from the Artists' Guild show in Columbus.  I'm still very pleased to have received recognition from a show that was strictly about art.  I will return the piece to hang in the Rankin Gallery on Broadway in Columbus for the month of August, along with the other patron award winners.

I've recently joined SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Assoc) and I am considering entering some of my work for consideration in the exhibits the group puts together.  I don't know how well accepted my realistic works will be--there are a lot of abstract artists in the group, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I have my newest piece (tentatively named "Black Hills September") ready to be quilted.  I've used several different techniques and I'm anxious to see how it develops.  I also have a quilt ready to quilt for my bed, but I want to do the smaller piece first.  I haven't had much time in the studio this week and next week may not be much better.

Can't have a post without a photo, so I thought I'd put up a couple of my smaller pieces.  They're mostly just for fun.  The first one is called "Distortion" and it's an attempt at something abstract--way outside my comfort zone.  The second piece, "Into the Woods" was practice for using the little cut up pieces of fabric that I've now done in two larger works.  It's kind of like occupational therapy, so I should feel right at home when I move to the institution.