Here Comes the Sun

And it's only in this exact spot every 28 years. This, according to certain astronomical calculations, is the day when the sun is in its original position in creation. Frankly, I knew nothing about this until I read an article about it in last Saturday's New York Times. Basically, the calculations, made by a long ago Talmudic sage, marks the point when the sun moves into the, "same place in the sky at the same time, and on the same day of the week," as it did when it was created. And, like I said before, that apparently only happens every 28 years. This event, like so many in Judaism, necessitates a special blessing and, of course, much discourse on the exact "right" way to acknowledge this milestone.
In all honesty, my first reaction to this was, Oy! Judaism has so many blessings for so many things both great and small. And I do genuinely appreciate the concept of being grateful for the miraculous and the mundane, but...another blessing? Well, then I went to Shabbat morning services and this was the topic of the sermon. It changed my mind. I came to realize that this was a wonderful opportunity to take a few minutes to marvel at something I take for granted and have taken for granted my entire life.
So, this morning, on the way home from swim team, which was at daybreak ( another reason to exclaim Oy!), my middle daughter, Rachel, and I talked about this amazing moment in the history of our Earth and I (not her, because she's 14 and she doesn't do sappy things like recite blessings) said the blessings. I also decided that when I got home I'd take some time to "document" some of the many ways my little corner of the world is touched by the Sun.

A Quiet Nod

I've been a little remiss in mentioning a recent bit of good news. It's not been out of some desire or need to keep the news to myself. It's all because my local Bookstop went out of business. Last December when my article and quilt were featured on the pages of Quilting Arts magazine I gauged the timing of my blog announcement about this by whether or not the magazine had made an appearance at my local Bookstop bookstore. A few weeks ago, Bookstop, really a mini Barnes and Noble, was permanently closed and so was my nearest, a mere two minutes away, bookstore. Now, it's not as if there are no other bookstores in the Austin area. There are plenty. But, each one is at least 10-15 minutes away and requires a bit more effort to get to. None of these other stores are so convenient that I can just pop into them on a whim. So, it's been a boon for Amazon and pretty much a bust for me in terms of keeping up with when the next issue of Quilting Arts hits the newsstands. All this is my convoluded way of saying: 1. I've got a new article in the latest issue of Quilting Arts and 2. Thank you to those of you who have so sweetly emailed your congratulations and therefore informed me that the issue is available.


The focus of this article is crafting with what I call "low volume" fabrics, that is graphic prints combined with whites and neutrals. I think I've mentioned before that I periodically need to take a break from the intense colors of hand dyes and work with fabrics that help me focus on different design elements.


This may sound silly, but it's almost cleansing to focus my attention in such a distinctly different way.

The Fruits of my Labor

Two different kinds of fruit, two different labors, and two distinctly different results.
First there's this kind:


Luscious, little key limes. They were totally an impulse purchase. I was completely drawn in by their appearance, especially so because I've never bought or cooked with key limes before. Naturally this necessitated my finding a recipe because along with being impulsive, I'm inherently cheap and I wasn't going to let these guys go to waste. I knew that I didn't want to make key lime pie. I realize it's the obvious answer, but I've never really liked key lime pie. I thought I'd like to make some cookies. And a few keystrokes later I had all the info I needed to make these:


Key lime cookies with homemade key lime curd. Go ahead. The appropriate response is yummmm. I used recipes I found here and here . The curd recipe is for lemon curd, but I figured substituting limes wouldn't be a big deal.
The second fruit, a pepper, went into another kind of recipe.


I used it to stamp these fabrics and after I was done dipping it in wax it didn't exactly look delicious.


But, like the key limes, it helped to contribute to a finished product that I hope will be enjoyed.

Colors in Combination

That's when they really sing...I think. And actually quite a few others do as well. The painter Josef Albers spent his life painting colors in combination and writing about it.
I think I go through phases of love with a particular pairing. For a while I couldn't get enough of orange and pale purple. Then it was chartreuse and purple. After that I abandoned purple in favor of turquoise and enjoyed it at various times alongside chocolate brown, red, and orange.
Well, I have a new color passion: yellow and gray.


It might be a case of "which came first?" because I've been noticing gray and yellow pairings in my work lately and I'm not quite sure whether they preceded my awareness of this color combination in the world around me.


The funny thing is I'm not a huge fan of yellow as a stand alone color and probably less so of gray. But, I just love them together.
What about you? What color duets do you think sing better together?

Leftovers

Hopefully the kind you want as opposed to the kind you consume out of a sense of guilt associated with wasting last night's uneaten dinner. Oh, and also, the kind of leftovers that have nothing to do with last night's dinner. These leftovers are a few unsold items from a little craft fair I participated in yesterday.
A few new camera straps.


And a couple sets of coasters.


I've added them to my shop if you're interested.

Wee Little Photo Shoot

I had me one of those yesterday. At least that's the way I saw it. I had been wanting to photograph a couple of quilts that I made for this book. I hadn't bothered to take any photos before I sent them off, but now that the book is slated for release in May, I figured I'd take a few pictures and add them to my flickr set. I've tried taking full shots of quilts at home or even in studio settings, but they always seem to lose something. Anyway, I remembered a particular spot in a particular park and thought that using that place as a backdrop would be fun, so off I went...to Williamson County Park in lovely Cedar Park, Texas.


It's actually only about 25 minutes from my house and down the street from where my kids and I swim. It's a very well maintained park with a great trail that winds it's way through the park, past soccer fields, a pavilion, and this being Texas, cow pastures. Along the trail is an old, weather beaten shack. It's not big enough to enter. I suspect that it was some kind of grazing station for the cows before the rich and powerful of Williamson County decided to fence off the pasture on the other side of the trail.


I saw it as a perfect venue to shoot my quilts.

Missing in Action

Actually, I'm not missing. I'm just guest blogging over at Simply Robin and I'm giving away some hand dyed fabric bundles. So, if you want to be entered in the drawing, scurry on over there and leave a comment.
While you're there, check out Robin's amazing quilts made out of her own hand dyed fabric. Very inspiring!