It's Hard to Keep Up

     My daughter set up my blog for me to help keep track of all the projects I make ... it seemed like a good idea at the time, and I was quite active in keeping up for a couple years ... but ... sometimes the whole think of keeping up with so many other commitments can be quite overwhelming.

     What I really want to do is plan my trip to Britain, (which I've had to shift around to fit gallery dates), instead of checking on galleries & sending emails back and forth, setting up times for set-up, show openings & closings, take-downs and getting information & pictures needed for advertising. All the art quilts for the upcoming show are coming in and another set of issues need to be addressed. Hangers need to be made; hopefully I can get my 89 year old father to help out with drilling the holes in the wooden slats; I need new containers for transporting them to the different galleries since they are different sizes than our last show & I guess it also means I am responsible for driving the work to the galleries in time for set-up, staying overnight in each place so I can be there for the opening show ... and then of course, driving back to pick them up.  Way more expense and time than I thought this was going to be.  This should have been a two person job .. a little late now.  Lesson learned. Don't volunteer! OK, there's my rant ... done.
 
  So ... on to crafty things that are the only things keeping me sane at the moment.
     The wind has been strong and cold this winter and my ears get cold when walking the dog.  I had my daughter help me since I found the band instructions a little difficult to follow & she had made the hat for her husband (to keep his ears warm when walking the dog!) ... but I have made a hat with a double thick headband with earflaps .... and it is wonderfully warm.

Charlotte's quilt for her 3rd birthday is coming along ... all 72 sea creatures and seaweed are done and put into 8 panels. 

The pattern calls for manatees to be made ... but I changed the pattern to sea otters.

Working on placement ... the pattern calls for all similar colours to be in the same panel -- Elizabeth Hartman used 8 different colours for the 8 panels. Since I only used 4 (yellow, orange, blue, green) I decided to mix the colours in the panels ... but it is hard not to have too many similar colours next to each other!

My friend Dorothyanne creates felted animals.  For my Dad's birthday, I had her make a 'muskox'.  Years ago, one of the final papers Dad wrote when working on one of his degrees was about 'muskox' ... when you asked "why write a paper about muskox?", his response was "Why not?"  This little guy is about 9 inches long.