The bird I made last night just before bed. It needs a lot, but still hasn't decided if it has a big tail or small. 141
The rooster is the second thing I did. Connie made the body, and laid out some feathers. I edited it, added more, and did the grass and background. 140

This is the first thing I did at Connie's house. She painted the cabinet olive, and I decorated it. It was supposed to be all sunflowers, but when I saw the chicken on top, it wanted to be on the cabinet too. So, I made a slightly slimmer version. You know portrait painters do that all the time, it means happier clients. Number 139.

Another purse made from a quilt! This is fun. Look at the close up view. Number 138

These two purses are made of the 2 color challenge blocks I made for Running With Scissors. My colors are brown and white, black was allowed to be added. I made the blocks into purses because I wanted them to be useful. They just looked like large coasters before.

I added a bird and a lizard to this cactus quilt, and quilted it today. I call it Cactus, with Bird and Lizard. Clever, huh?

See Margie Bovee, Citizen of the Year, in the Memorial Day Parade.

Me and my sister, Sister Gretchen watching from the lawn.

Today we went to the Memorial Day Parade. We saw and applauded the veterans of wars past, and a wounded soldier from our town, in the current war in Iraq. We listened to the Saline High School and Saline Middle School Bands play. And we heard the New Horizons Band, a group of community adults who play for fun. We waved to the Citizen of the Year, Margie Bovee. We applauded the Boy Scouts, the Twirlettes, the City Council. We saw the Army or Air Force Jets fly by twice. We invited people to the Free Family Fun Day on June 13th, at Two Twelve Arts. It was a Norman Rockwell style holiday in Saline, a wonderful place to live.

This is a quilt my sister Gretchen and I made together. She made the picture, I quilted it. It was inspired by a painting in a New Mexico book.

Two things done. I bound the red flower, made it months ago.

And this is all new yesterday. Both of them are for sale at Artistica Gallery in Dexter. Number 137.

Two grouted, 8 to go. I used mauve grout on these.

One more purse from the cut up quilt. It was a big quilt. This one has a magnetic closure, and more pockets inside. number 136.

Back of the bag.

Red Dog Running, is about 6" by 14". Made tonight. Number 135. I'm thinking maybe green grout? Or tan?

I finished this purse in the car, on the way home from the cottage. Its small, only 55 stitches wide. The button is glass reproduction. Number 134.

Today I painted the edges of 14 mosaics. I have shown you the mosaics already, but had to paint them before grouting. The weather is supposed to be nice enough to grout outside this week, so I had to paint.

My friend Deb did a blog about names. You can see it at http://debkolar.wordpress.com/ . So, I researched the origins of my name. The year I was born, it was the 15th most popular name for girls. I have a feeling it was the Anglicized form, meaning pure, that parents liked.
But, Kathleen derives from Catherine, which may derive from the Greek Hecate. Now, Hecate means torture. The story is that she was tortured on a spiked wheel. I think this is where the fireworks called a Catherine Wheel, which spins around and emits spikes of flame, comes from. Hecate was the goddess of witchcraft, tombs and demons. Maybe this is why I like Day of the Dead decor so much.
There have been many famous Catherines, including Catherine of Siena, a 14th century mystic, and Catherine of Medici (wasn't she one of THOSE Medici?), and of course three of Henry the 8ths' wives were named Catherine. Once you get a taste of a Catherine, everything else seems bland, I guess. And there is always a good reason for losing your head with one (or hers). The Empress of Russia, Catherine the Great was also memorable.
The most common mistaken name I have been called is Karen, which means little Katherine, so I'm good with that.

Number 133, another purse made from a quilt.

Back of the purse mimics the design on front.

This is a new Monkey Love bag. Number 132.

These new bags are made from a flower quilt! Numbers 128-131.

Number 127, a garden.

Number 126, orange sunflowers.

This is a new one. It's about 22"x24".

My sister and I made these at the hospital yesterday. she is stuck there for a while, so we decided to have fun anyway. I am auditioning fabric for the borders.

Number 124.

My glass studio is done being built. I have to do all the organizing. And I may need some more shelves built, but this time I'll get non-warping wood. My shelves are s-shaped, they warped overnight, but we used them anyway.

This blue pot is new today. It's about 22x25". Number 123.

This tulip quilt is in the works. I'm not sure yet if the picture is ready to quilt. And I have 2 new series of quilts. The count is now 122.
While thinking of the challenge, I decided to make a series using only certain elements. This resulted in the larger ones, about 9x12", with orange circles. I think they look a bit Japanese.

When the Running with Scissors group challenged us to make a quilt in only 2 colors and black, I made these little squares, 5.5". My assigned colors were brown and white.

This is another big family weekend. Yesterday my nephew Michael got married. His bride Chelsea is perfect for him. They are happy people, nice people, always smiling. I think they'll be surrounded by happy people, because it's catchy. Today we have a big German dinner, with more relatives. It will also be fun. And my basement mosaic studio is coming along nicely, here's a picture.