Forest Fires, Flip Flops, and Fireworks

The fire is still going on the coast of NC and Steve left last Monday (June 30th) to join his team. He's supposed to be finished next Wed. (July 16th), but they might decide to keep his team for another 2 weeks after a 2 day rest (the rest would be there, not at home). I hope not. The 4th of July was pretty depressing this year - no one home but me. I gave the second week of my Arquilt 101 class at Lynne's shop on Thursday night. There was a new person there who is an art teacher at the local community college. It was fun to work with her because she's not afraid to experiment. She is not taking the class to walk out with one "perfect" artquilt completed. She's wanting to learn techniques so she can do her own.

Here is a photo from the first week's class - that is Lynne's neighbor, Gail, not the art teacher. I brought a bag of fabric scraps and dumped it in the middle of the table. They seem to be getting it pretty well, considering most of them are totally traditional quilters.

Friday afternoon (4th) I went to Lynne's shop. It was closed, but she and some of the girls were there doing their "homework" from my class, so I worked on some fabric postcards. Made the time go by much faster.

Keri came down Saturday and we went out to lunch, then out to dinner. We've had horrendous thunder storms every evening and there we were, sitting on the deck (it's a covered deck) at La Caretta watching the rain pour down and shuddering at the thunder and lightening. Oh wait. That was me shuddering... Keri was whooping and hollering and having a blast.

Sat. night we watched P.S. I Love You. What a FABULOUS movie! It's one of the funniest/best I've seen in a long long time and we laughed so hard watching it. Lisa Kudrow (Friends) was as nutty as ever and really made the movie. It's on DVD now - and not just for the 2 day rental anymore - at Blockbuster. This is one I'm going to have to buy.

More flower photos. I bought this Lantana to attract more butterflies and Hummingbirds and planted it in the vegetable garden. A nice spot of color in all that green.

I really wanted to make a piece for the SAQA One Foot Square auction this year. I wrestled with what to do for so long and nothing seemed to feel just right. Then I had this vision of flip flops - and knew I wanted to make something fun. I made this the weekend before Steve left and had a blast. I bought a box of shells and beads and a bag of the little beach stones at Walmart. I couldn't believe they had it. Unfortunately, I glued the stones and shells on before I added the back and finished the edges. That glue really holds!

When I showed it to Steve, he just shook his head like I was nuts. I figured it was a lost cause, but brought it to work. All of the women I work with loved it and all the women at the quilt shop loved it and Keri loved it. I decided it's definitely a fun "chick piece of art" and since it would be mostly chicks bidding on the SAQA art, someone is bound to see it and think how fun it is. Right? I mean, really, if you're a chick (of any age), you probably dig flip flops. It's on the SAQA auction website now.

This picture doesn't show the finished edges, but the one on the website does. I had to pull a lot of the little stones off around the edges to finish it, then added them back (plus more!) when it was done.

I think I'd like to try another one. This was so much fun!