Monday....again! Oink

We all fell off of the diet wagon this weekend but it really started on Thursday night when Pam made "Not Yo Mama's Banana Pudding" for the Thursday night quilt group. Wow! Then we had Lobster rolls and corn on the cob Saturday. Then BIL Bob picked up littleneck clams to steam when he got the lobster so we had them as an appetizer(???, cause you really need something to make the lobster go down better, RIGHT?) Then, last night we had beer-can chicken,homemade macaroni salad, corn on the cob, and a veritable food-induced coma followed. It was a lovely weekend and now I need to not eat a thing for about 6 days.

I want to thank all of you who commented on the last entry regarding the tone of some comments and censorship. It hasn't happened to me but I'm sure it will in time. A few of my close blog friends have had very unpleasant experiences and it just made me wonder at the venom in some of the remarks. Thanks for all the nice things you had to say.

Speaking of nice things and people-if you have the chance and a few moments, stop by my friend Sarah Ann Smith's blog, Art & Quilting in Camden and have a little looksee at the show she is participating in at the Camden, Maine, Public Library through the month. Sarah and her friends are The Frayed Edges, a group of artist-quilters who have been getting together for a number of years to compare, critique and share there wonderful talents. Deborah Boschert of Deborah's Journal is another member who has moved to Texas but remains an active and productive member of the group from afar. All of the women do wonderful work and there is much to be admired. Sarah Ann has a link to all the members on her blog. I wish our trip to Maine was sooner but by the time we will be there in late Sept. their show will be history. The group also had some work shown in Quilting Arts Magazine last year. This is what I talk about when I say how nice it would be to have a group of like-minded women to bond with over this type of artwork.

Other than hauling laundry and waddling around doing some housework, I don't think much will get done today in the way of anything quilty. It's still very warm and humid but then that's the lethargy that is August here. I wish I felt more like exercise but I have to be honest-it's the last thing on my list right now. Maybe tomorrow will be better. Have a great day!

Triangle madness and blog censorship.

Boy Oh Boy...Dog days indeed! We've been spoiled by the very sweet summer temps that have dissolved into the soup that is August. You can cut the air with a knife and a general lethargy has settled in around here.
I'm working on some doll quilt pieces that are gifts and so I have sewn up hundreds of triangles. Not sure what will become of them yet but it's a kind of mindless thing that makes me feel like I have accomplished something. They will be turned into little pieces soon as I have a couple of gifts due soon for various things such as friends birthdays and such. I used the half square triangle papers that I printed out from some on-line thing like Block Central a while back.
I notice that so many bloggers are either on vacation or just as out of it as I am so there isn't a lot going on. A few people, who are a lot more serious about their work than me have posted about wonderful things learned at classes. My good friend Gerrie took a class in Shibori dying last week. If you get a chance go and look. You have to scroll down a bunch but it's worth it. Gorgeous stuff. I am beginning to thing that Portland(Oregon) is the most amazing art mecca. In fact it seems that the left coast is an amazing place to be an artist in general. So many great art quilt groups and shows and classes Oh My! It seems to be a very nurturing environment for that type of thing. I'm a life-long New Yorker and I love it but what you have to do in order to get to anything resembling art in NY is a death defying feat. It's all much further in towards Manhattan and I'm, frankly, not up to it anymore. There is are a couple of guilds here on the island and they are big and eventful but the women I have met so far are not very friendly in general and they stick to a fairly traditional type of work. Independence is not nurtured. In fact the last quilt show I went to the members were trashing fellow members work as being "out there" as I was walking by. Not my kind of thing at all. Again, the Manhattan guilds are just too far away.
On a related subject, why are women sometimes so mean to each other? 99% of the bloggers I encounter are the most helpful and kind people but there seems to be the one or two factions who are waiting somewhere for someone to say the least little thing that displeases them so they can jump out of the bushes(anonymously_very brave) and bitch about it. What has happened to our sense of humor and ability to laugh at ourselves and be lighthearted. It's so bad that a couple of friends have removed posts from their own personal blogs rather than be slammed about something they wrote. In essence they had to censor themselves to please a few cranky witches. We are living in scary times when that happens.
Well, I need to get some laundry done and sew up some more triangles and think about what's up for dinner. It's almost too hot to grill anything-I may just make spaghetti and skip the grill. Hope everyone has a relaxing and pleasant day. Lets continue being nice to each other. There is something wonderful about the company of women and those similar experiences that draw us together.