25 Years in the Making

Weeks before my 65th I sat wondering what type of celebration I wanted to attempt in this time of covid, and then through my friend and owner of Ephemera of Paducah, Kristin, the idea struck.

She had set in motion a gathering of vaccinated folks to help christen the reopening of the workshop space. It worked out so nicely and was so much fun, it struck me that this would be a way to bring some friends together for my birthday--- and it would give me the chance I had been waiting for for 25 years. I would finally pull out the hand blocks that were given to me for my 40th and make 'my birthday quilt'.

That old sketch was pulled out, updated and turned into a working plan. I created the special top section of the quilt top, designed a few cats (cause you have to have cats) and got to work on making all the different size hand blocks into one size so all could be stitched together, choosing red as my neutral (an entirely different tale).

Below is a series of photos of the whole experience, but take special note of the amazing friends that showed up to help me celebrate and who took everything in hand to create the full quilt top by the end of the day.

I used all the remaining hands on the back of the quilt and spent the time needed with that big ole quilt under the needle for quilting.

Thank you to friends from way back and newer friends from my life in Paducah for the help in making 'it sew' and making my 65th one for the books.

100 Days of Doodling

Last year about this time I, like everyone else, was beginning the pandemic lifestyle changes. Like many artists I was not really feeling a call to create. The need to turn my brain to something other than pandemic news was there, but there was no creative fire being lit in any direction.

In order to keep muddling through I decided to just do a little doodle each day. I dug out some index cards, cut them in half, along with a variety of black markers and pens and set off.


In this way I doodled my way through spring and into early summer. These little drawings kept me going until I found my way into on-line workshops that sparked a bit of creative electricity.

I knew that something small could lead to something big, something to just keep a toe in the pond.

The collection of cards hangs in a prominent space, but it is wild to lay them all out and see where my mind went and how many marks could be conjured out of thin air.

As the year progressed I happily found inspiration in things big and small.

I'd love to see something that kept your creative energy flowing during our crazy time.