Tiny boat

This weekend I put this finishing touches on the painting for my grandparent's river cabin.

I'm calling this one "tiny boat."

Thanks for the "add a boat" advice Grandma Katy!

Another few layers

A few days ago my latest painting looked like this. Then i added a few more layers of paint and some other details.

Now it looks like this. I like it but I think it still might need a little something. Maybe a tiny boat on the horizon? Or a palm? Or a sunset? Or clouds?

...

This weekend is one of my tummy's favorite weekends of the year - Bismarck's RibFest. Check it out.

Photo taken by me at the event last year.

Pretty green colors

My chive plant bush is getting ready to bloom. I know I'm supposed to cut the flowers off if I don't want chives overrunning my garden, but they look too pretty to chop off. The combination of the greens and pink/purple is surprisingly lovely.

When I moved into this house, I planted a little plum tree. For the past four years, I've been wishin' for plums. This is the first year my plum tree is growing what look like the beginnings of plums. Now if only the birds will leave them alone, we might have plums this summer. I'll be sure to update my plum status again soon.

My grandma gave me a whole stack of hand-me-down canvasses, with the deal that I paint her one. So here it is - in the works. I'm making it for my grandparent's cantina (fancy garage on the river). I think it will eventually have the look of turquoise ocean meets sky. I sprinkled Kosher salt on the wet paint to give it some texture. And hey, it's supposed to have the "beachy" look, so why not add some salt?!

I've painted two layers of color so far. I think I'll add one more before making it look like something.

42 down

Tomorrow, Monday, April 8, marks the 42nd day of the one-a-day 9-patch quilt along.

Here are the week six blocks.

I wanted to see all 42 blocks together to see how well they all get along.

So far so go, I think. In the finished quilt, I will alternate the blocks so the primarily red/green blocks will be every-other (red, green, red, green ...). As you can see in this photo, I accidently had a few green blocks in a row. oops.

Each of the blocks will be sashed in white.

Think it has a Christmas look to it?

Speaking of Christmas, it snowed here yesterday. It never stuck to the ground, but there was definitely frozen stuff falling from the sky. A town less than an hour west of here had three inches of snow. Remind me again, is it really June?

Week five

I'm lagging behind but only by a five days. There blocks are for week five (which ended Monday) for the 9-block one-a-day quilt along hosted by crazymomquilts. This brings my grand total to 35 blocks.

Check out weeks 1-4.

Good thing I had a rainy day to catch up.

A change of seasons

Last week I took this photo near Fox Island, in Bismarck, ND. It's just over a mile west of where we live, and very close to the Missouri River. I was amazed at how much has changed with the season. Just over two moths ago, this was all underwater and the homes in the area were flooded ... our street got wet too. But now this area is lush and beautiful.

The photo was taken on Thursday - it was a beautiful spring day with perfect little puffy clouds.

This is our weather forecast ... today we have a chance of rain ... and snow. SNOW?! It's June! 

This weekend  we're trying to keep ourselves busy indoors. I'm wondering when I'm going to get to wear my new swimming suit.

For the time being, I think quilting is in order. And then maybe some pinochle.

Colorful crosses

This week I finished the colorful crosses painting.

Ever since I finished the "Six Crosses" quilt, I've been rather preoccupied with crosses. The shape is so simple and it's easy to work with. Yet, the cross represents a huge amount of meaning. It's fascinating. 

So this painting is probably one of many cross paintings I will do. I may even make another cross quilt or two. I really like this one and this one and this one.

The method of painting I used is something I learned in art class during my first year of college at the Santa Rosa Junior College in Santa Rosa, CA. It's not too complicated – it's just repeating a simple design or shape over and over (and over and over ...). I like the effect it gives. It's also interesting to do it with just black and white or black, white and one color. 

Oh I have so many projects I would like to do ...