Well, let’s see. A lot of you know I like to write. I used to write essays for the local newspaper; had a couple published there and even made it to the OP/ED page once or twice.

In college, I was always the one asking for ONE MORE blue book, please, I promise I will stop answering the questions soon! And a 8-10 page paper? Easy as pie. Of course, easy, once I settled down and started writing, it was easy. I have held the title of Queen of Procrastination for a very long time, folks. I groan to think of how long those papers would be today–back then (insert stone age drum beats) I had to hand write and then insert paper into a typewriter! And use white out.

Ah, the freedom the computer has provided. Professor Nachmani is relieved I am sure that we didn’t use such new -fangled things like this back then!

Not that you would know by reading this blog so far. I definitely haven’t been writing with much thought here; I started this mostly to have a place to show photos.

In any event. I have gotten hooked on this book series. Well, a number of books, of course, but this particular series…it spoke to me. The author is stringing us along, and we are following her meekly.

The series is Stephanie Plum and the author is Janet Evanovich. There are currently 12 books, and she writes a new one each year. I devoured them this summer. And then read them again. Immediately. Not like me, I usually move on quickly.

The characters got under my skin. There has been no resolution for them, and it was eating me up. (Ok, so I don’t have much else to worry about…shoot me that my life is great, why don’t you?) I am willing to admit, and I know that my husband reads this, that I have certain, well, feelings, for one of the main characters.

I had never heard of Fan Fiction before, or maybe I had, but it buzzed by my brain. I did a little googling, and discovered a whole world of people who like to play with other people’s fictional characters! Who knew?

Have I ever sent you a hand made card? What does it say on the back—“another product of Trish’s over-active imagination”–I believe those are the words I used.

I began to write a story. And up until now, have posted it on a site where everyone else has similar feelings about the universe we are exploring, (or borrowing.) So they are all very supportive. But, I have decided to take the big plunge, and post it where people I actually know may read it. Exposing myself, yikes, a bit delicate there, but…

if you go to http://www.fanfiction.net/~aliaslaceygreen or http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1166786/ you should be able to locate my story, called Geometry Lessons. (but maybe not quite yet. It’s showing up on my computer as existing, from the accounts side, but not from the public side.)

I have written a prologue, so if you have no Stephanie Plum experience, you shouldn’t be too lost. I will continue posting there; currently only have the prologue up, but it’s a slightly difficult site so far for me to navigate. I am working on it, however.

I hope you enjoy it. I will note here that I use real language (cursing, etc) and real situations, so if you are uncomfortable with this proceed at your own risk.

STAUNTON WINDOW-On Display at Houston.
I belong to a quilt list on line, quiltart.com.
I am usually not a good deadline person, and I am not a big participant in discussion on the board. I also have a very hard time committing to projects and FINISHING them.
I have so many partly finished quilts. Ideas in progress. UFO’s. Even belong to a quilt list to help get my UFO’s finished!

Quiltart posted the Journal Quilt Project.
I decided to enter this challenge that was posted. It was in it’s fifth year. I could handle having to produce one finished art quilt per month, considering that the only criteria was that they were the size of a piece of typing paper. After all, I scrapbook, and that’s the format I use.

So, I committed to the project. Now, what to DO?? Well, Timmy and I had taken a weekend trip the autumn before, hunting down quilt shops. While in Staunton, VA, I discovered an antique/junk shop that had colored bottles in the windows. The owner let me take photos (he actually looked at me funny when I asked if I could take pictures through-out his store.)

The rest of the weekend, I was buying batik fabrics and kept seeing colored bottles. Ah, another quilt idea.

So, in January, I started plotting out the quilts. Do I do a series? Random thoughts? New techniques? What do I want out of this exercise? (other than my name in lights, of course!!!) I knew by fulfilling the project that I would be getting my five of nine quilts displayed at the International Quilt Show 2006 in Houston.
Great motivator!

I rummaged through fabrics and ideas spilled forth. I ran across the batiks, and the windows came back into mind. Did I want to do a series of WINDOWS? (still gonna happen someday)hmmm.
Started cutting fabric and fusing it, decided to add some Angelina fiber to make the shiny bottle and learn how to use that. Gotta start practicing my machine quilting, so tossed that into the soup too.

Then, a topic began on quiltart about netting, and tulle on quilts, and BINGO! I realized I needed a spiderweb. Mine is from organza.

Well, looky there. I made my first Journal quilt. And January, oh, we love January, because resolutions are still easy to keep, so I even sent out my digitial image of my January and February quilts on time.

I was shocked by an email a month or so later to discover that my January quilt was chosen to be one of 280 or so quilts to be published in November 2006 in a book about the Journal Quilt Projects five year odessy!!!! Click here to see the book (I’m on page 256 =} )
http://www.quiltingarts.com/shop/cq_book.html

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE
February’s quilt came as I was in a mini Beatlmania. I had just finished watching the DVD Imagine, and had a Beatles CD in the car, driving home from Ashland, where I had gone to meet a quilter from one of my groups. We went fabric shopping!!!
And then to the new scrapbook store next to the quiltman. Ashland is a bad bad place.

Anyway, the words to this song rattled around in my head as I buzzed down 95. The entire concept and construction occured on the ride home.
I felt that it needed to be in soft, monochromatic colors, to emphasize John and Pauls timeless lyrics, I never saw 60’s psychedelic colors. I printed the words onto fabric run through my printer, cut them up and the sewed them back together. Using some fabric paint and rubber stamps designed for scrapbooking, I pressed the title over the entire thing.

WOULDN’T AUNT GENE BE PROUD
March was interesting. Meaningful. I was working on a different project, for FFAC, which was donating money to the American Cancer Society. Since my father had just finished up treatment for his cancer I decided to donate some fabric postcards to the cause. They would be sold at the Chicago IQS in April.
I started playing with scraps from a different quilt, and came up with an idea for the postcards, but while putting it together, it reminded me of my Aunt Gene. She was the ultimate hoarder. I thought, wow, wouldn’t Aunt Gene be proud! Then of course, I amended that thought, because the last time I saw her before she died, she had no idea who I was. Alzheimers had taken her, and her sister, my great-grandmother. I recalled there was an Alzheimers project for quilters going on as well. I took the thought for the postcards, reworked it for the Alzheimers project and liked the result so much (down in the past postings SOMEWHERE) that I made one for my Journal Quilt as well.

IT’S TRITE I TELL YA -On Display at Houston

Ok, another one caused by the endless circular carryings on at quiltart. Is it real or is it memorex? What constites a quilt? What makes it art? Yada yada. One round of this discussion brought up the idea of a sunflower. Someone stated that they were trite. Not art (dont tell Georgia)….Anyhoooo, I just left the Chicago quilt show and there were a heck of a lot of Sunflowers that made it into the show!!!

And after all, I personally have never worked with the sunflower as a subject, in any media. How could it be trite to me? For bonus points, I tossed in a Kincade-esque background complete with Lumiere painted sky and a thatched cottage.

DiscOver Aquehonga On-Display at Houston
See next posting.