
After a bit of a hiatus -- we are returning to the workroom as it's girl's weekend - once again - we have the house to ourselves for
THREE WHOLE DAYS. The sewing machine

is fired up, the paints, pencils and pens came out of hiding and we're gettin' busy. Sabrina is in school today so I'm working on a project that I've had lying around for a while - some placemats and a table runner (a gift for someone?!?!?!?) I'm not a fan of "pieced" placemats so I found this nice little example and
have
modified it to suit my needs. Instead of fall colors and a pumpkin, I'm using a folk art crow/flower print for the center, complementing colors for

the edges and am going to use a floral print for the backing so they are reversible. "Piecing" is not my forte' however I am enjoying the designing process along with combining colors and patterns. I'm using commercial prints, hand dies, tea dyed (that I dyed myself) and some really cool homespuns I bought when we went to Schoolhouse Fabrics after visiting the Mountain
Comforts Quilt show a while back in Virginia. I should have these done by the end of the weekend and will post more pictures.
A Wonderful Mother's Day Surprise....
Finally, I just had to share with you what I received from my precious girl for Mother's Day. It seems my daughter has been following my blog and decided

that the perfect gift for me would be (and how right she was!) this amazing
Van Gogh -- A Self Portrait in Arts and Letters, coffee table book - wrapped in custom made wrapping paper and delivered with a lovingly made card.
This fantastic gift contains about 400+ pages of photographs and translations of the actual private hand written letters from Vincent to his brother, along with page after page of his private sketches, doodles and paintings. I know I've said this before -- knowing the background of an artist or writer or history behind a work of art or piece of literature makes the experience so much sweeter, the connection so much deeper.
Thank you little girl for your oh so sweet and thoughtful gift from the heart - you know me soooo well!! XOXO