More Scupltures

This one is titled A Little Right. Notice the detail in the close ups. The runner from the prior pic is just below them.

More Sculptures

Can you figure out who are the sculptures in the first two pictures? They are the two boys to the right and the lady in the hat to the right in the garden. The sculpture in the second pic is titled Best Spring. The last two pics are titled Caution Man Working.

More Sculptures

The top pic is titled Life at a Distance. The girl with braids is titled Yum Yum.

More Sculptures

The first one is titled Coming Home. The one with the girl playing with the hoola hoop is in an area for children to play.

More Sculptures

Look at the detail on the boy's overalls. Who's that dog sitting by the boy who is copying from a newspaper? They really should have a sculpture of a dog. The bottom pic is my favorite. It is actually in the water and sure looks like he is fishing there.

Manatee

These big gentle mammals are fun to observe here in Florida. When the Gulf gets cold, they come into the inland waterways that have warmer water. Homosassa Springs is one of those areas. You can pay to go on a boat to scuba dive in an specific area where they often come. The area is roped off so the manatee can remain secluded, if they desire. However, the animals are not afraid of people but are curious about them. Many of them also like to be touched and they come past the rope to where the people are to touch noses or get a belly rub.

You can also see manatee at Homosassa State Park. It is like a zoo and, expect for one, all the animals there are native of Florida. Most of them are rescued injured animals. Manatee are injured and die by boat motors and also by red tide. In the first picture at the park, they are gathering for a feeding of carrots. Volunteers, many of whom are senior citizens, give narrations about the animals. Manatees are vegetarians and in the wild eat all day. The park has a walk way out to a dock where you can observe the manatees by looking into the water or through windows. They have built a pipe out from the dock and one manatee is holding on while she naps. Another is just floating on her back. What animal do you think is the nearest relative to the manatee? The elephant, of course.

Kennedy Space Center

My friend Ann from MI is visiting me. No quilty things going on but some site-seeing is.

In the first pic, I am touching a moon rock. The pic is shot thu glass with light under it so not the best. I did turn off the flash which helped.

The other pics are of a Gemini module. You can walk very close and really see inside. They have a lot of memorabilia including personal items. I was most intrigued with the astronaut's notebook. I expected to see type written checklists. Oh, no. They were hand written. To remember how much of this was before computers really made me all the more impressed at what they did. I know so much of what we have today, especially in communications and medical technology, was developed by the space program. This is an example of government money very well spent. If you ever get a chance to visit Kennedy Space Center, don't miss it.



Thank you, thank you.

Spell checker is fixed!

Florida

Since some trees cannot get their roots deep into the ground, it is not unusual for them to spread out. There are so many plants with such pretty flowers. To make a path, they sometimes use shells rather than gravel. Interesting place, huh?

My Shirt

I'm packing my favorite shirt and Kipper and I are off for a short visit. See you soon.

One More

I have finished one more redwork smiling tea pot. They make me smile. I don't know why the pics aren't good color. The background is really very white.

I also played with some of the small HST that I already had cut. It is sure a lot easier to make them from strips. Just playing. No plans for a quilt.

I have been working on editing and organizing my pics on my computer. They are such a mess. Last time my computer crashed, I had a store copy my files from the dead computer. Yes, I had many of them backed up but wasn't sure if I had them all. When the copies were put on my new computer, the files went to all kinds of strange places. Many times they also made multiple copies. I'm not good with computers so have just left the mess. Well, this week I've been trying to make some sense of it all.

The spell checker for blog posts is still not working. I found the place to notify them about this and discovered that they had a box to click on so it must be a wide spread problem. Sure wish they would fix it.

Another Redwork

I'm smiling just looking at it. You too?

There is a one word mime going around. This is my version.

1. Where is your cell phone? table
2. Your significant other? nope
3. Your hair? long
4. Your mother? teacher
5. Your father? photography
6. Your favorite thing? quilts
7. Your dream last night? lists
8. Your favorite drink? tea
9. Your dream/goal? author
10. The room your in? cluttered
11. Your ex? nope
12. Your fear? heights
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? here
14. Where were you last night? here
15. What your not? efficient
16. Muffins? chocolate
17. One of your wish list items? health
18. Where you grew up? MI
19. The last thing you did? trash
20. What are you wearing? shorts
21. Your TV? on
22. Your pet? Kipper
23. Your computer? laptop
24. Your life? good
25. Your mood? reflective
26. Missing someone? yah
27. Your car? runs
28. Something your're not wearing? shoes
29. Favorite store? fabric
30. Your summer? MI
31. Like someone? you
32. Your favorite color? yellow
33. When was the last time you laughed? today
34. When was the last time you cried? movie

Progress
It was cloudy and rainy yesterday (today too). So yeterday I sewed. Also, this accounts for the poor indoor pictures. I made two Painted Bricks quilt tops. Each is 48 x 60 and I have some bricks left over. They are bright and full of cheer. I decided they would made great lap or kid's quilts. I dont' expect to finish them until after I return to MI.

How do you handle your goofs? I just throw them all in a pile and eventually I sit and rip them out. I hate to do this as I'm sewing. It stops my rhythm. So today I turned on The View and took out the mistakes. I had some with the wrong side up, some where I sewed both ends and one where I picked up three bricks and sewed them all together. I keep tape handy and pat off the small pieces of thread.

Do you watch The View? I have a friend who doesn't like the show because the people talk over each other. This was bad when Rosy was on the show, but I think they have curtailed it some now. I like it because it is like people really talk. They were saying today that because they are not scripted, they don't use writers and have not been affected by the strike, which by the way is over today. Hurrah! Oh, the people on The View did say they had two writers for special segments but not the talk part.

I also finished another redwork block. The background is white, even if the pic doesn't show it.

I've been talking to friends in MI. They sure have had the cold and snow. My neighbor says she paid $500 for heating gas and it only lasted two months. And she doesn't have a big house and keeps the thermastat low. They have not had the terrible increase in food prices that we have had here in FL. I wonder why.

Spell check is still not working. I am a terrible speller and my fingers love to get ahead of each other so good luck reading this.

Quilt Pattern

Kimberlyn asked about the pattern I'm using for the quilt I have named Painted Bricks. See my last post. The pattern is called Conzetta's Courtyard and was in the May 2005 Quilt Almamac. Today's pic is one I posted in May 2006 showing the first quilt I made from this pattern. It covers the bed in my sewing room in MI. I love the colors and fabric of the first one and have been looking for more fabric that would strike my fancy to make another one. I had bought the current fabrics with this in mind but was never overjoyed with either the fabric quality or the colors.

Anyway I am working on Painted Bricks but I got side tracked yesterday. Last week I was exercing in my park pool when I met another lady. Turned out she was from Wheeling, West Virginia. My ancesters are from there. We talked and she said she would have a relative of hers send me some info. It came yesterday so I spent the day reading and comparing what I already had to this new information. I gained a little new information and hope this will lead me to other sources. I am wanting to find informaton about my great grandfather who I believe was in the Civil War. The story that my mother passed on to me was that he was 16 years old and lied about his age and joined the army near the end of the war. His birth date supports this story. I have just learned that two of his older brothers were in the war. Do any of you know how to get infomation on service in the Civil War? I've written about my family history and need to get back to it. The statistics on birth and death are interesting but I love the stories and pictures about their lives. I have made three books about my life and now want to get my family history book done. I can't do much until I get back to MI where I have the old pics locked in a safety box in the bank. I worked some on my Dad's family last summer. I'm not able to follow them back so far. I am able to trace my mother's family back to before to before the Revolutionary War when my ancester came to America from Germany.