I’m starting my 2010 project.  It’s a portrait of Sarah and Emma.  I used Photoshop to posterize the snapshot and find the edges of the various shapes and colors.  Kinko’s was able to enlarge it to 300%.  What you see is a velium line drawing of the underlying print.  It’s taken a couple of days off and on to get it to this stage.  The lips were the most difficult to interpret, and I may have to make adjustments when it comes to stitching those areas.  I would like to have this finished by the end of summer — only time will tell. 

In January (wait — it’s still January!) I went to the Road to California Show in Ontario with my BFF Loretta.  I was very happy to see Cherrywood fabrics there.  Cherrywood does gradations of hand-dyes including skin tones.  I helped with their bottom line and bought one of everything I thought might work on this project.

Too much whipped cream or Not enough pie?

My main concern was to get them off the sidewalk in case it would snow. I hadn’t checked the forecast, but sure enough about an hour later the white stuff started to fall.     By the time I raked, used the blower over the gravel areas, and bagged I was ready for a nap.    We only got three large bags filled.  Here’s what it looks like this morning. 

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It won’t get done today, but maybe this weekend the rest of the leaves will fall and I can get it all bagged up.  I do wish we had a city service with would come and vacuum up piles of yard debris, how easy that would be!

April 13, 2009, newly hatched

September 24, 2009

October 22, 2009, should be underground

I thought it would be fun to look at the growth of my baby tortoise over the summer.  When I found her in April, I could still see the remainder of the egg sack on her bottom shell. She’s grown quite well over the summer feeding on insects and vegetation in the gardens.  I did see where she was hanging out during the mid-summer and threw a bit of tortoise food in that area.   There was another baby found the same day, but I haven’t see that one since early May.  This one has been a little less skitish each time I found her, and this time she didn’t seem to mind being handled.  Undoubtedly, the cooler weather has reduced her energy level.  As I said in my earlier post, she should be underground by now with the rest of her clan.  I put her in a hole that a larger turtle had abandoned. it goes about 8 or 9 inches into the lawn and has a side tunnel as well.    I don’t want to disturb the hole by looking in, so I will just hope she winters there.   The larger turtles went underground earlier this month.  That’s the end of the 2009 desert tortoise session here.  I always look forward to seeing them in the late-spring. 

Made to be played with

 This is a little 24″ square  quilt for Emma’s doll, Claire.  Hope Claire (and Emma) likes it!

An unprepared turtle

This little guy needs some Lunesta.  I found him last week under a leaf in the garden.  I showed him a nice hole to crawl into, so hopefully he’s taken the hint and gone underground for the winter.  They say we will probably have snow tonight or tomorrow.  He’s one of the babies I found in March. 

How come we always wait until after the cold weather hits to winterize the motor home?  I think it’s because we always hope to take one more trip.  I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow and then we’re going to do the winterizing chores.  Hope the wind is calm while were there.