Summer Days and Lazymen!

Been busy the past coupl of weeks!! On top of the "secret project" I have been working on some small pieces doing painting/drawing with Inktense pencils (see below), as well as starting the Lazyman Triathlon 2009 at the YMCA! You do what they do in the Hawaii Ironman, but you get to spread it out over 5 weeks! It's still challenging for me! lol Right now I am doing 1.5 miles running/walking (mostly walking!), 1 mile rowing machine and 5 miles biking per day. Whew!

Oh, and another hint for the "secret project": I HATE minky! It's sort of like the rabbit in The Holy Grail, it's all cute and soft from a distance, but it's nasty with big pointy sharp fangs close up! lol I nearly had to be committed halfway through the project! It's still a secret, as the presentation time has not come about as yet!

My next project is choose which of the pieces below to quilt and finish to enter into the Fine Arts competition at the state fair. Let me know which on you think would work best in a fine arts show! Please! Because I am having a hard time trying to decide which one to use.

I've also been completing the hand binding on some pieces I've had laying around for ages now. I even finished the binding on the first "test" quilt I quilted on my longarm. It's just a bunch of my hand dyed fat quarters pieced together then quilted. I'll try to post pictures soon.

I'm also hand quilting a ver small piece, less than 12" x 12", that I made using a leaf pounding for the center. Should be too much longer on that one. My stitches are not awesome by no means! I tend to do punch and jab method, and it looks more like Sashiko than your traditional 800 stitches per square inch the quilt police expect to see!

Hope you enjoy the pictures! Most of them were done using macro images of leaves and petals, with a couple odd balls thrown in there. The black, white and red piece is a maco of a butterfly wing. Again, be sure to let me know which one you think would look good for a fine arts piece! (It will be framed.)