trip to Iowa

I'm feeling kinda special right now, because I'm visiting my mom and she takes such good care of me!  Right now, she's out in the kitchen making chicken and something else really good-smelling for lunch.  Usually, my lunches are just done on a sort-of driveby basis.  Just a brief pause in the day without really counting as a sit-down meal.  But back when lunch was dinner and dinner was supper, an actual meal was planned and served for the middle of the day!

It's been cold and SO WINDY!  The lake is gray and sprinkled with whitecaps.  The wind has been over 30 mph ever since I arrived, and temps below 40, so not a good time to do much outside.  So, we occupied ourselves indoors, instead!

Mom has been hand quilting on this for a great-granddaughter.  Can you tell that she is a fan of purple and pink?!  It's not a complex quilt pattern, a large star surrounded by squares.  It's the colors and designs that make it interesting.  She is quilting little shapes and patterns and numbers into each block.  I hope it is cherished forever!

I brought along a hand sewing project that was started last year (or the year before).  I ran into it when I was gathering examples to use for an upcoming Intro to English Paper Piecing class.  Lots of diamonds left to do....

I have completed 3 of the 8 sections necessary, and made progress on #4.  I have all the fabric pieces cut and stacked in a box, but I'm in trouble.  When I went back through the pieces, I discovered that I didn't cut enough of this one---

I need 9 more diamonds, and I can't find any fabric remaining in my stash!  So this has hit a snag!  Now I go on the quest to find more of this fabric.  Does it look familiar to you?  I don't even know who the manufacturer/designer was, when it was purchased, where it was purchased, etc.

Would you do me a favor and look in your own stash for it, and ask anyone you know who owns a scrap of fabric if they might have it?  I had to do this once before, and by broadcasting my plea to the world wide web, I was lucky enough to find what I needed!  Here's hoping I am that lucky again!

Here's an interesting idea for you!

I found out about an app for altering photos into something more "artsy".  It's called Dreamscope and it's a free app.  They have a lot of different filters that can be applied to create different effects.  I don't think it's the easiest to use, and maybe that's because it takes some time to process the image.  I didn't think I had succeeded in making it work, but when I went back to it later, the bottom picture showed up.  So here is the before and after:

 Kinda' cool!