Sweet Cornucopia

I've been looking more closely at one of the quilts that are currently on my bed. And cataloging the fabrics used in this vintage 1940's quilt made by my grandmother and aunties. Some of the fabrics are beginning to deteriorate, especially those with purple dye. Isn't this a cool applique' pattern? I think it is in the Dresden Plate category, and has 18 blades. I also have rows of identical blocks that should eventually be put together into another quilt. Those fabrics are not deteriorating in the same manner since they've been in storage, and not in use. I don't know if I'll ever make the quilt that they should be made into, but I like having them around.

I am always surprised at how much I like this quilt, since I am not a vintage decorating kind of person, but I love how this quilt looks and feels on my bed.
Fuchsias are blooming on my deck! I'm so happy that I actually kept a fuchsia alive long enough to bloom more than once. I've had bad luck with them, usually they perish during the long hot summers. But this year I guess I was vigilant enough with the watering, and they're having a bonza bloom session right now. These pictures were taken with the macro function on my digital camera (a Canon powershot sd 600), I held it steady beneath the blooms and snapped away. See my ghostly head at the top of the shot? And the eaves up above are two stories high.
My quilt Dinah is back from its sojourn with the Women of Biblical Proportion tour. I'm glad to have her back around again as she was made and sent in a very short period of time back in 2003. This was based on the book The Red Tent by Anita Diamant which affected me very deeply and inspired me to participate in this project when invited.

I pulled out my sketchbook and scanned the sketch I did for this quilt so you can see how I did at interpreting my idea. Sometimes I just make stuff up without stopping at the sketchbook. Usually that is with really abstract ideas that I'm trying to get down in fabric before I forget, or just fooling around with fabric to see what it will do. But when I'm tackling something more representational I usually do at least one sketch.