Neil Diamond's World Tour 2008

Neil Diamond has always been my first love and always will. Don't tell my husband that, though. He was wonderful to take me to my second Neil Diamond concert in the last 3 years last night. The first concert the seats weren't so great but last night's were 9th row center! I could count the wrinkles around his beautiful brown eyes. He still has less than me, I think, and he's older. ND's voice hasn't faltered a bit from his early years. He still has some great, but not as hard, hip movements. I tried to take some illegal photos last night, but with the stage lighting and the photo police constantly moving around looking to snatch my camera and me and exit us from the show, it was a difficult task. My other camera would have been better but this one fit in my purse so these photos will have to do.
Boy, do I love this man. I could enjoy his show nightly.

Quilt Guild Grabbag Challenge

Not only did I participate in the Quiltart Grabbag Challenge but our local guild also sponsored a grabbag challenge. WOW! Did I get a bag of neat oriental fabrics and embellishments! Lots of orange that needed some toning down so I added some purples and a bit of yellow. I then found some of my own oriental fabric with cranes, cut them out and fused them to the quilt to come up with "Following the North Winds". Tomme Fent turned out to be the owner of the fabric and resulting quilt.

We exchanged them last Monday night and oh, did we have some great quilts! Mine was made by Catherine Grigg and was definitely the brightest. I love what she did with the fabrics. She titled it "A Postcard from Quilter's Beach'. Isn't it great and wouldn't you love to have it hanging on your wall?

Grabbag Challenge

I recently participated in the Quiltart Grabbag Challenge. My first and it makes one both nervous and excited. I wondered who received my fabrics and would they like them. Once finished with the grabbag I received I wondered if that person would like the quilt I made for them.

What a relief to finally get mine back. Maureen Lardie did a wonderful job making "Beaded Curtain" from my fabrics and I would not have thought to use them this way ever! I do enjoy looking at it and see new things each time.

I made "Green Mile Squared" for Franziska Gruenig of Switzerland. Lots of greens and purples in this quilt. I added some orange squares and paint to get more color.

All in all it was a great learning experience forcing me to construct something in a short time using another's choice of fabric. Something everyone should do occasionally.