Barbara's door...Progress

It is a fine place to work, for sure.


I've got pelicans, dolphins, and the occasional dog walker on the beach for company as I stitch.
There's been good progress on Barbara's Door.

I am happy with the feeling of this because it really does express my idea of Barbara herself...

There is a quotation that is going to get stitched on in the bottom corners, a little beadwork to add, and a few more details...but this is getting close to done.

Stay warm up there, dear friends!

New Project....Barbara's Door

Even while walking 6 miles every day along the beach, I am still managing to get some stitching done. (We are being so good!) I started work on the house portrait for my friend Barbara.

The photo she sent was of her entryway. I pieced it into a large rectangle before we left home.

This measures about 12" X 16".
These were the colors that lept to mind, but I knew that they would just serve as background for embellishments.

After I stitched the "architectural outlines" on the transferred photo, I started adding the floral frame around the doorway.
The concept of the shrine keeps coming back to me when I think of Barbara. Part of that is her deep ties to Mexico, and part is the fact that I am working on her piece while in this devout and sunlit country.

She uses a lot of yellow in her quilts, too. ;-)
This is early days but the basic structure is in place.

I will be teaching a class in Home Portraits this year.....stay tuned for further details!

Down in Mexico....

We went from this...

to this.....

...in the blink of an eye.
Air travel is a beautiful thing.
We are down in San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico. We love this country very much.

We needed to get provisioned so our friend Leigh took us to the open air market in nearby Guaymas.

Leigh Hay-Martin is one of my Point Bonita sisters who also owns a condo in the same place and at the same time that we do! So we get to see each other here too...


Everything at the market is so fresh and enticing.

There are lots of things for sale besides food, too. It's kind of a flea market as well.
I am always on the look-out for bits to add to my crazy quilts and I found a few good ones.

Some special hand-knotted bracelets...one of which will go onto a new house portrait I am making for my friend Barbara (which I'll show in my next post).

My husband and Leigh checked out the table where I had just bought some little heart lockets. Robert speaks Spanish and he made lots of jokes with the vendors about me.

Everything is so colorful here. This was my favorite table of all of them....

Just so great. We loved the market.
Then Leigh took us to a little fish place off the beaten path for our lunch.

The ceviche was amazing.

When we got home, Robert modeled the new shades he bought at the market.

Fetching, absolutely.

And now it is time to get back to "work"....

The easy stitching in the afternoon is on the Go Crazy blocks...the more complicated design work is in the mornings....yes, I can make this work down here!
Adios for now.... ;-)

...and p.s. to all you crazy quilters...
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Send them to rissapeace@yahoo.com Thank you!