A good day!

You know it's a good day when you can go climbing on the conference table at work!  (I was taking a group shot...will add that later ....)

No Comfort in Comfort...

I know, I know....it's been a really long time since I posted.  But, really - there has been nothing to show and nothing to tell.  It's hot enough out there to fry eggs on the pavement, so mostly I've been dashing from my air-conditioned house to my a/c'd car to my a/c'd office and back.

The handwork I'm sporadically working on is an embroidery for a friend who sometimes drops in on the blog, so I don't want to spoil the surprise - and the quilt top I'm working on is a challenge quilt, so I can't post it until either I've already turned it in and it's after the deadline or if it's after the deadline anyway and I've just missed it, so I'm turning it in late so it doesn't matter if I show it.

But we did leave our house this past weekend to go down to Comfort, Texas - Comfort is in Kendall County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,363 at the 2010 census.
SAAAA-Lute!...

established in 1854 by German immigrants, who were Freethinkers and abolitionists.  Comfort is also known for a tragic event that took place during the Civil War. The Treue der Union Monument ("Loyalty to the Union") was dedicated in honor of 35 men who died at the Battle of the Nueces, which took place because they opposed the state's secession from the Union. The German settlers were killed on their way to Mexico during the Civil War. The monument was erected in 1866.

It was the 150th anniversary of the Battle, so there was a special memorial service to be held at the monument, in which the Sons of Union Veterans were participating.

We left after work on Friday and came back immediately after lunch on Saturday (sorry, Connie - next time we'll arrange to hook-up!).  The trip down was uneventful, and there was a whole lot of nothing to see...

Comfort's a nicely preserved Texas town with a large number of buildings still remaining from the late 1800s; and a lot of the town did turn out for the service.  But it was outside and over 100degrees...so Comfort belied it's name....

the speeches were waaayyy too long and too many

the cannon fire was cool..and loud...

the residents of the town

not at the ceremony probably thought

something had blown up!

Afterwards they fed us German food

and I forced Dave to stop at the local needlework store before leaving town...

Great selection of yarns and fibres and great prices - highly recommended (if it weren't for the long drive!)

I like the Hill country well enough and expect to stop at Wimberly trade days again when the department retreat is in New Braunfels in November.

Now...back to staying inside for awhile!

Workshop

At the end of April I took a workshop with my friends that was taught by my friend Carolyn Skei - a wonderful artist - and the group of us had a great time painting and otherwise abusing fabric. 

I came away with several pieces I greatly liked and, what's even better - I liked well enough to photograph and upload to Spoonflower (along with one or two from a prior similar session in my studio) - so now I have several yards of great & unique fabric as well!

Here are a few of the results from that workshop (photos of the original pieces) - most are ~9X12" at the largest and some are as small as 5"x5":

...some are fabric and some are the paper towels that were underneath the fabric  - the yardage of the few I chose to have printed looks the same, only bigger and longer, so I will wait to post pictures of them after I've done something with them...

...uh...that might be awhile....

He will be missed...

Ray Bradbury, Master of Science Fiction, Dies at 91

Thanks to him and Isaac Asimov, my adolescence was far more entertaining than it would have been...

Long Live the Queen!

The morning was spent watching the  Queen's Thames Jubilee covered by BBC America - trying to catch a glimpse of our friends, the heralds...we took pictures of the TV screen!  Dave actually got one good shot with Charles (far left) and Dennis (middle) in it!

Unfortunately, no usable shot of Claire in her beautiful new blue Canadian tabard...here's hoping they got pictures of each other all gathered aboard the barge!

We are such Anglo-philes!

The rest of the celebration was great and I greatly admire any 86-year-old woman and any 90-year-old man who can stand on their feet for over 3 hours just to watch boats go by!  No wonder their people love them!