Fall Foliage in Southern California?

Many people believe that Southern California is always warm. Well, it's not true. As a matter of fact, it's pretty chilly. My heater is on right now. I know a lot of you are laughing at me . . . you think I don't know what it's like to be cold, but you're wrong. I grew up in Massachusetts and it's very cold there. I must admit though, my blood has thinned a lot in the past 30 years!

This is fall foliage in Southern California. Not quite the same as the east coast, but beautiful non the less. The colorful trees is one of the things that attracted us to this neighborhood.

I came across these bare branches at the lake and thought it would make a good thermofax screen.

Here's a piece in progress. One of my groups has an exchange each year. Leslie's inspiration was a photo of a butterfly. I decided to print the butterfly on fabric and use it as the focus in this unusual log cabin setting. This is half of the finished square. When finished, it will form a very cool circle with a star in the middle. Leslie prefers traditional quilts, so I tried to combine the best of both traditional and artsy. Right now, it's on the small side, I'm going to have to get creative with some borders. Any suggestions? I need to finish by Saturday. Yikes! Back to work.

Sneak Peek

I'm working on the second challenge for the Artist's Muse group. Below is a photo of a butterfly that I may use in my piece, but it may be too large. I guess I'll decide when it is finished.

I should be able to leave and work on something else why the machine is stitching away, but it's always so fascinating to watch the design develop, I can't leave. This photo is showing you how much detail is added on the last color pass. The left side is completely finished.