Pam Holland Designs and Productions

Great day

I got to the festival early to take photos.got the IPad today so all I need today is a strong coffee and the events to begin

My own Marathon - What a way to start the year.!!!!!

OK guys, this is a bit embarrassing,

But then who am I kidding,   -   I love it....

This is the link to the Quilt Show and my first video of the year, part 1 of the

 

Houston Quilt Show.

 

The Show I was on a few years ago.....

 

Forget football and journey back with us to Season 1 and see our show with Pam Holland and her amazing re-creation of a historical quilt.  Her detailed work is unbelievable.  This show is free to everyone this weekend.

It's A New Year's Pam Holland Marathon!
            
We have all Pam's videos in a special player. There are over 15 short inspirational videos for you to see. Just put your mouse over the top or bottom of the index and you can scroll up and down all the videos.

 

An Invitation

Lots of friends are going to Houston and I would love to catch up with you.... so we're going to have a little party.... just a small one.

 

Miracle of Nature

It's a bit warm.

107, and with the heat index it feels as if its around 117.

Never the less, I went for a walk for an hour or so this morning.

I had an interview at 10.00 am, then changed into my shorts and T-shirt and off I went. There were a lot of other silly people out in the mid day sun. "Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid day sun"

I would love to try to photograph the heat rising off the road... but it's a bit hard in a town.... you need distance so I will try tomorrow when I'm out of town.

I found a great antique shop today and my eyes went directly to the mezzanine with a number of 1940's quilts hanging over the balcony....but they wouldn't let me take a photo and they wanted a lot of money for them....so this is the best I can do.

I finished my "U" for Umbrella, this is just part of it....

    
U is for umbrella.
U is for up.
U is for unicorn
in my cup. 

and this guy came to visit....Isn't he interesting....

 

I'll try to capture the day.

The Television is annoying the heck out of me tonight.... so with a flick of a switch, I can turn it off and listen to music as I write the blog.

It's my last day in Michigan...

Saying goodbye to friends is always a little wrenching.

But supper with good  friend Dave in a 50's diner -  with music to match the decor helped.

 

I love these places.

  I just can't help myself.....!!!!

Then his fiance arrived and we went to whimpys for  ice cream.... what a lovely, uncomplicated way to finish a day.

I was sitting in a cafe at lunch time.... just watching life around me. I was going to write down what I saw, but to be honest  I was tired after a 5 day event and just couldn't will my mind to do it.

So with Ipad in hand tomorrow I'm going to see if I can "capture the day" with word and images....

Your'e important

Sty's the limit.

Frogs, Photos, and Pig races today....such is the life of a traveling quilter.

This little tree frog is about an inch long and posed nicely.

This afternoon, we went to the 2nd Annual World Famous pig races in Nevis.... There was excitement in the air... 60's country music was playing and the announcer simply bounced around the arena whipping the crowd into a frenzy.... (of sorts)

We all stood. The National Anthem was sung and the pigs were raring to go.

 

The fan fare blared and the pigs were ready, Nevis went Hog wild.

All the pigs had wonderful names... one I really liked was "Claudia Schniffer"

They lined up, very excitedly.

Then they were off at a cracking pace.

And they sped past.

 

The event was even reported in the New Pork Times

 

It was held at 1.05 the '5' minutes delay was to accommodate the adverting on ESPN

Races and excitement over, I had a pok dog for lunch and it cost me $3 for the combo....

Crackling value I say.

4th July....

It's 4th of July and I have a day off for celebration.

I have on my Un-Australian T shirt....with the American flag on it and blue shorts today.... they go well with the pixie slippers.

I worked a little on the book this morning, preparing more illustrations and it's exciting that it's getting close to completion.

It's humid and warm here and I love it so I'm sending some of it back home to family.

I have several classes to prepare and I wanted to ask the question.... if you wanted to make a "Journal Quilt" what subject would you use?

How would you make it.... ?

You know how I make mine.

I find it hard to interpret some folks idea of a 'Journal Quilt...' because I can't get into peoples minds....and two pieces of red fabric on white is supposed to be blood on snow....!!

I sat through a whole lecture on journal quilts once and saw 48 quilts, same thing... blood on snow 1, to 48......

Not my scene really.

How would you interpret the subject?

 We can learn a lot from Impressionist artists... Monet, for instance did 40 paintings of the same thing, just so he could capture the image in a certain way... testing, testing and adding more to capture the essence.... in fact it was a journal of what he was seeing.. and making a journal quilt is similar to me....

The photo tells a story.

My first port of call in the morning is to check my email, next I read USA Today on my Ipad.

Each day they have a selection of amazing photos and they are the first things I check. I generally share each photo and it's title with Keith as we have breakfast.

I get inspired by the way the photo tells a story. Yesterday there was a small boy, his face twisted in fright as he was threatened by a soldier wielding a baton.

I guess you would say that's not inspiring... but the visual tells me much more than if I was to read the story... plain words on a page, interpreted by my brain, but in a photograph there is color, poignancy, pathos and in this one particularly, anger and helplessness on my part.

I don't know that words can evoke those feelings.

Have a look for yourself... the photo after this one is of the Pope.... I looked at it for ages. It shows his back as he walks away, but the composition is wonderful.

http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/The-day-in-pictures/s100572

This is a photo I took in Winnipeg last week, It tells me a story.. I love the action of the young men just hanging on the fence.

This is what they were watching.!!!

It tells a story.