May day...technical difficulties and all.

All I wanted to do was make a little mosaic of my flowers...but all I got was this. Too small, but I am going to go crazy if I try and navigate the site any longer. We get what we get.

To restart, on a more positive note ("Take this sinking boat and point it home, We've still got time")....The Swell Season was great. I like lots of different types of music and I am always so disappointed when people get on stage and you realize that their (to quote my eldest, ) " their rockin' sound" is due to production time in the studio. The Swell Season featuring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova is NOT such a group...they are truly musicians. What you hear on their CDs is them, not fancy remastering.

They were SO good, did I say that yet? I mean, really good. Glen has such a unique and powerful way of singing that it makes the song inside of your own body strive to escape (even if you are not especially musical.) The concert was very intimate and I felt like I was party to more of an organized jam session.

The show was FANTASTIC beginning with Glen singing "Say It to Me Now" a cappella...WOW. They played all sorts of songs, some I had heard before and some that were new to me. Their encore began with Marketa singing "If You Want Me." My FAVORITE song from the movie. They went on to play 4 more songs, a hefty encore. I liked that Glen and Marketa were so real and personable with the audience and that the whole show had a feel of spontaneity to it. I would go and see them again in a heartbeat. It was definitly a great date night, thanks sweetie!

Finally, we have the finished swap quilt. I am so pleased with it, I hope that my swapee will like it too.

I had a really hard time with this one, because near the end I was finishing 3 quilts and I felt a bit squnched. To be quite honest after the last swap (Winter) there was a bunch of rules and things that were posted and it made me think that some people are having sour grapes issues and I have a hard time with rules and things. (They make me feel like what I create does not measure up, when really it does.) I like to think that people are doing swaps to create an artistic community and make friends, maybe even try out new techniques, not to receive some "perfect" product. That is what I am about. I am not in to requesting some "super" cool quilter to be my partner, because I think that we all have it in us to be the best we can be. I am in to quilting, creating a community, and growing as a quilter. I am in to the experience of making a quilt that is for a new friend and sending that quilt off in to the world.

Off my soap box...

So, I tried to piece what I thought would be wanted (see the back picture below) and I like it now...but when I was making it, my heart wasn't in it and the quilt police were whispering in my ear "those points aren't perfect", "Why is there a gap there? Those prints are too busy!"

I really hate those guys.

I really didn't want my spring quilt to be filled with so many crabby thoughts, so I made the "Girl at the Spring House" instead. I am so relieved, because as soon as I started sewing the pink polka-dot scraps together to make walls, the mean voices quieted down. Then, I remembered the material with the little girl swinging, my swapee has a little girl, so I just had to put it in. I really love this little wall hanging. I know that it will have a good home.

Perhaps, participating in a swap is just a personal challenge to listen to my own creative voice. Maybe, you never know.

JMB