This morning I have gotten more mucking/organizing done with regard to my quilting stuff.  It's always good when I can actually see progress, and expect that at "some point" I should be able to find whatever it is I'm looking for...

This afternoon I made a quick trip to the store because "somehow" 

we've managed to almost annihilate the second bag of Halloween candy Tom bought.  Murphy's Law being what it is, we're now likely to get very few trick-or-treaters, which means we'll be 'forced' to eat all that chocolate ourselves.  But if I hadn't replenished the supply, I expect we would be inundated with hordes of hungry kids tonight... so I really had no choice.

Stopped in at Jeannie's on my way to the store to see a Laurel Burch horse quilt a client will be picking up later today; her custom quilting, as usual, is stunning.  Today I learned that Laurel Burch suffered from osteopetrosis, a bone disease that was quite debilitating (over her lifetime she had suffered from more than 100 breaks, once even breaking her jaw just eating dinner.)  Still she continued to create her colorful cheery works of art until the end.

Laurel was a self-taught painter. She saw herself as a folk artist, telling stories. “In our fast-paced, changing world,” she said, “we need symbols that are a reminder of the ongoing world of the spirit.” On some level, her work was always about bringing different cultures together, and about our connection with the earth and all living things, ideas that have only increased in relevance today. Laurel was always incredibly prolific. Even during her long periods of convalescence, when she was forced to paint from a bed or wheelchair, she seldom put her brushes down. Laurel said, “I refuse to have anything in my life that I can’t turn around into something magical and beautiful. I just refuse.” Her art will forever convey a sense of joy and passion and lightness. There is an inner strength in her figures, with their bold lines and sinuous curves, and something irrepressible in the explosion of her colors. The universe of her imagination was fertile, burgeoning, uplifting, egalitarian, a place where every flower and dragonfly was transformed into something...magical and beautiful.