I don't spend all my time writing, though it sometimes feels like it! I love to garden and cook and I spend as much time as I can reading. I also quilt. I thought it would be fun to put up some pictures of my quilts and maybe a garden snapshot or two. I'll probably update this page and add and subtract pictures as I get around to taking them. Click on the small photo to enlarge it to a more viewable size.

For those of you who've always wondered what happens when a 50' pine tree falls on a Cadillac. This was the result of one of southern California's famous Santa Ana winds.

This is an early effort and has all the errors a beginner is bound to make. Still, I have great fondness for it. It was a big challenge and I still love the color combination.

I made this quilt for my mother, who has always appreciated the value of a dream. It's from a pattern by Lara Rocke. I love the sweet, wistful mood of it.

This is the west side of our yard in February '03. You can see by the assorted buckets and tools that I'm not exactly a tidy gardener but Mother Nature always manages to come through for us, no matter how shamefully I neglect things.

This is a photo of a Gingersnap rose in my garden. It was taken in January '03. Yes, roses really do bloom year round here, especially if you're like me and you're very lazy about getting the pruning done on time.

This is a photo of the cactus in front of our home. You can see why it's known in the neighborhood as the 'cactus house'. The flowers normally only bloom at night but I caught them on a misty morning.

For years, I've been starting elaborate appliqué projects - lots and lots of them - and never quite finishing anything. But I finally finished one and I'm really tickled with it. The patterns are from Mimi Dietrich's book, Baltimore Beauties.

This is a single block from one my other ongoing big appliqué projects. This is from Pat Campbell's Jacobean Rhapsody book and, one of these days, I may actually manage to get the whole quilt finished!

This is a quilt I made a few years ago. The main print is butterflies, all cut slowly and tediously by hand so you get that lovely kaleidoscope effect. For those of you who are quilters, this was done in the days before Stack 'n Whack.

The block design is from a pattern by Ellen Heck, who creates the most beautiful quilts you can imagine. I took a year long series of classes with her and this was the first block we made. The hummingbird is my own addition. It's padded appliqué with silk thread embroidery on the head and throat and is about 3" long from head to tail.

This is a close up of the hummingbird.

This is a quilt called Tropical Swine, for obvious reasons. It's an Irish Chain variation with cute little piggies appliquéd in the empty spaces. Simple and fun.