O is for observant. 

“All of us are watchers—of television, of time clocks, of traffic on the freeway—but few are observers. Everyone is looking but not many are seeing.” – Peter M. Leschak

A hailstorm in July did in a beautiful dragonfly. My sharp eyes—except why can’t I read without adding a second pair?—spotted this little body just outside my front door. Got a little  “ewwww” factor on when I picked her up. But I just had to. Look at the magnificent wings! I see a sculpted fantasy figure (okay, really, a cloth art doll...but doesn't "sculpted fantasy figure" sound more artsy?) percolating. And since one of the items in my bucket list is a kitchen witch, why not a kitchen dragonfly instead? It’s just about the time of the year for pesky flies to be invading our domiciles, and I think a flying purple dragonfly made of mesh, beads, angelica, and whatever fun things awaiting in my stash would be perfect! Thanks little lovely lady for making your final resting place in my yard!

Another percolating design happened because of a hike on the Square Tower Group trail in Hovenweep National Monument this past May. 

As I hiked the trail, I took photos of the patterns on the walls of the ruins.

I also found this colorful Eastern collared lizard. He was quite used to posing, thank you very much.

I’m using these two photos and hand-dyed "Canyonland" fabrics by Debra Lunn (when her Lunn Fabric store was in Denver) as my starting point for a quilt design. I’ll post the quilt and it’s progression when it gets out of my head and onto the design wall.

Being observant is awesome!