First, thanks to everyone who emailed, volunteered to bring food, sent virtual hugs and drove me around in snow storms to find my husband at the hospital. I sincerely appreciate it!

Despite the car wreck, sick child and aching husband, I seem to be back on track today. Yesterday afternoon the phone lines went down (just came back up this morning) and we were in the midst of a blizzard. John was at the hospital to see about his back and shoulders and I was trapped in the house with a child who would not sleep. Couldn't take her out. Couldn't check email. Couldn't phone anyone and John couldn't phone me and didn't know that the phone was out because all he got was incessant ringing.

Things are going better this morning. I did my exercises (situps, leg-lifts, stretches and pushups – I'm improving!) and might even be able to get some aerobic exercise by running up and down stairs. Drives the dogs mad, but that's not my problem.

Katherine is quiet, but not miserable. I think I may be making progress on the stones piece above. I overpainted it with fabric paints, which seem to make the sharp lines of the pastels blend a bit better. In fact, it almost appears that the dyes of the pastels bled a bit (good in this case), but that could be simply the similarity in hues of pastel and paint.

The upper piece is the over-painted version and the lower is the pastels sans paint. 

Anyway, it's coming along nicely. My current plan is to work in borders that continue the picture, using hand-painted fabrics appliqued or stitiched to continue the development of the dominant foreground features. How well this will work remains to be seen!

I'm also working on a second piece depicting this same circle, facing east as the sun rises. It's going to have a completely different tone than the above piece. Must get this piece done so as to free up room for the next!