August Schnibbles

Is it really the end of August already?  Where did the summer go?  Time is just flying by these days.

I have been trying to catch up on my Schnibble project - one a month for a year.  This is the last month and I decided to use some Halloween fabrics to make the Schnibble for August.  I do think that I spent more time on this top that I have on any of the others this year, but I love the way it turned out.

As well, there were two quilts that I had to play catch up on because we were too busy or out of town when they were introduced.  So here is my Cindy Lou Who

and Winter White.  I think I now have a table topper for each month of the year and I am thrilled to have been a part of the Year of Schnibbles.  I will miss the commitment each month, but I am sure that I will find another project to occupy my time.

My Barn block was also on my list this month and I finished it too.  This was my favorite quilt pattern yet (I think).  This has been such a fun project and I am looking forward to see them all together.

                                                                                    

                                                                                    

We did enjoy a few days of babysitting for a couple of the grandchildren while their parents enjoyed some time away for their anniversary.

A little sleepy time with Grandpa.

Tractor boy with his favorite cousin!  I think the feeling is mutual.

A Little Fishing

We had the opportunity to get away for a few days and do a little fishing.  We always love the Eastern Sierras and have been vacationing in different spots there for over 30 years.  One of our sons bought a place in Mammoth and is always very generous with it for family members.  So...... we headed up for some quiet time with fishing, walking and enjoying the fresh mountain air.   It was a wonderful break.

As my son would say, "The fishing was fabulous, but the catching was dreadful."  We rented a little boat to take us out to the middle of the lake where we were SURE we would catch some gorgeous trout.  The only catch we had was of this furry bear walking along the edge of the shore.  Seriously.....in the  middle of the day??????

I was glad that we were fishing from the boat and not the shore!!!

The scenery was just gorgeous and we did enjoy ourselves.

The weekend provided me with lots of time for some soothing hand sewing.  I do find it very relaxing and have always loved to sew or knit in the car as we travel. 

Years ago I "inherited" a sewing box from my DH's maiden aunt.  She loved to embroider and the box was filled with pillowcases, lace, dishtowels, potholders and other items that she had never gotten around to finishing.  I grabbed a few of her potholders and worked on them as we drove.

I was also able to finish my first block from the Raggedy and Friends BOM.  I have decided to use reds, pinks, purples and blues in the quilt.

As well, I finished the Christmas stocking that I started earlier this year.  I still need to make one more before Christmas.

Today and tomorrow I will be watching two little ones so there will not be a lot of sewing being done around here.  Our daughter and SIL will be celebrating their anniversary.  I'll take the wee ones over the sewing any day.  They are only little for a short while.

The Princess

Tractor Boy

We have a hawk family that has set up residence in one of our trees.  They are gorgeous creatures, but they are incredibly noisy.  I do not know how they catch their prey with the screeching that they do.  Needless to say, the other birds in the yard do not appreciate their presence.

Can you see how big this bird is?

I hope to finish off my Schnibble for the month as well as my barn block later this week.  I will be back to show them when they are done.

The Joys of August

I have decided to count count the many joys of having and endless winter-summer.

1. A greatly reduced power bill when your air conditioner has gone only for less than one hour all summer.
2. A much lowered water bill when you do not have to keep everything well moistened.
3. An early appreciation of the autumn colors when the trees are already changing into their gorgeous yellows and reds.
4. A full on turkey dinner with all of the trimmings so you can heat up the kitchen.  Trust me...it smells and tastes wonderful in August!!

    5. A garden that is so slow in coming around that we will still be enjoying tomatoes in December.

    6.  Weather reporters having lots of statistics to share with us and endless reports on our record cool summer. 

Can you tell how happy I am that we are having such a wonderful summer this year?  Can you sense my happy face?????  I am rejoicing because we do have a forecast of highs in the low 70s for the next seven days.  We haven't seen a 70 in the forecast for weeks now.

 Certain things say summer to me and one of them is sunflowers.    DH always plants a row of sunflowers for me to pick and bring in for bouquets during the summertime.  Don't they just look happy? 

They are always wonderful to have inside the house as well.

We are really enjoying the orioles this year.  We have had so many of them and between them and the hummingbirds we are going through five pounds of sugar a week.  They are at the feeders from sunrise to sunset.  Next to one of the feeders we have a wind sculpture.  It is hysterical to see the orioles sit on it as it goes around and around.  I wonder if they ever get dizzy.

The colorful male.

Two females.

Several of the males have now left for their long journey South and the females will be following shortly.  We will miss them when they are gone.   Some mornings I will have more than a dozen hummers at each feeder as well.

We took some more of the grands to see Toy Story 3 in 3D.  I enjoyed it as much this time as last - maybe even more.  I apparently missed a few of the good lines last time.

Sewing this week has been one of those frustrating events.  I would love to sit and sew for hours at a time, but it seems this week was more sewing in bits and pieces.  It is just a good thing that I have a room designated to sewing so that I don't have to clean it up each time I sew.  I finally tackled the large mending stack and finished that off.  As well I managed to get the last block finished on my Jelly Roll Quilt Along.  After putting all the blocks together I decided to change a few of the blocks. 

I absolutely love this quilt top now.  The colors are so perfect for our home and will be a welcomed covering for the cold bones.

I have also been working on my seemingly endless pile of blocks for this months Schnibble quilt.

Then there is also this little pile of pinks for the newest granddaughter. 

Blogger is not allowing me to center some of my pictures on this post so I apologize for your eye having to wander here and there.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers regarding my cousin.  They seem to have come to the conclusion that it was a heart attack.  It is a shame and such a shock that an athletic young man should be struck down like that at forty four years of age.

Grief

Somehow the post that I had written seems so insignificant today.  My heart is breaking with sadness.  I just read that a blogger, Diane, whom I have followed for several years lost her husband yesterday.

As well, my 44 year old cousin died suddenly yesterday.  My poor aunt and uncle lost another son a couple of years ago to cancer.  The pain they must be feeling is unimaginable to me.

A post on quilting projects, summer and happiness just doesn't seem to work today.  Please keep these people in your thoughts and prayers.  

Pets On Quilts

Since my "delayed" post decided to post yesterday please bear with me as you see the snake quilt one more time.  Rules are rules and the post for the contest has to be done between August 7th and August 21st.  There is still plenty of time for everyone to enter and see all of the animals who influence quilters. 

SewCalGal is hosting the Pets on Quilts Parade and she has some wonderful sponsors so be sure to check it out and submit an entry.

This was the inspiration for my small quilt.  It was a notecard made by my grandson, Mr. R, and was an instant "that would make a great quilt" moment. 

It is now about six years later and I am finally getting around to making it.  Mr. R is now 13 and moving into his own room so I hope he will enjoy hanging this up in his room.   Although we never had a rattlesnake as a pet in our house, we have certainly had more than our share of temporary house guest snakes with four sons dragging them home.  This quilt is dedicated to each of those slithering charming creatures.

Friday Finals

Wow....where did this week go?  It won't be long before school is back in session for the kids here.  I remember those days of getting ready to go back to school.  How about you?

This week I have worked on a couple of fun projects.  One is a small wall quilt for my grandson.  About six years ago he made some notecards and sent me one with a thank you note written on it.  At the time, I thought it would make a good quilt and kept it on my "future projects" board.  SewCalGal is having a Pets on Quilts display this week and I thought it would be fun to tackle my project.  Having raised four sons, I know that captured snakes are always going to be one of those pets that I would dread having around.  Thankfully we never had a rattlesnake, but there were many other "sorts" that resided here for short periods of time.  Soooo....here is my snake quilt!!!!!  I am showing it with the notecard so you can see from where I got my inspiration.

I will now give it to my grandson for his new room.  A thirteen year old boy should appreciate this one.

Now....about that story that I was going to tell you from my last post! It truly is funny what blogging can do for you.


One of the first blogs that I followed was Dawn. Over the years we have also e-mailed back and forth and discovered that we lived in many of the same places, but at different times in our lives. A few weeks back I blogged that I had gone to my 45th high school reunion. Dawn wrote that she must be the same age as her 45th reunion was also this year. She also wrote that she was not attending hers as it involved travel. I nonchalantly asked her where she had gone to school. As it turns out, we both went to the same school - again not at the same time. It was a small town in Nebraska and we lived there several years while my dad was in school. It turns out that she knew several of the girls that I had known waaaaay back when I was a youngster. Mind you, we moved to CA when I was ten years old. To make a long story shorter, Dawn has contacted several of these people and we have woven the most incredible story by pulling in what everyone remembers. I have also involved my mom who is just enthralled with the whole idea and has also added more to the story. Had my family not moved we would have been in the same class. Talk about a small, small world!!!! I am a little worried about one gal who remembered my WHOLE name!!!! It must have been my flaming red ringlets that she remembers.  Hmmm!  Ahh....to have them again.

This week was also the Christening of our newest granddaughter.  Family events like those are always cherished. 

We were able to get a picture of the four generations - my daughter, my mother, myself and the newest girl ( a little grumpy) in the family. 

Tuesday Tidbits

Can it possibly be August already?  I am sure some of you folks are really feeling the heat from what I am hearing.  I am so sorry and hope that you are managing to keep cool.  We are still on the cool side, but I won't even go there.


While my internet was down I received some lovely mail and was unable to share it.  My ALQS4 quilt arrived and it is absolutely gorgeous!!!!!  These are all hand dyed fabrics, sewn and machine quilted by Margeeth.  Isn't it beautiful?

I have also been very lucky lately and won several giveaways.

Caroler Jelly Roll and Layer Cake from Inchworm Fabrics.

Two half yards of fabric from Quilt Taffy.

Great skirt pattern which I hope to make soon from Jandi.

I have been busy with many projects that I have needed to catch up on in my sewing room. It has felt really good to spend some time in there. Other than the everyday mending and ironing, these are some of the things that have kept me busy.

Patches for Lissa.

We have just received the pattern for our last block in the Jelly Roll Quilt Along and now I can finish that up and get it assembled.  The Jelly Roll that I used was Butterfly Gardens and was a gift from a dear friend, Midlife Mom.

Another monthly swap that I do is a yellow and blue block swap with Em.  Those blocks are adding up quickly as we do two blocks a month - one to keep and one to swap.  We are doing it for a year and this was my swap block this month.

Whenever we stop by our one son's home it seems that I am being sent home with some sort of mending project.  This week was no different when our 4 year old granddaughter asked me to fix her "pink thing".  It is what she sleeps with and the satin paws had become tattered and needed to be repaired.  I brought it home and patched it with some novelty prints.  She absolutely loved it as did her little brother.  Soooo...."blue thing" came home and also got the royal treatment.

One last project that I am working on is a small quilt for Sew Cal Gal's Pets on Quilts.  I can't show it yet, but hope to be able to share it later this week.

The tortoise eggs started hatching and we now have our babies departing to their adoptive homes.  I love seeing them come out of their eggs.  It takes about three days for them to completely emerge and then several more days until their shells straighten out after being folded up inside of the egg.

Day one - pipping.

Day two - Stretching from the shell and absorbing the yolk sac still attached to the bottom on the shell.

Day three-all that is left of the yolk sac.

Finally in the terrarium with the others.

I have a funny story to share, but I will wait until my next post to tell you about it.  I think this one is long enough.