Farewell Summer

 Just like that, the seasons are changing and we bid farewell to summer.  We enjoyed a mild summer until we had about two weeks of incredible, record breaking heat.  Wow....it was toasty!  We even hit 112* one of the days.  Other than the heat burst, it was a delightful month.  I always love going back through the photos to do a post.  It's incredible what can happen in a month.  

We had a granddaughter that got married so we had lots of fun wedding events and family visiting from Iowa.   I did manage to get a bit of sewing done too. 

For a number of years I have been in a group of friends who sew and swap together.  Each year we choose a new project.  This year is a round or row robin.  The most recent round that I have finished is the mountains and pine trees that went on this spectacularly paper pieced buck.  I love the way this one is coming along.  There will be one last round added to it.  This one may get "lost in the mail" at my house.  ;-)

Another one was this panel piece in such pretty colors.  I added the geese round to it.  

There was a bit of wedding sewing as well.  The bride and I stitched the flower girl dresses and made the wedding veil.  It's a poor photo, but this will have to do for the time being. 

 

I know that I should be thinking of sewing fall projects, but this heart has been calling my name for sometime now.  It is my version of Kyra's Heart Quilt.  I loved pulling out all of my Kaffe, etc. fabrics for it.

We managed to slip in a few short day outings.  We always enjoy seeing the September flag display at Pepperdine University for their 9/11 tribute.  There is one flag for each person killed on 9/11.  It is a lovely sight on the hill overlooking the ocean.  It's hard to get the full scope of the sight in a single photo, but it is very sobering.  

Another day trip that we always enjoy is a drive to the local wine country.  The grapes were quickly harvested in the heat and the leaves will soon start to change.  I always enjoy seeing the rose bushes planted at the beginning of the rows of vines.  It is said that they are planted for disease control.  Apparently the roses will display any disease first and the vines can be treated before they become infected.  

Not sure this guy is much help to the vintner.  

Now for a chuckle.....we celebrated our September birthdays during our little heat wave.  I had made spice cupcakes with a buttercream penuche icing, a family favorite.  They were beautiful, but when it came time to serve dessert, the icing had melted right off of all 3 dozen cupcakes.  What a disaster!  They looked awful, but still tasted good.

Happy fall to all those in the Northern Hemisphere and happy spring to those down South.  

Life Continues to be .....

.... a lesson in learning.   I entered another year of this learning business this week and it has been remarkable what I continue to learn.  Lesson # 6,000,000,000 or so is that Scrub*bing Bubbles bathroom cleaner does not make a good substitute for hairspray.  Duh!   It amazes me what I will do when I am not paying attention.  My advice is to NOT give it a try.

All in all, it has been a terrific birthday week with kids and grandkids popping in and out as well as many friends and family sending good wishes.  I am so blessed.

We spent the weekend with our son and DIL who live a couple of hours away.  They live in the wine country so it is always fun to see the wonderful fall colors in the vineyards at this time of the year.  Harvest is well under way and we watched one truck delivering the picked grapes for processing.   Machinery always fascinates me so I was intrigued at all of the workings there.  Our son works in the industry so it was great to get the inside story about how this all becomes wine in the end.

There is a large migratory area near them for the Monarch butterflies.  They tend to arrive around this time so many are being spotted around town. 

My creative side has been busy this week with Halloween.  Have you ever made a football costume?  I'll share a picture when I get the little one in it.  I hope it works as planned.

I finally finished the stitching for the Christmas stocking.  All I have left now is to make it into the stocking.  One down and one to go before Christmas.

Have you ever given thought to how many scissors you own?  Thearica asked that question on her blog.  I remember my mother hiding her sewing scissors from us when we were growing up.  My dad did a lot of traveling and he would bring her the beautiful Swiss and German scissors.  Now I understand why she hid them!!  I have scissors EVERYWHERE and decided to get a rough estimate.

Kitchen and office scissors.

Kid's scissors.

Pinking shears, embroidery, dress shears, buttonhole scissors and all else found in my sewing area. 

That is a total of 45 and I didn't count the thread nippers or the ones in the garage.  LOL 

Go ahead.....I dare you to count how many you have.  Once you do, post a picture of them and you could win a nice pair of Gingher scissors on Thearica's blog sponsored by Ken's Sewing Center. 


   

Seeing Circles

I have been giving some serious thought to joining in on the Yo Yo Quiltalong (see button on sidebar).  Do I need another challenge?  I probably do not, but my 30+ years of guilt are beginning to take over.

You see, I have a bag of yo yos.   These were lovingly made by my husband’s maiden aunt and I inherited them.  I am sure she had grand plans for them as many are assembled in settings of four already.  I just do not know what her plans were going to be.  Thus, the dilemma.  

Also included in the bag was a good amount of pink polished cotton fabric.  I am sure that must have been needed for the project, but where????  It has a very interesting stamping on it.  I am thinking that perhaps this was originally purposed for curtains and never used.  I am just not sure about the color.  Maybe the pink is what made her give up on the project.  What do you think?

Has anyone ever seen a pattern that would use the yo-yos in this manner?  There are seven of each block and fourteen (I believe) of the solid blue.  I have 952 yo-yos sewn together and then a whole bag of separate yo-yos ready to go.  As well, you can see the cardboard pattern for cutting them out.  The yo-yo size would match the Clover large tool with each yo-yo measuring 1 1/4 inches.  How many more yo yos do you think I will even need?

I had them stored in an old cedar chest along with so much more that I will share in future posts.  I literally have not opened the chest in years.  There are several vintage quilts, blocks and unquilted tops as well as lots of beautiful embroidery and lace edgings.  This was another piece in the cedar chest.  I have no idea who did the needlepoint, but I hung it up in my studio.

DH had the day free yesterday so we took a drive up to the wine country.  One of the more beautiful wineries in the area is the F*ess Par*ker winery.  Do you remember Davy Crockett?????  Same guy!  Here are some pics that I took of the winery he built.

They say that roses are planted at the beginning of the rows of vines in the same colors of the grapes.  The reason for this is that the roses will get a disease before the vines will.  Thus, if the rose gets a disease they will then treat the vines for it as well.  Interesting.

I always bring some hand work for the car rides (no sense in wasting a little free time).  Yesterday I brought along my June Birdie Stitches block to finish it off.  I think I have the Bermuda Triangle in my car.  I had my cute little embroidery scissors with a fob attached to them.  I went to use them and they slipped from my hand.  I heard them fall and have searched and searched for them.  They are literally NOWHERE to be found.  Even DH looked and he couldn’t find them.  I have no idea where they could have dropped.  I know that someday they will show up, but I just do not want to dismantle the whole front seat to find them.

I had to resort to using my garden clippers that I keep in the car.  They were a miserable substitute.  I finally gave up and finished the project last evening.  If you notice, my June block varies from the one we are suppose to do.  Terry  (http://terrytreasures.blogspot.com/)  had a design without all of the words and I did a take off from her design.  I think the wordy one will make a nice label on the back.

We watched a couple of little ones this week and I will close with these photos….such nice sharing!!!!!!!

Autumn Day Trip

We have had a few cool nights here which is always a sign that the leaves are going to start changing.  One place that both my husband and I love to drive through is the wine country.  It is not only fun to see what is happening in the vineyards, but it is a gorgeous day trip.  On Veteran’s Day my vet husband and I jumped in the car and took off.


It is really only about an hour’s drive to reach the area, but there are some gorgeous sights along the way.  The surf was up and it is always fun to watch the surfers catching their waves.  This is the view from a piece of property that my BIL recently purchased.  They are planning on building a home up there.  Isn’t the view spectacular?




Can you see the surfers?  They look like little dots on the water.  The beach is a well known surfing beach called “the Rincon”.  We were fortunate to have been able to purchase one of the homes on the point about 30 years ago when real estate at the beach was affordable.  The family has enjoyed many wonderful times there and made some fabulous memories throughout the years.
 



It was a glorious day with warm temperatures and clear skies.
From there we headed north and into the wine country.  The leaves on the vines were all changing and made for a beautiful drive.









Do you think they have enough wineries on this one road???  This is the area where the movie Side*ways was filmed.




You can even see a little greening of the hills starting after our early rains of the year.

We took a side trip up to Figueroa Mountain – a climb of about 4000 feet.  It is mostly a one lane road – some paved and some not – so meeting another vehicle is always an adventure.



At some points there were even cows on the road!  They were probably wondering what we were doing there.









I loved how this tree looked like it was busting out of its bark.




These gates might look familiar to some of you who watched the Mich*ael Jack*son trial on television.  This is where the media waited to get a photo of him as he left Never*land Ranch each day to head to the courthouse.


I always have a hand project that I work on in the car when we are driving.  This time was no different as I wanted to finish up this months Raggedy Ann and Andy BOM. 



I have been working away on my blocks for the Thread Head Quilt Along too.



Lastly, I got caught up on the Christmas Cactus Quilt Along blocks.  Each block requires making four identical blocks, but the are really just nine patches and go up quickly.









This week I have a large order of embroidery work to do so there won't be much quilting to show in my next blog.