A Little Altitude

The past week was spent in areas where the air is a little thin.  The tasks I take so easily left me huffing and puffing, but the views were spectacular.

Nothing like a pole in the water as you take in this view.

We started the week off in Colorado Springs at the gorgeous Broadmoor Hotel.  One of us had business, but I was along for the fun.  I had the great opportunity to meet up with a dear friend and spend some time catching up and laughing.

We flew home on Wednesday night and left again before dawn on Thursday to head up to the Sierras for our family fishing trip.  Fishing was not that great, but the company and memories were terrific.

Sunrise each day.

Fish???  Really????

Give us a baseball diamond and we'll bring our own team.

 

A birthday celebration too.

Sunday came all too quickly and it was time to return home with lots of laundry, unpacking and cleaning to do.  Hopefully, I will get a chance for some sewing this week.

Pets On Quilts Parade

Be sure to pop over to visit the big Pets on Quilts Show happening now at  Lily Pad Quilting.  It is always such a wonderful and creative event. 

This is the week to enter your quilts with pets and starting next week you will be able to vote on your favorites.  Everyone is welcome so join in on the fun and help to make the event another great success.

My entry this year is my egg mug rug and two of our new little hatchlings (#57).

Tortoises do nothing fast and hatching takes several days to complete.  The first day they pip their shell and poke their little snout out.

 During that day they absorb the yoke sac and then resume hatching out over the next day, eventually unfolding their shell and walking away from it.

 

 

August Goals

I'm a tad late in getting my August goals set.  It's not that I don't have a million items that I could list for the month, but the time is going to be short for sewing.  I need to keep my goals realistic if I want to have a finish.  So.....I have decided to finish up my Easy Street from last winter's QAL.  I loved the project and I really can't wait to finish it up.   I am linking up to A Lovely Year Of Finishes.

With August already in full swing I am noticing the trend towards fall.  I am seeing a definite change in the daylight hours and we have had a hint of fall in the air.  Some of the trees are actually changing their colors already.  How quickly the summer has slipped past!

I saw a quick and easy table runner in one of the quilting magazines and thought it would make a nice gift for a friend whom I am going to visit.  I may have to make one for myself too.

My Kindle died a quick death this past week - in the middle of a good book.  You can actually trade your dead ones in for a discount on a new one.  Who knew????  The problem is that the new one is much smaller than my old one so it did not fit into my handy case.  To protect the new one, I made a padded case to store it in when I am through reading.  It works great.

We had a fun weekend attending a Diana Ross concert at the Hollywood Bowl with some friends.  The concert was wonderful and she still has an amazing voice. 

Yesterday I was able to attend our granddaughter's dressage lesson.   I think if she ran away from home she would go live at the stable.  She just loves the horses. 

It's Sweet and Pink

The week has been a little busy - for a great reason.  Last Friday evening we welcomed our newest little granddaughter.  Ahh....the sweet baby snuggles have continued all week.  We are enjoying the newest addition to our family.    She has lots of dark hair and weighed in at 7#7oz - a perfect little bundle.  Mom is doing great too.

 

A happy big sister!

Sewing will resume eventually!

Still Waiting

Although the British have their wee one, we remain on baby wait here.  This is a stubborn little one as this is the longest our daughter has ever carried a baby.  Now it just feels like she is overdue, but the due date is actually tomorrow ;-)

While sticking close to home as we await the delivery, I have managed to work on a bit of sewing.  My Just Takes Two quilt is back from the quilters and I am pleased with the results.  Logan did a nice job custom quilting all the different blocks.  I was unsure as to what to do with the binding as I thought the brown would be too "framed" looking.  In the end I used a two sided binding so it appears to have a piping around the quilt.  It was a bit more work to make the binding, but I love the way it turned out.  I will definitely use the technique again. 

I also made a few of the Japanese x&+ bee blocks. 

With all four of our sons away on vacation this week we have been busy watching over little ones and big dogs.  I think I will take children any day.

We find it great fun to feed the dog and he is just at our level!

There was some bird drama at one of the feeders this week as this poor hummer got its foot stuck in the feeder.  After helping to release, the little thing flew off apparently none the worse for wear.

 

Our baby hawk is also making its appearance in the yard this week.  It certainly makes his presence known with his screeching in the mornings.  The rabbit population seems to be under control thanks to the hawk and his parents.

Still Alive and Kicking

I hope I can still remember how to do a post!  It has been so long since my last one.  There hasn't been a lot to SHOW these last few weeks as my camera messed up on me. My trusty camera got dropped, breaking off the battery/memory card door.  Thus it would not work so I purchased a new one.  I took pictures over the July 4th holiday and all that weekend.  Initially I could view the photos, but then it just showed giant question marks for each photo and then flashed "memory card error".  To make a long story short - the camera was defective and there was no way to recover my photos in spite of their best efforts with different recovery programs.  Such is life.  The party pictures are now etched in my mind - never to be shared.

There has been a bit of sewing done over the last two weeks.  I finished piecing my String of Pearls for Christa's quilt along.  It looks blue, but it is actually a mottled gray color.

I also quilted and bound my Halloween Schnibble that I pieced several years ago.  I needed a finish this month for the monthly tally at A Lovely Year of Finishes.  Slowly, but surely, these tops are getting finished. 

Mary was my swap partner for our mug rugs this time around.  She made me the most delightful mug rug and her work is just glorious.  The card that came with it matched perfectly.  As Mary said ... guess which came first. 

Aren't these such happy flowers?

Extra goodies she also sent are fabulous!

This was the mug rug that I made her for the summer. 

Trying to stay ahead on my Japanese x&= swap blocks, I made my August ones which are now ready to mail off.

As the U.K. (and the rest of the world) is on baby watch, we are also on baby watch here.  Our daughter is due to deliver any day now and we are all waiting to see what sex the baby will be.  I love being surprised - the old fashioned way.  They have two boys and a little girl right now. 

You may remember that a few months ago I got to play around with some Happy Town fabric from Jacquelynne Steves.  She is now having a wonderful giveaway over on her site so be sure to check it out and sign up to win. 

We've had such a delightful summer this year and the garden has been so prolific.  Needless to say there has been a lot of using and sharing going on around here.  It always requires a lot of time, but is so worth the efforts once winter sets in. 

Birthdays and Goals

Not having my computer has really been a rather nice break.  I do have it in a temporary fix mode for now, but I am sure it is on its last legs.  I just hope to keep it running until they come up with a fix for the Win*dows 8.  I've heard such nightmares about the one out there now.

I got to test a cute little finger puppet from Little Black Duck.  These are the cutest little critters and the grandchildren just love them.  The mouse is the newest addition.  They go up quickly, are beautifully packaged and have plenty of needed supplies in the kits.  These would be perfect for a beginner hand sewer.

We've been celebrating birthdays here this week.  I love it when the girls ask me to make something for them for their birthdays.

The blouse looks distorted with the hanger inside...sorry.

For this one it was all about princesses.

Everyone enjoyed the cake.

I have played a bit with some different fabrics for Christa's QAL, String of Pearls.  Although the colors did not come out well in the picture, they really look pretty together. 

Goal setting time...... I think this month I am going to try to finish my Halloween Schnibbles from a couple of years ago.  I wanted to do this a couple of months ago and didn't get to it.   Let's hope I can accomplish it this month.

It's time to finish preparing for houseguests and a big celebration of the 4th of July tomorrow.   Happy birthday, U.S.A.!!!