Time to catch up again!

Oh my how time flies!  Where to start. . .

Three weeks ago was my son's wedding.  We had a beautiful autumn day for it, just a little cool but lots of sunshine.  The wedding was in a small clearing in the Colorado woods, in the mountains near the Durango Ski Resort. 

The happy couple in a photo I borrowed from the photographer's website.  All of the photos were wonderful, Allison and her partner did a beautiful job with the pictures.  The whole weekend was lots of fun and it was some great time spent with family and friends.

Next, my oldest daughter and granddaughter spent the week after the wedding with us.  It was a great time to catch up.  My DGD has a form of autism, she just turned 18 but functions at a kindergarten level so we enjoyed a day at the zoo and here we are at the top of the Crest in the Sandia mountains in Albuquerque.

She was amazed to look down from the top, 10,000 ft above sea level, and see the city below.   It was great to spend time with them and see how much my DGD has learned to do.   Then they headed back to Wisconsin on the bus.  Both of them were happy to be headed home.  They had been on the road for almost a month going from Wisconsin to Georgia, then to Arizona to Colorado, to New Mexico and home. 

There have been some other things that happened to my DD during the trip.  When she was 19 she gave a beautiful little girl up for adoption, well, the young lady is now 23 and she contacted my DD.  It is so exciting to learn about her and hope to meet her someday.  As hard as it was to see her go to an adoptive home, it is great to know she has had a wonderful life with advantages my DD could never have given her.  She graduated from Penn State and is now serving in the Air Force.  I have two grand children in the military!

Now, my DGS who just graduated from boot camp has been attending Airborne training since the graduation.  He needed to make five jumps to graduate.  The first three were perfect and he loved it.  Unfortunately, on the fourth jump, he was loaded with full gear, a wind gust hit the parachute just before he was to land.  That collapsed the chute part way and he landed in a field of boulders instead of the sand.  He broke a bone in his ankle and his femur.  On Monday he will have surgery to repair the broken bones with a plate and pins/screws.  He may get to go home while his leg heals, so he might be home from Thanksgiving to Christmas.  After everything heals, he probably won't be able to go back to jumping out of airplanes so he will have some decisions to make as to what other job he wants to do in the Army.  He is thinking of tanks!  My daughter is happy with anything that does not include jumping out of a perfectly good plane.

So that has been the excitement in the last few weeks!  Tomorrow I am headed back up to Durango to house and dog sit for DS and new DDIL while they go on their honeymoon.  It is a good thing they did not leave right after the wedding because they would have headed right into hurricane Sandy!  I have some redwork to work on while I am gone, hope that keeps me busy.

Here is one little quilt I did get finished:

This one is about 21 inches square.  It is the September quilt for the Small Quilt of the Month challenge I am participating in.  It started with the orange flowered fabric in the larger squares and just evolved from there.  All the fabric is from my stash, yea!

I am also working on the wedding quilt but don't have much to show for it yet.  I hope to have some progress to share next time I blog.  Hope you are all doing well and getting lots of sewing done!








 

Since my last post . . .

Wow, where does the time go?  In my last post I said we were getting ready to go on a vacation.  Well, it was great!  First we went to Glacier National Park.  We met my DH's sister and her DH up there, stayed at a campground in a cabin right outside the west entrance to the park and had a great time.  Here are a few pictures:

The first day was overcast and windy but we still enjoyed this view from the boat ride on Lake McDonald.

The water was a little choppy and the temps were chilly, oh but what a view!

The next day we boarded a Red Bus and did an all day trip over the Going-To-The-Sun road.  We started out on the west side of the park and headed east.  The top of the bus folds back to open up to all the views. 

Sunbeams on the mountain side.

Majestic peaks, hanging meadows, snow fields and glaciers.

And beautiful lodges.  This is the lodge at Many Glacier on the east side of the park.  We had lunch here and turned around to go back to where we started with a whole new perspective on what we had seen in the morning. 

The third day we put on our hiking boots and headed to Avalanche Lake.  It was about a two and a half mile hike out here but well worth the effort.  This was all formed by a glacier and it is just gorgeous!

Next we headed for Yellowstone National Park:

Which is famous for Old Faithful and lots of other geothermal sites.

We caught this one when it was bubbling.

The colors were amazing.  Walking the boardwalk around the many pools was so interesting with the sites, sounds and odors.  There was definitely some sulfur in the air and the humidity was high right around the pools. 

After leaving Yellowstone we drove through the Grand Teton National Park on the way home.  There was a large forest fire in the area and lots of smoke in the air, so our pictures were not great from there.

But this gives some perspective on the views.  Just amazing!

It was a great trip, even if I did return home with a cold from all the outdoor activity in the high mountains.

I was sick for a week after getting home, then the second week home I was preparing to leave again.  The second trip was with my daughters, grand daughter and my youngest daughter's fiance.  We headed to Ft. Benning, GA for my grandson's graduation from boot camp. 

Here we are after the ceremony.  We got to spend a couple of days with him before we had to go.  The Georgia humidity did nothing for my hair style!

We went to the Infantry museum, did lots of shopping and eating out.  We all had a great time.  I'm really proud of my GS, he has grown into an amazing young man.

Then we had to head home.

Along the way we stopped outside of Amarillo, TX to sign the Cadillac's buried in the ground.  Here is GD adding her name to the artwork. 

Here is another picture of Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo.

It has been a very busy few weeks for me.  Next on the agenda is my sons wedding in Durango this coming weekend.  Between all the traveling I made a ring bearer pillow for them and have cut out and ironed fabric to freezer paper for the wedding guests to sign.  Those pieces will go into the signature quilt I am making for them. 

One last picture, a little quilt I made for the Small Quilt Talk challenge of a small quilt a month.  This one is for October:

Here is my teddy, Tatum, with the little hexie quilt.  I still need to remove the pencil marks for the quilting but it helps show that off a bit.  The little red chair Tatum is sitting on was made for me by my grandfather back in the early 1950's.  I love that little chair!

Well, that catches up on what I have been doing.  Once everything settles down from the trips and the wedding, I am so anxious to get back to sewing!
 

Hi, It's me again . . .

Where did August go? ? ?  I am looking forward to some cooler weather, whenever it decides to get here! 

What have I been doing during August? Well, since 2012 is New Mexico's centennial, there have been things going on to celebrate all year. One that I looked forward to for a long time was a trip to the old NM State Penitentiary. It was closed in 1998 when a new facility was built across the road from the old one. The old prison has been used for a lot of movies in the years since.  It has been a popular one, we made our reservations early in the spring and had to wait for August for the tour.  Just a couple of pictures:

It was really pretty interesting.  February 2-3,1980 was the big prison riot.  It was a very gruesome two days of the inmates taking over the prison.  If you are interested, just Google NM State Prison Riot, there are several books that were written about it.  We got to tour some of the burned out areas of the prison and hear a lot of the history of what went on during the riot.  A former guard was on the tour with us, so he told of some things that were not in the script for the tour, his stories were really interesting.  Parts of the prison are rumored to be haunted.  All in all it was a fascinating tour.

I also went on a quilt shop stroll.  There were four shops sponsoring the stroll with free patterns and prizes.  I won a door prize of some charm squares:

These are "Seems Like Old Times" by Ro Gregg.  Very pretty in pinks, greens and cream colors.  I don't know yet how I will use them, but I love the soft colors.  I also bought some fat quarters:

These batiks will be for fall leaves in a quilt for my son and his bride to be.  More about that later.

These CW prints are for me!  I have been searching for the pink one on the end for a long time, so I bought two of that print.  There were so many beautiful fabrics, it was hard to pick out just a few.

I also made a stop at Joann's and got another green fat quarter.  I spent more time in the car driving from shop to shop than actually in the quilt shops but it was a fun day.

Here is my latest small quilt for August:

It is the Charming Coins Doll quilt from Kathleen Tracy's book Remembering Adelia.  It turned out so cute!  I also finished up the one for October but I will wait until next month to show it off.

Now we are getting ready to go on a real vacation!  For seven years we have planned to go to Glacier National Park in Montana but other things kept getting in the way.  There were grand kids, weddings, funerals and family to visit.  This year we decided we were going, no matter what, so this should be fun.  I'm looking forward to some cooler weather!

Less than two weeks after we return from Glacier, I think I am going to Ft. Benning Georgia for my grandson's graduation from boot camp.  My younger daughter and her fiance will be picking me up on their way through town, meet my older daughter and grand daughter there and go to the graduation.  Then after graduation, we all pile into the car and head back west.  They will drop me off then continue on to the Mesa, AZ.  My older daughter is planning to move to AZ closer to where my youngest daughter lives in a year or so.  She will get to check out the area a bit.  Then everyone meets up in Durango, CO near the end of October for my son's wedding.  After that my older daughter and GD will come back home with us to catch a bus from here back to Wisconsin.  Whew!  So much travel and excitement during the next two months! 

One of my next projects is a signature quilt for my son's wedding.  Since it is a fall wedding, I thought a fall maple leaf quilt would be nice.  The pattern was in an APQ magazine several years ago, the October 2009 issue.  In fact, it was on the cover.  It has log cabin strips around two sides of the maple leaves.  I thought I could include signatures in the log cabin part of the block.  I hope it works out. 

Oh, I have added some new buttons to the right side of my blog.  There are some interesting new things going on if you want to check them out.

Well, that's what I've been up to.  Hope everyone gets some cooler weather soon and fall is almost here.  I love fall!  Enjoy your stitching projects!

I have been working on stuff!

Hi everyone, I have been absent from posting but I have been busy with lots of stuff.  This is going to be a long post with lots of pictures, hope I don't bore you too much!

We just returned from our trip to Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas to see family and attend my class reunion.  It was a quick, busy trip, we squeezed a lot into ten days.  In Illinois I spent time with my parents for a couple of days, saw my sister, and went to my class get together.  Then went to Missouri to see my other sister.  She's the one who lost her husband last year and she has moved into a small house.  I made this quilt as a housewarming gift for her.

The pattern is "Three Cabins" by Jan Patek.  It measures about 44 inches by 46 inches and I bought it as a kit with all the great fabrics by Jan.  I had to reverse the layout of the cabins because I forgot to reverse the patterns for the applique but it still looks great.  I told my sister if she didn't like it, I would take it home with me, but she loves it.  It goes perfectly with the colors she has used in her new house.

I also make this baby quilt for her oldest son's new baby boy who is expected to arrive within the next two weeks.

I have a bunch of panels I have collected over the years but have never made them up.  I started with the panel, added the red dotted border, then used half square triangles for the outer border.  I love the way it turned out, pretty good just winging it!  I forget to measure it, but I think it will more than cover his crib.

Our last stop was to visit my SIL's and BIL's in Arkansas.  They are always fun to hang out with.  Then home to laundry and everyday stuff!

The other quilt projects I have been working on are all the small quilts for the Small Quilt of the Month on Kathleen Tracy's smallquilttalk site.  Here they are:

This is for March, it measures about 21 1/2 inches by 25 1/2 inches. I love those little baskets!
I posted a picture of April's quilt in the last post I did.

This little star quilt for May measures about 20 inches square.

June's little quilt is one of my favorites, I love how it showcases some of my favorite fabrics.  It is about 17 inches by 22 inches.

July's quilt is so blue!  It is about 15 inches by 19 inches.  I used one of the decorative stitches on my sewing machine to decorate the outer border.

All of these quilts are hand quilted for the most part, the baby quilt has some machine quilting in it.  They took a little bit of time to finish but I love how they look.

That catches up all the quilts, now for the other sewing I have been doing.  Here are pictures of more clothes for the grandkids.  Two more shirts for one of our GS's.

I hope he likes the kitties on the motorcycles!

He is a big cowboy fan, so I think this will be a hit!  I still have to make buttonholes and add buttons to both.

For our GD, two more little dresses.

A red sundress!  It is really RED!

And purple ruffles with polka dots.  This will have some little white bloomers to wear with it.  I hope she likes it.  It is harder making clothes for kids who aren't close by to try them on during the sewing process.  I hope they all fit OK!

Well, that pretty much catches you up for the last two months.  I am having a hard time believing it is August already!  I have some buttons to add and elastic in the bloomers so I can get the clothes in the mail.  It will be getting cool in Oregon soon so I want the kids to be able to wear this stuff before it gets too cold.

I have cut out part of the August small quilt and am anxious to start sewing on it now.  I also have to check with my son to see what they want for their wedding quilt, another project waiting in the wings.

I have been keeping up with everyone's posts on their blogs, you have all been making some wonderful projects, too.  Keep it up and enjoy your sewing time!

Swap Quilt finished . . .

It is less than a month since I posted to my blog!  I am trying to keep in touch.

I have a picture of my Swap quilt to share.  It is all finished except for the label!

The Front and

the Back!

I hand quilted it in the ditch.  The back is pieced to add a little interest, I love the way it looks.  I stitched heart into the setting triangles at the corners and around the edge.  Originally I was going to use a stencil of a bunch of flowers and a bow, but that was hard to do and the hearts are cute.  I forget how big it is, I will measure it and let you know.  DH is napping right now so I don't want to make any noise and disturb him.   I am very pleased with the way it turned out.  It will have a place of honor on the back of my couch!  This was so much fun, swapping the blocks, we should have another swap of some kind.  Anyone have any suggestions?

We have had a busy week.  One day was a colonoscopy, the next was a dental cleaning and yesterday we were at a funeral.  DH was a pall bearer so we were busy from about 9:30 am until 4:30 pm with the visitation, rosary, Mass, honors at the cemetery and the reception at the widow's home.  It was a long day for us, I can't even imagine how hard it was for her and the family.  DH's former Sargent from the police dept. passed away, he was a great guy and had lots of friends.  He was a Marine, a member of the PD for 20+ years, after he retired he also worked for the school PD for several years and retired completely about five years ago for health reasons.  The PD provided an escort from the funeral home to the church, then a full PD escort from the church to the cemetery.  That was so impressive, they closed the entire route for the procession, including part of it on the interstate.  It was a wonderful tribute to Bob.  At the cemetery the PD did a special tribute, then the Marine Corp. color guard folded the flag and presented it to his wife.  It was all very moving.  Both DH and I are still tired from the long day.

When I showed this quilt in the last post, I forgot to show the back!

 

Since it is a doll quilt, I thought the fabric with the children on it would be perfect!  This is part of the huge amount of fabric my friend gave me when she moved.  So far this has backed two small quilts and a blue colorway was used on two more small quilts.  I am still finishing those but will show them as soon as I get them done and photographed. 

And, here are the clothes that I made for two of my grands.

Two dresses for DH's grand daughter.  These turned out so cute, I can't wait to get pictures of her in them.  The lace on the plaid dress is from another friend.  When his mother passed away right after Christmas, he had me come over and go through her sewing room.  There were a lot of things I couldn't use, she was a ballroom dancer and made her own beautiful gowns.  I did get some bits of old lace, needles, buttons and beads, some thread holders and other bits and bobs.  This piece of lace seemed to fit with the casual plaid in the dress. 

Here is the shirt and shorts I made for DH's grandson.  It doesn't show, but I made the pockets in the shorts from the plaid fabric to match the shirt.  I also stitched a small patch of the plaid onto the waist in the back so he could tell the front from the back.  He will be five at the end of the summer.   I am waiting to hear how everything fits, then I can make some more.  It has been many, many years since I sewed such small clothes!

My garden is growing really well, there are little tomatoes and peppers forming on the plants, the cucumber is blooming and everything else is doing well.  The weather is hot and dry, so I have been keeping a close watch on watering the plants.  We have been wanting to do a short camping/fishing trip but the wildfires in NM are near the areas we enjoy going to so, no camping yet.  It is just not worth breathing in all the smoke just to catch a few fish!  We haven't been on any good motorcycle rides yet this year, either.  It has been too dry, hot, windy or smokey!  We will just sit tight and wait it out.

Guess I'll go sew!   Hope you are, too.

   

I've been neglectful of my blog . . .

It has been a long time and I have so many things to share!  First of all I have finished my sisters quilt and the swap quilt but don't have pictures yet.  I will try to get the swap quilt photographed and show it off soon.  The quilt for my sister will be given to her in July, so will wait on that one.  I don't know if she looks at my blog, but just in case I don't want to spoil the surprise. 

Here is one I can show you:

This is the Small Quilt of the month for April, all finished.   It is about 13 1/2 inches by 19 inches, made from my stash and hand quilted.  Ruth, if you look close you will recognize some of the fabrics I won in your giveaway.   I didn't get it finished for April, but it is done now.

Here is another one I am working on:

These are the little basket blocks for the March Small Quilt of the month.  I do have the top all together and sandwiched but have not started the quilting yet.  Again, Ruth you may recognize some fabrics.  These were fun to put together and I can't wait to get it quilted.

I just started on the May Small Quilt but it will be late in being finished, too.  Pictures of that later, I promise!

Other things I have been doing include a trip with DH to San Diego.  It was a short trip, the first night we stayed in Mesa, AZ and had dinner with my DD #2 and her fiance.  Then on to San Diego where we checked into our hotel, went to the Navel base to buy tickets to the things we planned to see, shopped in the Exchange and had a picnic on the beach.  The next morning we went to the San Diego Zoo,

 had lunch at Anthony's Fish Grotto, the clam chowder was out of this world delish, then toured the Midway, WWII aircraft carrier:

This is a view of the flight deck.  We walked around Seaport Village, then had dinner at the Fish Market and saw "The Kiss", also known as Unconditional Surrender :

This statue is enormous!  There is a sign in front of the platform with information about the statue, right by her right shoe, just to give a little perspective. 

The next morning we went to  Rosie's Quilt Shop  .   Bonnie Hunter wrote about it on her blog when she was in San Diego in January and it sounded like a place to visit.  It was amazing, 8,000 square feet of quilt shop.  You can go to the above link to read more about the shop.  I bought 14 fat quarters, next time, I will have a plan of what I need so I can buy more! ! !  Here are my purchases:

After the quilt shop, we had time to return to Balboa Park and wander around.  While doing that we came across the Titanic Exhibit in one of the museums in the park, so we got to see it.  No photography was allowed, but it was a really interesting exhibit showing many pictures and artifacts that had been brought up from the ship. 

From there we met a friend and all went to Sea World:

After dinner at the steak house that was part of the hotel we called it a day.  The steak house had fantastic food, too!  We did eat well and enjoyed the trip.  The next day it was back to Mesa, AZ and dinner with my DD #2, her fiance and his parents.  Then home.  It was a quick trip, but lots of fun and we have plans to return to see more of San Diego in the future.

On the home front, we got our garden going after we returned from the trip.  We are experimenting with this:

We don't have anyplace in our yard to dig a garden, so containers must do.  The two black pots contain three tomato plants, one Beefsteak and two cherry varieties.  The pool on the right is strawberries and the other pool has a Patio tomato, orange and green peppers, cucumbers and lettuce.  You have to look really close to see the tiny lettuce plants on the left half of the pool, I will plant more on the right side later in the summer.  We also have a few flowers, too:

That almost catches you all up!   I have been doing some other sewing, but not quilts.  A couple of months ago a friend of mine was moving and she gave me tons of fabric she was not going to use.  Some of it is a cotton poly blend in pink, white, purple with white dots, and pink and white and blue and white strips, and some plaids.  I used some of it to make two sundresses for my granddaughter and a shirt and shorts for my grandson in Oregon.  Once I know those fit, I will get busy on some more but I want to catch up on my quilts first! ! !

This is a long post, thanks for hanging in there.  I will get some more pictures taken and post those in a little while.  Happy stitching!