And Were Off~

Like a Herd of Turtles! My Dad would always say this when it was time to go and I have kept the tradition on, so when he visits and says it the kids get a chuckle every time!

As soon as this little girl seen the quads loaded she has been very apprehensive about being left behind! Every time we go somewhere she is patiently waiting to board up, she didn't know we were preparing early or she would have been able to get some more rest! So she will have to rest up on the ride because when Jaelynne sees her she will be on duty for the next 3-4 days! By the way her name is Mandi, or Panda as I call her, she is the absolute best dog that a family could have!


this one is just snoopy...................

Sharing one last meal together........

Ki-Ki, is just a little bugger, he carries his penguin around like it was his baby and I get such a kick out of watching him snuggle up to it!

The camera is charged and I will have fun getting as many shots as I can because it is going to be a fun weekend!

Oopsy Daisy~

When Husband gets off work at midnight he always gives a call to say goodnight and I can then fall into the nights rest peacefully, so when at 1:30am my cell phone rang again with the special ringer of 'Hey Good Lookin' my eyes flew open and my heart raced! His motorcycle decided to shut down out in the middle of the desert, the prison he works at is a good 45 miles from anything remotely close to Vegas and he was about 10 miles from the prison itself as well.

Thankfully we had just taken the white trailer to the dump last Monday to offload a bunch of stuff that had collected, because my truck was already hooked up with the quads loaded on the black trailer and it would have been very trying to offload it in the middle of the night!

Scottio was off but had fallen asleep early and since he has been on the graveyard shift he was ready to go so Chad gathered the tie downs and helped him hook up the trailer and off we went. The bummer part is we were 3 hours from him, he patiently waited, did a little star gazing and even took a short nap!

Once we got to him we dropped him off at his place in town, where he had the back up motorcycle and we headed straight back home. I was due to go to the Wednesday Bee with D but thought it best to cancel so we stopped at her home on our way up the Mountain to let her know.

Scottio's unit was in for maintenance and I needed to grocery shop and by then the Starbuck's triple shot Breve' had kicked in so we cruised back down to take care of the errands!

Once home we got everything put away and decided we may as well start loading things up, we are heading to Williams tomorrow to camp out for the next four days! It is actually a Church Group Event so there is going to be at least 7 Families going, we will also take the opportunity to scout for where we will get our firewood and the boys will fish to their hearts content!

We hopped over to Willow Beach this past Saturday so they could get a little time in and it was absolutely gorgeous out! Normally it is 110 plus but with the rain storm that was overhead it was in the low 90's.

William and Donnie each caught one, there were many nibbles though, Blake is looking to make it up as soon as we get there! and that evening even though the fair was small it was a pure treat and can't wait to have some more this weekend! I even bought more bait for them with the hopes that we can bring some home to freeze! And the crawdads are a plenty as well so there will be at least 2 feasts to come. Yumm!

Good & Good

I can have lots of fun on ebay, but sometimes I wonder at my sanity! There is absolutely no reason why I fell in love with this top, it isn't even complete mind you. So when I threw out a wonky bid I never dreamed I would win it, so when it arrived, this is the photo listed on ebay by the way, wish I had the wood flooring but that is a dream for another day. Anyway, I need to lay it out again and get some shots to post because the colors are just awesome and hand pieced to absolute perfection, total awe doesn't begin to cover my feelings for it.

Now my mind is working on how to complete it and I am leaning towards hand quilting it, I don't have the skills to hand piece it to completion but I don't think the piece will mind, it being finished will be what counts!

Then there is this little guy, it is a Christmas Tree Stand, a very old cast iron one, I have been having issues over where to store my batting since taking out the big table and I really don't know where the idea for using one of these came from but I tell you it is just great! Another shot I will have to take, I had one of the boys cut a piece of pvc pipe and wala, spelling doesn't look right but the point is there ~smile~, it is perfect! I really want to use one of those wood clothes hanging rods but was looking for some instant gratification to see if my idea worked. I am now on the prowl for two more as I have another two rolls just propped against the wall.

Those little things!

Finishes

Once returning home I needed to finish up this quilt before I could move on to the Orange Crushes.

This has to be my favorite quilt so far, the colors are just awesome and I love how the wonky borders came out, I put the same design on top, it just doesn't show in the photo.

And the panto is the small version of Frisky Feathers, I wanted a little dense in the big open squares and I think it came out perfect!

Then here is my attempt at scalloped edges, I learned a whole lot from this one and am anxious to try out some different techniques that were shared with me. I tried to follow the directions that came with the ruler but somehow I managed to make it way more difficult than it should have been! For me the simpler the better!

A & K's Orange Crushes

I had the privilege of quilting a couple quilts for a fellow blogger! Andee and Kathy followed Bonnies mystery quilt, Orange Crush and here are some sneak peaks for them!

This one is Andees, and I used a Burnt Copper Thread for the front and back.

The Panto is Swirl-n-Twirl and I just love the way it came out, the above photo is a shot to see the design a little better, the backing is also pieced with a pretty orange and cool label!

The above is another shot from above, I tried a different setting on the camera to see if it would show a little better!

Here is Kathy's, it also called for using the Burnt Copper thread, it actually looks like a nice deep orange that adds just the perfect touch!

And another close up of the design, this Panto is a Floral Meander that is another one of my favorites, it add just the right touch, at least I think so and am surely hoping Andee and Kathy will be as pleased with them as I was in doing them!

Aaaah!

Finally a note on an absolutely awesome weekend! We drove Friday to Flagstaff to enjoy the afternoon dinging around, we had hoped to visit a few more antique shops but it was ten minutes to closing when we finally made it to one!

We needed a little pep start so we visited the Campus Coffee Shop, they were so good we went back twice before heading home! On the left is a Breve' and mine was a Harvest Chai, our next visit though I tried the Breve' and was hooks, so much so that Donnie has been working on perfecting one so we can enjoy them at home!

We made a visit to Bernina Connections little store and found some nice tea dyed muslin, I just liked the colors and have a vision for them! We also found the Pinetree Quilt Shop where I scored the Valdani Threads! They are just gorgeous and I was able to incorporate them into the big-stitch part of the class!

Here is our Teacher Joe Cunningham, he was fabulous! Was kind of expecting him to be a little on the feminine side but totally not so! And his techniques were exactly what I needed to be able to conquer the little and big stitches!

And last but definitely not least was meeting Libby! I wish I wasn't so shy, because I could have spent the day just hanging out with her! We also got to meet the Princess and she is equally as sweet! I promised I wasn't going to stalk her but I tell you I would love to be her very best friend if we lived closer!

Fun Times

The rains have finally come! It is amazing watching things change when they do, this is a creek that runs in front of our house, it sounded like the rapids and we even endured the soaked hammocks to enjoy the soothing sounds!

This is a shot of where our road runs, this is where the chick truck comes in handy! Oh Yeah! But since we have an alternate safer route we generally take it instead.

Really haven't been able to do much piecing or quilting, that is about the one thing that drives me nuts, being in the mountains we get horrid power surges and outages, we have blown a few modems due to sudden lighting strikes. That is where the hand cranks and treadles come in, I do have designated projects that I work on in just these situations.

This isn't one of them though, its what was being worked on before all got shut down, it is another denim and flannel, the walking foot makes it easier to put together and I haven't been able to find a suitable one for any of the vintage machines, now if I wasn't using the Davis that has the built in walking foot cabinet for my vanity in my room that would take care of that problem, ~smile~.

And here is the best for last!! I am heading to Flagstaff tomorrow, a day early to be able to tink around but I am signed up for a Hand Quilting Class with Joe Cunningham, I am going with my great friend J, we have been planning for months but of course who would wait until the day before she left to get the home work of basting done? Yeah, generally things like that would drive me crazy if they weren't done as soon as I knew about it but somehow I kept having problems deciding on what to baste for the class, so I chose a tea dyed muslin for the traditional part of the class then I dug through the top ladder and measured everything, some would have needed additional borders to make the 40' square that was required and other stuff was just to big, but then I spotted this recent finish, OK not so recent but enough in the vicinity to call it that, it measured out at 45 so did a happy dance and basted her up! She is going to be getting the Big Stitch treatment.

It has been years since dinging around with hand quilting so it was quite the challenge to get them basted, thankfully Donnie hung out with me and we talked about fishing and making plans to do so in the near future, that and he kept my coffee cup full so I would be able to keep working and not just pop them on the longarm and use it to baste them! Would have been so much easier but in the end it was nice to spend the time with each to get the feel of the fabric and imagine how they are going to look once done, a very nice bonding time indeed!

Then another awesome bit of news is that one of my absolute favorite bloggers is going to be in the same class! Libby from ~A Simple Girl~ , How cool is that, I promised not to stalk her but I tell ya it will be great to meet her and sure hope to get a picture with her. She is such an inspiration with every project she works on!

And I haven't even mentioned the total make over that my studio is going through, I visited another long armer's studio last week and it was just awesome! So before we even left my mind was already kicked into gear at what all I wanted to do, then came convincing DH what a great idea it would really be, in the end I bribed the kids, whoever helped willingly and wasn't asked twice to help was treated to their favorite place to eat, chinese! It looks great and there is only a few things left to get put into place but it ended up falling perfect with the power outages and surges we have been having, and it feels great having purged a bunch of stuff, another bonus was a lot of things are going to a gal who posted a request on freecycle for cross stitch items, that was my passion before quilting so once it is gone I will have even more room!

Ok, this is way long, haven't even gotten to Levia and her little brush with a tree while out on a quad ride, sigh, kids..............thankfully all fingers work but boy she bruised it but good!

More light stuff~

Here is my chuckle picture, the original shot didn't include the truck in the background but when I seen it back there I adjusted the doo-hickey so I could get a shot of my truck in the background, she is affectionately called the 'chick-truck', and her plates read MTNQLTR, go girl!! By the way that water in the background is what I guess would be called Lake Havasu.

Here is Don in uniform, he had the honor of pinning Scott's badge on and had to sit in a different section than the rest of us, he was lonely.........

I would have gotten a shot of Dad hugging Son but a huge bug flew into my eye at that exact moment and both my eyes started leaking, true story with a twist.

Well its about time little brother showed up! Make you wonder who looks up to who!

Something Light~

This is my Mom's quilt, I can't recall the line of fabric that the squares are, pretty sure they were from Moda but she went a little crazy in putting it together, it is huge!! But it came out so nice once it was washed!

And here is one sunflower that reseeded itself from last year, I had Donnie just start watering the areas where we had planted in the past and this one actually had to have blown in from another area. Since we aren't getting much in the rain department I had to have him stop since we are on a well and a never ending draught, so prayerfully once the monsoon kicks in whatever is out there will start popping! I have a shot also of some hollyhocks I think they are called that also must have blown in from the neighbors yard.

And here is one shot of 142 photos that I took on Scott's graduation day, I wish Chad would have been there for it, he and Levia rode in with their Grandparents for the ceremony that started at 11am while we arrived at 6:45am to see the final inspection part of it!

They are Donnie (Jr.), Dad (Sr.), Blake, Scott and William, it is one of my favorites shots and now I need to weed through the rest and start getting copies made.

Don delivered Mrs. Black her tumbler and she loved it! I waited to hear with bated breath but from all accounts and I got a minute by minute one that I drug out of Don, ~smile~, she was out that afternoon picking paint to re-do the room where she plans to use it. I was very honored to hear that, and it was a perfect distraction for her to get through her first week without Chuck. Did I mention they were married 54 years? Amazing!

Haven't been doing much in the piecing department but have been quilting like a mad women this past week once I got recouped from the two before. I am missing it though and think something mindless might be in order and I have the perfect project for just that type of piecing!

ps. I love the spell-checker! It is my friend! ~smile~