More from the past

While shopping one day at a Fiddlesticks sale, Merry the owner asked if I would be interested in doing some quilting for her! I had to lift my jaw back into place because it was so totally out of the blue and I was completely honored that she would ask ME!

Here is one of the sample quilts that will hang in the shop, in the excitement of it all I forget the line of fabric that is being represented here.

And because she is such a sweetheart and she drummed up some more business for me! This is one of Rose's, she also pieces the shops samples and they were both an absolute dream to quilt!

So even though the blogging has taken back seat it has been extremely busy the past couple months, still have to get around to the photos from the craft fair, that was definately an experience and was talked into doing another show in November. That one makes my stomach hurt! It is way bigger and way more people to talk to! Yikes!

Sashy

This is our newest member of the family, as I was innocently making a bank deposit two of the kids happened upon a box of kittens that needed a home. How could I say no?! She is absolutely darling and can't wait to watch her grow up!

Here are the last of the photos for you Barb! The Log Cabin is one that she made for her own bed! And if I read her right it is the first one she has made for her self! It is huge and absolutely gorgeous, I have a 14ft frame and it about filled it edge to edge, the wedding ring is the backing to it and was thrilled with how it came out, the shot of it is folded in half, I used red on the top and a shade off of white for the backing and the pokies are all but non-existent!

Barb's 2

I am not a pink person but I tell you I fell in love with this quilt!

Forever and a Day

It seems since August things have just been super busy, here are some quilts that I have been slowly plugging away on for Barb! She makes quilts for various Cancer groups and a mulititude of others, it is amazing at what she accomplishes and it is such a blessing to me to be able to help her with the quilting end. There will be two post of these and my DH is going to deliver them to her on Thursday.

Outside pets~

Here is our little Pe-ew Pet! What is amazing is last summer the skunks in our area were many so we ended up trapping 6 that frequented our yard and relocating them. Talk about a smelly business but after the dogs getting sprayed two nights in a row it had to be done!

This little one managed to make itself at home under our wood box off the veranda, he/she would just cruise across the veranda and watch us in the living room and go about its business, and it didn't take long before Mandi, Dixon and Charlie let it! They learned to get along!

So since it has been cooling down so nicely in the evening I open up the doors and set the fans out to blow some of the cool air in, well apparently he/she knows we keep the dog and cat food behind the door and has been helping his/her self because Ki-Ki just stood there watching and Mandi just continued to lay under the table without a switch to her tail!

I grabbed the camera and the shot is of it walking out and heading down the steps to his happy abode!

This guy was greeting us this morning, and we seen her this evening!

These little piggies go through the food like crazy! We have gone through 50lbs of sugar so far this summer and the Orioles 6 jars of grape jelly, I have been trying to get some shots of them eating but they are a little on the flighty side!


We have 4 feeders up and in years past had another 3 out but figured with the cost of things we had to cut back a little, along with the bird seed it can get a little costly to feed the wildlife! But the pleasure we get in watching them is too much fun!

A few more~

We all gathered under the awning to cook our meals, it is always fun to put everything together and the meals are one of the absolute favorite parts of camping!

This is Timothy, he just month old and the mountain air just totally agreed with him!

Picking a bouget is a tradition, and this year William did the honors for me!

He is just such a Cutie-Patootie!

And when the heat got to be a little unbearable this is where I retreated to, this lovely scene was right behind our tent and I enjoyed working on some binding and flipping through a couple magazines!


And a pattern from the little local quilt shop in Williams!

Home away from Home

Yes, she is a goof ball!

Here we are all set up, it isn't the prettiest campground site but it is the biggest and it easily accomodates the three tents, we were down one from last year, Scottie wasn't able to make it, there is one site that I would love to get that overlooks a meadow and in the distance you can see the elk and deer grazing, one year it will be mine.........................~smile~

This is Little Man's first time out in a kayak and he did phenominal! His first time out he went to the other side of the lake and back, we were all impressed! Fishing wasn't so great though, it was on the hot side so they had fun collecting the crawdad's but decided to let them go instead of cooking them.

And Mandi was just a trooper the whole way! She allowed the fellow kiddy campers to walk her around on the leash only so far, she was not going to be taken out of sight of her people, and as soon as we pulled in it was a minor search for her leash as we knew she had to be on one and of course the campground hosts were right there to let us know that she would be picked up if we didn't get one on her asap! Since she would not go wandering from us I deemed her 'on a leash' so this is how she got around!

And once it was time to load back up and she was utterly pooped out and promptly plopped herself in the cool shade!

It was probably the most relaxed camping trip that we have taken, now that the kids are old enough to get around it made for an extra nice time, they would just hop on a quad and go to the lake or just ride around some of the trails that we know and enjoy the scenery, William wasn't to sure if he would be able to get around well on his dirtbike but he did just fine and was thrilled to be able to go with the big boys!

We did make a quick run into Flagstaff to Target, Levia decided she wanted a new tent and it just happened to be across the street from the Campus Coffee Shop and the Breve was just like I remembered! Delicious!!

Yay~

I am excited that blogger is allowing photos again! Here is Niki's quilt that she made for one of her Son's, hope they like it!

Now to go through and get my pictures sorted, I have a fun one of the skunk that lives in front of our house who has gotten really comfortable with living here amongst us all for the last year! This will definately be one of our most cherished memories!

Pooh!

I was hoping to get some shots uploaded of not only our camping trip but of a quilt I just finished up for Niki to see but blogger doesn't seem to want to play tonight! Sorry Nik, I will try again when I get home! ~Just had a brainstorm and sent some photos through the email for her!

The boy's are patiently waiting for me to finish up so we can head back out for a few days to Vegas, we went in after we got home from camping for a visit then DH is only working two days this week and he talked me into going again, my Parents are thrilled though, they love having the kids around to spoil!

So until Wednesday...............

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!