Trips~

A few weeks ago the gals I retreat with took a field trip to San Diego! It was a great time, we visited 5 quilt shops and the zoo, here is the group of us!

 We retreat twice a year at a bed and breakfast down the mountain a little bit, I have pictures of the past sewins but of course they have yet to make it to the blog, maybe this will be the year..............

 Then the following week I was due to get Little Miss Sunshine but it happened to fall on the day a blizzard was in effect! Think it stopped me from going? Nope! It took longer to get there then longer to get home but it was worth it.

Plus we got to visit our favorite Mexican Restaurant in Flagstaff, they have the best roasted jalapeño salsa that is to die for!
                                             
 Sigh, love those cheeks! Yep, she was so worth the blizzard!

 My quilting mentor, who always finishes her quilts herself asked me to do something with this quilt she had made years and years and years ago! It came out really pretty and I was happy to do it for her!

A closer shot at the top.........and the lovely back!

Thankfully the weather has finally taken a turn for the better! Been getting a little spring quilting done inside and out! Next I am anxious to get some sunflower, morning glories and snap dragon seeds planted, its been a couple years since taking the time to do it and I have missed them a lot!

Out and About~

When the weather is nice we have a nice 4 mile loop that we can hike, once we hit the peak the boys can ride down the mountain, this little trek up this road lead to the dirt path we hop on.

I love seeing the boys enjoying hanging out together!

It cracks me up the spots they see and will just haul the bike up and then travel down.

 He went to fast for me to be able to catch him going down, normally they have knee and shin pads on but this was suppose to be just a mellow outing and helmets are not an option to leave home!
                                             

We had a visit from my Brother and his 2 little ones, although they are 9 and 11 now so I guess not so little anymore! Again how the time is flying! Leah had a notion that her bear needed a quilt so I let her go through some fabrics and these are what she picked, she was a crafty one as she felt it needed to be able to cover HER and her bear! I just chuckled and kept her on task as this was for her bear and needed to be bear sized! Lol

 It came out pretty darn stinking cute! I have the binding sewn on and ready to be stitched down when I have a free moment!

 And last but not least is a more updated picture of my little Doll Face CC!! She was having a ball with 3 pieces of paper, her snack container, musical monkey and a dish towel! Love the simple things that can entertain for hours!!

Its a new year right~

Amazing we are already into March, I told myself that I wanted to get back into blogging and was going to make a strong effort to do so, and here we are! Guess better late than never is my theme!

I have been baking more, and thanks to a friend who shared this bread recipe with me, it is the no-knead method that has been wonderful! I can get a double recipe going, pop it in the fridge and it is ready to go anytime! 

It makes the prettiest loaf of bread! 

And the best pizza dough ever!

Then in July we were blessed with a some new little toes!  Our first Grand Daughter was born!

                                               

Little Miss Kaylee Sue! Also know as CC (chubby cheeks), this is an older photo, I need to upload some of her newer pictures because she is growing like a weed! 

 And we are still quilting away! This was a retreat quilt that went on to bless a Veteran in our quilt guilds Quilt of Valor Program.

Love the solid backs, you can really see the textures come alive!

The family has also gotten into Mountain Biking, my bike is currently on layaway as we are in the process of getting a new used one for one of the boys, who knew there were so many different ones for different kinds of riding! Down Hilling is what 2 of them are into heavily and it has given me some new grey hairs but all in all it has been a fun venture! So there will be some pretty pictures of areas that we have been going to.  I enjoy walking/hiking the trails so am able to stop and smell the cacti a little more!

~Little of this n that~

These two, they just make my heart go pitter patter! I can't remember why we were at In-n-Out but it was a special treat for sure!

Here is Little Man, who is not so little anymore, Donnie, he was so anxious to give his new ride a try he wore his motorcycle helmet for head gear! He is a thrifty shopper and got a fantastic deal on these wheels, with what he saved he cruised the net to find the best safety gear and he looks pretty cool!

Can you see a theme here? It seems the last 5 or so quilts are all in these color ways, the bin seems to be multiplying instead of depleting like I was hoping! And there is still at least 2 more quilts that can come from that bin but it has been put away for another day!

And with yummy avocados in season we have been enjoying them all but daily! I think presentation makes things taste even better, and I was a little surprised that he didn't put the lemon seeds in the center to be a little over the top! ~smile~

We just had a nice humid breaking rain, and a nice thunder and lightning show that forced us to shut everything down for a bit and sit outside and enjoy that moment, the hummers loved the showers as well but I couldn't get a very good shot of them darting in and out of the droplets!

I kind of let go of putting the feeders out the past 2 summers and wondered if the Hummers and Orioles would forgive me and come back! They surely have!

DH and the boys took a morning and cleaned up the overgrown weeds around the yard, wow is all I can say! Now just a pot or two of some pretty flowers and it will be complete for the time being!

Forever and a day~

I just can't get over the fact it has been almost a year since posting! We haven't done anything special except survive this whole time.

We have gotten back into walking, hiking and some bicycling.  Blake discovered these funky Five Finger shoes, I get a kick out of seeing him go in them!

 We have seen some pretty amazing sites on our walks, this cactus was one, it is pretty neat to see the changes on a daily basis!

 I even got to make it to a Fiddlesticks Retreat weekend! After months of helping gals pick fabrics and being sure they had the right measurements for their project I totally went stupid when it came to getting mine together! The original called for 10 dark and 10 light fabrics to make a nice size lap quilt.

 I got that all together then woke up in the middle of the night in a panic thinking I needed 20 of each, I have no idea where that came from but needless to say I marathon cut the additional pieces and went of to retreat quite pleased with myself until I got to piecing them and realized my mistake.  Needless to say I had enough to add 2 additional rows and it makes a nice topper to my california king bed!

Whats fun about the fabrics is that when we moved here 10 years ago I went online fabric shopping on a rather depressed day, I have had all the lovely fat quarters tucked away since, and I didn't want to purchase anything new so went digging around and got reacquainted with them! I used wool batting and couldn't be more pleased with the outcome!

Thankfully I have kept up with taking pictures of all the quilts that have passed through my door so will have plenty to get caught back up with, and even lots of different family changes to get documented so I one day I can look back and laugh, nice big belly laughs! Thats my plan!~

~Last Weeks Birthday Boy~

Hard to believe this once little guy is now 13! Time is going by so fast, we had a grand time taking him out for Sushi, a trip around the mall, then topped it off with a 3-d movie! Have lots of pictures from the evening but alas time is passing and there is lots yet to be done with this day, and I should be working and not on the computer.....................

We found these little critters in our coop! Yes, I know they are baby chickens but all we have ever collected in the 9 years of having chickens is eggs and poop and if the truth was to be told it would be more of the latter! ~smile~

William has taken to their care and we have since found 3 more!

They are as stinking cute as he is! The new life has been nice!

My Mom~January 23,1934-July 11,2011

A bad day at the pond~

The boys have these cool remote control boats, and BC has this water park for activities such as these!

Here we have a tipped vessel, (red/cream), but here comes Will to the rescue!!!

After a few attempts he finally gets in a good position to push him to shore!

It was quite entertaining watching them~

Finally, the rescue is made! A few minor adjustments and he is back in action!

I love watching these guys, in BC, its boats, skateboards, bikes and scooters, at home, its quads, hiking, target shooting, bow hunting, and now handheld crossbows.....................blessed? Indeed!!

Been a busy couple days, dental appointments, quilting, and guild business meeting, and more quilting, not up to leaving but I look forward to delivering quilts, it's like watching kids opening up presents!

A Challenge accomplished!

Hehehe, just a funny shot I came across while looking at some pictures, this boy was out riding with his buddy, the mud was pretty slick and he just tipped right over! No harm was done to the bike~and obviously none to the rider either!

This quilt was quite the challenge, it was one of last months accomplishments and as I look back at the pictures it all comes rushing back!

I loved the design, it is one from Deb Geissler, love love love her stuff!

This was no little one either, you can see on the left how close it is to the end of the frame, I have a 14 ft table~

One of the challenges was how the quilt was growing from around the middle of the quilt towards the bottom, tried to get a shot of it but it was around 110 at the top and by the time I hit the bottom we were at 116 wide!

We knew the backing and batting were going to be close but man oh man............

Here is its full shot, it came out pretty even with all its quirks~

Here is a little closer look at the design, kokopelli's flittering around doing their thing! I gave it to her on a Wednesday and she had the binding on it and on her bed by the weekend!

Seems we go through spurts of quilts that bring us a little challenge, we did 5 bargello hearts that still cause me to wake up in a sweat in the middle of the night, they came out beautiful and that is what I try to focus on! Those babies are up next to share!

Catching up~

Wow, I am still amazed that we are already in June, I had a fun May and was sorry to see it end so quick!!

This customer is one of my favorites, she tells me exactly what she wants and that is just what she gets!

The pictures don't quite do the quilting justice............

She also had shams but didn't get pics of those.

Then this little guy, sigh, when you get a naggling feeling in the back of your mind it is always best to trust that niggle and double check those little things, especially when it involves your tension!! I got to the 4th row and seen the stitching from the 1st and my heart dropped clean to my toes, what took 15.5 minutes to stitch out ended up taking over 5 hours of unstitching. Big lesson learned!

Here we have T and K, they are two amazing quilters in our Guild, T, is showing her latest using silk ties that she has collected over the years, it is an amazing quilt to say the least!!

Since we have had rain, snow and sleet so late into the year, it is has brought out all the beautiful wild flowers, Court and Donnie brought the bouquet home for me and hopefully I will have a nice supply throughout the summer!

I am very excited to have gotten our classes scheduled for MQX West this morning, did that at 9am sharp, booked our room last week so we are set to go! From there we went and delivered a couple quilts then it was off to the dentist, poor Donnie spent over 3 hours in that chair, he takes after me in that we have a high pain tolerance so by the time we realize there is a problem it definitely has become one! One more visit and he is good to go, the Dentist gave him a prescription and I thought it was for an antibiotic but it turned out to be a pain killer, Vicadin to be exact! I about flipped on the pharmacist, actually I did, but it will be properly channeled to the bleeping dentist on the next visit, in the meantime he is doing just fine with the ibuprofen thank you very much!!

The machine is happily stitching along and I am trying to get some order put back into this studio............