New Years 2010-2011.

I'm sitting here, thinking about what I've accomplished this last year, and what I want to do this next year. I had really wanted to do more sewing, but it seems that once again, I've spread myself really thin. (I'm doing web sites for 3 different organizations besides my husbands business, and also on the board for one of these groups. Add the charity quilt group at church, the Cub Scout Den, and ESA, and it seems I'm always doing "stuff")

My sewing space has not been working for me either, even tho it should be big enough to do what I want. The beginning of December I sat down with graph paper, drew the room, and cut out the furniture I have. Then I shoved it all around, trying to make it work. The result? I'm swapping sides between the guest room half and the sewing room half. I started moving furniture around, got sick with the sinus virus stuff going around and had NO energy for two weeks. Then it was "do or die" to get ready for Christmas. So much for thinking I would have sewn items for gifts. So the few items I've got in process will wait for next year, or some other occasion.

I've been using the kitchen counter for a cutting table. In working with my graph paper, I realized I wanted a cutting table in the sewing room (should help the look of the kitchen - hee hee). My hubby gave me kitchen cabinets that we will work to put together into a cutting table. They are utility cabinets, unfinished, so I have a project! My hubby will build a base, and we will put a top on top. I'm pretty excited as it will provide storage under the entire top. It will be about 2 foot wide, and 5 foot long. The counter will hang over the edges. I'm hoping to store supplies for all my sewing and crafting on one side, and Cub Scout "stuff" on the other side, with space for quilt books and magazines at the end.

So what have I accomplished this last year? Several small quilt projects are ready for quilting. I used my 'stash' for most of the projects I did. I've done all the block of the month blocks, and have the first boarder on the quilt that finished up in August. I also had my first vegetable garden, and learned a lot. We started composting, and added a rain barrel (and learned we really need more or bigger barrels!) And basically we just lived life.

What do I plan for next year? No I'm not calling them resolutions. Resolutions seem to me to be promises that always get broken. So I make plans. Yes, some plans get accomplished, and some do not. So, what are my plans? First, I received a very cute calendar from sister in law. I plan to organize my year on that calendar. Mostly What I want to do for Christmas, and schedule the stuff out, to make it less stressful next year. No this year was not bad, but after the sinus I just decided what got done, got done; and I ignored all the other things I wanted to do. If I put all those things on the calendar, I hope to realize dates that I need to finish tasks, and so that they all don't happen in the last few weeks. I want to get my sewing room organized, cutting table created and get projects finished. I want to continue to use my stash for my projects. I want to do a better job of thanking people for all they do for me. I want to go through the boxes we have stored. I'd like to set a goal of going through 2 boxes a month. I want to do my vegetable garden again next summer, and harvest more food. I want to get the patio enclosed, and make more progress on the landscaping. I need to do some deep cleaning on the house, and probably some painting. Plus keep all my groups going, and keeping up to date on what I need to do for them. And I want to blog on a regular basis this year.

Hmm, well, that is a good start for a list. It is now just minutes before midnight, so I need to get this saved. Have a great New Year everyone!

Odds and Ends...

My china hutch has finally been dusted/polished. No, not the quick, outside type cleaning, but the inside. Everything came out, mirrored back and glass shelved cleaned with glass cleaner, wood with wood cleaner, all items dusted/polished/cleaned as needed and put back inside. Door glass cleaned inside and out. It has needed this for a long time, and is now very sparkly! At least I've done one productive thing today. And this chore should not need to be done for hopefully another year!!

Last night, my hubby and I attended a very nice wedding. The bride was beautiful, and the groom was dashing. Both were warm and cordial to all the guests. We had a great time, and wish them both a wonderful marriage!

Molly update: She still does not like to be touched. Well let me rephrase that... She begs to be loved, "but don't touch me". It is taking us 15 minutes to catch her to go somewhere, and I think that is setting her back a little. We now are leaving her leash on, as it makes it a little easier to catch her. But we will take it off tonight, so she does not get into trouble while we are sleeping! We are watching her pretty closely with the leash on her. She is such a smart dog, but then she would have had to be to survive 5 weeks in the cold. She seems to like to collect things - bubble wrap, the bare floor brush for the vacuum, dad's shoes and socks, Jenny's food bowl as well as her own food bowl, plastic bags... well you get the idea. OH, the best thing, (and the one she did not want to let go of) was she managed to get a meat can out of the recycle bin. Oh, that was a prize. We played tease mom with it for about 5 minutes. Today I took her on a walk, and maybe she will get another walk before the evening. -- Jeff, she rivals KD, maybe even more so!!

Oh, and funny! We can't get our fence installed until June. So we have a temporary fence up so Molly could have a little freedom outside. Today, I was on the other side of the temp fence, doing things in the yard, and Molly was in the fenced area. I went around the house and in the other door. Looking through the window, I could see the fence was really sagging next to the house. Sure enough, I went outside, and Molly was looking at me from the outside of the fence. D***. I quickly went back through the house to head out the other door, but something made me turn around and look back. Molly was now inside the door, give me a "now where are you going" look. Just too funny. And very good to know that she didn't take off. I think she likes it here, she just doesn't feel totally safe with us yet. Yes, we secured the fence back up. Hopefully it will hold her until the real fence is in.

Molly

Just want to share a couple of pictures of Molly. She is making great strides in being a puppy. He is a pic of Molly and Jenny. The two of them were being silly as I came into the house from church. There were moving around so fast that I only got this one good picture of the two of them. Note that Molly's tail is UP! Finally! Every so often she forgets that she is scared of everything thing, and acts like a puppy. They I reach out to pet her, and she shy's away.


Tonight, Molly managed to crawl under the lower rungs of the chair. She really does feel safer when she is under stuff. It was funny tho that her behind was sticking out the other side. Hubby went over and pet her - once in a while we can get a chance to love her.

Oh, and puppy stuff... she picked up the kleenix box and I caught her carrying it across the room. Later I heard a "funny" noise... she had hubby's shoe and was just starting to chew on it. No damage, and it was his old shoes for painting, etc. And a pair of socks were in the same area. And just a little while ago, I caught her trying to pick up the paper scissors off the coffee table. (Not my sewing scissors!) Why these were interesting, I don't know. She is so gentle when she picks things up. I can just look at her and say "NO Molly" in a firm voice, and she stops what she is doing. She always acts so surprised that I catch her. She is really smart, and is learning to "talk" from Jenny.

Introducing Molly!

I'd like to introduce Molly to you. But first you need to know a little about Molly's story. She is currently about 7 months old. When Molly was about 4 month old, she had been abandoned. We know this because she was sighted in various places around town. But no one could catch her. This was in early March. There was still quilt a bit of snow on the ground, and it was below freezing every night and probably in the 40's during the days.

Still Molly survived. People caught sight of her as she ate road kill beside the highways. She is very scared of everything. For the last 5 weeks, she has been living with Lori, a foster parent. Lori tells us for the first two weeks, Molly would stay inside her kennel. Molly had been given toys, and at night Molly would sneak out and gather her toys and put them in her kennel, so that became a game to get Molly to come out. Then they took the top off the kennel so she couldn't hide all the time.

Several people came to see Molly. But no one wanted the puppy who would not come play, and who would run away from them. We saw her picture around town, and thought about her. Then decided we would like to see her. She wouldn't come to see us either. But after an hour, we finally picked her up and held her.

But we have Jenny. Jenny is now 14 years old, and we got her when she was a year old for our son Chris. Jenny has her own issues, the biggest is separation anxiety. We brought Jenny in to see Molly. We were told that Molly growls at the neighbor dog, and Lori was not sure what Molly would do. Jenny sniffed at Molly a little, but was more interested in the house (we were in the kitchen!) Molly seemed to be fine with Jenny, and Jenny was good with Molly. ( I guess because neither one was jumping on the other). So we decided to bring Molly home. So here is Molly:

Yes, this is one of Molly's favorite spots, under the kitchen table, between the chairs. She seems to feel safe there. She will now sometimes let us pet her, but is still very afraid. She does not like outside very well, but does better when it is dark. Last night Steve held her and pet her, trying to make her feel safe. As she sat there, I noticed she was watching the TV. As the weatherman reached his hand out to point to areas on the weather map, Molly would shy away. She really was confused when people walked out the side of the TV and disappeared! She finally gave up on the TV, and went to sleep in Steve's lap.

She had another trauma today as she NEEDED a bath. She now smells good, and got a greenie tooth cleaning bone as a reward for being so good in the tub. (Mom only got half soaked.) She seems to watch Jenny and take cues from her as to what is good and what is not. So far the two dogs have been fine together.

I'll keep you updated on Molly's progress as we go along.


So here is the finished Horse Quilt. The top three water lines were done with a white glittery thread. I also used that thread to outline the horse. The bottom two water lines (one is in the darker blue water) is a verigated blue that is a little glittery. I was very pleased with how this turned out, and so was my secret sister! We had our gift sharing at a resturant, and the tables on either side of us wanted to see the quilt also. I'm glad it turned out so well.

And a final picture of my String X flimsy for my charity quilt group. It is 6 blocks by 6 blocks. For you non-quilters, a flimsy is the quilt top, before it is layered. This is now at church, waiting to be layered next week.

Bits of Progress

I need to make the blocks and sew on one more row to the bottom of this quilt. Then I'm going to call it ready for batting and backing! The reason the last row is not done, is that I will take it to my neighborhood quilt group tomorrow morning (Monday). I want to show them how I add the yellow corners on each block, then how I trim the blocks. One of the other ladies was just given THREE kitchen trash bags FULL of scraps. So we think this will be an appropriate quilt to demo tomorrow. I have enjoyed making this quilt, and think it is really pretty. Just don't look at my seams! They don't always meet correctly, and I really didn't care as I sewed it together.


Then I also made a little progress on my horse quilt. I have permanently set all the fusible, and added the border "frame". next, I will pillowcase it, and then quilt it. I'm going to first try sewing a small sleeve to the back before putting the front and back together. I'll keep the sleeve in the border, as I don't plan to quilt in that area. I'm pretty happy with this too.

But I need to get to bed, so I can think tomorrow at the neighborhood quilt group. Have a great day tomorrow!!

Quilt Progress and Train Ride

I now have all the "horse pieces" fixed down to my background. I took these pictures at night, so I'm showing you both the picture with flash that is very washed out, and the picture without flash that is pretty dark. Now that I added white socks on the horse, I wish I'd chosen darker "water" fabric, but it is what it is. Also on the left side of the picture you can see the wood-grain fabric that I will be using to make the picture frame. I'm thinking I will miter the corners, like a real picture frame.

On this second picture, you can see the socks and the hoofs a little better. In doing my research, I learned that horses with white socks or legs have a light rosy tan color hoofs. And black legs have light grey hoofs. I always thought horses had shiny black hoofs.

Now to show you a picture I snapped from the train ride we had today. The Grand Canyon Railroad was celebrating National Train day with rides on the train pulled by a steam engine. They don't run this steam engine very often anymore, because it is not very eco-friendly. But they have improved matters by switching to reclaimed cooking oil. (It doesn't smell like diesel, but does not smell like french fries either!!)

There were also several N-gauge model trains set up, one group was from Tucson! The kids could even hop on a bicycle that had been converted to generate power to run a "Thomas the Tank" layout.

Garden Report: Sorry, I didn't get any pictures taken today of the garden. But the tomatoes and cabbage are doing pretty good, and the radishes have sprouted. I'm still waiting on the onions and carrot seeds. We are starting to see several weeds popping up too, and are pulling several every day. But I have to be careful, because I don't know what the baby carrots and onions will look like. The neighbors are probably very happy we are finally moving the leftover rock we used to make the sidewalks out of the front yard. Hubby used some of it to make a path from the back patio to the back of the driveway. Well, he is 3/4 the way to the drive way. But there is more rock, so we will be able to finish that path, plus make some others. Plus the sugar snap peas have sprouted in their "little greenhouse" I have inside the house. We need to make a bed for them along the back fence. These will need to be fenced in also.

Oh, one more picture I took several days ago. Below you can see most of the dozen "breast cancer awareness" tulips I planted. But if you look close, just below the rock, and to the right of the rock, you can see two tulip plants that are totally wilted. Actually the one below the rock has a couple good leaves. Where the rock is was also a tulip that wilted. They were fine one day, and totally wilted the next day.

So what happened? Under the rock is the hole I dug, checking that bulb. I dug down, and tada! NO BULB! but just below where the bulb should have been, a vole tunnel. (Voles are like small gophers!!) Yep, they ate my tulip bulbs. So it is all out war. Down the hole went gopher poison. Now, don't get me wrong, I hate killing animals, BUT these little voles are destroying my gardens. My main flower garden in front of the house, that I've had for three years, they have totally tunnelled, and piled dirt on top of plants that should have come back this year. So it is WAR! I'm going to have to save the plants in that garden the voles did not destroy, then totally take the dirt out, line the bed with a wire mesh smaller than the voles, then put the dirt back. What a pain!! If you have any methods of getting rid of voles or gophers, please let me know.

Amazing what you can do when you can't sleep!

OK, to be honest, the multi-colored center sections were already done. But I've cut the two yellows, and made the first 4 rows of six. (yep, there is one block on the fifth row.) Still need to sew the blocks together, but I think it will look pretty nice. This is a charity quilt. I'm using up scraps.


This is a pattern from Bonnie Hunter's site called String-X Quilt. You can get the directions here: http://www.quiltville.com/stringx.shtml If you haven't already been to her site, take some time to look around. It's great.

Current quilt - Horse picture...

I want to share one of the current quilts I'm working on. It is a gift for a "secret sister" who loves horses and rides a black horse. I've never seen this horse, but I'm hoping this will look a little bit like the horse she rides.

As you might be able to tell, I have the water reflection and the head bonded to the background. I have the legs just laid out of the fabric. Trying to decide if I like the black and white figured fabric that is in the legs. I had this fabric for the main layer of the head, but the details did not show on it. So not sure what I want to do, but I need to decide soon. I have one week before I need to give this to her. Yep, cutting it close again!!

Any horse people out there? should his hoofs be grey (the pattern has grey hoofs for a tan horse) or should they be black?

Thanks for the thoughts.

Look what I started!!

Hubby and I went to the local hardware store. He needed some wood/screws/putty etc, and I decided to shop. Well, I purchased a new bird feeder, but put the shepard's hook off to next week, because the clerk told me it would be half price.

:-)

Then I found a finch sock. I've never seen one of these before, but it contains a lot of niger seeds which I new my mom had in feeders for finches. This sock also contains red millet and sunflower chips. It is a little mesh bag, with very tiny holes, filled with seed.

I put the sock up on the string I had for a humming bird feeder, turned around, and had some type of little bird. I'm not kidding, in less than a minutes, the little sock looked like this:

OH, you want to know why the background of my pictures is so fuzzy?? Well yesterday I showed you tulips and daffodils. Today we have snow. Twice now it has covered the yard, then melted off. And it is in the process of covering the yard for the third time. It is true here - if you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes. About an hour ago (after the first two occurrences of snow covering the ground today), it was blue sky and sunshine. Now it is grey and snowing. It looks like winter, not spring.

One Project FINISHED!

Finally I have a finish to show you.... OK, it is NOT anything to do with quilting, but I did use my sewing machine. I have made 12 of these patches, and you see three of them below. The two not on the shooting pouches have just been glued on, and they will be dry tomorrow morning. That will make all twelve finished! Oh, what is SCTP? It stands for Scholastic Clay Target Program. It is a program sponsored by Game and Fish (in Arizona), but is a National Program. Youth are taught proper handling of shotguns, and compete in Trap, Skeet, and Sporting Clays. State Champions go to National. The first year of this program in Arizona, my husband coached some of the youth that went to National, and one placed 1st in trap in the nation. What an honor.

Anyway, these are the pouches the Williams Bird Busters youth will use to hold their boxes of shot gun shells. I really hope they like them.

Next is a picture of my raised garden box my hubby constructed. It is 4 ft by 10 ft, and 18 inches high. This picture is before I planted anything, but I now have tomatoes and cabbage in the frame. The new plants have either "wall of water" around them, or I have sheet plastic over the top to prevent freezing at night It is again going to be getting "cold", and maybe some more snow. I may have to put a light under the plastic to keep them warm.

And talking about snow - we did have a storm last week. No, the bushes below are not flowering, that is snow stuck all over them. I actually was driving in my car, and drove around the block to come back and take this picture.

But now some real spring pictures: This is one of my daffodil bulbs.

And a few more of my daffodils, and that little plant on the right is actually an iris. I thought it was dead, but obviously I was wrong. I have a second of these iris plants, but don't see any sign of life from it yet. But I still have my fingers crossed.

Yes, I know I seem a little obsessed with my tulips and daffodils, but this is the first year I have ever had any. And I love them!! Below is the first buds on the crab apple we planted last fall. they are getting bigger, and I'll take another picture after the tree looks like it has leaves. (LOL)

And below are the first leaves appearing on the wild rose plants I transplanted last fall. I understand that these will multiply by runners, and I'm hoping I get a few more of these. The plants will have small pink flowers when they bloom. I hope I get some blooms this year! (I hope they get big enough I can call them bushes! LOL)

OK, a few more tulip pictures: I showed you this before, but there were fewer flowers, and now I have added 6 other little plants. You can see three of them on the left, and the other three are on the right, just out of the picture. I can't remember what they are called, but they should spread and fill the area. So the tulips will appear first each year, and then the other plants. I'm going to get some more of these plants, when the nursery has smaller pots ready to be transplanted. I'll show you more pictures when these new plants have flowers.

And this is my last picture today. Of course it is another tulip. This is a group out front, and is one of 12 bulbs that were supporting raising funds for breast cancer. I love the two tone petals, and that they are pointed. This is the first flower, and I think I will have more in the next few days, if we don't get weather that kills them all. (Our wind has blown all day today. Max speed was 43 mph, and maybe snow tomorrow??? Ugg!)

Oh, I have started working on a quilt that will be a gift for my secret sister. It is more of an arty quilt. I'll show it when I get a little more done.

Leave me a comment so I know you were here. What projects have you been working on??

Orchid Update....

Wow, just checking and it was April 3rd when I last showed you my oldest orchid that was sending up a new bloom... So 2 weeks later it has finally opened enough to show you the flower.

This first picture is shows all three orchids. The new bloom is the dark purple one, and the branch of pink orchids is actually closer to the camera lens than the purple. If I remember right, the purple will turn it's face a little more upward so you can see it better. But I couldn't wait to show you.

So with a little help (me tipping the orchid back), here is a direct view of the face of the flower. Isn't it just gorgeous? I think so! The deep purple in the lower center is bucket shaped. And to me, it looks like fluid may run from the center of the flower down into the bucket. Now I can remember why I picked this as my first orchid. I always have liked the unusual!

OK, just a quick look at some of my tulips. I actually have bulbs in three different areas. One area is now flowering. This is just a little patch of dirt beside the driveway where our gas meter is. Yes, I definitely need something else in this area, but the flowers are so pretty, I just wanted to share... My rows are too far apart, so maybe a few of the bulbs I have in the house will go in the empty spots.

The little tulip in the top left corner is such a pretty color, I took a close up of it. The one in the back beside it will be the same color when it opens.

And this is a group of tulips along the back fence. I can't wait till their flowers appear!

Have a great day. I hope you are enjoying the spring flowers too.

Voting...

I hope you are voting for the Williams Recreation Center... We are moving up in the voting, but I'm afraid it isn't fast enough. Please remember to vote everyday (log in before you vote or it won't count!!) There is a link to the voting site on the top right of my blog.

Thanks so much!

You don't see this very often; Or Flying Bell Tower

There are many other things I should blog about, but I just need to share our "fun" this afternoon. The church I attend is over 100 years old. The bell tower has been leaning more and more over the last several years. The culprit? A foundation that is failing. They didn't use to build things the way we do today. The foundation was repaired once before, but sadly is in need of more care.

The plan - Remove the entire bell tower, rebuild the structure that is dry-rot, etc; put in a completely new foundation, and replace the refurbished bell tower. "What" you say... Replace??? Yep, they took the top off of the bell tower today. Here are the pictures...

First you can see the crane, and the straps that will be picking up the tower. They are getting ready to put the straps in place, on the ends of the large boards sticking out the sides of the tower. Besides the guy on the cherry picker, there is a guy in the open frame work below the boards that are sticking out. (There used to be more brown shakes on that part.)

Below, the straps are now connected, and the crane begins it lift of the top of the bell tower.

Will it lift?

Will it come down in one piece??

Yes, the church members that were there, gave a quick group prayer.

And the picture that you are waiting for...

IT FLIES!!

And it is down. Safely. Amen.

You can't really tell from the pictures I have posted, but the "top" that was removed is about 25 foot tall. Below is a picture of the real bell in the tower. (No, it is not a speaker with a recording!) And yes, we ring it just before service every Sunday.

OK, I couldn't resist loading one more picture to show you how big the top of the bell tower is. I should also let you know that the crane operator told us it weighed 4200 pounds!!


In this picture is the contractor and his helper, the pastor, the town mayor, and my hubby - chairman of the trustee committee (this is not the order they are standing in - LOL). (oh, and the back of the "official photographer!" Anyway, this gives you a little more perspective on the size of the tower.

I hope you enjoyed the process of removing the top of the bell tower. We sure enjoyed the day, and are very thankful that the top came down safely!

Plans...

I'm thinking I should start posting every month the quilty things I want to get done. I'm already at the 9th of this month, but it probably is better to start now than wait until the beginning of next month. So here goes:

1. I've been trying to get a stock-pile of things to quilt, so I can take the machine I use for piecing in to get it serviced. At this point, I think all I have left is to finish the borders on my 2007 Block of the Month from Odegaards. The first border is on, so just 2 more borders to cut and sew. Then I can start quilting on my little stock pile.

2, 3, and 4. I have three quilts from my charity quilt group that I said I would quilt. We normally tie all the quilts (I guess they are really comforters then, aren't they!) Anyway, I have three of these to get quilted.

5 and 6. The batik table runner and table/candle mat need to be quilted

7. The wedding ring table runner needs to be quilted. It would be really good if I could get this done by Monday, as I started this in my neighborhood group, and I'd like to take it finish to our meeting on Monday. But not sure that can happen if I stick to my plan to finish the borders on the BOM first.

8. Quilt the 2007 BOM. This is a queen size quilt, so it will take a while. But, boy, will it feel good to get this quilt finished!!

I guess I should have 2 more items to make an even ten. I don't think I will plan on having ten each month, but....

9. I almost forgot that I also have a table topper to quilt. It is blue and rose colored, with roses in the fabric design.

10. I also want to start cutting out the pieces for the pieced sashing on the 2009/2010 BOM. Once the pieces are cut, I can start sewing them together. BUT I will wait for the sewing of these until my machine is back from being serviced. Otherwise I will never get it in (for service). But if I get tired of quilting, I can do some cutting!

So that makes 10 items to do the rest of this month. I won't beat myself up if I don't finish all 10, but it is nice to have a priority list to work from, and it will be nice to finish some of these up. (And bonus.... numbers 5, 6, and 7 are pillowcase style, so they won't need binding after quilting. They will be "done done" after I make labels for them!!

OK, I know you are saying "why can't you get the borders on, and get the wedding ring quilted by Monday. Well, I'm having fun tomorrow (see below) and then church on Sunday. And I need to get plastic lining the wood box hubby has made to be used as a raised garden. We think it will be better to line the sides with plastic, to keep some of the moisture off the wood sides. The bottom will be open.

So at the end of April, if I don't report right away what I've got accomplished, please keep me honest, and remind me to post where I'm at!!

OH, and the fun planned for tomorrow - I'm going with my friend Judy to the quilt show in Prescott. We leave here about 9am. I'll take my camera, and see if they will let me take pictures.
Have a great night.

Tulips, garden starts, and Quilt Blocks

It's been fun to watch the tulips grow in the house. I wanted to show you the orange-yellow one when it was open. I just love this color.


My garden starts (tomatoes and cabbage are below. The tomatoes look like they are doing great, but my cabbage is a little sad. They have had a "greenhouse" lid over the top, but I've pulled that off for now. I learned a lesson in that one of the tomatoes and three of the cabbage seeds did not germinate, so I planted a couple more seeds in those "pots". My lesson is that I need to plant more than one seed and then thin, even in the house. (yes, I know, DUH!!). You might have trouble seeing them, but there is a little tomato and two small cabbage plants that have come up. This is an experiment this year, so we will see if we get anything to eat from all of this....


And last I want to show you this year's block of the month progress. I just finished the April block, and put the 7 finished blocks up on my design wall, in order. (the bottom left is the new block. These really aren't my colors, but it is growing on me. This is a Marti Mitchell template quilt, and I think the templates really do help with the accuracy!!

And if you are helping us with the recreation center votes on the Pepsi refresh site, please remember to keep voting. You can vote once a day. and log in before you vote, or your vote does not register. (Yep, I discovered this myself!!)

Water Falls and Wedding Rings

The Wedding Rings that I want to show you is my latest quilt project. But first I want to show you where we went on Easter afternoon. First you need to know that most of the snow in our area has melted, but we still have spots of snow all over. The drift in my back yard is now only a couple feet high, but it is that last of the snow in my yard. When the snow melts around here, it flows into little streams, and then into larger streams.

While at church Easter morning we talked with some friends that had gone to a small church to do some mission work - repairs, painting, etc. During their break, they went to see the waterfall created by snow melt runoff. This waterfall is on Indian Reservation land, and generally lasts for only a few weeks. It is only about an hour from home, so we wanted to go see the falls while they were still flowing. After the last ten miles (on dirt road) we came to the river. It was pretty wide, and flowing right along. You can see little "falls" that were about a foot drop each. On the far shore, on the top of the hill, is a building. Not sure if it is a house, or some other ranch building.

Then I walked a little bit down river and took this picture. Hmm, looks like more is going on, and we could see vehicles a little farther down the river. So we got back into the truck, and found our way to the lower area to look at the falls...

This is the view from the side of the falls. Wow, it really is a waterfall. I walked farther around the bank, and kept taking pictures. (I took almost 60 pictures, but I won't bore you will all of them - lol). Notice the spray coming up from the falls. The side of the truck was coated with dried spray when we got back to it.

Below you can see about 3/4 of the width of the falls. For a size reference, notice the small structures on the top of the cliff. These are shade structures you can stand under. Also, if you enlarge the picture, and magnify it, you will see several people standing next to the structures. Next, notice the gap in the lowest falls. In the space before the water goes over this last falls, on the right side of the gap, is a HUGE log - the trunk of a large pine tree. You will have to magnify the picture to see it. It is probably at least 18 inches in diameter! My hubby told me this is probably a 400-600 foot drop from the first picture to the bottom of the falls.

And to think... All this will be gone in a few weeks.

Next I want to share my Easter gift from hubby. A new orchid plant. This one has large white flowers. Very appropriate for Easter, I think.

And last (finally!!) I want to show you my Wedding Ring table runner. I still need to quilt it, but I did a pillow case turn, so the edges are already finished, and the batting is inside. I've already sewn closed the opening in the back that I used to turn it right side out. I'm pretty pleased with it. I think when I quilt it, I'm going to outline the arcs and put something fancy in the three centers. Maybe something in the little "football" areas too.

But for now, this will go with the other things I need to quilt. I still want to finish the borders on the 2007 BOM quilt top. Then I will have enough ready to quilt and I will take that machine in for service, and use the Juki to quilt all these items. It kind of eases the separation of having the machine in for service, if I have projects to do on the other machine!!

Leave me a note as to what you think of the table runner, and the waterfall!!

Thanks.

Are you voting?

Are you voting for keeping our Recreation Center open for the town? I hope so. We were 41st in the 250,000 category, then dropped to 45th, and now we've made it up to 39th. We have to be either 1st or 2nd to get any funding, so please vote everyday. It will mean so much to so many people.
http://www.refresheverything.com/williamsyouthcenterproject

Thank you!

Tulips and Orchid

First I want to show you some of the tulips I have planted in the house. If you remember, I had too many bulbs last fall, and did not get them all planted. A couple of weeks ago I found they were starting to grow, so I stuck them in dirt. Now, I did not have enough pots, so I "made do" with anything I could find. Here are two of the cut off plastic gallon milk containers....

I can't wait to see what the pink/yellow flower looks like when it opens. Maybe that will be tomorrow. Doesn't it look interesting???

Here is another "pot" with two red and a yellow bloom. And they smell so nice too!

Now I want to show you the orchid progress. If you remember, the bud was about leaf level, and was just a teardrop shape (upside down teardrop!) Now look at it... the stem is 3 times as tall, and what I think will be the flower has emerged from the bud.

Here is a close up of the bud. The top portion was all there was before. The larger part hanging down is new. I have no idea how much longer before the flower opens, or if there are more "steps" before it becomes a flower. I'll post the next development when it happens.

Have a great night!

First Sighting of Elk on the Golf Course!

I was going to say this was our first sighting of the year, but actually this is the first time I've ever seen elk on the golf course! Deer, yes, lots of times, but this is the first herd of elk we've ever seen. As you can see, they are enjoying the grass that has just been "greening up".


The bottom picture I should probably try to run through photo shop, tho I'm not good at that tool yet. It was dusk, and for both pictures I was at full zoom, so they are a little grainy. But aren't the elk just regal animals??? No horns at this point, but still beautiful.

I'll show you an update of my orchids (no I haven't forgotten, and the purple one is not yet in bloom - getting close, but not open yet.) And an update on my quilting too.

Have a great night

Easier Way to Vote.

The direct link to our Williams Recreational Center Pepsi request is http://www.refresheverything.com/williamsyouthcenterproject

Please Help!

Our little town has already closed the pool due to lack of funds. Now we are doing our best to keep our recreation center open for all our youth in town, especially our at-risk youth. Please go to www.refresheverything.com; select the Neighborhood tab; Select 'vote for "current leaders" ' and Select the $250,00 category.

Scroll down until you see "Keep programs alive for at risk youth in under resourced community" Williams Youth Center Project.

You get 10 votes a day, and can only vote for each item once, so if another project warms your heart, you can also vote for it. Please vote every day if you can!

Thanks so much

Quilting and Orchids

First I want to share progress on my quilting. I'm working on a Wedding Ring table runner. A couple weeks ago I showed you the arc segments laid out of the background fabric. Today I can show you a little progress:


The arcs have been fused onto their blocks, blind stitched (by machine) down so they won't come loose. Then I added the "jewels" - the fabrics that form the squares at the intersections. Where I was sort of so-so on the fabrics I picked for the projects, adding the jewel fabrics has really brought this to life for me. I'm really liking it now. Next step in this project is to sew the blocks together. I'll show you more steps as I go along. So far, so good!! I'm thinking I do not want to leave the runner square. I was thinking of edging it at the outside of the rings. Now I'm thinking that maybe I'll leave a border of background fabric about 1" all the way around. Do you have any suggestions on what I could do? Please let me know. I'm still thinking about it.

I have also created the block of the month which was due this morning, and layered the batik table runner and mat. I didn't get pictures yet, so I'll show you these later. Maybe I'll get the runner quilted before I show you.

Next I want to show you some orchid pictures... I took these a week ago, and was going to show you earlier, just never got the pictures off the camera. This orchid with all the pink flowers is my second orchid. I was trying to get a shot of the two most recent flowers. They are noticeably bigger than the rest of the flowers on the plant. I must be doing something right with this plant.



Here is a close up and the flower looks much bigger here. Yes, part of it is that it is closer to the camera, but it really is much bigger.

This is my first orchid plant. It is a different species, and I've had it for over a year. I'm not sure the pictures show, but this older one has more upright leaves, and they are mottled verses solid green of the second plant. It came with a single large flower, which I THINK was a very dark purple. The flower died, and I now think I let it get to dry. Then a year ago, I had another flower bud start up, but it did not get tall enough to even see the stem. (Again, I think I let it get too dry.) About 1-2 months ago, I noticed that another flower bud was forming. I'm so excited! I took this picture a week or so ago. The second picture I took tonight.

Below you can see both plants, the pink flowered orchid is in a bigger pot and the flash washed out the color. And look how tall my flower bud is getting!! I'll be sure to show you all when it opens! I'm thinking it is getting close. I'm SO excited about this.

And yes, I do keep both orchids on the side of the tub. With a couple pots of water on the sides, and a humidity tray below the older orchid. They grow well here, but not many people get to see them. I bring them out to share when I know I'm going to have company!

Other things in my life... We had pinewood derby with our Cub Scout Pack, and I crossed the two older boys over to Boy Scouts. I will miss them at our meetings - both are great boys.

Have a great night!