I'm ramping up again....

Well I have two more quilts finished. One is quilted and ready to be hung at the store. It is Over Easy with yellows, oranges and greens. The second one is called Sweet Days and features a monthly embroidery block that I started while on our vacation this past July.

My masterpiece is done!!!!!!

For the last 18 months I have been working on a quilt called Ladies of the Sea for my father. I have mentioned it in an earlier blog, but now I can say it is finally done! The quilt started as a block-of-the-month last year and I had it done earlier this year. I then gave it to Debbie for quilting and she did a fantastic job in the borders and cornerstones. I took it home and did some free motion in the blocks. Finally I put individual labels on the backside which has a small description of each ship and now it is ready to go to the Morgan Hill Quilt Show. I'm so so so happy with it. It is beautiful. Both Debbie and April think I'm crazy to have done it and now that I look at it, I think they may be right! This will eventually go to my father after the show and I know he will enjoy it.

Rachael's 10th Birthday

August 4 was my daughter Rachael's 10th birthday. Boy time does fly! Here she is with her cake (that I made, I know, I know, don't fall over). She got a Wii game from us and has a roller skating party scheduled for August 22nd.

Bali Bowl

Whilst on vacation and one of my shopping sprees, I purchased a "Bali Pop" which is basically a batik jelly roll. I didn't really have any plans for it, but I liked the colors which were purples, blues, greens, whites. When I got home I remembered that I had some "clothesline" from the shop that I was going to make into a bowl. So I put the two together and this is what I have. It is quite large with a 9" base. It's a little off center, but then again so am I. Hope you like it.

Back from Vacation

Hi everyone: I'm sorry it's been so long since I posted, but we just got back from two weeks vacation up to my parent's house in Washington and then to Canada (eh). But I'm back now and I did do some shopping at several quilt shops including a brand new one up in Washington called the Quilt Barn. They were very nice, had lots of samples, but their prices were sky high. I bought some cute patterns and books, but need to save, save, save to buy stuff at PQ! Anyways, while in Canada, we did the touristy things including the beautiful Butchart Gardens in Victoria. Here is a picture of us in front of the sign and some of the gardens. These are great inspirations for picture quilts which I hope to do some day. Soon the children will be back in school and I can get back to doing some heavy duty quilting too.

The birthday cake

Want cake without calories??? Try my little felt number. Took all day to make, but isn't it cute???

The House Next Door

Well, our 4th of July was humming along when at 4:00 a.m. on the 5th we were awoken by our neighbor banging on the door and dog going crazy. Apparently the house next to us had caught on fire. Mark ran out to get the hose, but then realized that was futile and by then the fire department and police had arrived. We had to evacuate!!! So I got the kids, the dog, my purse. Mark grabbed some clothing and that was it. We all got to watch the house burn down from about 3 houses down the cul-de-sac. Fortunately, the occupants got out safely thanks to smoke detectors and our neighbors were kind to all of us, getting us blankets, water and chairs. We were out there for a couple of hours when we were finally allowed to go back in. There must have been over 50 firefighters and 8 to 10 engines trying to get this fire out. The house went up in about 10 minutes. The investigator said it was faulty electrical in the laundry room. Yikes! Anyways, I'm so sorry for our neighbors. They are sifting throught what's left and will be relocating. Fortunately, everything in the garage was fine, including their cars. Here are some photos of the house.