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.

Pop Art

Well our summer is moving along. We've seen movies, gone to Petroglyph's, had lunch out and taken swimming lessons. We leave in a few weeks to the wilds of Washington and Canada on our yearly road trip. There's so much to see and never enough time. Anyways, I managed to finish another store sample in the midst of all our activities. This is called Pop Art with the line Back Porch from Marcus Brothers.

And here is Kayla after being chastised for trying to lay down on the quilt. She did blend in quite well though.

The Man Quilt

Here is another quilt finished for the store. It is made from Dawiabo Japanese fabrics and it is various squares with smaller squares appliqued on. The pattern said to just sew 1/4" inside each of the squares, but I decided I didn't like that. These fabrics fray too easily. Debbie did a great job quilting this although it is hard to see on the picture. There are ducks flying with clouds and then ducks in a pond with reeds down at the bottom.

Bloomin Summer!

I finished two more quilts last week and got one of them quilted on Friday. It is called Bloom BQ and it is a kit at the store. It's funny how my photos never show how pretty the quilts are. I guess I need better lighting, a better camera, etc. The other quilt Debbie wants to custom quilt so I'll be eager to see that one when it is finished. I'm now working on a more complicated one that includes piecing with lots of half-square triangles and applique.

Two More Quilts

Well after my exciting early May (ha ha), I thought I would get back to some of my hobbies. At the quilt store, things started piling up so I took home four samples to get back to the store. Here are two of them: Wildlife Journey and Pansy Contradance. These were the easy ones and I have two more difficult ones to do. Onwards......

Flowers!!!!

Hi everyone: Well I've had a very difficult week but it has ended well. My mother went in for elective surgery to remove a "thingy" on her lung and it turned out to be cancerous. My sister Nili and I flew up on Friday night and after 8 hours of surgery (it was supposed to be only 2 hours), my mom was transfered to ICU. The surgeons also removed the top lobe of her right lung and several lymph nodes. We were waiting for several days to get the results of the biopsies and it was thankfully negative so the cancer had not spread. We spend hours at the hospital getting her to eat, bathing her and helping my father along; and finally I got to come home. My wonderful friend Sue dropped off these lovely flowers and during the week my orchid bloomed as well. Spring is considered the "renewal of life" and it has indeed proved to be so.