Bird Watch

I love to see what is going on out in the yard with the birds. Today I had a new variety of feathered friends out there. Some Flickers showed up to take a bath in the small sprinkler I set out to green up a couple of places in the yard.
Here's some info from Wikipedia They were sitting on the group just taking a shower in the sprinkler. I took the pictures from my kitchen window through the screen so they aren't very clear but it was a fun show as the birds bathed in the water.

More Olympic excitement last night late as the two Americans won Gold and Silver in the women's gymnastics all around finals! What an exciting meet to watch but it sure bugged me that these two young women seem to have been cheated out of points on almost every event! Being the Momma of a former competitive gymnast it is just heart breaking when they aren't given the credit they deserve but bravo to Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson for their excellent work!
And how about Michael Phelps...what more can you say about how he is doing what he dreamed about and now tied with the poster boy of the '72 Olympics Mark Spitz...who is still looking mighty good to me! LOL
I remember one of my best friends in HS having Mark's famous poster on her wall after the Olympics our senior year 1973! We thought he was..."all that and a bag of chips" as my DD says! LOL

I did manage to get that Sunflower BOM top finished and now just need to do some machine quilting and then one more to bind! It would be nice to have it done before Aug is over! LOL
I will hopefully be able to take a picture on Sunday of the finished product.

Found a fun Blog

All my quilting friends should take a look at http://polkadotsandrickrack.blogspot.com/
love her blog and she is giving a way a surprize if you say "hi" and make a comment!
Nice to meet a new friend online!

Making "boob blockers"

Did I get your attention?
LOL DD and I had a fun afternoon today. We have tried to set aside Wednesday as a day we spend together mostly to scrapbook. With only a few weeks left until B&B move to TX this has been a fun day for DD and I to have some time together.
She called this morning and asked if we couldn't do some sewing instead of scrapbooking and of course I said "yes!"
She has been wanting to try and make what are called nursing shawls or cover up, since they sell for quite a few $$ for some cotton fabric a few notions and a bit of time. So....using her bought-en one as an example we hit the local Hancock Fabric and found everything we needed to make one. Some nice cotton fabric, boning, and "d" rings. So by the time we finished our prototype we spent about $5.00 and have a nice version of the cover up. We took a few pics as we constructed but didn't take one of the final product since little baby "A" was done for the day of being away from home LOL
I will take pics soon and let you see what we created.
Before she came I did a few things I had been putting off...
Hemmed my DGD C's jeans...she needs her legs too keep on growing while the rest of her just stays the way she is now! LOL and also finally put a binding on one of my "quilts in que". Tonight I spent a bunch of the time hand stitching the binding and will probably finish tomorrow while watching more Olympics coverage.
I am really excited to see such wonderful results of team USA in many events and am so sad when the athletes just miss a medal or don't perform the way they had hoped. So sad for the men's and women's gymnastics teams who had to overcome so many injuries and other competitors who had to drop out at the last minute!
Also hurray for our swimmers who are just doing phenomenal at their events!
Go Team USA!

So what have I been doing?

Funny thing is that even though with the exception of gymnastics for Beth and some running for Donny we are not a sports inclined family however...
When the Olympics come around we are all over it! LOL
Since Friday night we have tried to watch as much of the different sports as possible and that means there isn't much time for other stuff!
I was so excited Sunday night as I cheered very loudly at the men's swimming relay team as they captured the gold with their incredible swimming and of course the others most especially Michael Phelps and his incredible ability in the pool!
Congrats to all who have even made it to the Olympics but most especially to those who win medals and excel in their sports!
I have been doing this and that and had a sick day on Monday where I did very little. LOL

Eating yummy veggies from the garden and fresh corn from the local growers and way too much chocolate lately to offset the goodness of the veggies LOL

An ongoing project is the BOM-Technique of the Month for my quilt group. Working from A Year of Flower Blocks by Jodi Warner we try out a different applique and piecing technique monthly and those who want can create the block for the month from Jodi's book.
Jodi has some wonderful designs but they aren't for the beginner, that's for sure! LOL
Today I was trying to complete the August block and after over 4 hours of intense cutting and sewing I didn't finish and still have two borders to add...sigh...but I think they will be pretty quick compared to the rest of the design. Jodi loves small small pieces and not the average settings for the flowers which in truth made us want to try to make them but I have to admit I am regretting it! LOL Not really but it is a good challenge to my skills.
Here I am showing the partly complete block with the strips from my stash ready to cut and add as the borders. Just need to straighten out the sides and add them.
Oh yea and quilt the whole thing LOL
Have you seen and tried these plastic keeper boxes...just love them to keep projects in so that I can keep it all together plus you can see through them and they fit on my fabric shelves too.

Christmas Wishes Block of the Month

The Night group I belong to has started our new year this month and we began with a new BOMChristmas Wishes by Debbie Mumm.
In this group the way we plan our year is to all meet together with ideas for the next year. I brought this idea for a BOM and that means when it was chosen I had to teach it! LOL
We decided to do two blocks each time and not do them each month but an ocassional month thru the next year. Here is my version using mostly mid to late 19th century fabrics not at all Debbie's style LOL but I think they will be beautiful in my LR.\
Don't look too close as I messed up on the seams...though not sure how but that's the way it goes.

Happy Birthday Aaron

AWWW...my baby is 19 today!
He was such a cute baby and now all grown up into a handsome young man.
Here he shows off his b-day present from his Dad a WWII Soviet gun from 1940's. He was hopeing for a new game for his X-box but decided he didn't want to wait until it came out so settled for the gun!
He and friends go shooting at a range nearby sometimes and even though his Dad says it would make a nice wall display he plans on using it for targets

Couldn't help myself

I just had to share a couple more pictures!
The first is done with crayon and coloring book pages! So wonderful and this would be a great project to share with children! I took a close up of the lovely coloring ...just such a fun quilt!


The next is a lovely quilt that just is so striking and had some wonderful quilting...nothing that I would ever make LOL
But I can appreciate good quiltmaking!

Just a few more from the show

Who doesn't love chocolate? LOL
some one did a great quilt about Chocolate every day of the week..sounds good to me!
I had to share this wonderful patriotic quilt made by one of my machine quilters Rebecca...she said she used it as a lesson in precision piecing as it only has a few spots of foundation piecing on it!
The last two photos are of a quilt designed by Lori Holt of Utah...she has done a whole series of these clever novelty quilts of those special things in out lives. This is one of her newer designs of a quilters life and sayings too! Such a darling quilt and I think it might be one I am going to add to my "one of these days" file.
I have her Grandma's Kitchen pattern partly finished and it is moving up in the Quits in Que cause I love it and really want to get it done and on the wall near my kitchen...sigh one more on the pile!

At the Springvill Utah Quilt show

For those of you who aren't from Utah then you probably have never heard of the Springville Art Museum Quilt Show but in Utah it is one of the "premier" shows! The best quilters submit their quilts and it always has the highest quality quilts!
This year was definitely no exception and I just chose a few of the incredible quilts to add to my blog.
Best of show was done by Sharon Wright...it is the first quilt I show on the blog...she combines, wool, batiks and prints with lame for the story of Christmas. She has over the past few years created small quilts that she calls Banishing Santa which scenes of the Nativity and the story of Christmas. While I don't think you have to "Banish" Santa I really love her quilts and each one has been more and more impressive. This one is absolutely incredible in person!

The next quilt I chose to share was a wonderful family tree quilt that show scenes from the family's past...incredible in detail and just so beautifully done. I took a close up of one of the scene blocks and then a closer close up of the details of the people in front of the school...just wonderful!

More to come...just love the quilts I saw and as my friend MA said...I just want to make all these quilts!

Civil War Love Letters Blocks 1-6

Well here they are the beginning of my version of
The Civil War Love Letter Quilt by Rosemary Young
I bought the book maybe 6 months or more ago and have wanted to try to create a quilt in the way Dear Jane has gone but without all the intimidating blocks that are in that quilt. These are all pieced and not nearly as difficult but allows me to use up my nice stash of reproduction fat quarters. I am starting a group with my friends locally doing 6 blocks a month and it will take us nearly 2 years but it seemed to be the only way to do it and not have to drop everything else LOL
I decided to play in my fabrics and not worry about how the "book" chose fabric but do my own thing. Some blocks I will like better than others but I keep reminding myself they will be in one very large busy quilt and the individual block will not be noticeable in the long run so not to worry if the fabrics I choose is not exactly right with the others! LOL

I show two versions of the same block...one I did and just didn't think it worked and so I remade it and I do like it better but in the end I don't think the first version wouldn't have been OK with all the others in the quilt.
I did learn that these fabrics are often very busy and clash with each other so you almost can't avoid it unless you pick and choose them and that isn't the point to me!

Even more from Camp Nana!

Just a few more pics!
First is Grson I with Papa's Cups and Marbles game and he did love the cups LOL
Next. Grson I during the train ride...just exhausted!
DH Howard on the train
Last DDIL P and me waving the train riders off...before our pedicure!
OK probably all I will share until I do the pages for the Camp Nana Album

More of Camp Nana

For those of you who are looking for quilting and scrapbooking stuff you can skip this post as it is more pictures from Camp Nana! LOL
As I have 500+ pictures from Camp Nana week I thought it might be nice to share a few with family and friends.
DD B and her DH B helped create the signs for our Backyard Carnival on Thurs. I had the kids minus Grandson I pose with it. I think it is so cute and everyone did a great job with all the signs. The kids enjoyed making signs to put on their games by using the Cricut to cut the letters. DD B and SIL B made sure they had all the letters they needed for their signs

Here is SIL B and baby A just chillin before we started. A is wearing one of his Thomas onsies...lucky boy had one for each day of Camp Nana's Great Train Adventures LOL Gosh he is just so cute!

Yes I rented a cotton candy machine for our Carnival Train day...it was so worth it! The kids LOVED being able to get as much as they wanted...oh I am a bad Nana!...and as you see youngest DS A manned the Concession booth and had so much fun making all those cotton candy on a sticks. Here we have grson B and grdaughter C getting their first ones.

Camp Nana was such fun and this was just a little taste of all we did. Each of us created and manned a game or two for everyone to try. The prizes were just a big jar of goodies that you could choose out of...Grson N did a sort of ping pong ball PLINKO game that he and Papa Howard made, grandson B did a Balloon and Darts game...very popular....again with help from Papa and the other kids helped drill in the screws to hold on the foam board and Grdaughter C did a bean-bag toss by creating her own clown target and with help from Nana sewed her own bean-bags! Papa brought out his stilts which grdson N conquered pretty quickly and most everyone tried at least once...along with a game that grdson I had fun just carrying it around after the games were over LOL...Nana Cathie did a ring toss with bottles and pool toy rings and also a penny pitch with some cup and saucers...
We thought later it would have been nice to invite the neighborhood kids to join us since we don't have tons of family but all in all a great ending to the Train Adventure at Camp Nana!

Sewing Caddy and a NC Quilt

As I was remaking the scrapbook room bed with a fresh vintage quilt I remembered to share my "sewing caddy" or take along box.
AS you can see it is a very specialized container for my hand work! LOL
I wanted something really small and everything else I had tried wasn't right. It was either too big or too small...especially for those scissors to fit into. This little salsa container turned out to be just right!
For right now it holds my basic supplies for some embroidery of some quilt blocks from a recent project so it only has the black pearl cotton but it can fit a few spools of thread as needed and also small take along projects. I think I might have one or two more of those friendship embroideries to do yet so I am leaving the pearl cotton in so I don't have to do a hunt and search for it again! LOL
As for the quilt.
When I travel to NC and visit family I always try to find a country auction or two because if I am lucky I can bid on some gen-u-ine...grandma scrap quilts which I love. I try to
rotate them on the scrapbook room guest bed and since I saw a little basket quilt on Pepper Cory's blog that she used for inspiration, I thought this one would be nice for August.
The thing I love about these old quilts is the inventive use of fabric and the bright fun colors. The stitching is utility sized and a mix-mash of fabrics together but I love them!
I will try to remember to share them as they take their turns on the bed!

One more train

Here we are minus Howard who took the picture, ready to enjoy our shakes after the train ride. Yum they were good!

Camp Nana Rides the Heber Creeper

Just a few of the 300 or so shots from the Heber Creeper Railroad ride that the family took this past week!
Howard took charge of the group while Paula and I stayed behind and relaxed with a pedicure. The ride is about 3 hours total with a stop halfway at a park for a half hour break. Come to find out that there is a "train robbery" and kidnapping for the horse back riding for those who payed the fees for that part. One of the robbers came out of the outhouse in his longhandles I am told! No one took a picture of that sorry to say! LOL
It made for a fun day at Camp Nana as we ate lunch in a park and then had icecream treats at the Dairy Keen which is a lot of fun for the kids with their train decor and even a Harry Potter display!