Roll Roll Cotton Boll

I have caught up. Although I haven't gotten too far behind. I am in the process of doing Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery. It started the Friday after Thanksgiving and clues have been released every Friday since. I did fall a bit behind when it came to 60 string blocks. But a weekend of sewing got me where I needed to be.
This is the 6th clue done and ready for next week. I am taking next Friday off from work. Not just so I could sew but because it is my birthday and it is New Years Eve.
It is easy to spend hours in your sewing room when watching a good movie on your computer. It is for me anyway.

Alea Turns 9

My darling daughter turned 9 recently. She chose to celebrate her birthday with one special friend and make a day of it. We started the day with a basketball game. The girls had a short 5 week season. Their team won the end of the season tournament. She has decided that basketball is her favorite sport.
She chose Perkos for lunch. Not because she loves the food so much but because they sing and give the birthday person a piece of pie or ice cream.


We went to Walmart to cash in her gift card (thank you grandpa Don). Choosing a birthday gift for your self is a long and agonising process.

We next saw Tangled, a 3D Movie. That was pretty fun. I was not sure it was worth an extra 4 dollars each for the glasses but what the heck, it was a treat.Our plan to see this movie next.
Alea and Candace had a lot of fun playing with the birthday gifts.

Every year the kids request that I make them a worm cake. usually I cut it a part and make a worm out of the bundt cake but I assured her this is a worm cake, it just looks like a doughnut.All they are really interested in are the gummy worms anyway.

Happy Birthday Alea!

Seven of Eleven

Here are 7 of the eleven grandchildren that were able to get together for Thanksgiving in Fresno.
It was a lovely day with the sun shining about 65 degrees. This is my Darling husband and me.


My husband's brother and his lovely bride.

Little Bits

Today is a day that I am sitting at my desk watching the weather rain/snow down. Needless to say that it has an effect on business. I have a few minutes to update my blog. I realize I that my work here (in Blogland) has been somewhat lagging but I just have not been doing too much sewing. I did start Bonnie Hunters latest mystery and have completed step one. I am glad I got to that on Friday night after work because the power has been out all weekend. on and off yesterday and today. It has snowed more than a foot and trees are taking out power lines. It is still so early in the season that the trees still have their leaves.

This picture was taken on saturday when the storm was in the exciting phase and playing in the snow was fun. Eric is throwing snow balls and Kevin is hitting them with a shovel.

We are going to throw in the towel and change our Thanksgiving plans. We are moving the party to The Brother'in-law and sister-in-law's house in Fresno. We are not taking the chance of power outages spoiling the turkey.

I took some pictures of the family at lunch the other day. These are mostly for the Grandparents to enjoy and oogle over but the rest of you can enjoy them too.

Inspired by Color

As I spend time reading art quilt books they say collect pictures that inspire you. I pulled this picture out of a clothing catalog. I am not sure which one, maybe Land's End. I don't ever order anything from the catalogs so I don't feel bad tearing out pages. The color of these shirts really struck me so this pictures has been hanging on the wall in my quilt shack since spring. Last weekend was a rainy mess so I dedicated one day My Day.
I fished through my stash and came up with similar colors and went for it. Cut and sew and cut and sew and came up with this. I am really pleased with it. Good thing, because if my first attempt with art quilting was a disappointment it may have been a while before I tried again.
It is my plan to make long narrow accompanying pieces to go on each side.Halloween was a fun time for the kids. We were invited to a friends house to go Trick or Treating. Our neighborhood would have been a flop. We never get trick or treaters It is probably because we have a long dark driveway that snakes up steeply through the trees.

I went out on a limb and tried a new recipe using tomatillos. I have never used them before, they are quite pretty. The peeling was flower like and kinda sticky. The finished product however was not as appealing. It looked awful and was not tasty. I won't make that one again but fear not, I won't stop trying.

A Day of Soccer And Stiching

I finished something! This is the baby quilt I made for the Beautiful Lizzy Brennan. She was born at Stanford University Medical Center this past Tuesday.

I sat and watched Soccer on Saturday while stitched the binding. It is a simple Chinese Coin made with my stash.

I free motion quilted it with flowers and leaves. Turned out pretty good.Eric is refereeing Nicole's game.

Kevin and his buddy Hunter. These boys are a couple of hams.
Eric is playing goalie.
So is Nicole.

Maybe these boys are a bunch of hams too.
She is going to fake out the other team and her own team too.
This a picture of Kevin's traveling soccer team. They are in a more competitive league. We have to travel to Sacramento for most games. That is about 100 miles from our house.

Mourning the Passing of Summer

This has been a busy time for our family and for me. Getting the kids and myself to all of our events takes a lot out of me. We have been fishing again. Here we are at New Malones Reservoir on Labor Day. It was only 102 degrees when we left at noon. Our 14 year old DS was complaining about the sweat dripping down his arms and his legs sticking together. I did remind him that he was at a lake and could go swimming with the other kids but I think he was too cool. This is Alea and her friend Candace.

I have developed a love affair with millet. A little spoken of grain that is gluten free and mixes into a variety of dishes. Here I cut up peppers, onions, tomatoes, and zucchini. Added corn and dried cranberries. I made a simple dressing and ate it for 3 days. Yummy!


My design wall has a quilt top on it this has been my summer project but I have probably only worked on it 3 or 4 times. It started as a Bali Pop and a piece of yardage I got at our guild yard sale for 5 dollars. That white spot on it is the sun shining through the window.

I did start a baby quilt the other day. One of my friends and a mom of one of my kids friends is having a baby soon. This week or nest I think. I had better get to work so that baby has something to be wrapped up in.

My DD Nicole celebrated her 13th birthday this week. She did assure me that she would not be one of "those teenagers". Such a precious girl.
I have completed 6 triathlons this summer (that is where my sewing time went). This past weekend 3 of my kids and 2 of my friends did it too. It was so nice to have company.
We all had a great time. I was glad I could get Eric back into it after his last attempt with a broken bike.
And just because I thought you all should see this.

End of August

The beginning of school has come and gone. They have been in for 2 weeks now, and loving it. I am fortunate that the children get up and out of the house with out a problem.








Eric has his first job!! Yeah! He is a referee for soccer. He makes money for doing what he loves.The fishing people are rising!

No Sewing In Sight.

There is no sewing going on at my house as of late. Summer is in full swing, well school starts this week but we are still in summer mode. We are triathlon-ing. Kevin and Alea participated in Tri for kids. and I did another sprint triathlon. I don't know if a triathlon that takes 1 hour and 47 minutes is considered a sprint but there it is. I decreased my time by 6 minutes this time.

Kevin has been asking me to go fishing for a couple of years now and I have tried to explain to him that we are not "fishing people" and he should go with his fishing friends. Well I got to thinking about that and decided it would not take to much to become "fishing people" so a trip to Walmart ensued. Two rods and a box of tackle, whalah.... We are fishing people!

We went from the above fishing hole, New Malones to below to Pinecrest lake in the same day.
We have spent several lovely days here fishing, swimming and diving off rocks. Summer has been fun and now, back to school.