Beautiful Sunset

Last night we had one of the beautiful sunsets that we love so much. Took a few pictures to share with you. You will find a few more in our flickr under clouds.

August - Where Has the Year Gone?

Well, here it is August and I haven't even started my August Button-Up Quilt. That's what happens when you have a sore back and the last thing you want to do is bend over a cutting board! Hopefully will get it dones soon.

This year has just zoomed by. I guess the saying "Time flies when you're having fun" is true.

Rick still goes jeeping most every weekend and is still really enjoying it. The poor jeep has received a few battle scars but then, that's why we bought it so the FJ wouldn't! He has also been working a lot lately. But the bonus checks are surely nice.

Me, well besides all the household duties I am still quilting some. Also, since I got this laptop computer, (had for a whole week now), I find myself on the computer more. Not only checking emails and facebook, but it came with my two favorite games - Spider Solitaire and Mahjong. I enjoy sitting and playing these. I've also been doing a lot of reading this year. I go out onto the internet and find my authors and then print out a list of their books in the order they were written. I started with the Zane Grey collection I inherited from my Dad and when I finished them, I started on my Robert Ludlum collection. I'm about 3/4 done with it now. I plan on doing this until I have reread all my books. Should take a couple of years or more. But I'm enjoying rereading them. It has been so long since I read most of them they are like reading for the first time.

We have certainly enjoyed our porch this year. Have sat out on it many times watching thunderstorms. We have used it much more than we ever did the small one on the house in Maple Valley.

Clouds at Sunset

While living in Maple Valley, rain was, well, just rain. Here in Castle Valley, it is an event!

Today we had rain, lightening, thunder and the temp. dropped from low 80's to 69! I spent most of the day sitting on the front porch.

This evening, we got clouds again and it made for a really nice sunset. I took a bunch of pictures and you can see them all on our flickr site. Hope you will enjoy the sunset with us.

It's JULY!!!!!

Can't believe this year is half over already. Don't know where it went, but they say time flies when you are having fun so we must be having a blast!

Today is Canada Day. Yes, we remember as we lived there for two years. But more important is Independence Day. One of my favorites. I love this country and am proud to be an American.

Several family birthdays this month so to all of you hope you have a great day.

Friday (July 3rd) Rick is going jeepin' to Elephant Hill in Canyonlands. He is really looking forward to it. Sorry Scott and family can't go (that's what having a job will do for you.) Hopefully he'll have as good a time as he usually does. Then on the 4th (Sat.) the jeep group is going to Moab Rim. I'll probably spend the time in my sewing room as I have several projects to do.

I joined facebook this past month and have really enjoyed connecting with old friends. Have found several from high school and what fun to see what they are all doing now.

More Projects Done In June

I took this table runner class last week. Finished the handwork on Friday. It is called Pride and Glory and I really like it.

And yes, I do keep it at this angle on the table. I think it looks better this way. This is all squares and half square triangles. I was able to make it totally out of my stash of fabric. Love when I can do that.

I made a second one of these and gave it to Reid. He wrote and told me he really liked the one I had made for our home, so thought he would enjoy having one. And besides...

I had made this table runner for Melissa. Hope they enjoyed their surprise package. As soon as I saw this material with the color green, I thought of Melissa so bought it and made this.

Christmas Quilt is Finally Done

Five or six years ago, Annette and Monica came to stay a couple of days with me in Maple Valley. We went to the Sew Expo in Puyallup where I bought a kit to make a Christmas Quilt.

I finally felt competent enough to try and make it this year. It came out great! I had Tommye use her long arm quilter to guilt it as it was WAY to big for me to try on my machine. It measures about 52x72.

I love snowmen and at Christmas time, my house has lots of them up. This is going to add greatly.

I had fun doing it.

I just spread it over the bed in our Hawaii guest room to try and get pics of it as I didn't want it on the floor to collect dog hair. This may be where I display it at Christmas.

June!

June has come and I just finished the June Button Up Quilt today The pattern for this was done in some pretty dark colors which I didn't care for so I brightened mine up. I did this from my stash of fabric except for the pink border. I really like how this came out.


Like the picture, we have flowers blooming all over the yard. The back grass area is a meadow mix and has lots of flowers in it. Also, the winds have come and some warmer days. I think we got to 90 once but mostly in the 80's so far. Yes, Seattle has been warmer than us for several days! Of course, with the wind comes the dust and the pollen. Thank goodness for air conditioning. Rocky doesn't like the wind. When we let him in the house, he goes and hides in the laundry room. It's the darkest room in the house and he seems to like sleeping in there.


We don't have any birthdays or holidays in June (except Flag Day) and of course the 9th would have been Mom and Dad's wedding anniversary. I surely miss them both.

Clouds

Last week, we had clouds roll in almost every afternoon. These photos were taken on two different days. These first were middle of the afternoon and the later are evening at sunset. Rick and I really enjoyed going out on our porch and watching the changes.

You can see the verga (rain not hitting the ground) here. We did get a few showers but mostly the verga.

Sunset came and the Adobe Mese became a brilliant red. My pictures didn't come out really great so just posted the clouds.

May - And Have We Been Busy

I had my May Button Up Quilt done before the end of March. Actually, I finished it just after the April one but didn't want to post it until May. Then, we've been so busy, I am just now getting down to getting the pictures and a post done.

Rick and I celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary on the 9th. We went to Grand Junction the scenic but longer way thru Gateway. We really enjoyed the drive. Had lunch at Dos Hombres and it was really good. We then went to the new Star Trek movie and enjoyed it very much. We did a little shopping and then ate dinner at Boston's Pizza, Pasta and Salads. We had never been and it was good.

I went up and spent a week at Scott and Cara's while they went to Calif. to bring Katie here. I really enjoyed my time with the girls. I got a lot of hand sewing done, some cross stitch and even some knitting and reading. I had a pleasant week and hope the girls did too. However, they spent most of their time at school.

Rick and I bought some new plants for the planters and got them planted but no pictures yet. It rained so hard this past weekend, they need to perk up a bit again.

This is a quilt I bought the material and pattern for while in Hawaii. I've had it done for a while but we haven't gotten it hung up yet. It is called Herd of Turtles and will hang in our Hawaii guest room. Rick and I both really love it. The green is all one piece applique (except for the insides of the turtle shells).

This is one I did and it only took a day. It is Saguaro Sunset. I got the pattern here at the quilt store but did my own colors. Like mine better than the sample there. This and the following are the things I finished while at Scott's.

This is Kokopeli. The pattern actually called for Moab Man, but I liked this a lot better. I had the kokopeli design from another quilt pattern I hope to make some day.

While Annette was here in April, we took a quilt class together. This is the tablecloth we made. It came out about 47" square. It fits the dining room table perfectly as a topper and the colors are so bright and springy I just love it. Annette did hers with Christmas fabric and I can hardly wait for her to send me a picture of it completed. We had a lot of fun doing this.

Here it is without the myrtlewood bowl on it. Wish the bright colors had come out a little better.

This past weekend (Memorial Day weekend) we went to Denver. We went to Rocky Mountain National Park on Sunday but since it was cloudy and rainy our pictures didn't do so well. But we had a good time. On Sat. after we got there and had lunch, we went to see the new Angels and Demons movie. We really enjoyed it, but, if you have read the book, you will see they changed a lot of stuff. But it was still great. We came home yesterday taking back roads. We were going to have dinner in Moab but the power was out all over town so we just came home. We had power! I think this is the first time Moab has lost theirs and we haven't. When I picked up Rocky this morning Karen told me they had the worst thunderstorms all weekend that she could every remember. Sorry we missed them. But they are predicting more so maybe we can enjoy them.

APRIL!!!

Well, April is here already. Last month we saw both our kids. Reid flew out to spend spring break and we took a couple of days and went to Arizona to see Ashley. We had a great time. Reid spent most of the rest of his visit jeeping. I think he really enjoyed doing it. He also made us dinner one night (lasagna) and breakfast the next morning (french toast).

This month is going to be busy. Besides Easter, the month starts off with Jeep Safari here in Moab. It runs from the 4th to the 12th. Rick and I are both helping at registration. In case you don't know about Jeep Safari, it's a lot like Sturgis for the Harley Davidson group. We have people from all over the country and beyond come into town for the week of jeeping. On the last Sat. they do 30 trails! Of course, you have to pick the one you want to go on but you can see we have a lot of great jeeping trails around Moab. What you don't want to do is have to go to the grocery store during the week.

Also this month, Annette is coming out for 10 days. I can hardly wait. We are going to quilt and knit and just have a great time being together again. We are taking a class at the quilt store that should be lots of fun. We are going to make tableclothes. Plus, I get to go up so Scott and Cara's to pick her up and drop her off for her flights. When I pick her up, Cara is going to go with us on a quilt shop hop. What fun. And when I drop her off, I get to go back to Scott and Cara's and there is a good chance I'll get to see Don, Janna and Raelena!

What a great month this is going to be!

Wolcott Update from March

I can now post the pictures of the V-Dub quilt I made for Ashley. I was going to send it to her for Christmas but decided I really wanted to see her face when she opened it. So...when we went to Arizona with Reid I took the quilt. You can see the pictures Reid took of her opening it on his blog. Yes, she loved it. This pic shows the front and the back. Ashley had helped me pick out the backing, the smiley faces and some of the "bug" material. I really had a lot of fun putting it together.

The original pattern just called for 9 "bugs" and the squares were to be butted up against each other. But I wanted a lap quilt rather than a wall hanging for Ashley so I added the sashings and 3 more "bugs". As you can see, four have scenic backgrounds and the rest sky material. We have the beach, where we lived and played while in Washington. Then there is the Arizona sunset, where Ashley now lives. We have the tree background like where we lived in Washington and of course, the rock and canyon background, somewhat like where we live now.

Here's Ashley rubbing Ricks foot. She is a great massage therapist! And I just love her hair! She looks really great. We really enjoyed going down to Scottsdale to see her.

We were so glad Reid came out for his spring break! But sorry Melissa couldn't come with him. He hates having his picture taken so don't expect great smiles from him. Both the pictures of the kids were taken in our hotel room in Scottsdale. Ashley was able to get us in at the Hyatt Place. We had a terrific room. A king size bed and a sitting room with a sofa/sleeper. It was so nice having time with both of our kids.

March is Here...

...and with March comes Spring Break for college students. Reid is flying out for a visit and we are really looking forward to seeing him again. Sadly, Melissa isn't able to come this time. But while Reid is here, we are going to Arizona and spending a day or two with Ashley. It will be so nice to have our two children together again.

Also this month, Reid and Scott will be celebrating their birthdays.

This month's button up quilt was a challenge. The pattern had a big Easter Bunny with a basket of eggs. I didn't want to do that, but I did do it for April so you'll see it next month. The April one had six panels. Three with tulips and three with bunny heads. I liked March's much better for Easter. I thought March should have kites and shamrocks. So, I did that. Made up my own pattern and just did it. I really like how it came out.

I also just finished the first of the two quilts I bought the pattern and material for while in Hawaii. It's called a Herd of Turtles. I'll post it as soon as we get it hung in the Hawaii bedroom.

Also this month, in fact this coming weekend, I have several quilts in the local quilt show. They asked me to submit some so I am. They don't judge them, it is just a show and I'm looking forward to going and seeing what others are doing. Also, later in the month, Crystal (local quilt store owner) asked me to go to the quilt show in Price and help her with her vendor booth. I'm really excited about doing that.

Rick continues to go jeepin' most weekends and sometimes it is both Sat. and Sun. He's really enjoying it and it is such a great group of people. Sometimes he even remembers to take a camera! I leave those posts for him as I don't go (I get to stay home and quilt while he's gone).

Trip to Goblin Valley

Last Sunday, Rick and I went back to Goblin Valley. We had been there last May when Neal and Annette came to visit. It is just amazing. This is a overlook area before we went down. We decended from the opposite side we had last year and saw things we didn't see then. This place is just other worldly. Around every corner and everywhere you look, you see something different and unique.

Some are stand alones and others come in groups.

Thought this looked like ET.

And this one, Donald Duck.

But you can see why they call it Goblin Valley. A lot of them seem to have faces.

It's February!

Well, February has come and I have finally finished my February Button Up Quilt. I really like it. What you can't see, is that I used a heart stitch to applique the hearts onto the quilt. I tried to get a picture of it but I couldn't get it to focus right. (I need to learn how to manually focus the camera.)

This is the month to remember your sweetheart (Valentine's Day, Feb. 14) and Paul has a birthday.

Most exciting, though, this is the month we returned from Hawaii. We went to Maui this year and spent 9 days. We will try to get the blogs going for that soon. I just downloaded 3 compact flash cards (4 mg. each). One had 507 pictures, the second had 576 and the third only 168. Not too bad since I spent 2 days sick and in bed. But not to worry, it rained those two days so I really didn't miss much.

January Quilting

We've been busy this month and are now getting ready for our trip to Hawaii but did want to get something posted. This is my design wall (thanks, Cara) with the blocks of the month. We started doing these in Sept. The white fabric in each is the same to tie them all together when we are done. I'm learning quite a bit by doing these and having fun at the same time.

Here is my January Button Up Quilt that I finally finished today. Wed. I take the Feb. class but doubt will get it done before we leave. So, it will be late getting up. This is how the pattern showed the snowman. Later I discovered that a couple of the ladies had made a hat for the snowman. I wish I had. Oh well, live and learn. However, everyone loved my background blue material and also my vest. Both were from my stash. In fact, the entire project was done from my stash.