on a break

I've been away for a few days without adequate time nor consistent internet to be able to post much here. But tonight I am going to sneak in a little note and a couple pictures to show what has been happening. Spent the weekend in San Francisco for nephew Scott's wedding to Katie, it was a wonderful event for all of us. Most of our immediate family was there, although we badly missed Nora, but she was busy saving lives so we had to struggle along without her. Plus since several of us are/have been nurses we all understand the joys and crap of the schedule! Anyway, here are the cousins at the wedding reception:

Also missing from the picture is Serra, who was a bridesmaid but sick in bed most of the time, we all felt badly for her. Her precious little Aurora was the flower girl, being held in the picture by daddy Nathan. Katie was seated in this photo because she had an ice pack on her wounded big toe, a nasty cut from a freak accidental encounter with a chair, but it didn't slow her down for long at all. Did get blood all over her beautiful shoes which was the worst tragedy of the night!

The floral centerpieces were a wonderful collection of deep red flowers and berries. I loved all the shades and tones, would make a wonderful quilt!

Bob and I are making a road trip to get back home, tonight we are in Rawlins, WY, and had dinner at a very good restaurant called the Aspen House, if you ever find yourself near here you must go there. Tomorrow takes us into Nebraska and I have a couple quilt shop stops planned!

And so it begins...

I have gotten a start on my giant tablerunner project and I certainly hope this is going to be the right thing for wedding reception tables--I have to keep reminding myself that people are not actually coming there to admire the tablerunners, they might just have their eyes on the beautiful bride instead! And the tablerunners are meant to be a backdrop for beautiful centerpieces, and it will probably be sort of dark, anyway, so dark brown thread on brown fabric is not going to be much of a standout! But I do think that if anyone is inclined to look beyond their dinner plate, I want them to have something pretty to look at! The fabric is very nice, the machine is running well, I have to tell myself to slow down because when I go too fast on those loops the thread gets stressed and frays, causing me to stop and start more than I want to when I am looking at yards and yards to go. It's really kind of fun, as I scroll out these loopy-loo's and curly-cue's.

Decisions, decisions

This is hard for me! I have two things that I really want to work on today. First, a new bag that could be my carry-on for my trip to CA Friday if it works out well.

I quilted the fabric on my longarm and cut out the pieces last night, using the pattern "My Paris Traveler's Bag" from Fig Tree & Co. with just a little adjustment to make it 2" smaller to accomodate the great zipper I have.

OR my really big project--

turning 2 bolts of fabric into 18+ tablerunners for Brita's wedding reception happening in one month! Just received the 35 yards of fabric yesterday, it is a linen/cotton blend, Essex from Robert Kaufman Fabrics and looks like giant chocolate bars! It will be all-over quilted on my longarm and then sewn up for 18 round tables and one giant long table for the wedding party. And has to be done by Sept. 27 when we leave for Lake Tahoe prior to the wedding. And I have 6 days away to go to San Francisco, too, so that is cutting into quilting time! But because I am like a little kid when it comes to a new project, I know I am going to spend at least some time today working on the bag and the rest on tablerunners. If the pattern is clear and everything goes together like it was a perfect world, I will do it all! I did all my housework and cooking over the weekend so that won't interfere! Better get a move on!

reaching the summit

I got a phone call this afternoon from Dan and Bob (DS and DH). They were on their way back to the campground after standing atop Long's Peak (pictured above) in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado this morning! I am so happy that they made it up and down safely and before the weather turned bad. They hit the trail at 1:15 AM and there were other hikers ahead of them. Seems a little extreme, but has proven to be the smart way to conquer this mountain. It is a strenuous climb, with some treacherous paths, and a milestone to complete. Bob has done it before, a few years ago with my dad (who must have been in his 70's at the time) and then another attempt with Brita (DD) a couple years ago. That trip resulted in turning back due to bad weather, and there's an interesting story that goes along with it. Bob and Brita had gone a major portion of the way and were resting in a little hikers' hut, taking shelter out of the cold wind. No hikers were going beyond that point, and other people that had reached the top had descended below them. There were 2 other guys in the shelter, and Bob and Brita wanted to record their own accomplishment on film for posterity, so they asked the guys to please take their picture together with the peak in the background. Imagine their surprise when they declined! Turns out they were Amish and their religion forbids taking pictures (something to do with false images, I guess). What a weird moment--the only people on the mountain to snap the picture and they couldn't!

I had totally planned to spend the day sewing and quilting, but instead have been cooking. Zucchini bread because we have a bunch from the garden but it only used up 1 zuke. Spaghetti sauce because I have a lot of basil in the garden but it only used up 1/10th of what's out there. Meatballs to go with the spaghetti. Chicken stuffing hotdish. Beef roast in the crock pot. Lots of dirty dishes! Some of this is going into the freezer, some going to friends. Since I'm home alone for a few days there's not a lot that will get eaten here. But it's fun to indulge in a cooking fest once in a while.

Now maybe I can sneak in a bit of quilting before it's too late to focus!

several things

How's that song go? "We are the champions, we are the champions" or something like that! Yes, Bob played a tough round of golf Sunday, went into overtime, and came home with a big grin on his face! That's my guy!

This followed a perfect cabin weekend on Potato Lake (near Chetek, WI) with friends Bob and Debbie. Bonfire with s'mores, pontooning and fishing, reading, knitting, sitting by the lake, golfing, paddleboating, lots of laughs and plenty of good food. Just a couple highlights:

Also did a little nature study:

The spider was identified as a Nursery Web spider and it was larger than the ordinary spider but no one wanted to get close enough to stick their hand in the picture for some perspective. I'm guessing it was about 4-5" across the legs. Sitting on a nest of eggs, which is what really has Debbie creeped out because that means there will be more! Not sure what the mushroom is, but it sure was a bright yellow on top.

Brita's bridal shower platter is done just in time for Bob to take it with him on his drive out to CA. He leaves tomorrow for Colorado, spending time in Estes Park with Danny and planning to climb Long's Peak together. Then to Mammoth Lakes for a couple days with Dan before going to San Francisco where we will meet up for nephew Scott's wedding. Fun things happening!

Done!

What a great 4-letter word!

Finished up this Marilee quilt this morning, and I love these fabrics! Batiks are always nice to work with, and these rich colors make it a double delight! The pattern is Between Friends from the Terry Atkinson book Happy Hour. The quilting design is a pantogram called Splash from Willow Leaf Studio. Now my next quilt to do is coincidentally the same pattern on a smaller scale! And Christmas fabrics:

Otherwise, the update here this morning is that it isn't raining! The sun is shining, so I got my 3 mile walk/run done, picked the garden, and am working on packing up stuff for a weekend away at Bob and Debbie's cabin in WI. We have been trying all summer to find a time when we could go there, and here it is the end of August and this is the first chance we've had. And we always have such a fun time there, so we didn't want to let the opportunity escape even though there were challenges to working it out! We do need to get back in time for Bob to make his scheduled round of golf Sunday afternoon, it had to be postponed due to bad weather this week. Bob sure loves his golfing, he is in a weekly league and rarely misses those nights. This particular game will be the finals of the league match play, which started out with 64 golfers competing and now down to 2! Maybe I should go along to caddy for him! With my lack of golfing skill and knowledge, I'm afraid I would be more of a hindrance than a help. But I can definitely show up for the celebration when he wins!