Saturday, August 8, 2009

WOW again!


Every now and then I am rendered speechless.
It doesn't happen very often now mind you,
but on occasion it does happen.
So I am searching for the words..........
Well, first I'll just tell you about the amazing thing that
happened to me this morning.
Talk about Random Act of Kindness...........
Mary came to pick up her quilt this morning.
You know, the one I posted yesterday.
As she was preparing to leave with her quilt
she asked my husband if he could help her out
with something in her car.
They came back in with THIS:

Her husband John had made me this lovely quilt stand.
I was speechless!
The quilt stand is so beautiful,
but the thought behind it just makes me
feel so honored and cared for.
I've never met John.
I just met Mary for the first time when she brought
me her quilt.

Earlier this week I was having one of those hopeless kind of days.
You know, when you go out and all you
see are rude people.
And you turn on the news and
it is full of crime and violence and hateful things.
I asked God that day to give me patience............
that's what I thought I needed.
Instead, days later He has given me Hope.
He has shown me that there are still wonderful and good and kind people out there.
My cup runnth over.

Friday, August 7, 2009

WOW!

Wow!
Would you look at this:
I got my
Good Ole' Summertime Mini Quilt swap
in the mail today!
It came all the way from Kodiak Island in Alaska
from Deb Christensen!
In the note I received she told me about how they
had an excellent run on red salmon and now the halibut
are hitting. The biggest catch so far has been 315 pounds
and 5' 6" from head to tail. They call them "barn doors".
I can't even imagine a FISH that big!
You can visit Deb's website here:
She has posted some really wonderful photos of
the island she lives on and has pictures of some
of the other critters that live on the land near her house.
I love reading about the different places!

I've been busy down in the studio..........
I made this journal cover for a friend of mine
who is working really hard to overcome an addiction.
She's been journaling and I thought she might like
this journal cover.


I"ve also finished up this humungeous cross-stitched quilt
for Mary.


There are 36 large squares that make up this old-fashioned
looking quilt. Mary has worked quite hard making up all of
those HAND cross-stitched squares.
I've got the quilt folded in the picture above..........
Here is a picture of the back.
It really is not a pink backing.
The flash just made the burgandy backing look pink!

I'm in the process of embroidering some shirts and I hear
the machine calling me back to change a thread color,
so OFF I go!











Wednesday, August 5, 2009

150th Post!

Lake Powell...........

What can I say?
Several months ago our daughter-in-law asked if Mike and I would like to enjoy the cool waters at Lake Powell on a houseboat. Her family has made this journey for years, it is one of her all time favorite places and she really wanted to share it with us.

Well, let's just say that I was not thrilled about the prospect.
Lake Powell is located on the Arizona/Utah border
which meant a 5 hour car ride.

The temperature there is about 10 degrees cooler than Phoenix.....
making it 100+ degrees.

The idea of sleeping on a mat on top of the houseboat, swimming in
a lake with lots of fish, sharing a houseboat with 10 other people.....
trying to keep my cancer prone skin out of the sun............

Well, lets just say (again) I was not thrilled about going.
But I could not think of one plausible reason NOT to go and share
this experience with my son, DIL, and her family.

So I went........
and as you will see by the pictures.......
I had a really horrible time! LOL
The houseboat was parked in a quiet little cove.
The mountains surrounding us were so very majestic.
Truly God's country.
If you look really, really close you can
see me on the top deck of the houseboat.
I was sitting in a lounge chair reading a book!
I decided to experience all that the lake had to offer.
No, this is NOT me on the ski board!

This is Brian.
I didn't do any skiing, however I DID do this:


No, this is not a picture of me either.
This is the 4 year that was with us (with his dad in tow)
I figured that if a 4 year old could be pulled by a boat
on a rope, then I could surely do it!
So I did and it was fun!



We had daily community swims.
(Several times a day!!!)
On the left side of the picture you can see a mom
with her 4 MONTH old baby in her arms.
and on the far right there is an 84 year old grandma.


This is a shot of the mom and 4 month old.
That darling little baby LOVED being in the water.
She fell asleep in her mom's arms every single time
they went in.
She must have felt like she was back in the womb.
Brian, Jen and I cooling off in the lake.
I had alot of fun on the jet ski!
I think that my top speed was 47mph!
When we were not in the water there were other things to do.
Can you see Mike's red shirt?
He was exploring the mountain.

I loved having a young one to blow bubbles with!
Here we are on the front porch of the boat.


At night we played games.
We all played a really fun game called "Catch Phrase".
What was so cool about it was that everyone could play.
We also went around and each person told what was the
most fun part of the day.

What a lovely "On Golden Pond" kind of picture.
As the sun was going down one evening I snapped this
picture of Brian and Jen paddling off into the sunset.
There were fishing trips 3 times a day.
I didn't have a license, so I didn't go on any of those trips.
Brian was really excited because he caught a really big
stripper. There is no picture and "they put the fish back in the lake"
so I don't know if that was just an old fisherman's tale or not.
Actually, by the excitement in Brian's voice when he retold the story
I could tell that it really did happen.
Here we are in the morning after a night of
sleeping under the stars.
In one of the pictures you can see that I was
wearing a shirt with a
bat on it and the caption said "Bite Me".
When Brian saw the shirt he kinda laughed
and told me how appropriate the shirt was.............
we had bats that swooped down at night!




The end.............









Monday, August 3, 2009

Design Wall Monday

I'm a little late with my design wall Monday post,
but better late than never I suppose!



I've made a little progress with my Ricky Tims Harmonic Convergence Quilt that I am making for my daughter and her husband.
I've added borders.......the inside border is really a little flange
and am in the process of cutting away the trapunto'ed area.
This past weekend I was at Lake Powell on a houseboat.
The week prior I was trying to find any possible way NOT
to go as I was not really looking forward to spending three
days on the lake in the sun and 100+ degree heat.
But it was so very nice and I had a great time.
More about that tomorrow!
To see more Design Wall Monday Posts
go to
ps.......Can anyone tell me how to hyperlink?