Feet Friday

Putting my feet up after working at the quilt store all day.....and enjoying the new fabric I *had* to buy! :)

ABC Wednesday

W is for Wood Carving

Years ago we had one of the cedar trees taken down (too close to the house). I was leading a 4H group at the time and one little girl's parents were both principals at local schools. Her Dad asked us if we'd donate the tree to his school and we said yes. I don't remember now if it was for a class project or a school-wide project....I think it was school-wide. Anyhoo!

A woodcarver changed our tree into a Native American looking whale. It's really neat!

We are nearly done with the alphabet. Be sure to check out more blogs.

Happy 26th!

Happy Birthday, Dan. You bring pride, delight and laughter to this Mom's heart. Love ya!

Feet Friday

Stopped and smelled the roses!

ABC Wednesday

V is for Vampires

Yes, Vampires are a hobby for many. If you don't believe it, just google something like "vampire blogs" and see what you find. And it's not just young girls in love with Edward! :)

I remember being fascinated with vampires when I was young....but I don't remember why or what sparked the interest. I tend to watch vampire movies even if I have to turn them off halfway cuz their too gory. My favorite is actually a miniseries that the BBC showed called "Ultraviolet"....loved that one. Twilight (yes, I saw it!) wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. I still don't get the hype...and yes, I've read all the books.

When searching for a vampire image I found this one from Underworld (another vampire movie I liked):

It's not a classic vampire picture.....but doesn't she look great? I want an outfit like that! And she looks tough....an "I can kick your ass" kind of look! This image got me thinking about another female actress from another movie I loved. Trinity from The Matrix:

And one of my all time favorites.....Sarah from Terminator 2:

Hummmm.....I see a trend! It's my fantasy self showing. Shhhh....don't tell. :)

Check out other ABC Wednesday blogs here.

Learning Curves

I don't know what the learning curve would be to becoming good on a long arm machine but I do know I'm not there yet! :) It's kinda hard when you don't own the machine you are trying to learn to use and it cost you money to rent one to practice on. Learning takes time....mistakes take more time....and time is money. Yesterday I went to quilt this beautiful top that was made for me by a friend (also named Cindy) in a swap I did last year. I decided to try an pantograph design with curves since I'm the worst at doing that. You can see the design I was following below:

The first half of each row looks the worst (my curves are flat topped) but by the end of the pass I do pretty good. See....this looks good, right?

But yesterday was not a good day for me and machine quilting. I stitched an entire pass before I noticed my bobbin thread had run out....so had to go back and do it over.....learning I better look up once in a while! My learning curve on that was non-existent cuz 2 passes later I find that the top thread had broke and I had to do another pass all over again. Jeepers, Cindy! The kicker was at the end when I noticed my backing fabric was too short! What? I'm always so careful....what the heck?.....where was my brain? Look....only 3 inches!!!! Another mistake that costs time.

I was so mad at myself! Sigh. I will have to go back next week (after I sew a strip to the back to make it the correct length) and finish. More money. At this rate I could have paid someone to do it for cheaper than it's gonna cost me.

If only I had my own long arm............if........! :)

ABC Wednesday

U is for uh......?

I've been dreading the end of the alphabet. So far, I've been able to highlight hobbies that we do or dabble in or at the very least have a friend who does. But I've pretty much run out of ideas. ;)

I had to ask around to even come up with some possibilities for "U".

UFO's?

Unicycles?

Underwater caving?

How 'bout you? Any "U" hobbies you come up with?

For more ABC Wednesday posts, go here.

Small Things

I haven't gotten back in the swing of things, quilt-wise, since coming back from the cruise....but have done a couple of small things. First are these really fun blocks made for a monthly swap I'm in (I've blogged about this before. You can click on swaps in my categories section to the right to see other blocks I've made for gals in the group). The block is called "Magic Circle" and is from Sally Schneider's book, "Scrap Frenzy". I don't have this book and I think its out of print....probably can still find it via Amazon or eBay. I love the illusion of circles you get with all straight piecing.

And today I did some of my applique while visiting with my friend, Tink. I have a really long ways to go with this quilt! Baby steps, right? :)

Feet Friday

Napping together on the cruise!

ABC Wednesday

T is for Theatre

Hubby and I met in high school via the speech team. I followed him around like a love sick puppy! And since he was in the drama club I had to join that too! My only drama background...if you can even call it that....was playing Lucy in "A Charlie Brown Christmas" in the third grade. Nonetheless, love is fearless, so I followed him into drama. Our first play together was called "The Imaginary Invalid"...in which I just played a servant girl who had to walk on stage carrying a tray of drinks and stand there...absolutely NO lines....but I was terrified anyway. Hubby is the exact opposite. He loved acting and did it till we had kids. Drama club did mean one other fun thing --- a senior trip to New York City where my love of musicals was born. My favorite one we saw? A Chorus Line!

I actually got to see it again a few years ago and it was interesting how differently I saw the show as a woman in her 40's than I did at 17.

We have maintained our love of theatre and once our kids were grown we got season tickets to Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre. The last show we saw was Grease. Now we wait for a new season to open in the fall.

This is another hobby I expect we'll keep doing for quite a while.

Check out other ABC Wednesday fun.

Cruising

We are back from our first cruise. I -- we -- loved it! It's definitely something we would do again.

Here we are on board as we are leaving Seattle....already getting our first taste of free food and relaxation! It was a gorgeous day in the Northwest....but it would be the last of clear blue skies until we returned.

The porthole view from our room:

Glaciers were the theme to our sight seeing. We visited 3 of them. First (on the left) was Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau. It rained like crazy that day but it was still beautiful. Second (middle) was Davidson Glacier on our day in Skagway.....via a great excursion that I'll tell ya about in a minute. Last (right) was Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park. This glacier is humongous! The picture just doesn't do it justice. It makes the other two look itty-bitty. I think they said it is 250 feet high with another 100 feet under water. We got to see lots of pieces break off and fall...including that big "tower" on the top right (if you click to enlarge). Spectacular!


This is us in all our gear on the excursion to Davidson Glacier. We left Skagway via a catamaran....rode about 45 minutes to Glacier Point. Then it was a bus ride through the woods to camp where we suited up in rain gear. Then a hike through the woods to a river where we got in canoes. Then we canoed to the lake to see the Glacier. It never did rain but it was a good thing we were in gear cuz we were in the front of the boat and it was windy....waves, wind.....yeah....we got wet! The tour guides really made this a great day!

We had our best weather the day we were in Glacier Bay. This was the most blue sky we saw. The water was like glass, though, so I was able to get some gorgeous reflection shots.

And, what quilter doesn't look for and shop at quilt stores where ever she is!!! Skagway had a shop, but this one is Silver Thimbles in Ketchikan. I helped keep the quilt store economy in good shape! LOL!

And the best part about cruising?

Relaxation (lots of reading & napping), way too much food and nummy cocktails any time of day!

Love, love, loved it!