Blue Monday

 Haha!!! I did it!! ( I think) my BQ4 is coming together!!! I am not sure that the directions are hard, its just - theres not a lot of words.... or a lot of photos... and I guess I didn't realize how much I like both!!!

Now that i Have this one laid out - I think I have plans for another. The draw to this was using the big pieces and letting them shine . 

Happy Monday!!! 

PS - the construction is wrapping up! a No Reply blogger asked if my contractor came as far south as Erie - he said he is not opposed!

Pink Lightning Quilt finish and !! Finished ( or not) Friday!

You guys... there is LIGHT at the end of the tunnel... I think our Construction project is on its last legs - and life will settle down just a tad. It has not been horrible - but!! it has been noisy, and people are here all the time... and I don't like people here all the time haha!!

My Contractor has been amazing - if you need a guy for Northern Colorado - Let me know - he's awesome!

Back to my own Construction!!! I finished my Pink Lightning Quilt in May (down to the wire!) and now!! I even got it quilted and bound!!

Ta da!!! Surprisingly it helped that my Little Dog needed to be spayed, and she wanted to sleep at my feet, so instead of moving to much, I sat and bound!!!

of course - I had to do mid day chores - and it was so HOT . So I took my quilt to take a photo - and up comes the wind.... Perfect timing !

So there you go!! Pink RSC Quilt is DONE!!!!

I am still reading last weeks posts - but!! I need more!!! Link up show me what's happening this week!!!

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PS - if you shop at Amazon - and click thru to your order thru one of my links( like this one) - I get a small commission.

With my last commission check I actually was able to purchase a bolt of Wide Backings for our Quilts of Valor

I would love the support !!!

 

Veterans and Fabric

 I was invited back to on of my most favorite Veterans Groups - the Vietnam Vets of America. There are lots of those groups - but this particular group has stolen my heart.... they are just the sweetest nicest people!!

We awarded 15 Quilts - bringing us up to 113 Quilts awarded for this group over the past 4 years!

All men and One Woman! The Woman was a Naval Officer / Nurse on the floating Hospital Ship - she told me the name and I can NOT remember it. There were 400 officers and crew and over 1500 patients on the ship. She was so amazing.

There were a few tears and a lot of smiles - it was a great day!!!

There is also a Quilt Shop Hop going on here in Colorado -( maybe just the northern part?) I always want to participate - but for some reason in the summer, there are just not enough hours in the day... but I decided to do the shop hop my way!

I was in the Centennial area - so I stopped at Hollys Quilt Cabin. I made myself take a beat, take a breath and just wander thru  with no goal or time limit. That was really fun!!!

These are my favorite fabrics I found:

Oh yes - those are dinosaur and fossil fabrics!!! If you remember ( which I mean, don't you remember EVERYTHING I say 🤣🤣)   my youngest is an Archeologist - and of course, loves dinosaurs - so they had to come home with me!!!!

While I was browsing the fabrics a little girl came in with her mom and said *Mom - that lady is looking at dinosaurs* and the two of us had such a fun little conversation. She ended up with a fabric to make a pillowcase!! Love it!!!

Happy Wednesday!

I am singing the Blues....

 But not really because I don't think I know how to sing the blues.... More like I am quilting the blues....

I pulled all of my Blue 5 inch squares out and got them on their dinner plate.... and then I started sewing some  twosies.... I think I will be pairing them with white for this months Lightning quilt 

But I also started something new... Its the BQ4 pattern - and I have to tell you, The directions are a little tough for me to understand - I think I have read them about 10 times now - and they are coming along... but boy oh boy - did I wonder what I had gotten myself into....

Shew - glad to get to the RSC Blues ( linked to So Scrappy) Before the end of the month!!!

Linking to:

Design Wall Monday

Sew n tell  and Monday Musings

Double Hearts - and Finished! (or not) Friday!

Back to a little quilting!!!

I am calling this quilt Double Hearts. I made it for a friends Wedding and guess what? It's done before the wedding!!! Go me.... how in the WORLD did I manage that?  May never happen again haha!

I asked the couple what their favorite colors were and they told me, and I got to thinking and planning - and ta da!! I came up with this!!! Now it is not a commercial pattern, it is all half squares - and I just drew it on graph paper. then I used 7 inch squares to make it a large quilt...

I quilted it with Deb Giesslers Double Hearts and Loops Pantograph and used this cute little dog print for the back ( they have dogs!)

I am so excited to have this done before the wedding - and I have two more wedding gift quilts to make so I had better get to organizing!!! Of course, we also have all the summer chores happening - last night was removing hay bales from the field and stacking them in the barn - late nights are tough on me! as the morning still comes awful early!!

your turn!! How has your week gone? what did you finish - or not finish? 

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Reno ( the Horse, not the city)

 While we were gone I was hoping that one of my Mares had not had her baby. I really wanted to be there. My Amazing Sister in law and brother in law babysat her for us while we were gone - so that just in case.... there was someone with her.  

and!! We got back to a still pregnant mare, but the next day!!

There he was!!!! Our New Baby!!!! He's just so tiny and adorable, and huge - and HOW!!! did he fit in that mares belly???

Remember that I told you I took a little class on lighting for photography? I went out and practiced on baby Reno.

Baby Renos Mommy is a super skittish one, Even after all these years she does not like to be caught, she does not like strange noises, and now she is super mommy - and even more protective.

My camera makes noises - I aimed to shoot , and it went click click - and Mommy took off running like I had shot at her with a paintball gun or something.... 

So we got them back in the corral, bribed Mom and got the halter on, and tried again. I introduced her to the camera first, then stood farther back. 

I don't think she is a fan of it yet  - but she let me get close to her baby with it.

This is Him at one week old - he is SO adorable.! We work with him 3 times a day - we have him haltering, and turning his head to pressure. Yesterday I got him to walk with me all thru the corral without pulling back. I have even tied him to the hitching post for 20 seconds and he just stood there. 

(Typically horses pull back from pressure until they know they won't get hurt)

I think he might like me ;-)

The Madonna Inn

 Our very last stop to gawk was at the Madonna Inn. Its awesome, and overwhelming, and colorful. It was created by Alex and Phyllis Madonna... and I believe she loved the color Pink... so it was used quite profusely through out!

We stopped for Breakfast on our way to the airport - this was the breakfast room. and that rainbow thing? Thats a Stole that they sell in the gift shop. Could you imagine me wearing that to go feed cows?  I think I would be VERY visible!!!

There are 110 Guest rooms and each one is themed different. The staff told us that Phyliss was the one who styled the rooms. ( I think she is in her 90's now)

You all know what caught my eye though right?? haha!! Bessie!!

We had a nice breakfast - and the guys had some homemade pastries -then we were off... back to the land of reality ...

Good bye Wine Country... hello quick stop in Vegas...

And then - Looking over Denver.... getting back to reality....

Deep Sea Fishing

We went Deep Sea fishing out of Morro Bay. I signed up for a 1/2 day trip - considering we have all been land locked for a lot of years. The 1/2 trip boat got cancelled, so they moved us to a full day. I bought Dramamine for the others. ( I don't get seasick)

The full day trip departed at 6 am, which meant you had to get there at 5am, which meant we had to leave at 4:15 am - I had some tired folks in the car.

That is our boat - The Fiesta!!! It was going to be a fishing party!

I found some seats ( ish) for the drive out to the deep ocean

( Just a funny - I was also the only Female on board - apparently this is a strong male bonding thing)

And they all try to prove how tough they are by standing... I was the smart one - I got my sea-legs while sitting and enjoying the ride 😂

From the back of the boat we watched the shore disappear.

K had already taken his Dramamine

Middle bit... was next

They gave us a crash course on using the fishing poles and we got stopped - and they say Drop your lines!!  We Dropped... and you felt the weight hit the bottom of the ocean.  Each time they told you the depth. The first time I said *ok* as in does it matter? and the I learned that yes it does matter

Probably you know this -  but the deeper the water... the longer it takes for your weight to hit the bottom, and the more strong ( I am sure that is grammatically correct) you need to be to bring it back up.

All the kids and the hubby caught fish - I had fun casting, reeling, taking photos and!! WHALE WATCHING

Oh! My! Gosh!! this is a cell phone photo edited and holding on to the phone for dear life - but heck fire!! we saw 10 different whales.

Funny - I SAW the whales!. with this kind of fishing you don't have to be quiet like you do with stream or lake fishing - so it was kind of perfect for me. 

I saw the first whale spout, shouted and pointed and the captain repeated it and told everyone. 

About every time I pointed the whole fishing crew would look at what I saw.

I was told I could come back and be a spotter.

The guys caught 15 fish 

We took them back to the VRBO and my brother and sis in law came over and we ate them!

we were also glad to have a VRBO - we did our laundry, packed and got ready for the next adventure before hitting the airport... see you tomorrow for our last Vacation day

Hearst Castle

 For all the years that I went to Morro Bay as a kid - can you believe we never went to Hearst Castle? it was time to remedy that - and I am so glad we did. 

The place was originally a 230,000 acre ranch - and William Hearst grew up ranching with his dad and camping out on the property . I guess when he decided that he would like to have a place to stay when he was out ranching - and his little idea turned into this amazing place! it is really an incredible feat considering is was started in 1919 and there was no electricity or running water - I mean this castle is plopped in the middle of his property.

He also built two ( i think) Guest houses - that is the first guest house. I think it was big enough that I could have stayed 30 years or so....

We were pretending to be rich - but I think we feel more like the Beverly Hillbillies

Left to right - Big bit ( he's the one thats married)  me, Middle bit, K and Little Bit  .

The pool - can you imagine the parties that you could have there? If I remember right - the first pool was to the Greek key lines and then he decided to make it bigger, and add all the architecture. Its awesome

Even the Tile was amazing - and of course - this one looked like a cool quilt block to make!

There were incredible flowers and gardens - and greenery...

But the Views - OMG - the Views !! I think we should inquire about a quilt retreat up there!!!

This is part of the Castle - we couldn't go in the front doors - Can't remember why - but we went in the side door to the right - behind the first turret - and wow!

The place did NOT disappoint!!! There were so many cool things inside and history - I do have to say if I lived there permanently - a lot of that stuff would be donated to a museum - haha! It made it kind of dark inside.  But!! as a museum - its too cool!

its amazing the attention to detail and how well it has withstood all these years. One thing he told us about was the danger from earthquakes. Even thought it was built over 100 years ago - its construction standards were better than Today earthquake requirements. 

The second pool - the indoor one. That Tile work - WOW!!!

if you get a chance to go it is totally worth the time and money ( I think it was $30 a person for a two hour tour) Just learning the history - and of course, many of you may remember the story of Patty Hearst?  

Linking to:

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