It's been a great end to a busy summer. 

On Labor Day we went and hiked the river trail at the Quarry.  I missed having the boys with us but these lizards didn't - they still have their tails.  That's all the kids wanted to do when we hiked - catch the lizards so they would lose their tails.

 It was a nice hike - a good climb, this was looking back to where we had come from at Split Mountain Campground.

 This was our reward when we made it to Green River Campground.

 Another lizard on our way back.  He let me get really close without running away.

 Scott made my birthday an extra special one!?! Birthday cake at the neighborhood block party and then this nice announcement.  Kathryn Peacock and I were born on the same day in the same hospital - small world. 

 Landscape Project (LP) Week 1 - Thanks to Vicki and Lynn, we got a plan for the front yard and then we ripped all the plants and the cement around the island.

 LP Week 2 - Got rid of all the cement around the house and then the brick pillar.  You'll notice the cherry Coke can.  That was down inside of the pillar.  It has been preserved well the last 26 years.  That last cement pad was not near as easy as what was around the house and the island.  The rest will have to wait for another day.  It feels good to get outside and watch Scott work.  A cop stopped by last week and said we looked like him and his wife.  She wears gloves too so she doesn't get a callous on her pointing finger.  I should have asked him if he had some donuts to go eat or something.

Hope this beautiful weather (with some rain mixed in) lasts for a good long time!

FMQ Challenge July

Uggggh.  No one looking at this could tell any improvement from my first attempt in January, but I can while I am actually doing it.  I know that this will take a lot of practice which I have not done.  I hurry and do the challenge to get it done in time but then never try it again.  But my goal was to give it a try and it has made me do that and I hope in time I will practice more and actually do it on a quilt.  I think about the process while I am doing it, that I am doing something right (that lasts for .3 seconds) and then I see all the things I am doing wrong.  That is a good step for me.  At least while I am quilting I can start to recognize what I am doing wrong or right.  I am grateful for SewCalGal taking the time to do this for beginners like me.  It looks like a ton of work and it definitely has been of benefit to me.

Graduation/Lambeau/Door County

Click here to view these pictures larger

Graduation/Lambeau/Door County

Click here to view these pictures larger

FMQ May Challenge

This was fun to try.  I've gotten better at it since January but I still have a long way to go.

FMQ April Challenge

I loved this transfer method. 

Since I don't have an artistic bone in my body, I love quilting on the lines, and I feel like this is what I can really do more so that the FMQ with no lines.

People had mentioned that there was backtracking on the pattern in the tutorial so I went back to what I had done and backtracked on the leaves.

I did okay.  I can tell that I am better than when I first tried a few months ago but I still have lots of room for improvement.  But I do feel like I am ready to try something on a real quilt. 

The tree and grass were the quilting on the transferred lines.  The stippling, tree trunk and sky were for practice . Better but still need more practice.  I will use this method of tracing again.  It will be very handy for hand quilting also.

FMQ Challenge - March

Hmm, loops and swirls, the back doesn't look so bad...

The front looks really bad. I can see where this is going to take a lot of practice and maybe the hardest thing for me is how to decide what to quilt where.

Hard to see the loops, stars (didn't work at all), flowers (they were okay for first time) and swirls.

So this is my question here - How do you decide what to quilt on this one. It's a very small table topper and I want the pieced leaves to be the focal point. Any ideas?