Block of the Month Quilt

I won these blocks in March 2009 at the Riverside California, Raincross Quilt Guild and I finally made them into a little wall quilt. I added buttons to make it more whimsical and made a "peek-a-boo" binding for the first time. It looks more narrow at the bottom but it's just my photography. It doesn't look very good on the orange wall but I don't have a better place for it right now.

Spring Time in the Rockies

These two pictures were taken last Thursday. We got almost 10 inches of snow in two days!

 The two pictures below were taken on Sunday (3 days later). Look how green the grass is and some little flowers are coming up in the rock garden!!

Visiting the Smith Girls

 I flew to Fresno to visit Candace and the girls for 4 days. Charlie had eye surgery to correct her eye muscles just 2 days before I arrived. The girls play together so well and love just hanging out together. Charlie's eyes were still pretty red and swollen in this picture but they looked much better by the time I left. She was so brave about getting eye drops 3 times a day -- bless her heart.

 Here is Laney doing what she loves best...being goofy and wearing a wastebasket for a hat!

 Here is Charlie doing what she loves best...coloring and creating beautiful art work.

 Charlie and I made a little doll quilt together. She designed the quilt, cut the batting and backing, I did the sewing and tied the yarn to hold it together. She was very interested and captivated by the project and loves her little quilt.

 Here are the girls riding bikes in the house---what a fun house this is!!

Laney was a maniac riding on her school bus!!  Look out world...here she comes!

First Soccer Game

 Carsten and Grant are playing soccer for the first time. Their team is in white and Grant is on the right with the red sleeves and Carsten is right next to him. It was a very cold day and the other team whipped them but they had a GREAT time.

 Grant is the youngest on the team and had a hard time figuring out what to do. They play with only 4 kids on each team which is much better than the chaos of more kids on the field at this age.

 Carsten is the oldest player and he played most of the game because some of the other kids got tired or just didn't want to play...too funny. Carsten was a little too gentle around the girls. What a sweet boy.

And Carsten does a side kick. It was a pleasure getting to see our grandsons play! We hope to see many more games if they quit getting cancelled because of snow...

Quilt Retreat in the Rocky Mountains

 The picture above shows my sewing area in the retreat work-room. My sewing machine is the one in front of the door. I had my back to the windows but it was nice to have the light behind me while sewing. This is the 3rd retreat I have been on since moving here. They are SO much fun!!

 Here is the other side of the work-room. (Notice the snack table in the middle.) There were 32 of us that attended but we had plenty or room and beautiful views.

 It snowed most of the day on Saturday. This was the view out the window behind my work area.

 Looking the other direction.

I ventured out for a walk when it stopped snowing and this is some of the scenery. Beautiful!!

Road to California

 We had a wonderful trip to California in January. The only bummer was that it rained the first couple of days...just when we thought we were going to get some nice weather. My favorite thing was attending the Road to California Quilt Show. The picture above is me with my friend Debbie Warner, sister-in-law Karen Dunivent and my mom with the quilts we started at a class we took together. It was SO much fun being together and sharing our love of quilting!

 My other favorite thing was being in San Diego for a Thompson family get-together. It was wonderful being in Colleen and Skips home again with 6 of the Thompson siblings.

 Here I am enjoying the sunshine at my brother-in-law's John's house where we spent 2 nights. Other highlights of the trip were getting to see our friends Donna and Ed's new beach house and spending a night with them. We had dinner with friends Shawn and Jane at their new home in Cota de Casa--what a great place! We had breakfast with our old neighbors Stan, Margaret and Miriam Marlow. It was strange seeing our old house where we lived for 30 years. It made us miss our neighbors but not our house. We also got to spend a night with Debbie and Gary Warner and Debbie and I even did some sewing together. Thank you to everyone who shared their homes and hospitality and even took time off work to spend time with us.

Even though we had such a great time, heading back to Colorado felt right. The drive back was beautiful and it was fun seeing the ski resorts in full operation and the parking lots packed. Below is the alcohol loot we came home with thanks to stops at Costco, gifts from the Warner's and a 2-buck Chuck that mom left behind and we ended up with.

Snow Day/Sew Day

 We woke up to snow this morning and it snowed all day long. Just a week ago today it was 50 degrees and we went mountain biking...what a change.

 Here is the view from our back yard looking down the street. Later in the day everyone started coming out to shovel driveways.

 We shoved our driveway twice. Here I am helping with the first go-around. It was coming down hard at this point.

 What a great excuse to stay inside and do some sewing! Nathan the boys came over for breakfast and then the boys got cozy in grandpa's chair to watch a Bat Man movie.