Nosy me

Now just what did I think I was going to find in there?  I would have been shocked if something had flown out at me or yelled 'boo'!  haha.  This was one of the sights at Giant City State Park.  Absolutely gorgeous place.

Ev and I just took a motorcycle ride over to my dad's to let his dogs out.  They are all gone for the weekend, fishing.  It's a beautiful day to be out on the bike.  Ev and I are going to take a walk later on.  I'm looking forward to that.

I got a package of pork chops out of the freezer.  I was really disappointed with that order of pork we purchased.  The only good thing was the bacon.  I sent the other ham with Johanna and Ben last night and they didn't care for it either.  Live and learn.

Morning time

Getting ready for church.  Going to try and do some sewing today, but every time I say that, I get absolutely nothing done!  We went out to eat last night at the restaurant in the state park nearby.  This was to kind of give a close to our vacation, even though I'm off until Tuesday.  Ev has to go back to work tomorrow.  Today we will just laze around home.

Here's another picture from our vacation.  This was at the Little Grand Canyon.  I laughed when I was looking at these small pools of water and saw a big ol' frog jumping around.

Progress!

I know it doesn't look like much, but this is a small sampling of the quilting I have been doing on my 36 patch quilt.  I have been doing straight lines diagonally through the light colored squares in the blocks.  For most of the blocks, it's in the light colored squares, but in a couple it was a pretty close race as to which were light or not.  The lines of stitching alternate rows.  I'm doing the quilting on the older Kenmore and using a walking foot.  I loaded up a dozen bobbins before beginning the quilting and have gone through 5 already.  I'm almost 3/4ths of the way done with the quilting.  All that will be left to do will be the binding and the label.  The label may just have the name of the quilt and my name and date on it.  Not sure yet.  I think the name may end up something like 144.  Just a simple number that will make people have to think.  It won't take an astro physicist to figure it out, and I'm sure all my quilty friends will figure it out pretty quick.  72 blocks with two colors in each of them....

So my darling son tonight is up in the sewing room trying to explain Netflix to me.  Before you think I must live under a rock, I know what it is, but there are features of it that he was trying to tell me about, in the hopes that I would pay a monthly fee to subscribe to it.  Apparently, if you subscribe, you can 'stream' videos to your computer or television instantly.  I asked him to look up what kinds of shows they had that had that ability, rather than the mail out the dvd and wait feature.  One I asked about was 'Simply Quilts', since so many other television shows were listed.  It was funny to see the results, especially when a horror flick with quilt in the name of it came up.  I had to stop sewing (which is what I was doing while he was looking things up) and actually turn around to see the computer screen because I thought he was making the title up!  It was a good laugh.  At any rate, we aren't going to get it yet because we are the only household in America (at least according to my son) that doesn't have a flat screen t.v., therefor requiring special equipment to stream the videos to the television.  Life will go on.

After I finish this quilt, I need to quilt a child's quilt for my nephew.  My stepmother made the top and she asked me to quilt it.  I don't usually do this, but since it is for family, I don't really mind.

Little Grand Canyon

Here's me on our hike in the Little Grand Canyon earlier this week.  I have to say, that was quite a hike!  The trail was narrow and steep.  Going down to the canyon was even a challenge because the grade was fairly steep.  It was do-able, but for someone not in tip top shape (ahh me...) it was rough.  Coming back up, I was glad we had the dog because she kind of helped me keep my balance.  Not that we turned her into Balto and had her pull me up the trail, but her tugging on the leash helped some!  hee hee hee.  When we were going downhill, Ev had to hold her leash because she would pull and then you risked being dragged downhill... When she decides to pull, she has quite a bit of strength!  I have a funny story about that later.

I've been quilting this afternoon on the 36 patch.  I'm almost half way done with the quilting.  I'm just doing diagonal lines a couple inches apart.  I've got one direction almost done and will be turning to do the cross hatching before the evening is over.  Looking good!

Cookies, yum!

This is what I have been doing this afternoon.  Baking cookies!  I just baked a simple batch of chocolate chip cookies with walnuts in them.  Oh, the house smells so good!  I put a bag of them in the freezer already, and I sent a dozen with Nick to give to the mechanics when he gets his oil changed this afternoon.  I like to spoil those guys, because they really do take care of me and my family.  I have a couple more batches waiting to cool enough to freeze then they are going into the freezer too.  If I don't put them in the freezer I will eat every last one of them.  No will power.  sigh. 

Beautiful view

Ev and I took a couple days off to recharge.  This pic is just one of the places we went.  It's the beginning of a trail in Giant City State Park.  This particular trail was not one that we hiked, but it was very pretty.  The rock formations were something else.  Just out of this world.

We stayed at a cabin that was very nice.  The cabin had everything you could want.  Even a hot tub.  Nice.  It also had a grill and provided charcoal, so we had steaks on the grill to eat one night.  We went out for pizza the other night, which was nice also.

I haven't done much in the way of quilting the last few days, but would like to get up and sew tomorrow.  Still working on quilting the 36 patch.

The life of Ivy

I don't think any words are needed here.

Five, Six, Pick up Sticks...

Did a little yard work with the hubby this afternoon.  Picked up about half a pick up load of sticks and took them out to the compost pile.  Ev is cutting the grass, hopefully for the last time this year.  Our trees are all going to start to turn soon here.  Some are already turning.  They are so pretty.  I think this year is going to be a short year for the pretty colors, since we had such a hot and dry summer.  Our one Maple tree dropped a ton of what we call 'helicopters'.  They were all really really dry and very small.  I would say they were about a third of the size that they usually are.

Sewing Sunday

Spend some time upstairs quilting the 36 patch.  It's at the fullest point, where I need to push the most material
through the machine throat.  I will say it's a struggle, but it's do-able.  Can't move too quickly on it because I have to reposition it very frequently but so far so good.

Brought my cactus plant inside today.  I think there may be a few walnuts planted in it from the neighborhood squirrels.  I hope the squirrel doesn't come knocking at the door wanting his winter stash!  haha.

Had lunch with my dad and his wife today.  Ev came with.  We went to a restaurant a couple towns over to celebrate my birthday tomorrow.  It was a good lunch.  I had fried chicken.  yummy!

Took Ivy for a two mile walk today.  She sure loves to walk.  I think she will have a great time when we take her to the state parks and hike this week.  We have never had such a spoiled dog as this.  I think we are becoming old folks who dote on their dog because their children are grown...  Oh well! hahaha

When Johanna and Ben get Johnathon again I think we may take him to see the Lion King.  I remember when it came out the first time, taking the kids to see it when they were really little. 

Put together a quickie vegetarian lasagna for Nick and broiled a couple steaks for Ev and I for dinner tonight.  Also made garlic bread, brussel sprouts, and potatoes.  Was a pretty good dinner!

Movie time

Went to see 'Moneyball' tonight with my friend Donna.  She was bored, but I enjoyed it.  I think it was because it was all about baseball and not all about Brad Pitt (the reason Donna went).  Gotta love baseball if you're going to enjoy that movie.

Went to Johanna's today to visit.  Made cookies with Johnathon again.  That was a lot of fun.  They needed to go pick up Ben's truck at his Mom's so I drove them there.  His folks have a farm and I got out for a minute to pet the horses and donkey.  Got to feed the horses a little bit which was pretty neat.  I hadn't done that for many years.