Slooow Internet (St George, UT)

Due to slow internet service, I will start posting again on Thursday.

We are near St. George, Utah and not far from Zion National Park.  We are here for 4 days.

Due to our location in a canyon (not to mention, in the boonies), I cannot upload photos or browse blogs because of slow internet.  Without photos, I know my blogs would not be as interesting so I decided to take a few days off from blogging and from 365Project.

Instead of spending time humming the Jeopardy theme song while waiting on the internet to frustrate me, I am going to have some quality time with my projects......well, between exploring the area.

**Oh, and I'm still taking photos.  I hope to have some nice ones of Zion National Park's northern region.

I'll be back on Thursday, 3 May!

Finished and Moving On (Las Vegas, NV)

Finished! Done!  WooHoo!.....of course, we will not peek into my closet to see how many more UFOs lurk in the dark corners....

I hung these up in a hurry today to get some photos.  I have a long list of things I want to finish before we leave tomorrow.

I had planned to take these to Albuquerque this summer.  Due to our returning to the Preserve for this winter, we will not be going to New Mexico.  

So, if I find a charity group during our travels, I will give them this quilt along with the Redwork Teddy Bear quilt.  Hopefully, I will find a Project Linus contact.  If not, I know the Escapee's Parks have people collecting charity blankets and I don't mind giving them these two quilts.

I need to iron the border on this one.  I also need to take better photos before I post this quilt on Etsy.  I'm sticking with calling this one "Delightfully Dizzy" spring lap quilt.  What do you think of the name?

Good-bye to Las Vegas

Travel day tomorrow ~ Saturday.  Yep, it is time to start making our way north towards Washington State.  I had fun in Las Vegas and maybe someday, we will come back.

Happy Trails!

Not So Wordless Wednesday (Las Vegas, NV)

We went to the Flamingo to see their wild habitat area filled with birds and turtles.  A very nice little garden area with a couple of islands filled with birds.

That's All, Folks!

The Fins Have It (Las Vegas, NV)

This is a continuation from my last post:

I wanted to share some photos of the Bottle-nosed Dolphins from the Secret Garden.  We were so close that we were warned cameras could end up wet in the 'splash zone'.  We were there at a good time.  The dolphins' caretakers were feeding them and asking them to do a few tricks.

  

At one point, all the caretakers were busy with a small meeting near the pool and not paying attention to what the dolphins were doing behind their backs.  They are as bad as kids when Mommy and Daddy are not watching them.

Hey!  Look at me!

Such a cute smile....

aww...come on, throw a fish.

Smile isn't working.  eeeeeeeee!  translated means

I'm hungry!  How about some fish?

Yea! Fish!

Yipee! Skippy!

I got a fish!

The White Lion slept the whole time during our visit.  At least, he was facing us while he was sleeping.  Such a peaceful looking fellow...big fellow with big paws.  I certainly would not want to disturb his sleep and have him wake up grouchy.

Do Not Disturb

Tired Kitty

On the Cutting Board

While embroidering the redwork Teddy Bears, I noticed the red thread was bleeding onto the white background.  I started to worry because it took very little moisture to make the red thread bleed onto the white background.  I could see the quilt's whites turning pink after the first wash until I read about some color catcher sheets.....

  

I was reading the Quilting Board and came across another quilter asking if she should wash her quilt before giving it away.  Many said they did wash their quilts before giving them to the new owner.  One mentioned that she always washed her quilts with Shout Color Catcher sheets.  

I decided to give the sheets a try.  According to the box, you can wash all sorts of colors together and the sheets will catch the runaway dyes.  It also mentions with dark or red colors to use more than one sheet.  Okay, so that has me wondering - if I don't use enough sheets will it not do its job?

9:05 am ~ So, I'm running a test today.  The redwork is in the wash with 2 sheets as I write this post.  We have a low-water European washer/dryer so I'm also worried the sheets will not work as well.  Fingers are crossed....

10:45 am ~ After close inspection, I have to say the color catcher sheets are a great success!  The whites in the quilt are white and the runaway red dye is in the sheets.  Those are the two sheets that were in the wash.  The two pink sheets were white when I tossed them into the wash.

Happy Quilting!

Taking a Bite Out of Earth Day (Las Vegas, NV)

We went to The Secret Garden that was setup by Siegfried and Roy at the Mirage.  We thought it was a little pricey, but how often do we get the chance to see white tigers and white lions?  The day we visited we saw a total of eight large cats and quite a few dolphins getting fed along with a few tricks.

Big mouth and teeth!

What I loved was how close we could get to the tigers and lions if they came to the fence.  Only one came close enough for us to see his pale blue eyes and to take in just how big he was compared to us.  Notice the double fence...keeps paws in and hands out.  Plus, bushes made a two-foot barrier between us and the fence.

 

Still they are gorgeous creatures and I can see why Siegfried and Roy love them so much.

Big paws! 

And as gorgeous as they are, our thoughts were:  they are not the kind of surprise encounter we would want to meet in the wild.  That's for sure!

Earth Day by Ol' White Tiger

Earth Day?  Yea, I've heard of it.  How do I celebrate?   

Oh, I don't know.  Never thought about it.

Okay, well let me give this some thought....

oh yea, that feels gooood...Uh?  oh yea..Earth Day....I know!

I'll celebrate Earth Day by eating more greens.
Mmmm. Nom. Nom. Nom.   hmmm, CRUNCH!...

Oh, yuk!  Ptooie!

Yea, a little too earthy tasting..blah

I'll just sit here and soak my tongue for awhile.  

Happy Earth Day!

A Rose is a Rose is a Rose (Las Vegas, NV)

Dan found an excellent little Mexican restaurant in the NW corner of Las Vegas.  The food was delicious for a decent price.  After eating, we stopped at a park that was down the block from the restaurant.  I had to grab my camera because I could see these roses were just begging to be photographed!

 Do you think I take a lot of photos?  I do.  I finally cleaned out my hard drive the other day.  I don't know what's with me this week - I'm just in this mood for finishing and cleaning things up for some reason.  Spring cleaning?  Maybe....but I digress....

 ...Okay, back to too many photos.  
  
I moved all of last years photos into one 2011 folder and uploaded the folder to my two external hard drives.  It took 20 minutes to upload because I had over 7200 photos to move!  Yep, 7200 photos and that is after cleaning out many of the files of bad photos.  At one point, I had 400 photos in the Recycle.  I never let it fill like that again since it took awhile for the Recycle bin to empty!

Why so many?  Once, another photographer asked me if I knew the difference between an amateur photographer and an expert photographer.  I did not know.  His answer:  The difference is in how many photos they take.
  
I have been using that advice and it does make a difference especially when taking action photos.  With the roses, I took photos from every angle.  What looked great to the eye, did not always look great in a photo. 
   
And then there's the 365Project where I need to upload a photo a day.  That can turn into a bunch of photos for just one photo to be uploaded.  But no excuses, I just love taking pictures!  All 7200+!
   
So, my hard drive has been cleaned out and I have already started filling it up again with more photos for this year.

Tried different process techniques in Picasa.
I like the way this one came out. 

On the Cutting Board

Alllll-righty-then!  All the binding has been sewn onto the quilts!  I started last night on blind stitching the binding to the quilt's back.  Now that I am down to hand sewing....I can start putting things away!  Yep, back to that cleaning mood...

It will be nice to get our home back into some sort of order today.  I can put up the table that has been under foot and a good knee bruiser if I'm not careful.  I can put away my sewing machine so that I can have room on the dining room table to actually eat!  I know that many of you think this must be quite a hassle for me, but it isn't because I stay more focused on the projects I'm working on.

Reward time!  Time to sit down and do a little hand sewing or start a new project or take some more photos....here kitty, kitty, kitty...want to pose for me?

Binding Quilt Stories (Las Vegas)

No Peeking!

Sonoma Rose by Jennifer Chiaverini

When I start reading one of Jennifer Chiaverini's books, I anticipate a story filled with quilters finding friendship through their love of quilting.  There are few books published by a writer that understands quilters and our love to quilt or to talk quilt.  

I can understand an author wanting to spread her wings and write about something new.  I just feel Sonoma Rose should have been marketed separate from the Elm Creek series.  The only connection to Elm Creek was a couple of flashbacks to Elizabeth from The Quilter's Homecoming.  Otherwise, this story was about Rosa's family and Lars.

As you can tell, I never tire of reading about the process of quilting - no matter what is being describe.  But, this story did not focus on the quilter's life or quilting.  Basically, the only quilt talk came from Rosa thinking about block patterns and colors for each of her children's quilts, her mother's two quilts barely get describe, and she cuddles under her own quilt.  Towards the end, Rosa started to teach a friend how to quilt, but that ended before they even got started. Great!

If you are interested in Prohibition and life on a vineyard then this book is for you.  I enjoyed Rosa's story and I learned a few things about the Prohibition era. I often read Jennifer's books more than once, but I doubt that I will read this one again anytime soon.  I'll have to run out of reading material first.

I won't give up on her though... Jennifer's next book The Giving Quilt will make up the difference since it is about the Elm Creek's Quiltsgiving Day.  Two of my favorite subjects: Quilts and Project Linus.  

But, I have to wait until the end of October...so in the meantime, I found a new author, Clare O'Donohue.  I started reading her first book The Lover's Knot: A Someday Quilts Mystery today.  Quilts! Mystery!  Now that's my kind of story!

 

 On the Cutting Board

Okay!  I got all the binding done yesterday.  Can you see that the red binding is a lot thinner than the other two?

I was a little short on red material so I made the red binding 2 inches instead of my usual 2.5 inches width.  I would rather be narrow than short on length.  I have used binding this narrow before, but it is not easy to wrap around the raw edges of the quilt.

Tuesday Treasury

Like a buffet, I pick out one or two items that strike my interest and move on to the next section.  The more eclectic - the better I like it!

Feeling So Good! (Las Vegas, NV)

This has been a wonderful week for me.  Las Vegas is great, I'm seeing the light at the of the tunnel for three quilts, and I am featured in two Treasuries from around the world!  People on Cloud 9 ~ Make room for me!

Vintage Vegas

We spent one evening in the vintage Las Vegas downtown.  We ate dinner at Hash House a Go-Go.  It is a good thing we decided to split a salad because "Huge" salad described in the menu is an understatement!  I barely finished my half and left most of my bread behind.  They don't believe in small portions at this restaurant and it was delicious!

I can see Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack walking down the street....

Vintage Vegas

This is the Fremont Street Experience.  The canopy has thousands of LED lights and speakers setup for the light show.

There is a zipline ride that goes down the length of the canopy.  I got one good photo of four people going by over our heads.

Zipline riders

We watched the first show with Don Mclean's "American Pie".  Talk about Retro!

Go-Go Dancers

Finishing up with a rocket launch.  If you can zoom in on the astronaut on the right, you can see JFK and MLK in the face shield.

Rocket Man

On the Cutting Board

For the last couple of days, the weather has been cold and wet.  Yep, we are getting some rain.  Perfect time to work on my quilts.  I finished quilting two quilts already.

I'm almost done with the third one.  I haven't made the binding yet, so that'll be my next project - making binding for three quilts.  Sigh, it feels good to finish these three.

Featured in Two Treasuries

Two of my quilts are featured in this lovely treasury!  Thank you Lesya!  Check out some of the shops in her treasury:

Lesya lives in Russia.  Amazing how the internet has shrunk our world!  Stop by Rainbow Gerbera to see her lovely shop filled with beautiful crocheted items.

Rainbow Gerbera

Here's the second treasury by Charo.  Thank you so much Charo! Check out some of the shops in this one:

Charo lives in Madrid, Spain and her shop is filled with beautiful detailed miniatures.    

Artisluna Minaturas

Happy Quilting!