Surreal Serenity

Today was a travel day.  We left Tyndall AFB near Panama City for Old Town, FL.  We could not have asked for a better day.  Weather and traffic was wonderful not to mention a lot of great views of the Gulf along the way..  As we drove through Apalachicola on East Hwy. 98 .  People were out enjoying the weather in the downtown area.  Some were shopping while others were having a yard sale.  Yet it wasn’t crowded.  Two boys holding a sign we could not read gave Dan the “Blow Your Horn” motion and Dan obliged.  We could hear the two cheering over our motorhome’s engine!  Okay, on to quilting.........

My top is finally done! I had to make myself stop adding more appliqué. I started this top over 2 years ago. Not because the quilt was giving me a hard time – no, no, it was because I was enjoying the growth and the process. Working with batik is a real joy. It is easy to manipulate and it easily forgives my mistakes.

For the longest time, I could not come up with a name for my quilt. I tried several but none fit: “My Pond” (too plain), “We Are Not Being Koi” (they are goldfish), “Lanai Memories” (nah!), Serenity Pond” (yep, so calm it will put you to sleep)….nothing fit. I wanted people to know that this quilt was not a lot of work, but the opposite. This quilt relaxed me, challenged my imagination, and brought me many hours of peaceful moments. Then a friend and a great photographer posted on Facebook a photo of some beautiful lilies. I told her they looked surreal. That’s when my quilt’s name came to me! My pond is surreal and serene! Surreal Serenity! I have never had such a hard time naming a quilt.

 

Everything is hand sewn including the border.  I was using the freezer paper method.  I had talked to a friend once about using the turn-under-as-you-go.  She seemed to like it, so I switched methods when I started working on the small lotus petals.  I find I do like that method a lot better.

I added ginkgo leaves to give the water a little more motion.

The blue batik started my idea for a water design, but it was my pictures of the purple lotus that inspired the Japanese garden pond.  I added bamboo to give the sense that the garden continued beyond the border.

My Yin Yang goldfish.

This is the book that inspired me to use the mosaic style instead of making the plants and fish more solid.

Here's my old post of the top:  http://quiltincats.blogspot.com/2010/05/little-hand-quilting-little-applique.html

Well, for now, I have to put the top away.  I want to finish my granddaughter's quilt before she outgrows it!  Good incentive, don't you think?

Key West Murder Mystery

I just finished listening to a murder mystery located in Key West.  "Ghost Shadow" is by Heather Graham.  It started out a little strange with the main character being able to see ghosts and she has a ghostly companion named Bartholomew.  I thought I would mention this one because of all the Key West history Heather mentions in the story.  Because of her adding in interesting little facts and history, I can’t wait to get to Key West and start exploring the area.  Oh, and to do some kayaking in the beautiful blue waters.

Here are some websites I have found interesting thanks to Heather's story:
Mallory Square,
Captain Tony's Saloon,
Sloppy Joe's,
Robert the Doll

Of course, I will also have to visit the following places as well:
Margaritaville (and with some luck - maybe Jimmy Buffett)
Hemingway's home and cats

Hello From Florida!

Ahhhh.. Sun!

Hey! Hey!  WE were here first!!!

We are at Tyndall AFB on the Florida Panhandle between Panama City and Mexico Beach for the next couple of weeks. We are staying at the base’s FamCamp. We have a nice spot with trees and bushes giving us a little more privacy. Seeing the Gulf beaches again is great! Just the way we remember the beach with sand so white and soft it feels like you are walking on sugar. The ocean water temp is warm, no rain forecast for the next week, and air temp in the low 90s.

This is a great place to start getting back into shape for kayaking on the bays nearby and I need the extra practice. We started kayaking the day after we got here. We kayaked in a nearby back bay and saw a large pod of dolphins (porpoise). They were pretty close at times, well under 20 yards. They hung around where we were for about 5 minutes or so. Mullets were jumping. One tried to jump into Dan's kayak. We also saw a Red Tailed Hawk perched nearby in an old tree, but he would not let us get too close before flying away.  I'm not getting much quilting done...oh well, got to enjoy this beautiful weather while I can.

Just had to add this picture to our blog since we are headed for Key West....There BE Pirates Here!  Arrrgh!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

New Floors and Christmas Stockings

I know I just posted, but I wanted to boast about our new floors.  We had them installed by a friend and an experienced carpet/floor installer, Ernie. It took Ernie and Dan about 9 days to tear out the old flooring and install the new bamboo flooring with carpet. The old tiles turned out to be the toughest part. It took Ernie almost 3 days of hammering and chiseling to get the tiles out.

It has been about three weeks since they were installed and I feel like I have a Cabin-on-Wheels. It has such an open, clean feel to it.  It is so much easier to keep clean. Before, I would not run around barefoot because I could not tell if the floor was clean or not. Nothing hurts worse than stepping on a grain of cat litter with your bare foot. Now I can spot dirt from the other end of the motorhome and I’m walking around with bare feet. So nice!

While Ernie and Dan worked on the floor, I took care of our cats inside Ernie and Brenda’s house. They were gracious enough to let us borrow a large kennel and to set it up in their living room so the cats could stay cool. In the mornings, I would try to take one cat out for a walk.

Hitch enjoyed the walks the most. Dusty went a couple of times, but later decided just to stay at the back of the cage until it was time to head back to the motorhome.

Squirrel was a big pain in more ways than one. He wanted out so I would take him outside, but he would immediately go to the motorhome and HOWL! I tried more than once to convince him he would not want to be inside and to enjoy his walk while it was cool. We ended up in a fight on the front lawn. That must have looked strange to the driver passing by because he slowed way down to watch the crazy lady wrestling a big tasmanian-like cat around on the front lawn. I ended up with scratches on my face and Squirrel was a little squashed when I fell part way on top of him. Um, I did not fall on top of him on purpose and he only had the air knocked out of him. Although, I have to admit that it did feel rather satisfying to hear him squawk since my face was hurting a lot at the time.

I felt the worse for poor Mad Max. As soon as he saw the leash and harness, his eyes would get very big then he would freeze up and turn into an orange ball of fur. He would not move for hours inside the cage. I spent a lot of time talking and trying to comfort him. Towards the end of the 9 days, Max was starting to move around and he even let Ernie pet him. On our last day, Max gave me a wonderful surprise by jumping out of my arms on our way back to the motorhome. Instead of running for the door, he started exploring the area. He has not been outside since we started traveling. It was so nice to see him snooping around and eating grass. He even let Ernie come near for a petting. Now Max wants out when the others go for their walks and he does pretty good as long as it is in a quiet area.

Oh, I did get in a little quilting in the afternoons. Most of my work was getting some embroidery done on pot holders and Christmas stockings. I still need to embellish them with buttons before I sew them together.  Aren’t they cute? I got the patterns from Nancy Halvorsen.

If you are interested in my new bamboo floors, here’s a link to our Webshots Album. http://rides.webshots.com/album/578499643vFFIgh

Albuquerque, NM

Boy, am I behind on posting. I need to put up a calendar reminder to post more often. I should have posted my visit to Albuquerque a couple of weeks ago. I’m so sorry for not doing this earlier.

Since the last blog, we have visited quite a few national parks. I found them all to be great, but I would love to go back to the Arches and the Mesa Verde NP again someday. The colors of the earth and the deepest blue sky ever, the rock formations and the old ruins were all so inspiring for quilting ideas that I am at a lost as to where to begin. I’m afraid most of my ideas will never become a quilt.

Darline modeling donated fabric

On to Albuquerque! Well, I can tell you that I felt like I had come home as we came in from the west side on I-40. What a wonderful sight! I could not wait to see all of my friends and to do a little shopping. We only stayed for a week so my week was going to be a busy one and of course, the time went way too fast.

Cher - always has time for a smile

I want to thank my friends for taking time out of their busy schedules to visit with me. I really enjoyed our time together and I hope to do it again in the future.

I made sure that we would be visiting during the second weekend of the month so I could spend the day with all my friends – The Material Girls during Project Linus. What a great day! The quilts during show-n-tell were amazing and there were so many that it took us almost two hours to see them all. Each quilt was unique and very creative. The ladies in this group are extra special with the loving care they put into each donated quilt.

Heather and Colista busy, busy!

I had to do some shopping. I really miss shopping at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. I got myself one of Whole Food’s delicious fruit tarts. Yum! Okay, I bought two of them. It’ll be a long time before I can have another one.

Pat and Jeana - new ideas?

I also shopped at two of my favorite quilt shops: Quilt Works and Southwest Decoratives. Quilt Works was only a couple of blocks from my old home. Yep, the location was a little dangerous for me. It took a while to train my car to stop turning into the parking lot every time I drove by the shop on my way home.  Oh, and Quilt Works now has their own blog:  http://thequiltworks.blogspot.com/.  My only regret was not making it to Quilts From the Heart – another favorite quilt shop. Yea, I know I have too many favorite quilt shops.

All too soon my time in Albuquerque was over and we move on to Lawton, OK to visit our daughter, Misty and our two granddaughters. We stayed at Ft. Sill’s Family Campground near a lake. On Saturday, Misty brought out Bry and Vi for a day at the lake. They did a lot of swimming and ate lunch with us. I showed Misty Violet’s quilt in the frame. I am keeping the quilt in the living room to keep it from becoming a UFO. With the quilt being in the living area, I am reminded everyday that I should be working on it instead of being on the computer. Sooner or later, I will get tired of moving the frame from the living area to the back during travels and I will finish Vi’s quilt. Hopefully, before she graduates from college!

RENO IS QUILTOWN (Quilt Show)

Last weekend, I finally got Dan to go with me to a quilt show. Well, sort of. Actually, someone came up with the brilliant idea of holding a quilt show inside the National Automobile Museum. What a genius!! Quilters and their spouses were happy to go together to a quilt show. And that included Dan and I. Dan took lots of pictures of cars and I took lots of pictures of quilts. I wish more quilt shows were teamed up with car or motorcycle shows. It was a lot of fun.

The Truckee Meadows Quilters put on a fabulous display of quilts throughout the museum among the vintage automobiles. I enjoyed both the quilts on display as well as the automobiles.

I have put together some of the quilts in WebShots. Mainly the ones that jumped out at me or spoke to me. I just could not do upload all of them. There were so many and all were wonderful! I added the name of the quilt and the quilter’s name in the album this time. I had someone compliment me once on a quilt I did not make even though the album was clearly marked Quilt Show. I did explain that I could not take the credit for the quilt.

You will probably notice that a lot of the quilts are by Mildred Dort. I will admit I did not look at the program when I started looking around. I was too excited to see the quilts then to read about them. Why read when I can spend the time admiring the beautiful artwork on display, listening to others quilt discussions, and do a little shopping with the vendors. I loved all the quilts, but my favorite quilts are the ones with hand-appliqué work or ones with cats or flowers.

It wasn’t until I got home and started going through the program to match photos with names that I realized I had taken a lot of pictures of Mildred Dort’s quilts. I can see why she was picked as the featured quilter. She does some excellent appliqué handwork. My friends know that I really love my appliqué handwork.

Oh, and I will be uploading photos of the vintage automobiles as well…a little later and in a separate folder. Enjoy!