Trying to be productive

I'm home again, this time for a little over a month, then another trip. I always find it hard to get back into a productive work mode after some time off. I did get out to Studio B this morning and worked on a special order. Part of my resistance is due to the fact that after reading through the Quilt National information, I discovered that I will be gone when the notifications are sent out and wont be back until the day before the quilts are due. So if by chance one of mine were accepted I wouldn't be here to do anything about it. I can also look at it as now having a couple of quilts to enter somewhere else. I have been doing my daily stitching project, here are #163 - #170.

A quick stop at home

I returned home Monday evening after a wonderful girls week at Diamond Lake,WA. We spent most of our time at our little house on the lake, spending time in the water everyday and just soaking up the gorgeous views.

We did go to the closest town, Newport,WA, and had a great lunch of sandwiches, real milkshakes and yummy potatoes, all for $8.57.

I went kayaking for the first time and I love it!!! That's me below on the left.

We had three sewing machines set up and in use. I was standing in front of the window that over looked the lake when I took this picture.

I pieced this quilt top.

Sewed together the first 152 blocks of my daily stitching project.

Continued making more, #154 through #162

Now I'm packing up getting ready to leave again in the morning. This time to Reno, to bowl in a tournament and visit family.

Time for a break

Bright and early tomorrow morning, I'm going to pick up two friends and we are taking off for a girls week. A fourth friend has rented a house for the month of August at Diamond Lake, WA, so we are going to join her. It's north of Spokane and very close to the Idaho border, about a seven hour drive from here. We are escaping the very hot, dry smokey air in our area and hoping for something a bit cooler without the smoke from wildfires. My laptop is staying home so I'll be out of touch for a while. The Fantasy garden class was fun on Friday. Below on the left is Ardele, she is here from Minnesota visiting her sister Donna on the right. They are showing off the little quilts they made.

This is Adele and her quilt.

Barb was also there doing a different quilt she calls Fantasy Garden Revisited. She had taken the class a few years ago and has added her own twist to it.

I've got my thread and fabrics all packed so I can continue my daily stitching project. Here are #149 through #153.

If you like graffiti, starting tomorrow I'm having graffiti week on my daily photo blog. I frequently walk along an infrequently used railroad siding. To my surprise, there were several box cars on the siding all with graffiti on there sides.

How did I get so busy?

My life is generally very low key without a lot of extra things going on, but this past week has been a bit different. Here's a few of the things I've done. Went to a Quilt show in Kuna, ID, the theme was barns.

Took 9 quilts to Crafters Warehouse in Meridian,ID. They are collecting them for St.Lukes Children's Cancer Center.

Spent a day with several others sewing book bags for the first grade beginning readers. A friend that is going thru chemotherapy treatments has done this on her own for several years. She asked for help and about twelve of us spent the day in her basement sewing up the bags, we did about 500 bags - enough for five years. After sewing I drove to Cambridge,ID to pick up the quilts and photos that I had taken up a week ago to the county fair. My "Sixty five days to 65" quilt not only got a blue ribbon, but also a special award.

My two favorite photos each received blue ribbons.

I've been working in Studio B on a special project that also requires me to write, so this blog post is my writing warm up for the day. Splat has resurfaced in Studio B.

Today we were supposed to take a drive with friends that included a stop in Garden Valley,ID, Ponderosa State park for a picnic lunch and McCall, ID. Unfortunately there is a wild fire in the area and the road we were going to take has been closed. We have had several wildfires around us, the sky has been very smoky making for some very red sunrises and sunsets. This was taken from my back yard at sunset a few days ago.

Tomorrow I'll be teaching a Fantasy Garden class in Studio B, so I have to switch gears and get it ready for sewing machines. I'll try to remember to take some pictures. Last but not least, my daily stitching is still on track. Here are #138 - #148.