Fiinally getting to get to some sewing in.

Frog Fact # 13: The reason for the horned frog decline is considered a mystery!  But over-collecting for pet trade, spread of fire ants having reduced the numbers of the red harvester ant (the frog's dietary preference), environmental contaminants and loss of habitat from agricutural and urban development are often cited as factors.

We had a very good guild meeting yesterday....Ami Simms is really entertaining.  She is very funny and had an interesting slide show...one segment was all the ways you could use quilts! This is a picture of a quilt covered car she showed us!  Very cute....I think I will do that to Dick's truck; it could use a little jazzing up!

We had a pretty good crowd at the meeting too.  Probably because she is a very popular speaker.  There was a workshop on Thursday, but I didn't want to go.  I have enough things to do without adding a new technique to my list!

At the meeting, I introduced the kits for the donation quilt and boy, did they go!!  There were none left; and some members who wanted one,didn't get to do one!  I just hope everyone can get them done and back to me by the February meeting.  Rhonda also introduced the Quilt Show Theme which is: Everyday Heirlooms: Each Quilt has a story!  Then Nikki Mahaffey told about the Challenge quilt.  It is to be a scrap quilt, with at least 50 different fabrics.  I didn't get all the details as Sue and I were holding up her examples while she talked...but I certainly have the scraps!  I just need to know what the sizes required are.  But today, I am finishing up my little quilt for Dick to take to Cook on Monday and hope to get some pillow cases done, too. 

And the night before, as we were without lights, I pulled an Abe Lincoln and read by candle light..I finished the book I have been reading... "A Stranger's Game" by Joan Johnston.....not my kind at all, but it was a who-done-it, so I had to see the mystery through to the end!  Now, I like mysteries, but this one read like a Danielle Steele, goofy romance!   I do not recommentd it at all!

End of Quilt Show

My quilt show entries: "Age of Aquarius", "Inner City", and "Some Assembly Required". The Show ended today...very good show, lots of fun, and of course I did get some new fabric!! Like that is really what I need! I did resist any of the fun gadgets though...I have a few of those from past shows that really didn't live up to their demos!

Some of these I have shown before but I don't think my "Age of A..." has been on my blog. It is the result of my bee's Round Robin to which I have added the circles, black edging and lots of embellishments. I had taken this on the ferries with me and did work on it some while enjoying the passing scenery. I didn't quite get finished so plan to add a little more embellishments.

Daughter Andrea leaves California tomorrow....she will be driving, plans on a few touristy stops then meeting up with the dad in Vegas and driving back together....really looking forward to seeing her. We are trying to get a time together to see all the family and show our pics from the trip, but with teenager and preteenager things get busy around their house!!

Now that the show is over, I can work on some other commitments: a "purple 8" square exchange, a small quilt swap, and "Veronica's quilt" which is almost ready to put together then get quilted....a multi colored Snails Trail...pretty wild!

And I am having "studioQ" here next Monday and need to get caught up on our "Recipe Quilt". I am behind a couple....one ingredient is "Spring"...I know what I am going to do with it, just need to "git 'r dun"! and the other ingredient is "Chicken"...however I want to interpret that!! Should be interesting to see!

Finally finished! (and more pics)

Today, I finally finished getting my "sleeves" and labels on my quilts for the show. Tomorrow is setup day...nothing like taking it to the line! Dick and I will go in to help set up and then going to go eat Mexican at Blue Mesa....we haven't had our "Tex-Mex" fix since we got back so are looking forward to that!



These pictures are of Mt. McKinley/Denali. The park is Denali National Park, the mountain can be called either....the Indians called it Denali but the first person to climb it renamed it for the current President. The park used to be McKinley NP but was changed a few years ago in honor of the Indian name....which I definitely like better! A friend of mine gave me a book to read, "Two in the Far North" about Margaret Murie and her husband Olaus. I had not heard of either before but discovered they are very well-known conservationists, founders of The Wilderness Society. If you are into biographies and nature, I highly recommend it! I also picked up the book "Arctic Dance", more pictorial, continuing on with their tale.



This is a lake view above the Denali Visitors' Center where we hiked after visiting the center, and having our picnic lunch.

And this is the wonderful Denali Mountain range...she is the far right one. This is take from the river at Talkeetna where we spent the night before our Denali but tour. Talkeetna is a really neat little Alaskan village...it is supposedly the prototype for the tv show "Northern Exposure" and I can believe it because there were some very interesting characters living there!

This is a close up of Mt. McKinley from the same spot. We were so lucky on weather; we were told that the mountain in cloud covered nearly 80% of the time...and we got to see her many times over a couple of days. The next day, on our actual tour of Denali Park, she was cloud covered!!!

Monday, rain and more pics

I finally finished quilting on my art quilt today...I had taken it with me on our trip and got quite a bit done on the ferries, but still had a lot to do as I hand-quilted it. Now just need to put on a sleeve and some embellishments. Also need a sleeve one other quilts and labels on all. The setup for the show is Thursday so I guess I will be spending a little more sewing time tomorrow and Wednesday!



And the weather is wonderful...we have had more than five inches of nice, slow rainfall since Friday...that should set us up well for going into the winter! The sun will be out in a couple of days and then the grass will grow again! Usually when we have Sept. rain, we have very nice fall colors....fall and spring are my favorite times of the year.



Trip pics are of Anchorage...where we lived for two years in 1964-66. Very little looked familiar, only the visitor's center with its sod roof...except now they have a large center with a museum and the little log center is just for looks and some info! We were talking to a lady there, one of the volunteers who has been in Anchorage for about 40 years or more, and she confirmed something we weren't sure of from when we were there before....that you can see Mt. McKinley from Anchorage...and we were so fortunate that "she was OUT" that very day...we walked down to the street corner and way down towards the bay, there she was!! We had wonderful weather so were able to see the mountain several times. Then up at the Denali visitors center, there is a plaque..."Yes, you can see Mt. McKinley from Anchorage"!!

I zoomed in as much as I could and there she is...peeking out above the trees!

This is the visitors center when we were living there. I don't know what they did with the totem pole. It was pretty neat. The building in the background is the tallest bld at that time.

Now here is the visitors center with a modern stainless steel sculpture of some kind. Maybe it is a symbolic totem pole!