A walk through the cemetery (and some tangerine juice)

Once or twice a year Larry and I like to take a walk through the cemetery, not for sentimental reasons, but for the beauty we find there.
The leaves have been magnificent this year.
This small stone building is covered in vines.
I like the section where the stones stand up. In another section they are all flush with the grass and it's hard to read them.
Sometimes family or friends like to decorate the graves for holidays.
Half a cup of tangerine juice. . .
came from one small tangerine.
And it had about forty seeds!

Fun Mail Aussie Style

I received two fun surprises in the mail recently, and they both came from Australia. Blogging has brought me in contact with such nice people that I would never have otherwise met.
Susanne (www.reeesas.blogspot.com) is an amazing photographer, and she sent me a picture of three kangaroos that she took, as well as a beautiful card she made herself. Don't you wish you knew what these three are thinking? I decided that a kangaroo photo certainly needed a fabric frame with a kangaroo pouch to put the photo in. :>}
I put the card in the pouch in this photo. Isn't it pretty?
Jodie (www.vintagericrac.blogspot.com) designed this adorable pattern to make Monty and Pearl, hedgehogs extraordinaire. So far I've only made Pearl, and I haven't even given her the flower for her hair yet, but I will. Jodie made a kit that included everything I needed to make them - what a fun gift! Thanks, Suzanne and Jodie, and thanks to Blogger for making these long distance friendships possible.

I can hardly believe the weekend is over already. I hope you have a great week.

Sew much fun!

The title says it all! I had such a wonderful time yesterday at the marvelous event put on by Quilting With Machines. I saw some of the most magnificent quilting you can imagine, and I got to watch some very talented quilters at work on some amazing machines.

I had forgotten that it was to be a quilt show as well - what a bonus! I thought I was just there to take two classes out of the many offered.
You really had to be there to appreciate the incredible stitching on this beautiful quilt. I can't even imagine how much thread was used. It was covered with the most intricate designs, and a few fun things (I saw some tiny turtles). This is the kind of thing I would never in a million years contemplate doing, but I certainly appreciate the fact that some people do.
This was a fun challenge. About twenty people entered, with the requirement that they all use the same pattern and fabric to make the same 30 inch quilt. They could embellish it and quilt it any way they chose, so there were twenty very different quilts, but all the same. I enjoyed seeing them.
People came from all over the country, and some came from Canada to this amazing event. As you can see, I didn't come home empty handed. Some of the things were part of the registration, and some I bought. That bag has a pouch for a water bottle, and the name badge is a cute little pocket you wear around your neck to hold your scissors or thimble or other small item that is easily lost.
I love this display of miniature quilts.
It was really too nice a day to stay inside, and I had a long break between classes to scoot down the street to visit my mom and take her out for a walk. Yes! This amazing event was just half a mile down the road from where my mom lives - how perfect is that??
Another example of someone's amazing talent.
More miniatures.
Aren't these colors gorgeous? And those points! If you do any piecing, you know it isn't easy to make all your points perfectly pointy.
The autumn leaves are at their peak of lovliness right now.
I loved this trailer! It turns out that it is the name of a shop that sells quilting rulers, and they had a whole shop set up inside.
I got to watch DeLoa Jones quilt a chicken just like this on her longarm machine, and you know what? It took her about ten minutes - maybe less. I took her class on feathering, and may be able to incorporate her wisdom to my 35 year old domestic sewing machine. :>}

Take care, and thanks for joining me in the fun!

Celebrating Autumn with some sewing.

Hello, Blog Friends! I had a fun day getting ready for the quilt class I am going to on Thursday. One of the items on the class list is a sewing machine in good working order. I spent part the afternoon making sure my back up machine is working well and ready to travel. :>}
I spent the other part of the afternoon making fabric decisions. I wasn't happy with the way this one was coming out, so I set it aside for a while. I'm thinking about orange for the binding, and covering up the brown center square with a lovely cream color. The leaf button shows up better on the cream.
The cat, who normally helps every step of the way of any project going, finally got tired of helping me decide what to use.
He decided to take a nap instead.

I hope you have had a wonderful weekend, and that the week ahead is filled with blessings.

This and that

Have you heard of these books? Pretty interesting!

What a cute little wooley bear caterpiller. Legend says that the size of his black stripes indicates the severity of the coming winter. Looks like a mild winter to me!
When I invited you to work with me, I forgot to show you the outside. Michele, one of the nurses, and also the wife of Dr. Lenox, keeps the flower garden looking lovely. You can see her picture here. Wooo-hooo! Did you observe the LINK?? Miss Daisy VERY kindly sent me the most concise directions, so that even I can do links now. Thank you ever so much, Daisy!

Larry's parents came to celebrate John's 85th birthday with us, and brought some pretty flowers along from their next door neighbor's garden.

I hope you have a pleasant week, and thanks for stopping by.

Take Your Blog Friends to Work Day

This week I don't get my day off, so I thought I'd invite my blog friends to come to work with me. One of the gals is on vacation, and it is our very busiest time of year, so I'm spending a lot of time here. This is our waiting room.

While you're waiting to see the doctor you can read all the interesting things on our bulletin board. These are mostly selected by the doctors, but I get a bit of input. :>} We have things to read to help pass the time.

Everybody LOVES to play with the train. I disinfect it every few days, because it gets covered with lots of sticky finger prints.

Would you like to wear a mask? Or use a tissue or some hand sanitizer?

If you're a good girl, you get to choose a lollipop, or even two!

How do you like my mouse pad? Vista Print can do amazing things with photos.

I quietly slip small quilts in here and there. I'm thinking of adding a bigger one this week.

Here is where I sit, ready to greet the patients and do what I can to help them. Good morning, may I help you?

I hope you have a lovely day, and thank you for visiting me at work.

Another sunrise.

I'm enjoying the sunrise projects!

Too pretty to cut up.

As much as I like to cut up perfectly good fabric so I can sew it back together again, this fabric is too pretty to cut up. Since my quilting class isn't for another three weeks, I just stitched a two inch diamond grid. Like always. LOL

The back is orange, and I left two extra inches all the way around so I could self bind it with the backing. So easy!

I bravely used green thread on the top and orange in the bobbin, and I was happy with the way it came out.

Except then I began to wonder if maybe brown binding would look better. The cat helped me decide.

We decided orange would be just fine. So now it's finished! It's for a gal at work who will soon have a new grandson.