Baby Booties

Another friend of mine became a grandmother, for the fourth time! 🙂 – she has an adorable granddaughter.  I saw this on Pinterest, and of course just had to make a pair:

2016_BabyBooties

Spring Break Hike

DH and I took the opportunity to join Dear Daughter on a Spring Break hiking trip.  We started with the Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens, then on to Inspiration Point.  The views were spectacular! And on the advice of our Innkeeper, we climbed Grass Mountain.  Well, I managed 1,950 feet climb before it got too steep and gravelly, and my mild high anxiety kicked in :).  DH and DD sallied forth and made it to the top, another 150 feet climb or so.  This time of year, the wild flowers were in full bloom and amazing! And we managed to fit in a hike up to the Gaviota Wind Caves, another hike with gorgeous views.

2016_SpringBreakHike

Zentangle Challenge #261 Stacked Bijou

Today has been one of those “anything but…” days.  So, rather than do what I needed to do around the house, I checked in with the Diva to see what was going on.  It’s been almost three years since I did a Zentangle challenge, so it was a nice change of pace.  I even broke out my water colors to paint the different size tiles.  Here is my Stacked Bijou:

Challenge261

Challenge#261StackedBijou_BlogA little hurried… Today was the last day for this challenge.

Tagging Along

DH had a business trip to the State Capital, so I tagged along.  Some sightseeing, shopping, and eating out.  Fun, but I prefer playing tourist with the company of others.  Found some nice quilt shops along the way.  Spent a night in Cambria on the way down home, and even had time to do pebble art – day dreaming of a seaside cottage one day… Came back in time for my Longarm rental day – finished the quilt I started at the retreat!

2016_Sacramento&Cambria

Quilt Retreat!

I just got back from a fun Quilt Retreat at Vina De Lestonnac.  Round the clock sewing and chatting.  Best part of all, all meals prepared and served – no cleaning up! And, I still marvel at how much a bunch of women can talk all day, and into the wee hours of the night 🙂

QuiltRetreat2016Feb

Hemet Quilt Show

Some eye candy from the 2016 Hemet Quilt Show hosted by the Valley Quilter’s Guild:

IMG_2603 IMG_2604 IMG_2608 IMG_2609 IMG_2610 IMG_2611 IMG_2612 IMG_2613 IMG_2614 IMG_2615 IMG_2616 IMG_2617 IMG_2618 IMG_2619 IMG_2620 IMG_2621 IMG_2622 IMG_2623 IMG_2624 IMG_2625 IMG_2626

Happy Quilts!

As much as I admire art quilts, I have a preference for utilitarian quilts.  Quilts that can be lovingly used, scrunched up, and washed over and over again.  We hosted our daughters Collegiate Cycling team this weekend, and our quilts were put to good use.  The guys and bikes slept in my Studio surrounded by quilts! I threw in a photo of dear daughter, courtesy of Cycling Illustrated.

Quilt2013Cycling

A Baby Quilt

Baby quilts are fun to make.  Small, cute, and fast to complete. Kind of an instant gratification quilt.  My friend Muriel has a new grandson, and when I came across this French bunnies fabric, I could not resist 🙂

Quilt2016MurielGrandson

A Modern Quilt

My very first modern quilt.  Dear Hubby hung curtain rods in my studio – perfect for displaying my latest creation.  And my sweet quilting buddy, Hiro 🙂

Quilt2016Modern1

Pink Cactus!

Yay! I have finally finished my Pink Cactus painting!Pink Cactus

Scamp!

Wow, what a great start to a new year! A coupe of months ago, I entered a drawing for a really neat quilt top, Scamp.  Linda Miller has a website, Quilts And Quilt Tops, where she posts all the wonderful tops that she creates.  Linda is not only a very productive and talented quilter, she is also very generous.  When I entered the drawing, I selected “Scamp” as my choice, and as luck would have it, I won! And here is Scamp, a very scrappy hexie quilt top – love it!

ScampYou can visit Linda’s Site, admire all her beautiful quilt tops (they are available for purchase), and enter the next drawing.  Thank you Linda!