Lunch in Boulder City

Good morning, my friends. We had a slow day yesterday. Our only plan was to go have lunch in Boulder City, and then get some fudge to enjoy with our afternoon cup of espresso. Before leaving, I spent some time on my embroidery, filling my hoop.

While I worked on that, the kitties shared some of their wheat grass. 

We waited for the noon crowd to clear out, and then headed over to the Boulder Dam Brewing Co. We try to have at least one meal here each time we're in Boulder City. I inadvertantly caught a selfie when I took the picture below.

It was good, as it always is. Mike had their club sandwich.

I had a Reuben. We each ate half, and brought half home to enjoy for today's lunch.

While we ate, we enjoyed the sounds of the grackles. There were several in the tree right beside us.

This one offered to help us eat our lunches.

If you've never heard the sound of a grackle, you can here it with the video below. They have quite a repertoire.

Walking the sidewalks of Boulder City, one sees dozens of bronze statues with plaques. I sent this one to my pig-loving friend, Sue.

Boulder City is proud of its heritage as the location of Hoover Dam, and it honors the many who built the dam with statues and other works of art. The plaques accompanying the statues follow the image.

It was only about a block to walk to the fudge place.

It wasn't as much fun as some of the other fudge venues we've visited. These were the flavors. On the far right was chocolate walnut. They were sold by the quarter-pound slice, and so we got a slice of each.

Wrapped in paper, they aren't as easy to see as when they're wrapped in plastic wrap.

Back at the RV we cut off a hunk of the peanut butter and enjoyed that with our espresso. And then we all took naps...kitties too. Kitties like to take naps.

From there, we just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Mike went out for a short bike ride. I spent a little more time on my stitching. Today we're going to visit the dam. As Mike said this morning, “We’ll be dammed.” My friend, Dorothy, sent me a link to an item at the dam we might have missed on our many previous visits. We'll search it out today, and then I'll tell you about it in tomorrow's post. For now, it's back to my slow-stitching. I expect to finish my piece today or tomorrow. 

"Motion" Reveal: After the Storm

Good morning, my friends. Today I can reveal my “Motion” quilt for The Endeavourers art quilt group, but before I do, lets catch up on what happened yesterday, shall we? And let me just tell you, we made good on our goal to do nothing for the entire day. It's good to attain one's goals, wouldn't you agree?

I spent some time on my slow-stitching, finishing off the right side of the turtle.

Now, I've moved my hoop down. The bottom triangle is the turtle's tail, and so I'll be moving up the left side of the turtle now. Probably I have at least another couple of days before I'm finished.

This is the first time the kitties have been able to enjoy the morning sunshine. We were shaded by trees in Escondido. Sadie enjoyed it from the back of the couch.

Smitty settled down on one of the quilts.

Later in the day, I got outside for a walk. One of the things I love most about Boulder City is the sound of the grackles.

On my walk, I had a good view of the "BC" on the hillside behind the RV park.

And that was pretty much the sum total of my day. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. But it was good to relax and do nothing.

So let's just talk about this reveal quilt. Since I had just a short time to work on my project before leaving on this trip, I wanted to find something I could do quickly. Often when I’m looking for ideas, I consult The Google. After typing “motion in quilts” into my search bar, I came up with “bargello.” Cool! I’d never made a bargello quilt before, and I didn’t even know how to get started. So I spent a little more time searching, and came up with an idea from Quilt Inspiration for a free bargello pillow pattern. 

I’ll admit to feeling a little guilty about using a pattern for this, but since I had limited time, and it was a technique completely new to me, I cut myself a break this time. Pawing through my stash, I came up with these fabrics.

The first step was to cut strips all the same width and then sew them together in order. Here’s how that looked.

Next, I was to sew the two ends together to form a tube.

Next, I was to cut strips perpendicular to what I had already. Those were cut in variable widths. To get the feeling of motion, the tubes were “unsewn” at different color changes until I had a pattern of strips that looked like this:

It made sense to sew the strips together using the quilt as you go method. I created a large-enough back and batting, and then sewed the quilt top together quilting each strip to the ones that came before.

Then, I squared it up, gave it a red binding, and my quilt was finished.

Here’s how it looks from the back.

And since you can’t have a rainbow without some stormy weather, I’m calling my quilt “After the Storm.” It ends up 20 x 20 inches. To see more “Motion” quilts, please visit The Endeavourers blog right here. I hope you like my quilt. Having made this one little bargello quilt, I’d like to try another one…larger this time.

Today will probably look a lot like yesterday. We want to head up to the grocery store for a few things, but we don't have much else on the agenda. There are some hikes we want to do in this area, and I'll be consulting a hiking book this morning to see if there's anything a little farther from the city. We don't like hiking with the Sunday crowds. 

So, off I go. It's time for our Sunday morning pancakes. It's the first day of the shortest month of the year. That seems like something to celebrate.

Egrets...I've Had a Few

Good morning, my friends. Our time here in Escondido is nearly at an end. We'll be here today and tomorrow, but then we'll move along to Boulder City, Nevada. We're still enjoying our time here, and we have yet to see everything on our list of things to do. Anything we don't do this trip will go on the list for next year.

My yesterday started with my slow-stitching. I've filled the hoop on this section now.

I decided to try the longer and larger Sashiko needle included with my kit. In the image below, the embroidery needle I usually use is shown on the right. This is the large-eyed needle I use for Perle cotton floss. The one on the left is the Sashiko needle included with my kit. The eye appears slightly larger, and the needle itself has a thicker shift. 

I prefer a shorter needle, but the larger Sashiko needle pulled the floss through the fabric easier and with less drag. I think that will help keep the thread from fraying as I stitch.

So now, I've moved the hoop to the right to stitch the right side of the turtle. That's where I'll start this morning.

We were meeting up with friends for a late lunch, but I had plenty of time to get out for a walk. The lake nearest us was the picture of tranquility. 

On the far side, I spotted our friend the Great Egret. When I'm photographing birds, I zoom in and shoot from a distance. I worry I'll scare them away if I get too close. And so he stood still for this next photo.

As I walked on and got a little closer, I took another shot.

And geez...I needn't have worried about scaring him because at that point he flew across the lake to within about 20 feet of me.

Okay, and so then I walked on. I met up again with these two geese looking for a handout.

Helllllooooooo...remember us? Got any snacks? Tostitos? Funions? Potato chips?

I get the feeling they're fond of Frito-Lay products. One might think they'd prefer Granny Goose potato chips. Are Granny Goose potato chips still being made? (Please tell me you're old enough to remember Granny Goose.)

I spotted a few new blooming things along the way. My phone tells me this next image is viburnum.

So, I walked all the way around the lake, and who did I meet up with yet again on the far side of the lake? It's our friend the Great Egret.

I'm starting to think he's just a camera ham, although it looks as if he has a bead on something here.

Across the lake there was a double-breasted cormorant. He kept flapping his wings and shaking off the water.

Also, these mallards. It appears each of the males has attracted a female. Do you suppose they’re double-dating?

My phone tells me this is Ceanothus cuneatus. (That's a mouthful.)

When I got back from my walk, I noticed Sadie had found a spot of sunshine to sleep in. 

We were getting ready to meet up with our Gang of Ten at a local BBQ restaurant. I've known most of these folks longer than anyone else in the world. I've known some of them longer than I've known Mike. 

Except for the gentleman second from the left (David) and the one fourth from the left (Jim), all of the people pictured here graduated from Vista High School. And except for the three men in the middle on the left, we were all in the high school band. Rick (first on the left) played trumpet. Tom (fifth on the left) played saxophone. All of us girls, except for Debi (fourth from the right) played clarinet. Debi played flute. I played alto clarinet and I played piano in the jazz band. (I was a terrible jazz pianist.)

So that was fun. We had a nice lunch, and it was good seeing everybody. And since our time here is growing short, we were saying good-bye until next year to some of these folks. Today we're meeting up with Jim and Debi again for wine and lunch. After that...we'll be spending most of our time putting things away and getting ready to head out. 

I’m hoping to get in a little sewing time tomorrow, but that might just be wishful thinking. Probably I won't get any more sewing done until we get to Boulder City. For now, I'll just focus on my slow-stitching. It's doubtful I can finish off the turtle before we go again, but sometimes I surprise myself. 

So that's all I have for you today. Let's all get on with our days, shall we? I hope y'all are staying warm in this cold winter weather. We can't complain here in Southern California. Nevada should be pretty much the same. We'll be doing more hiking and sight-seeing when we get there, and there's a quilt shop in nearby Henderson that I want to visit. There's still much to do on this trip, so don't unpack just yet.

Whimsical Quilting

Good morning, my friends. It was a busy sewing day yesterday. I managed to finish off my "Motion" challenge, and then I had time to quilt the first row of the Whimsical Garden quilt.

My sewing started with embroidery, as always. But then I moved to hand-stitching the binding for the "Motion" project. It was a small quilt, but I'm sure it was easier to stitch with the help of my trusty stitching cat.

Smitty rested nearby in case his help was needed. Shift work, you know.

In short order, my quilt was finished. Here's your final peek until the reveal on February 1st.

From there, I moved to Eliza's domain. My plan was to get set up for quilting. I wasn't sure I'd actually start. Sometimes I need to get my mind right before I start on something like this.

As I mentioned, this one will be done in white thread. In the bobbin, I'll use this 60 weight Bottom Line thread.

Since I had two partially wound bobbins, it was the obvious choice.

On top, I'll use this So Fine 50 weight thread. This one was a gift from my quilting fairy godmother, Ila. Thank you, Ila.

Checking tension, it looked just fine.

The quilt is five rows of four blocks each. I decided to start here. Somehow my energy level was high enough that I decided to get going. The quilt blocks will be quilted simply by outlining the applique.

This one was next.

Then this one...where the applique extends into the sashing, I'll probably just skip over that part with whatever design I'm using in the sashing.

And finally this one. Four blocks is a good amount for any given day.

As I was finishing up the fourth block, I happened to look outside to see an interesting sunset. If you've been lucky enough to see the auroras in the past couple of days, know that in Oregon never get to see anything special happening in the heavens...and here's why.

Returning to my quilting, I left it needle down at the next row. This is where I'll start today.

And if you've enjoyed this run-down of yesterday's sewing, you can thank Smitty for his careful editing.

There's not a lot on the day's agenda. I'll work on my quilting, and then I'll move into the sewing room. In yesterday's post, I mentioned that I'd start sewing together the quilt blocks for the Merry, Merry Snowmen.

And they are coming up next. First, I want to finish my secret Santa project for a friend. I believe she reads my blog, and so I can't show it. I gave you a little peek recently.

So I'll finish that first before I start on the Merry, Merry Snowmen. It shouldn't take long.

Today might have been a Bowflex day, but something has my left arm aching. It started bothering me last night...as if I'd been given some kind of injection. No idea, but I'll give myself a day off from the Bowflex today and spend my time sewing. Sounds like a good day, no?

So when I'm expecting to have a good day, I kind of want to get started on it right away. I hope you have a good day ahead of you too.