Trio of Tushes

Good morning, my friends, and happy Saturday. It's going to be a busy couple of days here. I have some cooking to do. The kids are coming up for dinner tomorrow. On today's agenda is to make two salads. Tomorrow I'll do some baking. Mike is going to do some burnt ends. Here's a picture of some he made earlier in the year.

We liked them so much the first time we made them, we really wanted to share them with the kids. Erik loves barbecue, and he's an excellent barbecue chef in his own right. I expect I'll have some time for sewing in all of that. 

We were out of the house early (for us) yesterday morning. We had three stops. Mike needed something from the hardware store. After that we got our groceries, and then made one more stop at the liquor store. I needed some brandy for one of my recipes, and we were fresh out of inexpensive, but drinkable brandy. It was fairly late in the day by the time I got into the sewing room. 

My first stop was to take a second look at the bag I showed you yesterday. I wasn't happy with the way the orange liner of the bag blended into the towel she's sitting on. I wanted to change it.

It's possible to remove fused pieces without doing harm. Generally, if I'm changing my mind about something I do it right in the moment, rather than letting it sit overnight. When I tried to pull up these two pieces, they frayed and pulled apart. When I removed them from the quilt, they left behind fusible residue. Usually, that comes off easily too. Yesterday's...not so much. 

I tried scraping it off with my finger nail, and I tried picking it off with my fingers. Then, I tried scratching it off with the back-end of my tweezers. No dice. So, then I dabbed it with a Q-tip dipped in lighter fluid, and still, it wanted to stay where it was. I was ready to give up when I thought to try pressing it with some freezer paper. And wow...that really did the trick. I put the shiny side against the fabric, and then ironed over it. 

It took that fusible off like nobody's business, and it looked as if it had never been there. So, I learned something new.

And then, I went to work making another bag with a different liner. I stuck with the same teal I'd used on the hat band and the edge of the towel. I like this better.

She still needed her flip-flops, and I added the drink sitting on the wall between her and her friend.

From there, I went to work on the right-most of the ladies...this one:

She has a different larger bag, and she also has a drink to her right. Now the right side of the piece is finished. Here are my three ladies.

I expect I'll be able to finish at least one more of the ladies today. If I'm lucky, I can finish the fifth one too.

So while we sat watching the news last night, a bobcat strolled through our field. We hadn't seen him all year. I wasn't quick enough to capture him with my camera, but there are a couple of pictures I took back in 2017. 

Isn't he a handsome fellow? Of course, he's not as handsome as Smitty, but then...Smitty. Enough said.

Here's another picture taken as he strolled away.

Sadie saw him too. This is a kitty's version of "Holy Sh*t! What did I just see?"

Also, be sure to check out our tree in its fall colors in the upper right of the image above.

Okay, so I've already said it's going to be a kitchen day. With so much to do yesterday morning, I didn't get any slow-stitching done yesterday. I'll spend a little more time with that today before getting on with my kitchen duties. I'm also hoping to get in a walk on the treadmill. As always, there's much to do. Time to get to it. Have a good day, Everybody!

Cherry Creek State Park; Aurora, Colorado

Good morning, my friends. It was a short drive to Aurora yesterday, and that meant we had a leisurely morning in Colorado Springs. We stayed until just before noon, and then headed north. While we waited, Mike and Smitty took their shadow selves out for a final walk.

Smitty was not at all sure this was a good idea. He convinced his shadow self to go back inside after just a few minutes.

While they were walking, I was busy working on my slow-stitching. There's still a long way to go on this, but I'm making progress.

Eventually, the kitties settled in for some tandem napping.

Sadie is especially skilled at this.

Eventually, it was time to move along. We caught a final glimpse of Garden of the Gods as we left Colorado Springs.

Just a little ways north, we passed by this formation. Inquiring of The Google, I learned that this is known as "Pulpit Rock." 

Pulpit Rock is a popular natural rock feature and namesake for the 500-acre Pulpit Rock Park located within the Austin Bluffs Open Space. Found within city limits, it is very easy to visit Pulpit Rock and ascend to the summit on a moderately difficult 4.2-mile loop hike. It is 6,621 feet in elevation above El Paso County, and can be seen while driving on Interstate 25 between Colorado Springs and Denver. 

Farther north, we could see Cathedral Rock. Cathedral Rock is a rock formation located on the U.S. Air Force Academy grounds. The formation was part of the namesake Cathedral Rock Ranch, owned by Lawrence Lehman. Lehman sold the 4650 acre ranch, including Cathedral Rock, to the U.S. Air Force, and it became the first component of the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Moving on, we saw Castle Rock. It is the namesake of the town of Castle Rock, Colorado.

So it was a slow day for barns, but there was still plenty to see geology-wise. 

We ended up entering the state park through the back entrance.

As we entered, I snapped this picture of the lake and the dam. I'm assuming they're damming Cherry Creek here.

As I got out of the truck to purchase our day use passes, I caught just the tail end of this prairie dog.

This one posed for his picture more cooperatively.

The vending machines that sell day use passes were both out of order. Signage in the park was not particularly helpful and we ended up driving the entire length of the park without ever finding the campground. A sign directed us to "Visitor Center/Campground" with an arrow to the right, but we drove back out of the park and into a busy traffic area of downtown Aurora, Colorado. This never makes us happy. 

We were able to find a place to turn around, and then drove back to the park, stopping at the visitor center and asking...essentially...WTF? A very nice young man accepted our payment for two day use passes (Colorado camping fees to not include day use fees), and directed us to the campground. We found it just about five minutes later. On our way, I snapped this picture. I believe those would be the Rocky Mountains.

This seemed like another good place for Smitty to get out for a walk. While Mike was getting us hooked up outside, I got him out for a short stroll. He nibbled at the grass for just a minute, but then he wanted to go back inside. He's a little shy about a new place until he has a chance to assess the lay of the land and the placement of any nearby woofies.

We had a very  nice evening with my friend, Carol. It was my first time meeting her husband, David. He is an electrical engineer, like Mike, and so those two had plenty to talk about. Carol and I spent the evening gabbing and catching up on the 52+ years since we've seen one another. Here's a picture of the two of us.

Carol and David are going to keep us busy today. We have a plan to drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park. Our only other trip to Rocky Mountain National Park ended when we had to run for our lives to escape rain and flooding "of biblical proportions" (the weatherman's words, not mine). It'll be good to spend a little more time there.

Carol is a fabulous wildlife photographer, and she knows the good places to go to find wildlife. As an example, she took us to a nearby trail where she'd discovered a nesting Eastern Screech Owl. I had only my cell phone with me, and this is the image I captured.

Carol had a long lens (weighing 5 lbs.) on her camera. These are the images she captured.

You might remember that I made a quilt from one of her fox images...this one:

This is the quilt I made from Carol's photo.

It was nice to see it hanging in a place of prominence above her fireplace. 

So I've charged the battery on my DSLR camera, and I'll take my longest lens. I'm hoping to get some good photos of moose and their offspring, and whatever else we might find there.

I'm planning to take a day or two off from blogging. We're going to be gone all day today, and then Mike and I are going to celebrate our 49th wedding anniversary with a nice breakfast tomorrow morning. Our next destination will be the small town of Kremmling, Colorado, and there don't seem to be any nice restaurants there. A celebratory breakfast seemed like a good alternative to dinner.

Look for me again down the road in a few days. We'll do some time-traveling, and I know I'll have plenty to tell you by then.

An Update and a Quilt Shop

Good morning, my friends. It's another busy day ahead. Happily, there's nothing that will take me away from home for at least several days. Just staying home makes the day a whole lot more peaceful. My apologies for teasing you with the quilt shop for the past few days. I'll finish off with our time traveling posts today and tell you all about it. But first, an update on yesterday's activities.

There were pickled beets to finish off. I managed to get five pints from my paltry harvest. As I mentioned, I supplemented with a few from the grocery store to have a complete batch.

Those had to process for 35 minutes. I added in one of the pickled carrot jars that failed to seal as well. Now all of those puppies are sealed and shelf-stable. 

While they were processing, the kitties and I went out to water the annuals and check on the vegetables. Smitty barely had his eyes open.

Sadie was ready for business.

On the way to the vegetable garden, I noticed the catnip in the Gracie Memorial Catnip Garden is blooming. The bees like it.

Both of the Procut Gold Lite sunflowers have opened now. 

Mainly, I was there to check for anything that needed harvesting. Of course there was zucchini. I'm barely keeping my head above the zucchini waterline. Also, there were exactly two carrots. I may get more carrots from the seeds I planted, but I'm afraid the gophers have eaten most of them. Sigh.

Ears of corn are developing on the stalks. That's always good to see. The corn has to ripen before we take off on another month-long trip in September.

Checking the dahlias, I found the Fuzzy Wuzzy dahlia blooming. I'll check on it again this morning to see if its any larger.

Checkers seems to be fully opened. I'm watching the side flowers now.

The blue hydrangea is looking pretty.

Behind me, the variegated hydrangea is covered in flowers as well.

It has pink and purple flowers on the same plant.

Of course, I can't resist taking more pictures of the echinacea.

It's humming with bee activity.

Back inside, I had housekeeping chores to catch up on. I managed to make my way into the sewing room late in the afternoon. After spending an hour on Tiny House #27, I had sections completed through letter "M." I'm hoping to complete Sections "N" through "R" today, and that will finish it off.

Sadie was my helper cat for this.

She tires quickly from papurr-piecing. (Don't we all?) She ended up napping while I finished up my day of sewing.

I was able to get two more blocks attached to the Vintage Linen quilt top. That completes the first row. There are nine blocks in all, so two more rows to go.

Also, I'm experimenting with some border fabrics. Purple and yellow are complementary colors, and so I'd like to use some of those purples that were gifted to me last month. I tried these two. With a dark purple binding, I think this could work.

It's hard to decide until I have the quilt top completed, and I can see how big it will be. I believe it will end up around 56 inches square, and so I have some room if I want to add borders. And I have other purples too. Nothing is decided yet, and I'm open to ideas.

When I went upstairs, I found Miss Sadie in her catio, half in the sunshine and half in the shade. I think this is the cat equivalent of dangling one foot out from under the blanket when you get too hot for covers, but too cold without them.

Okay, so let's just talk about that quilt shop, shall we? I was very surprised to find this shop in such a remote area. We stopped off on our way to the flour mill. The building where it was located shared space with a hairdresser. We were a little early on our arrival.

What do you think that name means? Is it something like, I'd rather be quilting? The building was open for the hairdresser. Walking through the front door into a foyer, I found this.

Except for the hairdresser, there was nothing else in the building that I could see. However, there were some locked doors in a room across the hall. At first, I dismissed this as a place that sold quilts, but not fabric. We left and visited the flour mill, but then stopped back on our way out of town. That was when I found the doors to the fabric store unlocked and open. Walking through the doors, it looked like this.

The place seemed abandoned, but there were voices coming from the left side and behind the fabric there. I walked around a little bit before disturbing the two people who were talking. I found a lot of patriotic fabrics and Christmas fabrics. Indeed, the store was around 70% holiday fabrics.

There were a few other things in the mix. The ones below were 108" wide for backs. The aqua one in the center was used as the back for my Quiltmaker's Garden quilt.

There were LOTS of panels.

And more holiday fabrics.

Many of the fabrics I saw were some of the first ones I bought back in 2008 when I first learned to quilt.

This was a small shop with lots of fabric, but little else. I started thinking it was either a co-op, or it was a store meant to support the owner's long-arm business. When I introduced myself to the two people mentioned earlier, it turned out to be a repairman and the owner who was fussing over her malfunctioning long arm machine. It was an old industrial-looking long-arm, and it needed a part that was no longer being manufactured. Who wouldn't be raising a fuss over that?

I really am not in the market for any more yardage. My search was for a regional fabric for my Shop Hop quilt. Still, I saw a few things that were very tempting. If I'd had any idea about how to use this one, I might have bought it.

Trucks like these always make me think of my grandfather, but I passed on both of them.

For my regional fabric, I selected this one. With the shop located in this vast grain-growing region, what else could I have chosen?

So, I enjoyed this shop, and I especially enjoyed briefly chatting with the owner. We commiserated over her broken long-arm. I wonder how she will get it repaired with a part no longer available. If we visit the area again, I might check back and see how she solved her problem. And if one of you is in the area, you can ask, and let me know what you find out.

Okay, so that brings our trip to a close. We'll be home now until after Labor Day. I'll say more about future travels as they approach. Today I'm making more zucchini relish...two batches...and I'm hoeing the garden. There is more housekeeping to do. (I told you I was woefully behind.) After I finish today's canning, I expect the week will settle down a little. Tomorrow I'll be doing some cooking for when we have dinner guests on Friday. After that, I can let out a sigh of relief and relax for a bit.