Crazy Quilt, Fabrics and a Ghost Town

Hurrah...my blocks arrived from the second round of the crazy quilt swap on about.com, and i just love them :)
I was trying on different colors for sashing, and i think i like this dark red best...what do you think? I played around with the images in Photoshop to help decide on the color. I love that program! Be sure to click on the picture for a larger image to see all the lovely stitching and details. Some of the squares still have the basted border, so ignore those :) Also, one of the squares was made by me, so naturally it hasnt been decorated at all yet!

Im also participating in an I-spy swap, and these are some of the fabrics i ordered for it. I have some coming from different stores online, so ill post those when they arrive. Ive always wanted to make an I-spy quilt, but i dont have many novelty fabrics, so this should be a fun and easy way to collect a larger variety. I havent decided how i want to set them yet...i was thinking of an attic window pattern or perhaps a snowball pattern...any suggestions?

The weather has been cooling off a bit, but it was gorgeous this weekend, so Jordyn and i went for a drive with our friend Connie. We headed up towards the pass and drove around looking for moose. We spotted a mother and her baby, which was fun and we watched them for quite a while. Then we headed up to the moose center, which is a very neat place.

We were having such a nice time that we decided to continue on our journey. We drove around Gould, and stumbled upon a road to Teller City (which was established in the late 1800's and is now a ghost town).

There isnt much left of the old city, but there is enough to let your imagination fill in the gaps. There were informative plaques throughout the hike, which made it even more fun, and the surrounding area was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, the Pine-beetle have really killed off a lot of the trees, but it was still gorgeous.

Sometimes the best adventures are the ones that arent planned! We had a great time, and it was a wonderful weekend!

Life is a Bowl of Cherries!

My trip to Denver, albeit HOT, was wonderful! We enjoyed playing in the sprinkler, visiting with family, and we even went to a car show...a fundraiser for cancer.
I was able to do some embroidery while i was there, and i finished these up when i got home. Im finished with round two of the crazy quilt swap on about.com, so i can relax a bit! :) At least until the second round of the ALQS swap run by Kate. I decided to give it another go, so that will be my next swap project. I dont plan on doing any other swaps for the rest of the year...i want to get started on my Christmas gifts, which probably seems early, but i know how slow i can be :)
Anyways, this first square is for Cris. She wanted pastel embellishments, and i was working with blues, so i thought the watch face would be a fun touch. Its a bit unusual, but goes with the colors and the theme nicely...i hope she likes it.

These are the two Christmas blocks with the hunter green/cranberry color choice for Randi (in Italy) and Rebecca. I liked the way the gold brightened them up, so i threw a lot of that in there. The cherubs were to cute not to put in there, and since one of them is going to Italy, i thought it should definitely have a cherub! :)

And lastly, here is a photo i took of myself out in the yard on Monday. Usually, between the deer, the bear, the squirrel and the birds, we hardly ever get any of the cherries off of our dwarf tree. This year, however, we scored a couple pounds of cherries! Yummy! Anyone have any good sour cherry recipes for me? I need to bake them up or store them in the freezer real soon, so please send soon ;)