My Crazy Quilt Blocks

Here are the lovely blocks i received from the Crazy Quilt Swap on about.com. Arent they fabulous!!! I set them up in Photoshop so i could see what they will look like with a black border, however, i still have lots of embellishing of my own to do, so i wont be sewing them together for a while. The photos themselves arent the best, as it was nighttime, and the shiny fabrics were hard to photograph...but since i plan to take before and after shots of my hand work, i think these will work. Also, ignore the sewn markers...those were the embellishing bounderies, and i havent removed them yet :)
I am in between swaps right now...i know, i said i wasnt going to do any for a while to get caught up on all my UFO's, but i couldnt pass up another crazy quilt swap. This time my theme is christmas colors. Should be fun!
Anyways, while i am between swaps, i have been enjoying our wonderful weather...and my garden is pretty happy too. Here is an iris blooming in my garden (for the first time). I manipulated it a bit in Photoshop. Dont you just love the colors of summer!

Life at 40

Here we are at the Denver Zoo for my 40th birthday. I never like to make a big deal about my birthday, so we decided to sneak off to the zoo for some family fun instead! This was Jordyns first time to the zoo, and she had a blast.

Here she is checking out the Kamodo Dragon...but she had several favorites that day. The Hippos, River Otters, Monkeys, Snakes, and the giant aquarium fish, to name a few.

The petting zoo was a big hit...she loved the little goats, but didnt care much for the turtle. In fact, when she pet his shell, it gave her the heebie-jeebies. I think she was expecting something a little softer.
We had a nice lunch, burgers, fries and a hot dog, and Jordyn got the zoo meal, which included a cute little tiger lunch box with animal crackers and chips. She also got a silly giraffe sippy cup filled with a super sugary punch.
Since we stayed till closing time, we were able to enjoy some of the exhibits with no one around. We had the lions all to ourselves, and we also enjoyed the polar bears with no interruptions. The gift shop, however, was a total madhouse!

Jordyn picked out a pink monkey, and i picked out the biting crocodile, a zebra shirt for Jordyn, and daddy picked out a magic wiggleees.

The weather was fabulous, and a fun time was had by all! It was a perfect day, and a great way to spend my 40th birthday! Life at 40...is excellent!

whats new...

Well, its almost done...my ALQS quilt for ? All it needs is a hanging sleeve and the label, and its on its way to ? Im pleased with it, though i wouldnt say its perfect. Had a few puckers, and mismatched points, but it was made from the heart, so i hope its loved by its receiver just the same. Ill be happy to know what she/he thinks of it.

Its been rather busy up here...summer is in full bloom, and we are now bee keepers. The hive was delivered on Saturday morning...you can see part of it in the photo below...that is, if you can look past the bear :) The small stone building in the background...see the window with the bars on it (i guess you can figure why we had to put bars on it). We also picked up a few fruit trees on Sunday...its always been Justin's dream to have a small orchard, so hopefully these trees take to our weather and altitude.

This little bear showed up Wednesday afternoon, and again tonight. As you can see, she knocked our garbage over looking for goodies. She is pretty young, and seems to be alone...not sure if the momma bear is around, or if she abandoned this one to have more cubs, but she seems rather young to be alone. (we think its a she). I hope she doesnt make our garbage can part of her daily routine. Bears make an awful mess!

And speaking of mess...this little terror had fun with her markers, and colored all over herself. She is definitely nearing those terrible twos...frustrating, funny, challenging, and loving, all at the same time. But look at that face...how could she possibly be a terrible two :)

ALQS teaser #4

Here is the top for my ALQS swap...not much of a teaser i suppose, but you still dont know what the border is going to look like :) It went together pretty well, though i had a few points that went astray...but for so many HST's, it wasnt too bad. I should be able to finish things up rather quickly now, as i want to do simple machine quilting on it...so its almost there. I really hope my rcvr likes it...i certainly enjoyed working on it! Now to come up with a name for it....

Meanwhile, for an update on the wildlife...the black bears have made their first appearance for the season this morning. At about 5am i heard some rumbling around outside...sure enough, a very large black bear had knocked over our trash can....doh! We scared him off before he could make a huge mess though! Summer is definitely here!
Happy Weekend Everyone!

ALQS teaser #3

Here is teaser #3. It was just tooo gorgeous out to not spend most of it outside, and then yesterday was my town day...so i hope to have the top finished today, and then i can try out borders.....so stay tuned! :) Oh...and did i mention i had ran out of white thread! Who runs out of white thread? Well, im well supplied now and good to go! :)

ALQS teaser #2

Okay, okay...so this looks a lot like the first teaser. But now you are looking at 160 HST's :)
hmmmmm....whatever will it be....and who is it for? Now that the crazy quilt swap is over, i can dive right into this project...so stay tuned for more updates soon! Im hoping to have most of the top done today...though it looks to be a gorgeous day out, so i may have to take a break and let Jordyn soak up the sun!
Happy Quilting Folks!

Another Goodbye...

I, sadly, just found out about an old friends passing...Frank Sperling died May 1, 2008 in our old stomping grounds in California. Here we are at prom in 1985. He was a senior and i was a junior. Frank was known as the "coolest" guy around! He had all the best parties, was incredibly funny and kind, and never had a bad word to say about anyone. We were often in mischief together (getting suspended after a donkey basketball game comes to mind :) and his laughter was infectious! He was ill for a long time, though i hadnt heard about it. I moved to Colorado in 1989, and we didnt much keep in touch after that, but he always had a special place in my heart. He was a good friend and i am sad he is gone, but happy that he has left me with so many wonderful memories. My heart goes out to his family. Goodbye Franko!