Happy Holidays

Things are still running on fast forward around here, but I just had to share these pictures of Kate and Oliver getting in the Christmas spirit.

First, Kate, a hound who is willing to do just about anything for a piece of Parmesan cheese:

And Oliver, a feisty kitten who paused under the tree for just a minute before resuming his forays up the trunk:

Happy Holidays!

Fast Forward

I can't believe Thanksgiving has already come and gone! I've been busy with my internship, with Oliver the kitten (and his big sister, Kate the hound), with family gatherings -- and with crafting!

My mom picked out a set of fat quarters she liked when I was visiting her in Missouri in late August, and I managed to finish this table runner and send it to her just in time for Thanksgiving:

She requested matching napkins, but I haven't gotten those done just yet. My goal is to send them to her by next Thanksgiving!

I've also finished 1 of my 5 quilts (you know, the ones that were supposed to be done by Christmas...). It was a birthday present for my mother-in-law last month. She loves Christmas decorations, so a Christmas throw seemed like a no-brainer. I really love this quilt -- it was hard for me to give it away! Here's the front:

And the back, a lovely dark green-and-red plaid:

I had some assistance from Oliver with the quilting. He's a good little helper!

I'm hard at work on quilt #2 (of 5! Did I mention there are 5 of them?!?), with more finished projects to come, I hope!

Weil Update

My 8 Weeks project, like so many other things, dropped off the radar screen with the arrival of the kitten. I'm not sure what the cat has to do with not caring about my health anymore, but there you have it. We have still been walking most days (except when it's pouring), we're still taking our vitamins, and our favorite way to incorporate garlic is by eating spinach & garlic pizza (yummy!). We've also tried crystallized ginger (not quite like candy, but interesting!) and used ginger in some new recipes, like the pumpkin-squash soup I made this weekend. I haven't been meditating as much, although I was doing well for a while, but I try to do the relaxing breathing every day.

I started a new internship at the end of September, and I'm still getting used to my new schedule. Which means I'm pretty much exhausted in the evenings. I have a 3-week streak of falling asleep Friday night after dinner and not waking up til lunchtime on Saturday, and there doesn't seem to be much sign of that changing, so for now I'm trying to hang on to the healthy changes I already made without adding anything new until I've got a better handle on my new routine. To be continued!

New Arrival

Meet Oliver:

This little rascal is a huge part of the reason I haven't been online much lately (and therefore not blogging at all since August!). He moved into our garage in late August and, after being evicted twice, he set up camp underneath a rose bose in the backyard. We don't encourage stray kitties to hang around the yard, since we feed wild birds and that just doesn't seem fair, but Oliver flat-out refused to move on. After a couple days of listening to him cry for his mama (who showed no signs of ever coming back), we took pity on the little guy and now Oliver is an inside cat (our inside cat!).

I've never had a cat before, and it's really different from having a dog. Especially since he's so young -- he was just 5 weeks old when he first snuck into the garage. Oliver gets into everything and has to be supervised at all times to ensure he's not eating the houseplants/shredding my quilts/using the plants as a lavatory/standing on the kitchen counter/goodness only knows what. He's starting to get the hang of the house rules, but we still have to keep a pretty close eye on him, which is why I haven't been doing much sewing or blogging lately.

I'm pretty behind on all my crafty projects but I've gotten back into the swing of things over the last few weeks so hopefully I'll have some new stuff to post shortly!

Weil Week 3 Update

We did pretty well with Week 3, but I'm still struggling with the meditation. Vitamins and broccoli are no problem but meditating is just not happening. And I actually like meditating, so that's not even the problem!

Since there are a few more things I'd like to work on (meditating and stretching especially), and since I didn't sit down and plan the new projects for Week 4 yet, I'm going to repeat Week 3 this week and move on to Week 4 next week. That should help me get a little bit more settled into the meditating routine (I hope).

Iraqi Bundles of Love

I first read about this project on Ellen's blog and thought it sounded really cool. Basically, a soldier stationed in Iraq noticed that the local folks had a strong tradition of making handcrafted goods but badly needed sewing and knitting supplies, and he asked people to send over "bundles" of excess fabric and other supplies for his unit to distribute to the locals. Since I'm such a new quilter, I don't really have much of a stash yet (although I'm definitely working on it) and I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to put anything together by the September 7 deadline.

Then I saw Sew Mama Sew's post about Iraqi Bundles of Love and noticed that they are selling "bundles" through their online store. For $15, you can buy a bundle, which they will ship to Iraq for you. The $15 includes fabric, sewing needles, pins, scissors, a pincushion -- and shipping to Iraq. It's the perfect way to contribute if you can't put your own bundle together. What a wonderful project -- and 2 great ways to help out!

What a Weekend

The last week or so has been really fun and busy, especially last weekend!

I finished a baby gift for a dear friend who is expecting her 2nd baby in October and had lunch with her and several other friends on Saturday. (Pictures of the gift to come!). It was great to catch up with everyone!

My husband and I had craft night with Ellen and her husband (who grilled an absolutely delicious meal to sustain all that sewing) and got a ton of sewing done on the first of my 5 secret surprise projects. I'm hoping to get the quilt top finished in the next day or so. Can't share pictures of that one until it's delivered but let me just say that I am thrilled with how it's turning out!

I had lunch with my husband's family -- my father-in-law's top-secret chili recipe and mother-in-law's banana pudding really hit the spot. Then Ellen and I went to the first meeting of the Rockwall Project Linus group. Abby and Jennifer of Texas Quiltworks in Rockwall set up the meeting for folks who were interested in working with the Dallas group but needed a closer meeting place. I had been thinking about making blankets for Project Linus "someday" and when Abby and Ellen mentioned the meeting to me, I just had to go. (It didn't hurt that Ellen was going to go too and willing to carpool -- turns out that Rockwall isn't really closer for me...)

We hung out at Texas Quiltworks for several hours, sewing and chatting and eating Ellen's cupcakes (made from scratch, no less!). I was super excited to make my first-ever string block, and of course I didn't think to take a picture of it because I was so excited to finish it! I brought more fabric home to make a few more blocks, though, so I'll take pictures of those when they're done. I also grabbed a kit to make a small quilt. I'm not sure how long it'll take me to get that done (my to-do list is growing longer by the day!) but I couldn't pass it up.

Then back home for a lovely dinner with my husband and more sewing on the secret surprise quilt #1. Not quite what I would call a relaxing weekend, but fun nonetheless!

Weil Week 3

This week's to-do list:

• Eat extra fruits and vegetables with at least one meal this week.
• Eat fish at least twice.
• Replace at least one serving of meat with a soy food.
• Keep taking vitamins & supplements.
• Walk 20 mins/day.
• Do some simple stretches daily.
• Keep meditating.
• Ask for recommendations for inspirational books (anybody have any suggestions?)
• Make a list of friends in whose company you feel happier and more optimistic, and make plans to spend time with one of them this week.
• One-day news fast.
• Buy more flowers.
• Find out how to grow some of your own food (this one is optional!).

I think my main focus this week is going to be on the meditation! That one seems to be the hardest for me right now.

Weil Week 2 Update

Here's how we did with our 2nd week of optimum health:

• We are not planning to get a water-purifying system because our fridge has a built-in filter that is supposed to removed chlorine, among other things.
• I'm pretty sure each of us managed to eat fish at least once and broccoli at least twice.
• We ate some whole grains.
• We tried edamame, and I continued to drink soy milk with my cereal.
• Drinking green tea pretty much daily.
• Still taking the vitamins & supplements.
• Got our walking in nearly every day.
• Made plans to got to the mountains for Labor Day (that's our visit to a natural place, in addition to walking with the dog in the evenings).
• Took a news fast -- I managed to go most of the week without reading the news!
• Meditating is still hard for me but I'm working on it.
• I did buy flowers -- yellow roses -- and put them in a place of honor on the dining room table next to the Frog-O-Sphere.

Moving on to Week 3!

Quilt Plano

The Plano Quilt Guild's show was this weekend! What a wonderful day!

My husband and I met Ellen, Abby, and Abby's friend Jane at the show. Ellen and I also ran into Sharon, who we had met at the Garland Quilt Guild meeting earlier this month -- it's a small world! We saw so many beautiful, incredible, inspiring quilts. I can't begin to decribe them all!

Then we shopped. I wasn't even planning to buy anything but I just couldn't help myself! I met Michelle, who designs fabrics and quilt patterns in a Southwestern style. I loved everything in her booth! The designs are gorgeous and unique and I want to make them all. I ended up buying 2 applique patterns -- 1 features blocks that look like Mexican tiles, and 1 features a variety of different Southwestern-style crosses. Then I ended up buying some solid fabrics from another vendor so I can get started on the Mexican tile quilt.

We also stopped at the booth for England Design Studios, which also had patterns and fabric for sale. The patterns all have a naturalistic style -- we were especially drawn to the bird patterns -- and are made using a technique called picture piecing. It's similar to foundation paper piecing except you don't have to sew the pieces to foundation paper. I'm not sure how hard it's going to be but I just had to try it, so we got a pattern and fabric kit to make a small bird feeder wallhanging.

Plus I got a Norman Rockwell Santa Claus panel (no idea what I'm going to do with that), a kit (including backing!) for a cute Christmas wallhanging, a set of fat quarters from the Katie Jump Rope line (also no idea what I'm going to use it for), and some yellow fat quarters for a baby gift I need to make.

And then we bought Ellen an early Christmas present -- a lovely old quilt. I don't know anything about how old it is or where it came from, and it has a few tears and 1 unfortunate coffee stain, but it's pretty, and we liked it, and Ellen liked it, and it was affordable, so we got it. I don't have a picture of it because we already gave it to her -- nothing like instant gratification! -- but maybe she will post a pic of it.

And then after all that I managed to get a ton of sewing done on 1 of the 5 surprise gift quilts I'm working on. Plus I washed and ironed some of the new fabrics. So I did manage to do some sewing in addition to all the shopping!

Weil Week 2

We're starting our second week with Dr. Weil. Our action items for this week include:

• Get information about a water-purifying system. Dr. Weil is especially adamant about avoiding chlorinated water.
• Eat fish once this week.
• Eat broccoli twice.
• Eat more whole grains.
• Try a soy product (I'm thinking edamame rather than tofu....).
• Drink green tea (we've been doing this already but I'm going to buy more tea for us to try at home).
• Keep taking the vitamins & supplements.
• Walk 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week.
• Visit a park or other natural space.
• Take a one-day "news fast" -- no reading, watching, or listening to the news for an entire day.
• Continue meditating 5 minutes a day and add a 1-minute meditation exercise.
• Buy fresh flowers (we were supposed to do this last week but didn't get around to it).

So far, so good. Everything on this week's seems pretty do-able!

Weil Week 1 Update

Here's how we did on our first week of Dr. Weil's health plan:

• Getting rid of unhealthy food: We still have a few salad dressings made from oils other than olive, and we still have diet soda, but we are doing pretty well otherwise.
• Eat salmon 1 time: Done
• Eat broccoli 2 times: Done
• Take vitamins and supplements: I skipped them one day, but otherwise done.
• Wak 10 minutes a day, 5 days: Done
• Meditate 5 minutes a day: Started out good here but haven't done it lately. Turns out I need to find a different time to meditate, because meditating right before I go to bed just puts me straight to sleep.

We're ready for week 2!

Sampler Block #4

It's finished! This is the aptly named Basket and Birds block. The basket is pieced (more tiny triangles!) and the birds and flower are applique.

This was my first foray into applique. I fused the birds and flower to the background and then handstitched around them with a blanket stitch. I really like the fabrics in this block but I had to borrow the dark green for the flower stem and leaves from Ellen; my growing stash of 30s fabric does not include dark greens!

This block seemed to take absolutely forever to finish, but I eventually started to enjoy sewing by hand. Now I want to do more hand sewing -- and it turns out that the September block of the month for the Garland Quilt Guild is an applique pattern using 30s fabrics... That just might be the perfect (small) project to start for those times when I'm away from my machine and want something to sew!

Guilded

I went to the Garland Quilt Guild's August meeting last night with Ellen and Abby. Ellen joined last month and invited Abby and me to come with her this month. The guild ladies were all so nice to us -- I met Cheryl and Marie and Hope and some other sweet ladies whose names I can't remember.

It seemed like everyone was working on some hand-sewing project or other during the meeting; Abby was embroidering these labels, Ellen was embroidering a cute quilt block, Hope was sewing paper-pieced Grandmother's flower garden blocks, and a lady at the next table was knitting. I definitely need to bring something to do with my hands next time! I've never embroidered before but now I want to learn!

Ellen was lucky enough to win a door prize -- a gift certificate to a local quilt store. Ellen was also brave enough to share her happy quilt during the show-and-tell portion of the meeting. The guild does a block of the month each month, too. You make the block (see the instructions for September's block here) and bring it to the meeting, and one lucky person wins all the blocks for that month! One of the show-and-tell quilts was a block of the month quilt that one of the girls had put together after winning the blocks. It was beautiful! I probably won't do the block for next month, but you never know.. I might! I do happen to have plenty of 30s fabric, which is what we're supposed to use for September's block...

The main part of meeting was a presentation on applique by Pebble Rehm. She had brought several absolutely gorgeous quilts to show a variety of different styles and techniques, including a Baltimore album quilt, a Hawaiian quilt, and a Jacobean-style applique quilt. I'm just barely starting to learn applique for my sampler quilt (I'm nearly done with the first applique block -- pictures coming soon, I hope!), and I was really inspired by Pebble's work. All in all, a fun evening!

8 Weeks with Dr. Weil

I started reading Andrew Weil's 8 Weeks to Optimum Health last weekend and thought I might give the program a try. I'd heard of Dr. Weil before (I already had the canine version of the book, 8 Weeks to a Healthy Dog by Shawn Messonnier, and I've been using some of Dr. Weil's mind-body techniques for a stress-management program at my internship). When I ran across 8 Weeks at Half Price Books, I thought I'd give it a try.

Dr. Weil is my kind of doctor; he went to medical school and learned typical "Western" medicine but he has also studied alternative methods and believes that the best medical interventions are the least invasive ones that work. Plus, he believes that true health involves the mind and spirit as well as the body, and so his program incorporates both mind and body.

This book outlines an 8-week program, with different "projects" for each week. At the end, you are supposed to be much healthier than when you started. My husband is willing to humor me (for the moment, anyway), and so we started with Week 1 on Sunday.

The program starts out with small changes: In the first week, you are supposed to throw out unhealthy foods (those with transfats, any oils besides olive oil, artificial sweeteners, or artificials colors), eat broccoli, eat salmon, take vitamins and antioxidants, start walking 10 minutes a day, and do 5 minutes of meditation each day.

We started out with a trip to Whole Foods for vitamins and supplements. My husband, gazing at the infinite variety of expensive supplements, said, "This must be a health plan for rich people." We selected a variety of different health-inducing supplements and a 6-pack of beer to wash down both the vitamins and the sticker shock.

We have been taking the vitamins, walking, and meditating. We had our weekly serving of salmon, and we have broccoli on the menu twice this week. My husband is not yet willing to give up diet sodas (and I did have a diet Coke with lunch, although my goal is to cut back to one soda a day). We have both started drinking green tea (which isn't on the itinerary until Week 2, but I like tea anyway so I was happy to start early).

We'll see how this goes...

More Reading, Less Sewing

This weekend started with an after-dinner trip to Half Price Books, which meant I spent most of my time curled up in one comfy spot or another, reading.

I have 4 new (old) books:

• Andrew Weil's 8 Weeks to Optimum Health
• Melody Beattie's Beyond Codependency
• Gavin de Becker's The Gift of Fear
• Jon Kabat-Zinn's Full Catastrophe Living

So far, I've finished The Gift of Fear (it's about personal safety and predicting violent behavior -- a must-read, though a bit scary), started 8 Weeks to Optimum Health (more on that later), and skimmed Beyond Codependency (not really impressed with that one, but I heard about the author at my internship and thought it was worth a try).

I'm looking forward to starting Full Catastrophe Living, even though I don't really know what it's about; I'd heard of that author from one of my grad school professors and that was the only book of his I could find at Half Price.

I did get a little quilting done around all the reading. I cut out all the fabrics for 1 of the 5 (FIVE!) quilts that I need to have finished before Christmas, and I hope to start piecing it this week. I'm still working on washing, drying, and ironing all the new fabrics I got last weekend, plus I'm nearly done with block 4 from the sampler quilt (remember that one?). And I've got another knitting date coming up this weekend! Definitely keeping busy around here...

Weekend Progress Report

I had a really productive weekend, quilt-wise! I spent a big chunk of Saturday fabric shopping with my husband and Ellen. I got a bunch of new fabrics for birthday and Christmas surprise gifts, which was fun but also a little scary, because now I'm committed to actually making the gifts: 5 quilts. By December. Whew.

I also spent my birthday gift certificate on fabric. I got a big stack of Kaffe Fassett fat quarters in ridiculously vibrant colors and incredibly cheerful patterns. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them -- it's the first time I've ever bought fabric without a plan for how to use the fabric -- and the patterns are a little bolder than my typical style, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to throw caution to the wind just this once and buy something on impulse.

To top it off, I also got a bunch of watercolor-y, wildflower-y fat quarters (had to spend the whole gift certificate, you know!). Again, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with those fabrics, either, but they were so cheerful, I had to have them. Ellen said she was glad that my taste is so different from hers because she can watch me buy all this outlandish fabric and see what I do with it without having to buy it herself!

I also got a ton of sewing done over the weekend. I now have 6 finished blocks for the Clay's Choice quilt (that's 20% of them!). I decided to stop assembling the quilt 1 block at a time and instead chain-piece the component parts, which will then be used to make the final blocks. Each block is made of 16 squares, which combine into 4 identical quarters. I can sew 16 squares together into 1 block, which takes me nearly an hour, or I can sew a pair of squares together, as many times as I want, which takes as much time or as little time as I have available. The 2 squares combine to make a rectangle, and 2 rectangles combine to make a block quarter. Then, when I have a bunch of the block quarters made, finishing the blocks goes a lot faster.

This weekend, I finished all of the red & tan rectangles (which make up half of the block quarter) and got going on the blue & tan rectangles (the other half of the quarter). Then I'll start pairing the rectangles into block quarters, and from there, it's pretty fast to sew the blocks. I went ahead and finished some blocks yesterday, too, because it's fun to see them finished, even if it is less efficient to do it that way.

I also washed, dried, and ironed a load of the new fabrics in betweeen chain-piecing the Clay's Choice blocks -- all in all, a busy and productive weekend!

New Quilt: Clay's Choice

Now that the sunflower quilt is finally done, I've started on a new one. This one is called Clay's Choice, and I got the pattern out of this book. The sample quilt in the book features navy blue, bright red, and white fabrics -- very patriotic. When my husband and I went to pick out fabric, however, we couldn't find what we wanted in that color scheme, so we went with a deeper red, dusty blue, and soft tan with blue flowers. The effect is a bit more muted but still lovely.

Here's the first block:

We scaled up the pattern so it will fit our queen-sized bed. When I say we, I mean my husband did it -- he drew out the updated pattern on graph paper and calculated how much fabric we would need for the larger size. He's a great quilting assistant!

There are now 30 blocks in this quilt plus 3 borders, and so far I have just 2 blocks done, but I'm hoping I can get this quilt finished in time for Labor Day. We'll see how it goes, but I'm definitely thinking this may be my last queen-size quilt for a while! I'm looking forward to making a nice throw or 2...

Sunflower Quilt

As promised, here is a picture of the quilt I finished a few weeks ago.

I really love this quilt! For one thing, I just love the fabrics. Plus, this is the first time I had done "real" binding, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. This is also the first time I tried free-motion quilting, and I'm fairly happy with the results I got. The large sunflower blocks are qulited around the flowers, and the pieced blocks are quilted in a large meandering swirl sort of pattern. The first couple blocks came out a little rough, but I'm really pleased with how the last blocks turned out. I think I'm getting the hang of it!

The sunflower fabrics, plus the dark blue and the blue-and-yellow stripe fabrics, are from a collection by Timeless Treasures that I found in my local quilt shop. I can't remember who makes the yellow and green fabrics, but I know they weren't part of the same collection.

The quilt is queen-sized. I used the Just Can't Cut It pattern from All Washed Up on the recommendation of the ladies in the quilt shop. I wanted something fast and easy, and I wanted to be able to show off the large sunflower print, and this pattern fit the bill. I did end up having to adjust it a little bit because I did not have enough fabric to make the outer borders as wide as the pattern called for; I cut them in half, which gave me plenty of fabric and still left the quilt plenty big to fit on my bed.

I'm so excited to have this quilt finished! It's so bright and cheerful. I just love it!

Penguins

The Galapagos penguins were one of the highlights of the trip (although, to be honest, there were a lot of highlights in Galapagos!). Here are a few more pictures of the cute little guys:

Isn't this a handsome little bird?

Time for a swim...

This busy parent had 2 hungry babies to feed!

I had so much fun watching the penguins swim, waddle, and take care of their chicks -- I am so glad we got the chance to see so many wild penguins!

I Got Tagged by Ellen

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:
1. Graduating from grad school
2. Finishing my new quilt
3. My 30th birthday this weekend with my family
4. My 30th birthday remix next weekend with my husband's family
5. Dinner out with my friends next weekend
6. Fall weather
7. Saturday (any Saturday, every Saturday)
8. Going fabric shopping

8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1. Ate brunch at Neuhaus Cafe
2. Did laundry
3. Drove around looking at lovely neighborhoods we might want to move to
4. Took the dog for a walk
5. Did more laundry
6. Tried to write up a to-do list for the week (yikes!)
7. Paid bills
8. Read the Sunday paper

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
1. Tap dance
2. Sleep late
3. Enjoy getting up early
4. Paint
5. Make my own clothes
6. Speak Spanish
7. Work part-time for full-time income
8. Live somewhere with a milder climate (say, Oregon)

8 Shows I enjoy:
1. Dancing with the Stars
That's really about it... I can't even think of any others! Not so much a TV person.

Quick Recap

The last 2 weeks have been super-busy for me! Here's a quick update on what I've been doing:

• Started a new internship (I'm almost through with grad school -- graduation is in December!). I love the internship but it's been hard adjusting to a 40-hour workweek again -- it's been nearly 3 years since I last worked full-time!
• Finished a quilt that I have been working on for months (pictures to come)
• Went to Sushi Zushi for dinner with Anne and Cindy
• Made pillow shams to match the new quilt
• Started a new quilt (pictures of that to come, too)
• Had Craft Night at Ellen's house (worked on the new quilt!)
• Had a Fourth of July lunch with my husband's family
• Went to Cavalli's with Gladys and Ashley for yummy chicken pesto pizza
• Knitted with Katy, Debra and Reagan and took a break for brunch at Cafe Brazil

I've got lots of things going on the next couple of weeks, too, but I'll do my best to get back online and post some pictures of my latest sewing adventures (plus penguin pics from the Galapagos trip).

For The Person Who Has (Almost) Everything...

We were at the Mesquite (TX) Quilt Show this weekend, browsing the various vendors and all their fantastic quilting-related goods, when we came across this:

I'm not sure what makes a concealed handgun purse different from any other medium- to large-sized purse, but apparently it is different. And if you know a lady who is looking for a pretty quilted bag to carry her concealed handgun, then have I got the perfect gift for her!

We did have a great time at the quilt show. There were so many beautiful quilts on display, in a range of different styles and colors. There were also a ton of vendors with pretty fabrics, cool patterns, and assorted quilting notions and what-nots for sale. I picked up a few new fat quarters for my sampler quilt but nothing too extravagant. And we won a subscription to a quilting magazine in the door-prize drawing! All in all, it was a fun trip to Mesquite, even if I did start wondering how many of the ladies might be packing (concealed) weapons in their purses...

Tortoises For Ellen

My sis-in-law Ellen specifically requested Galapagos tortoise pictures, and so these are for her:

Wild Galapagos tortoise on Santa Cruz Island, having a little breakfast.


Wild Galapagos tortoises, also on Santa Cruz, hanging out at a mud puddle. The mud keeps them cool and helps keep bugs off.

Tortoise in captivity in the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz. All the adult tortoises here (I think all of them, but definitely the one in this picture) had been kept in captivity by private individuals before the Research Station was started, and they were brought here for conservation purposes. This tortoise is probably around 60 or 70 years old, according to our guide.

Baby tortoises at the Darwin Station. All wild tortoise nests in Galapagos are located and the eggs are brought to the Station for incubation. The babies live here until they are about 5 years old, at which point their shells are hard enough that they are safe from predators and can be re-released into the wild.

All the little guys have big yellow numbers painted on their backs so the staff can keep track of them, and it's hard to get a picture without the numbers being visible. These two cooperated for me by hiding under a rock and looking cute, which I really appreciated.

Frog-O-Sphere

I'm a bit of an impulse shopper, which is why my husband prefers to do the grocery shopping without me. Yesterday, I was minding my business at the mall, running some important and productive errands, when I saw this in the display window at Brookstone:




















It's a Frog-O-Sphere, a little mini-ecosystem (according to the box) that contains 2 tiny frogs, a snail, a piece of bamboo, spring water, decorative green gravel and magic living gravel that does something I don't understand to keep the water clean.

And I instantly realized that my husband would love it. I mean, who doesn't like a small plastic box filled with frogs and snails and water?

So I finished my (productive) shopping and headed over to Brookstone to buy the Frog-O-Sphere. Apparently, I was the first person they had sold one to (an impulsive shopper and an early adopter! How 'bout that).

But it was just too cool to pass up. And it was a gift, so that makes it OK, right? Husband was pretty surprised to see the frogs but I think he likes them.

At the moment, Tom & Jerry and the snail are getting settled in on the dining room table while we try to find the best place for them to live -- not too hot, not too sunny, but not too cold, either. I hope they like their new digs.

Under The Sea

Here are a few pictures we took snorkeling in Galapagos. I'm not a huge fan of snorkeling, but some of the best moments from our trip occurred while we were in the water, so I'm glad I didn't miss out.Sea lion. These guys were so playful. They would swim right up to you and then dash off. They also seemed to have a thing for blowing bubbles in our faces, like this little prankster was doing.

Green sea turtle. We saw several of them underwater. They seemed so calm and peaceful, slowly swimming along the rocks.



Galapagos penguin. They look so clumsy and silly on land, but they really are incredibly fast underwater. I had a hard time getting a picture of them because they'd be in and out of the shot before the camera could focus.


Look closely and you will see a flounder in this picture! It's not nearly as charismatic as the other animals, but I was pretty excited to see it. They are so well camouflaged that they can be pretty tough to spot (this one was swimming when I first saw it, so that helped).


We also saw a white-tipped reef shark, about 5 or 6 feet long, but I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of that one before it disappeared. There is nothing quite like seeing these animals in the wild -- pretty incredible.

Let Me Sum Up

I'm not quite sure what to say when people ask how our trip to Ecuador was. On the one hand, everything went well, we saw some interesting plants and animals, and we had some pretty cool experiences.

On the other hand, it was a pretty exhausting trip, and there were definitely some unpleasant moments. I wouldn't exactly say that it was a fun vacation.

On the plus side:

• Amazing scenery, both in mainland Ecuador and in Galapagos
• Fantastic animals -- birds, reptiles, frogs, marine animals, you name it!
• Pretty good food (Ecuador has some amazing soup!)
• Interesting people -- we met one lady as we were walking past her house and she came over to chat and ended up offering us a piece of fresh sugar cane from her yard. Everyone we met was friendly, even though I don't understand Spanish very well and had to have a translator to follow the converation if the person didn't speak English (although a lot of people do).
• Swimming with sea lions, sea turtles, penguins, and sharks -- incredible!

And on the minus side:

• Weather that ranged from super cold and windy, to warm but damp/raining, to blazing hot with no shade from the equatorial sun
• The previously mentioned unreliable plumbing
• The altitude -- we started in Quito at 9,000 feet, did some fairly strenuous hiking at 10,000 and then crashed, completely exhausted. We did move to a lower elevation after that, but the hiking was still pretty intense. Seems like no matter where we went, it was uphill. Both ways. Which is how you get the amazing scenery, but it was also pretty challenging, especially considering that we live in a place with very low altitude that is extremely flat. I spent the better part of a week gasping for air. Which is not what I personally consider to be relaxing.
• Food served with the head still on -- One night, we were served whole fish, which wasn't that bad, although I typically prefer my dinners not to look at me. The kicker was the night I was served 3 whole, huge shrimp. They were nearly big enough to be lobsters and their eyes were enourmous. Eew.

Now that we have been home a week, though, the minuses are starting to fade a bit, and I have really enjoyed looking over the pictures and remembering the good parts of the trip. Overall, I would say it was an interesting vacation -- and we got some great pictures.

Packing Update

I succeeded in packing all my camera equipment (I did take all 3 lenses, plus the underwater camera, 9 memory cards, 3 batteries, and 2 battery chargers), as well as all my clothes, toiletries, travel-size hand sanitizer and travel-size toilet paper (the last two items definitely came in handy).

What I failed to bring were binoculars.

Birds tend to be smalll (I have yet to see a wild ostrich, but I have seen plenty of tiny little songbirds) and they tend not to come real close to you, and, most importantly, they tend to look a lot alike from a distance. So birding is almost impossible without a pair of binoculars. You just can't tell the birds apart with the naked eye unless you are holding them in your hands.

Normally, hubby packs my binoculars when we travel, since I'm always carrying a ridiculous amount of camera equipment. But when we went to Belize, luggage space was tight and we each packed our own binoculars. We were supposed to do the same thing for Ecuador, except it never even occurred to me to pack them. Or even to ask hubby if he was packing them (had I asked, he would have said no, and I would have packed them myself. But alas, I didn't ask).

I didn't even think about binoculars until our plane was halfway from Miami to Quito and my husband reached into his carry-on to get something, and I caught of glimpse of his binoculars. And realized that mine were back home in Texas.

I was able to borrow a pair from our guide the first week in Ecuador, and while they were very old and exceptionally heavy, they worked out pretty well. But it sure would have been great if I had brought my own!

In Praise of Plumbing

We are finally home from Ecuador! I was hoping to be able to post while we were traveling but I had even less phone/Internet access than I expected, so that didn't quite work out. I'll be posting pictures from the trip as I get them downloaded onto the computer. For now, I want to take a moment to appreciate the plumbing in my house.

Seriously. I don't think I had a single hot shower in the entire 17 days we were gone, and I can't tell you how nice it was to take a shower this morning.

Plus, most toilets in Ecuador (meaning, every single toilet I encountered except for those in one nice hotel) require you to dispose of toilet paper in a trash can rather than in the toilet. You get used to it, but I sure was glad to get home and carelessly toss the paper in the toilet without having to worry about backing up the plumbing.

And, finally, it is a wondrous thing to be able to brush your teeth with tap water instead of bottled water. I can't explain why the bottled water is 5 times more inconvenient than the tap water, but it is. I am really loving the water coming out of the tap in my house, despite the fact that it tastes a little funky and will stain the sink a rusty pink color if you leave the water sitting around too long.

It's good to be home!

How To Do Yoga At Home

Step 1: Spread yoga mat on floor

Step 2: Remove dog from yoga mat

Packing for International Travel: Take Two

It's almost time for our big trip to South America, and packing for this trip is turning out to be even harder than packing for Belize. For one thing, our trip is a lot longer, and we'll be in a much wider variety of climates -- everything from the beach (warm and sunny) all the way to a mountain pass at 15,000 feet above sea level (chilly to cold with a good chance of rain). So we need more types of clothes and more layers.

Plus, I'm actually going to be taking less luggage on this trip. I'm carrying my duffel bag and a backpack, but I'm going to carry my camera backpack, which is designed to hold different cameras, lenses, cords, and accessories -- and which is smaller than my regular backpack that I took to Belize.

I'm taking more cameras this time, too -- an underwater camera for snorkeling pictures and the digital SLR for nature and landscape pictures. I'm bringing 2 or 3 lenses along with the SLR. Definitely a telephoto lens for birds, a wide-angle lens for the scenery, and maybe a basic everyday zoom lens for larger animals and snapshot-type pictures.

And somewhere I have to find room for lightweight pants, layerable T-shirts, long-sleeved shirts to protect me from sun and bugs, a sun hat for warm areas, a fleece hat for cold areas, a fleece jacket, a rain jacket, hiking boots, water sandals, swimsuits, warm pajamas....

We'll see how this goes!

It's 5 o'clock somewhere

I was straightening up the living room the other day when this little character scampered onto the porch, just a few feet from where I was standing, and flopped out, spread-eagle, underneath one of the patio tables.


Guess it was time for a squirrel siesta!

He lounged calmly while I ran to grab the camera and took several pictures through the glass door, and it didn't seem to bother him even when the dog pressed her nose to the window to get a better look.

I checked back on him about 10 minutes later, and he must have decided that the cushy patio chair was more comfortable for hanging out than the stone patio floor, because he had relocated:

Patchwork Towels & Pretty Cards

I did get the Mother's Day project done in time for Mother's Day, although I did not get it posted as quickly as I had originally planned. (This is going to become a theme for me: Not getting things done as quickly as I thought.)


I made patchwork kitchen towels for my mom and my mother-in-law following this tutorial from Sew Mama Sew. I bought 4-5 fat quarters in assorted colors (red, yellow, and blue to match my mom's kitchen, and tan, cream, and turquoise to match my mom-in-law's new spring kitchen decor) and I found a pack of 6 flour sack towels at Target. I couldn't find plain white waffle weave towels to save my life, but the flour sack towels worked out OK. Most importantly, my mom's set was done in enough time for me to mail the towels via regular mail and still have them get there on time. Pretty exciting!


Here's my mom's set:







And my mom-in-law's set:







I also made cards for our moms and my grandmas. The cards for the moms were blue with ink to match their towels (my mom's in red, his mom's in brown) and the cards for the grandmas were pink with hot pink ink. I used the same stamps on all 4 cards: I used a cherry blossom stamp from Paper Source several times on the front to get an all-over pattern, and then I used a set of stamps (one Happy stamp and one Mother's Day) for the inside/back of the card.


Here are the mom cards (the outside of my mom's card and the inside of his mom's -- both cards had the same design, just in different colors):






Here's the front of the grandma cards:







And the back of the grandma cards:













Turns out that the grandma cards were flat cards, not folded cards as I thought when I bought them, and I somehow got ink on the back of one of them, so I covered it up with a big decorative scroll-type stamp. The other one ended up being vertical instead of horizontal because I get ink on it, too, but the Mother's Day stamp covered it up. Despite these little eccentricities, I like the way they turned out!

Coffee = Bliss

This cute coffeemaker was a Christmas gift from my husband.

It makes cappuccino and lattes -- my favorite thing is to make a latte and pour it into a mug that has a touch of sugar-free vanilla syrup at the bottom. Mmm!

It's a really ingenious little device: you put water in the base, milk (I use soy milk) in the top and coffee grounds in between,; screw the pieces together (tightly, or you will regret it) and set it on the stovetop for a few minutes.

It makes really good coffee -- and the cow spots are beyond adorable.

One of the best gifts I've ever gotten!

Star Jasmine

Despite my enjoyment for dabbling in lots of different activities, gardening isn't one of my interests. I've tried it a few times and can't quite get into it for the long haul. There is just something about doing all that work -- prepping beds, planting flowers, spreading mulch -- and everything is good for a few days and then you have more work to do! Weeding, watering, and so on. I like my finished projects to stay finished, you know? And gardening is never quite finished.

That said, I do enjoy the fruits of other people's gardening efforts! And every now and again, I get to enjoy my own yard, despite not having made much (if any) effort.The previous owners of our house planted a ton of plants right before they sold the house, and many of the plants have somehow thrived despite the neglect I dish out to them, which leaves the yard looking less like a garden and more like a jungle. Which makes the birds happy, so I don't mind too much. And some of those overgrown plants are pretty in their own wild way.

This is one of my favorites: the star jasmine.

It has grown so much over the last 5 years, and it has the most amazing smell when it blooms, which it's doing right now. It's just covered in these little white star-shaped flowers. The fragrance is so delicious that our neighbor, who is in the midst of a massive and awe-inspiring garden project herself, asked what that plant was that makes our back yard smell so good.

It's the jasmine. Beautiful, sweet-smelling, low-maintenance jasmine.

Dabbling vs Immersion

My last post probably made it pretty obvious that I am a dabbler. I like to try a lot of things, and while I don't exactly get bored with them, and I don't quite quit them, it seems like I'm always trying something new and leaving the older things on the back burner.

So I've got quilts working and knitting projects working, and I've been making cards, and now I have a new project going for Mother's Day (assuming I get it done in time, I'll share it next weekend). Oh yeah, and I did go ahead and start a new quilt this week, although I just have one block mostly pieced so far, and I don't plan to have that one done for a while yet.

I know some people really immerse themselves in a hobby, learning all the details, perfecting their techniques, and becoming true experts. That is not my style, though!

Although I have to admit that doing something is always hardest the first time you try it, and if I try too many new things, I am doomed to a life of first tries. It sure is nice to do something you've already done before and are comfortable doing.

Case in point: It took me 5 (OK more like 10) minutes to remember how to use my sewing machine on Wednesday night because I hadn't sewed with it in a while and somehow I always forget to put the presser foot down (my other machine does it automatically but this one doesn't) and then I end up with a tangle of thread and if I sewed more often I wouldn't have this learning curve each time I sat down at the machine.

And yet I have to be perfectly honest here and say that now I'm not going to go sew but instead make some Mother's Day cards. I can't explain myself, but, hey, it's fun!

Scheming and Dreaming

I always seem to have way more ideas for projects than I can actually complete. And the more I finish, the more my list grows! I'm beginning to think I like thinking about crafting better than actually crafting.

I've got 3 quilts in progress now (the sampler, a gorgeous sunflower quilt that is totally assembled but needs to be quilted, and a third quilt that has been cut out but not pieced at all yet). Plus I have brilliant ideas for 2 quilts for a dear friend's kiddo (who is about to be 2 -- by the time I make her a baby quilt, she'll be in college), as well as quilts for my mom, for my mother-in-law, and for another friend. And my grandma just requested a quilt (any quilt will do, I think) after finding out that I started quilting. Oh, and my husband wants a cathedral window quilt one day.

I also have 3 knitting projects going: a blanket I started a year and a half ago, a scarf I started about the same time, and a lap blanket I started last summer. Oh yeah, and a knitted lion that is done but needs to be sewn together and stuffed. So that makes 4.

And I spent 30 mins this afternoon browsing in a quilt store, gathering fabrics for Mother's Day projects! Although those aren't going to be quilts (sorry, Mom and Mom-in-Law!). So I'm hoping I can get those done and wrapped by next weekend... And I'm sure there's something else I've got planned that I just can't remember at the moment.

Oh well. A girl can dream!

Sampler Block #3

Here's the 3rd block. This one is called Devil's Claws. I am super excited with how this one turned out.

This block has several flying geese units, which are sections with 2 triangles are pieced onto a rectangle to make a unit of 3 triangles. There are also 4 squares with triangles pieced onto the outer edges, so this block (like the others) required a bunch of piecing.

I learned my lesson from the 2nd block, and I was careful to piece the entire block with the same sewing machine (and no changing presser feet, either).I have a 1/4" piecing foot on the machine, and it really seemed to help me keep the seams even and consistent. Of the 3 blocks, this one is definitely closest to being square -- which they are all supposed to be!

I also really like the colors on this one. I'm not normally a huge fan of sweet pastels, but I think these fabrics all work so well together, and plus they fit in with the 30s theme of this quilt.

I'm just so happy with how much better this block looks than the last one. I'm making progress!

Images from Central America

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Central America last month. (I ended up with around 1,000 pictures, so it took me a little while to sort through them all!).

This is the small plane we took from the airport to the lodge where we stayed. The flight was about 30 minutes, which gave us a chance to see the jungle from the air. I love the palm trees painted on the tail!

The view from the plane:

The absolutely delicious lunch we ate nearly every day we were there: stewed chicken with

beans and rice, coleslaw, plantains, and Coke Light. Yum!

A howler monkey having figs for breakfast. We watched him for probably 5 minutes as he moseyed his way through the canopy of these trees, munching on figs as he went.

We had a great time and saw a wide variety of wildlife, from birds to monkeys to tarantulas!

Buntings

My husband and I do a lot of birding when we travel, but we also feed the birds in our back yard. We tend to see the same birds over and over: cardinals, house sparrows, blue jays, house finches, mockingbirds, red-bellied woodpeckers, and downy woodpeckers. But every now and then, we get something a little bit different.

This weekend, we had two male indigo buntings hanging out on our goldfinch feeders (here's one of them, with a goldfinch on the feeder to his left).

We also had a male painted bunting drop by for a visit, but I wasn't able to get a good picture of him. He looks a lot like the indigo bunting, but he is even more colorful, with a green back, red belly, and bright red eye.

You just never know when you are going to see something different, right in your own back yard!

Thank you

My friend Gladys is a talented scrapbooker, and she has shown me a few of her paper-crafting tricks. I'm still pretty new to card-making, but I really enjoy being able to give someone a hand-made card. Here's a thank-you card I just made:

And the inside:

This isn't my best work ever, but I think it turned out pretty well. Besides, if it looks too good, you can't tell it was made by hand!

I took a light blue card from Paper Source and used a medium-sized stamp, stamping it several times, to get an all-over pattern on the front of the card in dark brown ink. I filled in the holes with a small bird stamp and a small flower stamp from the same collection using the same color ink. I like how the stamps run off the edges of the card, so the design likes like a section from an even bigger pattern. The inside features a "thank you" stamp in the same brown ink.

I enjoyed making this little card; I hope the recipient likes it!

Sampler Block #2

This is the second block from my sampler quilt. This one is called Wyoming Valley, and it also includes a ton of half-square triangles. I'm not quite as happy with how this block turned out; it's pretty lopsided.





And the points aren't nearly as sharp as I would have hoped. I was a little disappointed when I got it all finished; somehow the individual rows didn't look too bad until the whole thing was assembled.

It took me a little while to figure out what happened, but I think the problem lies in a lack of consistency with the 1/4" seams between each of the pieces (as opposed to a problem with cutting the pieces correctly, for example). I sewed some of the pieces using my sister-in-law's sewing machine, some of them using my sewing machine, and some of them using my sewing machine with a different foot on it. And clearly those seams all came out just a little bit different, and so the block as a whole came out pretty wonky.

I will probably re-do it before I finish the quilt, but I was pretty frustrated with it after getting to this point, so I'm going to wait and work on it later. Despite my frustration, I can definitely say this was a good learning experience! And that was part of the point of making this sampler quilt -- to learn -- so it was time well spent!

Christmas in April

I made scarves for my grandmothers for Christmas last year. I made this one for my dad's mom and a similar one in shades of blue for my mom's mom. The scarves are just plain and simple garter stitch using Lion Brand trellis yarn, so they were pretty easy to make but the yarn has a neat texture.

I knew I wasn't going to see my mom's mom until after New Year's, so I finished her scarf and mailed it off well before Christmas. I took my time with the other scarf because I usually see my grandma at my aunt's house a day or two after Christmas.

Turns out that she was going to be in California visiting my uncle for the holidays. By the time I realized that I wouldn't see her in person, it was too late to finish the scarf and mail it to her in time. So I planned to finish it off and send it after she got home.

Well, with one thing and another, I finished the scarf but didn't get around to weaving in the ends. So here it is April, and we went to visit my grandma last weekend, and I brought the scarf (with the loose ends dangling) and a penguin gift bag to wrap it in.

I did finally weave in the darn ends in our hotel room, and I wrapped the scarf and gave it to her, and because she is my grandma, she didn't even hassle me for being 4 months late with her Christmas gift. As a matter of fact, she said that she had been wanting a scarf to go with a couple of outfits, and she thought this scarf would be just the ticket. I'm just glad that she liked it!

In Need of a Hat

As I get older, my sun protection habits continue to evolve. I used to focus on sunblock as my main strategy to prevent burns, but now I tend to focus on wearing more clothes and using less sunblock. (As a bonus, wearing long pants instead of shorts means less shaving!)

I used to hate wearing hats, which my mom always insisted that I needed to wear when outside in the sunshine. But I noticed a couple of years ago that wearing a baseball cap seemed to help keep my husband from getting sunburned when he was outside all day. I used sunblock on my face, of course, but I always seemed to miss a spot -- and my scalp was particularly prone to burning. So I tried wearing a hat, and it worked like a charm. And now I am a big believer in hats!

I have a baseball cap for short trips outside and a bigger sun hat with a wide brim that protects my ears and neck, too. The one problem is that I'm pretty new to hat-wearing, and I often forget to pack a hat.

Case in point, I'm at the beach for the weekend and forgot to bring either one of my hats. Fortunately for me, my husband brought TWO hats and graciously offered to share one with me. That is good news for my poor scalp!

30s Sampler Quilt

My dear sis-in-law and I came up with the brilliant idea to make sampler quilts together. We are each making a quilt following the same pattern; she is using fabrics from her stash, and I had to buy all new fabric because this is just my fourth quilt and I don't have a stash yet. So our quilts should turn out very different, even though we're using the same pattern, which is part of the fun.

This is my first block. According to the pattern, it's called Homespun. I really like the fabric in the center square; it looks like an old-fashioned tablecloth to me. I'm pretty happy with how the block turned out overall, too. It was my first attempt at half-square triangles, and I think they look pretty good for a first try.

Ellen and I had originally planned to make one block a week, which, by our calculations, would give us plenty of time to finish the quilt tops, sandwich the tops to the backing, quilt the quilts, and bind them -- in other words, to finish the entire quilts -- by the end of the year. (We started in January).

Well, we're already a little bit behind, but she has been working on some other really cute projects, and I have been working on things that have nothing to do with quilting. But we are still plugging away at the sampler quilt, and I'm having fun with it. The idea, for me especially, since I'm so new to quilting, was for me to practice some different techniques, particularly applique, and maybe hand-piecing at some point, so I'm not really in any particular hurry to finish it.

I've already learned a bit about piecing the half-square triangles so the points come out sharp, and Ellen showed me how to do chain piecing on the sewing machine, which saves time because you don't have to stop and trim threads between every little seam that you sew. That little bit of knowledge has already made this project worth it!

Travel Medicine Update

We have been back from Central America for 2 weeks now, and I am happy to report that I did not need the antibiotic for traveler's diarrhea while we were there! So far, I am showing no signs of having contracted malaria, either. Although I did get roughly 2 dozen mosquito bites, so I'm still diligently following the anti-malarial medication regimen, just in case. Two more weeks of antibiotics, and I should be in the clear!

Preparing for International Travel Part II: Packing

Our trip involved a 3.5-hour flight on a major commercial airline, followed by a 30-minute flight on a 3-seater Cessna commuter plane (technically, it holds 4 people, assuming the fourth person weighs 50 pounds or less). Not only did we have weight restrictions on baggage for the commuter flight, but the cargo door on the plane is tiny, so it was recommended that we bring soft-sided (e.g., squishable) luggage.

Which we didn't have. So both my husband and I bought new duffel bags, and he got a new backpack, and we planned to pack everything for a 6-day trip into 2 duffels and 2 backpacks.

And we had to bring lightweight clothes for hiking/birding, lightweight but comfy hiking shoes, big ridiculous hats to block the sun, bug spray, anti-itch lotion in case the bug spray didn't work, sunblock lotion, the aforementioned anti-malarial medications, everyday basic toiletries for both of us, two pairs of binoculars (for the birding) and my camera equipment (1 digital SLR camera, 2 lenses, an extra battery plus battery charger, and 4 memory cards). And I also tossed in a knitting work-in-progress, in case I got bored on the plane, and my husband brought along a couple of guides to the wildlife (primarily birds, but also other critters) of Central America.

Somehow we got everything into the 4 bags, made the weight requirement, and -- this is the good part -- got through the trip without missing anything OR having to do laundry. A packing job well done.

Preparing for International Travel Part I: Medical Stuff

My husband and I are going to Central America next week and to South America this summer. I had heard people mention taking anti-malarials before traveling to Africa, but that was about all I knew regarding medical preparations for traveling. Turns out that when you're going to a tropical area, you're at risk for all kinds of unpleasant diseases. I was immunized for hepatitis A, yellow fever, and typhoid. I had already had the hepatitis B vaccine and a recent tetanus booster, or I would have needed to get those, too. Plus I received two different prescriptions for anti-malarial antibiotics; the one that works in Central America doesn't work in South America, so I needed two different ones. I start taking the anti-malarials a few days before leaving and continue taking them at least a week after I get back. Finally, I have a prescription for a third antibiotic to take in case I develop "traveler's diarrhea." I'm hoping that all these vaccinations and medications will help keep me healthy while I'm traveling!

My First Quilt

My sister-in-law quilts, and I made my first attempt at quilting in early 2006. I got sick of cutting out triangles and then I got busy with real-life obligations, so I never did finish that quilt. I took up quilting again in fall 2008 when I decided to make a quilt to put on the bed for the holidays. With Ellen's support and encouragement, I finished this quilt in November. The pattern is from http://www.byannie.com/ and it uses a single block strip-pieced from fat quarters. It was a great quilt for a beginner -- fast and easy. I quilted in the ditch around the big blocks; I was in a hurry to get it done (and quilting for the first time was hard enough without trying anything fancy). I did all the piecing and quilting by machine. The pillow shams are made from the backing fabric, which is also included in some of the blocks in the quilt.

Welcome to Leisurely Pursuits

This blog is dedicated to my favorite activities, including quilting, knitting, photography, yoga, travel, birding, wine tasting, and spending time with friends and family. I look forward to sharing my hobbies, and I hope you enjoy this blog!