Where Oh Where Have I Been?

Chasing myself....or at least it feels that way.

In June, I accompanied DH on a trip to a technical engineering conference near Salt Lake City UT. We took a few days vacation on the way there. The first day out, we drove across KS. It was beautifully green.
Near Limon, CO, we drove through a hailstorm like none I've ever seen before. Thank goodness the hail was small and did no damage to our car! When the hail ended.....it looked like about an inch of snow on the ground. We went as far as Manitou Springs, CO that first night.
See that mountain with snow in the center of the photo. Well, that's Pike's Peak. After we had dinner, we went to Garden of the Gods. We had a nice evening walk there and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. I snapped a picture of some of the wildlife we saw that evening. See the deer just behind the fence. The next morning we went through Alma, CO across Hossier Pass and into Breckenridge, CO. Scenery at the pass was just beautiful.We had lunch in Breckenridge and then headed on north to Grand Lake, CO. I visited a quilt shop there and bought a few goodies. The next morning we got up early and drove into Rocky Mountain National Park. I've been there several times over the years, but always later in the season. There was still lots of snow.
Since we were early in the morning, we got to see lots of elk near the entrance on the west side of the park. We also saw 4 moose.One thing we noticed throughout Colorado was all the dying trees. Literature we got at the park entrance said this was because of a serious infestation of the Pine Beetle. See the dead trees....well there are thousands and thousands of them.

Before noon, we were on our way north through Steamboat Springs. We were headed for Salt Lake City UT. The northwest corner of CO is very arid, but we were pleasantly surprised to see so much green there this year. I snapped this at the Colorado/Utah border.We actually stayed in a hotel in Ogden UT. Two days during that week while DH was in meetings, I drove the 25 miles into downtown Salt Lake and went to the Family History Library. That place is amazing. I enjoy doing family research and was able to find some info on my Texas family there. DH and I also had a day to do some sight seeing. We drove up through Logan UT to Bear Lake on the Utah/Idaho border. It's a beautiful lake and about half of it is in each state. There was a nice visitors center on a pass overlooking the lake so we stopped and snapped a picture.We took a different route on our way home. We drove across southern Wyoming & Nebraska In Wyoming,we saw beautiful sights like these.


After we got home.....life really got crazy. We have had some decisions to make. Decisions? You might ask what kind of decisions. Well, decisions that are going to really change life for both of us......in a good way. My husband has been selected to head up a program that his company is doing in Australia. This assignment is going to require us to move to Australia for 2 years. All this is happening so quickly. We will be going soon for a 2 week visit to look at housing. Then we return home until all the government paperwork is complete. As soon as that is done, we head down to live. I may not be posting much for a while because I am cleaning, sorting, and preparing for the adventure of a lifetime.

Done!

I've been working very hard over the past few days trying to finish this baby quilt. The pressure became more intense on June 1 because the sweet little girl who is going to receive it was born on that day. She was a tiny thing weighing only 5 lbs. 9 oz. and was 18 inches long. Her name is Paige.

Here's a look at the back. I had a difficult time finding something for the back. I'm not overly crazy about this one, but it was the best I could find on short notice. Now, it's off to the post office to get it in the mail.

Progress

I've shown you the sample blocks for the baby quilts I am making for my niece. I've also been saying I'm going to get it done.....and then I say I've been busy doing something else. Well, today I finally found some time to sew and I have made some progress. I still have some sewing to do, but at least I'm making progress!

No pictures today! I did sew a few more blocks over the weekend, but no where near what I had planned. I hope to work on them later today after I run a few errands.

So....what did I do over the holiday weekend?? DH and I scrapped and painted the trim on the front of our house. It gets direct sun there and the paint was beginning to fail. It was hot and humid and the work was dirty. We worked on Saturday and Sunday because rain was in the forecast for Memorial Day. It did just that! We had a slow, drizzly rain most of the day.

Baby Quilt

I promised a picture of the blocks I'm using in the 2 baby quilts I need to make. I'm using the same colors on both of them and will most likely make them both using the same pattern. One quilt will go to my niece and one will go to DH's nephew. Neither of them know each other and they don't live in the same area, so I feel safe in making them just alike.

These blocks went together very easily. I'm using a 6 inch finished and a 3 inch finished block. If you are interested, I am using a pattern I found online at www.About.com. You can find the pattern and instructions here. Janet Wickell is the designer and/or contributor of the instructions. My thanks to her for sharing!

At this point, I think I am simply going to alternate these two blocks. I'll also be making the larger 6 inch block in the same 4 colors I used in that smaller block. Of course.....I reserve the right to change my mind as I get the blocks all sewn together.

My clematis has almost all the buds open now, so I thought I would share one more picture. Isn't it lovely?


I have gotten a start on the baby quilts I have to make. I'm using a bow tie pattern. I have the pieces cut and will show pictures soon.

Friday at my house

Take a look at this! This is what Friday evening looked like at my house. Sorry for the glare, but I was trying to stay safe inside, yet get a picture of the dark storm clouds moving in to our area. This shot is looking north. See how dark it was just above the roofline of my neighbors house. I was really afraid these storms were going to bring more than just rain.

My internet was down and the tv was off, so I was really watching the clouds for anything that looked remotely like a tornado. That's one thing about living in the midwest that I do NOT like.

We were very lucky to just get hard rain. No hail and no tornadoes....just lots of rain. My garden and flowers really appreciate the drink!

More flowers.....but some stitching too!

I took another picture of my clematis again this morning. That makes 3 days in a row. I've been playing with some of the features on Picasa and created this collage with the photos from the 3 days. I can really see the difference in the the photo from day one on the left to day 3 on the right.

My second amaryllis has two blooms open and two buds yet to open. Isn't this a beautiful flower?My little garden is progressing nicely too. My tomatoes are blooming and there are little buds on the peppers.
I planted onions all around the edge of the beds. They've come up too.

The light green leaves in the above picture is mustard greens. I decided yesterday to pick some of the little leaves and try them in with a tossed salad last night. That really added a nice flavor to the salad.

Here's my barrel with the chives and parsley and some pretty flowers. I used some of the chives and parsley in the salad last night too. It is so nice to be using things from my own yard in meal preparation.

I did not start on those tea towels. I stitched a little more on this block.
I'm almost finished with it. I have a little more stitching to do in the upper left corner, and then I have 4 little cut out areas to do near the center. Then comes the big task of deciding how I want to put the 5 blocks together!

Clematis progress

I've promised to share pictures of the blooming progress of my clematis, so if you aren't interested .....that is all I'm sharing in this post. We had rain last night and apparently the clematis liked that. Here's how it looks today.

I just love these blooms. See those kind of hair-like, fiberous centers on the flower. When the petals fall off, those centers remain and they turn a little more tan than they appear here. That really shows up against the green leaves and adds a lot of interest when the flowers are gone.

I thought I would also take a picture from the other side of the plant so you can see that it has blooms all over it.

I promise I will share some stitching related again. I did iron some transfers onto tea towels yesterday evening. I don't think those are worthy of a photograh, but I promise to share when I start stitching on them. I decided to get started on another set, and this one just might be mine!

More Clematis Pics

What a difference a day makes! Lots more blooms opened on my clematis today. I thought I would snap this picture today because we have a good chance for some severe thunderstorms and I don't know if the flowers will survive a bad thunderstorm.

80%

The weatherman said this morning that our area has an 80% chance of rain today. With all the rain we have had lately, I'm having to mow our lawn about every 4 days just to keep it under control. While I was out mowing, I took my camera and snapped a few pictures. Remember me showing this photo of my clematis that is loaded with buds.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised to see some of the buds were open this morning. I love the color of the bloom on this clematis. As you can see, there are still lots of buds to open yet. I'll take pictures again in a few days and show the progress of the blooming.

My amaryllis blossoms had also opened. I moved this one inside and will keep it on the ledge behind my sink for a few days so I can enjoy the beautiful flowers. They will sure make the chore of washing dishes a little more enjoyable!

I've had some ask me why I do the lawn work. I consider it good exercise. I have a self-propelled lawnmower, so there really isn't a lot of strenuous pushing involved. I just get a nice walk in while I direct the mower. As you can tell from some of my other posts, I enjoy gardening and being outside. Since I don't work outside the home, I also decided this was a way for me to save a fair amount of money by doing the work myself. That's money I can use for quilting supplies and fabric!

My Mother's Day

Since neither of my children are able to come home, DH asked what I would like to do. I decided since gas was a little cheaper than last year, and we hadn't been anywhere for a long while.....I wanted a road trip. I also wanted to go on Saturday rather than today. We first drove to the Amish area in Jamesport, MO. There is a little fabric store there that I love to visit. I bought these yard cuts of fabric. They have wonderful prices at this shop. I have plans for a stitchery project using some of these. There is also a bulk food store right next to the fabric store, so I bought some things there too. I did not take pictures here out of respect for the Amish people.

We then drove north and west from Jamesport. We were headed for the town of Rock Port, MO to see some of the power generating wind turbines that are being built around the country. I had read that Rockport is getting 100% of it's electric power from wind generation. You can read about it at www.rockportwind.com if you are interested. DH is a mechanical engineer and was excited about this portion of the trip. He has done a lot of reading about the mechanical aspects of the huge turbines. Mechanical aspects are not my cup of tea.....quilting and cooking is my thing.....but I enjoy one on one time in the car with him.....especially when the blackberry won't work because we are in an area with little to no service!! We got our first glimpse of the huge towers as we got near Conception Junction, MO. I stopped so DH could snap a picture.Since we had never been to this area, we had no idea the road would get even closer to these big guys!This picture doesn't really show how large these things are. Even though they are large, there is no noise and if you notice.....those cows don't seem to mind sharing their peaceful pasture! This still wasn't Rock Port....our destination, so we drove on.Soon we began to see a lot more of these on the horizon. Again the road took us much closer to them than we thought it would. These were near Rock Port and there were lots more of them than at the other location.

We stopped at the entrance gate to snap this photo. The gate was open, but there is a sign that says "Authorized Personnel Only" and we aren't authorized! See that black box at the base of the tower. Those appeared to be about 6 ft. tall. I wonder how these huge things will withstand the tornadoes and severe thunderstorms that often hit this area??

This quilter got a crash course in turbines, wind power, electricity, etc. for Mother's Day. While I still don't understand much of what DH said....I'm so glad we had the day together and could enjoy the beautiful scenery of northwestern Missouri! I'm also glad this country is making an effort to get us off dependency on foreign oil and moving toward clean sources for our energy. Hope this project proves VERY successful.

More plants

I meant to also show how much my clematis has grown. It is loaded with buds and hopefully those will open in the next few days. It has a lovely pinky purple flower.