Where do the days go?

I can't believe it is mid-July and has been WEEKS since I last posted.  How is that even possible?  In June, I guess we tried to make up for what we'd missed out on in March, April, and May.  Now that it's July?  We're back under wraps.  ugh.

Back in June, we celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary in Cambria.  What a lovely weekend!!  We ate in restaurants and stayed in a hotel and had a fabulous time!

 We walked up and down three different beaches, and had a delightful time in the 66 degrees.  At home, it was 107.

 We drove north of San Simeon to see the elephant seals.  Do these guys know how to snooze or what?  No social distancing here!!

 A nose only a mother could love. 

It took all month, but I finally finished some postcards that were begun in May.

 I mailed them out in June, but to date?  I've only heard from 3 people that they were received.  odd.  One arrived yesterday.  wow.  Almost 2 weeks from CA to CO.  What's with that?

 I also took the time to bake a few blackberry cobblers.  I got the recipe from the Pioneer Woman.  Simple and delicious.  Or simply delicious.

Finally, I continue to work on my hand quilting project.  Quilt, quilt, quilt.  I'm not yet halfway through, though I try to quilt each day.  So far, July has been less than productive.  Oh well.  I've posted today, so that's something, right?

Stay healthy and enjoy life!!
Until next time.

October!

So, let's see.  When last I left you, I was leaving Ohio and headed to Missouri.  I rented a car and drove from Cleveland south, then across Indiana, Illinois, and into St. Louis.  I spent a night in Illinois, as I was exhausted from looking at all that corn.

SO. MUCH. CORN.

I was happy when I finally knew I was near my destination:

 Was I there to see the arch?  Oh, no, not at all.  I was there to see my granddaughter again!

Her face was a bit rashy when I first arrived, but by the time I left?  It had cleared up.  I think she was rubbing her face on a spit up cloth, looking for her next meal.  ;)

My primary task was to babysit, while my son took my DIL out for a birthday dinner.  The little miss was a perfect angel.

I took some family portrait photos for them.  Aren't they a beautiful family?

The next day, we took the wee one to her first estate sale.  She slept through the whole thing!!

 So, hmmm.  That catches us up to mid-September.  Has there been quilting since them?  Yes, some, but not a lot.

I am currently trying to finish a quilt to enter in the AQS Daytona show.  The deadline is in 2 weeks.  I think.  I'm not sure.  I've been busy quilting.  I am hopeful that I will finish the quilt, but I am concerned that it may shrink so much with the quilting that it will be too small to qualify.  oh well.

I do have a personal quilt plus a group quilt entered into PIQF.  Hopefully I'll get to Santa Clara in a few weeks to see them hang.  Goals, and all that.

Right!  And I guess that's going to do it for now.  Happy Quilting!!

Here and There and Back Again

ohmygoodness!  Have I not posted since my first visit to meet my little granddaughter?!  hmmm.  Well, I guess I've been a bit busy.  I was home for one week, before heading back to the mid-West.

During that week, guild met.  I've got a few months left of my Block of the Month commitment.  Par usual, I tossed together this month's block in the days preceding the meeting.  The response to September's Jacob's Ladder was not as enthusiastic as I had hoped.

 Perhaps October's pumpkin will attract more participants.  The applique is easier than it looks, with only 7 pieces, all curves, except for the stem.  I'm not sure I could have made anything easier than that.

 Before we left, quilts were delivered for the Tulare County Fair.  My friend Judie generously took care of both delivery and retrieval of my entries.  "Broken Shell Beach," made by 10 members of Sew Eclectic took top Professional honors with a BOS rosette.

 My quilt, "Shalom" also showed well.  Both of these quilts have been accepted into PIQF, so if you want to see them in person, I suggest you plan a trip to Santa Clara in October.  That's what I'm doing.

My friend Wendy and I traveled to Ohio on Sept 9, to visit our good friend Pat.  She left CA two years ago.  Finally, finally we were able to coordinate a visit to see her in her new environment.

Here we are, at Lake Erie:

 When Pat asked what we wanted to do, I'd asked, "Well, what is there to do?"  This was my first visit to Ohio, so I had no idea.  When she mentioned Lake Erie, well, I've never dipped a toe in a great lake before.  Let's do it!

As a thank you, Wendy and I did a bit of decorating in Pat's house.  It was painted a pale grey and white, that is just not Pat.  When she said, "I wish it was purple, " well, Wendy said, "We can paint it!"

 And so we did.  Isn't this so much better?  If you know Pat, you know that this is now her happy place.

Well, this post is getting a bit long, so I'll pick up with it again  in the morning.

Since I've returned home, I've been trying to get my sewing space under control.  Yesterday, I made enough progress to be able to get some machine quilting done.  I am trying to hit a deadline for entry that comes in October.  I don't have much time, but perhaps I'll hit this one.  Goals are good!

Happy Quilting!!

Trip Wrap Up

Our last stop was Venice.  By this time, I was tired, and ready for the cruise to be over and done with.  But it wasn't.  I am so glad we chose the excursion that we chose!  We began with a water bus to the island of Murano, home of the famed glass blowers.  There, we watched a demonstration of a Master at work.

 After seeing the skill needed to produce a bowl, we were invited into the Master's Gallery, to shop.  Everything was well out of our price range, with all of these asking 100's or 1000's of euros.

 It wasn't until we were almost ready to catch our waterbus that we realized there was more for sale downstairs, that was more affordable. 

From there, we went to St. Mark's Square, and hiked a bit to catch our gondola ride.  It was quite reminiscent of Disneyland.  I don't know if you can see (click the picture to make it bigger), but the gondolas were stern to bow to stern to bow as far as you could see.

 It didn't really matter.  We were in Venice!  In a gondola!  :)

 On our way back to the waterbus, we stopped for a few pictures of St. Marks Square.

By this time, I was exhausted.  It was time to return to the ship for one last amazing dinner, where we were serenaded by gondoliers.

 Fast forward to last week, when I finished another little seascape.  I think this brings me to the end of the half-done littles that were on my design wall.  yay!

 There are a couple of lines of beading and French knots on the piece.  I do the French knots first, then fill in with beads.  This picture is a bit blurry, but it gives you the idea.

 I've basted the four baby quilts, which are ready and waiting for quilting.

Unfortunately, I suspect it will be a while before I get them done.  We are expecting a house guest for the next two weeks, so I've cleared all sewing accoutrements from the sewing annex.  Where did I put them?  I stuffed them into the "studio," which is once again the Dump.  sigh.  Maybe one of these days I will be able to sew myself out of this mess.

Then again, each time I begin, I get distracted.  Witness what I have up on my design wall.

yep.  That is more that enough to keep me busy for a month of Sundays, let alone all the quilts that are currently basted and waiting to be quilted.  Let us hope that the next time I check in, I've quilted something!

Goals are good!!

Croatia, and some sewing

 After Montenegro, we traveled to Dubrovnik, Croatia.  For those of you who are Game of Thrones fans (personally, I've never seen it), this scene should evoke squeals of delight.  Or so we were told.  GOT gear was everywhere.  If you're not interested in it, well, there's always a Croatian soccer jersey to spend money on.

I found Dubrovnik to be disappointing, probably because we arrived a few minutes before the beginning of a marathon through the city.  There's not a lot to see when the streets are roped off for the runners.  The rooftops were clear, and the sky a gorgeous blue.

 Our guide definitely shaded my impression of Croatia.  She spent a good portion of our time talking about the war with Serbia/Montenegro.  Though she insisted people need to forgive and move on, she also says they will never forget, and Serbia and Montenegro, well...she had lots of opinions as to what should be done with them.  I guess this is what happens when one grows up in a war zone.

There were bay leaves around the town. We were told they symbolize peace.  I think they also ensure that they never forget.

We went to an "authentic" home, where we were served a Croatian meal by a woman in traditional dress.  She was on the move, so I didn't get a picture of her.  However, I did get one of a street vendor, who was working on her wares as people walked by.

 The items were pretty, but I did not buy anything.

Fast forward to this past week, when I've been sewing up a storm.  My "studio" is in an awful state.  I can't get to anything.  There are piles of this, that, and the other thing everywhere.  I decided to cut the pulled fabrics for baby quilts, instead of stashing them then pulling them out again later.  In the past 10 days, I pieced 4 tops, plus part of one for veterans.  Here they are, waiting to be basted and quilted.

 In a mystery box, I found this Xstitch that I hadn't touched since 1995.  It needed a few hours of backstitching to finish.  So I finished it, and it is now at the shop, for framing.

 This little quiltlet is kind of an inside joke.  I sent it to a talk show host because I lured him into talking about quilting several times before and after Best of the Valley Quilt Show.  At one point, he said that he'd talked so much about quilting, "Those quilters should send me a quilt!"  It's not a big one, but it's a quilt!  hahaha!

And other than that?  Well, there are still other projects that are moving forward, as I try to get them off my table or off the design wall and back into production.  It's definitely a challenge.  As I think I said, it's out of control.

Thanks for hanging in there until the end.  I have one more day of cruise pics to share.  After that?  Hopefully I'll have some quiltie things to share as well.  Happy Stitching!

After Corfu, Montenegro

Have you ever heard of Montenegro?  I may have, but never paid attention.  I never once thought, "Oh, I'd like to visit Montenegro."  And then we did.  It was amazing.  Our ship was able to park right next to the street.  Not a dock, a street.  There is a deep deep water-filled gorge that accommodates cruise ships in Kotor.  Incredible!

 I think I took this next picture from the top of the ship, looking across to the city below.  You can see the old city wall, which has been there for centuries.  The entire town is surrounded by huge mountains, with another wall at the top, so it is quite protected from invasion.

 We took a bus tour up the mountain shown behind our ship in the first photo.  As we gained altitude, the weather changed from grey to foggy to pouring rain.  We had the misfortune to be sitting in the front row of the bus, so we could see how close we were to the edge of the drop off.  This narrow road had 25 hairpin turns up the mountain.

When we got to our stop, they offered us wine, at 10:30am.  I was so rattled by the ride, I took it!  This is the little restaurant where we snacked on wine, prosciutto, homemade bread, and locally made cheese.  Delicious!  As you can see, we've risen above most of the weather.

 Here you can see how far up the mountain we are.  Our cruise ship is that little arrow, way down below.

The drive was quite informative.  The other side of the mountain has a completely different climate, and it is there that most of their agriculture takes place.  We got back to the ship, ate some lunch, then went back to the old city.  My husband had heard of a climb, to the ruins at the top of the mountain.  He suggested, "We can try it, and if we don't make it, we can try it again, an hour later."  I told him we get one shot.  If I can't make it a first time, there's no way I'd make it a second time, especially in the same day!!

 It is 1350 stairs to the top.  I've marked with arrows how far I was able to make it, and how far hubby went.  He made it to the flag.  I did not.  The walk/hike was actually quite lovely, which you would never guess from a distance.  The walls are overgrown with iris and other greenery and blooms.

 Here is a midway point, where we stopped for air.  I think it's 3000' or something like that?  At this point, my memory is hazy.  He loved it, and had no problem setting a brisk pace.  Me?  Not so brisk, but I kept plugging along.

 Here is a picture of the ruins at the top.  He made it to the red arrow.  I stopped here, where I took the picture.  I probably would have stopped on the steps below this landing, but that would have been rude to the steady stream of climbers, heading to and from the top.

One thing we did not realize was that after climbing a bit, there is a gatekeeper.  It was 8 euros to continue past him.  Some people turned around, not wanting to spend so much.  But really?  How often does one get a chance to go to Montenegro and climb this?  It was totally worth it, though once we got back to the ship?  I wasn't good for much else.

Montenegro?  I highly recommend it!  The people were friendly and welcoming to tourists.  I think one of the most fun things was the number of people who saw hubby's hat and said, "Nice hat!" as they walked by.  Good memories, yes, indeed.

More from the Cruise

When last I left our cruise narrative, we were leaving Rome.  Instead of another day of touring, we had a day at sea.  We went through the Straits of Messina, which historically is a hazardous crossing, but the deep lanes are well marked, and we were accompanied by pilot boats through the straits.  It was so windy, the open top of the ship was roped off, so I have no decent pictures of the event.  oh well.

 After a day at sea, we docked in Corfu, a Greek island.  Corfu was EXACTLY what I had imagined a Greek island to be.  The weather was a perfect 78 degrees.  It was Orthodox Good Friday, so the streets were quiet as many people answered the morning call to worship.

 After we were introduced to the port town of Kerkyra, our bus took us to the tourist destination of Paleokastritsa.  The water was clear turquoise, and the morning was just beginning.  We had a bit of time to hike up the hill to get another view of the water, then it was back on the bus, up the mountain, and around the island.

Our next stop was a tiny village, high above Paleokastritsa, where we had a snack of prosciutto, olives, cheese, and wine or ouzo.

 There were olive trees everywhere.  Apparently you can cut them for the wood, and they keep growing, making more wood, and always fruiting olives.  Many are 100's of years old.

 The one thing that was unexpected was all of the graffiti.  I took this picture, because it was in Greek.  :D

Up to this point, Corfu was my favorite.  It was relaxing, the weather was delightful, and I finally made it to Greece!  I did not know what to expect for the rest of the cruise, but after this?  I was more than satisfied.