Playing catch up with the blog...

I am so excited to go to the Houston Quilt show this year, I had to create a shirt to wear!!

 I also made a new shirt for my Dad, who had another one just like it but wore it so much that it had holes.  Dan (my brother) also mentioned he would like one too.  I hardly ever get to see Dan, but he was such a big help with our reunion this summer and I was very happy to make something for him as a thank you.

 My friend, Elayne who is serving a mission here with her husband, loves Halloween.  I got this great embroidery pattern for a haunted house and created a little something for her.  She can use it for a fall/thanksgiving centerpiece after Halloween is over because the backing fabric is fall pumpkins!

I had fun making some more snowflake ornaments and soon will try some other colors, just for fun!

Elayne and Jay came for a visit to the Bishop's storehouse where we are serving once again and what a surprise, it turns out they went to school with LaRee (her and her husband are the managers) in Utah and are old friends! Small world!

While Elayne and Jay are serving here, they wanted to see the Texas beach, so we went for three days to Corpus Christi.  We had a wonderful time collecting shells, eating good food and giving them the tour of the area.

 Foxy came too, but was not a fan of the wig!!!  She loved running on the beach! It was her favorite!

We also took a quick trip to Arkansas to take some furniture to Becky and Cameron.  While it was a long drive, we loved spending time with them and the grand children!!

 Becky has a studio now!
 It is so nice for her to be able to paint whenever the kids are in school or Moms day out..  She hopes to be able to set up a place to have live models for her paintings.

Of course we had fun shopping for the little princess who was destined to be a Rat for Halloween.
We loved buying her a cute little costume and were excited to see her in it.

 Mom and Dad love putting the boys Legos together too!!

 The boys were so proud of finishing them.

There is a funny story about Noelle and her spider.  She is fascinated by spider pictures, so we bought one home from our shopping trip.
Cameron immediately set up a way that the spider would drop on Becky's head when she came home.
It worked!!  She screamed and he was so pleased with his own accomplishment :-)

He did it to the kids, but they were not surprised by it and knew it was just one of Dad's tricks :-)

Trips and gift for Birthday

 We had not seen Jim's oldest son's family since we left for our mission about two years ago, so we took a trip to Missouri and visited them.

 From left to right is Elliott (3 years), Hollie, Todd(6 years) and AJ Hodges.

The same week we went all the way to Wilmington, NC to trade my sit down Sweet Sixteen Handiquilter for a Handiquilter Avante stand up quilt machine.

The first quilt I worked on (after a practice piece) was Camden's.  It was partially quilted on my sit down so I had to work it so I could finish it (that is why the front bar is empty).

The gal who traded with me was very nice and sent me a ruler base this week as her's broke.  We traveled a total of 3000 miles in one week, but I am so happy with this quilter. I was able to finish Camden's quilt in a flash!

My birthday was right after we returned and I got some lovely flowers from my daughter and several friends took me to lunch.  It was fun!

This week we are helping Camden and Eric move to Houston so he can attend medical school and I am also trying to prepare for our family reunion in a week.  It will take us 3 days to drive, but I am excited to see all the cousins playing together.  My father (86) will finally meet all 18 of his great grand children. I ordered t-shirts for everyone and embroidered my Dad's with glow in the dark thread!  Everyone will be able to find him at night!

Summer fun!

We took the Storrs to see the Train Tunnel bat cave in Fredericksburg.  We got there in plenty of time and waited for the emergence.  There are a million bats that emerge at sunset to scout for food. They are Mexican Free tail bats and eat moths.  They can fly many miles and return at sunrise.

This picture doesn't do justice to the fantastic emergence.  They come out right around that center tree and swirl counter clockwise as they fly up over the treetops.  Amazing!

I have been working on this quilt top that Camden made and I hope to have it done before she and her husband move to Houston for medical school.

Jim ordered and installed these dog grooming arms to help take some of the weight and drag off as I attempt to quilt it.  I am doing all over stippling on this.

I have a lot of scrap fabric in my stash and so I started playing with my Accuquilt Go big and making these stars.  I love them, but I am not sure whether I will make a bed quilt or just a wall hanging with them.... WIP

I LOVE Baltimore Album quilts and want to make one.  I have very little experience with applique  so I did these two blocks using my embroidery machine and patterns from Anita Good Design CD.

The CD has 20 blocks and I will make them all and then plan sashing etc. for a quilt :-)

Finally, we hope everyone enjoys their 4th of July!!  We are so thankful we live in this free land!

Home and sewing again :-)

We have been home since March, but this is my first post since then.  We are finally settled in and I have been working on a number of projects.

 The RV embroidery was made for some dear friends who are serving a mission at Lackland Airforce Base here in San Antonio.

 The owl quilt has been in progress for months. I pieced it in San Diego and made the applique when we returned home.  It was my first applique and I just drew the branch freehand and blanket stitched.  The owl was cut with my Accuquilt Go and then embroidered on my machine. Overall, I was happy with the way it turned out.  I quilted on my HQ Sweet Sixteen.

The owl quilt was made for this sweet girl that arrived on June 4th.

I told Jim I wanted a quilt ladder for my quilts and being the great handy man he is, he made this for me. I love it!

Current works in progress.........

 Baby boy quilt...he arrives in September.

 Summer in the park quilt...hopefully for our king size bed.....

Autumn table runner..still to be backed and quilted....

Thats all for now.  We are glad to be home and thankful for all the wonderful experiences we had in San Diego.  We hope to go back for a visit soon!