May Mountain Weekend

The weather was perfect and the mountains were beautiful.  Charlie and I took both our dog, Kasey, and our son's dog, Roo, with us to Laurel Springs, NC on Friday.  It is heaven for doggies to be able to run free up and down the hills and jump in the creek when they get hot or thirsty.

                           

The flame azalea was in bloom in various shades of orange.  I knew we had one in the back yard at the edge of the woods, but did not remember this one in the front above the dam.

                           

At the top of the mountain where it levels out, there is a large patch of flame azalea in the woods, which deserves its name when shining in the sun.

                              

Of course, our beautiful doggies looked even more beautiful decked out in spring wildflowers!

                              

Come to think of it, that bit of frivolity may have caused Kasey's very bad behavior a moment later.  We were riding in the Gator along a dirt road in the tree farms that is also enjoyed by horseback riders.  Kasey took a flying leap and dove into a spot in the grass, rolling herself in the delicious smells of a nasty green pile of liquid horse poop! 

You can see the mess she made of herself, which did not wash off in the creek.

                              

So, she had to get a bath when we got back to the cabin, and Roo got one for good measure.

Got to take the good and the bad (and the nasty) when you love your pets!

Biting Off the Nose to Spite the Face?

We had a very enjoyable weekend.  Our son Dave, daughter-in-law Emily, and their dog Roo joined us on Saturday to attend the wedding of a family friend. 

The dogs got to stay home while the adults went to Brier Creek Country Club for the lovely wedding.  It was supposed to be outdoors at 5:00, but at 4:15 it started to thunder and lightning and rain.  Plan B was quickly put into effect for an indoor ceremony.  Just as Ashley walked down the aisle, the sun emerged through the clouds.  I took my camera, but neglected to re-insert the memory card, so no pics of the gorgeous table decorations or wedding.

You may remember that Roo sometimes gets a little anxious when he is left behind in the house.  Back in December he put an end to the fake fur kitties we have had for years.  At his house, he has chewed up a down comforter and most recently, Emily's eyeglasses. 

When we arrived home after the wedding, I immediately spotted what he had done for entertainment this time.  Yes, an entire box of tissues was shredded on the floor.  Apparently, Roo had the need for a little more fiber.  Here is one of my art quilts, The Green Man, Pre- Roo:

and here it is, Post-Roo:

This quilt had been atop a small table in our living room.  So, it was within easy dog reach.  My bad!

The Green Man used to have a dimensional nose made of woven together fibers, and some fiber eyebrows that jutted out from the face.  That's what you see in the pile of fluff next to the quilt.

Also on this quilt, there is no binding.  I left the edges untrimmed, and zigzagged lots of fibers around the edges.  One corner was left kind of ragged on purpose.

Roo decided to chew the opposite corner to match.

So, if he was going to chew up one of my quilts, he actually made an excellent choice!  This should be fairly easy to repair.  Or not!  Maybe The Green Man will have a new story to tell.

Roo is being introduced to The Perfect Dog System.  I sent Dave and Emily home with my double set of DVD's!

Actually, I think it is kind of funny that Roo picked The Green Man's nose for him. 

How Dogs Make Their Beds

We had a house full of big people, little people, and one extra dog this weekend.  Exhausting, but fun!

Here is my granddog, Roo, making himself at home at our house this weekend.  I thought you might enjoy it!

Sampler Quilt

Today's finished customer quilt is a very striking black, white, and turquoise sampler quilt.

I think she said this was for her son.  She wanted an all-over pattern, just "anything."  Well, that leaves the decision process wide open, doesn't it!

Often, longarmers will choose a pantograph, which is a long paper pattern that fits on the longarm table and can be traced with a laser stylus.  I did a lot of those when I first got my machine in 2003, but never use them any more.  I like being at the front of the machine, actually seeing what is happening with my needle.  Working some of the pantograph designs actually makes me seasick sometimes!

However, I have a big Rubbermaid container full of pantographs.  I decided to look through them yesterday for inspiration.  This quilt didn't lend itself to my frequently-used flowers, or fancy spirals since it is for a man.

I pulled out a Linda Taylor pantograph, called Feather Meander.  I propped it up behind the quilt and used it as a reference while quilting.  I enjoyed this process so much more than just following the design by stylus.

Gertrude chose a dark gray thread called "Dolphin" by Signature.  It shows up nicely, but is not overwhelming.

I think Gertrude participates in a block-of-the-month club at our local Bernina store.  There are some great traditional blocks in this quilt, often enhanced by further subdividing block elements into square-in-a-square or adding additional patchwork in the backgrounds.

The backing is a bright turquoise with a slight pattern of dots.  You can see the giant curly feathers better on the back.

Add lots of echoing and curvy designs for a fun freehand design.

I think this is my last day with my granddog, Roo, as his parents are returning from Florida today.  I found a great place to walk him in a new neighborhood nearby.  The roads are paved, but there is no construction yet. 

It is still very colorful and beautiful here with the autumn colors in full blaze.

Right in front of these three sycamores, a great blue heron emerged from a pond nearby and flapped his big wings just a few feet from us.

The daily walks have been very good for me, and Roo has enjoyed all the delightful new smells and experiences!  When he got into the weeds, he looked like he was wearing his camouflage hunting suit!

A Little Bit of This...and That

Thanks to my granddog, I spent a lot of time outdoors today.  And what a gorgeous, sunny day!

Roo and I walked as far as the pond about seven doors down.  Definitely golden!

He  was pulling me too hard on the leash to walk much farther.  He is used to walking with his six-foot five "father."   He was a little scared of the fountain on my little garden pond. (And he is also scared of our gas fireplace logs.  He jumped six feet every time the gas logs automatically came on.)

We threw the stick in the yard about two hundred times.  Roo rocketed around the yard, but never ran off.

Our Indian summer has produced some confusion in the local flora.  Here is my spring-blooming loropetalum in bloom behind the purple beautyberries.

Speaking of flowers, how about these gorgeous stems sent  from Hawaii!  These were a lovely gift.

My favorites were the bird of paradise flowers.

I am continuing to work through the lessons and videos in the 21 Secrets online journaling class.  Here is my latest effort. 

The background is just watercolor pencil.  Next I wrote "I Am Magic,"  the subject of this lesson.  Since I had a colorful background, I decided to make myself colorful as well.  Then we were to find words from magazines or books to cut and paste.  Finally, I added finishing touches with a gold leaf pen and gel pens.  This was so much fun!

T-Shirt Quilt

Here is a sports T-shirt quilt with a very clever setting, made by my customer JoAnn.

Each T-shirt has the twisted or diagonal border frame in black and white prints, which make the colorful shirts really pop.  JoAnn also used the numbers, team names, or other smaller elements at the intersection of some of the blocks.

Because of the black and white flame-looking background, as well as flames on some of the shirts, I used a meander that resembles flames.

I was a little worried about some of the slick, perforated shirt fabrics, as well as the heavy screen printing on some of them.  But, I was able to stitch into all the fabrics except for the thickest of the numerals.

If you are a longarm quilter, you may agree with me that sometimes seams on the back are problematic.  If the seams have any fullness, it can lead to pleats on the back.  Well, this quilt had quite a few back seams, as the back is entirely pieced from a variety of black and white fabrics.

Yikes!  Of course, one way to alleviate the problem of puckers or seams is to clamp the sides of the quilt.  That is one reason why we like to have an extra four inches on each side. 

Or not!  Blogger is rotating my photos again today, but in some places I only had about an inch on the sides.  Well, it came out pretty nice, I think.I have a little sidekick to keep me company for the next week or so.  Our granddog, Roo, is staying with us while his parents enjoy a trip to Florida.

 I think he is ready to go for a walk!  The temperature finally just reached 40 degrees F, so I guess we are off!

New Journal Pages

I made this little watercolor pencil sketch of Lily playing at the creek at our mountain place back in July.  Since then I have embellished with a few more "found" butterflies!

And here is a completed page spread featuring my recent river and lake "architecture tour" in Chicago.  Collage, silver pen, black Sharpie pen, white acrylic paint.

We are home this weekend and babysitting for our grand-dog, Roo.  He has been an excellent house guest so far!  We had steaks for dinner, and he waited patiently on his rug while we ate.  He has enjoyed chasing the Frisbee in the yard.  Dave said he would experience separation anxiety.  I think he must have meant the papa, not the doggie!

It has been good to have a doggie in the house again.  Maybe we will think about becoming "parents" again.   It's been almost a year since we lost Maggie.  Maybe I am getting over it!

Mountain Weekend

Charlie and I went up on Thursday to our cabin in Ashe County, North Carolina, for a weekend of fun, family, and friends.  It rained on the way up, but Friday was gorgeous.  We enjoyed a great ride over the mountain in the sunshine.

Friday night our son Dave and DIL Emily arrived, as did our friends Tom and Pauline.  On Saturday, we headed out to Todd for an outdoor concert featuring two bluegrass groups, and then the beloved legend Doc Watson.

Here I was while we were waiting to the acts to begin.

Here is what happened about an hour later.

Yep, it started raining hard.  We were game for quite awhile, but it just did not let up.

Finally, we were getting soaked, and just went home.  Too bad!  The first group of young ladies called the Forget-Me-Nots were very good musicians.  Two are sisters, and their dad accompanies them on guitar.  So cute, and they performed many of their own songs.

So, of course today was bright and beautiful again.  We took several rides up the mountain.

The wildflowers are huge and colorful.  These are asters and goldenrod.

Our granddog, Roo, was along, and had a wonderful time.  Here he is cooling his feet in the creek after we came back down the mountain.

Just look at all that bright sunlight on the wildflowers in front of a neighbor's barn.

You can't win them all.  It was too bad about the concert, but you can't really complain when you have such a beautiful place to visit on weekends.