Family Picnic

The kids have gone home, another family picnic among the memories filed away this summer to bring out and enjoy during the winter while the rain is falling and snow is promised.

A beautiful day, the sun beamed down on us and the wind stayed calm.

Lots of great food, BBQ'd oysters, salmon, ribs as well as burgers and hotdogs. More salads than you could count, plates and plates of lumpia. For those who don't know what lumpia are, they resemble egg rolls or taquitas and are super tasty. My SIL brings them every year and spends hours in the kitchen frying well over 300 of them up.

Vollyball on the beach with plenty of laughter and even a mooning by the pranksters in the family. Fireworks to watch as we sat around the bon fire toasting up marshmellows for Smoores.

We arrived to find my sister doing a lively ticket sales most of which were to my family. My cousin didn't buy a one and spent the whole day sitting on the deck with her sister and some of their kids. When I went to snap a picture as I keep an album of each years picnic she turned her back on me. Toooo bad she chose to be so childish. We all had a great time.

My DH brought out his "fart machine" and would set it down behind this or that person. Everyone wanted to have their turn and chose their victims.....I laughed till I cried.

As the day wound down and the sun began to lower in the sky my mom drew the winning ticket.


And the winner is..........
My brother Rick and his wife. While this wasn't the original raffle quilt it worked out quite nicely as they had just redecorated their bedroom in a blue theme.

Blogger isn't being nice to me today and wanted to eat all my pictures. I'll share some of my family with you later.

Busy Day

This morning after coffee I got a bug and did busy work stuff that really needs doing but something I put off until I absolutely have to get it done. I'm good at procrastinating and waiting till the last moment.

Before it got sunny, I weeded my little garden and found there's not much of a garden there. The slugs have been busy chewing every little leaf off my beans so I now have stems where beans should be. The weeds were higher than the short rows of corn which was no where near knee high by the 4th of July. Can remember my DAD saying that very thing. My tomatoes are scraggly and if they actually produce anything I will be surprized. The potatoes have come up on their own and seem to be doing the best of anything. I'm not much of a garden person this year.

After the weeds went to their demise, I washed both my truck and car, then straightened and swept out the garage. Bye the time I finished those chores it was time to head over towards my sisters. A stop at both Home Depot and Walmart to do returns and I was on my way.

A bit of chatting and then it was time to load the plan B quilt for our raffle on her handiquilter. I felt like an extra shoe just standing around while both my sis and niece did the actual quilting. 5 hours later it was done and only needing a binding which I will do tomorrow evening.

Gratitudes

That I am developing a better relationship with this sister.

The closeness I've developed via the net with my GD.

Age has given me wisdom, patience and understanding.

Comments

Quiltpixie....The hexagon is my temporary wall (it excapes me at the moment), a table topper I'm using to see how the compass is looking to the eye. It's a thought, hmmm a hexagon instead of the usual circle.

KCquilter....The pattern for the quilt in my June 26 blog is "Shakespeare in the Park" one of Judy Martins spetacular designs. It was in the QNM some time ago and I have it around here somewhere. Give me a couple weeks and I'll look for it for you. You're welcome to the magazine or if you want the book you can order it on her website www.judymartin.com It's basically just two blocks....snails trail and Virginia Reel (?) seniour moment here.




I spent today with the compass, playing with this next round. Started out with an orange point (lower left) and decided I didin't really like how it looked with the green points. Another green and I like this effect much better, more subtle and doesn't take away from the main compass points. Drats....I ran out of the fabric I was using in the current round...geeeze I should have known 1FQ wasn't going to do it. I'm also noticing some of the points in the outer ring aren't'showing up on the photo in the dark fabric while they do show in the real life mode. I think I'm going to be froggy stitching a lot on this one...those points will have to be changed to brighter colors and this is paper piecing. AAAAAck.

A LOL....my cousin finally showed up with the raffle quilt she was to put a 7" applique border (2 birds per side, a few flowers, a vine and some leaves) on with her two sisters 7 months ago. Hmmmm.....we have a alternate in the wings, the reunion is next Saturday, what did she think...I could hand quilt this in 7 days. not to mention adding the final borders......Super quilter I am not..My sister said it turned out rather nice and kinda pretty but needs handquilted so guess what I get to do this winter.

Gratitudes

Another day spent sewing.

Ice cold Beer on a hot day.

Listening to the birds sing.

Not finding kitty presents on the carpet.

I've finally gone and done it, started the Mariner's Compass. It felt good to get back to the machine again after such a long dry spell.

I know I should have grabbed the pattern I drafted, picked my colors and colored them in, but here I am once again choosing from the batiks specially purchased for this quilt without a plan of any sort. So far I like what's happening. My compass will have 8 points instead of the 7 in the photo and end up with 64 total. I haven't made up my mind what I will do with the center, maybe another smaller compass or ?????

It's been a busy time since I last updated my blog. My kids will be here in another 5 days and John will get off the ship for his vacation next Thursday. The house is ready, the shopping almost done. Snacks and things for GGD. Just last minute things to do, mow the lawn, and set up the studio bed.

I spent the 4th with my Sis and Bil. Had a great time hanging out with them, lots of good BBQ and the most spetacular fireworks display. They live out on a spit so have the bay on one side and the shipping lanes on the other side of their home. As it started to get dark we built a huge bon fire and all up and down the beach people were setting off fireworks. We could look across the bay at town for those and somebody towed a barge out on the beach side for their display. When I left after midnight fireworks were still blazing in the sky. A good day inspite of getting to close to that bon fire and catching my shoe on fire.

I've really enjoyed reading everyone's "Gratitudes" and think it's such a good idea to post them with each update.

Gratitudes

Seeing a fawn in the backyard again this morning.

A day spent with my sister and Bil.

Time spent in the sewing room today.

Catching on fire and only burning up a tenny instead of me.

A phone call tonight from John.

My new lawn swing where I can spend hours reading.