Foto Finish --- Spring Blossoms

As soon as  I saw this week's topic,

I knew what I wanted to be my subject.

Every Spring, many of the hills around me

are covered in coats of yellow....

wild mustard!

I tried to get some close-up shots,

but, of course, there was a breeze,

and with their slender stems,

they were just waving away.

Without further ado...

For more wonderful Spring Blossoms

or

to share your photos of some

check out Foto Finish at Cat Patches!

Happy Easter to all!

sue



Foto Finish --- Blooming Trees

All week long I've been looking for trees in flower

for this week's Foto Finish assignment.

It seemed like every time I saw a likely subject,

either I didn't have time to stop,

it wasn't safe to pull over,

or there was no parking anywhere in the vicinity!

So, back to the archives for me....

This is a Bottlebrush, or Callistemon, tree.

They are native to Australia,

but I grew up with them in Southern California.

To see more blooming trees, or share some of your own,

pop on over to Cat Patches and check out Foto Finish!

Enjoy today!

sue

Ginger's Quilt Shoppe!!

After our committee meeting today,

for the Jason Tennies Memorial Foundation's Walk for Mental Health,

my friend Sara & I went to

Ginger's Quilt Shoppe in Upland, CA.

Sara & I had purchased all of the fabric

for the guitar quilt at Ginger's,

and thought we would take the top up there to "show & tell".

Linda, Ginger's daughter & co-owner of the Shoppe was there.

We decided to take a leap,

and ask if it would be possible for them to quilt it on their long-arm

as an 'in-kind' donation.

Linda asked if we could come back tomorrow, as Ginger does the actual quilting & they would both be in the shop then.

But we talked a bit about what we would like done on it & she mentioned that they had a musical notes all-over quilt design. 

She went into the back to get the

quilting pattern book to show us.

When she came out,

she told us that she had texted Ginger...

and Ginger said YES! 

She would quilt it at no charge to us!!!!

WOOOOooooOOOOHOOOoooOOOoOoOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you Thank You THANK YOU!!

to Ginger & Linda!

Ginger's Quilt Shoppe

is

the

BEST!!!!

That's

Ginger's Quilt Shoppe

1120 Dewey Way, suite B

Upland, CA  91786

(909) 920-3099

I hope your weekend turns out as great as mine has!

sue

Look what's happening here....

The Guitar Quilt top is aaaalllllmoooosttt done!

All I need to do is stitch down the fused applique.

Unless I decide to take 2 of the inner borders off & turn them around the right way.

<sigh>

That's one of the drawbacks of not having some place big enough to be able to see it all before I sewed them on.

Or even notice it after I sewed them on,

before I sewed on the rest of the borders.

For more of the story behind the quilt, check here:

http://zzyzx-and-sue.blogspot.com/2011/02/it-was-beautiful-saturday-morning.html

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Look at all this BEAUTIFUL Moda Sunkissed fabric I won from
1 Choice 4 Quilting!!

And, of course, while I was picking which ones I wanted,

I had to buy something too!

I have absolutely no idea

what they will turn into,

but they were calling my name!

Have a excellent weekend everyone!!!

sue

Lots of goodies!

Vreni at Oops-lah is having a lovely "I'm going on holiday" giveaway!  There's a Hullaballo layer cake, gorgeous Strawberry Fields Bali Pops & a Modern Workshop jelly roll.

Check them all out at http://oops-lah.blogspot.com/2011/04/its-give-away-and-holiday-time.html

It's open internationally & last day to enter is May 9th.

Foto Finish --- Family

Wow!  What a great theme this week.

Right away, I went right to this picture, of my Dad & his two sisters, Dorothy & Joyce.

It's the joy on their faces that does it for me.

This was taken December 2010.

Dad will be 94 next month & still going strong!

My aunts are 38 & 39, respectively. 

That's my story, & I'm sticking to it!

If you have a picture that says "family" to you & you want to share,

or you'd like to see what others have picked,

click on over to Cat Patches!

Enjoy Spring!

sue

Bloggers give away the coolest stuff!

Want to join in on all the fun? 

Here are a few great giveaways that I've come across:

Raggedy Station is giving away a gorgeous set of black & white fat quarters!

http://raggedystation.blogspot.com/2011/04/giveaway.html

Sew Inspired is having the fifth giveaway for her 5th Blogiversary! 

16 fat quarters that are just gorgeous.  :D

http://www.sewinspiredblog.com/2011/04/today-my-blog-turns-5-years-old.html

We Love Quilting is going to give away a big box full of surprises - who wouldn't like to win that??

http://welovequilting.com/blog/

Good luck!

sue

A Celebration of Life ~ Anderson MacDonald Memorial Cruise

April 5, 2011, would have been my friend Anderson's 53rd birthday.

Instead, some of his friends & family took a short cruise to celebrate his life & say our farewells.

It was a perfect day to be out on the water.  The temperature was in the mid-70s.  I took my jacket, thinking it might be a bit chilly when we were underway, but it just sat on a chair the whole time.

The skies were that perfect blue with just a few fluffy, white clouds.

I found out that Mac had been in the Navy, a SeaBee, as a young man.

So what a perfect coincidence (or maybe not a coincidence, really) that we seemed to have a military escort on our ride.

The Aircraft Carrier, U.S.S John C. Stennis (CVN 74) cruised past.

Naval Security and the Coast Guard too.

And the U.S.S. Kidd (DDG100)

a guided missile destroyer.

I missed the jets that flew over (one of the contrails is in the cloud picture),

but I did get one of the helicopters.

We talked about the man that Anderson was.  He was a loyal Cincinnati Bengals fan, but we didn't hold that against him. His great sense of humor.  That he was one of those guys that just knew stuff.  If you had a question on politics, world events, football....ask him, he could tell you. A great and loyal friend.

When the time was right, his ashes were scattered with Bengal orange rose petals and stems of flowers into the current.

 

Anderson "Big Mac" MacDonald, I may not have known you as well as I would have liked,

but I am proud to call you my friend.

Foto Finish --- Macro

I've been looking at a lot of things close-up this week,

but my camera was having different ideas!

Sometimes it would focus,

sometimes it wouldn't.

My first thought was to take macros of some plants or flowers.

But I decided that I wanted to shoot something different instead.

So I started taking pictures of things on my desk.

Then I opened up my new tin of mints...

THIS made me laugh & is my favorite of all of this week's photos:

So, this is my pick for this week's Foto Finish.

Hop on over to Cat Patches & share YOUR favorite macro shot

or check out what everyone else is sharing.

Here are some of the others that I took this week:

 

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Have a wonderful weekend!

sue