All Is Calm - 52 Photos Project

I'm dipping my toe into something new for me -

the 52 Photos Project.

Each week they have a new photo prompt &

I will attempt to take a new photo or find an older photo to post to go along with it.

 

 

This week's theme is

"All is calm".

 

 

I took this photo in November 2011,

when my sister Nancy & I went on a "photo drive" near her home northeast of Sacramento, CA.

 

 

To see more calmness,

click over to the gallery.

 

 

Cheers!

 

sue



My Wish-To-Do List!

    Barbara, over at Cat Patches has thrown down a new challenge for next year!   Knowing, as she does, how quilters are, she's giving us permission to make MORE UFOs!  We just need to start a new project and then blog about it at the end of the month & link up to her linky party.  What could be better than that?  We don't even have to break any promises, because we don't have to promise to finish anything!!   She did ask us to post a wish-to-do list, so here's mine:   This is one that I do want to finish:  

  This is a quick draft of the pattern that I did in Excel, but you get the idea. It's for my BIL, Walter & sister, Judy.   Other than this one, I'm not sure just what I want to START...but I do want to continue working on the quilt for my own bed.    So that's my wish-to-do list.   What's yours?     And just because I can, here's my new favorite Christmas song, "The Christmas Can-Can", by Straight No Chaser:    

    Happy Quilting!   sue

The Final Foto Finish

They say that all good things must come to an end.

And now is the time for the

Final

Foto

Finish.

 

Barbara over at Cat Patches has been hosting this fun linky party for over two years, and now it is time to call it a day.

(but not without giving us some links to other photo link-ups!)

So, for our last Foto Finish we have 2,

yes, count 'em, TWO themes!

 

The first is

FOOD.

 

 

This feeder was hanging on my sister's front porch,

and this hummingbird was one of the 'regulars'.

(It's since been replaced by a diner with more seats)

 

Our second, bonus theme is

 

THE END.

 

And, just because I can, my choice for my last

Foto Finish

combines both of the themes!

 

 

This was

"the end"

of a lovely & delicious dessert crepe

that I shared with my friend Marlene,

at Sunday's Old Town Bistro

in Monrovia, California.

 

Okay, Okay!

This is what it looked like before it was attacked.

 

 

 

I'm going to miss linking up to

Foto Finish.

Even though I didn't always link every week,

I did always look forward to it.

 

I checked back in my blog post list,

and realized I've been playing along for almost 2 years!

 

Thanks for all the fun Barbara!

 

 

Cheers!

 

sue

 

 

 

Oh Thank Cuteness!

I'm linking up to Generation Q's

Oh Thank Cuteness for this Thanksgiving Day.

 

First, here is my contribution to the day's cuteness:

 

 

This is Elizabeth McInnes...

 

 

Before dinner!

 

Elizabeth was rescued by my sister & BIL,

Judy & Walter,

when they moved back to California from Australia.

She is currently in the continuing process of training them both.

 

Elizabeth is thankful for:

 

Tuna

Bikkies (dry food)

Insulin

Cushy Beds & Laps

The Hairbrush

Petromalt

& leftover cereal milk

 

I am thankful for:

 

My 95-1/2 year old Dad

My family, both born to and the one I've chosen

My friends, far & near & "electronic"

The job interview I have next Monday

and more that I can't even think of just now.

 

May you all have the most wonderful of days!

 

sue

 

 



Just Cattin' Around

Just thought I'd share a few photos of my friends

Possum & Riesling (Ries).

 

 

Just to get into the mood, some bribery took place.

This is Possum.

Last year for about 8 weeks she was clumping around with a big cast on one of her back legs.

Somehow she had fallen or jumped wrong off of the giant cat tree in the living room & broke her leg.

If you didn't know that happened, you probably couldn't tell now!  She doesn't seem to have lost a step when racing around the house with her sister.

 

This is her sister, Ries.

She thinks it's pretty cool that her folks painted the living room to match her eyes.

 

Where are the treats?

 

Break time

 

 

"Headlights on for safety during daylight hours."

 

 

On another note...

 

 

I voted today... did you?

 

 

sue

 

 

 

Foto Finish: Birds

 

 

This weeks Foto Finish theme is Birds.

 

This roadrunner was the first thing I thought of!

 

 

 

 

I took this shot in 2007 while on my solo roadtrip.

If I remember correctly, it was at a rest area

 in New Mexico.

 

Check out more wonderful photos at Cat Patches!

 

sue

 

 

Why Yes, I Have Been Sewing!

I'm linking up to the NewFO linky party

with Barbara at Cat Patches.

 

And I have two (yes 2!) projects to share.

Ain't life amazing?

 

The first is a block that will soon be backed, quilted & bound, then joined with others from my guild into a Potholder Quilt for our out-going President.

The pattern is from Quilter's Cache called

Wild Geese Variation.

You can get the pattern here.

I did choose to use 3 colors instead of just 2, and I am so happy with the way it turned out!

 

One quarter....

The whole block!

Now this is the worst part of paper piecing:

Trash, trash, trash!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was originally going to send my next project in to Pokey Bolton, for the Festival Pet Project Fundraiser.
They had asked for 4" X 6" postcards that they planned to sell at the Quilt Festival in Houston, with all of the monies going to local animal shelters.

As usual, I couldn't decide what I wanted to do.
I went through several designs & didn't like anything.
Finally I settled on this

and traced it onto some Steam-a-Seam2 fusible.

Cut 'em out & decided on a background.

After fusing, I stitched around the cats & quilted them.

Up 'til this point, everything was working well.
Then, when I added the back & stitched around the outside, it was a huge FAIL!
You may notice the outer edge of the right postcard is a bit wavy & wobbly.
Yep, it was HORRID.
There was no way I could send them in like that & they needed to be in the mail that day.
No time to start over or figure out how to fix it.

As you can see, I did eventually spend several HOURS picking out the layers of satin stitching around the edge.

I just have to decide on a different way to finish them.
Any ideas?

So there you go - my two NewFOs.

Click on over to Cat Patches to see some more wonderful projects!


sue
 

 

Foto Finish - Creepy or Spooky

It's Saturday.

That means it time, once again, for

FOTO FINISH!

 

This week's theme,

just in time for Halloween,

is

Creepy or Spooky.

 

I didn't have anything like that in my archives,

but, while I was at Auntie's Ceramics today,

I took a quick pick of some of her decorations.

 

 

This lovely couple was originally used as decoration for a

bridal shower....

 

They are actually about life-sized, but I couldn't get back far enough to fit them in top-to-bottom.

 

Lovely couple, don't you think?

 

Pop on over to Cat Patches for more creepiness!

 

Happy Halloween!!!

 

sue

 

Foto Finish: ORANGE

Yes folks, it's that time of the week again...

time for

FOTO FINISH at Cat Patches!!!

 

This week our suggested theme is

ORANGE.

Now, I suppose I could have picked out a pumpkin or Fall leaves or something seasonal along those lines.

 

But y'all know me better than that, don't you?

 

 



 

They've been doing a lot of road work around here lately,

I practically see this in my sleep.

(I probably should have one IN my house soon, if I don't get some of this stuff put away!)

 

But it IS a pretty orange, isn't it?

 

And, just so you don't feel cheated about the seasonal thing, here's a sneak peek of my Halloween costume (sorta):

 

 

My friend Mary Ann, at Auntie's Ceramics made this.  I love it!

She's made over 100 crocheted caps, all different kinds, & sent them to the Renown Children's Hospital in Reno, NV, after her grandson, off-road race driver, Justin Davis, visited them a few month's ago.

 

Why don't you click over to Cat Patches now,

check out the other ORANGE photos,

and share one of your own?

 

 

sue

Foto Finish - Leaves

This week for Foto Finish,

our optional theme is

 

LEAVES.

 

 

I know it's that time of the year, in

North America at least,

when the leaves are supposed to turn all those

gorgeous fall colors.

 

But I live in Southern California.

We rarely follow the rules here.

Well, at least not at my house!

 

I took this picture of the leaves on one of the rose bushes

in my Tortured Rose Garden

yesterday.

That would be

Friday, October 12, 2012.

 

 

While they do have that cool, Fall color scheme,

is isn't because they're getting ready to drop off,

but rather because they are

 

Brand New Growth!

 

Join in the fun -

click on over to Foto Finish at Cat Patches

and share some of YOUR leaves!

 

Enjoy,

 

sue



Tortured Rose Garden

I know people who love to garden.

 

 

That's not me, however.

My Dad told me that not being a gardener is in my genes.

It seems that my Great-Grandfather, Jerome Laughton, left the Orkney Islands in Scotland, in part because he didn't like farming.  He emigrated to Toronto, Canada, and then my Grandfather, Herbert Laughton, came from Canada to California, and was a reed furniture maker.

Dad, a carpenter, construction inspector, and builder, also didn't like to do yard work.

My Mom, a Smith, on the other hand, loved to work in the yard & always had lovely gardens.  Both of my sisters do too.

Not me.

I'm all Laughton in this regard!

When my Mom wanted to move back to So. Cal, I found a place for us that had lots of flowers & a decent yard.

Then she decided she wanted her own place

& I was left here with 13 rose bushes, a plethora of irises, and various other growing, flowering plants.

 

 

I haven't watered or fed them in years.

My gardener prunes them back for me once a year

(I instantly scar if scratched by a rose thorn).

 

This year he was a bit behind on the pruning part -

it was actually done just about 6 weeks ago.

 

During the last 6 weeks, we've had about 5 weeks of temperatures in the 90s - 100+.

YUCK!

 

All that just to show you these photos

that I took yesterday (Friday):

 

 

We had a good rain finally, on Thursday.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing what the irises get up to now!

 

Not bad for not being a gardener-type, huh?

 

 

Happy Autumn!!

 

sue



A Bit of Sewing for the Bridal Shower

I attended a bridal shower today.

We played some fun games - I don't care what anyone says,

I LIKE shower games!

 

We played one more traditional game where we were given a 'wedding ring' on a ribbon to wear & told not to say "Chelsea" (the bride), "Sean" (the groom) or "Wedding".

The penalty being the loss of our 'ring'.

The other games were all a little different.

One was a take-off on BINGO,

only we were given blank bingo cards & told to write in different bridal shower gifts into the squares.  Everyone had a free square in the center plus we all knew at least ONE gift she was getting!

Then, when Chelsea opened her gifts,

if it was one we had written down, we could cross it off.

5 in a row made a bingo!

The next one was a kind of Scattergories(c) game.

This time our papers had the letters

C - H - E - L - S - E - A

across the top, then different categories down the side.

We had to come up with (hopefully) unique words,

starting with each letter of her name, to fit those categories.  I'm not sure if I can remember them all, but here goes:  flowers, movies (romance preferred), Honeymoon destination, item of clothing, gem or jewelry, & item on a menu. 

I didn't manage to fill all of the boxes, but I did get the most points & won a lovely set of bath goodies!

For the last game we each got an envelope with

"Who's the Groom" on it.

We all opened them at the same time & whoever had the picture of Sean inside won.  The other envelopes had celebrity's faces instead!

 

So, all of that, just to show you what Sara & I gave to Chelsea! 

A while back, I did a post (HERE) talking about the wedding quilt that we are giving to Chelsea & Sean.

For the shower, I used some of the scraps leftover from the quilt & made 2 throw pillows to coordinate with the quilt.

So now they know what the basic colors of the quilt are,

but they still don't know what it looks like.

 



The Fronts
 



The Backs

Way back when we asked her what her favorite colors were, Chelsea said blue.
Blue-blue, not turquoise nor teal, but
BLUE.

Think we did OK on that?

I think they look pretty spectacular on my red chair.
Almost didn't want to give them away!


The wedding is in a few more weeks,
then I can post pictures of the whole quilt top.
We're promising the finished quilt
before their first anniversary!


Cheers!

sue
 

 

Foto Finish - WET

Since I could barely see out of the windows in my car,

I decided to run it through the $5 car wash the other day.

 

As I was sitting in the car,

waiting for my turn to be propelled through

the whips and rags, soap & water,

it occured to me that the (optional) theme for

FOTO FINISH this week is

 

*W*E*T*!

 

What better place to find a photo of W*E*T,

in the So Cal droughtland,

than in a car wash?

 

Last time through I took a video.  You can see it here.

 

The hard part was picking just one.

I liked the way it looks like scratches on the glass,

but I think it's really just the water from the sprayers on each side of the car colliding.

 

If you want to enjoy some more

wetness

OR

share something of your own,

click on over to

CAT PATCHES

and join the fun!

 

 

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

 

sue

Foto Finish - Funny

This week our suggested theme

is

Funny!

 

I've been thinking, sorting through photos

in my mind,

and only one kept popping up,

over and over.

 

So here it is...

 

 

Huh?

No pets allowed in the pet area?

WHAT?!?

 

 

I saw this in a rest area somewhere between

Evanston, Wyoming &

Gooding, Idaho.

 

 

Share some of your funniness with us

at CAT PATCHES!

 

 

sue



Foto Finish - Show Us Where You Live

This week we were asked to

Show Us Where You Live.

I seem to take quite a few pictures

while driving in my car,

and this is one of them.

This shot is looking north,

across the east San Gabriel Valley,

at the foothills of

the San Gabriel mountains

in February 2011.

It's especially refreshing to look at this one,

seeing as it has been from 94F to 106F

here the last few weeks!

Go on over to Cat Patches

and show us where YOU live!

sue