Afternoon Break

 Hello Everyone,

I'm on a roll getting this quilt ready to send off to the machine quilter.  I decided to have a professional tackle this one for a couple of reasons.  Time is of the essence for one thing, and I'm a slow machine quilter.  The other main reason is that my machine quilter is so creative!

I've been getting up between 4 and 5 every morning.  I quilt or applique, answer emails, and do whatever needs to be done before I leave the house at 7:45 and go to the pool for lap swimming for 45 minutes then water aerobics.  The early bird gets to pick any lane of their choice!  Most mornings I have my own private pool.

In the distance, you can see all of the smoke from the controlled burn that settles in every night.  The air quality has not been the best.

Yesterday, I took a quilting break, and we headed three miles up the road to have lunch at Calaveras Big Trees State Park.  We'd heard they have an excellent food truck there.....and they do!  I had a delicious Mediterranean Chicken Saled and Mr. Joe had a Chicken Pita sandwich.  

It was so peaceful sitting by the big meadow while enjoying our lunch.  The birds were talking to us the entire meal.  The sky was so blue, and the smoke was gone.

Today we have our annual homeowner's association meeting at Snowflake Lodge which includes a free lunch.  I have a hot dog about once a year and today is the day! Sometimes they just hit the spot.

Soon,

Lynn

Smoky Mountain

 Hello Everyone,

I can only show you little snippets of my newest project which incorporates a bit of applique with pieced blocks.

I'm so irritated with myself.  I stitched the red block in with the wrong orientation.  The seam ripper will be out and in use today.  Of course, it is almost smack dab in the middle of the quilt!

I'm making good headway on the quilt and on the pattern writing.  This quilt is going to be offered in two different colorways, so the directions need to be written two different ways which is an extra level of effort.

I woke up early this morning to the very strong smell of smoke.......not a good way to start the day. I didn't panic because I knew there is a controlled burn just three miles away at Calaveras Big Trees State Park.

Unfortunately, the controlled burns have been known to get out of control.  The burn scars are still evident along the highway.  What's so bad about the smoke is that it is warm out and we want to open the windows.....not a good plan today.  The smoke is always much worse in the morning.

  

Saturday morning, Mazey sounded her early warning bear siren, and I immediately became alert.  A bear was walking across the back of our lot and over to the neighbors.  Sunday morning when I was hanging the bird feeder out, a wild turkey came running over to me for his breakfast.  About an hour after that when I was in our lot next door, two small bucks came over to see me.  I was actually hiding behind a tree as they can be more aggressive than the bears.  Later on that afternoon when we were on our afternoon walk around the track at the elementary school, a bear ran across the meadow by us.  I think I need to change my perfume or change my name to Grammy Doolittle!  I saw wildlife all day long.

I'm finishing up the applique on my project early this morning.  It has been fun stitching the blocks together to see this quilt come alive.

I'm off to the pool at 7:45am.  I swim laps for 45 minutes with my kickboard then I stay in the pool for another hour for water aerobics.  This is something I do for myself even though there are days when I don't feel that I can spend the time in the water.  The exercise really helps my old, arthritic knees and I just plain feel so much better!

Do something totally for yourself today.  Swimming and quilting are a wonderful way to start my day! 

Soon,

Lynn