Saturday Summary 6/30/12

It's the end of the week, so I'd like to share some of the happenings that came our way here in Riverside, or of things shared or seen.
First off, my DIL posted this photo of our cherubs  - a moment of peacefulness for Frank and Lily:

 Then there's Alan brushing his teeth.  He loves to brush his teeth.  Oh yes, his casts will be off in another 2 1/2 weeks.  Alan is 19 months.

 And here's Leo - doesn't he have the bluest eyes?!

Then,  here is William (front left) with Dad (behind him), GrandPa, and half-brother, Gavin.  This was taken last Sunday before they (the three of them, not GrandPa)  headed back to New Mexico.  Will is visiting for 3 weeks.

My online friend, Billie posted of all the animals that visited recently.  We had a visitor too.  Not one I want to see coming round often - can't even call him snake in the grass - more like snake on the patio:

This guy was big!  I estimate 4 feet, but you can check that out yourselves by watching this (little kids might actually like to watch this - LOL) . Our steps are 3 feet wide.  He kept trying to climb our plumeria plant and the siding on the house.  Strange.  We guess it is a gopher snake. Two friends think so too.  Are there any herpetologists out there that can verify that?  He finally slithered under our breezeway door.  Good bye snake.  Don't come back - well unless we have a mouse problem.

Favorite Flower Friday

I was walking down my hall and looked out my window and saw through the screen:

 Grabbed my camera and took a shot through the screen.  Eeeeks, our Echi was blooming.

 Rushing outside for a better shot.  This is a variety of Echinocereus.  Isn't that a beautiful bloom?!  This is a night bloomer, but the flowers usually last untill noon.  Here it was about 8 am when I  noticed it.

 And here is a closer shot.  I love these flowers.

Have a great weekend!

Urban Mistake

I got a new ruler!  I was admiring Sue Dario's wonderful Urban Nine Patches that I decided to learn more about it and before I knew it, I had ordered the ruler.  It came yesterday and I was bound and determined to make a block today after watching Sew Kind of Wonderful's videos - they are so good.  Made my nine - patch and in my haste cut it wrong.  Okay thought I'd use a solid fussy cut piece.  Found one I liked and cut that out.  Messed up again -so back to the tutorial.  This time I got it right!  Then to start sewing.  Three of the 4 curves turned out nifty - but the fourth one wasn't cooperating, so after taking out the seam twice, figured out where I was placing the two pieces wrong together.  Sewed the third time and all was good.  Now to square it up - It's too small - YIKES!  Now what?  I decided to make a miniquilt with it.  Here's how far I got:

I may add another border.  As it is now it is 11 1/4" square.  I went to close the tutorial and realized, Jenny said to square to 8" not 8 1/2 = grrrrrrrrh - I didn't mess up after all!  Moral of story, don't try a new ruler when your tired and in a hurry.  Say Jenny - I see a whole quilt out of blocks like this one - maybe you can design another quilt.  Thanks for a great ruler and blocks.

Applique Thursday 6/28/12

I finished my third block of Esther's BOM:  Forget Me Not.  I am really liking the blocks she gives us - you know how much I like flowers, and each month we have two different ones to pick from.

It is fused down, and I need to embellish it, but essentially done. I'm finding applique really reminds me of my cut and paste days playing with paper dolls.  Do you find it so also?   This is Jacob's Ladder - a flower I'm not familiar with, but when I looked it up on the internet found lovely examples.  Mostly blue and light purple flowers.
Charm winner for this week is Marcia W.  Congrats, Marcia, your charm is on its way to you.  There will be another winner next monday - just leave a comment or link to win. If you want another chance, leave a comment and a link.  Good Luck!

So I would love to see your eye candy - applique or otherwise - whatever you're working on, finished a while back, or planning.  See blue button below.