Summer's Sweet End

My son, Jacob and his wife, Dana and the 3 kids (Hunter 6, Gavin 4 and Madison 2) came over for a swim and hot dogs on the grill. I asked a friend to help out at the pool and come over for some cook-out goodies after. A cook-out with family and friends is always nice and the horrendous heat that we have been having is finally gone. It was the perfect day for the pool.




Danielle played water-polo for 5seasons, is working on her life-guard cert and will be going for her water-safety training cert after that. It is always good to have an extra set of eyes on the pool with 3 little ones running around.


What a blast. I actually got in the pool my self. I was just going to show Gavin that it was not that cold. I had capri pants on and the water felt so good, I took another step and then I was wet to my knees. It felt so good that I just waded in, clothes and all.


Ice cold watermelon on the patio and a fun game of "Go Fish" and my day is complete. What a great day. I hope that your holiday was wonderful, too.

1990-1991 Past President Friendship Quilters Gift

Barb was the guild president for the Friendship Quilters of San Diego in 1990-1991. The guild presented her with these churn dash blocks pieced by guild members. Everybody signed their blocks so this is really a memory quilt. Well, then life got in the way and the quilt got pushed back into a closet.

Barb recently had an epiphany. Sort of a "bucket-list" moment. "what would I do if I only had 90 days to live?" Part of that answer was that she finish a couple of her quilts. And this is one of them. There are some names on those blocks that are still in the guild, some are published quilters and even the wife of a former news anchorman. Lots of memories in this quilt.

I did not want to plow thru it with a panto so I asked my friends at MQResource for some ideas in their "Design Help Needed" forum. Michelle Wyman, a talented quilter, panto designer and IntelliQuilter afficionado responded with a stitch sequence that involved continuous curves, calledd CC by quilters. CC was the perfect solution because it just sits in the background stabilizing the quilt without trying to steal the show from the piecing. It was a bit tedious, 48 blocks with the same pattern. And when piecing is a community project, not all of the contributors are as talented piecers as the others. 3 needles, too many jams and a fair amount of frogging (rip-it, rip-it) and it is done. I am sure that she will love it, mostly because it is now almost done. I have gotten a promise from her to bring the quilt to a guild meeting. I think that will be a great meeting.

I'm Done

Yup, today was my last day at my real job. I will miss the people that I work with, the company (SAIC) that has taken such great care of me and the worthwhile job that I did for Marine Corps weather sites. I will not miss the 100 mile a day commute or the 4:30 wake-up call.

On Sep 18th, I turn 62 years old. I never really expected to live this long so it is all good. My first social security check gets here in the 3rd week of November. Until then, it's quilt, quilt, quilt to help pay our bills.

So my best friend, Christi, surprised me last night by bringing this gorgeous vase of flowers to our planned dinner. Chez Sizzler is one of my favs. In a small town, there are not so many choices for dinner. The flowers were wonderful and people kept stopping by to comment on them. It was a great dinner, shared with friends. (Christi, Anna and me). Now I start a new phase of my life.