Is it really September?

Fabric that is not the challenge fabric

My little quilt group in Wales is having a challenge.  We each were given a fat quarter of this lovely, bright lime green print.  I am not being sarcastic, I really did love it!  Anyway, this afternoon I finally cut into it and got my top made.  I had a plan as soon as I got home and matched it up with the leaf print pictured above.Of course, being the space cadet that I am, I did not get a photograph of the challenge fabric.  I took a ton of photographs of the process, and not one of the challenge fabric by itself. I do not want to publicly post those photographs until after the meeting.  So look for it in a future post.

And I did get my pants mended.  It doesn't look all that great, but since I tend to wear long shirts to cover up my curves, it should be ok.  For now.  It just means I have to go jean shopping.  I am not quite up for that ordeal right now.

Tonight's sunset

I just love the wonderful sunsets we have at our house!  We live on the east bench and so have wonderful views of the west mountains.  Every day is a wonderful light show!

Geraniums 

My Dad has two pots with Geraniums at the cabin.  He is not taking them south with him this year, so I will get them. Hopefully they will be able to survive the winter in the basement.

Weeds on the beach

Some inspiration while walking on the beach!

I love to find art in the wild!

I did not draw this in the sand.  I love finding sand art left behind by others.  Luckily it had not yet washed away.

We saw a moose!

Sweetie and I drove up the little Hodges Canyon road and were delighted to see this moose having breakfast!  Yes, I did use a telephoto setting to capture him, but we were only about 20 feet away in our car, so we were safe.  Moose do not back down.

The lake just sparkles!

I am standing at the high water mark when I made this photograph. We are on the west side of the lake and it is very shallow for a long ways.  So in a low water year (like this one) it is quite a hike to the lake. You can see from the plants that it has been a couple of low water years.

It always throws me off when there is a holiday weekend.  I don't feel like I got a lot done.  I hope to have more to show next week.  

Off the Wall at Nina-Maries blog.

I confess, I love my walking foot!

My walking foot in action!

Yes, that is a Bernina Aurora 440 Quilter's Edition.

Echo quilting.

Wavy lines.

I do a lot of wavy lines using my beloved walking foot.

My helper, Peaty.

He loves to crawl under chairs.

As I mentioned a while ago, I am working on a project that I cannot show publicly yet.  My friend, Anne, and I are working on a collaboration.  We each made a small art quilt top.  We then traded them. Next we had to "expand from within" the top and then quilt it.  We will have our reveal at the Utah Quilt Guild Quilt Fest Show next month.  We will be entering the quilts and then get to see what the other has done with our original piece.  I am working on the quilting. That is always a challenge for me as my free motion quilting skills are not where I would like them to be.  So I have to confess.  I do a lot of my quilting with my walking foot.  It is more versatile then you would think  Last year I co-taught a class devoted to different design ideas using your walking foot.  Both for utility and arty quilting.

Yes, that is a Bernina 440 with the famous BSR.  I am a Bernina gal.  I also have a 1080 that I absolutely love.  But when the BSR came out (about 6 years ago?)  I decided that I had to have it!  This for sure will cure my free motion issues!  Bring it on!  Well, yeah, the stitch is very nice and it certainly helps me with control, I could never get my foot and hands to coordinate very well, but guess what?  IT DOES NOT IMPROVE YOUR DRAWING SKILLS!    

I have taken more than several free motion quilting classes from a variety of teachers; local and more well known.  My biggest problem is the one thing they all say: practice, practice, practice.  So here I am with a deadline and no time to practice, practice, practice, before tackling the project.  Back to my trusty walking foot I run.  I will do as much as I can with my good buddy and then fill in the rest with some free motion.  

If you are going to be anywhere near St. George, UT the end of September, check out the quilt show!  It should be a fun event.  Anne and Lisa will be teaching a Surface Design class and also a Dyeing class (the venue has a place where they can do "wet" classes).

I joined a blog party!  It is called Off the Wall and is hosted by Nina Marie.  So check it out every Friday.