Trucking the USA

Well, I do love to travel. I just would have never imagined I'd be doing it on the back of a truck.

 We got our new work  truck and it has a great new wrap for the sides... the picture on the back??? Well, they did all they could with photo shop, including changing the color of Cheryl's sweater.

 QNN filming is always a lot of laughs.  That is a stack of my quilts and Vicki's quilt tops.  My quilts are famous.  Well, they have been photographed a bunch for training videos and backdrops and important shots like this...  Jodie Davis and Vicki, my boss. The short take is "Finishing more Quilts."
They popped up from behind all these quilts. We're just old quilters, what do you expect for entertainment?

And since Vicki was one of the featured guests, they said I had to do the short take.  Vicki saved me.  She did the short take with me.  We did Dueling Quilting... like dueling banjos.  She did a shape and put a feather in it, then I quilted ferns in the same shape. Never the same thing two days in a row.

ONE Million Stitches

It's been a long winter!  I'm getting closer to done with this quilt... good thing!

I now have over 1,000,000 sitches on this quilt.

A Happy New Year

Zach and Michelle and the two little girls came over with some Sparkling Martinelli's. I got out some fancy glasses...

 We all did cheers and called it a night.

It's all about the kids... They thought it was a great holiday. We were in bed by News time.  

St George for Blue Skies and Sunshine

How is it possible that we can leave 2 feet of snow on the ground and drive a couple of hours for this amazing day!  Johnson's canyon is open part of the year because spotted frogs and turtles claim it for home the rest of the year so no people allowed.  It  reminds me of Zions and Arches.  I love this place... in the WINTER!  

 I am not sure what I am doing... no clue.

 This is the arch.  It it much bigger than it looks in this picture.  The trail ends in a box canyon and these guys were rock climbing the easy way... coming down.  Isn't this amazing how high up there the canyon walls are and how tiny these guys look?  Amazing St. George.

It's Winter, again.

This was a BIG snow winter. It's pretty but it came early and there was lots of it.

Too much of it.

We heard a big noise, but didn't know what it was until the next morning.  Jerry, "Fix it Gr-pa" propped it back up with 2x4's and did a temporary fix until the snow melted.

Christmas

One of the things everyone really looks forward to at Christmas is the Family Newsletter. I get something from each of my kids about their family and print it up.  Jodi didn't even think about getting the letters Christmas Eve.  She said I always do it Christmas morning. I don't remember there being a tradition of WHEN I give out the newsletter.  A lot of  years I am waiting until midnight on Christmas to get the last kid's submission.    I print what we have and we all love just reading what is going on with every family.

This year Jodi talked about her dilemma of what to get Strider and how she had to get Uncle Jeremy to help her pick out a bow and what arrows to get.  AND that was Strider's Christmas, all written up in the Christmas Newsletter for him to read Christmas Eve.  Now is that my fault?  It seems like the kids have hardly ever cared about the newsletter.  Not this year.  They're all big. They grew up and learned how to read. They all grabbed a newsletter  and sat down to read.  That's when Jodi realized she did not want Strider reading her page. 

. I want it in writing that I did the newsletter.  But  it was getting close to Christmas and still no gifts under the tree,  so Jerry did the shopping and grabbed a hoodie and a head lamp for each of the grandkids.  Now they're all set with flashlights for the cabin this summer.

 Michelle and Zach and a Christmas surprise for everyone.  The little girls had cute Tshirts with a very exciting announcement...

Kalee and Alex, no announcement.

Jer and Brit

Jodi and Don

Cory and Heather.

Party on kids!

Blush and an Impulse

 I started the Rose of Sharon blocks on an IMPULSE. I got sent to Australia for work.  I knew I would have LOTS of time for hand stitching on the long plane ride over.  I grabbed some fabric from my stash and this is the result. It's an original pattern and I am sketching and adding rows as I go. 

I started  last April.  Now it's finally off the wall. Yeah! I am finally quilting!

I cut a stack of paper  14 x 14 inches and then started cutting them into snowflakes... really. Then I sketched and sketched to come up with a way to quilt the other blocks.

Finally a border idea I love....

 Now I still need to come up with something for the vine border... and it has to match these and the center.