home vacation and about that giveaway!

well...part of it was at home. I traveled north for a visit to my sister where we took in beautiful sites (and food!) in Half Moon Bay as well as a couple of movies that were very enjoyable. 2 movies about chefs...One Hundred Foot Journey and Chef. I would recommend both although the second had some rather rough language in it. The story however was sweet and the fun.
I returned home at the same time as my best friend showed up for a planned mini vacation here in Cambria that included massages, delicious dinner at the SeaChest and a horse back ride!  It has been about 40 (!) years since I had the pleasure of riding a horse. Such amazing creatures.
Here's a picture of our trail guide getting Sam ready for my ride

Here's a happy me!

And here we are at the ocean view. I could see my neighborhood from here. Such an amazing place to live!

Sew...about that giveaway! Instead of celebrating my 200th post...I'll go for celebrating the 207th or maybe having 110 followers :-)
Next post I'll have pictures and the plan. Thank you for reading along with me. Blogging world has some lovely quilters (and their pets :-) in it!

wild color post

I finished the wild color/plaid quilt. Found some less than exciting backing for it and loaded it on my longarm. I quilted one row and got the silly idea I should finally adjust my needle up/down positioner...Whaaaa! I messed something up in the process.

But fortunately, I got the right help :-)  Randy at A-1 diagnosed the problem, sent me instructions of how to make sure that was actually the problem and then sent me the parts to fix it. It took about a week to get it all taken care of but did not break the bank...which pleasantly surprised me. And then I got to quilting this wild quilt again.

I think it looks better in person but it is obviously not a fancy quilt. It is mostly about letting my friend know that I'm praying for her and her sister.
The quilting pattern I chose had dragonflies in it which is why I chose it. But although I am not a person for dense quilting....this pattern is sparse! It was fun to quilt and fast but I'm not sure I would use it again because of this.

 

Here's Elinor helping me sew on the binding...with a peek at the backing.

 

Pets on Parade 2014

The parade started yesterday (I'm late to the party!) It is a fun annual event to see quilters work with showing animal themes in their quilting...or like me, just using it to show off how cute their pets are :-)
I couldn't figure out how to make the button active so follow this following link to Pets on Parade to enjoy the quilts, the animals and PRIZES! Pets on Parade 2014
My entry is a photo dear mostly just to my own heart as I found my current goldens sitting on our love seat just like the brothers we lost years ago use to sit. Silly perhaps but it made me smile.

Luke and Sabra on Plaid Crazy Quilt