Welcome Clara Anne!

Since I showed you the baby quilt, it seems only fair that I show you the baby. My great-niece Clara Anne arrived in the world on September 18th. She is named in honor of two of our favorite (and dearly missed) family members. As her dad said :

She was apparently pretty pleased with her luxury confines because it took almost 19 hours of coaxing and a generous relocation package to persuade her to join us in the real world.

Here is the new little family. They all look remarkably good after their sleepless night and hard work. Due to the wide range in ages of my husband's siblings, I have been a "great-aunt" for many years, despite my 'ahem' relatively young age. Needless to say, we are all happy and excited to welcome this newest member of the family.

The Wedding Shower

After days of yard work, housework, furniture rearrangement, and decorating, the day of Carrie's wedding shower finally came. This picture was taken just as the guests began to arrive. The tables looked pretty, the food was delicious, and a great time was had by all. Fortunately for me, it was a team effort and many hands made light work. Besides sharing the cooking, we were able to combine our plates and glassware to get enough for the party. We served a nice brunch (egg casserole, potato casserole, fruit salad, leaf shaped muffins, juice, coffee, mimosas). We had a little mishap with an exploding champagne bottle, but after a little mop up everything was fine.


And here is the quilt we made for Carrie. You can tell by the smile on her face how much she liked it. We always save the quilt to be opened last, kind of a finale to the wedding shower.

And here we all are together. Another happy chapter in the book of family quilts.

Wedding In Lake Tahoe

Carrie with her dad.
Beautiful Lake Tahoe.

Carrie with her mom.
The Happy couple.

Here are some pictures from my niece Carrie's small wedding in Lake Tahoe last weekend. I was not there since they opted just for parents and siblings in a private ceremony. I think the setting is lovely.

This is the couple who will receive the last family quilt I showed you. It came back from the quilter with very nice stipple star quilting and it looks great. Time to get the binding sewn on and hand it off to those who are finishing the hand work (thankfully not me.) I am giving a wedding shower for them on Sept 14th and we will present it to them at that time. There will also be a big party for family and friends in October at her parents' home.

It has been a busy week at work. Campus is crowded with returning students and it always feels like a shock after the peace of summer. In the evening I have been gradually changing my decor from "summer" to "fall", even though it has been hotter than heck and there is nothing fall like in the atmosphere. I do enjoy the decorating rituals though.

It's also time to change the flowerbeds and remove the spent annuals. This weekend we will scout the nurseries and garden stores to see if there are any mums to plant yet. Time for fall color!

Work In Progress, Quilt Show Loot, and a Surprise

To the left is the little painting (on paper) I showed you a couple of days ago, and to the right is the fabric version, a work in progress. So far I have used my new SG paints, shiva sticks and a stencil. You can also see where I used the blue painter's tape at the beginning to mask off some white areas. I have quite a bit of work left to go. The SG paints are the nicest I have ever used for fabric. The colors are creamy and easy to mix and the resulting painted fabric is not stiff, which should make it easier to add thread work later.

Yesterday I went to the San Diego Quilt Show with my friend Barbara. It's a small show, but I had fun and found a few treasures. Here is the loot:


I got some very nice batiks, blenders, hand dyes, and one special piece of hand painted fabric by Mickey Lawler (That green one in the middle). Her Sky Dyes book is what got me started painting fabric in the first place.

The most amazing thing happened on my way to the quilt show. I was standing at the crosswalk and I looked over and saw my blog friend Debby . I didn't immediately realize who she was, only that I recognized her. It gets even funnier. We chatted for a few moments and realized that we had worked for the same company in the same office 30 years ago. I NEVER would have put that together since I barely remember what I had for lunch yesterday, never mind who I worked with so so long ago. (Plus, Debby looks WAY too young for her age, which is pretty close to mine.) Anyway, it was really nice to meet her at last and hopefully we can get together again some time.