A Stitch in Time.....catching up on finished quilts

 A quilt made for my sister, Holly Marie.  We spent the weekend in Vino Bello, Napa and I placed the quilt on the bed, unknown to Holly, before going to dinner.  When we returned, it took several minutes to realize that it was there but she was so delighted.  I am delighted knowing that this bright quilt will liven up her bedroom and provide a soft resting place for her naughty cat.

A quilt for sweet Riley Sophia, my great niece.  I started it as a baby quilt and ended up being a third birthday gift.  Featured side-ways, the quilt celebrates the importance of the ocean in her father and grandfathers lives.

 Toni, a friend and co-worker, helped me put together this donation quilt for a shelter to provide refuge for women suffering domestic violence.

A quilt for my niece, Jenna Mae, to celebrate her graduation from high school.  Fun quilt for a special niece.

Liquid Gold

 The day finally arrived when we "robbed" the hive and harvested honey.  It is important to leave approximately 80 pounds of honey for the bees to consume during the winter so we only gathered honey from the supers.  One hive had honey for the taking and we managed to harvest approximately 18 pounds of the liquid gold.

Imagine, it takes the lifetime of 12 bees to produce one teaspoon of honey!  Realizing that, the golden nectar becomes even more valuable than it
actually is for, believe me, this honey is

priceless. 

The gifts of beekeeping are many....I enjoy sitting and watching them as they come and go from their hive.  They do that little "bee dance" at the hive entry to advise their sisters of the best sources of nectar and pollen.  To help them out, I've started planting "bee friendly flowers" in our yard.  I think the bees struggle in Silver Springs to find enough nectar to keep them going.  I also want to thank my neighbors for contributing to the adventure by growing gardens and planting flowers.

 I enjoy watching the bees at their local watering hole, the bird bath and am delighted to see them returning from gathering pollen with their "baskets" full.

I think beekeeping makes me slow down a bit as I watch the bees and enjoy the flowers.  I am thankful for the honey they gave us this year and look forward to the next season.  Now it' s time to prepare for winter; put up the mouse guard to keep themrodents out of the hive, test for vorra mites and feed pollen patties. 

 I'm so very grateful for my dear friend, Debbie, who has walked me through my first year as a beekeeper.  Her knowledge is immense, her patience is equally as large and she shares without reservation.  So, as I write this my first beekeeping season is coming to an end and I'm thumbing through books... looking for more flowers to plant and anticipating the adventure of a new year.

Sorry, Sudoku....you've been replaced.

Sorry, Will Shortz, the Sudoku puzzles no longer appeal to me the way that Zen Doodling does.  As I put that Sharpie pen to paper, I am enchanted with the designs that flow.  Although I'm currently limiting myself to paper and pens, I anticipate sitting at my machine with rich colored Aurifil thread on solid cotton fabrics.  Oh....to imagine!

Food Truck Friday in Reno

She moved seductively, hips swaying as she belted out a Nora Roberts song.  She rubbed up against his leg, and nested on his shoe, knowing how much he loved her!  This was my introduction to Food Truck Friday, a puppeteer well versed in his craft. Cheyenne selected a Vietnamese sandwich from the Dish Truck and Bill tried out ribs from the Saucewagon.  Noah had a burger and fries from Fatburger and  I tried the Asian Tacos from Kenji's...the pork were especially delicious and priced at $1.50/each - best deal of the evening.  Beer from Great Basin Brewery and home-made chocolate ice cream with chunks of chewy chocolate and almonds made the evening perfect.  Then we headed over to Chey's house and watched Freddy Frogface with Noah.  Cheyenne brought out movie candy and offered popcorn to end a fun night with our grand kids.  Check out Food Truck Friday (the first Friday of each month) on their facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/RenoFoodTruckFridays

Birthday Placemats...a year long project.

As you may imagine, my family has lots of birthdays from the oldest, William, to the youngest, Willa Rose, we manage to fill up calendar pages, month after month with reasons to celebrate.  I think the only months we get a breather are February, June and December.  But, if you agree with me, December definitely does not qualify as a "breather."  I decided I wanted to make individual placemats, celebrating what makes each of us unique, so I began in May with Max and Sam's 11th birthdays and followed in July with Larry's 35th! Molly is next, the end of August and then I charge head on into the fall months with celebrations for Chaja, Willa, Marcel, Dylan, Rachael, Scott, Ivan and Olivia.  I'll be so glad to have December "off" for January brings four more birthdays!  I'll be posting pictures of the placemats as I finish them.  Since I'll be doing the little grand daughters closer to their 3rd birthdays, Willa and Olivia will have a wait.  I think this will be a  very long, drawn-out adventure in figuring out how to capture each person's personality in a placemat.

The Best of Dandelion Wine

Queen replacement bee

I'm listening to Ray Bradbury's semi-autographical recollection of a small-town summer in 1928, Dandelion Wine.  This quote is magical  "...searching out the smell of the gold fuzzed bees that hung around our back-porch grape arbor.  Bees do have a smell you know and if they don't, they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers."

Placing the queen in the frames.  The bees will eat through the candy nougat plug and release the queen.  By then they will accept her because of the pheromones she releases.

The Backside Offers the Best View!

Now, I guess that really depends on what you are looking at, doesn't it?  For me, the backside of quilts typically offers the best view of the quilting and the work I enjoy the most.  Rachael, when she and her family visited over spring break, worked on a disappearing nine patch for her mother-in-law, Ellen.  She ended up taking it home to rework the squares and when Bill and I were visiting Seattle in June, she put it together and sent it home with me for quilting.  By rights, the only side I can claim is the backside of the quilt, for that is where my creativity hides.  I finished my part and am returning the quilt to Rachael so she can bind it and prepare the label for this warm and cozy Christmas offering.  And so I offer you the backside of Rachael's quilt.