The Falling Leaves quilt top is done - it's now in the stack waiting to be quilted.  

 

 

I also picked up fabric yesterday for a quilt that I'm taking a class from Linda Ballard for, Piccadilly Square.  I've always heard that she has really great tips and tricks for quilting, so am taking her class (any help is greatly appreciated!)  The class is mid-October, and this is a sample of the quilt.  

 

I made chicken curry for dinner the other night,and decided to make naan too, using my pizza oven.  I was a little distracted, and didn't watch the first set of naan I put in.....oops! 

The rest of the batch was pretty tasty though.

Well, yesterday was an adventure......I met up with Cindy C at Mt. Lassen to hike up to Paradise Meadows, since it was a hike neither of us had done.  We did so good hiking there, we decided to head to the next spot on the trail - Terrace Lake!  The hike to Paradise Meadows was 1.3 miles (per the signpost) and Terrace Lake was "just" another 1.7 miles.  What it didn't say was that it was 1.7 miles at what felt like twice the incline than the 1.3 miles!!!  

It was a beautiful hike though, and the stops that my legs required enabled lots of photos....I didn't even pretend they were photo ops, I just needed a break.  We went as far as looking down on Terrace Lake, but it was a 0.3 mile downhill trail to the lake, which meant it was a 0.3 mile uphill hike back, and neither of us really wanted to do that to our legs!  Since the original plan called for a relatively short hike, we had water and some Kind bars with us - I should have brought the lunch that was back down in the car!

The chipmunks were out everywhere.

One of our first selfies - still early in the hike!

Paradise Meadows

Looking a bit more tired.

 

And this is Terrace Lake in the background - as close as we got!

Lassen Peak in the background

Looking a bit more worse for wear....

Hat Lake - our starting point - not much of lake, but pretty.

My watch for the hike - 4 1/2 hours, 2,089 foot elevation change, 6.85 miles.  Please note the effort was "All out"!  My feet were tired and my ankle wasn't happy at all (time for another cortisone shot??), but...this morning, I feel fine, so it didn't kill me!

By the way, if we had hiked back to our car and driven over to Helen Lake, there's a very short trail up to Terrace Lake.  Next time!!!

Since my former boss and Team Lead both work in Roseburg, OR, I took a (relatively) quick trip up to see them and go to lunch with them on Thursday.  It's just a 4 hour drive up, so I basically did a long workday, lol!  I dropped Alli off at her day program at 8:00, was up in Roseburg by 12:15, did lunch and a visit with the people I knew in the office, and was home by 7:00.  I left three quilts there - Kevin and Brittney picked out one for themselves and also picked one out for the LSS Manager, Trina.  

Since I was taking quilts up, I did a big push to get these two quilts completed to take.  They both turned out great!  

I got a couple of fall color shots while at the bank office, too, along with some cool clouds on the way home.

Part of my retirement plan is to take Ripley for a walk daily, if possible, now that I don't have to take her right after work/before her helper leaves (a tight window and super hot in the summer!)  Cindy M and I met up at Turtle Bay this week for a 2-mile walk.  

We spotted a couple of deer in the meadow (they moved a bit before I got a picture - originally all I could see were two sets of ears - too cute!) 

Ripley is a fan of the walks, but Luna isn't up to that far of a walk, so AJ or I take her for a shorter jaunt around the neighborhood.  She had an "episode" on Wednesday night - possibly a seizure??  Not sure, but she seem mostly recovery, but it's getting harder for her to get up, take long walks, etc.  Getting old sucks - my puppies should live forever!

I don't often see the bridge from this angle.

AJ made me another quilting tool with his 3D printer!  This is a thread cutter, designed to cut thread when you are chain piecing.  He printed three pieces, and I put a rotary blade between the circles, and it sits in the third piece - the stand.  Then, I can cut the thread quickly between the pieces.  Working on the Falling Leaves quilt gave it a workout - since the block are all the same, I pieced 4 blocks at a time (all I had pins for) so at new point, I had a very long line of pieces all "chained" together. I put a (very bad) video in to show it.

 

Falling Leaves is taking shape.  I have all the blocks done now, so it is waiting its turn to get put together.  First I need to finish the two quilts that are quilted, waiting for binding (the Surf's Up and the 2026 RBD Challenge quilt).

My retirement present from the bank was a wind chime, which replaces the one I just took down when I cleaned up the patio for my birthday/retirement party!   It may not stay up for long, depending on how windy it gets, but I think it sounds pretty nice (so far...). 

 

Karen found a new hobby for me, now that I'm retired.  Her daughter raises bees, and she gifted me a beginner guide to raising bees book and some honey!  I think I'll pass on raising the bees, but the honey looks fantastic!

 

We had a visitor the other day - they sure look like they come from another planet.... 

 

 It’s official - I just turned in my laptop and keys. I’m officially retired!

It's that time of year - I pulled out most of the garden.  I still have the pepper plants and one zucchini plant left. 

 

I replanted and put the mums that I got as decorations from my birthday party out on the front porch.  Looking fall-ish!!  Now if only the weather would feel fall-ish.