Week 3 of the Surf's Up Mystery Quilt is complete. 

 

Here are week 1 and 2 - I'm liking the colors, even though brown is not my usual pick for colors, which is why I got this kit.  I'm trying to change up my colors a bit more.
 

And the 2026 RBD Challenge quilt top is finished!  I started it in January, and got the last set of instructions at the end of May, so not too bad (for me)!  It's 60 inches square, so a nice size quilt.

More progress on the RBD Challenge quilt. I have all of the blue and white pieces for the center made.  Now, I "just" need to sew them together into strips of 7, sew those strips to the big quilt blocks, and then, sew the whole thing together.  We won't talk about quilting it yet - that's a whole different project. My Bernina machine is still in the shop, so I'm sewing with my Allegra - my "quilting machine".  I'm not going to switch back and forth between sewing and quilting on that machine - I keep forgetting a setting, which has been a bit disastrous at least once already.  

If you forget to raise the feed dogs, which are dropped for quilting, the fabric won't feed through the machine, needed for sewing - it made a bit of a mess....and that was just one of the things I forgot.  It took me forever to figure out why I couldn't do a zigzag stitch on it!

On the way home from my nail appointment this week, a family of quail wondered across the street in front of me - the babies are soooo cute!  It took them forever to cross the road with mom and dad running back and forth to keep them all together.. 

 

Progress on the 2026 Riley Blake Design Challenge - still a lot of parts to put together, but I'm getting there! 

 

I've started a new quilt - I know, what a shock!  This is the newest Mystery Five-O quilt, Surf's Up, and my fabric this time is in shades of brown.  These are weeks 1 and 2 of the quilt.  

All the chickens are now laying - I'm getting 4 eggs a day (most days).  Of course, some of the "new" eggs are a bit small, but they are all laying.  The Easter Egger and Sapphire Gem just started, and the Easter Egger egg is almost a blue.  

Now to get them to go to bed where they are supposed to.  Every night I have to go out and shoo them off the roof of the coop cover and put them in the coop.  I keep reminding them of what happened to the other Sapphire (went missing in the middle of the night, only  feathers left) but they insist on roosting outside of the coop....

 

 

 

My Baskets and Blooms quilt is done!  I took it out to take a picture, and realized I forgot to bring  the clamps with me that I us to pin it to the pool fence.  Luckily, as I started back inside, "the tall one" (aka AJ) wandered outside and offered to hold it up for me. 

I like how the border turned out - I was very indecisive on what to do, and I think the meander pattern I used for the rest of the quilt worked out well. 

What a difference a week makes with the UV filter - now you can see the fish!  We couldn't see the dark gray one at all unless they came up tot he surface to eat.

 

Here are some more pictures showing just how green my koi pond got, and one of the large frogs that is inhabiting it.  We have a number of large frogs this year - more than normal and they are larger than normal.  I like the frogs, but they tend to hide and jump out when I lift up the cover to the filter - scaring both of us.  I'll get pictures of the "clean" pond today to show what can change in a week!

 

 

I had a visitor to the koi pond - we often get orange dragonflies there, and this one was polite enough to pose for a picture.  You can see how green my water was - this was the day before I put in the new UV lamp.  You can now see to the bottom of the pond! 

 

I've been having problems with the koi pond the last couple of years, the pH has been too high, not being able to keep the algae growth down, etc.  I think I found the issue....I went to the local koi place to pick up more algaecide, and another customer asked how often she should replace her UV light bulb.  Replace the bulb??? It needs that??  Who knew (or even thought about it - the bulbs are hidden in the filter so you can't see if they are working or not).  I didn't even know where the UV fixture was in the pond, I just knew that Ralph had added one.  A quick chat with the owner of the store set me up for success.  I was able to find the bulb and replace it.  The water is looking better already, and I just replaced the bulb on Sunday!  Since I was at the koi pond store anyway, a few water hyacinths followed me home. They are a nice addition to the pond.

 

AJ took Friday off with me last week, and we took the dogs for a walk.  I was hoping for a longer walk than we got, but it was beautiful!  I have never gone to Brandy Creek Falls by Whiskeytown Lake, and thought that would be a good, easy walk.  It was a bit too easy - about a half mile of flat walking.  It was also super crowded - our walk took longer than expected because every kid on the walk wanted to pet the dogs.  Luna was in 7th heaven!

To counter the quick walk, we took the dogs partway up to Whiskeytown Falls, just enough for them to wade in the creek for a bit. Luna was again quite happy!

Not a lot of flowers blooming, but I found a dragonfly!