Alex and I are off today for Kody's wedding - just the two of us to Vacaville and back.  It should be a fun trip, and the wedding will be fun.  It will be nice to see everyone.

Book club this month was Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly - a novel based on events from WWII.  I really good book - but the subject matter was very disturbing (concentration camps, etc.)  For bookmarks, I made this:

I couldn't find a good way to crochet lilacs, so we got flowers in shade of purple.  Close......

The pattern is here - modified just a bit for my eyesight.  

Vacation is almost over......I took a quick trip over to visit Cindy in Chilcoot, and we drove around the Sierra Valley and surrounding mountains, talking the whole time, I think....

These are from Frenchman's Lake, which is bout 10 minutes I think from Cindy's.  We went there Tuesday night, just after sunset. 

The next morning, we drove around and visited places like Beckwourth, Graeagle (great ice cream!!), Portola, Loyalton, and a lot of lakes!  We stopped at Sardine Lake, and found that there are two Sardine Lakes - Upper and Lower.  Upper had a ton of people swimming and playing, while Lower had a few boaters - no swimming allowed.    Both are nice lakes, but Lower had the best view.....even through the smoke from all the surrounding fires.

I even managed to get a picture of one of Cindy's outdoor pets.....(not really a pet, but they are everywhere there!)  When I got up Wednesday morning, I saw a coyote outside my bedroom window - between me and Rachelle's chicken coop.  Luckily, he shooed when I yelled at him - he was a bit too interested in the coop!

On the way there and back, I stopped at the Vista Point above Hat Creek.  I found the PCT marker (mounted a bit sideways, I think....) and got a couple of shots of Shasta and Lassen.

Today is my first official day of vacation!  Meredith and I went kayaking this morning at Whiskeytown Lake - putting in at Whiskey Creek.  There was a light wind, so the water wasn't as smooth as it could be, but it was still a gorgeous day.  We got off the water around 11:00,a and it was heating up already.  It's only supposed to get up to the low 100's today (a nice change from the weekend).

Meredith got a new kayak for her birthday, so she had fun trying it out....

We surprised a heron on the shore - and I was able to get a couple of shots of him taking off!  Not bad for sitting on a kayak!

I did it!  Last weekend, I finished up my Ooh-Rah quilt.  I absolutely love this quilt!  Since I got it done now, it's going to be a wedding resent for my nephew getting married at the end of the month, but I really hate to give it away.  It was a 'block a month' quilt, so there aren't any more kits of it, and I doubt that I could find the same fabric again, but....I can find similar ones, I'm sure.  I'm tempted to make one for me.....

I had some leftover yarn from the bookmarks I made with Meredith's yarn, so I started a scarf for her. She is warm-blooded and seldom uses a scarf (too hot!!!) so I'm making a very lacy one for her.  I ran out of yarn, but she's promised me more.....

We went to a Colt 45 game last night - you know you've been in Redding too long when it's 90 degrees at 10:00 p.m., and everyone is commenting on how cool it is......

Here's a shot of the clouds overhead just before sunset.

I'm a bad fur mom.....I let Rufus get matted up, and he had to go to the groomers.......

Luckily, he thinks he rocks the look.  (And actually, he does....)

And then there's this:

We are supposed to be back up to 110 today.

I have a good excuse for not blogging - I've been sewing!  I'm trying to finish a quilt for a wedding this month (luckily, it's at the end of the month) and working on my quilt club projects.   I thought of a great way to keep my binding out of my way, but flowing freely when I sew it on the quilt!  Mom used this for her crochet thread, but it works just find for binding too......

I finally finished piecing the top of my quilt club project - a Christmas tree skirt.  Last month, while sitting at the club meeting, I realized I had done the prior month's work all wrong.    The leader had sent out instructions for making the 52 flying geese blocks using a ruler (that I had) and had written the instructions using "light and dark" fabric.  The book had instructions for creating the flying geese the long way, and called it "background and scrappy" fabric.  I had made 52 flying geese blocks with the wrong fabric (I had used 'light' scrappy fabric combined with 'dark' scrappy fabric). That meant that this month, I had to re-do all of those AND the blocks for this month.  The final project:

The only blocks I had done (correctly) when I started after the meeting in June were the red star blocks.  The rest were redone this month.  I now have quite a few 'extra' flying geese to use as well.....

No pictures yet, but I got my snowmen wall hanging ready to start quilting.  But first, to finish sewing the binding on the red, white and blue quilt.

After I finished putting my tree skirt together, Ralph and I went out shooting for a bit.  It wasn't as hot as it has been, but it was still warm enough I was done pretty quickly.

Woohoo!  A 'day off' for me today!  I ran around yesterday like a mad woman yesterday, and (with AJ's help) got the yard done, the house done, the shopping done, etc., so my day is clear today (well, except for laundry, cooking, cleaning the kitchen, etc....)! Yesterday, AJ mowed, and I sprayed the weeds with round-up, blew all the leaves into the yard so they can be mowed (this heat has shocked my trees - they are dropping leaves like it's October!) and weeded my garden, watered plants, etc., and then vacuumed, mopped, etc. in the house.  Whew!  I need the day off!  Even with all of that, I still had some sewing time yesterday!

Book club was last Wednesday, and we read "The Husband's Secret" by Liane Moriarty.  Good book!  It was a little slow at times, but I really enjoyed it.  Central to the story was a young girl found murdered, with a rosary in her hand.  The bookmark this month was 'rosary like'....if there is such a thing.   I really like how they turned out.

Meredith had been gifted with the yarn that I used - a beautiful ribbon yarn. I need to see what else I can do with it for her - she has several balls of it.

I found a quite large bee hanging out in my mint plant the other day - pretty impressive!