And my final "almost finished" project from the weekend!  I have all the blocks done for the Summer Reading quilt, and found enough fabric in my stash for the border.  I will need to buy fabric for the back, but the rest of the quilt came from leftover fabric - not bad!  (Of course, it didn't even put a dent in my fabric stash - I still have tons of fabric, but it is a start!)  I think it turned out cute, and I love my different colored kitties! 

One more of my semi-completed projects from the weekend - the Block a Month Lady Liberty quilt, which is the one I'm doing through the local quilt shop, Sew Simple.  I'm ahead on this one!  I finished my August block, and had enough scraps from prior month's to make the September block and put all the blocks together.  October's "block" is the border, so I'm caught up until then. 

One of my semi-finished projects from the weekend - the Surf's Up Mystery quilt.  I was chatting with the people at Hokema's (that ran the mystery) and said something about having fabric in the kit that I didn't use.  She pointed out that I was missing two borders and the unused fabric was the outside border.  Sigh....read ALL the instructions....I was so distracted by the options to put it together that I didn't really finished it.  I added the last two borders to the quilt and picked up the backing fabric, so this one is ready to get quilted. 

I spent last weekend "finishing" things - though I didn't actually "finish" them, I just moved them to the next step.  For me, that's a win!  I added a border to the 2026 Riley Blake Designs (RBD) Challenge quilt and have it on the frame to quilt.  Did I start quilting it?  Not a chance, but I'm ready!

I did get some stuff done in the yard and around the house, since I didn't get all my quilting done.  I'm having a low-key birthday party next weekend (cake, ice cream and some friends) so I spent some time out in the yard in the mornings.  The summer was hard on my yard this year.  We are expecting cooler weather this week, and I am ready for Fall!! 

 

Finally!  I'm back to three eggs a day (from 4 chickens).  My two Easter Eggers have been laying green eggs faithfully, but my Sapphire Gem went broody, so wasn't laying.  Either she's back to laying again (after three weeks - the normal time it takes for eggs to hatch) or my older Welsummer is laying again.  Since the Welsummer is just 18 months old, she should be laying too, but both of them lay brown eggs and I haven't had any brown eggs for 3 weeks.  They are both looking healthy, so I'm blaming the heat for one and being broody for the other.  But, at least I'm back to 3 eggs now. 

AJ got a new toy, and the first thing he made was something for me!  He got a 3D printer, and his first printing test was to make ruler holders for me.  I honestly had been thinking about getting another one (don't judge - a quilter needs LOTS of rulers, just sayin'), so it worked out for me - a simple test for him and something for me.  The first test failed - the "ink" he got jammed up the printer.  As usual, when he placed his order, the printer came Saturday, but his "ink" wasn't scheduled to be delivered until Monday.  He ran into Best Buy and got some Sunday morning, but evidently it wasn't compatible with his printer.  Poor guy - a new toy and he broke it first thing. He spent most of Sunday tearing the printer down and putting it back together.  Luckily, the correct ink came Sunday afternoon, so he was able to play with his new toy (and Mom got a present!).  

       

 

 

Thursday night Cindy M and I took the paddle boards out again, and, once again, I didn't go involuntarily swimming!!  I did have to take a break from standing, but not because my legs were tired,  my feet were!  I found myself gripping the board with my toes/feet so much (to keep from involuntarily swimming!)  that they were needing a break.  We've been paddling in the cove by the dock - the boats go out to the lake so it very calm - and each time we've seen wildlife, which just makes the lake trip that much better. This trip we saw a blue heron that we startled so it flew up into a tree (sorry to ruin your possible dinner, guy!) and deer.  We aren't sure if we saw one or two deer - there was one by the blue heron when we went by, and on our way back there was one a bit further down the lake shore.  Same one??  Hard to tell, no name tags were visible.  I do find I have a harder time taking pictures on the paddle board.  I'm not able to adjust the camera lens or twist around for a better shot (let's face it, I'm not able to do much more than look straight ahead!) so my photos fro the moment aren't as good as they could be.  Something to practice on!

 

For once, I'm ahead!  The Liberty Lady quilt is a "block a month" quilt, and I get the fabric for each block monthly.  I finished my August block and realized I had enough scraps left from other months to finish September's block too!  October's fabric is the border fabric, so I will have to wait on that, but I'm caught up until then, at least on the blocks.  It needs to be sewn together, but this is all the blocks up on the design board. 

The Frog baby quilt is done - just in time for the baby shower on Sunday! 

 

I made the final decision on how to put the Surf's Up quilt together, and sewed it together before I could change my mind again.  

 

I took the opportunity to sit out by the pool Sunday morning to do my puzzles, drink my coffee, and enjoy the cool start to the day (first load of laundry in the washer) and I had a companion. She looked like she was chilling too!

Why yes, I do!!!!  

I'm looking forward to retirement - no long living by the alarms that I have set on my phone for meetings and making sure I get myself to work on time, get Alli picked up on time, etc. (though I'll probably leave the last alarm on....)  I think that is what I'm looking forward to the most right now.  Middle management is pretty much nothing but meetings, I think.

What's a poor girl to do when the cat steals your bed????  And isn't even sorry about it?

I think I found the way I'm going to put the last Mystery Quilt together.  Someone else posted a picture of theirs that they rearranged the blocks a bit, and I really like how it looks with my blocks. 

For comparison, here are the other two mock-ups I did: 

I found a super quick and cute coaster pattern - it makes up in minutes and takes just five 5" square pieces of fabric - definitely a scrap-buster!  The pattern is here: Coasters and it's super easy!  A quick little project for when I have the sewing equivalent of writer's block. For me, it's often more of a "decisions, decisions" thing - when I finish up a project, which one do I jump into next?   

 I had offered to quilt a quilt top for a friend's mom, and I had to make myself do it before I quilted anything for me, or it would have sat there forever!  I could never be a professional quilter.  I'd rather work on my stuff!  But, once I finished it and before I jumped into the next project, I tried this little pattern out.  Now, on to the next project - quilting the baby frog quilt - the baby shower is less than 2 weeks away!!
 

This is what happens when you are folding the last load of laundry and get sidetracked.  When you get back, half the towels are unfolded or on the floor, stacks of towels are knocked over, and there's a black cat sleeping on the nest that they made for themselves. 

Allison's Day Program had a field trip on Friday to the local Aquatic Center (which I still refer to as the Plunge, making me instantly recognizable as having lived in Redding way too many years!  The Plunge was taken out and remade into the Aquatic Center in 1998 - AJ did his first swim lessons there, and when Alli and I did Mommy and Me classes, they were at the Enterprise High School.)  The day didn't start out well, but Alli evidently had a blast once she got to the Center!  

First, Alli's routine was off because she didn't go to the Day Program in the morning, but we followed our normal routine because I still had to go to work.  She was a bit agitated once she was ready to go and we didn't actually go anywhere until 9:45, but settled down a bit, watching TV.  Then, on my drive in, I got a text from the program manager - "Call me"....never a good sign. Turns out they had changed the time the group was supposed to be there but failed to tell her - a bit awkward I would say.  Bless Feather's heart, she can pivot on a penny, much less a dime.  Pizza was already ordered and they were going to eat lunch in the park before they went swimming, I just had to change the drop off location.  Alli had so much fun that she didn't want to leave when Cindy picked her up.  She actually refused to leave, not walking...  Cindy finally got her moving, and needless to say, she had an early evening - 3 hours outside in our heat, much less swimming and she was exhausted. 

 Summer is here.....and I'm done!  Bring on September!! 

AJ got a new paddle board so he could go out with me, and we took it for a test drive last night.  Whiskeytown Lake was beautiful, and it felt a lot cooler!  It was 105 in the parking lot when we got there, according to my watch, but getting a little wet and sitting in the water, it was perfect!  I didn't even go involuntarily swimming this time!  Of course, I didn't do a lot of stand-up paddling either. 

AJ's way of paddle boarding.....

We had a couple of ducks come see if we had anything to feed them.  They came straight at us - on a mission!!

They swam around us for bit, came in to visit and left empty-handed.

Here's the Sapphire Gem that's broody.  She sits in the coop - after she's moved the fake eggs into her cubby - as much as she can.  AJ and I take turns going out and moving her off the nest so she can get some water.  Every morning, I put three fake eggs in each cubby.  Every day she moves most of them so she can sit on them.

 

 

 A couple more cat blocks done on the "Summer Reading" quilt. 

I was vacuuming, and when I turned around, "someone" had knocked one of my plants onto the floor.  I have no idea which :someone" it was, but I have my suspicions! 

 

I finished the top for a baby quilt - it is adorable!!  Carolyn D's baby shower is in a couple of weeks, so I need to get it quilted pretty quickly, but the top turn out great!  I had a few issues - mainly remembering which green I was supposed to using.  I had to "unsew" quite a few places where I had the wrong green in, or worse, flipped the wrong way.  (One cheek of the frog did not want to play nice - I had it in wrong twice!).  The pattern is available through Etsy Etsy shop - Counted Quilts 

We are back to or normal summer temps now - nothing under 105 forecast for this next week - ugh!  Not my favorite time of year, but at least it waited until August to do that.  A couple of years ago we started in June with the 105+ days.  

One of my new chickens has become broody - odd for such a young hen.  It's my Sapphire Gem (a beautiful blue/gray) and she's just six months old and only been laying for a month.  I keep fake eggs in the nest to discourage the hens from pecking the real eggs, and she is gathering all the fake eggs to sit on.  Now she's staying on the nest as much as we'll let her.  We go out frequently during the day and move her, just to make sure she's drinking, and find her sitting on a dozen plus eggs.  She puffs up and growls at us when we move her and it takes her a while to get "unpuffed".  She looks so funny stomping around, all fluffed up.  Luckily all she does is growl at us.  (I have memories of being pecked by chickens when I gathered eggs as a kid.)

One of the Easter Eggers is laying double yolk eggs - the eggs are extra long.  Both are laying green eggs, so I hvae a nice collection of green and brown eggs this year.

Decisions, decisions!  The "reveal" is out for my mystery quilt, and I like both options!  I think I'm leaning toward the second quilt, dark spirals in the center.  I like the layout of options #3 and #4, but I don't like how the color of the background fabric on the side is highlighted.  You don't notice as much on options #1 and #2 that the background fabric is different (there are three different background fabrics and five different brown fabrics).  I'll leave it up for a while and see if I still like it after a week.  (And, after I finish up other projects - I have a few!)

 

Once again - new "it's official" news - I'm turning in my resignation -aka retirement - letter today.  My tentative last day at work will be September 18th.  I say tentative because I'm leaving room to train my replacement.  If they replace me earlier, I can leave earlier, but I can also stay longer to train.  The bank and my team have been good to me and I don't want to abandon them.  It's been a wild ride.....but I'm looking forward to the next chapter.

 

I took Monday off as a vacation day and took myself to Mt.Lassen for a walk to Bumpass Hell.  It was a beautiful day for a walk - the weather was perfect (mid 70's and a light breeze) and the butterflies are migrating through the park.  There were butterflies in the air everywhere!  They weren't landing anywhere so I didn't get any good photos of them.  They are small butterflies (California Tortoiseshell).  This Instagram link has some good photos of them from a couple of days before I was at the park. (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbLoLyGgaQp/) 

 

You can hear the eruption: