First full day in Tokyo!  AJ and I met up with one of his friends and toured the Imperial Palace Gardens.  I  can only imagine how beautiful it is in the spring!  I think we a lre a bit early for the fall foliage, but the history is there regardless.  

We are meeting his host family for dinner tonight.

What happens when you run out to Costco to just pick up a couple of things and when you come out it’s pouring? You end up looking like a drowned rat…..

I was completely soaked by the time I got to the car because, of course, I had to park in the back 40 to even get a parking spot at Costco.  It’s a good thing I don’t melt in the rain.

I flew to Portland Wednesday for a manager’s meeting, and of course to go north to Portland, I have to first go south to San Francisco. As we flew north, I did get a nice picture of Shasta in the clouds.

After spending most of my Saturday frogging (ripping out - a take on a frog's "ribbit") the quilting I did, I didn't get much quilting done.  I finished my last block for the Season Sparkler - the center tree. One more special block to do, and four filler blocks and it will be ready to piece together. 

 Cooper was taking a nap - he looks so comfy!!

And it's done!  I love how this one turned out. 

I then spent about 45 minutes quilting the Summer Block Party, and then spent close to 3 hours ripping out everything I had just done.  I was trying out some new advice for quilting, and, let's just say that it didn't work for me. The fabric slipped, and I have to start all over....if it weren't for the "learning" part, it was pretty much a wasted afternoon with nothing to show for it.

Fall colors are here - AJ and I took the dogs out after work for a walk, and the leaves are beginning to turn. 

 

I didn't really do any sewing for this quilt recently, but because the Aloha quilt was on my design board (and I didn't want to shuffle the blocks around) I wasn't able to show the progress on it.  Only a few more blocks needed!

 

 

The very first quilt I started to quilt (of my 5 waiting to be quilted) caught my attention after I got on the quilting frame.  I had this up on the design board, took pictures of it, showed it off to friends, crawled all over it on my hands and knees to get it sandwiched for quilting, etc., and right before I started quilting, I found an error.  Why couldn't I have seen this before I got to this point???  Can you see it? 

Look closer:

This block should be turned 90 degrees, so the points all line up.  Sigh....

After all getting it fixed, I decided to straight-line quilt it anyway.  At least getting it on the quilting frame showed me the error and I could fix it without ripping out a bunch of quilting too!

The quilt top is done for the Aloha Mystery quilt!  All I had to do was add the black border to it, but that still took me all week to do.  I wasn't finding much time for sewing in my normal day, but Friday I got sent home early from work, so was able to get it finished!  Woohoo!  Now....that means I have 5 quilt tops waiting to be quilted.  I know what I'm doing this long weekend (Monday is a bank holiday).

 

One step forwards, two steps back.....I was working on the Aloha quilt, and heard a crash..... 

 "Someone" knocked my pin container off the ironing board - lots of pins everywhere!

I got the blocks put together for the Aloha Mystery quilt.  Now all it needs are the borders added and it's ready to be quilted (after I get some backing fabric that is).  That will leave me with 5 quilts to quilt!  I need to quilt a few of those before I start another project!

 

 

I finished up a couple of the gifts I'm taking to Wakana later this month (I can't believe we are getting so close to the trip!!) These are the quilted bowl covers I made for Wakana and her sister. I'm starting to stress over the little details now, before it was just the big ones - plane tickets, hotels, etc.  Now I'm on to packing....what to take, what not to take, etc.  I have my list of things to see in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nagasaki - the three main places we are going.  I also hope to get in a trip to Osaka.  

Some of the plant life on the trail to Kings Creek Falls.  We were a bit early to catch any autumn foliage, but still plenty of things to take a picture of (not that I can't find "something" for a picture...)!