Sunday, August 7, 2016

July 2016

July ended up being a busy month, by our standards.  Not only did we have off for July 4th, I took three PTO days total, giving me two 4-day weekends - and it was amazing!  I highly recommend 4-day weekends!  We also went to town three times, which is unheard of for us, and we had two social engagements to attend all on the same day!  Holy crap, just call my a socialite...

nothing like a noisy meal at Red Robin to remind us what we like about home...
but this salad was delicious!

The Matanuska Glacier
7-2-2016 7:10 PM

Jeff enjoying crab legs...

Jeff made a new friend...

the view from the school in Glennallen...

mmmmm, gyros.....
the cucumber came from our garden

view to the West from the scenic overlook at the Matanuksa Glacier
7-30-2016 9:33 PM

The Matanuska Glacier
7-30-2016  9:35 PM
We also went to the Arctic Thunder air show and saw the Blue Angels perform.

Annnnnd, I just realized that all the pics I took of the 4th of July parade in Glennallen were on SnapChat, so I don't have any of those...

Friday, August 5, 2016

Finished! Big Bear Little Bear Baby Quilt

Big Bear Little Bear Quilt
Wow, I am a slow quilter.  If my math is correct, it took me 4+ months to make this baby quilt.  I was on track, had all the blocks cut, most of the brown cut, and got it pieced.  Then the baby (my boss's 7th child!) was born early, and I decided that I hate using that "fur" fabric as the backing.  Which resulted in not touching the thing for 2 months.


I started out by buying the fabric from Massdrop way back in November.  It has totem poles, and my boss is "totem pole people."  His words, not mine.  I had this idea in mind for a "brick" look, so I took out the graph paper and drew it out.  I had 7 prints that I was using (not including the 3 accent bricks), so I was able to arrange the blocks in a way that there were no two bricks of the same fabric next to each other.  Maybe the same design, but different background color.


Once I finished that Berry Bravo quilt, I got to cutting the fabric.  I liked how easy it was to cut the fat quarters, and I think I won't be so reluctant to buy them in the future.  A fat quarter just sounds like so little fabric...
again, I need a design wall, instead of a "design bed"
I decided to use the fur for the backing because, well, bears.  But when it came time to do the quilting, I found the fur to be very slippery.  Plus, I hadn't used any batting because I figured that the fur would be fluffy enough.  Maybe if I'd sandwiched a batting in there I would have had better control over it.


To quilt, I just started by making a line from corner to corner on my top corner blocks, and went from there.  I found my fabric marker pretty much disappeared instantaneously, so eventually I got to the point where I had to mark each line individually, and it would still nearly disappear before I could get the line done.
The people who owned this house previously used this area for their ducks.
One time they looked out to see a bear attaching the pen.
Looks like the pen is under bear attach once again...
But with the end of it, I loved it.  I was very proud.  Once again I was able to take photos of a finished project without leaving my property.  When I gave it to my boss, he said "It's not big enough to cover me!"  I then proceeded to show it off because I was darn proud!




Linking up with:
Fort Worth Fabrics
Sew Fresh Quilts
Freemotion by the River
My Quilt Infatuation
Fort Worth Fabric

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

The Blue Angels

One of the reasons we wanted to go to the Arctic Thunder Air Show this past Saturday was to see the Blue Angels.  We've all heard of the Blue Angels, but I had never seen them.

It was nice that they were announcing "From the right..." and "From the left..." so that we could know that they were approaching.  We were very near the C-5 Galaxy for most of the performance, so there wasn't a huge crowd around us.  Next year, I think I'll watch the Blue Angels from the parking lot.  There were a lot of photos that would be GREAT had it not been for a floating head at the bottom of the shot.

Enjoy.


I love the photos of them in front of the mountains!
Just like Top Gun!