Saturday Sewing

I’ve been concentrating on getting a few more of the tops quilted from my on-line group’s retreat at Lake Tahoe.  I quilted up this one today using a panto called Simply Hearts.  Look at all of that lovely “reclaimed fabric” in those crumb block centers!!

And earlier this week, I quilted up this pretty blue one with a panto called Retro Leaves:

 

We had played golf last Thursday since the area weathermen were calling for rain and my husband wanted to get a little practice in.  There was a line at the golf course:

 

Cormorants being supervised by the White Heron

But we didn’t have to wait – lol!  It started out overcast and looked like Old Florida there for awhile with the wind blowing the Spanish moss:

But then the sun came out and it was a beautiful day – the sandhill cranes tried to give me golf tips but mostly they were concentrating on eating bugs:

 

Since this was a regulation course and I’m pretty much used to playing on the shorter executive course, I was pretty much pooped by the 14^th hole – and apparently, so was this guy!

 

Wood Stork

You’ll notice, my golf game consists of a lot of nature shots – I assure you that’s because I don’t have much of a game.  But I sure have fun!

So does anyone else see the chicken in this cloud - it's facing to the right?

New Year's Day 2016

I’m back and starting the New Year off right!  We played golf this morning on a new-to-me course that was in beautiful condition.  This is the clubhouse at Heritage Harbor:

And how foggy it was when we started because the temperatures have been in the 80s – yes!  even into January.

But we are expecting a chill and rain this weekend and we will be grateful for it. 

This was part of the scenic cartpath (it was actually much greener going through than the picture shows but those cypress do lose their leaves in winter):

And a few holes (including the DH teeing off):

And on the quilty front, I began a New Year’s Eve mystery yesterday, but wasn’t able to finish.  This was how I progressed:

 

these were my mystery fabrics - a jelly roll and background fabric

pieces were cut and ready to go

some blocks were made

status when I had to quit - only bottom border is ready

It is now a 2016 UFO – amazing how those things mount up!  I hope to finish it this weekend and get it into the “to-be-quilted” basket.  It sure is ORANGE.

And this is to be my philosophy for today:

Catching Up the Blog - Final

This is Installment 3 of playing catch-up going backwards.  We had a wonderful vacation in North Carolina.  It was at least 95 degrees and humid when we left FL, so the mornings in the 50s and 60s were very welcome and the balmy 70s and maybe low 80s by mid-day to play golf in were great!

We started off at an easier muni course near Forest City.  It is not as challenging as the mountain courses we would play later, so a good intro for me since I don't play that often:

 

Par 3 over water - really?! - why is it always over water??

It is a really pretty course and enough to wear me out!

 

It's all fun until they turn the sprinklers on you - LOL!

Then we played at the two courses at Lake Lure:

 

Dogleg right with a creek, no less!

Split fairway with another creek - love this hole ...

Many creeks were swollen from recent rains ... good golfball traps

One day I was playing with 2 guys so I got to see the views from the white tees and this duffer was in a nearby year, hidden by the trees lining the tee box - almost scared me to death, so I snuck in between the trees and took his picture!

And I loved seeing what was blooming:

 

Japanese Maples were lovely

Lots of sneeze-inducing goldenrod

And one day mid-week, the ladies went shopping at nearby Hendersonville – the decorated bears were on display (they get sold for fundraisers later):

the bear above was in front of this ice cream shop

This guy was in front of a Sports Bar

And a local bank had a display of antique quilts - hard to get good photos because of the plexiglass but they were nice:

Then more golf, and home to FL – this was at the FL/GA border Welcome Center - no bears for us.  It was a good vacation!

Back from Vacation

Shortly before we went on vacation, my mother had a slight fall at her assisted living facility (she’s fine) so that threw off my pre-vacation schedule big-time.  I had to make a few extra trips over there just to make sure everything was OK (2 hrs round-trip each just for driving time) and I didn’t get as much done as I wanted to.

• I had wanted to finish quilting and box up a load of children’s quilts and mail them – that didn’t happen.
• I had wanted to schedule some blog posts to display while we were gone – only one of those got done.
• I had wanted to clean my house before we left – fortunately, nobody else did it while we were gone and it’s still waiting < grin >!
• I had wanted to order some quilt books that were from a big sale C&T Publishing was having – well, of course I did that – I have priorities, you know!  They should arrive any day now …

So now that I’m taking a break from the endless laundry loads, here are a few pictures from our trip to North Carolina.  The weather in Florida was still in the mid-90s and it was upper 50s in NC when we got there and upper 70s when we left there.  We were loving it!

We played golf at several different mountain golf courses – one had a small cemetery with very old stones (1700-1800s) on a hillside – no I didn’t hit my ball there! – I just saw it and we investigated.  It is still attended – that’s very cool.

Our timeshare is at Lake Lure.  This is a view to the lake and one of the golf holes.

There were lots of deer everywhere this year.  We were approaching in a golf cart and this is the last of a bunch that were taking their time getting off of the cart path.

One course was apparently on the migration path of Canadian Geese.  These birds are so exquisite, but they are messy if you get my drift!  Puts new meaning to “getting a birdie” when you hit up to this green … these did move aside and were not aggressive.

I’m getting back to quilting today – I have an “ugly fabric” challenge to meet.  Personally, I don’t think the fabric is ugly!  I’ll post what I make later.