Exploring My Town

Rick and I had the day off together, so we spent the day taking pictures. All of these photos were taken within 3 miles of our house. I love Oregon! :o) First, this picture above is the little tree that is right by my car.

Here are some of the leaves. We've already had to rake 3 times and there's still another big huge pile that need raked again. This time of year, I am not happy about having 1/3 of an acre.


Wren and Ben were so excited to show us the rainbow. "Look! Look! You've got to use your camera on THIS!"


The string quilt is finally all the way quilted and bound. See, all my little scraps that I save do eventually get used. :o)


Some of the geese at the city park near our house. We are in a migratory flight path and there are thousands of geese here. They are pretty to look at, but they absolutely decimate the farmer'sfields and they aren't doing the new soccer field a whole lot of good. I hope they keep flying south...more south than this.



This is the path on the way to the pond. I love to walk through the fall leaves, especially if I know I don't have to be the one raking them up. And isn't the moss pretty?



Right in the middle of the photo is a Great Blue Heron. I love watching them, especially when they take off into the air. This one just stood there.


2 photographers enjoying the day. (That's Rick, with the visible camera, and of course, me.)


What a picturesque area.


This is part of the sidewalk downtown. I reminds me of a quilt.


I love this sculpture of a grasshopper...or maybe it's a cricket. I know it's made of metal and is about 6-8 feet long. It's mounted outside the second story of Whitlocks Sewing Center.


Here is another angle.




We had lunch here at Casey's, known for hot dogs. Rick had a hamburger and I had a Coney dog. I've read about them and finally got to try one. I forgot to take a picture of the food.


Here's one of the signs in the restaurant. Cute!


I did remember to take a picture of the drinks. Yum!


The outside of Greenbaum's Quilted Forest (my favorite quilt shop) has a scissor-shaped bike rack. I think the different bike racks makes the downtown area just that much more interesting.


Just one of the many quilts hanging in the shop. (Hey Abby, I thought of you when I saw this.)


I took many pictures of architectural details. I thought the texture was interesting, but I only included these 2 pictures. Above, nails imbedded into a brick wall, and below, many layers of paint and some bolts. I'm not sure, but the photo might be sideways.


And lastly, a beautiful eye-catching little flower. It looked a little out of place so late in the season, but I sure enjoyed the bright little splash of color.

Thanks for exploring my town with me. :o)

I got bored with Blogging, I think

If anybody's interested, I'll let you know what I've been doing. Once I'm caught up, maybe it will be easier to STAY caught up. Yes?
September, the new school year started up. The school year is already 1/4 done. This summer, I only had a total of 3 weeks off because I worked at summer school. That was nice. The extra money came in handy for us to replace our deck. Now we have a beautiful and strong deck made of TimberTech decking. It should last quite awhile. I love sitting outside on the deck, under our big old maple tree.
September and October I took dance lessons to be able to participate in Thrill the World. It was an incredible exercise program, while it lasted.
Now, my goal is to make a baby quilt for one of the teachers at work, and one for one of my granddaughters and then make some American Girl clothes for granddaughter Wren. Oh, and some pajamas for all the grandkids.
I also signed up for Weight Watchers. I do need to actually follow the plan, but I guess I'm taking baby steps. I'm ready to be healthier.
All the leaves are falling off of my trees. I love walking through the dry leaves. Not so much when they are soggy, but they are still beautiful. Since I can't upload photos today, I'll just have to leave the leaves to your imagination. :o)

close-up of the vintage jeans quilt

My sister brought me a quilt top that she got at a garage sale and asked me to turn it into a quilt. It is now finished. Many people wanted to know what the little pictures were, so I took close-ups of the fabric swatches used. For all of you that were interested, here you go...

Tax Refund Purchase

With our tax refund this year, we paid off our truck and a credit card and I had enough to get my sweetie a camera that he's been wanting. Fortunately, it has already arrived, so I told him that I'm going to call it a Father's Day gift and have him wait until Sunday to open it. He's so excited! After almost a year off of work, I'm glad that we have an opportunity to splurge. :o)

Crayon Drawing quilt is done

We started this quilt back in October, but it got finished yesterday (at about 12:30 a.m.). I'm so happy that I made my deadline. This quilt was made for the teacher in our classroom. It's his first year of teaching and it's been a doozy of a year. Our class is a high school special education classroom and I wanted to commemorate his first year of teaching.
The students (with help from some of the assistants) made blocks by using color crayons and I made it into a quilt. It was presented yesterday at lunch, and today was the last day of school. And you know what? He liked it!

I have been quilting

I can only show you some of what I've been doing, though, because I gave away 2 quilts without remembering to take photos. I made 2 bags (but I'm showing you the front & back) and a quilt for one of the seniors at my school. I love my bags and he loves his quilt. :o)

And the rest of the art show...