The Kayak

This year for mother's day I got a kayak.  I was a little worried if I would like it enough or if it would get used much.  Spots in my calendar have opened up and I have been using it about twice a week!  I am really enjoying it.

I helped a lot that I found a local facebook group of women that kayak.  There are many on-going local events.

Last week we went on an outing to see the purple martins at night.  I honestly went just because I wanted to paddle with the group at night.  BUT I didn 't realize how much I'd enjoy seeing the cool formation that the birds made.  It was like a movie when they flew in a tornado formation and low and formed a vortex.  Of course my son was texting me wondering what I was doing...He wanted a selfie to see.

Here's a simple light set-up that I got at the bin store for $1.  It works.  My paddle group knew it was me because nobody else had their kayak decorated as such.  That's the whole purpose to me.  It's hard to tell who's who on the water at night.

The lotus were beautiful!  You can't tell by this photo, but this one is about as big as an extra large grapefruit.

They were everywhere!

The trees along the shore were full of these birds.  They are called cormorants.  The trees looked like something in a Dr. Seuss book.

On The Frame -- A Friend's Quilt to Longarm

 After our little sorting project earlier this week, I had time to load a quilt that I am longarming for a friend.  I am back to school for the rest of this week.  I am a full time substitute teacher.  I'll be able to work on the quilting of this quilt an hour or two here and there until it is finished.  I am excited to get back into the routine.

This quilt is just basic strips sewn together.  It is wider at the bottom than at the top.  Some will need to be trimmed.  She gave me a blanket to use as the batting.  I am using one of my Circle Lord giant template boards for the quilting design.  This design is called Ribblets.

Returning to the Longarm Room

I'm slowly making my way back to the longarm room.  Here you see my administrative assistant sorting things that a friend gave me.  He loves to open the boxes and just sort.  Yes, he is happy to help.  

Here's what he started with.  I have to admit...it is exciting to open a box of fun.

There are big chunks of up to a half yard to sort.

Some are pieces of gently used sheets.

There are little boxes of shapes and cardboard templates that have been cut with scissors.

There are a few blocks that have been sewn.  Some have been sewn by hand.

There are triangle pieces, diamonds, and tumbler shapes.

There are several different sizes of squares.

I'm thankful for my sorter helper.  I'm not sure when all these shapes will be used.  All of the big chunks have made it to their respective color bin.  There were several fun neutrals.  We can always use neutrals.

There will be no quilting or sorting today.  I am taking the administrative assistant on an adventure to an Ariel trail.  It's one of those places that straps the kid to a harness and lets him climb all over different obstacles.  Sometimes there's a little zip line here or there.  He doesn't know where where we are going, but he is uber excited.  School for him starts on Tuesday, 8/22.  

School for me starts TOMORROW.  Although I have been working on and off most of the summer.  I substitute teach at a school that has an alternative calendar for the school year.  They basically go all year round, but have longer breaks during the school year.  They did have the month of July off.  I am excited to get back to a regular schedule for me and our son.

A Finish

 I finished quilting this quilt for a friend.  She will be celebrating her 91st birthday this month.

I longarm quilted it using a design from Urban Elementz called Marmalade.  I thought it would look cute on the pastels and soften the rectangles in the quilt.

Sweet Trails Pattern Test (for Canuck Quilter Designs)

 I quickly volunteered to be a pattern tester for Joanne Kerton of Canuck Quilter Designs.  This block is called Sweet Trails.  I love it!  It is a 12" finished block.  This is the second block that I recently had the privilege to test for Joanne.

I conveniently used yellow scraps to make this block so that I could like up with the RSC23.

Woven Kisses -- A Canuck Quilter Design

 I quickly volunteered to be a pattern tester for Joanne Kerton of Canuck Quilter Designs.  This block is called Woven Kisses.  I love it!  It is a 12" finished block.

March RSC -- Green

 I made three Scarborough Fair blocks in green this week.

Yes, I've been pretty absent in the quilting community and blogland for a bit.  But I'm happy to say that I have been very present in life and not just watching it go by.  I've had some great results in my new healthy lifestyle journey.  Some of you also hang out at Kathy's Quilting Blog.  I shared my story with the Slow Stitching Sunday group this week here.

I'm linking up at Angela's blog, SoScrappy, for the RSC23.