Raegan's first quilt

Raegan, our granddaughter asked her mom, my daughter, if she would teach her how to sew.  Well, Shannon has never really had an interest in it but I keep hoping she'll pick it up.  Probably after the youngest gets into school and she will finally have some free time for herself. 

Well, Shannon told Raegan that she'd have to ask grandma about sewing, so she did.  The kids came over for a weekend and they both started a simple quilt.  I was amazed!  They both chose fabrics from my stash and they even did their own cutting with the rotary cutter, after lessons from grandma.  Once they did a little lesson using paper and no thread on the machine to learn how to sew straight, they both got started.  Ryland lost interest about half way through, but he lasted a lot longer than I expected.  Raegan on the other hand, finished.... yes finished... her quilt top that day.  She's the first child I have taught that did the complete top in one day.  She's already wanting to plan her next one.  I'm so excited!

Raegan all set up and sewing away.  She used my old Singer
Feather Weight machine. 

Finishing up the tying of the quilts once they had backing.  I just did an envelope type backing, sewed
around the edges and turned them right side out.  The kids did the tying.  The two kids from up the road
came down and helped.  Eli and Emma come play with the twins any time they come for a while.  They're
good kids and they all get along just great.

Raegan showing off her newest hobby.  She's real proud of it.
She said she is going to give it to Evan, her younger brother.

Ryland is showing off his quilt here.  He was very happy with it, but I don't
see a lot of sewing in his future.

My PA Quilt Group

We have finished our first Block of the Month Quilt.  Well, almost all of us have it finished.  One of the girls is just about done.  It's her first quilt ever and she's doing a great job!  As you can tell, they are all camera shy, I'm working on getting pictures of them along with their quilts, so we'll just have to be patient... LOL

Alice has finished her Take-5 Quilt Top.  I believe she is planning on putting a border
on it, but she's pleased at how it came out.

This is my BOM before borders.  It's layered and ready to quilt, just haven't figured
out how I want to quilt it yet.  The pattern is from Pat Sloan's website.  It's called Globetrotting.  We had
fun doing this one together.

Nancy's BOM quilt before borders.  She did a great job, her colors are very crisp, the
blue and white with a little green in there are just beautiful.

Nancy decided she wanted it longer, not square.  She decided to put flying
geese on two ends, it looks great!  She put a small blue border around the whole thing and
it's all tied, ready to bind!

Sharon did this one in pinks, I believe it was all from her stash.  She did great picking coordinating
fabrics for all her blocks.

Sharon was ambitious, she did two at the same time but in different color schemes. 
This one is done, borders and all.  Now it's ready to be quilted or tied.

A few of my favorite pictures lately

Here are just a few of my favorite pictures taken late last year and early into this year.  Enjoy, as I do!

Thanksgiving in Tucson 2014.  My mom with our two grandkids.  Christopher had broken his wrist trying
to show off for the little girl down the street.  He's a brave boy!  Jesse, the younger of the two boys joins
his brother in a tradition that I have done since I was little.  We always put the black olives on our
fingers and ate them one at a time.  The giggles would not stop. 

While I was visiting Arizona, we went to my cousin's place in Kingman.  My cousin Laura on the left, Mom in
the middle and my Aunt Arla on the right.  We are sitting on the back patio and just sewing to our hearts' content.  They are watching a video from YouTube while we took a break. 

Jesse, our second grandchild from our son Josh and our daughter-in-law Alex.  He's
patiently waiting for dinner at the counter.  He's not usually this quite, guess he
was real hungry... LOL

The night before Thanksgiving 2014, Larry and Ryland were comfy on
the couch with their Kindle's.

Raegan was on the other couch sitting with me, but I got up to
take a couple of the pics.  She's on her my Kindle.  We're all just relaxing
after a hard day of playing in the snow.

Winter deer sighting

They did tell us that February is the coldest month of the year, and they were right!  We've had lots of deer visiting close by the house.  We always see their tracks and quite often get to enjoy seeing them too.

As I walk toward the kitchen to start dinner, I notices these
four deer feasting on our grass.  They have come back several
times to that same spot, must be the good stuff!  This was
taken from the dining room area out the back door.

A little closer look at them outside the door.  It was about
dusk.  They didn't see us or quite some time, then they
 poked their heads up to look at us.  Larry even walked
out on the back porch and they didn't move.  They decided
we weren't a threat and went back to eating.

Looking around a bit.  When they finished, they all just
bounced away and probably found another patch of
grass to enjoy.

Picture of property

A lot of people have been asking about what the property looks like and how big it is.  Well, our neighbor has an ultralight and he went out last spring and took pictures of several people's places around our neighborhood.  Here are a couple of pictures of our house and property.

This is the house viewed from the front.
Running left to right is Ritz Road.
We chose to put the house "crooked"
on the property so the back porch will
face where the two creeks come
together.

This is a view from behind the house.  Our property runs along
Ritz Road let to right, then top to bottom along a path.  You
can kind of see the path, it's where the line of reddish trees
are along the right side.  Then we go all the way to the left
along the outside of the tree-line.  Next, turn up again toward
Ritz Road and follow where the grass is cut verses the open
field next to us.  The property is fairly square, just under 11
acres.  The house pretty much sits in the center. 

Here's a view from behind again, a larger area in the picture.
 You can see the tree-lines.  The creeks run from Ritz Road
to the back and from right to left amongst the trees along
the back of our property.  There's a small pool where the
two creeks meet.  Our plans are to make a sitting area close
by the pool.  It's soooo peaceful back in there, love taking
hikes in the spring and summer!

So, hopefully that answers some of the questions.  There's lots of room and Jake, our dog, is loving it all.  Of course, he seldom gets out of our sight; but when I go hiking, he follows right along, even crossing the creek if it's cold water or not.