I walked along a shady trail at Van Patten Woods on Monday afternoon. I turned a corner and there was a whole patch of my favorite Turk's cap lilies.
Lots of black raspberries, too. I plucked a few and ate 'em on the spot.
No long walk yesterday, just a stroll around the neighborhood after dinner.
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I assembled the guild challenge quilt and made a placemat out of some of the scraps. (Still a surprise so no photos.)
Each square provides components for two blocks.
The blocks are 4.5" unfinished. I'm aiming for 288 to make a 64" x 72" quilt.
NEWS FLASH!!! The quilt shop called and my sewing machine is fixed. He said the feed dog lever was stuck. There were two small springs missing (oops) and he cleaned it, too. I'll pick it up tomorrow.
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A Walk in the Park won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for nonfiction this year.* Kevin Fedarko spoke at the awards reception and I got an autographed copy of the book. He and his friend Pete McBride set out to hike the 750-mile length of the Grand Canyon. Their trip was underwritten by National Geographic (Fedarko as writer, McBride as photographer). Though both had some experience with the canyon they soon found they were woefully unprepared (and how!) for a through-hike. They stopped, regrouped, and with the help of many generous Canyon experts they persisted and succeeded. *It also won the National Outdoor Book Award.
Fedarko includes history, ethnography, geology, botany, and sociology in his account. Notes for each chapter provide sources and further reading.
Road Scholar, 2003: Our group rode in a van down the bumpy road to the bottom of the canyon. We ate lunch with our feet in the Colorado River!
Linking up at Wednesday Wait Loss
Always love your plant photos and exploration walks! Great memories with Stevens :-) We were at that part of the Grand Canyon 18 months ago. We did the helicopter ride down in, jet boat up the river, spent an hour talking to, listening actually, the Chief. It was a beautiful day. And topped it off on the viewing platform.
ReplyDeleteSo happy you are getting your machine back! Love the Turk's cap lilies too! Looks like a fun project with the blocks. I never thought of a swap that way but a baseball swap like that sounds fun!
ReplyDeleteAwesome photo of you two from 2003 at the Grand Canyon. It's on my bucket list of places I want to go. Those blocks are really great. Our guild does an exchange of 6.5" squares too - called Travel Squares. If we travel somewhere and purchase fabric, we CAN share a square with everyone in guild. It's a small enough group so it isn't too expensive to do this. Last month there were 2 ladies who shared squares.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun new project! Looks like a very pretty walk. Happy stitching this week.
ReplyDeleteSprings and the lever, huh? Who'd'a thought?!? (https://withstringsattached.blogspot.com/2025/07/friday-check-in-wildflowers-little.html#comment-form)
ReplyDeleteI think I still have a batch of those swap squares lurking about--probably the ones that are obnoxiously/aggressively baseball-themed--but I know I used up a significant amount of them over the years. Perhaps I'll make a tote bag out of the remainders.
Such a nice picture of you and Stevens!
Bird 'Pie
Those flowers are stunning! So glad your machine is fixed much sooner than expected.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to hear your sewing machine is fixed! I like those Carolina chain blocks - it's great that you found some precut squares that will work for that project. My husband and son hiked down in to that section of the canyon in the late 90s with a Boy Scout group - beautiful and quite an experience. The book sounds fascinating!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great swap! Those Carolina Chain blocks are going to look great in a scrappy quilt. Thanks for sharing on my weekly show and tell, Wednesday Wait Loss.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.inquiringquilter.com/questions/2025/07/15/wednesday-wait-loss-441