Month: December 2018

Goodbye Pepe!

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This past week my husband and I were hit by a distracted driver as we were turning on a green turning signal light. The side airbags deployed, a rear tire was busted and part of the bumper was removed. Our insurance company didn’t even try to repair it. They made it a total loss due to the cost of repairing the airbags and the worth of the SUV. They didn’t know the memories we had in that little guy. Over 120,000 miles were put on during our many road trips across the country and the rescue trips I made to take injured wildlife to the rehab center down in Price or down to Best Friends to take fish or other animals for them to take in permanently. We went on our 25th Anniversary trip in Pepe. 23 days alone with each other as we traveled all the way to the Outer Banks of South Carolina and North Carolina. Pepe took us to Washington state, where we visited our extended family there. He also took Don and his friend, Gary, all the way to Calgary, Alberta, Canada and back in four days. Pepe was a very dependable little guy. We kept him serviced and just about 2000 miles ago, I put on winter tires while on a trip down to Albuquerque,  New Mexico, in a bird transport trip. He also took me to many quilt meetings, shows and retreats. Our last trip out of state together was to the Oregon coast for our 26th this past Spring. We were gone 13 days. Memories that can never be replaced or relived are all we have left of Pepe. May he rest in peace.

Welcome – Little Nicholas

After spending the last few days recovering from the accident, we took ourselves to Low Book Sales to look for a replacement. We tried out three different SUV’s, looking for a comfortable ride, seats that fit us and good gas mileage. We ended up with a Hyundai Santa Fe Sport. Same color as Pepe, but more space and more economical on gas. The Nissan Rogue and one neither of us can remember were the other SUV’s we tried out. We wanted to stay close to the same amount each month. Hopefully, we may get a better financing deal through our credit union. Our daughter works for it and thinks our credit is good enough to get a lower payment with Gap insurance included.  

Once we get some light, I will take some photos of our Little Nick and get the hands free blue tooth set up so I can talk as I drive and be in compliance with our hands free laws. Need to see if I can get my SiriusXM added on too. I can’t wait to start making memories in Little Nick too!!

Quilting adds meaning to my life.

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Years ago, when my youngest daughter was two weeks old, my sister invited me to my first quilt guild meeting. I was entranced by the designs and how lovely the other quilters were to each other and newbies like myself. I joined the Jordan Country Quilters and remained a member until they disbanded almost 18 years later due to the older quilters dying or joining groups closer to their homes. It was a sad day for me when I heard that not one person cared enough about this founding group of the Utah Quilt Guild to keep it going. They had over 80 members at one point but as quilters age and the younger ones took over, the sense of history and continuity was lost. As a younger quilter with six children, a husband on deployment four times in 10 years, I wasn’t able to do much in the guild at the time. I had a leadership position in the Utah Quilt Guild and could not do both. I was saddened to hear that the outgoing president didn’t think it was important to keep going. Make me wonder to this day if they were as committed to their position as they should have been to accept it in the first place.

I looked around for a while for a new group to join and ended up joining two. A day time group and one that met twice on the third Friday of the month. Both are totally different in the way they operate and I enjoy them tremendously however, due to my wildlife transportation trips, I had to scale back to the one that meets twice a day on the third Friday since I could get to one of their meetings on a more regular basis. This group is extremely involved in charity projects too which is something I really love about them. We take a break in December so that we can spend time working on our own projects which is why I have time for the 2018 AQS Christmas Countdown challenge. Last night, I finished block 5!

 Today I will be working on block 6 of the 2018 and catching up on the other three years so that by December 25th, I will have 100 blocks done! Can’t wait for this one to finish because I love finished projects, don’t you!! I’m loving the glossy colors of the #Aurifil thread that I’m using for my blocks and that stiletto is a must for keeping the tiny points together as they move under the foot of my machine. Love quilting!! 

Barn Owl

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Over the summer I took several juvenile barn owls down to Second Chance Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Price, Utah. Today one of them came full circle in that I was able to pick it up and release it at the Salt Lake City Cemetery. It came from the Lee Kay Gun Range in West Valley City so releasing it here was a good choice and a hopeful boost to the genetic diversity of the local barn owl population. 

Block 4 of 2018 AQS Christmas Countdown

I have finished Block 4 in the 2018 Christmas Countdown challenge from AQS! So far I have kept up and I’m doing blocks from the three previous years so that by December 25th, I have 100 blocks done and a quilt top almost finished. All in Red and White fabrics which is a first for me. I’ve done a blue and white as a wedding quilt years ago but it’s been a long time since I worked only in two colors. I am looking forward to putting it into a show once I get it done! 

Sunset from the Salt Lake City Cemetery tonight

Winter has set in this week and our sky is looking smoggy but it does make for interesting sunset pictures.  Hopefully we’ll get another storm that will clear out the pollution. We live in a fishbowl and during the winter it gets so bad we have red burn days which mean the air is so unhealthy we are supposed to stay inside. 

Time to get back to quilting!!

Winter has arrived

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Life has been busy lately. I have spent over 60,000 miles in my SUV delivering injured wildlife to rehabilitators here in my state. I’ve even transported a juvenile Bobcat down to Best Friends wild animal sanctuary. A couple of weeks ago I took two small owls down to Hawks Aloft in Albuquerque, New Mexico, so that they could take them further south in their fall migration. Then a few days later, I transported a Russian mink to meet up with it’s new owner in Rock Springs, Wyoming. That was a fun trip too.

I’m now involved in a great quilting project called the Christmas Countdown from American Quilters Society. If you would like to join, check out their website at this link http://www.aqsblog.com/merry and join the fun! Here are the first two blocks that I posted late last night! 

Block 3 is out today! 

I’m off to finish block 3 and get it posted. I’m using several different reds and one white, a grunge white, that blends well with every fabric. I’m also finishing the handwork on our new Christmas tree skirt. I will post pictures of it later. Aurifil thread is being used for every project so far and I love it! The thread blends into the fabric and my points are easy to get since it is so thin and doesn’t add additional width to the seams. Try it, you just may like it!