Kestrel on the Hill and the Crazy Quilt by 2012 Challenge

I love my back patio. It is really special in the morning when it is shaded. I like to sit out there and drink my morning coffee and watch the birds. This morning I took a book by Michael Connelly called The Brass Verdict. It is the follow up book to The Lincoln Lawyer that I thought was great. It is starting off really good so I have high hopes for it.

This morning, there was also a Kestrel hanging out looking for a meal, so I took a couple of pictures of him in a dead tree on the hill.



They are those birds that you see hovering in the air by the roadside looking for prey. I love my hill view!


On a Crazy Quilt email list that I belong to, we have put out a challenge to get a major Crazy Quilt done by 2012.

I love this antique CQ and have wanted to do my take on it for years. I started it once before but decided I didn't like what I had done. There is a previous post about it on my blog here. I think the fan blades are too wide. They need to be narrower like the original, plus, I don't like the colors of my first attempt.

Allie of Allie's in Stitches is doing a take on an antique CQ and has inspired me to start mine again. I have started planning it out on a muslin foundation.

Rattlesnake! Not a Statue!

Ok, this is for my friends. It is one of those "You had to be there, jokes" so please bear with me if you don't understand. This snake is not a statue! It may be dead and a little stiff but it is not a statue!

Bruce took this picture after he put the snake on the hill.

Forest Fires By My House

There were 2 fires that started near my home. They were both across the highway.

The first fire was the Oak Glen Fire. It started on 8/30/09. The second fire, The Pendleton Fire, started on 8/31/09. They were right next to each other.

The smoke was bad at our house the first day but the wind changed and it moved away. We could see the plume from our front door. My Husband and I parked by the highway and I took this video of an airplane dumping retardant on a ridge. It goes on to show the flames as it is getting dark outside.

On another note, and the fun keeps on happening, someone or something killed a very large rattlesnake and left or drug it in back by our fence. The rattle was over 2 inches long and the snake was over 3 feet long. I made my Husband take it up and chunk it on the hill. He took a picture with his phone camera and emailed it to our friend Gretchen. She called very soon after and said "Oh, Hell No!". LOL!

Zelda Gets a Bath

We have two Power Towers on the hill behind our home.



I always name everything eventually so I had to name our towers. I thought the one on the Left looked like a Transformer, kind of a macho male type. I thought the tower on the right had a feminine look, like she has on a skirt. So, they became Megatron, Tron for short, and Zelda. Zelda is actually taller than Tron and I think younger. They look the same height from this viewpoint.

Anyway, back in June, the Power Company had guys come out and climb the towers and clean the coils. (I am not sure what they are called.) I guess this was to remove debris and bird nests. I grabbed my camera and took a short movie of them giving Zelda a bath. Here is my little video on Utube.

I've Been Away

I haven't blogged in a while. Life has gotten in the way a bit. My Mom had a very bad stroke and passed away a couple of days later. We had to fly back to Kansas City. She had moderate Alzheimer's before the stroke and her quality of life after was non-existent. She could have suffered for several days or weeks after the stroke. We were talking about a feeding tube but she took a big turn overnight so we decided just to make her more comfortable. I never thought I would be in a place where I would have to make those decisions. Make sure you tell someone you love what you would want them to do for you and talk to them about what they would want for themselves. This is very important and not something you should be shy about.

When we got home, we had some friends come and visit us from Kansas. It was really nice to have them. We went to the Temecula wine country and had some wonderful wine and lunch overlooking a vineyard.

This morning, I awoke to an Acorn Woodpecker standing on our fence. He was so beautiful. He looked like a little clown. I didn't get a picture because I knew if I moved, he would fly so I just enjoyed looking at him. We have scrub oaks on the hill behind us that are just full of Acorns. They live in groups of several males and females and share the raising of their young and the collection of food. A real community. It is known as a "Bushel" of Woodpeckers.

Check out this site for a picture and click on the button to hear their call. My Cat's went nuts when I did! http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/175/_/Acorn_Woodpecker.aspx

Nitetime Needlers Guild - Quilt block one done!

I think I have finished the embellishment of my first block for the Nitetime Needlers Quilt Guild opportunity quilt. Do you think it is done? Does it need more? I don't quite know how much to do because there will be many others doing blocks and I don't know how much they will do. Marci and Pam will probably want to keep the blocks somewhat even in embellishment. I can always add more but it would be hard to remove embellishment.

The colors don't show up as nice as they should in this picture. I haven't figured out how to fix that yet. I can't wait for it to be a finished quilt! I will be buying tickets to win it. Maybe this will be my year to win!

Nitetime Needlers Opportunity Quilt and New Fabric Quilt

My quilt guild before I moved to California, Nitetime Needlers, is in the process of making their guild opportunity quilt. My friends Marci and Pam decided to do a Crazy Quilt. This is so cool!

I was asked to do a couple of blocks for it and I am very proud to do them. Marci sent me two block packets for it.


The colors are very much a dusty mauve/brown/green. I see Pam with these colors. Here are the blocks I pieced. The colors are not really blue. They are more in the purple range. For some reason, my camera didn't really show the correct colors.

While I was looking through my fabric, I found another fabric that I thought would be a good center so I pieced an additional block with it.

On another note, I decided to add an additional row to my current "sane quilt" project. I think it looks better as 3 by 5 blocks. It is going to go on the wall in my stairway.