A Good Mistake

Look what's back from the long-arm quilter, has its binding attached and is ready for a quick cycle through the washer/dryer?
 
Can I just say how much I love this quilt? It makes me happy every time I look at it. Silly, I know, but to me it's just perfect.
  
I'd originally planned to bind this with the same orange dot fabric as the front blocks, but . . . I ran out and when I went to buy more (a year later) it was long gone from the store. So, I bought little fishies instead.
 
Aren't they cute? And because fish don't always go with the flow, I arranged it so one group is swimming against the tide. 
 
Probably nobody but me would ever notice, but it's just one more thing about this quilt that makes me smile. 
 
The quilting is a fish/waves design done in orange thread.
  
Finished size is 52" x 72". And it's all MINE! (At least until a grandchild claims it for herself. Then we might have to arm-wrestle for it . . . )

This is my May Twelve in Fourteen project. Since we were on vacation for two weeks out of the month, I wanted a small, doable UFO to complete. This came back from the my long-arm quilter just in time!

Quilt Run 2014

Reyna and I made it to 9 quilt stores today, covering 389 miles round-trip, in just over 12 hours. Whoohoo! That's one more shop, in one less hour, than last year. We still need to visit the last two, local, shops this weekend to get our Run cards stamped (and win PRIZES! Maybe.)

Want to see what I bought? I'm planning a black and white quilt, so my focus was on getting one or two (or four) fat quarters at each shop - plus whatever else caught my eye.

Old Town Quilt Shop, Orcutt

Betty's Fabrics, Santa Maria

The seahorse fabric on the left is a panel;

the green, blue and orange fabrics will be the borders for a kid's quilt.

The Quiltery, Paso Robles

Castles and knights in shining armor!

Sew Fun, Atascadero

Quilter's Cupboard, Atascadero

Quiltin' Cousins, Pismo Beach

Betty's Fabrics, San Luis Obispo.
Planning to use the British fabric to make bags for our trip to England next year.

Cotton Ball, Morro Bay

Not bad for 12 hours of driving and shopping. And we're already planning for next year!

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Olaf Dress Trio

I found Olaf shirts at Target and had to have them. 
 Can you see the crowns on the skirt? Perfect for Frozen dresses! (click picture for bigger) 

The little girls looooooooove Olaf, so I figured Olaf dresses would be a big hit. 
 
I'm not sure they liked them
  
. . . . . kidding!
 
Leanne and Leia love them!
  
Addy's will go in the mail tomorrow - hoping her mama will send me modeled pictures when it arrives. Maybe some silly ones like Leia's
 
and Leanne's . . . . 
 

P.S. This is my Sew Crazy Challenge project for May. All three dresses have top stitching where T-shirt meets pink, and pink meets blue fabric; and all have finished seams on the inside. These took me awhile to finish and I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. 

Working With Models

I love my cute little models - and they work pretty cheap (TicTacs are still the payment of choice) - but most times I get more pictures like this
 
and this
 
than like this. 
 
And you know what? I like it like that. I wouldn't trade the giggles and silliness for anything in the world.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

We made it home today, after waiting at the airport in Philly,

then waited some more at LAX.

And then the fun started. We picked up Leia from school and took her with us for a late lunch.

She spent the afternoon going back and forth between me and PopPop;

I think she missed us as much as we missed her.

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Last Day, Last Bridges

We only had time to see two bridges on our way to Philly today. I'd hoped to hit three (or five...) but travel time was just too long. Good thing we didn't push it - the iPad navigation app I've been using got us totally lost in Northern Philadelphia, not an experience I care to repeat.

Taking cloud pics while waiting for a cab in Philly.

By the time we got to the rental car office, we were within minutes of being late rather than the hour early I'd planned. (Anybody have a navigation/map app they like? I don't like Google Maps either . . .)
First up, Zimmerman Bridge in Pine Grove, built in 1880.

This was supposed to be a Howe truss (like this example) . . .

but it's another Burr arch truss.

Oh well, still interesting.

A little way down the road was Rock Bridge, built in 1870.

Supposed to be a Howe truss,

actually was a - say it with me - Burr truss. Mr. Burr sure got around.

This one had a handicap fishing ramp next to it, which was pretty neat (you can see part of it on the right; click the picture above to enlarge.)

Sadly, for me anyway, that concludes the PA edition of the covered bridge tour.

Links to helpful websites are below, mainly so I can find them the next time we go bridge hunting.
Bridgehunter.com - a database of historic or notable bridges in the United States, past and present.
CoveredBridgeMap.com - bridges listed and mapped by state. Good way to find the address of a specific bridge.
Covered Bridge Trusses - diagrams and descriptions of most common trusses.
Theodore Burr Covered Bridge Society - more detailed information on truss designs.

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One Day To Go

Our next to last day in PA. Tuesday, early, we board our plane back to LAX and "normal" life. If we could have the grand-girls with us - and maybe the cats (I miss Lily; hubby doesn't) - I wouldn't mind traveling more.

Today was chocolate day - Hershey's Chocolate World, including a 4-D movie (smell-o-vision!) and the factory tour ride.

Who knew so many steps went into making chocolate bars?!? Even if chocolate wasn't one of my very favorite things, the tour would have been interesting.

For lunch, I tried the cocoa-infused chicken sandwich (yummmmmm!) and the chocolate bbq sauce (tasty). If anybody was going to have good chocolate chicken, it would be Hershey, right? Next time, maybe they'll have chocolate-infused asparagus. I could go for that!

We thought about going to the Hershey museum after we finished shopping (had to buy presents for the little girls!), but decided to see the state capitol instead.
Beautiful old building,

with statues

and lamp posts,

and heroes on horses.

Several older churches are across the street;

we arrived just in time to hear one of their carillons chiming the hour.

Hubby and I both love taking pictures of architectural details,

and since it was Sunday,

there were no pesky people getting in our shots.

Even the streets were fairly empty of traffic, although most of the parking spots were filled.

All in all, a very peaceful, relaxing day. Tomorrow we head back to Philly, with maybe a covered bridge or three thrown in for interest.

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