Birthday Month

August is a big birthday month for us. Shelly, Gary and Matt celebrate on August 2, 3 and 4; 

Leia's is on the 13th; and John's is at the end of the month shortly after we come back from visiting him in Colorado.

We celebrated the first three birthdays on Saturday 

with dinner at PF Changs in Thousand Oaks.

And miracle of miracles, we had the entire CA contingent there, missing only Leia who was at her mom's. 

So nice to have everyone together. Happy birthday, all y'alls!

Fair Ready

It took us two trips but both grandgirls have entered their first items in the Ventura County Fair.

Leanne went first, taking her handwoven dish towel in on Friday.

Then Leia decided she wanted to put in two short stories and a poem. So back we went on Sunday.

Fortunately, the lines were short both days and we were in and out. 

Now we wait and see how they do. Fingers crossed. 

Done. Ish.

Now that the girls are only here two days a week (instead of six), I'm getting some quilting accomplished.
 
The pieces Leanne and I had on the design wall turned into this -
 
with lovely straight nested seams (I love it when a plan seam comes together . . .)
 
but . . .  it's too small. I originally thought I'd put a set of borders around it but couldn't come up with a plan I liked. This design feels too modern for traditional borders. So, a quick trip to Etsy and a new package of metallic charm squares should be here by the weekend. 

And what to work on in the meantime?
 
Found this oldie-but-goodie from 2014 while rearranging my craft room and immediately put it on the design wall. 
 
My original plan was to mix the shoo fly and 'reverse' shoo fly blocks together, separated by blocks of solid color. But I really like the secondary pattern the blocks form (first picture, above).
 
Now I'm thinking I'll sew the shoo fly blocks together in the quilt's center; put a  brown border around all 4 sides (3"-4" border?); and use the reverse shoo fly blocks around the outer edge. Gotta think about that for awhile. Opinions welcome!

Auditions

Decisions, decisions. Potential layouts for my next project. I'm liking #4 best, so far.

Design Antics

Even after spending all weekend with my sewing machine, the quilting bug still had me firmly in its grip,

 Cute grandgirl included for size (and for her awesome panda pants)

so Monday afternoon I pulled out my most recent purchase ('cause it was on top of the pile . . .)

and started working on my fear dislike of half-square triangles. By Monday night I had a big ole pile of HST's and no clear plan what I wanted to do with them. 

Today, Leanne and I set up my design wall and started auditioning layouts.

We both started out kinda traditional but Leanne quickly went her own way. 

 Giraffe #1

She was more than a little annoyed when I wanted my squares back, so we raided my stash for a charm pack that would be all hers.

 Giraffe #2

And my final design?

 It's about 48x36" on the wall

Not nearly as cute as Leanne's but I like it. Tomorrow we sew!

Different Weekends

While hubby went to Denver to do this . . .

I stayed home and played with Jac.

(Jaclyn now says 'dada' and 'cat' on request. But 'mama'? Not happenin'.) 

I also made this . . .
 
and this . . . 
 
and this . . . .
See the rest of my quilt critters here. 

I'm feeling very productive. Hubby's feeling tired. 

Still Growing

Jaclyn had her one year check-up at the doctor's yesterday -

two shots and a blood draw did not make her a happy camper.
 
She's still in the 90% for height (30.25") and has moved from the 20% to the 40% for weight (18 lbs, 15 oz). Hooray for our happy, growing girl!!

Scenes From The 4th

The little girls went to the Ventura Street Fair

while Pop and I watched a brush fire on the Conejo Grade. We had gone to the grocery store - no smoke - 

and returned less than 30 minutes later to this. 

Fortunately, the wind was blowing it away from us into an unpopulated area.

Pop's redneck version of cornhole was a hit - 

or actually a (lot of) miss(es).

The beanbags all weighed different amounts (oops, my bad 😛) making it just that extra little bit challenging. 

Jac was not impressed but Leia and Leanne loved it.

Dinner,

a movie (Independence Day II, of course),

 Leia was singing songs to a very tired Jac. So sweet. 

several rounds 

of pass the baby,

and it was finally time for fireworks.

We weren't sure what Jac's reaction would be to all the noise - 

especially when the idiots patriotic individuals one street over started setting off BIG boomers - 

but she handled it like a trooper.

And the Colorado branch watched fireworks from the lake. Looks like heaven.

Happy 4th, y'all!