Back home

Did you miss me?  I was in Phoenix for the yearly retreat I attend, if I can.  This was the 10th anniversary retreat.  We all met online on the About.com quilting forum, and I've missed only two retreats...when we were in MN taking care of my mother-in-law and a couple of years ago when they had the nerve to schedule my total knee during the retreat!

I came home and Dale had finished the painting in the sun room.  I picked the color for our heat sink wall, the day I left.  It used to be the exterior adobe wall of the house.  Unfortunately the first gallon of pain was bad, thin and watery and he had to go back and replace it.  I love the end result.  It's quite a change from our usual white, but we wanted something that would absorb the heat, and not reflect it back.

 The rock step is something we brought back from one of our camping trips, which I blogged about here.  I remember pulling off the road and collecting this rock, which was a challenge to load into the truck.  I works perfectly as a step, the color, height, etc. 

The wind has been blowing and blowing.  Our weatherman explained that it's another La Nina year, and we can expect lots of wind.  I'm hoping not quite as much as last year!  Still getting some awesome sunrises.

When I left for Phoenix, I was working on this scrappy quilt.  I had been cutting the appropriately sized pieces from scraps and saving them.  The quilt needs to be totally cut out and then put together like a course of bricks.  I'm not sure I like this method of putting a top together, but I want to get it done and off the design wall.  I came home with lots of donated tops and blocks, and I need to get busy quilting on the longarm.  I'm anxious to try out the QuiltEZ boards I have on loan, and I'm considering buying from a longarmer that has gone computerized.