I didn’t realize there were so many elk and deer in the Grand Canyon – we saw a lot of them today, especially after 4 PM when they were out feeding.

All of the photos of the elk and deer are taken from inside the shuttle buses as we went past them.

An elk

A very pretty deer

Another elk – so close to the road that the bus almost brushed against him it seemed.

As we were walking to a viewing point this Raven was in a tree next to the trail – very used to people – he just sat there posing.  I was only about 5 feet from him and he didn’t move.

In the next tree was this very pretty blue bird – I don’t know the name of it.

A very pretty, very large fireplace in one of the shops – and look at those chairs carved out of logs.

Kolb Studio – paintings of the Grand Canyon on display in this nice little studio in the park.

I told Mike I wanted this one but it was already sold!  Darn it, couldn’t afford it anyhow – but nice to dream.  Looks like I took the photo a little crooked.

We go back to see more of the park tomorrow 10/8/11 then we are moving on to New Mexico.  I wonder what we will see there – we think we will end up in Roswell and then Carlsbad Caverns way in the south but haven’t a clue at this time what campgrounds we will be at or where we will stop along the way.  After the Caverns we are heading home.

There is a squirrel on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon that can only be found there – no place else in the whole world has this squirrel.  I didn’t know that until we were up there.  The first day within an hour or so I had been outside and saw a squirrel that looked very unique – I had never seen one like and then I found out it was because it only lived there.

I could not get a decent shot of the squirrel with my camera but Mike managed to follow this guy though out the campground getting photos.  He has a very dark body, a brown stripe on his back and a fairly white tail and pointy ears.

In mid run

I just loved this squirrel and I so hoped to get a photo of him and couldn’t.  I was so glad Mike had caught up to him before we left the North Rim.

Also a few last photos of the lodge at the North Rim.  The dinning room is actually a bit darker than this – Mike used a flash I believe because of how dark it was.  I was not impressed with the food!  What a disappointment although Mike liked his prime rib.  I am not much of a meat eater – I eat it – just not a lot.  I ordered the fettuccine with marina sauce and chicken.  I have to say I had better marina sauce out of a jar!!  The chicken was good though.  For the price it was not worth it.  I overheard someone leaving the dinning room saying it was the worst meal she had had in quite awhile.  I wouldn’t say that, and I had no other meal there to compare it to.

One of the Navajo Rugs hanging in the lodge.

A variety of subjects today.  Been a busy day working outside, then piecing a triangle while watching NCIS, and now quilting late this evening.

To begin with the mama cat is comfortable and getting fat – I have gotten the family comfortable down by the workshop which has a porch on it.  (the kittens were in hiding while I was trying to take a photo of course they did not want to cooperate).   The food and water are down there and I put a chair that is beginning to get worn out there and they have commandeered it!  This worked out how I wanted as I did not want them by the front door constantly so that when son-in-laws are visiting the cat dander will not be out of control near the door and porch (both are allergic to cats).  They seem to be comfortable down by the workshop so all is well.  Mama has already presented us with a gift!  you know cats – sometimes they leave you a mouse by the front door, a mole, a snake (ugh) while this pretty mama decided to leave us something different – a dead squirrel!!  She is a good hunter I think – maybe she wasn’t an inside cat after all.  Needless to say the many squirrels that can be annoying at times have not been seen as often since the cats arrived.

Fall colors at home – plenty of the leaves have blown off the trees the last couple days with the wind that we have had – although not as severe as a lot of you across the states had today!

All of the hydrangeas that looked dead when we came back from our trip are now looking like this one maybe they will all have flowers on them next spring.

The flowers and ferns are still blooming although I think we are possibly getting down to the 30’s one night this week – I might have to move the pots to the workshop for a night or two.

The Dear Jane triangle completed for the “Insanity Revisited” quilt – this makes number 9 or 10:

I have been working on the “Going in Circles” quilt this evening.  I am up to the sashing and the patchwork and figuring out how I want to quilt this part of the quilt.  I think this is what I have decided on.  I was going to quilt three circles around each circle in this part of the quilt and then I realized not all circles are precisely in the center – darn I thought I had them right!! If I put three circles of quilting around each it will be more noticeable – by doing it this way it isn’t!

Now how I’m I getting these wavy lines pretty darn good I must say so myself  – with this wavy edge ruler:

Hope everyone is coming through all this wind alright today – across the northern tier of the country it is pretty bad.  I was talking to my daughter in Wisconsin earlier today checking on her and the wind was howling but all was well.  The other night the other daughter was in tornado warning in North Little Rock – she came through just fine too.

One of the main things I hate about spring is all the wild storms that come with it.  Both Friday and Saturday brought horrible weather to Arkansas.  On Friday night I do not know how many tornadoes touched down and did damage to life and property in an area some distance from us.  The area was about 70 miles north of Little Rock.  While I am glad it did not happen to our area it is never good for it to happen to someone else.

Flowers are blossoming all over the place – before the storms hit I cut some to bring in the house.

My peonies and roses are looking terrific

Since shortly after Easter we have seen this rabbit in our yard. Normally you can't tell one rabbit from another as they are all the same shade of brown normally but as you can see this one is tan. I'm beginning to wonder if it was an Easter rabbit that someone had bought for a child for a present and it got loose. No one in the neighborhood has come knocking at our door looking for a pet. It is cute and has made itself at home on our property.

One more block finished on "Insanity Revisited" This is block 8 from row 11. I also finished the applique on the block that I started for the Little Brown Bird quilt while I was in Paducah - now it just needs some flowers appliqued, embroidery to embellish and then I will take a photo of it.

Yesterday morning I made another of the pineapple blocks and now my cutting table and sewing room seem to be in general disarray!  There is something about working with scraps that really makes a mess of things.  This past week I got a little quilting done on the Christmas quilt but progress is moving very slowly on it.  I have not touched the baby quilt in some days and my fingers are now healed up once again so I really must get back to it.

I have not had much energy for much of anything the last couple days with this awful cold that I went and got.  Surely I will be feeling better later today – as it is I think I must get on the phone first thing in the morning and cancel my dental cleaning for the afternoon.  I hate to cancel an appointment so late but rather do that then try not to cough and struggle for breath when someones fingers are in my mouth!!

Well after several ups and downs with this months blocks for the “Star Crazy” quilt I have them finished.  This morning I was half way done with one of the star blocks when I realized that I had accidentally bumped the needle position and I was not making a 1/4 inch seam but a bit larger!  I had to get the seam ripper in action and that delayed finishing that block.  I managed to get all finished this afternoon though!  February’s assignment is done and now I can get back to work on my circle applique border on the “Going in Circles” quilt which is coming along nicely, I am working on the second side right now and about half way done with that one.

February's assignment - 2 star blocks, 2 Irish chain blocks and 36 half square triangles. I had two left over last month for some reason and I saved them for this months work they are down there on the bottom.

last months blocks and this months blocks.

two months of half square triangles. I don't remember how many we need for this quilt -- too many!

My girlfriend Regina’s daughter Sara is in the wildlife department in the Arkansas Fish and Game Program at Arkansas Tech University and I wanted to share a link of her releasing a trumpeter swan the other day with others from that department, the story is at this link along with other photos. http://focus.arkansasonline.com/photos/index.php?id=2582928 Although I have never met Sara I have heard about her for 3 years now and I feel as though I know her – way to go Sara!!  I envy you being able to pick up that bird and then release it.  Most of us will never come that close to a trumpeter swan much less say that we had held one!

On the weather front our snow is beginning to melt quickly all of a sudden, it is up to 40 degrees today and will be in that range though out the weekend – we just might be snow free by Monday.

That’s right Arkansas’s best burger comes from a little place under 10 miles from my door!  We love it – in fact we rarely ever get a hamburger any place else in this area.  We were surprised to see it written up though in the current issue of Southern Living that was delivered to my mailbox today.  C.J.’s Butcher Boy Burgers – locally known just as  “C.J.’s” in Russellville just serves hamburgers, fries, cokes and I’m not sure but maybe shakes (I usually get a coke so haven’t noticed).  So glad we discovered them about 6 years ago.  This place is a 1950′s – 60′s atmosphere, they have a jukebox that plays music from that time period and has a red and white interior with 1950′s movie stars on the walls. They had been around a couple years before that – now they have two locations.  Article is on page 2 of the travel section.  I believe this magazine goes region to region so it is possible it won’t be in your issue if you live in a different state.

Ok enough on hamburgers – we do try not to have fast food often but when we do that is the place to go.

Recently I have been seeing a baby bunny rabbit outside near the house and never have the camera handy – until today! Here the bunny is sitting outside the window that is by my computer – this photo is taken through the window and the screen so isn’t the best quality but I have been having fun watching it so thought I would share (of course for all I know there are 4 or more of them out there and I might not be seeing the same one each time!).

I got a little more done on “Insanity” last night and have one triangle left to quilt and then I will be starting on Row H which is row #8.  I also got one side of the greenery appliqued down on the 3rd Christmas border.  I am going to work on cutting out a red flower and get it glue basted in place to start working on next.

Besides my Southern Living magazine that came in the mail today I also got my current issue of American Quilter. I thought the work of Debra Kemball was amazing.  Of course I am in awe of her hand applique and hand quilting.  Face it us hand piecers/hand applique/hand quilters are starting to be rare in the quilting world.  So many are going to machine work as we all know.  I can’t find a blog by her or a web page but here is a photo of a quilt of hers that won a prize at the International Quilt Festival.  Anyhow if you have a chance to look through the magazine the article and photo’s of her work starts on page 26 and there is a pattern of hers on page 66 with instructions.

in my house this morning!  My living room is a little dim in the morning and I had not turned the lights on yet.  Here I was walking from the bathroom into the kitchen going through my living room when I caught something out of the corner of my eye going underneath the edge of my couch!!  I only caught a glimpse but thought I had seen the tail of a mouse.  I am not afraid of mice but I do not want them in my house.  I finished getting myself ready for the day.  I had bought – several days  before – a box of 4 bug bombs as we had been gone for a month and I had found several bugs in the house.  I wanted to de-bug the house, maybe I could kill a mouse at the same time?  I decided to try it out and see but to also make a stop at the store to get some mouse poison.

I turned off the air and the fans and got the bug bombs going and left the house.  When I got back home of course I didn’t see a dead mouse laying in the middle of the carpet or anything     didn’t really expect to of course.    One of the first things to do for the day was to open up several boxes of mouse poison and put them out for the uninvited guests.

In the middle of the afternoon I came back in the house for a little bit and low and behold as I walked from the kitchen to the living room there on the living room carpet is a blue-tailed lizard heading to scoot under the couch!  I snuck up on it and caught it by it’s tail — I have done this before (but outside) almost any child can catch a blue-tailed lizard if you try and I had helped my girls do this when they were kids and occasionally catch one just to look at it.  They are harmless.  Have I ever mentioned I was a tom-boy when I was a kid  grow up with 8 younger brothers and this might happen to you too!!  LOL

The proper name for this lizard is a Five-lined Skink.  They are small creatures, the blue tail marks the young.  This one was about 5 inches long tail included.  This photo comes from the link above that tells you about Arkansas lizards.  I have a feeling this lizard got in the house while we were bringing things in from the camper on Thursday.  I was going back and forth to the camper to the house that I wasn’t always taking care to shut the door all the way.  These lizards and another one called the Eastern-Fence Lizard or Gray Lizard live on our deck and all around our house for the warm months of the year, which means they lounge around within our view and run here and there in front of us and past our feet on the deck for about six months of the year.   We have caught both kinds over the years and are pretty neat to watch them.

I have never had one get in the house though that I know of – maybe they have and figured out how to get back out?

Catching a lizard I could do – now if it was a mouse the poison would have had to do the job for me although I can dispose of those after they are dead without having a hissy fit.

I did get 3 squares of Dear Jane sewed together today for the beginning of the 7th row and I have another square prepped and ready to go.  That’s as far as I have gotten with my sewing.  I have been too busy outside.  I have a feeling this summer might be slow going for quilting and piecing.

Today has been a busy day with fabric and quilts for me.  I started the day off by taking the scrappy Irish chain quilt off of the quilting frame – I still have more quilting to do on it but it is the final border and I can do that with the hoop – this quilt is smaller than a twin size so no problem.  I wanted to get it off of the frame so that this week I could start getting the “Insanity” quilt (Dear Jane) on the frame.  Also I got the “Insanity” quilt out of the storage bag it was in and have it draped over the big quilting frame so some of the wrinkles will start to fall out.  I took the big fabric backing out of the bag also and have that pressed and ready to cut down to size – I always order more than needed.  The batting is waiting also.  I’ve been prepared for this quilt for awhile now.  I’m sure I will get it on the frame this weekend.  Tomorrow will be a busy day at the guild workshop that I need to go to or I would get started – as is I might get started on it by evening.  Even if I get it on the quilting frame though I am not going to take my first quilting stitch until February 23rd.  Silly I know but on that date it will be 4 years since I started the quilt so it has significant meaning to me to start it then – it is also my daughter’s birthday that day and as she will eventually get the quilt it has double significance to start quilting it that day

I got the applique glue basted complete for the Baltimore Album Christmas square – I will applique this one and then move on to another block.  I don’t like the glue to set too long and possible stain the fabric.  That did happen on one quilt.  The glue left a couple tiny dots in the fabric after it was washed twice.  Since then I try to soak out the glue as soon as possible and have not had a problem.   When I get done with the sewing I soak it in cold water several times until the water comes out clear and lay flat to dry.  I like to do this to get the glue out.  If you click on the photo it will take you to a larger size.  I have had several people mention how my points are so pointed – sorry to disappoint but the applique is not done – this is just glue basted all the sewing needs to be done and it will be needle turn applique.  All my points will not be pointed enough I’m sure but I don’t care if the “quilt police” notice or not – I quilt for my enjoyment only and never enter into shows or contests – I did enter into several things a awhile back and decided it was not for me.  On the enlarged picture you can see white chalk lines = I trace around my freezer paper templates with a white chalk pencil and that is my sewing line.

I haven’t posted a photo of any of my mugs for a couple days and Nanci over at Quilting at the Cottage wanted to see more.  I thought I only had about 5 or 6 left but I think it might be closer to 10 after taking a quick look around.  Here is one that I bought at Glacier National Park.  I know I posted a different mug last week or so that I also got from there.  We love the national parks and go back if we can.  We have been to Glacier twice, once when our girls were with us and once after they were grown.   I don’t get a mug every time we go someplace any more but I use to   This mug has mountain goats that you can see at times in the mountains of this park.  In fact we have been walking on a trail a time or two when we had to share the trail with them — they would just come out of nowhere it would seem and we would move aside and stand still and they would just walk right on by!  I decided to pull some photo’s out of an old photo album to share with you of us sharing the trails of Glacier with the mountain goats.  These photo’s are from around 1989 in the middle of summer believe it not with all this snow shown.  If you click on any of these pictures you will see it larger.  Aren’t they magnificent animals!

Yesterday’s question: During free motion quilting, the sewing machine feed dogs are – UP or DOWN the answer is down.

Next question: Which of the following sewing machine needles are the thickest?

A- 14/90

B- 11/75

C- 18/110

We have a delightful walking trail about 12 miles from our house the trail is in the town of Russellville on the outskirts of the city and is a animal & bird refuge.  About 3 years ago an article in the paper said that an alligator had been spotted at the Bona Dea Nature Trail in the swampy area in the back of the park.  There was a photo of the gator in the paper.  Every since then my daughter and I and tons of other people I’m sure have wanted to spot the gator.  Well on Saturday my daughter was home for the weekend and as we often do the two of us ended up taking a walk – she hadn’t been to the trails in sometime as she now lives in Little Rock.  We were half way around the longest trail back in the swamp lands and low and behold the alligator was about 70-100 feet (I am guesstamating — is that a word? I am not good on judging distances) off shore sunning himself and maybe anticipating lunch?  Those turtles are very close!!  We gazed at him for about 10 minutes or longer and my daughter luckily had her camera along and was snapping one photo after another — how I wish I had brought the binnoculars with me!!  But we saw him and that is what counts!!  Alligators normally are not this far north in Arkansas, it is felt by officials that the gator had been someones pet until he grew and then they “dumped” him at the park where maybe they felt he could fend for himself and make due?  he has been out there some time over 4 years now as the corp of engineers who maintain the park knew he was there about a year at least before the general population in the area did.

Springtime is such a pretty time of year.  We have two bird feeders out year round to attract all the beautiful birds.  I used to have two bird feeders that were squirrel proof with little cages that drop down to protect the seed from the squirrels — I like squirrels – I just don’t want them to get the bird food!  One of my feeders broke at the beginning of winter so I picked up a new one that can convert to a thistle seed feeder for the finches of which we have many.  But right now I ran out of thistle seed and just have the sun flower seeds so I turned the little gadgets on the feeder that changes size for the seed to come out.  Well of course after I did that the squirrels caught on that bigger seed was coming out and have been bound and determined to figure out how to get to the seed.  I had the feeder hanging in one tree and moved it to the swing in the front of the yard thinking maybe they wouldn’t notice it for awhile — wrong!  they discovered within days  – here are some photo’s of the pesky little critters eating to their hearts content this morning before I got mad and moved the feeder once again, this time with a long wire hanging from a branch thinking maybe they can’t get down the wire to the feeder — we will see what happens.