I Like #60

Many thanks to everyone who left kind words for me two weeks ago!  I missed last week because my mom and I were on a quilting retreat/class trip to Asilomar CA.  We've gone several years now and this year we got to take a wonderful 5 day class with Susan Carlson.


So to start out this weeks list of I Likes:

1. I like Susan Carlson.  She was a wonderful teacher and all the students accomplished so much.  If you don't know her work, I encourage you to check out her website, she makes the most fabulous brightly colored animal and portrait quilts.  I started a quilt of Bentley while in the class and I'm doing him in bright rainbow colors.  Hopefully I'll have some posts about it soon.  It's so special to me to get to go take these trips with my mom, here she is working on a portrait of her Gibby dog.  Gibby was a solid black dog, but her nick-name was the devil dog so my mom chose to do her in red.  She was so smart and so manipulative and so stubborn, but a really great dog.  I'll have to get some more pictures when she's done with the quilt and added a background etc.

2.  I like Asilomar!  It's really a gorgeous place, we love going there because it feels like you're really "away" while staying at the state park, even though you're not.  We had an extra half a day, so we drove down the coast to Big Sur, which was really beautiful too.

3.  I like old pictures!  I stayed over at my parents both directions on the way to California and I browsed through some old photo albums while I was there.  I was looking for pictures of our dogs growing up, but snapped a few pics of things that caught my eye.  I love this one of my mom with her dogs Strider and Elfie and one of their puppies back in the late 70s, my mom is so cute!  She named Strider after the Lord of the Rings and every time I re-read those books I think of him.  And I love this one of me and my mom on my very first camping trip!  Strider was there too just not in the picture.

4.  I like birds!  There were lots of fun birds near the ocean, and I have a new crew of birds at home, though I haven't been able to get good pictures of them.  We saw this raven outside Petrified Forest National Park, he was making all kinds of awesome chatty sounds.  I guess that's a cool thing about ravens, but I'd never heard them before.  Really fun!

I hope there were good likes in your week too!  Thanks to Lee Anna for linking us up!

I Like #59

Tough day here this morning, we are going to put down one of our beloved dogs this morning, the small white Shih Tzu Missy.  She's Mike's baby but has cancer and is going downhill very fast.  We're struggling here, so please send good thoughts if you can.

I'll just leave you with a couple more cheerful things, nascent signs of spring and one of Melissa Sobotka's lovely quilts which I saw this weekend at the Dallas Quilt Show.

Melissa Sobotka

I Like #58

A day late on the I like post, but better late than never!

So what's to like this week?

1. I like doing the occasional pieced quilt.  There are two ladies at church having babies, so I made a bunch of HSTs on Sunday and started sewing them together.  I had enough left to make a donation quilt too, so that's good.  I've only got one top pieces, the rest are still just HSTs stuck on the design wall.  Unfortunately, i'm now feeling like I've done enough piecing, yet I must continue!

2.  I like the pups!  Of course I like the pups, but I have to share them anyway.  They've been hanging out in the studio with me, and going on lots of walks.  We went down to the nice public wilderness area for a short hike on Sunday, and it was fun to get them outside out of our neighborhood.  They always want to make friends with everyone we run into.

3.  I love the early morning sunrise!  The last couple of weeks it's been sunrise time during our walk and a couple days ago while Bentley was pooping I was able to snap a quick picture.  Unfortunately this Sunday will be daylight savings time, so it'll be dark again for a while in the mornings.

4.  This is the very best thing of my whole week!  I got this letter in the mail from my almost-six year old niece asking if I would be her pen pal (of course!).  I'd sent her a letter to thank her for a drawing she mailed me, and I was so thrilled to get this letter in return.  Her penmanship and reading/writing are so so great!  Love you Anna!

Happy week to everyone!  And of course, check out the other I Likes over at LeeAnna's

I Like #57

I've been sick this week, so the last few days I haven't been doing anything past the necessities, but I do have some I likes!

1.  I like my niece and nephew!  I got to go visit them this weekend and we had tons of fun playing and jumping in puddles together.

2.  I like finding fun old memories.  My sister and I spent a little while going through some piles of stuff that we intended to put in scrapbooks at one time.  One of the things we came across was these two matching flower wreaths.  My sister and I wore them as flower girls at the wedding of the daughter of one of my grandparent's best friends c. 1987-89

. I had no idea they'd even been saved.  We also found my first grade report card (outstanding in most academic things but needs improvement in keeping personal space tidy).  Many years later my beloved first grade teacher told me I was one of the messiest students she'd ever had....

3.  I like the great British baking show!  I know I'm very late to this party, but it's so much fun!  There are currently 4 seasons on netflix and I've been enjoying them very much.

Have a good week everyone!  Check everyone out over at LeeAnna's