Like the proverbial chicken. . . . .

Yup - I've been running around for a couple of weeks and it seems there are still a couple more in front of me. Imagine thinking of the "holidays" as a break and slow down. Oh well. So starting much earlier in the month, I attended the national conference of the women's RVing group I belong to (to which I belong - my mother would correct me). There were, as I recall, 190 RVs and about 325 ladies in
attendance. We did lots of social/get-to-know-you activities, had classes and seminars related to things RV as well as just for fun, ate, drank, socialized and had a generally good time. This year it was at the Fairgrounds in Lodi, California. I had looked forward to and enjoyed mostly sunshine and temps. in the 70's during the day (as opposed to northwest gray and rain)! Some photos:





The fruit of the vine was not quite ready for picking, but we did force ourselves to sample some of the local 'produce'. The Chamber of Commerce informed us that Lodi actually has more acres in grapes than Napa and Sonoma combined. Hmmm. It was so nice to be outdoors, with shorts. Very cute whirly gigs - found one for my grandson for Christmas. Bottom left photo you can see Mt. Shasta with its top in a cloud - we were a bit concerned that there might be snow on the ground, but sunshine was with us.

And then I thought, I hadn't been doing anything sew-y, but in fact discovered a couple of things that I just work on as I get the time and have managed to finish up a couple. And so:


For my friend who would eat chicken teriyaki 3 meals a day, I thought this seemed appropriate. Not sure how I will finish it, but it was fun to do. The other is a wholecloth pillow cover I bought last year in Houston (International Quilt Show) to practice my handquilting stitches. I seem to be able to get them fairly even but by golly they aren't very small. Oh well - I'm told to just keep practicing and practicing.

Other projects:


Humbug bags I've made as samples for an informal class I will teach later today, practicing my hand applique with this little morning glory blossom. [I like it better with the darker flower, I think.] Maybe I can come up with some use for these. The blocks with the gold are for my large quilt guild's block swap. More of those to come for next month.

Phew! There you have it. This retirement is sure tiring! But I do recommend it to any and all! Life is good.