It's Duck Race Time In Estes Park

Our mascot waves hello to Estes Park Duck Race participants.

The 25th annual Estes Park Duck Race will be on May 4, 2013. The committee has been working hard for months and has added several special elements to make this Silver Anniversary a huge success. The participating organizations collected their duck adoption forms at the meeting earlier this week. Below is the handsome 25th anniversary logo designed by Gary Hazelton.

Beautiful Sunrise

I woke up early enough to see this gorgeous sunrise - what a lovely way to start the day. Barely two minutes after snapping this picture, the sky had faded to pale colors.

This afternoon I attended part two of my sewing machine lessons in Fort Collins. Once again the two hours were packed full of useful information and tips ... buttonholes, pintucks, heirloom stitching, programming. I'm eager to try everything.

We had early morning visitors munching their way across the yard.

Friday Afternoon Quilters

Fruit Pizza - Beautiful & Delicious

My Friday Afternoon Quilters met here this afternoon - a small group, just six of us. We spent most of our time together going through boxes of quilt books and magazines that belonged to Elaine, a beloved member who died last summer. Her husband, also a good friend, asked me to distribute a large quantity of Elaine's books, patterns, fabrics, quilt tools, etc. to her friends and quilt groups. It's a big job but one I'm happy to do. Elaine and I belonged to the same three quilt groups. We sorted, talked, laughed, and ended with this dessert. It was a lovely afternoon.

New Mexico Twin Quilts

The New Mexico twin quilts are on their way to Linda in San Diego and will arrive today or tomorrow. I'm eager to know how she likes the border I've added. Linda began the project by making two identical centers. She sent them to me and I added the first border. She'll add the next border and send them back to me for the final addition. Each of us will quilt and bind her own identical version.

The photo above shows one of the "twins" on my design wall. You can see a bit of fabric to the right that I may use in the quilts when they come back to me. I'll have to see what Linda does. Her center is a beautiful collage of mountains, river, landscapes, and photos (printed on fabric) of our trip to New Mexico. It took me a long time (months) to decide what I wanted to add. I felt that the center was so busy that it needed a relatively plain border to calm it down a bit. This turquoise ombre (shaded) fabric was a serendipitous find and makes the center "pop" while providing a complimentary frame. The corner stones are iconic New Mexico images printed on fabric: map of New Mexico, flag, chili peppers, turquoise rocks.

Snow is falling so heavily I can see only the barest outline of the mountains through my loft windows. We have several inches and are grateful for every flake! I'll spend most of the day up here working on projects and getting ready to host my Friday Afternoon Quilters tomorrow. Time to make some tea!