Pacific International Quilt Festival

Last Saturday I drove to Santa Clara and met Deb at the convention center for PIQF. We planned to meet at 10:00am and wound up driving up the ramp of the parking garage right behind one another. Talk about great timing! After wandering around for a few hours and filling up my bag, we had lunch and took the first load out to the car. I should have brought a bigger bag!

Lots of thread from Superior.

A couple of kits and some additional hand dyed fabrics
that match the kit on the left.
Hey You likes the one on the right from Bonnie Blue.
That kinda surprises me.

Marking pen, needles, glue bottle, scissor fob, dental pick (for picking out stitches).

Somewhere there are two more patterns that I couldn't find to take pictures of.

Things to come

It's been over a week since my last post. When I started this thing I told myself I mustn't let that much time go by without posting something. So here it is, a list of the things I plan to post about.

My day at PIQF
Our trip to Reno
The latest Stash Organizing accomplishment

I know you're all on the edge of your seats, but sit back, relax and I'll get to it this weekend.

New Patio

For the past week and a half, we've had a new patio installed in the back yard.

This is the back yard before we began. A small, adequate concrete patio with some built in benches and a large grassy area that required lots of water and mowing.

This was the end of the first day. They removed the old patio and the lawn.

At the end of the second day the base was down.

Day 3. About 1/3 of the pavers are down.

Day 4. The "field" is complete.

Day 6, all done. That's a fire pit in the center of the circle.

It's huge! We'll eventually do some planting around the edge but first we need to get some patio furniture. I'm hoping to find something on sale at the end of the season. We're planning a barbecue on Sunday so we'll have our first fire in the fire pit and roast marshmallows.

Stash Enhancement

This is what 18 yards of fabric looks like. Doesn't seem like that much does it. They are 2 yard cuts. Hey You & I went to Reno to visit his Mom for the weekend. On Saturday morning we went to Mill End Fabrics to get a bolt of muslin. Quilting fabric was only $4.00 a yard! That's at least half price so I figured I could get twice as much, hence 2 yards each instead of 1.

After the Rain

We had a rain last night and the sky was cloudy and misty all day. Then, a little while ago, the sun peaked out just before it was ready to set. I love the way the light shines on the leaves in the distance.

And the mountains across the valley.

Water, Glorious Water

I had a real shower this morning. A shower with hot water, water that didn't come out of a jug. It was wonderful. Then I did laundry, four loads, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I gave each of the puppies a bath. Okay, they weren't so excited about the water as I was.

Life is back to normal on the hill. Until the next thing happens.

Alas, it's not over yet.

By 10:00pm last night we had water flowing into and out of our new beautiful water tank. There was still more work to be done (requiring the tank to be drained again) but it could wait for morning. So we only let it fill for a couple of hours, no sense filling it completely.

After Hey You got out of the shower this morning, I went in to start getting ready. Suddenly the water heater began making a terrible, loud noise. Kind of like when you try to get the very last of the milkshake up a straw, only worse.

Okay, I thought, this isn't terrible because 1) our house is equipped with two water heaters and the bathroom at the other end of the house is serviced by the 2nd one, and 2) in anticipation of our old water heaters giving up the ghost, we have two brand new ones still in their boxes in the garage.

I turned the faucet in the sink to brush my teeth. . . . . NOTHING. Not good. Hey You went out to check the tank, I went back to bed.

The good news is that the new tank is fine. The bad news is that the pump that pumps water from the storage tank to the pressure tank wasn't working. Hey You brought me a gallon jug of water and sheepishly suggested I could wet a wash cloth and clean up. Easy for him to say, he had a nice hot shower.

I can't wait to get home to see what today will bring.

Water Woes - The End

At least I hope it's the end of our water woes.



This is the new tank, waiting to be rolled into place and hooked up. Paul brought it up last night. It was suppose to be a little taller and a little smaller around. It was riding on the trailer in the same position it's in now. Up on the trailer, it was over 14 feet tall. Paul was a bit worried when he had to drive under a 15 foot over pass. He took out a few branches on the way up our drive. Hey You had trimmed for 12 feet, not 14.

Speaking of Hey You, after I left for work this morning he finished draining the water out of the old tank. He said all the birds in the neighborhood were really happy to have a pool of water to bathe in. We haven't had rain for a long time.