The Aspens Were Turning......

The aspen trees were SO pretty in Steamboat Springs and out at the lake. These photos were taken out at the lake in a huge grove of OLD aspens, some of them had carvings on them from the 50's. Once again, we had a great time with our friends Katie and Patrick and we thank them for letting us stay at their beautiful homes and hanging out with them, it was a lot of fun and we had so many laughs!

The view from this piece of property is breathtaking- you can see Steamboat Lake, Hahn's Peak, the village below it, even the dam at the far right end of the lake (not seen in this photo). The aspen grove is behind us now, we had to walk down thru it to get to this point, see Jim on the trail? Everything out there is HUGE. He looks so tiny. No wonder Patrick wanted us to see this! He's right, this is THE spot for a house at the lake. Of course, their house has views that rival this, it's about 100 acres to the left of this one.


It seems like ages ago since my last post, probably because it was! To those of you who emailed me, worried, I apologize. It just got crazy here before we headed off to Colorado- I had to teach a class on making a quilted duffle bag and that threw my whole schedule into a tizzy. Then I decided I needed a special purse for the trip and quick whipped up one my little strappy bags made out of that cool paint-by-number deer fabric that I found on Etsy.

I was able to get all the machine sewing done before we left and I finished the hand sewing part of it in the car, using my handy-dandy sewing organizer/caddy. I just love these little purses and I'm in the process of making a real pattern for it and soon I'll be teaching a class on them. I just need to perfect the purse first and come up with a zippered closure for the top of it, an alternative to the elastic closure that I prefer. I also have an order for purse slightly larger than this one, I need to get on that, too. Busy, busy.

Anyway, CO was beautiful. It snowed a few days after we got there but melted soon after and when the weather cleared up and got sunny, we went for a few hikes. This was taken at King Solomon's Creek. We wanted to hike to the falls but the way was too wet and treacherous so we headed to Nipple Peak, instead.

Katie, Jim, me and Shep, our friend Pam's dog, he's a good boy!

The Lodge Pole Pines have been decimated by a pine boring beetle and a lot of logging has been going on. Our friend Pam tried to beat me in a game of tic-tac-toe, but it was a tie game. :)

Pam is X's.

I am O's.

I had a lot of fun feeding and photographing my little friends, the chipmunks. I just love these guys, they are incredibly tiny! This one had had a small problem with its tail, part of it is missing, but isn't it cute? If I lived there, I have them all eating out of the palm of my hand, I just didn't have enough time to get them to trust me. They came close a few times but I think it was by accident- when they'd notice me their eyes would get real big, a little shriek would come out of them and they'd skedaddle into the grass or up a wall or something, it was so funny. When I was sitting quietly, they wouldn't come near me. When I was talking on my cell phone, they'd practically run right over me, go figure. I guess they wanted some air time, too. They do love their peanuts, I'll say that for them. And stale bread, too.

This one was my favorite!

I really missed my sewing machine while we were away. Fortunately, Katie and Patrick needed something made and it was a hand-sewing project. They had seen fleece blankets for sale for using while flying, since the airline blankies can be kind of gross and unwashed. We off we went to the only place in Steamboat that sells fabric (sob) - Wal Mart. We got fleece for both of them and then proceeded to do a blanket stitch all the way around them and fashioned some straps so they can be hung over the handle of a carryon bag and dragged thru the airport with ease, or slung over the shoulder and carried like a purse. Katie's is like the latter, Patrick's is the black one and he's still waiting for me to make him a matching pillow. I needed the machine for that!

This is their backyard at the house in town, that's the ski mountain but the slopes are off to the left.

And even more than my sewing machine, we missed Nosey Parker! She was at home with our pet sitter and all her brothers and sisters, just hanging out waiting for us.

I had a few photos of her in my phone- I would console myself by looking at them several times a day and saying "Where's the baby?" like we do all the time with her, it's a game we play. The little stinker took several days to warm back up to us after we got home, I was a little surprised about that. She's back to normal though, coming over to me in bed at 3 or 4 AM and wanting some cuddling and smooches, I just love when she does that! She's a busy girl and doesn't take too much time during the day for a cuddle, she's got things to do and places to explore. She's a good girl, though and she's still cracking us up on a regular basis!

More stories later, the house will awaken soon and I want to go sew a wonky block or 2 first. We're making a Wonky Log Cabin quilt and I have 7 blocks done, only a hoo-gob more to go (OK, maybe only 18 more, but it seems daunting to me!) It'll be 5 x 5, probably and the blocks are 15" square, so it'll finish out about 75" square. I may make it smaller, though, I'm not sure yet. I'm having fun with the Hooter Quilt. See the owls in the centers? :) Oh, the sashing is a dark brown, not black like you might think. Looks pretty sharp with the bright solids, I like it.