After Christmas Fun

I took my sister Kathy and my friend Pat on a road trip a couple of days ago.  Originally I wanted to go to Jalama Beach, but it is at the end of a 14 mile long, narrow winding road that climbs up and down hills, and with the recent rain I was not sure it was a great idea.  So we went to Solvang instead.  I showed a few pics of Solvang when Grant and I passed through in February on our anniversary weekend.  It was a lot more crowded this few days after Christmas!  We looked at a lot of shops, ate lunch, did a lot of talking and laughing, and generally had a great time.  I did not get my camera out once while in town, though there were hundreds of other folks talking photos!  On our way back home, we stopped at a lookout:

This is Lake Cachuma.  It has not been this full for quite some time.  The hills were starting to green up. The peaks in the distance sometimes sport a bit of snow. They are part of a vast State Park.

Here's Kathy--I'm so glad she's here with us from St. Louis!

Yesterday Kathy and I had a sewing day.  She looked at my usual ironing board set up, above, and said, "Oh, you're left-handed", to which I replied that I am not.  She said I should turn my ironing board around so the iron rests on the "cone"...

...and leaves the larger area for ironing.  I had not thought of that!  Here is MY quilt that she started for me four years ago.  She worked on it yesterday and it is becoming a throw size.  I love the colors.  So excited!   I worked on Erica's quilt and have to say that the Supreme Slider Kathy gave me really did make a difference while I was quilting the fleur de lis motifs.  So much easier to move all that weight of the quilt over the machine bed.  I have 9 more fleur de lis to stitch but am making progress.  There's a deadline in a few weeks, as I hear from Erica every time she passes by me sitting at the sewing machine!

 

Here's Mini holding down the cutting ruler for Kathy.  Cats are so funny!