Progress and recreation

Hello everyone!  Quilting the quilt is now a daily event.  I've been watching BBC Detective movies while I work.  This is the first 'family unit' of handprints that is on the back:

Today I started on the second family unit on the front side of the quilt.  It seems to be going along at a good pace, stitch by stitch.  I'm really enjoying working on such a big project. But I have so many other ideas going on, that today I began work on another little one...this will involve stitching a recent drawing on home-dyed cloth; here is a lone bundle of jacaranda blossoms and eucalyptus, steaming...

Even though all this work is exciting, it seemed a good time for a get-away. I haven't been seeing enough horses lately, so I decided to go for a drive to Sacramento to the Horse Expo.  A well spent day!

This was what greeted us first:

Not a horse!

Some more highlights;  pulling logs:

A beautiful mule:

A very plucky little pony:

Something I would like to go to someday:

There was also a cattle dog training session, but I was so engrossed in it, I forgot to take pictures.  Gilly was quite disappointed about that (she didn't get to come along),  and was a bit sulky and unwilling to look at the camera:

I'm trying to teach her the names of some of her stuffed (unstuffed) animals, but I get the impression she might rather be learning how to herd cows.  Oh well.  That's all for now.

500+safety pins

Hello everyone!  It has taken several years, but my grandson's quilt is Finally ready for quilting.  I decided to pin, rather than baste the layers together and bought out the pin supplies of several stores.  They are bent safety pins so it's fairly easy to put them through the cloth.  The quilt is quite heavy with all the pins and sounds like a suit of armor when I put it on the table.  It will be satisfying to gradually take the pins out as each area is stitched down.

The next photo shows the beginning of the quilting.  I first started by stitching through all the layers at once, but the back side stitches looked terrible, so I decided to stitch the front and the back to the middle, thin batting layer separately.  I've almost finished one grouping of the hand patterns and then I'll turn the quilt over and do the same area on the back.

Gilly has been resting from her exertions in the Giveaway, but there has been some bird activity to keep us charmed.  Here is the hummingbird.

 

I would like to show you a little video of a backyard bird bath scene, but it is late now, and after two unsuccessful tries at uploading the file, I realize I need to learn more about how to do this task, so, with apologies for incompleteness,  I will say goodnight now and wish us all sound and safe slumbers.