All summer I have been meaning to keep a bi-weekly practice of posting an update to my blog but here I am and summer feels like is nearly over. Now my son James is back in school I am hoping my work time will settle back into more of a routine. I love summer but family really comes first whether I plan that or not. Its been fun so I can't complain.

Here is a little update of what we did, what I did and some of the projects and adventures I am currently working on.

Our vacation this year was a week in Cayucos in June where we helped Becky celebrate her graduation from Cal Poly. It was a wonderful time away with family and friends.

We spent much of the summer either camping or back packing in the Sierra Nevada mountains. We visited Penner Lake, Middle Loch Levan, Meeks Bay at Lake Tahoe and Webber Lake. We got to spend time hiking, back packing, kayaking and swimming.

In July I sent Melman up to Sisters in Oregon to be on display as part of their outdoor quilt show. A couple of weeks after the show I realized I had not received him back so I emailed as I thought perhaps he was lost in the mail. It did not cross my mind that he might have sold! The following day I received a check from Sisters and was shocked and quite sad, Melman would not be coming home! As I stated when this quilt was on show in Houston that I would donate half my proceeds to GCF the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and so I did :) I am thinking of making another giraffe quilt as another fund raiser.

I have been spending a little time prepping for my Craft Napa classes in January 2019. This class Succulent Love will combine painting on fabric with some appliqué and fabric collage and free cutting fabric to make a finished covered canvas piece.

Prep time this summer has been what I am trying to keep on top of for the Fall. My four classes at Houston IQF all have patterns, instructions and kits that I need to put together. I am teaching 'Fabric Collage Addiction' as part of Artistic Alchemy at Zephyr Point in Lake Tahoe in a couple of weeks. Most recently I found out I would be part of the season 2300 with Quilting Arts TV and so I am madly putting together the work for my three segments. Sometimes I feel there are not enough hours in the day but this is what happens when you are trying to expose your work to more people.

I have started my teaching cycle again with Northern Californian quilt guilds so my next post I will share some of the student work from my Love of Pets classes.