Our 'Kitty' Arrives to our Mountain Home

You may recall early in May, my hubby and I went to Sedona, Arizona where he saw and promptly purchased a sculpted mountain lion by reknowned artist John Kessler. Well, this lion is big so he surely didn't come home in our SUV but was instead delivered to us. We are thrilled he arrived and seems happy in his new home. A few pics of the delivery follow:

First the meeting of the minds and cats at the base of our one lane mountain road. The sculpture is wrapped and secured in the back of the white pick up. An even bigger "Cat" (or rather Caterpiller) will be instrumental in getting the sculpture onto its permanent home pedestal.


A slow wind up the road and then to prepare to lift and relocate:


It would be a fair statement to say we were scared when the single strap under the belly of the mountain lion, raised him to the prepared pedestal. I was guaranteed it would lift 3000 pounds. It did just fine and we breathed a sigh of relief when the lion touched down.

Here,he is starting to emerge from his protective wrapping.
Caught in afternoon light and shadow, he rests beside his new owner, hubby Ray Hughes




This mountain lion is nothing short of spectacular and will retain the name given by the artist.. "Majestic Lion".
To see other works by John Kessler, visit www.vickerscollection.com. Our deepest thanks to both John Kessler for making his art available to us and to Philip Vickers of the VC Gallery of Fine Art, and ofcourse Jan, the Gallery Director.
An unexpected side note... The dogs that live and walk in the canyon aren't quite used to this lion looking down at them from a ready to pounce position. Ray and I are regularly awakened by repeated dogs barking warnings at our Majestic Lion.

Nope.. Not A Quilt

Sure looks like a quilt design, but instead these are but 2 of the many appx. 16"x 20" stained glass panels displayed along the seaside boardwalk in Ketchican, Alaska. I certainly can see a quilt in the making from these as inspiration.

and ofcourse Alaskan Salmon

Home From Alaska

What an incredible trip. A chance to imagine what life was like in early North America... when the human population was small and mother nature so very grand. We went to many places... I won't bore you with all, but here are a couple things I will surely remember.

One of many glaciers is this magnificent one titled Mendenhall Glacier named after a man who oddly enough never visited Alaska but was instead the managerial head of Survey team that did. Apparently brown-nosing was resident long ago. :-) One can't begin to tell from a photo how large these things are. The vertical drop off at the bottom of the flow appears small but is many stories high. This glacier has been receding for many years... even before cars, and industrial pollution existed. So what does that mean to global warming?



Meet two of the most common population in Alaska. No... I was not this close in the wild.... this is the work of really good taxidermist. Kind of sad tho.



Of the estimated 50,000 bald eagles flying across the U.S., about 25,000 are seen in Alaska. They really were everywhere we looked. Amazing.

You know you need a vacation WHEN:

I've been on a dead run getting many things done before the trip I leave for in 1 hour. Yesterday... finally I slowed down long enough to get a pedicure. Apparently, I wasn't quite slowed down enough for as I sat in the pedicure spa chair... I was fumbling around for the seat belt. Oh.. I must need a vacation.
Sweet Alaska.. here I come. I'll be back in a week! Ofcourse handwork travels with me.

Fun Quilt and Day with friends

I hosted lunch for my Wanabe Quilters friendship group yesterday. I finally finished the binding on the kind of fun quilt I've been mentioning. It's called "WANABE DINING" because we do it monthly and each hostess really works at making it a lovely luncheon day.

It looks pretty cool on the table too!


As you can see... it's bigger than my table.... but ofcourse, no eating on it anyway. Yet to be done... the addition of a 'signature fabric napkins.. the fabric came from each group member so I'll add those after I do a bit more quilting on the "Nordstrom box" placemats I used in the picture of my china and crystal place setting for each quilter friend.
Here's a few closeups of individual Wanabe members.. L-R Carol Culbert and Laurie Lyon



and 2 more L-R Carol Pankow, Nancy Mastroianni


2 more L-R Hilary Field, Carol Lundquist


2 more L-R Nancy Kastner, Phyllis Reddish


Our Matriarch Carol Brodie


and last at the bottom of the quilt... upside down me


Lastly.. Dessert of the day... Nummmmmmm!


UPDATE: Someone asked if they'd seen this quilt yet. They have and what fun it was. It's a great group of ladies!

Busy Week...New Family Member

I can hardly tell you what I've done this week, but I know I've been running. Thought I would post a note about our mountain hoe adoption... This majestic lion purchased in Sedona last month.... was transported and delivered yesterday to our home in Bear Canyon in Mt Baldy. He's breathtaking.

Lovely Palm Springs Weekend

I Love Lucy... don't you?? A much needed and relaxing weekend in Palm Springs. I took my friend Laurie... who I always call LUCY.... to the sculpture of Lucy Ricardo on Palm Canyon Drive. They finally met.



This is a marvelous likeness.

I've been binding a couple of quilts. Not much to watch being done... but I'll show them to you as soon as I get around 3 more sides of a gigantic quilt with fun images of all my Wanabe Quilters Friendship Group. It's colorful and kind of goofy.

Beautiful First Ever Effort

Look at this lovely portrait of this painters daughter. Shh... It's a surprise, so I won't mention names! This is a fairly large piece so not quite finished. It was a big challenge in that the original photo was not as clearly focused as a portrait painter would like. But I think it's pulled off well!

This has been a very productive (albeit not in quilting) week. House cleaned out to 2 garage sales, and 4 loads to a Rummage sale.... and best of all, I finally got my piano disc piano hooked up and finished my work around the house listening to the piano score from Phantom of The Opera and Porgy and Bess. Wonderful! Hubby will be home from Azerbaijan Saturday evening, so today, a gal pal and I are headed for 2 days in Palm Springs. Yeah. Have a great weekend all!

Unusual Images, Lovely Sentiment

It took me a long time to understand that Day of The Dead was a beautiful thing. The images always looked kind of creepy to me so I couldn't get beyond it to understand it is all about honoring your ancestoral family. In a country that is largely focused on youthful presence, it's exciting to see people honoring their parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. This piece is almost done and is by student Elisa Regan who owns the Sacred Moondance Quilt Shop in Lake Forest, Ca.

Who's watching who?

The past 2 days have been embroiled in an annual garage sale plus deliveries to a church rummage sale ( 4 SUV loads). Glad thats done. Now back to fun stuff and showing some additional student work from my May retreat.

Dear friend Caroline Lombard painted this exquisite piece of a grey wolf peering through trees. Chillingly beautiful!

Incredible work

These are 2 pieces started in the recent retreat.... Look at the talent this gal has... and the photo references are hers as well. The artist: Janmarie Halliday of Placentia, California. I like her work so much, I said I'd quilt them for her. They deserve to be finished and seen in a show.

A Clematis:
and Dahlia:
I've already received some deposits for next Aprils retreat. Check out pattsretreats.blogspot.com

Wow... Which is the picture?, which is the painting?

This is Kathy De Muro's first ever painted piece and she had a ball. I'm proud of her. She gave herself permission to take her time and get it done. Great job Kathy. I consistently have students with great results. Yeah!