Quilting for "Baby Heskin"

There is great joy in our family! James and Suzie are expecting "Baby Heskin" in early November!! Babies bring such happiness and hopes for the future!!!





It seemed appropriate for me to make a special quilt for this welcome child. Knowing Suzie's fondness for things African (thanks to the time she spent there as a high school senior), and because the Heskins have opted to NOT learn the gender of their offspring until its birth, I selected an African theme. After all, don't all children love monkeys and elephants?

What fun I had making the animals come to life! The elephant has a floppy ear, the snake has a bright red tongue, the zebra is so geometrically busy he is hard to look at very long!, and the smiling hippo is guaranteed to make a child smile!
Giraffes wandering through the grass....
The King of the Beasts lounging on the grass...
The s-s-s-sneaky s-s-s-snake s-s-s-slithering s-s-s-s-ilently along...
The zany zebra contemplates the monkey's tail...

On August 28th I am off to Pennsylvania for a visit with Suzie and James. While there I have been scheduled to do some sewing for the nursery to go with the lovely new cherry baby furniture. Lucky me!!! I am liking this "grammie" thing---

Stay tuned---nursery pictures may turn up next!!!

Fly Fishing on the Rio Grande

One of my new great joys is learning to fly fish!!! My long-time friend, Lyndon Skinner, has been patiently teaching me how to "think like a fish" and "read the stream" as well as how to make that silly little fly land where I think there might be a hungry fish. No day has ever gone by as quickly as a day fly-fishing in our beautiful wilderness. I even catch a fish every now and then!

Last week we set forth early in the morning for the headwaters of the Rio Grande River, which just happen to be over the pass, right here in our own county. We stopped at the top of Stony Pass, which grants a glorious view of the sunrise, a bank of last winter's snow, and the endless mountain ranges of the Weminuche Wilderness.
Traveling down the pass we were soon on the very upper reaches of the Rio Grande River. It is a great delight to drive through the forest and the meadows where often deer and elk can be sighted, where the wild flowers are beautifully abundant, and where there is a minimum of evidence of man...
Soon we were donning our waders and boots and sliding and skidding into the deep canyon formed by the river (or maybe that the river runs through....)
This canyon is quite spectacular; note the sphinx-like formations behind me!
Who do you suppose this happy fisherwoman could be?
As the day wore on we worked our way upriver in the canyon and the walls became higher and the entire scene more spectacular---what a gorgeous place to spend a day!

The fish were sneaky and challenging to catch---

We kept trying to outsmart them---
Lyndon measured this 19" beauty before turning it loose---
Day's end on the river sort of tugs at your heart---you don't really want to leave!
Climbing up this cliff was tricky in our fishing boots (they have flat felt bottoms!)---can you see the river at the bottom? (If not, click on this photo to enlarge it.) Time to head for home---

I hope you now better understand my fascination with this new endeavor!!! Care to come to Silverton and we'll go fishing?