Sunday, August 12, 2012

Blue Pedestal Block , Trains & Lavender Sachets




















This fun filled summer has been busy, but managed to snatch a few moments here and there to finish this blue pedestal block for the Tulip Farm quilt from Blackbird Designs.






















We celebrated my husband's 60th birthday with a fun train trip to Reno.  We challenged ourselves to take all public transportation and foot transportation during this trip, and it was such an amazing experience.  We walked to the bus stop from our house and took Amtrak to Reno 9 about a six hour journey.   This was our first train trip, and I highly recommend train travel, and can't wait to take a longer train trip in the future.  During the trip between Sacramento and Reno, docents from the California Railroad Museum provide interesting stories about the gold rush era and how the early train tracks were built over the sierras. 















This is a view of Donner Lake, and the docents described the harsh winter fate of the doomed Donner Party during the winter in the 1800s when emigrating to california by wagon train many perished.





Just harvested some lavender that I used to fill this little sachet.  These are fun to stitch and the pattern is in the June 2011 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.  So enjoyable to pick up a quick stitching project during the dog days of August!  Hope you are all having an enjoyable summer, and are getting some stitching in.  Thanks for stopping by!