Take a Hike!

This is what I spent the day doing. It doesn't look like much here, but it got better. I think the photo was effected by my morning fog.

It looked much better after I sewed the blocks together, and better still once I quilted it.

The fabrics reminded me of summer time and the plaid shirts that my Dad used to wear.

I know, we're getting read to celebrate Mother's Day. My Mom is one of my very best friends. I'm a zillion percent grateful for all that she has done for me over the years. We have a lot of fun together going on shop hops and retreats, generally just hanging out. So this isn't a comment about her. Today I just missed my Daddy. I couldn't help thinking about him.

Daddy was trained as a landscape architect. He spent his career designing camps for both the Boy Scouts of America, and The Girl Scouts. He visited all of the great vacation spots across the country. Consequently, he had an uncanny ability to know just the spot that mattered most to someone. He'd been there. When I introduced him to my friends from college, he described their home towns, or the lakes where they spent summers with their families. When I introduced him to Gilbert, he described the house his parents lived in. Dad had driven past it a hundred times on his way into the Sierra National Forests in California. Unfortunately, Dad was not home much, but he loved his job, and he loved to share it with us.

This mini is made from 16, 4.5" Drunkards Path blocks. There a about a million and two different ways they can be arranged. I auditioned many before I settled on this arrangement. In the end I was reminded of a path cut through the woods. A path needs to be marked, and pebbles are perfect to keep the mud down, so I quilted them in.

This isn't my usual approach, I'm more of a let the computer do it kind of gal. I tried to get my computer to stitch pebbles. In the end it was easier to do it myself. I had to laugh - Dad would have liked the free motion better. Let's just say computers and Daddy were not friends.

While I was quilting I left him a message. It isn't very obvious, but I know it's there.

I picked my backing material because it coordinated with the rest, and it had words on it. Who can resist the printed word! I didn't actually read it until I was ironing. LOL! I didn't realize that it had attitude.

This is my favorite bit.