Santa Clara provided great creativity and joy for me-plus Grandkids build memories with us

The creative wall of Santa Clara above- students played with color, slicing and dicing and turning tradition into discover for fun

Mary Lou and her friends have dinner in Campbell, California and discuss quilting, friendships, Meican cuisine and plans for the future- a wonderful time for each of us....

Above this quilter shows how hot it were in the classroom, she has a coke and a bottle of water...but aren't her fabric choices wonderful?
I went to Santa Clara last week and it is one of my most favorite spots in the US. So much to see and do and so much creativity in the air. People who live here are happy and share it. I stayed long enough to teach a hoochy mama piecing class, do a lecture, go to dinner with relatives and meet up the old friends and new for a great Mexican dinner-while we were eating it was early evening and a whole neighborhood of bikers ages 6 to 80 drove by and waved-there were dozens of them just creating their very own parade, where else does this happen? I loved it!

Samples of blocks and colors and ideas like using Halloween fabric and African... I adore the quilt below by my friend Susan Bianchi. She took my Asilomar class last year and she was positive, sweet and fun. This story quilt below is memories of her Mother's home and her brothers and sister and the happiness they shared there- I adore the colors, the blocks, the house, the people and the story-her siblings love it and are proud of her. Me too! She is an awesome person. Sometimes traveling brings extra rewards. The lady below is married to my Aunts, Sisters Son.

They are Irish as am I so we went to dinner to celebrate at an Irish pub. Great fun and I hope to keep in touch with Carol because she is a real sweetheart.

Busy bees and isn't this large classroom great? No airconditioning though and it was toasty.

Talk about the best model for blocks, isn't she darling? And as nice as she is pretty too. This man is a sewing phenom! He was in my class and was so talented and so nice too! I thought this wonderful quilt from show and tell in Santa Clara was quite wonderful!

So last weekend we had four of our six Grandchildren so we took them out to a pancake feed at my Aunt's retirement home and then to the pumpkin patch. Such fun and all of the kids were so good and slept in sleeping bags on the floor and giggled just like we used to do. Wonderful.
Is there anything quite so wonderful as a group of beautiful fresh pumpkins all grouped together? I don't think so! So inspiring and think of the pies, cookies and seeds!The boys look for their own special pumpkin. We carve them on sunday after church and I plan to make cupcakes to decorate and maybe happy meals for a simple lunch while we carve.
Greenbluff in Spokane is a special place. Look at the corn and the mountains and the trees...it is so pretty and so much fun for everyone who goes there. In the summer they sell peaches, cherries, pears, vegies of all kinds and this week they have 23 varieties of apples, plus gourds, pumpkins of all kinds and other great colorful things.
Above, the girls try to find their very own special pumpkin....it was great fun!