Texas themed quilting fabric

Hello, everyone. 

I am on various quilt oriented email lists. One of them is Art Gallery Fabrics. Recently the promotional email was about a Texas themed collection called "The Road to Round Top", that being a prominent and well known geologic feature in, IIRC, central Texas. It's a big hill, basically, and I think there is a walking trail to the top.

This is the set of fat quarters in the collection.  The greens are on the gray side, and the whites are on the vanilla-custard side. I already have some other fabrics that go with it, too. 

It's so pretty.

I feel like a table runner out of this pattern would show the fabrics nicely. 

Or maybe a Friendship Braid type of table runner, like the ones in various Youtube videos. 

Memories from the Camino del Norte

Hello, everyone.

Someone we know is going to walk along the Camino del Norte ("the Northern Road") to Santiago, and it brought back to us memories of that walk in 2018. 

The morning after we slept in Tapia de Casariego--at the very scenic but very basic municipal albergue in an old school house--we walked along beaches and stopped for breakfast coffee at a small hotel. As we didn't stay there, we probably forgot to get a sello in our credencial to remember the visit. Thus, we didn't know the name of the lovely place with the gorgeous beach view! Until today, that is, when I was prompted by the memories of our walk to look into Gronze.com and study the detail maps. 

Then I found it! The giveaway was the porch fence visible in the window of the photo on Google Maps.

One of our photos of the beautiful Playa de Penarronda, lots and lots of sand with a collection of interesting rock outcrops

On the porch of the Hostal with a glass of Aquarius sports drink

Someday I want to go back to that little place and spend the night there, enjoying the serenity and the views.

The hostal is exactly along the walking path of the Camino del Norte.

Corraling sewing tools

Hello, everyone. 

As the weather here is still standard south Texas August heat, I'm inside enough to notice occasional little things that could be done.

A case in point: the long tape measure I use for taking diagonal lengths of quilts, or similar things, has a tendency to come unrolled when being handled. Or just lying in the drawer! I decided to make a small pouch to hold it.

The completed pouch. Embroidered lettering set out with my Hatch software and my Janome embroidery machine.  Fabrics from stash and also the zipper is from stash. 

I really need to do some more little organizing projects like this. Needles next? We'll see.

In this summer heat, some flowers are happy

Hello, everyone. 

As mentioned,  we're in August heat and this year it's a warm one.

Our pink crape myrtle, as long as they get a bit of water, are happy to bloom in clouds of pink froth.

Other plants that are happy: bougainvillea,  canna, jasmine, Lantana. 

The young dragon fruit has made a flower,  but it's too soon to tell whether it was pollinated.

There was a brush fire a few miles away yesterday. 

Driving around. The fire went out before night, happily.

Ms. Sara Dhooma has new videos out on Youtube!

 Hello, everyone.

Ms. Sara is indeed posting new Camino videos. Here is the link to the start of the new series, a walk on the Camino Olvidado (the "forgotten camino") in, it appears, the warm weather of earlier this year.

As of today, she's up to day 20 of this beautiful Camino. There have been some days where she depended on Santiago to find her a place to sleep on this one. As we all know, Santiago watches over his pilgrims!

As she starts out at the church of Santiago in Bilbao, here is one of my pictures from there:

Enjoy!

Another park: with animals!

Hello, everyone. 

In addition to visiting the recreational area near Ft. Custer, we also made a short visit to another park. Hudson Mills park is smaller, and doesn't have lakes, but it does have a lovely, clear river and many pleasant benches along the walking paths. At sunset, about, one might see deer.

In spite of having water around, there were no notable mosquitoes. 

A pleasant visit in nature

Hello, everyone. 

A couple of days ago I went with family to visit the area around Battle Creek, Michigan. There is a lovely state recreation area called Ft. Custer State Recreational Area there. 

A cute, little mushroom alongside a walking path.

This is a sample of poison ivy, which is native to most of the US. For my European readers, this is a plant you should not touch. It doesn't sting like nettles, but it does in most people create an irritated rash. If you're looking it up online, try the generic name Toxicodendron, IIRC.

This is the outflow from one of the three little lakes/large ponds. There are many lily pads growing in the water.

Goldenrod!

Some lily pads with their blossoms.

This is a lovely natural area, with paved access and many walking trails. There are areas with picnic tables and little fire boxes. 

This was a very pleasant outing, and the walking trail was gentle and not too much for my recovering leg.