Christmas in July

I went to Quilt Camp on Monday; the theme was Christmas in July. And I had a great time (as usual) with friends and all. We even had Christmas cookies. One kind that I had never heard of was salty oatmeal - really good!

I was going to make a Christmas tree skirt but I couldn't decide exactly what to do so I decided to make placemats for Christmas...we need about 20! They are all cut out. The tree side is done for all 20. The photo makes the red strip look much wider than it is.
The snowman side is completely done for half of them.

I have 5 put together with the front and back. None have the binding on. In other words, I have a ways to go but I don't need them for quite a while yet!

I am still working hard on baby quilts. Pictures to come eventually!

At the lake

We are enjoying Jim and Betsy's cabin on Shell Lake. We visited with Jim and Betsy at their home in Minnesota on Monday. Betsy is losing her battle with cancer so it was a bittersweet visit. Jim really wanted us to go on to the lake so we decided to. It is a really good place for me to rest (darn sciatica). We plan to head home on Friday.

Headed further north

Later today we are getting back on the Alaskan Railroad and heading to Fairbanks. It is supposed to be 79 degrees there today! Yesterday we were up at 4:30 AM for a trip into Denali National Park. It was a beautiful day. We went 65 miles into the park. (There is only one road.) We saw grizzly bears and cubs, snowshoe rabbits, Dall sheep, golden eagles, bald eagles, caribou, wolves, ravens, and moose. The biggest thrill was when we got to Denali (Mt. McKinley) and it was clear! What a sight!!!

We saw an active fault line in the park - the ground is peeling away from the slope. It just started about 3 weeks ago and we actually saw some of it fall.

On our way out of the park, we could see that the clouds had totally covered Denali. Glad we went early!