Almost Caught Up

So, I was on vacation last week, Ft. Walton Beach, FL, with our family:  both sons and their women, Stella, grand-girl extraordinaire, my D-I-L's folks, and her brother, his wife and their 5 year old son.  Does it look like we had a great time?

We stayed at The Breakers of Ft. Walton Beach and it was the perfect place.  We also lucked out with wonderful weather all week.

Now I'm back and doing all those post-vacation things: laundry, mail, bills, newspapers, returning phone calls and catching up on The Splendid Sampler blocks.  Here are the five most recent, #51-55.  I still have to do 56 but I'll get to that later:

#51 was a paper-pieced Bumble Bee that I replaced with BB, my grandmother name.  #54 was released last week while I was at the beach and I was thrilled--it's a shell!  Unfortunately, mine doesn't seem very recognizable as a shell, may have to do more heavy outlining.

At the beach, I hand-appliqued the #52, the Purple Coneflower and was able to show it to Stella:

This is her "Excited" face, a new one she just learned and is delighted to perform on demand.  She is expressing her happiness with Stella's Splendid Sampler to Grandpa, my husband.  Lest you think she only gets this excited about her quilt blocks, here she is at the Peach Park, Clanton, AL:

Best of all, she loved the beach and the ocean.  Here is her very first experience there:

I miss my beach view, especially first thing in the morning when the sun is just coming up and no one is on the beach:

Now to get ready for my "Pretend I'm Moving Sale", it starts Sunday and I've got things to do,

Let's Quilt!

Barbara