Have you ever seen an elephant seal?

So while quiting is one obsession in my life, my other is biology.  So I couldn't help sharing our day trip from the weekend with you.  We went up to Ano Nuevo State Park (about an hour and a half south of San Francisco).  It is now been added to one of my must see's for anyone visiting the Bay Area.

What is so unique about Ano Nuevo is that is is home to about 10,000 Northern Elephant Seals.  During the birthing/breeding season it is packed with seals.  Now if you have never seen an elephant seal, allow me to introduce you.

Aren't they fabulous?  I can't get over their big long noses.  I should mention that the bulls with the long noses weigh over 2 tons and are 14 to 16 feet long.

During the breeding season they allow only guided walks through the area and you have to make reservations months in ahead to be able to get one during the weekend.  It ended up being a really wet weekend, but when we got there we were the only people in our group of 20 who showed up.  Yeah for private tour!  And it was kind enough to stop raining just long enough to make the 3 mile walk through the park. 

On the more quilty aspect, I got my mystery quilt blocks finished.  In the end I had 16 finished blocks.  I decided rather than to finish them into one quilt that they would make really cute baby/toddler quilts.  So here's the first 6 blocks finished into a crib sized quilt top.

I have 10 blocks left.  I might do another crib quilt like this, or make a square quilt out of 9 blocks.  Haven't decided yet.  The border on the next one will be out of the pink polka dots. 

I also got my January UFO top finished and quilted.  I just need to get the binding on.

I decided on the thin red border and will probably bind it in red as well (I don't have any blue left).  You can't see the quilting too well in this photo, but I quilted with red thread which is very pronounced in person.  For a project I didn't really like to begin with, I'm pleased.

I'm feeling a little bored with all of my current projects and am thinking about starting a new one.  Maybe an Easter table topper, but we'll see...

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've been super busy the last couple of weeks and haven't taken the time to update my blog.  I have however been busy at the sewing machine.  Here's my most recent accomplishment, done just in time for Valentine's Day!

Lucky for me this is also #10 on my UFO list!  I was so excited that this project just happened to be the one selected for this month.  I have February's UFO done before the middle of the month and just in time to put up on my wall.  The most time consuming part was my attempt at free-motioning the feathers.  I don't think I did too bad.  Next time I will probably trace them on the fabric as a guide first though.

I've got a few other accomplishments from the last few weeks, but I'll save those and post them in a few days.