Blogging and Special Friendships

Before I go any further with my Needle and Thread Tour happenings I have to introduce to these lovely people. 

After the tour I spent a week with this lovely couple In Lowell Michigan.This is Denice her blog is  Denice's Day and her lovely hubby (not sure I should say his name as Denice never does in her blog )

Check her blog on my side bar.

Denice was the recipient of my Secret Santa swap about 4 years ago. Since then we have emailed regularly and become bloggy friends. So it came about that we would meet when I went to the USA after the Needle and Thread Tour. 

What an amazing time we had. Denice and her husband were the best hosts and we shared a lot about each others country and culture and laughed a lot in the process.  

Thank you dear friend and you will hear more about our time together in the later part of my tour diary.

One of D's friends sent me an email and this is a quote from it .

" You and Denice could be sisters when I see you laughing with each other."  

This is how I feel too, so Denice you are officially by bloggy sister forever..

Las Vegas by Night

One of the two shows I was lucky enough to see in Las Vegas

The Colosseum at Caesars Palace is where we saw Elton John 

The Bellagio has a water fountain show to music every 15 minutes 

The Elton John concert was amazing . The music and stage effects and were brilliant, mostly achieved through clever lighting.  Even though Elton had a croaky throat (which I am sure he sent to me.).it was an amazing concert.

Not a night out in Vegas without a drink

 

Needle and Thread Tour - First stop Las Vegas.

I feel like I have been away for so long. I have just had the best 3 weeks in the USA. 2 weeks with Kerry Swain from Cottage on the Hill on her Needle and Tread tour and one week visiting my blog friend Denice from Denice's Day. 

Its been the most amazing time so I am going to do a few posts about my experience.  Sorry I couldn't post along the way but nothing worked for me.

The first leg of the trip was to say bon voyage  to my boys and  fly from Sydney to  San Francisco and catch a flight to Las Vegas. We always had good transfers and hotel accommodation.

The landscape around Vegas  is harsh and dessert like and its very close to the Grand Canyon.

Vegas is full of hotels that are made to copy somewhere else in the world. Paris is just one.

Potato chips with burgers?? , hot dogs and the best fish and chips I have ever had at Gordon's.

Halloween in Vegas and just a few of the critters we met.

Day two Kerry , Sue and I took a trip to Good Springs . Now a ghost town but in its day a bustling town with large hotels and mining. How the people survive and still survive in the harsh environment is hard to fathom. 

Miners homes made of whatever they could find.

A shrine to  Carol Lombard who was a  regular visitor with Clark Gable until her plane crashed and she was killed in the mountains behind the town.

The old Saloon Bar- check out the pressed tin ceiling.

We asked the bartender to line up a scotch on the old bar.

Potato Chips and burgers, the norm here.

Whisky drinkers can rent a cask to age their spirits, the only thing is you have to drive 45 mins to pick it up when you need to refill your bottle.

Yes there was a gunslinger or two and a man who was shot because he cheated at cards. The holes are still in the wall.

The outside 

 We visited the cemetery of good springs. If it looks like you couldn't dig a grave you are right. The bodies are covered with the stones and rubble. 

This was an unusual custom at good Springs and I think other cemeteries. Any returned soldiers visiting leave a coin on this stone and they are collected and sent to an organisation which  helps pay for burial services  of returned soldiers who cannot afford it. 

This bear has a story- years ago a baby died at birth.
 Years later( about 30 years ago )this babies brother visited the grave and placed a bear. It is still there. It's a fabric bear, so preserved because the average rainfall is  only
4 inches a year and the air is so dry.  AMAZING!

Good Springs is now a popular 4WD  and off road playground. 

 

This was a view from the air on the way to Vegas. Irrigation is necessary to grow anything.

Perfectly Pleasing Pin Cushion Parade Prize

I was surprised when I received notification that I had won a prize in the Perfectly Pleasing Pin Cushion Parade.  Thank you Ida. I have also won an embroidery pattern... thank you for that as well.

I think I should thank my good friend and quilting buddy Gail  for the pin cushion she made me and another friend, Dawnie for my orange. ( check them out in the previous post.    I am sure it was these  two pin cushions that received  all the comments and helped me win a  prize. Thank you ladies.
Check it out in September's blog 

Pink Fairy Castles

This is what is in my hoop at the moment.. Just felt like doing some embroidery and it's so close to being finished. It is quite an old  design by  the then  Rosalie Quinlan now Rosalie Decker 

Need one More Piece.

Does anyone remember this fabric from Cottage On The Hill a few years ago.?It belongs to a friend of mine and I really want her to finish it. I think a piece has been misplaced or thrown out accidentally. So before we take off a row I thought I would send out an SOS. It had a lot of linen in the series. I am not even sure what the range was called is. 

Does anyone have any left overs?

Sorry its the only photo I have.

Scissor Keep

I have never had a scissor keep so I thought I would make this one for my mini scissors.