Simple summer quilts and Mt. Rainier

Summertime,

and the quilting is easy.

Lately, I've just felt like doing simple quilts with pretty colors. I've been reading about and practicing meditation, and doing simple sewing with no curves or points to match is very meditative. I finished the quilt top above at this week's Comfort Quilters work session, where we make quilts to give to cancer patients. All those beautiful batiks were donated by someone, then Kristin cut the pieces using the Timeless Treasures Salt-Water Taffy pattern and I stitched them together. Others in the group will do the quilting and binding.

And I finally finished this quilt, also in batiks, which I started in Sedona, AZ, during a March snow storm and blogged about here:  http://sherriequilt.blogspot.com/2013/03/rolling-out-color.html

See what other fiber artists are doing this week at Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday:  http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/2013/07/renewal-of-fall-project-off-wall-friday.html

I also did my first hike at Mt. Rainier this summer! We hiked about five miles on this part of the Wonderland Trail, which encircles the mountain:

It was perfect weather, not too hot and not too cold, and sunny. The falls and trees are majestic. Only about 88 more miles to go to complete the Wonderland Trail.

Some mountain thoughts from my current meditation book, "Wherever You Go, There You Are," by Jon Kabat-Zinn:

"As the light changes, as night follows day and day night, the mountain just sits, simply being itself. It remains still as the seasons flow into one another and as the weather changes moment by moment and day by day. Calmness abiding all change. ...

"Through it all, the mountain continues to sit, unmoved by the weather, by what happens on the surface, by the world of appearances. As we sit holding this image in our mind, we can embody the same unwavering stillness and rootedness in the face of everything that changes in our own lives over seconds, hours, and years."

Hope you're all having a good summer!

 Have a colorful day