More photos

While we were gone, we made an impulsive decision (sometimes the best kind) to make a little detour and go to Arches National Park in Utah.  It was a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky, and the rock formations were beyond amazing!

What?! No blue jeans? Too funny!

Some folks may have seen this on Facebook, but It is just too funny, and such a reminder of how different times were.

If looking neatly put together to enjoy my sewing is required, I've got a long ways to go!

More travel pictures soon.

Happy 4th of July

I hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July.  Perhaps today is a good day to show a few photos from the Black Hills in South Dakota.  This was one of many places we visited on our recent road trip.  I'll start with .Mt. Rushmore, with the stunning carvings of four of our presidents.  Adjectives don't adequately describe it, I don't think.  It is awe-inspiring, and a grand tribute to not only the four presidents, but to our country in general, I think.  The second photo is of DH and I.

We saw probably 20 or so of the burros standing in the road.  They would come right up to the car window looking looking for food handouts.  Pretty darn cute!

 We saw a few hundred buffalo.  They are simply massive!  It's hard to believe that people get out of their cars to take photos.  The rangers say that every year someone gets gored or otherwise injured by one of them.  The little calves are cute.  It's hard to imagine that something that small will grow so much.

The wanderer has returned

What a wonderful vacation we had!  Now before I tell how many miles we put on our car, you need to know that we love road trips.  So here it is:  5446 miles!  At some point I will share a few photos from our travels, but first, I had made arrangements with my quilting friend in Kansas, Linda from Linda Quilts to meet her and her husband at a restaurant in Holdrege, NE.  We had a great breakfast, and then we went to Quilter's Delight, which is so accurately named!  There is so much fabric and lovely samples!  The lady who owns the shop was very, very nice.  The two photos below are of Linda and I in front of the shop.  Needless to say, I parted with some cash here.  I was almost out the door when I saw something else I just had to have. It was so nice to see Linda and her husband again.  

I have long been a fan of Pearl Louise patterns, so when we went through Rapid City, SD, I just had to stop at her shop, the Thimble Cottage.  What a wonderful shop this is!  The displays are stunning, and so many beautiful quilts on display to tempt the browser.  Unfortunately, when I arrived, it was nearing closing time, but maybe it's a good thing I didn't have more browsing time.  I came away with a book that has a great snowman quilt pattern that I think I will have to make.

Not sure I'm ready for this

 We're getting ready to hit the road on Friday morning, and I'm not quite psyched up about it yet.  Mind you, I'll get there, but right now I'm thinking about all the grandkids' events that we will miss, and there are tons in June.  HOWEVER, we will be taking a lovely road trip, which we both love to do.  We'll see some beautiful scenery, and visit family in Nebraska and North Dakota.  I'll also get to see my friend  Linda from  Linda Quilts Too.  Then we will get to go together to a quilt shop she really likes.  I will try to post photos after she and I have our little reunion.

I am so glad our peonies decided to make an appearance before we leave.  The buds were so tight that I was just sure we were going to miss them entirely.  I had never seen a peony before we moved to Oregon way back when, and I just love them.  There is a peony garden not far from us where they raise what must be hundreds of different peonies.  The only disadvantages of peonies that I can see is that they are expensive to purchase,  and the blooms don't last long enough!

And then this is the last of our irises.  They are so cheerful and bright.  It makes me think maybe I should make a bright yellow and purple quilt!

And then on a total self-serving note, I'm hoping all of our blueberries don't get in any big hurry to get ripe.  If they would just hold on (doubtful) until toward the end of June, that would be grand.  :-)

How did they get so big? and Memorial Day

It's been a while since I've posted pictures of all four of our grandchildren, so without further ado, here are the four we consider to be the best grandkids ever.

Here are our older son's children.  They are ages 13 and 10.  This picture was taken in Central Park when we were there in April.  

And now the other two.  They are our younger son's children, ages 12 and 7.  Our granddaughter was in a choral performance, and this picture was taken shortly after.

I've been working on making blocks for a quilt for the little guy.  It's his turn to receive one, and he wants a sports quilt.  I have several different prints depicting the sports he has played in.  It will be a pretty busy quilt, but one I think he will like.

I hope all have had a good Memorial Day weekend.  I saw the following on Facebook, and hopefully the photographer doesn't mind my borrowing it.  It is so poignant and powerful, and such a strong reminder of the cost at which our freedom has come.  We visited Arlington National Cemetery when we were in the Washington D.C. area recently, and that was a very, very sobering experience.

Project Linus, this and that, Kobe and Lance

Let me introduce you to Lance on the left and Kobe on the right.  Our two seventh grade grandchildren came to me asking for help because for a book report on a famous person, they had to make a puppet or doll depicting that person.  The teacher said it had to be hand made.  You couldn't buy a doll and dress it.  She said that in past years many students made their dolls using a water bottle as a base for the body.  To say I was skeptical is putting it mildly, but since I didn't have anything better to offer, we went for that.  It actually worked out quite well.  Lance additionally had a bicycle made out of hanger wire, and Kobe had a basketball that started as a ping pong ball.  The kids did most of the work, and were pleased with how they turned out.  Unfortunately, during the oral book report, when Kobe was demonstrating a dunk, he knocked his head off.  Apparently that made for quite a bit of laughter.

I have not been getting as much quilting done as I frequently do.  What with Lance and Kobe and grandchildren's basketball, softball and baseball games, we seem to keep pretty busy.  Then, of course, there's the fact that I don't make near as good use of my time as I could.

I did get this Carpenter's Star quilt made for Project Linus.  It was a fun project.  A friend of mine was making one, and I liked it.  My half square triangles finished at 5 inches, but the fun thing is you can go with any size.  

 I put this quilt together and quilted it, but the blocks were a group effort with our guild.  It's not a very big quilt, but hopefully some little girl will enjoy it.

And now, since I've been MIA for a while, I need to go catch up on what other bloggers have been doing.

Applique blocks

Some time ago I took a Hawaiian Quilting class from quiltuniversity.com.  I appliqued and hand quilted another one of these, and it was done in a green batik.  I enjoyed it, and decided to do another.  So this one is now ready to be sandwiched and hand quilted.  The size will be approximately 20 inches square.

 I saw this Lori Smith pattern in the current Fons and Porter magazine and knew immediately that I wanted to make it.  I hand appliqued it, and it also is ready for sandwiching and quilting.  My current thought is that I will hand quilt it also, but that could change.  It measures 12-1/2 by 12-1/2 inches, so isn't a very big project.  I thoroughly enjoy hand applique, but readily admit my skills definitely need some  work.

Hubby and I have been very, very busy with our four grandchildren.  We had two of them over the long weekend, and then between the four of them, there seems to be at least one sporting event every evening and several on weekends.  Mind you, we're not complaining.  We love them all dearly and are very, very thankful that they all live so closely.

Salmon season

 This has been a good week for salmon fishing here on the Willamette River in Portland.  The first picture is DH with his catch on Tuesday.

Here is our 13 year old DGS with his catch from today.  He made good use of his day off from school.

 And then here is our DS with his catch when he and my DH were out on Tuesday.

Quilting-related, I've finished some hand applique work, one of which has been partially done for several months.  I need a lot more practice, but I do enjoy it, and plan to do more.

Was this project fun or what?

Ahh, I love my bunny!  This pattern was in Quiltmaker's March/April issue, and when I saw it, I just had to make it.  Unfortunately, in my stash I had only a very little bit of gray, so of course I had to shop to make sure I had the right shades that would work together.  And now that this project is done, I still have plenty of beautiful grays, so I'll be ready (maybe) should another project arise that needs them.

I think this little carrot-munching critter will find his way to Project Linus and he can give a bunny hug to some poor little tyke in need of it.

We have been in absolute weather-heaven the last three days here.  It has been sunny and warm and DRY!  The temps have been about 80 and we have enjoyed it so much.  It has been, up to now, a very cool, wet spring.  While we were gone on our trip, the weeds seemed to just about take over in our yard, but over the last few days, we have tamed them a fair amount.  That's not to say they're gone, but it's definitely much better.

Back home again

How sweet it is to be home again!  We had a wonderful trip, but home is always best.

Now, I'll post a few photos from the Washington DC portion of our trip.

This picture shows part of the WWII Memorial.  I included this photo because on the day we were there, some organization had bussed in several busloads of WWII vets and family members.  What a privilege to get to see those folks who had served at that time view the Memorial and be able to say thank you to a few of them.

And the White House!  Alas, we weren't invited in for coffee.

And here is a very somber view of a portion of the Vietnam Memorial wall.  All of the wall could not be encompassed in the photo.  The names of the casualties cover the segments of the wall and go on and on and on...  Very, very sobering - the high cost of war.

While we were gone, my good friend Linda of   http://lindaquilts-too.blogspot.com/ gave me a "Liebster Blog" award.  Thank you, Linda, I am honored.  I love following your blog and reading about you, your family and all those lovely quilting projects you create.

And now I'm off to sew down some binding on my bunny quilt.  Hopefully by tomorrow or the next day I can get a photo of it to share.  It turned out pretty darn cute if I do say so  myself.

A Little More New York

Was have been having the most wonderful time.  We've walked miles and miles and used the subway over and over.  Below are a few more pictures showing just a few of the highights from our days here.

View across the river from the Statue of Liberty

She is so majestic and impressive and very, very tall!

We walked a while in Central Park.  The day was lovely and the park was filled with folks enjoying the sunshine and warm day.  This is our son and his family.

A view from Central Park.

One highlight from our time in NYC was going to the top of the Rockefeller Center, or "Top of the Rock," as it is referred to.  The day was clear and the views were more than phenomenal.  That is the Empire State Building there slightly to the left of center with the tower on top.

 

Pictures don't begin to adequately depict Time Square and the sea of traffic and humanity there.

Our son and family left for home this evening.  We will spend the night here and then head down toward the Washington, D.C. area.

Loving our time in New York City

What a fascinating place this "City That Never Sleeps" is.  We have done pretty well getting familiar with the subway, and we've walked miles and miles, but that is good for us.  Yesterday we walked through Greenwich Village, Chinatown, Little Italy, SoHo and other little neighborhoods I can't remember.  We really enjoyed that.  We got confused on the subway issue with that excursion, but now that it's over, we know what we should have done.

This morning our son and his family arrived, and they will be here through Sunday.  Our DGD just loves the program "Cake Boss," and was really wanting to go to Hoboken, NJ to Carlo's Bake Shop, which is featured in Cake Boss.  I did some research and figured out how we could get there, so we did that.  The lines to get in are pretty unbelievable.  I think we waited a total of about an hour and a half - part of it outside and part inside.  It's a lovely day, so it wasn't bad.  We spent more than we should have and got more sweets than we should have, but what good treats we indulged in.

This is DGD 

Whole family waiting to get in.

DGC on esplanade at Hoboken, NJ, looking across at a portion of NYC skyline.

Another portion of the skyline.

And last but not least, this is Bryant Park, which is a delightful oasis in the middle of a very, very busy metropolis.  There were many people here enjoying the sunshine, with some playing chess or pingpong, and others enjoying their lunch.

A Festival of Quilts

My friend Sue and I went to a quilt show in Portland on Saturday.  What a lot of eye candy we saw!  Here are a few photos.

 Isn't this just about the cutest thing ever at a quilt show?

As you can see, the above quilt won four top ribbons.  One was best piecing, another best machine quilting, and I think one was Judges' Choice, and I can't remember the other.  It was one of the most beautiful quilts I have ever seen.  The following two  photos show in more detail some of the work.  The quilter had placed some brown and blue crystals in a few strategic place, but did not overdo it at all.  I just love the border that she used - I think it's the storm at sea pattern, but I'm not sure.  It's definitely not a quick and easy border.

 This was a sampler that I liked.  

This was done by a lady I know (can't remember her last name - sorry Nidra).  It's a Judy Niemeyer pattern.  She did such a great job on it.

 The following quilts were made by Carol Brown, who was the featured quilter.  She loves hand applique and does an outstanding job with it.  We loved all her quilts, and when we were looking at the lasts one, she came up to us and asked to step further away so we could see how the star kind of explodes outward.  It did make quite a difference.  That quilt is made up of approximately 1-1/2 inch half-square triangles.  She said it was one of her early efforts and she didn't understand value like she does now.  It looks mighty good to me though!

 Love this paper pieced wall hanging.

 This landscape quilt has the look of an English cottage.