Quilting Grandma

More this and that

2012-01-25T20:33:00.000-08:00

Actually, I just felt the need to post about my four DGC again. I haven't bragged about them for a while. This first picture is me with our youngest GC. He's 7 and in first grade. Just before school started in September, we took him to the beach and he and Grandpa and I spent a long time trying to make sand castles. He loves coming to our house. We have several little boys in our neighborhood for him to play with.

This handsome boy is our oldest GC. He is 13 and as I look at this picture which was taken close to a year ago, I realize how much he has grown and changed. Adolescence does that to you, I guess. At any rate, his basketball team won a tournament the day this was taken, and there have been a number of wins since that day also.

The next two pictures are too cute for words. The two girls on the left are our granddaughters. On the right is my nephew's daughter. My nephew's wife French braided the girls' hair and it turned out soooo cute! Our DGDs are 10 (on the left) and 12 (middle). The other little punkin is 8, I think.

Here she is!

2012-01-21T19:20:00.000-08:00

Well, here she is, presenting Baltippora. In my previous post I talked about the patterns that paperpanache.com was offering for Fairy Quilt Godmothers. I really love her and I need to send her picture to the website so she can be added to the many already depicted there.

A while back I ran across a tutorial for a Disappearing 4 patch http://fairholmequilters.blogspot.com/2011/10/disappearing-4-patch.html, and decided to try it. Below are the blocks I made. I am going to use them for a Project Linus quilt. The other fabric will be sashing. I had lots of these fabrics left over from making one of my DGDs a quilt a few years ago. I finally am doing something with part of it. One thing I did different from the tutorial is I made my cuts 1.5 inches instead of 1 inch.

A little of this and a little of that

2012-01-16T21:18:00.000-08:00

A few days ago DH and I took a long walk along a trail and had several magnificent views of Mt. Hood. Mt. Hood is the closest mountain to us and is perhaps 40 miles from our home near Portland, OR We never get tired of viewing her in all her splendor. Additionally, we frequently see Mt. St. Helens to the NE of us, and at times Mt. Adams in Washington. Others are visible when we travel from home.

Now, please meet Baltippora, or what I call a self-portrait. She is not quite complete, but I am so tickled with her that I had to show her now. A while back paperpanache.com offered free patterns that they called "Fairy Quilt Godmothers." You answered a few funny questions, and then got back by email a paper piecing pattern of your FQG. By the way, paperpanache.com still offers the patterns free. My pattern languished for a good while until a friend did hers and I was so taken with it that I pulled mine out and started it. The gold underneath is what the border will be, and hopefully that will get done tomorrow. This has been one of those "it was just so much fun" projects.

I pulled a box out of the attic a few weeks ago in order to give one of our DGDs a doll I had when I was a child. When I was rummaging around in the box, I found a quilt that is in kind of bad shape. It is all white and consists of a number of embroidered blocks. The one in the bottom right-hand corner was embroidered by my mother, and there are three others embroidered by my three aunts and one by my great-aunt, but the others I am not familiar with who embroidered them. I am going to send some pictures to an aunt and see if she has any information about the quilt. I want to take much better care of it now that I have rescued it from the attic.

What an accomplishment

2012-01-11T22:06:00.000-08:00

Those who have been with me for some time are aware that our dear DIL was diagnosed with breast cancer in November of 2009. She had surgery and it was diagnosed as Stage IV. She underwent chemo and radiation and did well until November of 2010, when a tumor was discovered in her brain stem. She had radiation for that and has done well since then. This dear girl had started studying for her Master's Degree in Speech Therapy prior to the initial cancer diagnosis. During the period of time when she had surgery, chemo and radiation, and then radiation again, she continued her studies. Then in June of 2011, she graduated with an outstanding grade average. She is shown below with her family. It obviously has been a difficult journey for the entire family. Our son was a rock for her. Her tests have continued clear, and we obviously want so very badly for her to remain in remission.

Project Linus

2012-01-05T19:12:00.000-08:00

I made this quilt for Project Linus. It was a great project. I used a bunch of charm squares that I had and cut them in half and put in the light-colored strips. It just totally changed the way it looked. I will want to do another one with the same idea.

On another note, today one of my DGDs and I made a new recipe - Cheddar Cauliflower Soup. It turned out so good! I love trying new recipes. Then continuing to play Betty Crocker, we made homemade butterscotch pudding for dessert. Man, oh man, does that put the pudding mixes to shame, and it wasn't hard to make. Ummm, good!

Pepper Dish Quilt

2012-01-02T20:19:00.000-08:00

I have long admired Judy Niemeyer's patterns, and some time ago I purchased her Pepper Dish pattern and have worked on it fairly consistently for a few months now. I finished quilting it on my home machine a few days ago and hand stitched the binding yesterday while watching football. Judy does a great job in her patterns of writing instructions clearly. It was no problem at all to follow from one step to the next. I chose fabrics that are very different from the photo on the front of the pattern, and love what I chose. I can see things I could have done better, but overall I am very pleased with the outcome and will definitely be game for making another of her patterns.

2012 already!

2012-01-01T17:44:00.000-08:00

It's a little late in the day, but the wish is still there - Happy New Year, along with good health and a safe journey through the year.

We were at our son and DIL's house last night, and consequently we've felt a little droopy today. The weather was very pleasant, and we did get out for a walk, so that was a good thing.

Instead of working on a UFO, I started a new project, so that will add one more UFO to the others I have.

Now it's back to watching the evening football game, and tomorrow is the eagerly awaited Rose Bowl. GO DUCKS!!!

Hot Chocolate Club

2011-12-28T08:48:00.000-08:00

I was so thrilled to complete this project in 2011. It was a block of the month that I got several years ago. I had completed some of the blocks, and finally got in gear and completed the rest and put it together. Then it was several more months before I settled down to quilt it. The pattern is Pearl Louise's "Hot Chocolate Club." I love snowmen, and she creates adorable snowmen patterns.

2011-12-25T07:46:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all! Have a wonderful day wherever you are. Our family had an early Christmas on December 11 since our younger son and family were going to be in San Diego with our DIL's family. Today we will have a lovely time across the street with Kevin and his family. First though, I'm off to the kitchen to make a couple pies.

DH and I with our four DGC

Older son Kevin and his family

Younger son Kurt and his family

Pepper Dish quilt top in progress

2011-12-20T19:27:00.000-08:00

Now I will readily admit that this picture leaves a lot to be desired. Early this year at our quilt group meeting, I issued a paper piecing challenge, and for myself I chose the Judy Niemeyer Pepper Dish quilt pattern. When I took this picture, I had not completed the piecing, and had not done the applique. The random green partial star is one of the ones I made to check if I liked the fabrics. It ended up being used in the center. My fabric choices are vastly different from what is shown on the face of the printed pattern.

After all that rambling, I will tell you that I am now machine quilting the quilt, and the reveal for the paper piecing challenge is at our holiday party on January 8. I am so anxious to get it completed, and will post a picture or two when it is all done.

By the way, I will tell you that the instructions were specific and very, very clear. I had no problem following them at all.

Gotta love Yellowstone National Park!

2011-12-18T09:16:00.000-08:00

In August DH and I made a road trip to Yellowstone. It had been a very long time since we had been there. What a national treasure the park is! We had such a marvelous time and marvelled again at the geysers, wildlife and gorgeous scenery. If you haven't gone and can - go!

Old Faithful strutting her stuff

There were quite a few bison, one of which was ambling slowly down the road, stopping traffic in both directions. We also saw quite a few elk. There was one bear, but it was at a distance and we didn't get a photo.

Didn't I say it was scenic?

Grand Tetons - they just take your breath away!

2011-12-16T14:17:00.000-08:00

It has been forever since I have posted. I have occasionally looked at other blogs, but that's about the extent of anything blog-related that I have done.

We had a wonderful summer, but as always, it went too fast.

I completed the two wildlife quilts for our two sons, and presented those to them. They were both very pleased.

I can't really attempt to cover the last 8 or 9 months in one post, so I'll just maybe gradually come up to date.

Completed quilt top

2011-03-29T19:50:00.000-07:00

This one of two identical quilt tops that I have been working on. I used some of two June Jaeger patterns: Gone Fishin' and From the Wild, and then did my own thing with the rest. I am very pleased with how this looks. I have to complete the flying geese to finish up the outside border of the second one. We are headed to CA later this week, and when we come back, then will be the major job of sandwiching and quilting them.

This and that

2011-03-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

I love nine patches - can you tell? I had made what I thought were quite a few scrappy nine patch blocks and thought I would just quickly make the snowball blocks and put it together. It turned out that I only had 15 nine patches and needed 16 more, I think it was, plus the snowball blocks. At any rate, it wasn't as quick to get it put together as I had thought. I did enjoy the process though, and will make more nine patches and see what I can do. I would confess that the scraps used in this quilt didn't even make a dent in my scraps.

I haven't blogged since the quilt retreat, and it was absolutely awesome! I got so much done. I should take a picture of what I worked on most of the time. I completed a quilt top that I had gotten as a BOM in 2006, I think it was.

I will report that our dear daughter-in-law had a CT scan and MRI at the end of February and both came back clear. To say that was a huge relief is a massive understatement. She is doing well, and we are so very grateful.

And now I want to go check out some of the blogs that I have neglected getting to.

Project Linus

2011-02-18T12:19:00.000-08:00

Some time ago I posted about a basket of quilting fabrics and patterns that our son had won for me at a raffle. This Connecting Threads flannel quilt kit was in the basket. It was a joy to make and the fabrics were such good quality. I have a lot of fabric left from it, so I'm sure I can come up with something else for Project Linus with the leftovers.

Next Friday two friends and I are headed to a quilt retreat. I have had it on my mind a lot, and I'm making lists and trying to figure out just what among my several options that I want to take to work on. I have precut the first two blocks in the free Bunny Hill Designs BOM and I am taking them to start with. The blocks are so cute, and I'm excited to get going on them. I'll keep watching for the March block.

I pulled out my Farmer's Wife quilt blocks the other day, and cut the setting blocks and corners. I did a little bit of putting it together and I'm thrilled with the way it looks.

I've been trying to be careful about what I eat, and then friends invited us to go to a German restaurant tonight, so that's definitely not going to help the cause. Hopefully I will get back on the "careful" wagon tomorrow.

Have a wonderful weeked, and hopefully you will have some quality time doing whatever floats your boat.

Little of this and little of that

2011-02-03T16:23:00.000-08:00

Every time I tell myself to write on my blog more often, I fall down on the job once again.

We took three of the DGC to the beach last Thursday. We had a lovely time, but Friday was so windy, rainy and cold, so we found things to do indoors. We'll have to try another time when we can spend more time outside.

I looked back at my blog and find I didn't post anything about our trip to Florida in December. We were gone for 12 days and had a fantastic time. DH and I spent the first 7 days traveling around by ourselves. We went across alligator alley (and yes, there were LOTS of alligators), visiting the Everglades, going down through the Keys to Key West, walking on the Atlantic beach, going to Kennedy Space Center, etc. On December 19, we joined up with our son and his family and our DIL's parents and spent several days at Disney World. What a fantastic time that was!

This guy was big!!

Our son, DIL and grandchildren

Hubby and I in Key West

Ponce Inlet Lighthouse-beautiful!

Little bit of progress

2011-01-26T13:16:00.000-08:00

I don't seem to make a lot of progress on my projects, but I guess a little here and there is better than nothing. I don't have anything finished, so I'll show a picture of what has been my main focus.

I posted a bit about this project earlier, and I have worked on it a bit more. I had a hard time deciding what border to put under the eagle block, but I'm happy with what I finally worked out. That same light fern fabric will appear on both sides of the deer (after that block is trimmed down) and a similar arrow border will go on the bottom of the deer.

Charity quilt and San Francisco

2011-01-19T11:36:00.000-08:00

I finished tacking down the binding on this quilt last night, and it is my first completion of 2011. I am in a local on-line quilting group, and we have a challenge to complete at least one UFO each month. This is my January project. It will go to a charity group I occasionally work with.

DH and I got back from CA yesterday. We had gone down to spend a few days visiting his mother. On Sunday DH and I and my SIL and her husband went to San Francisco for the day. It had been a long time since we had been there. We went to Fisherman's Wharf, took a cable car ride, walked in Chinatown, and walked most of the way across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a sunny day and we enjoyed every minute of it. At the Wharf, we had clam chowder in sour dough bread bowls, which is a requirement for us whenever we visit San Francisco. It's so yummy.

This pic is DH and I with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

Belated pictures and GO DUCKS!!!

2011-01-10T11:54:00.000-08:00

Well, better late than never, I hope. At any rate, I wanted to share a few pictures from Christmas Day. We had such a wonderful day together.

Our younger son and his family above, and older (not old) son and his family.

Here are DGDs with the nightgowns I made for them. I don't particularly enjoy making them (I'm a quilter, after all), but their pleasure with them makes it worthwhile.

And today is the big day - Oregon Ducks play Auburn Tigers for the NCAA football championship. We got this shirt for this DGD and I'm betting she's wearing it today. GO DUCKS! Most folks probably don't care, but we sure do!

Happy New Year

2011-01-07T21:41:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've been on here, so I want to first wish everyone a very happy and healthy New Year.

We got good news after Christmas that our DDIL's CAT scan showed no cancer. It has made for a very happy beginning of the year for our family.

I showed a picture before of some of what I have been working on from time to time. I have completed more of it, and the picture is not great, but I have made some progress. I have more machine applique to do and more piecing, but bit by bit, it is coming along. The churn dash blocks have fish in the center.

Tomorrow I am going to a charity sew event where we will work on quilts for Project Linus. I have one in the works and hope to maybe get that top put together tomorrow.

Merry Christmas to all!

2010-12-24T15:35:00.000-08:00

I have not been good about posting, and I need to take time to catch up, but it won't be happening before Christmas, so this will have to do for now. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

This and that

2010-11-30T21:39:00.000-08:00

First the good news. Our dear daughter-in-law is doing well and for that we are very, very grateful. She has been free from side effects from the pinpoint radiation. She and our son and their two children (two of our DGCs) and Hubby and I are going to Florida and spend some time at the Disney parks before Christmas. We will all be home to spend Christmas here. Hubby and I are going a week earlier and will go to the Florida Keys and explore some other places in Florida, and then meet up with them in Orlando. We have never been to the Keys, so are excited about going there.

I am not going to give many details about the following pictures. Suffice it to say that in time the entire project and its destination will be disclosed. I doubt that it will be seen here by the recipient, but just in case...

This quilt top is waiting for me to make a back for it, and then sandwich and quilt it and give it to a local charity group. The pattern is Play Time by Random Threadz.

Random thoughts and one completion

2010-11-16T11:11:00.000-08:00

Today would have been my Dad's 92nd birthday. He was taken from us much too young, at the age of 58. He was a very patient, good man, and I miss him to this day. I once asked him if he regretted not having a boy (my sister and I are the only children), and his reply always has stuck with me. "Of course not," he said. "I'm very content with my two daughters."

Now on to the main thing that has had me busy, but unmotivated to do hardly any sewing or anything creative. I have posted about our daughter-in-law learning that there was a tumor in her brain stem. It had metastisized there from her breast cancer. She has undergone radiation for the tumor and had some pretty severe complications. Yesterday she underwent a final pinpoint radiation treatment, and that went well, and hopefully she will be free of complications from that. Hubby and I have helped quite a bit with keeping our grandchildren, and we are very grateful that we live so close so that we can help.

Some time ago I mentioned that I had taken a Hawaiian Quilting class from quiltuniversity.com. I had completed the applique portion of it, but the hand quilting part was one thing I just had set aside and ignored. I finally finished it a week or so ago, and then made it into a pillow yesterday. My hand quilting needs serious improvement, and while I enjoyed it, I'm glad to have it completed.

Project Linus; Sad news

2010-10-02T15:31:00.000-07:00

I finished quilting the last Project Linus top that I had stashed. I need to get busy and piece some more, but first I want to work on a couple other things. A group of friends and I made lots of four patches using the Billie Lauder method. It was fun and we got some good-looking Project Linus quilts out of it.

On Thursday of this week our son and daughter-in-law got up and our son thought his wife was having a stroke. He rushed her to the hospital, and unfortunately the breast cancer had metastasized to her brain. She is upbeat and determined, but it is very, very scary. She is receiving 15 radiation treatments. She is such a sweetheart, and we are hoping for another victory over her cancer. Our son and DIL have two very dear children, a girl 11, and a boy 6. The children definitely need their mommy, and our son needs his wife. It is hard to think of anything else now. Fortunately, they live very close to us, so we can help with pretty much whatever they need.

Project Linus completion

2010-09-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to get a few Project Linus quilt tops quilted, and this is one I did a couple days ago. This was such fun to do, starting with a small scrap in the center of the block and working out from there. I may have to do that again. I love the way it turned out, but part of it may be that I really love the sashing and border fabrics and binding that I had and used. I am trying very hard to use some of the stuff I have and I have been pretty successful.

Race for the Cure

2010-09-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

I have posted before about our daughter-in-law having breast cancer and her brave fight against it. Yesterday was the annual Race for the Cure in Portland, and our other daughter-in-law put in a lot of work organizing a team called "Tonya's Team." There were about 80 who signed up for the team, although not all got to come do the walk. As a team, we all did the 5K (3.1 miles) walk together in downtown Portland. For the most part the weather cooperated and it was sunny and great walking weather. Toward the end of the walk we had a couple rain showers, but that didn't dampen our spirits. A huge crowd of people packed the waterfront park. I heard it estimated that with all the voluneers, organizers, runners, walkers, etc., there were over 40,000.

This picture is Tonya in her "survivor" shirt and cap with all the children on the team. There were several entire families there walking together. It was very inspiring. I didn't mention, but our son Kurt designed a great T-shirt that said "Team Tonya," and most of our team bought one.

This picture is Kurt and Tonya and their family.

What a great picture after all they have been through!

Below are hubby and I and our two sons and their wives and our four darling grandchildren. Have I ever mentioned that we have four darling grandchildren?? (tee hee)

Project Linus completion

2010-09-17T12:26:00.000-07:00

After completing my landscape quilt, I decided I better get some machine quilting done and complete a Project Linus quilt. This is the latest that I've done. On the Connecting Threads website a few months ago they had a flying geese quilt-along, and I decided to use up some of my batiks making flying geese. I'm quite pleased with the results, and hopefully it's a quilt that someone will enjoy.

Well, it's done

2010-09-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

Well, after what seems like days of fussy cutting and miles of thread, my landscape wallhanging is complete. It measures about 38 by 44 inches. I have to say I now like it. I wasn't sure all the time I was working on it, but it turned out pretty well, I think. Despite being pleased with it, I don't think I will ever do another one. It is just not the type of thing I really enjoy working on.

In my last post I wondered if summer had gone already, and I am pleased to report that we have had a beautiful week, with weather in the 70s, and that will help us get a few tomatoes off our plants before it gets real chilly.

I am now doing the quilting on a Project Linus quilt, so that is something that I definitely enjoy doing.

I hope everyone has a pleasant week.

Is summer over?

2010-09-09T09:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I am about as inconsistent with my blogging as anyone could be.

So far September has been quilt cool - more so than usual, and already some of the trees are changing color. Our summer was quite unusual - cooler than usual, with very few days that topped out over 90.

I think I may have mentioned (maybe not) that I was going to take a landscape quilting class. It was on two Saturdays in August. The picture below is the not-yet-finished result of that class. I am not yet decided on whether I even like it very much. It has been a very intense process, with LOTS of fussy cutting from several different fabrics, and then LOTS of gluing and then free-motion tacking down of the pieces with monofiliment thread, and then sandwiching and LOTS of quilting down the pieces. I have finally finished through that point, and still need to quilt the green between the fence posts, and the blue at the top. I can't see me doing this process again, as I have decided I am definitely more a traditional quilting/piecing person.

Winter Wonderland quilt in Quilting Gallery Embroidery/Stitchery contest

2010-08-13T11:56:00.000-07:00

Hi blogging friends,

I have entered my Winter Wonderland embroidered/pieced quilt in the Quilting Gallery's Embroidery/Stitchery contest. The winner wins a nice basket of sewing goodies. So that's a long way of saying please have a look at the entries, and if you are so inclined, I would appreciate your votes. My entry is the last one. There are quite a few lovely quilts. The following is the link:
http://tinyurl.com/24y9r87

Quick escape to Long Beach, WA

2010-08-10T21:09:00.000-07:00

We made a spontaneous quick overnight trip to Long Beach, WA on Sunday. It's probably 2-1/2 hours from home, and we hadn't been there for a long time. Other ocean beaches are closer, so we had stayed south of the border. We had such a nice time. We were disappointed when we went through Astoria though, that our favorite little fresh tuna fish and chips shop was closed.

The first picture is taken when we were walking along the beach, and the second is from the balcony of our room. The day was just beautiful!

We took a drive and saw this inlet with the tide out and a gaggle of geese working on getting their dinner.

We loved this picture taken along the Bear River. We wondered what those pilings had supported in days past.

This bridge crosses the very, very wide Columbia River from Astoria, Oregon to Washington. It is a pretty spectacular bridge. Toward the Oregon side, the bridge rises high above the water so that ships can go under, and then drops down again. At this particular point, I think the river is approximately 3 miles wide. It is a very treacherous area for ship navigation, and tugboats are hired to guide ships through what they call the Columbia Bar. There are many large sandbars, and they have to really know the deep channels of the river to keep from going aground on the sandbars. The tug operators are experts on the river navigation. The Columbia rolls on out a ways from Astoria to meet the Pacific Ocean.

Project Linus completion

2010-08-06T09:15:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has looked at my blog knows that I love to do quilts for Project Linus, and though it's been a while, here is another one. This quilt actually is a mystery quilt pattern that some in my quilt guild did. As you can readily see, it is an extremely easy pattern, but I am real pleased with the way it turned out. I had intended it from the start to go to Project Linus, so chose fabrics that I thought would work for that purpose. We have been told that PL is most in need of quilts big enough for older children, and especially boys, since they get more for girls, and I think this quilt will fill that bill, as do most of mine.

On one of the blogs I was perusing the other day, I saw a block similar to this and decided that looked like fun, so out came just a small portion of my scraps, and I started in. It was fun, and I now have 11 more similar blocks to go with it. Now I need to sash them and put them all together and there will be another Project Linus quilt top.

Three of our DGC are coming over today, so I think maybe we will ride bikes and have a picnic. The summer is going much too quickly to suit me!

Last night we went to a youth football fundraiser at a restaurant here in town and saw so many people we know. Our fireman son was one of the servers. They had police and firefighters helping with serving, and the tips that they got, as well as 20% of the restaurant proceeds, went to the youth football program. Our grandson plays football, so of course we wanted to participate. It was fun to see so many we knew there.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. I think ours will be quiet and that sounds great to me.

Birthday and quilt gift

2010-08-02T09:10:00.000-07:00

A while back I mentioned that I had a quilt that I would show after it had been gifted. Well, now it has been given to DGD who turned 9. She seems pretty pleased, judging from her expression in the first picture. Her bedroom is done in red, black and white, so I knew I wanted to use those colors, and I didn't want to do anything real traditional. I thought circles would be perfect, and I'm pleased with the way it turned out.

The blocks with the random circles I designed myself, but the other blocks were from a pattern from the June issue of American Patchwork & Quilting.

Unfortunately, before the following picture no one told me I was having a very bad hair day.

I machine quilted the quilt with what I call scrolls. It seems to have become quite a favorite way of mine to do the machine quilting.

Home after Disneyland

2010-08-01T11:47:00.000-07:00

We've been home a week today, and it was so good to get home again. July was a very busy, but enjoyable month.

We had such a nice time at Disneyland/California Adventure with our kids and grandkids. It is such fun to go with family and enjoy with them the things that they enjoy so much. We also spent one day at Knott's Berry Farm with our older son and his family. That was great fun also. There were several roller coasters there, and I went on one, but was not too crazy about it. At California Adventure though, they had a big roller coaster that we all went on twice (yes, twice), and it was awesome! I surprised myself, believe me!

The first pic is of our 4 DGC.

This is a picture of our older son and his family.

And this would be our younger son and his family.

And here we are with our two sons. I guess I don't need to say that we're very proud of both of them and their families.

Hot, hot, hot!

2010-07-17T18:27:00.000-07:00

Why is it that we always have beautiful weather at home when we leave? It's in the 70s today there. A while back we had made plans to meet our kids and grandkids at Disneyland next week. We left home yesterday and came down to spend a few days visiting hubby's mother in Modesto, CA. It has reached 106 both yesterday and today. Thankfully, the weather further south where we're headed is a much more pleasant 70+. We looks forward to the time with our family this week. I'm sure I'll have pictures to post when we return home, or maybe before. Who knows?

After returning from Alaska and before heading south, I finished quilting the quilt I had referenced before that has not been gifted yet. I will put the label on when we get home next weekend. I am really looking forward to some time at home, and our budget needs some serious time to recover from our travels this July.

July happenings and fourth grandchild feature

2010-07-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while since I've posted, so best get busy. We got home from Alaska Monday morning at 5:00 a.m., so we kind of dragged ourselves around that day.

First, we have one more grandchild who hasn't been featured lately, so I want to do that now. This young man is the oldest of our four. He is quite an athlete and enjoys football first and foremost, but also basketball and baseball. The football picture is actually from 2009, when he made a great defensive play and sacked the quarterback for a safety. Football practice starts in August, and he is excited about that. His team's baseball season was disappointing, but besides football, he will be playing on a fall baseball team. His family went camping at Diamond Lake earlier this year, and this was the prize trout he caught. This lake sits in a most beautiful forested setting, with snow-capped mountains all around.

Now, about our trip to Alaska. We had such a wonderful time. To put it in a very brief nutshell, what an absolutely beautiful, spectacular, magnificent, and huge state! We flew into Anchorage, rented a car and put about 2000 miles on the car. We should have gotten an award for the most disgusting display of splattered bugs on the front of our car when we turned it in. Yuk! We went to Homer, Seward, Whittier, back to Anchorage, and then to one of the main highlights - Denali National Park. We took a long tour into the interior of the park and saw about 10 grizzly bears, several moose, a few caribou and a fox. As a huge bonus, Mt. McKinley poked her head out of the clouds several times for us. From Denali, we went to Fairbanks and enjoyed our time there. North of Fairbanks we got our first of several sightings of the Alaska pipeline. It is an impressive sight, to say the least. We took a different, and very scenic route back to Anchorage and from there flew home.

Almost July!

2010-06-26T23:48:00.000-07:00

I better get busy and get another post in before June turns to July. DH and I are flying to Anchorage, Alaska on Tuesday, and will spend 12 days in Alaska. We have been before, but want to see some different things this time. It is such a magnificent awe-inspiring place. I sure wish by some miracle that Mt. McKinley would bring its head out of the clouds while we are there, but I understand sightings are rare, so it likely won't happen. Anyway, I hope to have some good photos to share from time to time.

I have been working hard on a quilt that has a deadline on it, and with this trip, and another to follow this one, I am feeling pretty pressured, but will somehow get it done in time, and then after it is gifted, I will post pictures. I also have another grandchild to feature, and will do that before too much more time passes.

Today was a Relay for Life in support of cancer survivors and to raise money for cancer research. It is a very special event lasting 24 hours, because cancer never sleeps. If I am not mistaken, it takes place in many cities. As I have mentioned in previous posts, our DDIL was diagnosed with breast cancer last fall. She has had surgery, chemo and radiation, and is now in remission. She was at this Relay, and the pictures I have are of her and the two children. Our son is a firefighter, and today was his day to work, so he missed out on the events. We were privileged to spend some time at the Relay, and it was a very touching, poignant event. A cure is desperately needed.

Granddaughter highlights

2010-06-11T19:20:00.000-07:00

Our younger granddaughter, age 8, has played softball for three years, and really enjoys it. We love watching the little girls. This is the first year that the girls have pitched, so there are lots of balls thrown and not a lot of strikes. After the pitcher throws four balls, the coach comes in and pitches a maximum of three pitches. Prior to this year, they used pitching machines. This first picture shows our DGD after having connected with a pitch and placing it out in center field. The next picture is her on base. The third picture was taken a while back when she caught this big trout. She won the biggest fish competition among her family and friends.

Today she and I made cupcakes, and I've come to the conclusion that with her and her cousin, the favorite part of the process is licking the bowl.

Next grandchild feature will be our oldest, and he is our baseball, football and basketball player. So stay tuned...

Covered Bridges

2010-06-02T20:05:00.000-07:00

Sunday we drove down to Cottage Grove, Oregon, and spent the day there walking and taking a scenic drive looking at the covered bridges in the area. There are several, and it's always a treat to see them. As you will see in the following photos, when we were walking in town, we saw an old Studebaker pickup. That struck a nostalgic note with us, so we had to get a picture of it. My parents had a Studebaker (not a pickup though) at one time, and you hardly ever see one any more. The river picture is the Row River, which is just one of several very scenic rivers in that area. Our car is shown coming out of the only covered bridge still in use for car traffic.

Project Linus completion

2010-05-27T09:19:00.000-07:00

I completed another quilt for Project Linus. Somewhere on the web I saw a quilt made up out of this pattern, and they called it "Hopscotch." I liked it so well, so drafted the block, used lots of colorful scraps, and came up with this. I am very pleased with how it turned out, and hope it will bring pleasure to some young person who is going through some difficult times. The first picture is actually the back. I was lacking a bit of fabric, so had to get creative.

Ready to baste

2010-05-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

I got my breadfruit cut out and put on the background. The next step will be basting it. The next lesson is on Friday, but considering all the other things on my plate, there won't be any problem finding something to do.

It looks like we may get some sunshine today, so I want to get out for a while.

Hawaiian quilting

2010-05-22T08:48:00.000-07:00

Before I talk about my latest little venture into the learning realm, I am going to gripe about our weather. The week of May 9 spoiled us with absolutely gorgeous spring weather, and then BAM, the last few days it has rained and poured and rained some more. All the kids' ball games have been cancelled and the fields are just a terrible muddy mess. Okay, that's it for the rant.

I signed up for Hawaiian Quilting 101 at quiltuniversity.com. I really love their classes and have taken several. This is the site for my class. http://quiltuniversity.com/classlist.htm#Hawaiian101 . I have heard glowing reviews of Nancy Chong's teaching, and I am really looking forward to this. I have fabric laying out all over my sewing room, and am still trying to decide which two fabrics I will use. I am definitely not going to buy fabric. I will eventually figure out which suits me best.

I also, a couple days ago, signed up for Connecting Threads Quilt With Us. http://quiltwithus.connectingthreads.com/ . They have some wonderful tutorials, and I am enjoying doing the different methods of making flying geese. I know, I definitely did NOT need another on-line thing to follow, but someone (and I can't remember who) mentioned signing up, and I had to have a look, and I was very impressed. BTW, Connecting Threads has very nice fabric at a reasonable price (and no, I don't have any connection with them - just a pleased customer).

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Today doesn't look to be quite as soggy as the last few, and I plan to get some sewing done.

Baby quilt completed and sent

2010-05-19T21:26:00.000-07:00

My nephew's wife delivered a baby girl last week, and I had completed a quilt to send. I didn't post it before because it's doubtful that they look at my blog, but just in case I waited until I'm sure they have received it in the mail.

I love the Hanky Panky quilt pattern, and that's the one that I used. The picture isn't all that good, unfortunately.

I am waiting to get good pictures of the two remaining grandchildren as they play softball and baseball. You know, I need to give equal coverage to all!! :-)

Quiet Sunday - hopefully

2010-05-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

As I look at my most recent posts, I see I've featured our youngest grandchild a couple times, so I think it's time I brought someone else into view - his big sister. She played volleyball and her team just completed a very successful season. It is a 4th-6th grade team. They were so cute and full of spirit. They had a 20-year old coach that they adored and she really brought out the best in the girls. Our granddaughter is on the bottom right, next to the coach.

After the volleyball game yesterday, I went to a charity sew at the home of a friend. Several of us try to get together once a month and work on charity quilts. Yesterday we made four patches using Billie Lauder's tecnique. http://www.easymade.com/video_clip3.html . It was great fun, and we got a lot done. We are pairing the four patches with coordinating fabric, so each row has a four patch followed by a coordinating fabric. A picture will follow when I have more done.

A while back I saw the fabrics shown in the following table runner. I first resisted temptation, but then went back and bought them. The pattern is garden twist. I obviously did not use a floral pattern, but I am very pleased with how it turned out. The umbrella fabric is directional, so after an initial oops, I was careful to keep them all going the same direction. Also partially depicted are my Mother's Day roses.

Two days in a row - what can I say?

2010-05-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

Today was such a beautiful day! Hubby went and got a load of bark, and we discovered we will need a few more loads. I planted a bunch of marigolds and zinnias and petunias. The yard will have lots of color before too long.

Tonight hubby went to our grandson's T-ball game and I went to a granddaughter's softball game. Our poor little girl is struggling with hitting and I feel so bad for her. Last year she did so well, so I'm sure it will come around, but she is discouraged, and it makes us sad for her.

On the quilting subject, I made this quilt recently for Project Linus. the little bears and other animals were all on a panel and I cut them apart and put on the sashing. I hope some child will enjoy it.

What can I say?

2010-05-12T08:14:00.000-07:00

OMG, it's been more than a month since I have posted. I seem to do pretty well for a while, and then, well, I don't know, I just don't get it done.

We have had a wet and cool spring after a much dryer winter. The next few days, however, are supposed to be nice, so we really need to get out and get some of our large crop of weeds pulled.

We have been going to a lot of our grandchildren's sports activities. Our grandkids are playing softball, baseball, basketball, T-ball and volleyball. We love seeing them play, and they love having their fan club all there. These are a couple pics of the youngest at his T-ball game. Those little guys are so cute. The little girl behind him in the bottom picture is his cousin.

One of the things I want to get accomplished is to go to the blogs I especially enjoy following and catch up a bit, so hopefully I can spend a little time on that today.

I have done some quilting, but I'll leave posting about that for another time.

Spring is here - at least for today

2010-04-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

This cute little punkin in our front yard is our younger grandson. We always have him on Fridays, and today was a lovely day, so he spent quite a little time outdoors.

A couple weeks ago I was in our local quilt shop and saw this wonderful breast cancer batik that I just had to have to make a quilt for our DDIL who is currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer. I also found the perfect fabric (in my opinion) to go with it, the beautiful green. I found a star I really liked on EQ and went from there. I am pleased with how it turned out, and I know our DDIL will love it. I will mention that they consider her to be in remission, but she still must have radiation treatments because there was cancer in lymph nodes. Obviously, our hope is that remission is permanent.

Happy Easter, Iris wallhanging completed and shop hop

2010-04-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter to everyone!

Tomorrow we will have our family at our house for dinner. We look forward to having everyone here. Yesterday the DGC dyed Easter eggs and did a great job. Our DGDs filled the plastic eggs yesterday and we will have an egg hunt which, I'm afraid, will have to be indoors because of rain.

I am so happy that my iris wallhanging is completed! The name of the pattern is Iris Garden, and it is designed by Eileen Bahring Sullivan. I am happy with it, but I told a friend that I would like to do another similar project because I learned a lot, and I think I could do a better job. I sure do enjoy the paper piecing.

Two friends and I went on a local shop hop today, and had such a good time. We went to four shops, and yes, of course, I bought way too much stuff. I will try to take a picture of my purchases, but right now I have fabric in the washer and dryer. I didn't think about a taking photo before I started laundering my purchases.

Project Linus

2010-03-26T20:46:00.001-07:00

I've completed another quilt for Project Linus. I deliberately made this one pretty good-sized and didn't use any childish prints, hoping that some big boy might like it. We keep getting told that the biggest need is for boy quilts, and especially teenage boy quilts. This one was kind of fun, starting with a "wonky square" for the middle and working from that.

My blog is better - at least for now!

2010-03-23T20:56:00.000-07:00

Well, thanks to my friend Linda, I tried once again to fix my blog (or at least mostly fix it) using her suggestions, and it worked. There are still some things I don't know how to deal with, but I am definitely happier with it now.

Frustration with blog

2010-03-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

Well, once again, my blog is a mess. Everything that I had re-done and put on the sidebar is down below. I will fuss with it again at another time, I suppose, but for now I am just going to ignore it.

We are enjoying our time in CA and will head north to Oregon tomorrow.

More travel pics

2010-03-20T14:21:00.000-07:00

We are now at our destination and visiting with DH's mother and sister and bro-in-law. We always enjoy our time here.

I have a few more pictures to share of our trip down HWY 101 in northern California.

The first two are along the coast, and then the others are in the Redwoods. The size of the trees is just unbelievable, and they are a breathtaking sight.

This first one is me and I'm making sure I'm far enough away from the steep dropoff.

Here is hubby looking pretty small compared to the tree!

Happy St Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

Well, first of all I hope everyone had a great St. Patrick's Day. We had a wonderful day. We left home this morning and came over to the Oregon Coast at Florence, which will mean nothing to most readers, but there it is anyway. We actually went by huge sand dunes and heavily forested areas, and then finally saw the ocean when we got further south. The Oregon coastline is breathtakingly beautiful, and rugged doesn't begin to cover it. There are beaches, of course, but the water is always cold, and there are many huge rocks in the water, and many precipitous cliffs with the surf pounding just off the side of the road. It's a beautiful drive, but You better be paying attention to where you're driving! these first pictures were taken at Bandon, OR, where we took a long walk. The wind was blowing ferociously, and it was chilly, so not a very pleasant walking day.

Have you ever seen skunk cabbage? It's so pretty, but does have a definite skunky smell.

Finally, we finished the day at Brookings, OR, and saw the sun go down over the ocean. Tomorrow we'll resume our journey and head south to Windsor, CA. We will be going on Friday to visit my husband's mom for a few days. She is in Modesto, CA.

Not a lot new on the western front

2010-03-10T10:36:00.000-08:00

We had such spring-like weather last week, and the week before, and then boom, yesterday we woke up to just the tiniest skiff of snow. It has remained chilly. We did get out and walk yesterday, but there was chilly breeze. We'll get out today too, since it's dry, but we'll definitely need a coat.

I mentioned going to a retreat in February. Last week I finished paper piecing the wallhanging top that I was working on at the retreat. I am real happy with it. Now I need to sandwich it and quilt it. I'm kind of waiting for an aha! moment that will tell me how I should quilt it.

On Monday my friend and I got together and worked on our Farmer's Wife quilt blocks. I have finished a few more and haven't shown them for a while, so here they are. I am happy with the way they are coming out, and I am starting to think about how I'm going to put it together. The author of the book has hers on point and sashed, and I want to do that, but I also want to do a bit more, so that much is still up in the air. And, of course, I have to find the perfect sashing fabric.

Project Linus

2010-02-27T14:48:00.000-08:00

Well, I sure haven't accomplished much this last week. I did finally get the quilting done and the binding sewn on a quilt I pieced a couple months ago. This quilt will go to Project Linus. I saw a quilt recently that had obviously been done on a long arm quilting machine, and had circles going around and around on it. I decided to try to do something similar with my home sewing machine, and this is the result. It's not great, and the circles are not exactly circular, that's for sure, but overall, I'm pretty happy with it.

We watched one little granddaughter play basketball today. There is sure a huge difference in the height of these third and fourth graders. Unfortunately our DGD's team had all the short players, so they really got smoked, but at least at that level they don't keep score.

Our grandson with the broken leg in the ankle area is doing very well. He almost runs with his cast, and plays outside and is very active. Our 5 year old grandson is going to play T-ball this year. That will be so cute - of course I think everything my grandkids do is cute!! :-)

Retreat, quilt show

2010-02-23T20:11:00.000-08:00

Oh, my, the retreat was just wonderful! It was so nice to go and have no interruptions and just sew and sew and sew. I worked on a rather intricate paper-pieced iris wallhanging. I got probably 3/4 or more of it pieced, and I'm really liking the way it looks. My place for sewing was just this side of my friend there in the black shirt. I think there were about 25 of us there, with several from our quilt guild.

The day before the retreat, I went to a quilt show. It wasn't real large, and almost all the quilts were hand quilted, which further inspired me to try hand quilting again. It's been many years since I have done that.
These pictures are from the show.

Quilting retreat, Farmer's Wife

2010-02-19T09:20:00.000-08:00

Well, today is pretty exciting for me. In about four hours I am off to a quilting retreat. I have my stuff all packed, and probably am taking way, way too much stuff, but at least I will have some options! My main project, I think, will be working on an intricate paper pieced iris wallhanging.

I got six more Farmer's Wife blocks done. One of them I didn't do so great a job on, but I'm not going to point it out for you!! :-) I really like the way they are turning out.

Last Sunday we went and spent a day at the beach. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we got a long walk in along the ocean. We had planned this day to watch our grandson Tanner play in a basketball tournament. Alas, two days before he was to go, he was playing basketball outside, and slipped on wet pavement and turned his leg very badly. When all was said and done, he had a fracture in the ankle area, and didn't play in the tournament. He will be out of basketball for the rest of his season, and won't be able to play baseball until late April. This will be tough on him since he's quite the little athlete, but thankfully it wasn't a worse injury.

Another completion!

2010-02-12T11:24:00.000-08:00

I have mentioned before that one of our dear DDILs has breast cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy now, to be followed by radiation. She has been incredible, and all of the family has been constant in our support of her in whatever way we can. We have the pink plastic bracelets, the pink ribbon pins, pink t-shirts, etc., etc. I thought I would like to make her an afghan that had pink in it. I finished crocheting it last week, and she is very happy with it.

I finally completed something!

2010-02-09T06:50:00.000-08:00

Well, completions are good, aren't they? Perhaps at times they are overrated, but I feel like I sort of frittered away January, so I need to accomplish some things in February. I have another completion that I'll show soon, but for now, back to this quilt. A few years ago I was involved in a type of block of the month on the Block Central forum. Several of us took turns choosing a block for the month, and then everyone would make it. I made the blocks, and then finally did something with them, and this is the result. I am pretty pleased with it. I had thought about adding it to the charity group, but hubby wants us to keep it, so we are.

I also completed another Farmer's Wife block called Endless Day. There are a few I'm not real crazy about, but this one I really like. It is paper pieced. I drafted it in EQ and printed it out. I've done a few that way, and it saves me from having a brain cramp trying to figure out just how to make some of them without messing up too bad. For me, templates for these are out of the question.

Treasured gift and Farmer's Wife blocks

2010-01-30T21:19:00.000-08:00

My blog continues to be a mess, but I will just continue with it as is, I guess, because I haven't a clue what to do about the problems.

I just have to show you the sweet mouse pad our granddaughter made for me at school. We make candy cane cookies together, and this is her depiction of the cookies and my kitchen. She has it pretty accurately done, and note the butter, sugar, flour and eggs that she has sitting on the island counter. The mixer we use is sitting on another counter, and she shows our refrigerator, pantry door and stove.

The next two pictures are my Farmer's Wife blocks. I am really enjoying making these. My friend and I got together on Monday and sewed, and I have continued to work on them since then.

My sister and her husband and my niece and her husband and their sweet baby visited for a couple days this week, and we enjoyed their visit so much. What a treat to have them. Our kids and their families were here for dinner and the evening. This is a picture of hubby and I, our DGC, and my darling great-nephew. The baby was such a hit and the three older kids just wanted to be close to him.

Frustration

2010-01-21T21:29:00.000-08:00

Well, I have been trying to get this blog fixed for an hour or more, with no success. All of my sidebar stuff is at the bottom, and I have no clue how to fix it. I am almost, note I say ALMOST ready to bag it with blogging.

I have continued to work on my Farmer's Wife blocks, and has 12 done. I am really enjoying these blocks. I will take a picture soon and post it, IF I decide to continue blogging. :-)

Happy New Year and Confession

2010-01-16T08:21:00.000-08:00

First of all, hopefully better late than never, Happy New Year. I hope it will be a joyful, safe and healthy year for all.

Okay, I have to admit it. I've spent far too much time on Facebook and playing the game Farmtown and ignored my blog and looking at the blogs of my cyber friends. I have to do better.

I haven't talked about our DDIL who has breast cancer recently. She has now had her second chemo treatment, and has had trouble with nausea and being tired, but I think she has done quite well overall.

Just after the new year, a friend showed me an ad for the Farmer's Wife quilt book. I was immediately interested, and she suggested we make the quilt at the same time. So, we both bought our books and gathered fabric, and then got together and discussed the project. We both are working on our blocks at home, and in a week or so, we'll get together and sew on more blocks. We each are choosing the ones we want to make. I have to admit that I am really loving making these six inch blocks. I had a grouping of fat quarters from Connecting Threads that I am using a lot of, but I also added some reds, blues, and a couple more each of neutrals and browns. I have a difficult time making a quilt without some blue, especially if it is a scrappy quilt. There are 111 blocks in the book, but I don't plan on making that many.

Christmas pics, Grandchildren

2009-12-28T21:23:00.000-08:00

Our little grandson and I enjoyed making Christmas cookies. He likes making them, but it's pretty obvious what his favorite part is. He always hopes there will be lots of dough left on the beater and in the bowl.

We had our sons and their families at our house on Christmas Day for dinner and presents, and later games. We had such a good time; good food, nice gifts and best of all great company.

The first picture shows our younger grandson with the pajamas I made for him. The second picture is our older grandson with the scarf I knitted for him, and finally, our two granddaughters with the nightgowns that I made for them.

And last, here are our four darling grandchildren. This was taken before the great mess was created! What precious memories for us.

Christmas wallhanging

2009-12-13T20:49:00.000-08:00

A while back a friend gave me the panel that appears in this wallhanging. I liked it so much, but just didn't quite know what to do with it. Then, what do you know! It is featured in a wallhanging in the current McCall's Quilting magazine. It's about 43 inches square. I like the way it turned out. Another plus is I could use our guild's 2009 challenge featured fabric for our winter project. The fabric is the white with silver. A friend calls the fabric the wet cat fur fabric!

Yesterday was a charity sew Saturday at a friend's house. It's fun to work on those projects at home, but it's a special treat to work on them with friends. We were told a while back that Project Linus often is lacking quilts for bigger boys, so I want to concentrate on that type of quilt for a while.

Our tree is up and the rest of the decorating is done. It feels good to have it finished. I still have nightgowns and pjs to sew, and I will get them done, but it's just not fun like quilting is. Oh, and then there's the house that needs cleaned. Too bad it doesn't stay clean for a while after cleaning.

Our dear DIL goes to the oncologist on Thursday to find out what the treatment will be for her breast cancer. We anticipate that chemo will start very soon. That will doubtless be a very hard time for her and her family. We are all so concerned.

Another Project Linus quilt

2009-12-08T14:29:00.000-08:00

In October, some of our Charity Chicks made up kits from donated fabric, and a pattern that one of our group had designed. I took this kit and finished it a couple days ago. The quilting is supposed to be frog feet. The folks who made up the kids did a great job of finding fabric that would look good together.

I am reminded that I never did show the quilt that I made for a gift. It was for my sister-in-law and her husband in California. I'll plan to show that one in a post soon. We took it and gave it to them when we visited for a few days in November.

It has turned cold here - well, it's cold for this area. It was about 16 degrees this morning. Brrr! Hope your day is going well.!

Long time-no post

2009-12-05T08:24:00.000-08:00

Well, I really haven't fallen off the face of the earth. We have been stricken with some very unwelcome news: One of our DDILs, age 36, found a lump in her breast. The doctor found another one under her arm, and after a mammogram and biopsy, it was confirmed that she has cancer. Following that came a mastectomy and removal of lymph nodes under her arm. They told her she will have chemo and radiation. Next is an appointment with the oncologist to find out just what the tests revealed from the surgery. She is holding up very well, and is very optimistic, but we are definitely concerned about how it will go when she starts chemo, which will be fairly soon, I imagine. This dear girl is married to our younger son, and has two darling children, a girl age 10, and a boy, age 5.

On a happier note, this sweet little lad is the one with the ill mommy. He played soccer this year, and the one picture has our son in the picture. He was the coach and did such a good job with the little guys. The boys were so cute and had so much fun, and even managed to learn a bit about soccer. The other picture is our grandson bundled up to go out in the cold a few days ago. We think he is just as cute as can be.

This quilt is for Project Linus. It stems from a quilt I completed in 2008 for our other grandson's 10th birthday. From the pattern I used for his quilt, there were approximately a million (well, more or less) waste triangles, so I sewed a BUNCH of them together and trimmed them, and came up with this quilt, that I hope some young man will enjoy. I didn't take a picture of the back, but it is football fabric.

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-25T18:45:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted for a while, and a lot has happened, but more about that at a later time.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. I love everything about Thanksgiving but the extra pounds that seem to come along with it. We have spent most of the day making pies, and they will be a hit, I'm sure, but before that we will eat more than our fill of turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, and more. It makes me hungry to think about it!

Have a wonderful day!

Quilts from a few years ago

2009-11-05T19:52:00.000-08:00

I don't seem to have much of interest to post about, so I thought I would show pictures of a couple lap-sized quilts I made for our sons and their wives a few years ago.

These quilts resulted from a class a friend and I took. These tumbling blocks do not have inset seams. They are constructed in strips. Anyway, this class was an experience. The teacher did not give us any written instructions or direction at all. She had some samples of the steps that she pinned up on a board, so I took my camera and took pictures of everything. I printed out the photos and labelled them, and believe me, I used those pictures repeatedly.

Our weather the last few days was absolutely beautiful, and yesterday was shirt-sleeve weather, and then there is today. Today started out pretty decent, and then this afternoon the rain and wind came. Our yard is covered in leaves again. It sounds like it will be rainy and windy for our grandsons' football and soccer games on Saturday.

I guess I'll go back to my quilting. My progress has been slow, to say the least.

Halloween and Aunt Millie

2009-11-01T18:13:00.000-08:00

What do Halloween and Aunt Millie have in common? Well, nothing, actually. Those two things are what I wanted to include in this blog post.

I had mentioned in my previous post that our four DGC carved pumpkins (or in the case of the little DGC, he "helped carve") at our house the day before Halloween. This picture shows our sweeties with their creations.

Now, as to Aunt Millie, I bought the Piece of Cake applique pattern "Aunt Millie's Garden. A couple days ago I finished the first block. I did the applique with the back basting method, and I really do like that method. My friend Linda from http://lindaquilts-too.blogspot.com/ first demonstrated that method a couple years ago. I later found a tutorial on line and printed that out. I started on my second block last night. The predominant color in that block is purple. My current thought is that I will make four blocks and make a wallhanging, but that obviously is subject to change. I don't get these things done very quickly.

I'm baaaack!

2009-10-29T15:36:00.001-07:00

I mentioned in my last post that I am taking a Quilt University class called More Machine Quilting. The first week we worked on different things, but mostly feathers, which I love! This week our lesson is on trapunto. I had never done it, and this is the first one I did. The actual flower pattern was provided for us. I found this one fairly easy. The stippling around it does get tedious. That's what is suggested to make the trapunto "pop."

The second photo is the next flower pattern that was provided for us. Now this one I really love, and I'm very happy with the way it turned out. I'm not so sure trapunto is for me, but maybe for something small it would be a good thing.

And then, kaboom, lest someone get to thinking too well of herself, is the third pattern we were given to try. We were to put another color fabric behind the bow, and I failed pretty miserably to get the fabric the right size. I'm not happy with my effort on it at all.

We get our third lesson tomorrow, and I THINK that one will be about whole cloth quilting. It should be interesting!

I also have been working on a quilt that I will show at a later time, as it is a gift, and I don't think the recipients view my blog, but just in case...

Yesterday our four DGC came over and carved the pumpkins we had gotten for them. Great fun was had by all, and today DH and I spent a lot of time drying and roasting pumpking seeds. Actually, DH gets almost all the credit, because he spent a great deal of time yesterday separating the seeds from the slime, and doing most of the work today.

Well, I did it again!

2009-10-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

I had vowed I wouldn't let so much time pass between posts, and I've done it again. My main excuse was we were gone for a week and staying in a condo in Central Oregon at Eagle Crest. We didn't have internet access there, so, that's the best I can do for an excuse.

Prior to leaving, I did complete one quilt, another Project Linus quilt that I pieced a while back. For the quilting I used Rainbow thread that I got from Superior Threads. I am now in love with that thread. It's a verigated 40 weight polyster that has a very pretty sheen. Since quilting that quilt, I have ordered a couple other colors to use in other projects.

All routes through the mountains to Central Oregon are very scenic, but we decided this time to take a route we hadn't taken before, which is across the McKenzie Pass, which is a slower, very curvy, but gorgeous drive. The first picture is of the beautiful McKenzie River. Oregon has quite a few covered bridges, and this one is still in use.

On this drive we went from the lush greenery up to the stark lava fields, with beautiful mountain views. I believe the sign said that the volcano occured about 1500 years ago. It is so impressive to see mile after mile of the lava rocks, and be reminded that the mountains in the Cascade range are live volcanoes. (Remember Mt. St. Helens blowing in 1980?)

The last picture is taken at Smith Rock, out of Terrabonne, OR. We hiked there one day, and the path that is shown takes off at the bottom of the path down from the parking lot. Down was not so tough, but going back up was quite a climb. What a beautiful area this is though, and what a lovely day for a hike.

One other thing I have been doing is I am taking a Quilt University class - More Machine Quilting. I have already picked up several tips, and I'm really enjoying it.

Couple completions

2009-10-04T11:12:00.001-07:00

These two items were close to completion in September, but were finally finished in the last couple days.

The witch table topper/wallhanging was a pattern a friend and I both decided to make. It was a fun one to do, and I am happy with it.

The knitted blanket I will give to Project Linus. It was an easy car riding and TV watching project, made with yarn that is verigated and makes those nice stripes with no changing yarn colors.

Life is good!

2009-10-02T20:39:00.000-07:00

For some time I have wanted to go up the Columbia River Gorge and walk the Mosier Twin Tunnels trail. DH and I finally just decided we'd do it and what a wonderful day we chose. The trail is part of the old Columbia Gorge scenic highway, and it has been turned into a walking/biking trail. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. We had a lovely drive, and the trail is so nice, and we got some exercise! The area where we were is more arid than the area east of Hood River, which is heavily forested.

Our drive home was through Hood River, and around Mt. Hood. It all was just beautiful. Near Hood River we stopped at a farm stand and got a box of Jonagold apples and some pears and peaches. What a treat! There was beautiful orchard after orchard, and several vineyards.

Clouds partially shrouded Mt. Hood, which is the lovely mountain about 60 miles east of Portland, but we had some marvelous views.

DGC-again

2009-09-29T19:21:00.001-07:00

We are so fortunate in that we see our four darling grandchildren often. They all make us laugh, and give us great joy.

This picture is of our sweet 10-year-old granddaughter. She just looks like a cute little buttercup!

This little 8-year-old pretty is pretending to knit. She has on an old pair of my glasses, and thinks she really looks swell, which she does.

Our two grandsons (ages 11 and 5) are being goofy (not uncommon) and playing karate.

More completions

2009-09-24T16:28:00.001-07:00

Well, these aren't the quilts I'm most proud of, to say the least, but they are completed.

First is the next Project Linus quilt. I guess it's readily apparent that I have kind of enjoyed doing nine patch lately.

Next is a John Deere quilt. This one has a little story. You may recall that we went to Nebraska to help celebrate my uncle's 80th birthday in July. This same uncle has always been a farmer, and the table centerpieces, as well as the decorations, were John Deere based. It was so fitting for him. When we left my aunt's house, she gave to me a piece of John Deere fabric that had been used on a table. I decided then that I would get more and use it in a quilt. I started the quilt, and then about three weeks ago we learned that my uncle is facing some very serious health issues, so I hurried to get it completed and sent to him. It isn't the greatest quilt in the world, but hopefully he will enjoy it and know I love him.

Last is another crocheted towel. These make great TV watching or car riding projects, since I always like to be doing something.

September completion

2009-09-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

For some time I have been wanting to do some hand applique, but just haven't gotten to it. I had printed out Anita Shackelford's Pennsylvania Plain and Fancy pattern several years ago, and finally decided to just buckle down and do it. I decided to go a different route on color and chose cream, red and black. And to top it off, all the fabric is from my stash!! Yeah! I definitely need practice, and plan to work on my skills, but I am pretty pleased with it. It doesn't have a label yet, but I'll get to it, really, I will. Why do I dislike doing labels so much? Oh, one other thing I did differently is the piano keys border. Her border was different.

Happy Birthday, Kurt!

2009-09-14T08:13:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to our younger son, Kurt. Today brings back so many happy memories of him as a sweet baby and cute little guy, and now he's all grown up to be a fine man. Whatever happened to all the time that has passed? This picture is of Kurt with his two children,taken when we visited the fire station.

Weekend in Washington

2009-09-06T20:59:00.000-07:00

We had such a lovely weekend. My sis and her husband from Tucson were visiting my niece and her hubby and baby this past week. It was easier for DH and I to go visit them than for them to travel to see us, so we went up on Friday and came home today. My niece is a top notch cook and spoiled us with delicious meals. While at their house, we visited Kayak Point park and went to Whidbey Island. The scenery was just beautiful, but the best part was being with family, and getting to know my darling little great-nephew Brayden. He is such a happy, sweet baby.

This is Deception Pass in the Puget Sound. It is really a breathtaking sight.

And this would be my sister, her hubby, and baby Brayden.

And now my niece, her hubby and Brayden at the Deception Pass Park.

And finally, DH and myself at Kayak Point.

Quilt show

2009-08-31T14:21:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of just a few of the quilts that especially appealed to me at our local quilt show over the weekend. I helped set up on Thursday afternoon, and then worked the morning on Friday. There was a nice turnout, and lots of inspiration. Now, if I could just get this business of needing more than 24 hours in a day figured out, it would help so much in getting things done!!

Oregon coast

2009-08-24T20:45:00.000-07:00

Have you ever visited the Oregon coast? It is spectacular beyond words. DH and I spent a couple days there last week, and had a marvelous time. The weather even cooperated. We walked on the beach in shirt sleeves the first day, and I wore a light jacket the second day. The first picture is of DH and I at Pacific City. The tide was out, and we were exploring some great tide pools. The other two pictures were taken at Cape Mears.

On this trip I got to visit four quilt shops. DH is so tolerant. If he can sit and read his book while I check out the shops, he is happy.

Mariner's Compass and Project Linus

2009-08-17T14:55:00.000-07:00

In between distractions of different types, I have finally completed my Mariner's Compass quilt. I am quite pleased with the end result. It is by far the most challenging of any project I have done to date, and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed making it. Paper piecing and I have become great friends. It went together with less difficulty than I had thought.

I also finished another Project Linus quilt. I am quite hooked on making the quilts for those little (and not so little ones) in need of comfort.

Quilt Qua

2009-08-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

I just added a graphic that links to a great site - Quilt Qua. There is so much there-articles, how-to links, quilt shop links. teacher links. blog links, etc.

Camping trips

2009-08-07T18:26:00.000-07:00

Well, we have returned from our two fairly short camping trips - one with our two grandsons and one with our two granddaughters. We had a fun time with both of them, and thanks to our son and daughter-in-law for the use of their motor home. We went to a state campground that had full hook-ups, so it was not exactly roughing it, but that's the only camping I am interested in at this point in my life!

Bunny Hill Giveaway at Mama Sparks World

2009-08-03T20:43:00.000-07:00

There is a very nice giveaway at Mama Spark's World. Bunny Hill is giving away a $50 gift certificate, and I, for one, would love to win. They have the cutest patterns!

Oops!

2009-08-03T20:11:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I hadn't written about meeting Linda http://lindaquilts-too.blogspot.com/ and Don in Kearney. Some of my family live not too far from there, so it seemed like a good meeting place. It was sooo nice to see them again, and we had a nice visit at Perkins and a delicious lunch. After lunch we went to the quilt shop in Kearney and, of course, each of us just had to make some purchases.

I have been wanting to make a flag quilt of some type, so I bought a couple pieces of fabric to use in that. Linda and I each bought an embroidery pattern with pieced blocks around it - Over the River and Through the Woods (Crabapple Tree pattern http://tinyurl.com/6cptf4 ). I really loved making the Winter Wonderland pattern, so someday I hope to complete this one also.

The picture is of Linda and I in that wonderful quilt shop in Kearney, The Quilter's Cottage.

2009-07-28T16:40:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while since I've posted, but I have a good excuse - really I do. We have been gone. I have quite a bit of family in Nebraska, and one uncle was having an 80th birthday celebration, so since we love he and my aunt dearly, we just had to hop on a plane and go.

I got to see some cousins that I hadn't seen in 40 plus years. What a great time we had! The one picture is of my dear aunt and uncle. The other is me (the tall one) with three of the best girl cousins anyone could ever have. The one on the right without the apron is one that I hadn't seen since 1965.

Another Project Linus project

2009-07-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday three friends of mine and I got together for a fun day of working on Project Linus quilts. Of course, there was also the requisite talking, laughing and eating. The other three were working on string quilt blocks, but someone had to be the oddball, and that was me. I worked on another nine-patch quilt. The fabric for this one was given to us by the Project Linus coordinator for our area, and I love it. I need to make more nine patch blocks. I have the least of the yellow fabric, but should be able to get at least one more row, and maybe two before I run out. I have certainly been consumed with the nine patch bug, but, if I'm going to be bitten by a bug, that's probably as good as any. :-)

I want to give you the recipe for the Chocolate Zucchini Bread that I took to our quilting day. Don't turn up your nose now; it was devoured, and is so yummy!

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

2 (1 oz) squares of unsweetened chocolate
(or you can do as I did and use 6 Tbsp cocoa and 2 Tbsp vegetable oil in place of the squares of chocolate)
3 eggs
1 to 1-1/4 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil (or 1/2 cup oil, and 1/2 cup applesauce - that's what I always do)
2 cups grated zucchini
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (175 degrees C)
Grease (or spray with PAM) two 9 x 5 loaf pans. If you're using the squares of chocolate, melt them.
In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, oil, grated zucchini, vanilla and chocolate; beat well.
Stir in the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
Fold in the chocolate chips.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pans.
Bake 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. (The original directions said 60-70 minutes, but that was much too long for mine.)

Try it; you'll like it!

Project Linus

2009-07-13T17:38:00.000-07:00

Well, another quilt for Project Linus and a completed project for July. I have decided I love the black, red and white color combo, so want to do more of that combination. The block is Golden Gate from quilterscache.com. It was a fun one to do. Saturday a few of us "Charity Chicks" are going to get together and work on Project Linus quilts for a few hours. It's always a fun time. I'm thinking maybe I'll work on another string quilt. That was fun. Goodness, I may change my mind a dozen times before then. There's always my nine patch blocks that I could work on. So many choices.

These two lovely ladies are my two DGDs. Believe it or not, they are two years apart in age, and very close to the same size. This was taken at the older one's birthday party at the bowling alley. The birthday girl is in the striped shirt, and she just turned 10.

This was fun!

2009-07-09T18:31:00.000-07:00

I can't take credit for the idea for this block, and I wish I could remember whose blog I saw it on, but I can't. At any rate, thank you to the person who had a block like this. It's an awesome idea. I just made some nine patch blocks from scraps, and then cut the blocks in half diagonally, picked out some fabric from my stash to use for the other parts of the pinwheel, and put them together. I really love the way it looks, and I will get back to it later and make a complete quilt of blocks like this. I just can't seem to get enough of scrappy quilts.

Aaah, how cute!

2009-07-07T22:08:00.000-07:00

I was browsing through pictures today and came across this one of our two darling grandsons. These cousins love each other so much! Last year during the summer we took them to Seattle. This year, the plan is to take our son and DIL's motorhome, and take them to the coast and camp at one of our very nice state campgrounds. We'll take bikes, and have a great time. This will happen at the end of this month.

After we get back from that fun outing, we'll take the two DGDs on a similar camping trip.

I have worked some the last couple days on my Mariner's Compass. I am going to try a couple different things on the final border, and see which I like best, and then the pictures will come.

3rd of July

2009-07-03T19:49:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone has a fun and safe 4th of July. Many thanks to those service men and women who are serving and have served to preserve and protect the USA. One of our sons and his family is gone camping this weekend, and the other family is at home. They always have a big celebration on July 4th, so we will be going over there. I am going to make a couple strawberry desserts to take. First, we will need to go to the Saturday market tomorrow to get some yummy strawberries.

There's not much happening here. We have had a hot spell that's supposed to last through the weekend. It's getting up into the 90s, which is pretty warm for here.

I was going to post a picture of our blueberry bushes, but the light wasn't right, and the picture was poor, so I'll have to try again.

Instead I'll show you pictures of a couple quilts that my grandmother made, and I now have. The first one is obviously Grandmother's Flower Garden. It is so nicely done, and the quilt is in good shape. Unfortunately, I don't know when it was made, but my mom was born in 1926, and my guess is it might have been in the 1930s, but that's just a guess.

This second picture is of a quilt, which I think would have been an earlier quilt. Many of the fabrics are apparently scraps from clothing that was made. Also, it seems to maybe have a blanket in the middle to serve as "batting."

Butterfly quilt

2009-06-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

I began work on this quilt at the quilt retreat I went to in early April. It is for our older granddaughter's 10th birthday, which is this week. How fast they do grow up!

The butterflies are machine appliqued. I paper pieced the Birds in the Air blocks and also the half-square triangles in the border. I machine quilted the quilt on my Janome. The large triangles in the Birds in the Air blocks and the backing are a fabric that is shiny and feels kind of sticky in the machine. Due to that, it was not so easy to maneuver it in the machine, and much harder to keep stitches even when machine quilting. Especially on the butterflies I quilted in those large triangles, I was definitely not successful in the even stitch category.

Good to be home!

2009-06-28T06:49:00.000-07:00

DH and I got home last night from CA. We go fairly often to visit his elderly mother. This time, while we were there, we spent one day in Monterey, CA. We hadn't been there for a long time, and what a treat it was to visit again. It is a beautiful town on the coast. We got there at lunch time and headed straight to Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co. Yum, yum! If you get a chance to eat at one of these restaurants, go for it! Monterey has a fantastic walking trail along the beach, and lots of lovely, and at the wharf, funky, cute shops. The Cannery section of Monterey, where Bubba Gump's is, is based on John Steinbeck's Cannery Row.

This is a view of the dock just before we entered the wharf area.

And then there are the sea lions. Talk about lazy creatures. There were dozens of them laying there in the sun.

Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co. What a great concept for a restaurant. It's based on the movie Forrest Gump. This one is right on the beach, and we had beautiful views to enjoy with delicious food! I had a shrimp po' boy, and loved every bite. We walked for an hour or so, and then got dessert from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.

And this is a lovely view from our walk along the trail.

Aaahh, the lost is found!

2009-06-16T07:43:00.001-07:00

Well, how is it that things are found in places where it's obvious they would be, but somehow weren't found before? Such is the saga of the lost camera. I found it last night in such a logical place, but no, I didn't find it until we had ordered a new one. The new one will arrive today or tomorrow and we will trek to Costco and humbly ask for a refund, as the lost is no longer lost.

This is the next row added to my Mariner's Compass. I printed out the foundations for the triangles from EQ6, and love how they turned out. I could never achieve the precision without the paper. The cornerstones are Birds in the Air (I think it's called) blocks, also from EQ6. The lovely blue strips at the top are painter's tape, holding the quilt top to the wall.

How 'bout those peonies? They are (or were) so beautiful this year. Unfortunately, they don't last long. We did enjoy them though.

Camera - what camera?

2009-06-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

Oh, dear, where can our camera be? Unfortunately, we cannot find it anywhere, and are afraid that when we were out last weekend, that we left it somewhere. Every place we've inquired says the same thing - no, haven't had a camera turned in. So, until our new one comes this week, I will show you a few recent pics. (I had a few on the old camera that I planned to post, so will try to re-take them in a few days.) I had actually made some progress on my Mariner's Compass, and I was going to show you.

The first picture is of our younger son (the fireman) and his family. The occasion for the flowers was a school program, and we had given our DGD a bouquet of flowers after the performance.

This pic is of our older son and his family. We of course are prejudiced, but we thing our kids and families are mighty good looking!

Next is our second grade Princess at the school jog-athon. We got to spend a little time in her class with her. She didn't want us to leave!

These cousins adore each other, and love to be together. Older DGS, age 10, is playing a video game, and the little guy (age 4) is "helping."

Here is our fourth grade Princess in the rose-colored t-shirt. The occasion is the same school jog-athon.

Now, relating to quilty matters, I have very busy quilting on a quilt for DGD's birthday. I will wait until after her bday to post a picture of it, just in case she happens to see my blog open. I also put another border on my Mariner's Compass, and have planned another border, which I haven't started yet.

Project Linus

2009-06-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

My friend Patti and I met with the Portland/Vancouver Project Linus coordinator on Monday. Our group (Charity Chicks - isn't that a cute name?) had 13 quilts to give her, and there were six or seven from another group. I just love the Project Linus cause - can you tell? I definitely need to remember to take the camera so I can take pics of all the quilts and post them. There were some really beautiful ones.

I finished sewing the binding down last night on another PL quilt. This one was fun - of course they all are, but this one was made from a jelly roll that I purchased from Connecting Threads quite some time ago. The sashing and backing are made from donated fabric. I just did kind of a wavy meander for the quilting.

We had some surprise rain showers on Monday, and they continued just a bit yesterday. DH and I were out for a walk, and got rained on a bit.

Our poor oldest grandson Tanner - his baseball team is not doing well at all. He generally plays very well, but the team as a whole is doing so poorly. They had a game last night, and the game was called after the other team got a 10-run lead. Our little guys (4th grade) seemed so down, and I just felt so bad for them. Conversely, his little sister Tylee (2nd grade) is playing softball, and their team really is doing well. Those little girls are just too darn cute to watch.

More quilting from my past

2009-05-30T07:47:00.000-07:00

Well, since I was pretty busy yesterday enjoying the sunshine and having DGC here, I thought I'd show you another quilt I completed in 2005. I think it was in 2004 that we went to an outdoor quilt show in Livermore, CA, and Jan Krentz was the featured quilter there. I loved this pattern, and she had some patterns and fabric for sale, so I purchased a few pieces of fabric and then added some of my own, to come up with this quilt. It is probably approximately 45-50 inches square. It was my first foray into using autumn colors, and now I am just addicted to them (well, most all colors!!). I have it on the back of our couch, and it has been a favorite of folks who have seen it. It obviously was not a very difficult pattern, but I love how it turned out.

Gotta love the springtime

2009-05-28T10:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought I'd work on my reformation and not wait three weeks to post again. I don't have much to show on the quilting front, so I'll show some pictures of our back yard, and some of the plants and flowers that we enjoy so much. I spent some time yesterday just sitting on the patio reading and enjoying the weather.

Tonight is our guild meeting, so I'll take the quilt I completed for Project Linus. Janet Fogg is to be our guest speaker. She is an award-winning quilting, and her studio is located in the Portland area. It should be a great event tonight. I'm missing a grandson baseball game for the meeting, so anyone who knows me well, knows I am really, really looking forward to hearing Janet.

Oops-time has slipped by again!

2009-05-25T21:51:00.001-07:00

Wow, I better get myself in gear and post!

I did manage to finish another Project Linus quilt. It is mostly made from leftover fabrics from one of the French Braid quilts I made last year. Our guild had gone together and ordered a roll of polyester batting from our quilt shop, and then when it came, it turned out to have a greater loft than most of us like. I decided to go ahead and try it with one quilt, and while I still am not crazy about it, it did look much better after I "tamed" it with quilting and the binding.

Last week we were having beautiful weather, so hubby and I decided we needed an outing for the day, so we went to Astoria, Oregon, which is a two hour or so drive from home. We had lunch at this very quaint fish and chips lunch stand. We had eaten there before. They just have tuna fish and chips, and it was so yummy! It's worth the drive just for that, and then there is the marvelous scenery on the way and when we get there.

At Astoria, they have a wonderful walkway that goes along the Columbia River. We took a long walk along the walkway, and went out on the pier, where all these sea lions were resting and making a racket, probably belching and digesting all the salmon they eat. (Spoken like a person from the Northwest!!) :-)

Lessons from Mama

2009-05-02T08:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was such a lovely day here, so we spent a fair amount of time outside soaking up the vitamin D!

I have worked a bit on putting together the blocks and rows of the Project Linus quilt I showed in my previous post, but since I don't have much to report on that front, I thought I would show an early quilt I made. This was made in 2003 and is from the Lessons from Mama sampler book. This quilt was such fun to make, and since I hadn't made many quilts at that point, it was a great learning experience. It now resides on top of the cedar chest in our bedroom. The reason I thought of this quilt is that Conni of http://allthruthehouse.blogspot.com/ had completed a few blocks of this pattern, and hers is going to be just lovely!