Treasured gift and Farmer's Wife blocks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!

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

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!

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

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.