How did they get so big? and Memorial Day

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

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

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

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

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

Project Linus, this and that, Kobe and Lance

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

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

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

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

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

Applique blocks

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

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

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

Salmon season

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

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

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

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