I've been Revisited!

Yesterday morning I was out getting a load of firewood and saw a yellow streak. I had to see what kind of bird it was. I went into the garage to get a better look out the side window. To my surprise, I had a Western Meadowlark. He came back. I was so pleased, I text'd my DB to tell him. I watched him during the day make his rounds and when he flew into the backyard below the feeders, I grabbed my camera. Isn't he beautiful?

I haven't seen him today so maybe the conditions were just right for him to visit. Last year during our "big" storm he stayed for a week. I hope he comes back.

I need to get motivated today. I really really want to get into my sewing room and finish a wall hanging that's been hanging around for a couple of years. It's almost done. I quilted most of it, then turned it. I'm so directionally challenged, it's the only way for me to do it.

I hope everyone has a Great New Year!

Winter Storm

I'm home nursing an ear infection and my DB calls and asks if it's snowing at the house. I look up and what do you know, yes it's snowing and I was going to go into town for groceries. Not now.

This is the front yard and drive. You can almost see the road.

The back yard. Even the birds took off. They are probably under the Red Hot Pokers. Good cover for them.
Time to put another log on the fire and hunker down. Maybe I'll head for the sewing room and get something accomplished.

Dani's Quilt Grand Finale

I haven't posted in a while so I have lots to talk about. Here's my newest grandaughter with her quilt. She's so adorable, but she sleeps all the time (during the day anyway). And when she's awake, she's hungry.

See she's sleeping. Her sisters just love her.

Even her brother

And grandma-grandma

Oops, her eyes are open.

"Chickens in the Road"

I started reading Chickens in the Road about a year ago. I was looking for anything rustic, back to nature, gardening, etc. I found Suzanne. Visit her blog. She writes wonderfully.





http://suzannemcminn.com/blog/2009/11/22/apple-spice-simmering-potpourri/



She's asking for her readers to vote for her. She's a single stay at home mom and this is an opportunity for her. Take a look. If you comment on her blog, let her know I sent you.

Walnuts Galore

I can't believe I've been absent for so long. We picked walnuts a couple of weeks ago. My DB located the owner and was given permission to harvest these walnuts. We got 3 five gallon containers. We set them on our livingroom floor by the woodstove to dry.

Now a couple weeks later after turning them, we put them in bags. They will go out to our pantry and hang until we decide to crack them and freeze them. DB loves zuchinni bread loaded with walnuts. See where this is going? Oh well, I love zuchinni bread also, not to mention everything else I can make with them.
In fact, I think zuchinni bread is on the menu today. Stay tuned!

NW Quilt Expo

I had an opportunity to take two of Karen McTavish's lectures at the NW Quilt Expo last month. I was even able to purchase her last Whitework Quilting book that she brought to the Expo. She even autographed it for me.
She's funny and so down to earth. If you get a chance to take a class from do it. You won't be sorry.

Design Wall

Well I have't made any progress other than to re-arrange the blocks. Hum. It was suggested that I make a large star for the center and arrange the smaller blocks around it. Since this is scrappy batiks, and I'm only using fat quarters for it, I don't have enough of any two FQs to make make it with. I'm stumped. I would love to put the design in EQ but I changed laptops and can't find my software. I hope I can figure something out soon. I'd like to put another UFO up on my wall.

Dani's Quilt part 2

How does it look? It's ready for the longarm. Whew!

Dani's Quilt

I am working on a quilt to give to my newest grandchild, Danielle. I'm heading over to Montana to see her for the first time in a couple of weeks and want her to have a warm quilt for her mom to wrap her up in. I haven't have time to sew since June when I was back there sewing with my older granddaughters. I've been so busy gardening, canning and work. Now that the garden is done, maybe I can quilt again. I've missed it. I got the butterfly squares from Ebay and decided to do scrappy on the rest of it. I'll post a picture when it's finished.

Canning and Bread

I received some pears from a friend of a friend. My DB loves canned pears, but only in glass. Seems the ones in tin have a taste he doesn't care for. I had some leftover pears so I made some Pear Bread. It turned out wonderful, moist and favorful.

I hope to do some quilting today. I want to work on my Floating Stars.

Welcome to our family, Danielle!

This is the newest member of our family. Danielle Grace, born August 21. I get to meet her in October when I go to Montana. I can't wait. I really would love to make her a quilt but her mom's comes first. I wonder how old she'll be when she gets one from me. My list of quilts for the family is long and everyone wants one. My two children don't even have one yet. My son saved jeans for me and the whiskey bottles that come in the purple bag with the gold crown them. That's what he wants for his quilt. I finally after two years have come up with a design for it. I had a real mental block about that one. He's being very patient with me. Thank you.

Floating Stars and Such

I can't believe I've been silent for so long. It's been a hectic summer. Our garden went nuts and still hasn't died down. Between vacation, family visiting, canning, freezing, and work, I haven't been able to sew hardly a lick.

The Floating Star above is a quilt I started 3 years ago for my daughter. I tried to get her to pick another quilt that was finished but she saw this accidently and it was the one she wanted. Now all I have to do is get it done. I'm tired of it. I just want it finished and it's not even half way close. I don't want to make any more stars. I want to alternate blocks with just a block of batik. She wants king size, of course. So this is going on my design wall and it's not coming down until it's finished. I'm going to Montana in October to visit her family and my newest granddaughter. I am also going to spend time with my parents. I hope you don't get tired of this quilt because I've resolved myself to finishing it by October and take it with me.

Do you have any ideas for this quilt, sashing, alternate blocks? I'd love to hear your opinions.

Granddaughters Quilting

Here are my granddaughters quilting their first project. I've been wanting to help them get started for a couple of years. Since they live in Montana and I in Oregon, I don't have the opportunity to do this. So I packed up my Gem, supplies, fabric and took them with me on my vacation.

The top picture is my oldest granddaughter on her mom's Janome.

The second picture is my youngest granddaughter sewing on my Gem.

Here are their finished projects:

Jana Rachel

While I was at it they persuaded me to make their bedroom curtains. Now all they nee are floor rugs. Maybe for Christmas.

My daughter was in need of a curtain on her kitchen door to block the hot morning east sun. Here's her curtain. I went back to the fabric store to buy the rest of this bolt and it was gone. I love this material.

I'm Home

I had a great vacation visiting my grandkids. They made me feel so good.

They wrote on the driveway my Welcome and I love yous. My grandson even drew a picture of me.

I stayed seven days and left on the 5th. I love visiting my family but I love being home.

I brought my sewing machine, fatquarters, ruler, mat and my granddaughters learned to make a pillow. I'll show those pictures in my next post. I don't have any pictures of the completed pillows so I have to wait for my daughter to send them to me.

Another Birthday Giveaway!

Jackie is celebrating her birthday with a giveaway. Spread the word.

Monday's Design Wall

The main blocks are from my BOM club. It's a "quilt as you go" tecnique. I wanted to try it because I wanted to learn a new technique. The bottom row is ready to be sewed front sides together, then the back of one trimmed and then handsewn together. I am taking it with me on my trip to Montana to visit my parents, sister from Singapore, brother, daughter and my precious (3) grandchildren. My GDs want to learn to sew. I'm taking my Janome Jem and they have two there. I'm bringing a couple of pillow forms and some of their favorite color fat quarters. This will be fun.

I Won!

I entered a Giveaway in May for fat quarters from Yellow Bird Art. I can not believe I won. Look at the wonderful FQs I received. The tag on the FQs said "Bits of Bliss" Thank you Angela!

Happy Father's Day Dad!

I called my father this morning and he informed me that when I come to visit next week, "I'd better not bring any rain with me!" My family lives in Montana and it's been raining, lightening, and thunderstorms continuously for weeks. They want some "Big Sky".

My Dad. This wasn't his best picture. It was late on the Fourth of July and he was tired and not used to all the grands and great-grands not to mention all the fireworks. My SIL and Nephew in law seem to try to outdo each other every year with Who can get the most and the best and the loudest. Since fireworks are outlawed in town, everyone gathers at Mom and Dad's. We eat, play, the little ones wade in the pool and then the show begins. It's a great time.

Have a GREAT DAY DAD, I'll see you soon!

Customer's First Quilt

This is Kathleen's first quilt. I think she did good. I like the yellow and black.



She wanted hearts.

I thought feathers would look nice.

It's Sunday, Where Did the Weekend Go?

I've been busy this weekend trying to finish a quilt. I have till 5pm today to get it done. Then K is coming to get it. Pictures later. But what would a post be without pictures. I've also been reading a weekly tutorial by Sue (http://www.suehecker.com/category/photography/). So early Saturday and Sunday I've been taking some pictures. Take a look:

The first on is an Bullocks Oriole. He's so quick, it was hard to get any pictures. He does like our Red Hot Pokers. He goes from one to another. When this poker is mature, it'll be yellow on the bottom and red on the top of the cone. The hummingbirds like them also. My DB wanted a picture because he thinks it's a tanager and he wants to debate the issue. It couldn't match the Stokes Bird Book any better, but it'll be fun to hear his argument. The second is a female Grosbeak. I wonder why the males are always prettier that the females. I think it's because they need all the help they can get.

Rockin and Rollin

We had one heck of a storm late yesterday afternoon. The winds were around 80 mph. Trees down on my route home. One of the huge cottonwoods in the back field by our house, our sunbreak in the summer, blew down taking a mass of limbs from the other trees. It looks bare back there today. Our shed, which wasn't in great shape to begin with, but we were going to paint it this summer was trashed. Power was out for about 3 hours and again for a half hour during the night. Today we are cleaning up. The garden doesn't look too bad. The plants are all leaning because of the wind. All in all we fared pretty good. Salem to the south of us had trees down and flooding. To the east I think they got hail, rain and wind.

Customer Quilt for Charity

Here is another charity quilt Ann made and I quilted. I need to get some microhandles for the smaller stippling work. I didn't have a lot of control here. I do think that I should have slowed the speed down also.

My Design Wall

Here's my design wall.majority of the wall is taken up with my BOM quilt. I'm about 2 blocks behind. The upper right corner is last year's BOM. It's a Lone star with these blocks as the borders. The Lone star is completed but I'm behind about 3 border blocks for it to be assembled into a top. The last is a string quilt square leftover. I want to make another of these and I guess this is just a reminder. My design wall is a king size piece of warm and natural batting against the wall with a piece of flannel on top. I can pin through it but mostly the squares just stick to it unless they are too heavy.

Spring's Come in Like Gang Busters!

This Robin family has already fledged. Mama has a new batch she's working on. This nest is right outside our bedroom window. In the morning I open the shade and tell her Good Morning. I usually look in on her often when I'm home.















I was driving into town last week and counted nine crimson clover fields. I had my camera with me so I found a spot to take some pictures. They are lovely.



























These pictures really don't do the colors justice.

This swallow nest appear within three days. She built her nest almost under our front door. I'm sure she doesn't like the interruptions of us coming and going.

And one of my favorites........

This is one of my Rhodies. Isn't it pretty. I love the color.

Enough for now. I've been taking lots of pictures. I'll get them all online this weekend. Until then.....

Where Did May Go?

Wow. I've been sooo busy, I took a breath and it's almost June. Well all was not lost. We've had company for about 2 wks of it. So cleaning, dusting, straightening up, cooking and visiting. We had one BBQ when my DB's sis came to town from the Stockton area. We had lots of family over and combined it with my son's birthday. He turned 28. Now that's hard to fathom. My baby grew up on me.

We played horseshoes, dominos and darts. Ya, and ate. Like usual, I fixed way too much. But hay, I didn't have to cook for a week. Makes sense to me.

Nothing quilty to talk about. Nada. I've been wanting to get in my sewing room but no such luck.

Maybe next week.

Giveaway

Maria at Yellow Bird Arts is having a giveaway. Take a look see.

Happy Mother's Day!

This is my mom. Thanks Mom for everything you've done for me. You're the greatest! I love you.