Category Archives: Family

SAHRR – Final Round & a Little Extra Project

I knew this event would go quickly! Here we are finishing up the sixth round for the Stay At Home Round Robin and then it is time to quilt it. Crazy fast. The final week was set up by Kathleen McMusing. For her prompt she asked we incorporate letters or numbers into the round. In her post, she provided so many fun ways a person might do this.

I really didn’t want to add more pieced blocks to this very busy little quilt. Instead, I took the fabric I had left from the five inch square you can see at the top, cut a narrow (1.5″) strip of it and stitched it to the side. To balance things out one last time, I added another strip of the blue along the bottom.

I am calling it done. When I look at this, I feel like it is complete. Hopefully I will baste it and begin quilting it this weekend. Everyone will be back on March 18th to share their finished quilts. I believe Gail (the originator and organizer of the event) said there were about 50 quilters participating. Creativity abounds in this group so I am excited to see the finishes!

While I am here, I want to share this quick little placemat I made this week. My grand daughters both have birthdays in March – Big sister will be 7 and Little sister will be 4. I thought it might be fun for them to have a birthday placemat they can share, each one using it on their birthday.

My sister, Cathy, has a shop on Etsy called 6 Monkeys & Co where she sells handmade childrens’ clothing. She thoughtfully saves many adorable scraps for me to quilt with. Making clothing means a large amount of extra fabric that isn’t useful to her but is very fun for me. Anyway, that this where the birthday fabric scraps came from. Just enough to piece together a placemat.

I glued strips or rick-rack trim around the edges before I put the binding on. I was concerned it might make the binding bulky but it wasn’t a problem at all. The backing fabric is a festive rainbow of polkadots. Hope the girls enjoy this during their birthday month. I won’t see them for a couple of weeks so I need to get this off in the mail to them.

Update to last week’s post – I attending the Project Linus meeting and it was quite fun. These women work hard! So many donations that needed to have labels attached. Also loads of donations of fabric which I spent several hours sorting and measuring. I plan to return to the next meeting. Yay!

Enjoy the weekend everyone! I will be working on the SAHRR quilting which I am looking forward to.

100 Year Old Ladies, SAHRR Round 4, Ruler Quilting, and Hand Quilting

Lots to catch up on today! I think my priorities are correct in introducing my 100 year old grand daughter. Big sister is in first grade this year. She loves school so much. This week her class celebrated the 100th day of school for this year. The children came to school dressed up as though they were 100 years old. It was so much fun to see the joy on her face when the day finally rolled around.

She was so cute with her gray hair (wig) and cat eye glasses on a chain. H was watching the bus pull up with this huge grin on her face. These special days at school are so much fun for the kids.

Moving on to this year’s Stay At Home Round Robin…. It was Brenda’s week to choose what we were to incorporate into the round. She chose the square in a square block, also called an economy block. For some reason, I had the idea I needed to make a larger block and it was bothering me. I couldn’t come up with a way to use a bigger block. At first, I thought I would skip the whole round. But then I decided to try and make a tiny one. My first attempt was very wonky and I tossed it. Then I tried again and made two blocks I was happy with.

The blue piece set the size for the block. The blue square measured 1 1/2″. I cut large white squares for the surrounding triangles and chopped those in half. The finished square ended up being two inches. I made two of these. They are totally improv which means the center is not square. (I still need to trim the blue corners on the back side). I love them!

I also made this blue border by alternating the solid blue with two tiny black and white HST’s. As I mentioned before, all of these bits are leftover from a quilt I made a while back. As of yet, I have not attached the blue border or the tiny S-I-S blocks. I want to wait to see what comes up on Monday. But for now, I like the idea of this layout.

Stepping Stones Quilt; May, 2016

Since I keep referring to the quilt I first made with these pieces, I thought I would show the original quilt to you again. I made this quite a while ago as part of a quilt along with The Inquiring Quilter. Seems like seven plus years is long enough to hold on to the extra bits. Time to use them up!!

Hand quilting is a great way to keep my hands busy while watching television or listening to an audio book. This peek shows a snippet of a wall quilt I am working on. I stitched much of this while Ray watched the Super Bowl last weekend. By the end of that time, my fingers were sore. Even with a thimble, it is hard to push that needle back and forth for a long period of time.

In the sewing room, I have been working on a quilt for a blog hop in March. (I am way ahead of schedule on this)! The layout of this quilt allows for lots of FMQ practice. I have been quilting it with a straight ruler. After a number of squares like the one above, I think it is time to switch to a curved ruler. When I practice with the curved rulers, I have a lot more hiccups. There are so many pretty motifs to be stitched with rulers so I am motivated to keep practicing.

Hiking, Tea Parties, Crafts and Sewing with My Girls

We had the pleasure of spending last weekend with our grand daughters. They haven’t had a sleepover at Grammy and PePaw’s house since early fall so this was really a treat. My son dropped them off on Friday and came back Sunday to pick them up. As usual, we managed to do all sorts of things over the weekend.

On Friday, we spent a lot of time outside as Saturday promised to be very rainy. These girls love being outdoors and like all kids, they need that time to run around and burn some energy. They played frisbee and basketball for quite a bit before heading to the woods in front of our house. Both girls decided to dig for treasure without any preconceived notion of what that treasure might be. After digging for a long while, PePaw asked if they wanted to dig for worms.

They were excited about this and ran right to the compost bins. Previously the girls have held the worms in their hands, especially Big Sister. This time, they wanted them on their shovels to look at and then off the worms went, into a bucket. These girls are adventurous and try most any activity they are offered. While they were playing with worms, I snuck into the house and grabbed a handful of ‘treasure’ (marbles and little glass gems).

Acting quickly, I tossed them into the dirt nearby. It took forever for the kids to discover them but once they did, they were very excited. The interesting bit about this was how each girl thought the gems got there. H, being a very worldly six year old, immediately said “Grammy, the kids who lived here before you must have been playing here and forgot about these.” (Note – she has no idea whether any kids lived here before me). A wasn’t close by when her big sister explained this to me. A few minutes later, Little Sister asked me, “Do you think some pirates left these gems here?” Two very different theories. Of course at three years old, A doesn’t feel the need to explain where the pirates came from or why they left this treasure for her. She found five pieces of treasure and was so excited.

Back to the weekend, as expected it rained most of the day on Saturday. But this made for perfect crafting weather. We were looking at images on the computer trying to learn if rainbows could have pink in them even though poor, poor pink sadly is not ever mentioned in the ROYGBIV order of things. We decided yes, pink can be seen in rainbows. While doing this important research, we saw a craft making rainbows with colored stickers. Miraculously, Grammy had stickers in the craft drawer. They added cotton balls for clouds too. It was interesting to me to watch each girl make her rainbow. Big Sister wanted her stickers aligned on the guidelines but not touching. Little Sister insisted on overlapping her stickers so no guideline could be seen.

After lunch on Saturday we were invited to my parents, Great Papa and Great Grammy, for hot cocoa and cookies. The girls loved it and were super about letting us visit while they colored pictures and ate cookies.

Big Sister always asks to sew something while she is here. She knows I won’t refuse her this request. Usually we don’t sew when Little Sister is around because she really isn’t old enough. But it all worked out.

First project was to make this whole cloth project with A. She loves fire trucks and ambulances so I thought she would like this. My vision was to show her the matchbox cars and she could drive them along the roads, keeping busy so I could sew with H. She didn’t get into this at all. Blankets are for babies and stuffies. I don’t think a matchbox car even touched the fabric. It was immediately put to use to wrap up a stuffed animal. Soon Pepaw came to the rescue and took her downstairs to play.

This gave Big Sister and I plenty of time to get started on her first quilt. She was thrilled. Being a very tactile person, she favors the bin with flannels and minky scraps. Her choices centered around dog and cat fabrics and a bright pink scrap to brighten things up. I cut a stack of squares for her to arrange on the design wall.

I loved how seriously she took this part of the process. She wanted symmetry and was able to work it out with the squares she had. I wish I had taken more pictures but it is more fun to stay in the moment with her. This time, she was a very able participant. She sat on my lap and guided the fabric along. I showed her the 1/4″ markings and we talked about the need for a straight line. Fortunately, my machine has speed controls and I could set it to go very slowly. She also learned to pin the pieces together. This made her Grammy a little bit crazy. She looked at the pins like she was judging the quality of fine diamonds, choosing which pins she wanted to use. At times, I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, ‘c’mon, just pick a pin’. If you think about it, when sewing many things happen at the same time. Pressing the pedal, guiding the fabric, taking the pins out, pressing the seams etc. She was wanted to do each part. I did help quite a bit with keeping the fabric straight but she will get there.

To simplify the project, we didn’t use any batting. The quilt is very soft with a flannel backing. We sewed the layers right sides together and then flipped it right side out. H did a great job turning the corners out. That was as far as we got the first day. Sunday morning we finished it up with a topstitched edging and two lines of quilting, corner to corner. She chose to use ‘special stitches’ for those seams. I love the joy on her face in this picture. She was very proud of this project.

Sunday was better weather wise. We took the girls to the nearby park which also has some great hiking trails around it. After playing on wet slides and swings, we wandered into the woods. The girls spotted this rotten tree stump and started playing. They decided to make a person. Using moss for hair and the smile and leaves for eyes and nose, they soon had a person. Big Sister immediately named her Treetopolis.

Now you have a snapshot of the weekend. Not pictured are the pizzas we made, the paintings the girls did and the amazing shows they performed form us. One involved dance and the other featured their amazing air guitar skills. They are becoming such good friends. So much fun to be with – even if we did go to bed at 8:30 Sunday night after they went home. 🙂

Linking up with a few favorites. Check them out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

Family Bridge Mix

Last week was lovely. There was time spent with so many different family members. Our family calls it a Bridge Mix (referring to the See’s Candy mix that all of us love). Each handful of Bridge Mix is different from the other yet all are so wonderful. So whenever we have a group of family members together, while it might be a different mix and some people might not be at that particular visit, it is always good.

One small handful of Bridge Mix was experienced when Mom, Patti and I made cookies last week. We made Cuccidati, as I mentioned we would in a previous post. Mom already had the filling made and Patti had prepped the dough ahead of time so it would be chilled. That left the assembling, baking and icing.

They are delicious!

Over the weekend Ray and I enjoyed time with Julia. She came home to see some family and to bake cookies with me. Peanut Blossom cookies with Hershey’s Kisses are a regular holiday cookie for us so we made a big batch. We also did some Christmas shopping which was wonderful. While she was here we had a big dinner with a few of my sisters (one came up from California for the weekend) and my parents. Another handful of Bridge Mix – each one as great as the last.

On the way to dinner, we stopped at a local house that displays an amazing holiday lights experience on their property. It was so fun to walk through it. There were many different scenes to enjoy. I cannot begin to imagine how long it takes to set it up or take it down, let alone where the people store everything all year. This display is such a generous act as it provides such a memorable experience for many people. Pictures really don’t do it justice, maybe because I don’t know how to take a good picture of the lights on a dark night?

Sunday was my father’s 89th birthday. We celebrated this with (another) wonderful handful of Bridge Mix.

Mom asked us to dress in a festive outfit and people took this how they pleased. She made a wonderful turkey dinner and a chocolate caramel cake for Dad. We had a great time.

Monday morning we took my sister and her husband to the airport in Seattle. Because this is the half way point between my house and my son’s house, we thought it would be great to have yet one more handful of Bridge Mix. Thus, we kept driving and went to visit Andrew, Naomi and the girls. Mom and Dad had not yet been to their house and loved seeing where they live. It is great to visit with the little one’s in their own environment. They played “pizza shop” with Great Grammy and Great Papa and we had a nice lunch before heading back home.

This picture is just precious – My parents with two of their 17 great grandchildren.

Weekends spent with handfuls of family Bridge Mix is the stuff wonderful memories are made of. Of course it is also a bit tiring to be on the go for three or four days straight! Today I am not sure I will even get dressed. It is supposed to rain a bit. I think staying in, sewing and wrapping a few gifts sounds just perfect!

Ring Me – Quilt Top Finished!

Over the past year my friend Sophia and I have been trying to work on some older projects. We have done a decent job of it and gotten a few things finished up. I have another one to share with you today! This one came about because I had to take my Bernina to the shop. Fortunately I have a back up machine for these times. It is an older Kenmore and works well. However, I don’t have a 1/4″ foot for it. I wanted to work on something where precision wasn’t key.

My unfinished Ring Me quilt was the ticket. This pattern has no points to match making the piecing very simple. This project was started back in early 2017. I took part in a blog hop to announce the release of No Scrap Left Behind, written by Amanda Jean Nyberg (aka Crazy Mom Quilts). I love this book! Amanda has written two quilt books, Sunday Morning Quilts and No Scrap Left Behind. I have both of them in my library. She had an incredibly popular quilt blog but chose to stop blogging at the end of 2018 after a ten year run. Fortunately, she left the blog up so we can all still access her amazing ideas, tutorials and quilt patterns. She is definitely the queen of scrap quilting!

Back to the quilt now. When I was due to publish the project for the blog hop, I was really in the early stages of making the quilt top. I posted progress pictures (see above) and that was as far as it got.

In a relatively short time, I was able to complete the quilt top. With a charcoal gray background, the solid ‘rings’ add vibrant color. To make the rings, I gathered solid fabric strips and trimmed them to about 1 1/2″ or 2″ wide. After making strips sets I cut strips that were 1 1/2″ wide. These were combined with 1 1/2″ corner stones of the gray and stitched to squares.

I encourage you to find a copy of the book if you don’t already have it. The book has many patterns made with scraps with the projects categorized by shape of scrap (eg squares, triangles, strips). Before I knew it, I had my top completed and sewing without the 1/4″ foot was a non-issue.

Yesterday the sun was shining through a window in my bedroom and I knew it would light up the quilt top. Isn’t this stunning? I love the way it looks with the light pouring through.

Stained glass, right?? The seams on the back side of the flimsy look like black framing around the color and the sashing strips. Such a cool effect. This is as far as I took the project though. I wanted my Bernina back for quilting it.

Today I was able to go pick up my machine. I have one quilt in process where the quilting is nearly finished (I was working on it when the Bernina decided to get stuck). Once that quilt is done, I will baste this one and get going on it. Can’t wait!

This week has been a bit of a drudge as I have had a cold. While I can’t prove it, I am guessing I caught it when I was babysitting the girls last week. Who knows? Historically, my sweet grand daughters have been very generous in sharing any germs they might be harboring. We went home on Thursday, Friday the 3 year old started running a fever and on Sunday I started to feel sick. Oh well. They are worth it. We had so much fun with them. My son and his wife took a well deserved trip to Hawaii. Ray and I had the pleasure of spending loads of time with the grands. Here are some pictures of the fun we had:

Playing in puddles.

So much dancing, wrestling and gymnastics happens with these two. They love to perform for an audience.

This silly girl was having some dessert and watching a show on the iPad. I had to laugh when I walked by and saw her sitting like this. Ouch.

We did a number of art projects with the kids. This one was fun. I put blue painters tape down and told them to paint the sections however they wanted to. It was a challenge to peel up the painters tape though. I should have used heavier paper (or even cardboard). The tape was pulling on the paper a lot so I had to go super slow. The results were great though.

Aren’t these pretty??

We went shopping one day and H (age 6) saw this make up kit that said ages 5 years and up. I was very hesitant to buy it so I texted the parents a picture of it to see if they approved. She was overjoyed when Mom and Dad gave the go ahead. Oh my gosh, the glitter and color these two had all over their faces for the remainder of our time together. It was so funny.

The girls love their grandpa and he enjoyed lots of snuggle time.

Overall, the week went well. We came home exhausted and happy. These two kids were one of the reasons we wanted to move up to Washington. Ray and I grew up with grand parents who were actively involved in our lives. It is so special to have a close relationship with the girls.

It is time to go plug in the Bernina and get it set up. I have missed this machine and am anxious to have her back up and running! If I don’t post again, I wish all of the US folks out there a Happy Thanksgiving next week!!

Linking up with Alycia at Finished or Not Friday

October Activities

October has been a great month for being outside which means I have not done tons of quilting. However there will be plenty of time when the rainy, gray weather begins. Ray and I have done lots of hikes around the area, picked berries, spent a week with his mom – so many fun days. Let’s go through it!

Ray’s mom had not been up here since last fall so it was a treat to spend time with her. She is a very easy houseguest. I had gotten my Covid vaccine a day or two before she came and it knocked me down pretty hard. So for the first couple of days she and Ray hung out together and when I felt better I joined in. (I don’t know why that vaccine was so hard on me – did any of you react strongly to this one??) My kids all came for a bbq over the weekend which was fantastic.

We went to a local nursery that is a favorite of Ray’s and mine. Michele bought me a Japanese Maple tree for the front yard as birthday gift. While we wandered around we came across this wooden carved statue of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. Look closely at all of the detail as this is just amazing. It is all carved from ONE tree trunk. We inspected it for a long while; it was incredibly impressive work. Red Riding Hood’s facial expression looks a little strange but otherwise, amazing!!!

So many of you have asked about my dad’s health. You are all really thoughtful!! I want to show you picture proof of his improved health. Steroids can be magical. Fortunately, he isn’t experiencing any negative side effects from taking them daily. It seems like he will need them for months to come. But the doctors are following him closely and monitoring his health while he is on this regimen.

Last May I started adding a bit of a jog to my walks. In June I began running and soon was able to run three miles. Not fast, mind you, but I could run the distance. Since then, I have done two races with Ian, my youngest son. He loves to run and is really quick. For this race on October 15th (celebrating Ian’s 33rd birthday) he did the 10K and I did the 5K. He ran his best time so far for for his 10K and took 3rd in his age group. I had hoped for a better time but for whatever reason, this run was a struggle for me. (I think it had to do with my blood sugar and the food I ate before the race.) Anyway I ran it but was a bit slower than the first race I did in August. I also took 3rd in my age group but many of the women in my age group choose to walk the race so this isn’t a huge deal. But I am enjoying the running I am doing and try to do a three mile run at least twice a week.

While this isn’t an award winning photo, it shows the size of the huckleberries my husband has been picking. I haven’t lived where these grow wild prior to now. Last year we were just too busy getting settled to notice them. But this year! Ray has picked so many of them. He spends quite a while cleaning them because they are tiny!! Getting those little stems cleared out is not a fast task. But yum. He has made huckleberry jam and a batch of huckleberry muffins so far. There is a quart of berries in the freezer waiting for his next inspiration. I do enjoy having a husband who is comfortable in the kitchen.

Check out these quilting rulers!! I treated myself to two sets of Bernina quilt rulers as well as a ruler foot. When Sophia was here in September we talked about how much fun she has using rulers to quilt with. I have thought of these now and then but couldn’t get it in my head that it was doable. Free motion quilting is already fairly awkward. To add a ruler to the mix when moving the fabric around?? But guess what? It is so fun. The rulers have a layer of thin adhesive (or some sort of gummy substance) on one side of them so they do not slide. I have been looking at loads of YouTube videos and tutorials on the Bernina site.

I haven’t used them on actual projects yet. So far, I am just playing with them. It is super fun and I can see using them on something real fairly soon. Also, for those of you who are frugal like me, Bernina presser feet and accessories are super pricey. I am a fan of watching EBay. The foot I bought used for half of the retail price. The ruler kits arrived in unopened, original packaging so were never used. They were also half of retail price. This hobby is rather expensive so saving a few bucks where I can is helpful. It takes some patience to watch for items that you specifically want or need but I think it is worth it.

Looking ahead at the week, I am hoping to spend a bit of time in the sewing room. However, on Saturday my Bernina started acting up while I was quilting a lap quilt (see above) that I am anxious to finish because it is a gift for a friend. Why fail me now??? The timing is not good here. But it seems to be something to do with the hook (behind or under the bobbin area). I have cleaned and oiled, threaded and re-threaded, changed out needles, rewound the bobbin about 87 times. What else can I do??? Ray looked at it for a while but couldn’t find anything either. I don’t want to take it in because it takes so darn long to get it back, it is probably something simple and it will be a $250 outlay. How frustrating! If anyone has ideas as to why the upper thread is binding up below after just a few stitches, please leave a comment. Anywho….. If I can get the Bernina 570 back on track, I will finish the lap quilt.

At the moment, I have my little back-up machine set up. I used it to make a pair of cozy joggers yesterday but I can’t finish the quilt with it. The little machine is actually quite a work horse and is fine for piecing and making clothing.

Have a lovely week everyone. Wish me luck in figuring out my silly sewing machine mystery!!

My Parents, My Kids and a Dear Friend

It has been one month since my last post. Many times I have thought I should sit down and write but it never happened. Life got so crazy around here!

The main issue was my dad and this weird illness that seemed to begin out of the blue. He is 88 years old and other than a cold here and there has never really been sick so this was shocking to him and the family. Turns out he has developed an auto-immune disease that is quite painful (Polymyalgic Rheumatica). He has been in so much pain and trying to get him the proper treatment for this has been horrific. When Mom and Dad moved to the area in July, they immediately made appointment to become established with a primary care doctor. The first available appointment was in November. Because they are were in good health, we all thought nothing of it. When Dad became sick in August, it became clear we do not have enough doctors in our area. NO ONE would see him since he wasn’t an ‘established patient’. We took him to Urgent Care and the Emergency room twice and each time, they suggested Ibuprofen and that we should make an appointment with a rheumatologist because his blood work indicated he had a problem. This was not the least bit helpful. He cannot have an appointment to a rheumatologist without a referral and he can’t get the referral because he doesn’t have a primary care doctor which he cannot get an appointment with until November. What a vicious cycle. I spent many, many hours on the phone just calling doctors randomly to try and get him in. It was truly a crazy experience.

Finally as luck would have it, I had an appointment for my annual physical. While there, I told my primary care doctor of this whole debacle and he felt terrible for my father. In an act of true human kindness, my doctor said he would see my father. My doctor isn’t accepting new patients but he walked me to the reception area and told the scheduler to get my father in that same week. OK – now we were making some progress. The same doctor talked to his partners and one of them said they would take my parents as new patients. Even more progress! At his visit, Dad was prescribed steroids which are helping but he is still very uncomfortable. The doctors are working on getting the level correct to reduce his pain. Now that he is ‘established’ with a doctor I was able to get him an appointment with a rheumatologist Except the rheumatologists are all scheduling months out. Sigh.

Well I know how to play this game. Dad is now scheduled for two appointments with two different rheumatologists (and hopefully they don’t read quilting blogs or I will be busted on this)! He has an appointment with one in December and the other in April. I asked he be put of the ‘cancellation list’ at both offices. I have a reminder in my phone to call each one every week and see if he can take a cancellation because I don’t honestly have any confidence they will remember to call if one opens up. With any luck, he will get in sooner than December but at least we are making progress.

As my daughter-in-law said, Dad has been the victim of our very broken medical system. What a wildly irritating experience this has been. As for Dad, I am grateful he is feeling a bit better but he is still having so much pain so we need to keep working this broken system until all of this can be resolved.

While visiting with my dad and mom, we have been looking at old photos. They are such a treasure – here is one with Dad (left side), his little brother and his younger sister. This was taken in their back yard in about 1947 or so.

During all of this, there was a family wedding celebration. My son came out from Brooklyn, NY for a week. It was a great distraction for Mom and Dad to see some family (though Dad was unable to go to the reception).

Kyle and mom.

I loved having Kyle here – we went to the beach, did some hiking, he jogged alongside me at my very slow pace, and we ate loads of yummy food.

Beach time.

Our visit with Kyle was followed by a visit from my friend Sophia. This was also a great treat! I created a mini shop-hop and we toured around visiting quilt shops. The state fair was happening so we headed over there, specifically to see the quilt exhibits. We also did some hiking, and again, ate some yummy food!

Because she is a veteran with a can of spray baste, she helped me use it to baste a lap quilt. It wasn’t messy and, was in fact, super easy. Since she left, I sprayed two more projects. My only issue thus far was having the spray nozzle clog up. I think I have that all fixed though.

Best of all, Sophia taught me how to do some basic paper piecing. Yahoo! I can’t say I enjoy it all that much, but I can see the benefits of it for certain types of projects.

The holiday project on the right side has been in my unfinished pile of projects for years. Sophia and I had taken a class together back in 2016 and this was one of the projects. Once I set it aside, I totally and completely forgot how to make the little trees. My patient friend showed me and I got the trees finished, just seven short years later. Hahaha. The block on the left is just practice. I printed a few papers to use as practice so I won’t forget again! I have to keep practicing this or it won’t stick. This isn’t how my brain works so it is tough for me to remember the process.

Sunday Stash

I remember I used to write lots of these posts. There was a link up at Mollie Sparkle’s blog and people would share the newest fabrics they were working with. Mine were usually fabrics I had thrifted. Once I had the shop those posts ended for obvious reasons. Even now that the shop has closed, I have sooooo much (too much) fabric so I rarely buy any.

But, there is always a but, yesterday I was at a tiny quilt show with my friend Annette. It was held in a church and the quilts were displayed by laying them over the pews. It was quaint but I can’t say I am a huge fan of this sort of display. For one thing, the viewer cannot step back and see the whole quilt. So many quilts look best from a few feet back. Because the church was small, many of the quilts were folded and then draped over the pew. This meant we only saw half of the quilt. This doesn’t allow for looking at secondary patterns or the effect of the outer quilt on the center. It was sort of frustrating. Anyway, it was fun because you know….. a quilt show is always fun. Plus they had a little table of home baked treats and a great shopping section. Annette and I found a number of things we liked.

There were loads of books for $1.00 each. I picked up two that are different from most in my library of quilt books. But they have some really cute projects in them. The Remembering Adelia book contains journal entries from a young woman during the Civil War. I love this sort of thing. Life is so easy now. Women worked all day, every day back then. The journal entries sucked me in and I enjoyed reading most of it yesterday when I got home.

The Folk Art Quilts book has some really fun projects. I love the whimsical critters on these two pages and plan to make something with them. This is way out of what normally appeals to me but I am looking forward to this.

The same book also maps out how to make the letters of the alphabet which will come in handy some day. I know this isn’t rocket science but it is nice to have it mapped out visually and then just adjust the size of the squares to get the correct size letter block.

I also picked up two containers for thread. I have had my thread hanging on a wooden rack but it is poorly placed in my sewing space and I was constantly knocking thread off the pegs. I sorted thread and put what I could fit in these bins. The left bin contains the shiny Sulky threads as well as my hand stitching threads. On the right is a large portion of my standard threads.

Unfortunately my some spools are too big for these bins. Since I was in the mood, I reorganized some of the drawers in a bin under my sewing table. This allowed me to put the Glide spools and the Connecting Thread spools in a drawer. I still have a small number of Aurifil threads that I haven’t found a good space for but I am sure it will work out.

It is much easier to see what I have now. This exercise forced me to look at all of the thread I have. Is it too much? Yes, yes it is. How I acquired all of this is a wonder!

This little stack of fabric is the extent of fabric purchased. I really wanted that little cheddar yellow check because it will work in some of those silly animal blocks I want to make. The others look good with it and should work with the project.

Quilt shows are the best. It always makes me itch to get back home and head to the sewing room! (Which is exactly what I did)!

My sweet girls have been on vacation with their parents all week. We are dog sitting in their absence. From what I have heard and the pictures seen, they are having a wonderful time. It is a great finale to their summer. We get to see them next weekend for some family time. Happy Sunday all of you!!

The Past Weeks in Pictures

Summer has been going full force around here. This is a picture heavy post as I thought it would be a fun way to share the shenanigans going on in our family!

New swing set!!

About two weeks ago Ray and I spent a few days at my son’s house. Andrew needed some help building a swing set for the girls. Ray’s helped with the building and I helped distract the kids from “helping”.

The chief supervisors of the swing set project sat in the ‘spiderweb swing’ and made sure all was going according to their plan.

While we were over there, we celebrated Ray’s birthday. I made an apple honey bread pudding. The cool thing was much of what was in the cake was grown by Andrew and Naomi. The eggs came from their chicken coop, apples from the trees, honey from their beehives and the challah bread was made by Naomi the day before. Delicious!

One day the kids wanted to have a picnic outside. H grabbed a quilt and headed out.

It was adorable to see the kids on that quilt three years later. Look at this round little face three years ago when I first gave it to the girls. (Sure look like they need a bigger picnic quilt now).

Part of my ‘duties’ while the swing set was under construction was to take the girls to swim lessons. This photo makes me smile; H is quietly picking blue glitter out of her little sister’s hair. Apparently at dance lessons the day before, the dance teacher sprinkled ‘fairy dust’ over the girls’ hair and I am certain it will be a while before all of it is washed out of A’s curls.

The girls came to our home the following week for a three night sleep over. Andrew has been wanting to try a mountain bike/camping trip. He biked over trails for 25 miles, camped for a night and then rode back out. He got a much deserved break and we got to enjoy the girls. (Unfortunately, Naomi was working – she has had a really rough schedule this summer).

One day we did a fun paint project and I thought it good enough to share for the other grammy’s out there. Cover the work space (this gets a little messy) and put a piece of paper down. The girls chose six colors and I put a generous dot of each one at the bottom of the page (toward the artist). Then I laid a sheet of plastic wrap over the paper and paint. They used a small rolling pin (made for them by PePaw) and rolled the paint out. This was a good challenge for them. The rolling pin had to have some pressure to really move the paint. But they absolutely loved the process. So much so, each girl very happily waited for their turn since we only have one rolling pin. The idea came from Crafty Morning. The only thing I would change for the next time is to have better paper on hand. I used regular printer paper which was a bit thin. Card stock would be better. I am sure there will be a next time – it would be fun to do seasonal colors for fall or Christmas, etc.

Time in the sewing room is also a favorite thing with these girls. However when I have both of them, it is a challenge. The attention span of a six year old is much greater than a three year old. So when little sister was napping, we snuck in some time to make a project. H designed a drawstring bag. She chose black dotted minky and adorned it with pink pom-poms and gathered lace. I think she achieved a bit of a victorian vibe here. She was thrilled but not ready to stop making things. She pulled out bits of animal print minky and asked what we could make. I suggested head bands. I wasn’t really sure how that would be received because the girls don’t generally wear head bands. But they really liked them. It was so cute to see their faces with their hair pulled back. If you want to make stretch knit headbands for kids or yourself, this is the tutorial I would suggest. They are super easy to make.

Beautiful weather called us to the beach one afternoon. These girls made themselves right at home. It was low tide so the water was very far out and there was too much muck to climb through to get to it. But they had no problem keeping amused on the shore.

Sand castles were constructed.

We had to walk this little trail a few times to scoop up water for the moat. How many kids have endlessly filled a sand castle moat only to see the walk drain down and then need more? Countless times.

At one point H called out to me, Grammy, this thing is alive. Not a good phrase to hear, I walked over and they were looking at sea anemones. Touching each one to watch it shrink up. This fascinated the kids and I was pleased to see they were really gentle about it.

After beach time, we went to Dairy Queen for a treat. Much to A’s joy, there was an ambulance in the parking lot. She often tells us she wants to be an ambulance driver when she grows up. They EMT’s were having a snack inside so when it looked like they were finished, I took the girls over and introduced them. These EMT’s were amazing. They talked and talked to the kids and even let them go in the ambulance. It was really a special time for them. H chatted with them and A became shy and hardly said a word. But I think she enjoyed it.

It was a fantastic (and tiring!) two weeks to be sure. School will begin at the start of September and then it won’t be as easy to spend this much time with our grand daughters. Life gets so busy! The house is quiet again and I am back into the regular routine. I am ready to baste my Positivity Quilt and (hopefully) will have it quilted soon!

Brooklyn With My Boy

After enjoying time with one of my kids, leaving is always, always a challenge. Do all mothers feel this? The love I feel for each of my four children is endless.

I just spent four whole days with Kyle. He is my middle child; my second born who entered this world in 1987, ten days early and came into the world in just 26 minutes. The doctor didn’t have time to put on his surgical gown and I am fairly certain the (white) shirt and Mickey Mouse tie he wore that Sunday evening were never worn again. I was still wearing socks and a -tshirt when the hospital registrar came in after Kyle was born and said, ‘well now, let’s do your paperwork’.

Sweet boy asleep on the first quilt I made.


Having time alone with any one of my children is time treasured. Because he lives across the country, this doesn’t happen often enough for me and Kyle. But this week…. This week I had four entire days. We talked about all sorts of stuff, from silly to serious. We walked over 60,000 steps wandering all over Brooklyn. One day we did venture into the city for a walk through Central Park but mostly we stayed in Brooklyn.

Time for appetizers; dolmas, roasted beet salad, roasted and brussel sprouts – delicious

Kyle and his wife were very gracious hosts. They chose amazing restaurants, and even found a lovely quilt exhibit in a small museum (worthy of a separate post). Knowing I was really there just for time together, our time wasn’t booked up with tours and back to back activities. It would be easy to do this in New York and maybe someday we will. Instead we just walked and talked.

Not my photo; how did I forget to take one??

On Thursday we enjoyed hanging out together. My daughter-in-law was unable to take as much time off as Kyle. We decided to go to Brooklyn General so I could ogle the fabric. Their focus is yarn but do have a great selection of garment fabrics and some quilting cottons. I knew I wanted a linen blend to make a summer top. After choosing one, my DIL found some pretty batiks. I chose one and plan to make a pair of loose fitting, comfy pants. 

Training climbing roses over a length of heavy chain.

Next we headed over to the Botanical Gardens. It was a warm, slightly humid day. We wandered the garden looking at the roses choosing our favorites and smelling the fragrance as we wandered. What a surprise to see how far ahead the blooms were compared to my roses at home in Washington. The gardens here were fully blooming but mine still have tight buds.

Another day we took the subway into the city to see Central Park. What a beautiful space. It was Friday and it didn’t feel at all crowded. We listened to a number of musicians. Of course in the Strawberry Fields area the music was songs by the Beatles. We watched a high school age dance group practicing a dance routine involving some line dance steps with boots and hats mixed with some hip hop and gymnastics. I LOVE watching kids dance so this was super. We also sat on a bench for a long while to listen to a young woman with a gorgeous voice sing. She did some Alycia Keys and knocked it put of the park (pun absolutely intended). As we walked under a gorgeous archway, we watched a wedding party having professional photos taken. The bride wore a stunning full skirt of silk with tones of bronze. I was mesmerized by her outfit and I am sure Kyle expected me to go ask her what the skirt was made of! I (barely) controlled myself.

Next we headed over to see the Twin Towers monuments and take a peek at the Statue of Liberty. It was a somber moment to see both of the monuments. Very severe looking with the angels and the water but a strong representation of what the size of the towers were and the loss caused on that day. There were a few single rose blooms placed on a name here and there. Kyle explained there is a group of volunteers who place a flower on the name of anyone who would have celebrated a birthday that day. As far as the Statue of Liberty, I am happy I saw it but was underwhelmed. Not sure why. Maybe because I had seen photos of it so many times. But I can check it off the list now that I have seen it.

On Saturday we walked through the Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. This historical graveyard has been in Brooklyn since 1838. It is also an arboretum. The mature trees and rolling hills spread over 438 acres make for an incredible park. People use it as a local green space which is so needed when living in such a populated city. During lockdown, Kyle and his wife would often walk through here to be outdoors. He would tell me of their ‘walk through the cemetery’ but I had no idea it was anything other than a small, local cemetery.

The gravestones and markers are really interesting. Some are ornate and some could even be described as gaudy. Others are touching such as the one above with their family pet immortalized.

Some are mysterious, leading us to google the name on the headstone to see if we could find out details about the person remembered there. I tried briefly to look up this memorial to see if it was actually a memorial to the horse or to the owner of the horse. I wasn’t successful though I admit I didn’t try very hard. This marker is huge, taller than me.


Sunday was spent wandering the Dumbo district in Brooklyn. Along with oodles of others, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. (Picture above isn’t great but it is the only one I have so I have to save it!) It is one mile long and because of the crowds, we walked slowly. Talking, talking and then….. talking even more. People watching was crazy fun. We saw two (very unintelligent) people climb to the top of the rail (intended to keep people from falling off the bridge and into the highway traffic just below) to take photos. Really?? That is the picture you need to have?? Both people were young, pretty women who were dressed beautifully. I would assume this was for a social media post. Yikes. Our world is crazier by the day. They are climbing up there as Kyle and I discuss our jitters over the fact that the bridge is made of wooden planks and wonder if it is strong enough for the hundreds and hundred of tourists walking the bridge. We stopped and looked through the slats and realized that if the slat should crack and we fell through it wasn’t going to be pleasant. Yep, we are of like minds, my son and me.

Returning home on Monday was the right thing to do; albeit not easy. But over the next few days the smoke from the Canadian fires was heavy. The La Guardia airport was even shut down for a bit. Seems like the air cleared a bit today but I know all too well the smoke comes and goes for such a long time.

In other news, my parents BOUGHT A HOUSE!! They are moving up here at the end of June and I just cannot wait! They are dealing with myriad details which is so overwhelming when moving. The new house is just five miles from mine which is perfect. Today I am heading to my son’s house. I am the “mystery reader” in H’s kindergarten class. Next we leave on Wednesday to head to central CA to watch Julia graduate from college. Life has certainly taken me away from the sewing room. Not sure when I will be back to having time for sewing. But this happens. Take care everyone. Back soon-(ish)!!