Category Archives: Family

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!

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

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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)!!

Baby Toys, Pajamas and More

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Hello there! This week sure buzzed by in a hurry. We have had lovely weather which means we have been able to get out in the yard. The flower pots on my front deck are planted which always makes me happy.

In the family post I wrote two weeks ago, I mentioned that great grand child number 17 had arrived. She is adorable and doing well. It is a bit early for her to be playing ball but I thought it would be fun to make a set of squishy balls for her to use when she is a tiny bit older. These always come together quickly and are great for using up scraps. I stuffed them with polypill and put some little rattle noise makers in them too. Now I just need to get them sent down to Southern California for her. If you want to make some, this is the link I used to get the template. You can enlarge or decrease the size of the ball template on a paper copier.

For some reason I wasn’t in the mood to work on any of the quilt projects I have going. Instead I opted to make matching summer pajamas for my grand daughters. They don’t need them, have loads of pjs, but what the heck? I saw this pink unicorn fabric at a thrift shop for $2/yard. Who can resist? They both love pink, rainbows and unicorns so I had to buy it! I will see my three year old over the weekend and I suspect she will enjoy these quite a lot. She can bring the matching set home for big sister.

Making those pajamas got me in the mood for sewing clothes. I bought this fabric over a year ago but never used it. It is some sort of rayon and has wonderful soft drape to it. So I cut out this summer dress. I didn’t have quite enough and need to look through my solids to find something that will work as the lining for the bodice. I am making the short version with the curve to the hemline. It should come together quickly.

The girls painted these frames for me as a Mother’s Day gift. I love them. The picture that H chose for her frame (on the right) is really something. The expression on my face is not one that I would normally choose to have framed and on display but there you go. It is on the mantle for all to enjoy! Hahaha. I think we were making fudge for Thanksgiving two years ago but why I have that expression is unknown to me. How silly.

These photos are also quite special. Julia will be graduating Cal Poly next month. She had graduation photos done and I just love them. I posted them on Instagram so you may have already seen them but I had to share again. The photographer (also a Cal Poly student) did a great job. These three are my favorites but it was a tough choice. Of course she had to have a series taken at the swine unit with her favorite animals. She is very excited to graduate but as is often the case, it is bittersweet. She will miss those rolling hills and her friends.

Finally, one more bit of news. My parents sold their house!! They are moving up to Washington. We are all so excited. This is a huge adventure for them but it seems to be working out well so far. They will be up here next week to begin looking at houses. Crossing fingers they find just what they want.

Just a reminder that the kick-off for the Positivity 2023 QAL happens on May 28th over at Sew Preeti Quilts. Preeti will be sharing the pattern choices and talking about fabric choices. I am very excited for this event and hope you will consider joining us!! We will be sewing lap size quilts to donate to Mercyful Quilts. Of course if you choose to donate your quilt to another cause, that is fine as well. We just want to extend more positivity into the world and this is one way to achieve this!

It All Started in 1953

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This post has been in my head for years. Maybe since I first started my blog. I think about it each May for reasons which will become apparent. Then it drifts away and I don’t write it up. But here we go!

These little ones are my parents. They were born in the mid-1930’s.

Some years later, they started dating and wearing matching swimsuits – because they were, and still are, just that cool. (I think they were 16 and 17 years old in this picture).

In May of 1955, the cool couple got married. They were young, 19 and 20 years old.

As was common in the 1950’s, the first baby happened quick. She was born three days after their first anniversary. Those babies (all girls) kept on coming with the last one born in 1966. So, six kids in ten years. These were busy times. The photo above is not great as far as quality but I love it. (I am on the far right). This was the summer of 1966.

Time went on and their six children grew up, got married and started having babies. Just like those cool parents of theirs.

Between the six kids (now shown with lots of gray hair), 21 grandchildren were born. This began in 1979 with the birth of grand child number one, Maria. The last grand child, Julia, was born in 2001. Julia was the tie breaker making the final count eleven grand daughters and ten grand sons.

The twenty-one grandchildren are all grown up now, contributing to the world in myriad ways. We have two lawyers, one occupational therapist, two who work for Go Fund Me, a project engineer at Collins Aerospace, a director of engineering turned full time stay at home dad, a network security specialist for a brokerage firm, a professional dog trainer, a high school French teacher, a bank manager, a comedy writer who wrote for many years on the TV show, Big Bang Theory, a chef-in-training, a sports administrator at University of Arizona, a recruiter for Roblox, an esthetician, a preschool teacher, a student advisor at Stanford, a government employee in DC who works in I/T, a medical equipment sales tech at Stryker, and Julia who will be taking a job as a research technician upon graduation. This is a whole lot of brain power and it was all started by those two cool kids back in 1955.

But there is more! The 21 grand children have been busy marrying and having kids of their own. They are expanding this family greatly. My parents now have 17 great grand children.

This sweet girl, number 17, was born just a few days ago, on May 11th. (She is one of the reasons I started thinking about all of this again; when I realized we now had 38 grands and great-grands in the family)!

This picture, taken last fall, is incomplete – with about 15 people in our family not present.

I love being part of a big family. My sisters are my best friends. Having had four children within sixteen years and now knowing the work it takes to raise a big family, I cannot express my gratitude enough to my parents for their decision to have six children so close together. It wasn’t idyllic – we all argued, we created havoc. Dad was always fixing something. It was noisy and there was a lot of female energy in the house. I can remember my dad saying things like ‘go put some clothes on’ (if we walked around the house in our underwear) or ‘who is crying now’? when he would walk in and hear the tears starting up. Mom and Dad shared a car for quite a while in those early days. Mom stayed home with all of us until about 1976. I am sure she spent many, many hours washing those endless cloth diapers!! She read to us, took us to the library, taught all of us to cook, to SEW!!, and to get the chores done on Saturday mornings. Mom and Dad put up with lots of teenage angst, boy friends, and the usual drama. They put us through college and hosted six weddings.

Lots of sacrifice is necessary when you decide to have a big family. As with any family, we have all had our ups and downs. As a group, we have dealt with divorce, loss (the death of my first husband), health issues, learning disabilities and more. Life can be a challenge but we have each other to lean on through whatever comes our way.

I am not saying this is the only way. Having a big family isn’t for everyone. In fact, having children at all isn’t for everyone. But for me, it was and still is, the best way. I am very thankful to have grown up in this crazy family.

Did you grow up in a big family or small? I would love to hear your experience, if you want to share.

Our Favorite Place, the Beach

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I met my husband on a blind date in July 1997, we were engaged in November and married in April. We celebrated our 25th anniversary on April 18th! We both look at each other and wonder how 25 years have already gone by. Much has happened in that time span – the boys have all graduated college, met their life partners, married, settled into careers and two grand daughters have been born. We had Julia, she grew up and will graduate college next month. We have bought and sold four houses over the past 25 years. We have taken trips, worked to our retirement, celebrated occasions and grieved the loss of a couple of very close friends. Yet even with all of this, we look at each other wondering how it could possibly have been 25 years already!

Throughout these years one constant for us has been our love of the beach. When we first met, we spent time at the beach. Vacations with our kids often included the beach. Our honeymoon was spent on St. John in the US Virgin Islands. Thus it came as no surprise to anyone when we decided to celebrate our 25th at…. the beach!

We told each other come our 25th anniversary, we would take a big trip and mark the occasion. We thought and thought about it. Looked at the free airline miles we have accumulated. Hmmm, where should we go? After much discussion, both of us admitted to the other we just wanted to go to the beach. We picked Westport Beach about two hours southwest of home and rented a house right on the bluffs.

It was such a cute little house. On the bluffs of a beach with a very long stretch of coastline going either way.

We walked for miles each day. We ate fish & chips (our favorite) and looked for shells.

Ray gave clamming a try. It is the season to dig razor clams so he decided to have a go at it. He is a tall guy and stooping over like this was hard on the muscles!

But oh my gosh, what a success!

We were quite surprised to see how many people showed up in the mornings to dig razor clams. I enjoyed watching this go on all morning. When the tide came in by 11am or so, the beach emptied out completely and we had it to ourselves.

Ray made clam chowder one night and it was so yummy.

It was the perfect way for us to celebrate our (first) twenty-five years. We returned home, feeling rested and and full (bellies and hearts).

Leggings, Matching Quilts, & a New Puppy

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Friends – It’s been a fun week or so around here. First off, don’t let the title confuse you. Ray and I did NOT get a new puppy!! I don’t have the patience for that. But my sister does and she did get one. He is adorable so let’s start off with him!

This is Powers. My sister has already raised three guide dogs for the blind. This cute little guy makes number four. His name is Powers and he is nine weeks old. They are in the throes of housebreaking him and hoping he will soon be able to sleep all night. It is so much like having a new baby in the house. He is just adorable and like any good auntie, I went and met him. He has that sweet puppy breath and is so heavy!! He is going to be a big boy, that’s for sure. Cathy is already working on his training. Raising a guide dog is an enormous commitment.

This face! I love his eyes and how soft he is.

OK – moving along now! H and A were here last week. We had them plus their parents for a quick over night. They were on their way to take the ferry up to Victoria, Canada for a long weekend with some of their friends. We watched their dogs while they were gone. When they were here I noticed that H had on some leggings that were way too small for her. Not that she doesn’t have pants that fit but this child has her favorites and wears them forever! I told her I would make her a new pair and she was so surprised. “You can make me pants?” Sweet girl, of course I can. Let’s go pick out a fabric. She chose this stretch knit that I used years ago to make her a dress when she was not quite two years old. (You know how it goes – it was on sale so I bought a bunch!) Little sister now wears the dress in the picture above but honestly, it fits like a tunic now. Fortunately, I had enough to make a pair of leggings for big sister and little sis both. I haven’t seen them on yet but reports are they fit well. H wore them to school last week. It was a fun project and a quick finish.

Over the past several months, I worked on this patchwork quilt. It is now a quilt top! I used a blue (leaning to gray) chambray fabric for the solids. Then went through the box of 3 1/2″ squares and chose as many as I could that looked soft and muted. There are some with deeper colors to add a bit of variety but the majority are very soothing tones. It is exactly what I had hoped for. The only issue was the darn chambray. Oh my gosh it frays so easily. This drove me nuts! When I get ready to baste this, it will take forever to clean the threads from the back side. I did use a very small stitch to ensure the seams remain strong.

When I was satisfied with the size of this top, I still had a stack of the chambray squares remaining. Instead of putting them away, it seemed a good idea to just keep sewing!

This baby quilt is the result of the extras! It is so sweet! I put a narrow chambray coping strip and then a soft green dotted border to grow it to a decent size. At approximately 36″ square, it is a bit smaller than I usually make for a baby quilt.

There are so many sweet prints in this little quilts. Kitties, butterflies, rabbits and hedgehogs can be found. I stitched in the ditch first and then did a crosshatch through the chambray. As with the lap quilt, I used a very small stitch to sew the patchwork.

The backing is an older Mode print I thrifted some years back. Because of the smaller size of the quilt, this piece fit perfectly. A pale yellow binding finishes it off well. As of yet, I am unsure where this quilt will end up but at some point, it will find a good home!

Recently there was a great course called Color Mixer offered by CT Publishing. I had posted about it a few months ago. Lots of great teachers gave one hour lessons on color. Anyone who registered for the class has access to the recordings to listen to as they like. While sewing, I have been listening/watching the classes. So much great information was imparted and I am learning quite a bit. Moving forward, when I was at my sister’s house last week to play with her puppy, she gave me a yard of the firehouse fabric in the picture above. She had ordered it not realizing the larger scale of the print and then couldn’t use it for her project. It is such a great print and I don’t want to cut it up. Instead, it will be the backing for a child’s quilt. I pulled fabrics to use to make the quilt top. The focus will be red, white and blue with orange and yellow to add vibrance. The only fabric I am unsure of is the lightest blue (just behind the yellow). I think that one doesn’t fit in. How about you? Should I remove it from the pull?

You all know I am always watching prices and can be very frugal. AccuQuilt dies can be super expensive so it is great to shop their overstock sale items. The dies are 40% off which makes the cost a bit better. To make the system even more affordable, I think it is a great idea to collect these with a friend and share them. When I am cutting, I do love using my AccuQuilt but there are plenty of times it is just sitting on the shelf. Sharing it would be super easy. Just a thought!

(The above is an affiliate link with AccuQuilt.)

Central Coast for Spring Break

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Ray and I just got back from five days with Julia in the California Central Coast. Usually Julia comes home for spring break but since this is her ‘last’ one, we decided to enjoy it with her in California. The three of us had such a nice time together. Much of our time was spent beach combing with Julia and Ray looking for rocks and me hunting for beach glass. The shores in Morro Bay did not disappoint. We left with our pockets bulging each time we walked there.

The three of us never seem to tire of beach wandering. We had some sunny days and walked in a bit of rain at other times. But it was all lovely.

Nothing like a sunset shot on a California beach.

We asked Julia if she would tour us through the Swine Unit at Cal Poly. Since she spends so much of her time there, we wanted to better understand the work she does there.

I don’t know about you, but it is such a treat to see our kids in their world. What they spend their time doing, the jobs they are so knowledgeable about, their favorite parts of their work – it lets us, as parents, see our kids as the adults they are becoming.

Julia took us through all of the various barns. Some held the boars (like the photo above). Some had the teenagers (piglets who had recently been weaned from mom but not released to run outside yet). Others had sows who currently were not taking care of a litter. There were sooooo many pigs! Julia seemed to know many of them by name and what each one was doing and why. How she could tell them apart was beyond me.

The nursery was my favorite part. When we were watching the mamas (sows) with their babies, the whole nursery was quiet. One of the sows was laying on her belly without exposing any teats to the piglets. Julia said they do this when they don’t want to nurse at the moment. The piglets started to really scream at her and she grudgingly rolled to her side to let them feed. The funny thing was once that litter of piglets was screaming to eat (and they were really screeching!) then ALL of the litters immediately began to screech. The power of suggestion, right? It was hysterical to listen to the whole barn come to life.

The piglets are so cozy when they are new. They huddle together under the heat lamps and keep each other warm.

When they are just a bit older (the piglets shown above were about 12 days old) they will do whatever it takes to find their place to nurse. Look at this one laying on top of her sibling. I watched these two for a bit. It was so cute.

As they get older, the piglets climb all over the place – exploring their pen. Mama is kept in the farrowing crate. it doesn’t look like it but she does have room to stand, stretch, drink and eat. The piglets end up on the wrong side of her and will then climb up and over to return to the side of their mama that provides breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I didn’t get any pictures that show this but on (most of) the males there were two little slits where they had all been recently castrated. I asked why they didn’t stitch up the opening but Julia said the environment in which the piglets live isn’t sterile so they would be sealing bacteria into the cut. Instead they just apply antibacterial on the incision and let it heal. It looked so clean and the piglets just ran around like nothing was bothering them.

On another afternoon we drove up the highway to San Simeon to watch the elephant seals. There is a protected area where they congregate in large numbers.

At this time of year, it is the females and the babies who are on the shore. They sure have a hard life – lounging on the sand day in and day out. 🙂

As always, it was nice to get home yesterday. The next time we go down to San Luis Obispo will be in June to celebrate Julia’s graduation. How wild!! Her college experience was less than traditional considering the hiccups due to the pandemic but she is definitely ready for the next phase in her journey.

Round Robin, a Comfort Quilt, Princesses & Goats

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Well, where to start with this post? How about with the SAHRR? It is coming together nicely with two more rounds to add on. (Remember this is the Stay at Home Round Robin hosted by Quilting Gail. This year marks the third year of the event but the first time I have participated.

Hourglass blocks were the choice for this round. Chris @ Chrisknitssews took us through making these symmetrical blocks. Of course it is up to each quilter how to use them. I made tiny hourglass blocks to utilize the HST’s that I already had. Then I bordered them with strips of batik to get them to finish at 4.5″. At first I was going to put them on the darker blue batik because the colors are so vibrant on the dark background.

However, when looking at the quilt top I decided not to put two dark blue rounds side by side. Instead, I placed the hourglass blocks with the turquoise blue batik. Maybe I will continue to alternate the shades of blue.

On to the next project. Sometime before we moved I saw a post on Instagram from a woman who wanted to give up some blocks to anyone who would make a comfort quilt with them. I offered and she sent me two sets of blocks. The blue and light brown 16 patch blocks were one of the sets. These blocks had been made quite some time ago but after trimming them and reinforcing seams here and there, I put them together in this simple setting. They look sweet and with the added border, the top is just large enough to be a cozy lap size quilt. I need to look through my yardage and find something for the backing but the rest of this will go together quickly.

Spring has arrived in central California. Julia is happily working with mama goats and their babies. She is having a really busy term and the time she gets with these little guys make such a nice break in her day. Those rolling hills in the background are so pretty!

My son and his wife took the girls to Disneyland for the first time. It was princess heaven.

I thought the variety of expressions on A’s little face were so funny.

Posing with a princess and holding their dresses just so.

Little sister decided she needed a full hug.

The girls had a quick cuddle while riding the monorail into the park. I love this picture!

OK – that is enough for now. Feels like I have lots to work on this week. Hopefully you are all involved in a project that is causing those creative juices to flow! Linking up with a few favorites. Check the out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

Make sure to check out the Quilter’s Color Mixer event coming on March 30th. It is going to be a great opportunity to learn all about color and placement from some really talented instructors. For more details on the event, click here to read my previous post.

Grammy Time

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Last October Ray and I had the opportunity to bring our youngest grand daughter home and spend a few days with her, one on one. It was delightful. We promised big sister she would have a turn to have a sleep over by herself too. Then everything got crazy with all of us being sick for weeks on end. Finally the week after Christmas we made it happen.

When I took Julia to the airport to go back to school, my son met me (this is about the 1/2 way point between our homes) and I picked H up. We were worried little sister wouldn’t understand why she wasn’t coming along. However her father had the good idea to meet in the Ikea parking lot and the promise of Swedish meatballs for lunch with dad was a good distraction; everyone was happy!

Spending time one on one with a grand child (or a child) is so special. The dynamic changes and it seems like the relationship deepens. I grew up in a big family and then had a big family (four children) which is wonderful. But having the chance to single out a child and focus on them entirely is such a blessing. (On the flip side, little sister was getting lots of extra attention from her parents while H was at our house.)

Planning to have this time with H, I had a mental list of fun things we could do. It was supposed to be very rainy so outdoor time would be minimal. Letting her take the lead, we did the things she suggested as much as possible. Board games, jig saw puzzles and coloring are activities she favors so there was lots of that happening.

This little girl loves to make things. She also loves to cook. Her parents give her a lot of room in the kitchen and she is developing a really good understanding of how to bake. For Christmas, Santa bought her a Disney Princess cookbook and she brought it over. I asked her what she wanted to make and she chose Monkey Bread. The recipe was simple, biscuit dough rolled into balls and rolled in butter and cinnamon with sugar.

H is careful and able to measure most of the ingredients on her own. ( In the photo you can see the apron I made for her for Christmas. She also got a new nightgown and was looking quite the princess when making her Monkey Bread).

What really impressed me with this part of the process was she controlled that incredible impulse to lick her fingers between rolling the dough balls in the cinnamon sugar mixture. I watched quite closely and at the end of the process we celebrated by licking all ten of our fingers. The Monkey Bread turned out so pretty and H was satisfied. However I made a mistake and forgot to have her put the salt in so it tasted rather flat. Oh Grammy. She didn’t seem to notice but Ray and I sure did. Sigh.

Next this girl went straight for my heart and asked if we could ‘make something in the sewing room’. As if I would say no to that request. Upstairs we went. I have a huge bin filled with flannel and minky scraps. There really isn’t anything in there that I would miss if she cut it up so I let her have at it. Wanting her to take the lead, I worked hard to bite my tongue and not suggest anything. (This wasn’t easy!!!) She was immediately drawn to a scrap of black minky with a bubbled texture on one side. When she asked what we could make with it, I suggested a stuffed animal or a pillow. She chose pillow. I told her she could put a different fabric on each side or the black minky on both sides. She just lit up and went digging through that bin, turning into the Tasmanian Devil with fabric flying everywhere. But this sort of mess is creativity in my book. She chose a crazy tie dyed flannel and then found a pale mottled fabric that she liked. Wanting to incorporate all three, she kept thinking. Finally she decided to cut the mottled cotton fabric into squares for each corner of the minky side of the pillow plus a bigger square for the center.

It was interesting to see how much concentration it took for her to pin her squares where she wanted them. (I couldn’t worry about turning under the edges of the squares. Pinning them was hard enough!) This part took a bit of time. When we went to the machine to sew, she chose to work the foot pedal and I guided the fabric under the needle. My machine has a speed control which was set to slow.

We stuffed the pillow with polyester stuffing and this is the finished result. The project took well over an hour and she started to lose interest during the stuffing. Off she went to shop in the fat quarter baskets for something else to play with. She also found a bag of pipe cleaners and decided she needed to twist them all together.

Honestly I could watch her play in here all day (well actually we did spend the larger portion of the day in there)!

Finding a cheetah print minky scrap, her wheels started turning again. The thinking process for this project was super interesting. H decided she wanted to make a snake. She told me she wanted to “use insulation for the middle, not stuffing.” This was momentarily confusing… Insulation? Then she pointed to the bin of batting. OK – there’s the ‘insulation’. (Why did she even know that word?) Looking at the picture you’ll get an idea of her plan. She wanted to layer the batting and the fabric and roll them up into a snake. She was very firm that she did not want to make a tube and stuff it. I left her to play with it for a bit and she finally figured out she needed to get the fabric under the batting to roll it up or the fabric would be on the inside of the snake. The issue for me was I didn’t want to roll up all that minky to the inside of the snake. I stepped in and suggested she could roll just the batting and then cover the roll with the cheetah print. She understood and that’s what we did. As we rolled, she thought and said ‘you know, a snake’s head isn’t just round’. OK – after we tapered one end to a sort of triangular shape this girl asks for a ‘forked tongue’ and eyes. Out came the tubs of ribbon (tongue) and buttons (eyes).

H was so proud of this project. Making Elizabeth (this is what she quickly named her snake) took much thought but what a great finish for her! The minky was wrapped around the batting (aka insulation) that she rolled up. We pinned it tightly and hand stitched a seam the length of the snake. H did about three inches of hand sewing and grew bored of that so I finished it up.

After making her snake, big sister told me that her little sister would be sad if she didn’t have a snake. Back to the tub of flannels! She picked out a piece of solid pink and another of solid purple plus two green buttons for the eye. This time I made a tube with the mandated triangular head and ribbon made to look like a forked tongue. Big sister had no interest in helping to make this – she chose the fabrics and moved on. While I sewed H found scraps of orange fleece from the pumpkin costume I made for her several years ago. She didn’t sew anything with it but played with it for a long while – arranging and rearranging the bits and telling me what it looked like. Also, if you look in the background of the photo, you will see a big fluff of poly stuffing with ribbon around it. She spent a long time tying ribbons around this fluff. She wanted to contain it somehow. Finally she wrapped it in a piece of fabric and then tied it with ribbons.

When a younger child is making something, it often is more about the process than the final product. Playing with the orange scraps, playing with the wad of stuffing – H spent a long stretch of time doing this without any desired outcome. As adults, we often want to ask ‘what are you making’. I think this is a mistake. Much of the time, the child doesn’t know what they are making. When I asked H is she wanted help with that fluff and her ribbons, she said she couldn’t get it to stay together. I suggested she look for fabric to wrap around it and off she went. There doesn’t have to be an outcome or a finished item. She is thinking, playing, and imagining and that is what is important.

Whether it is fabric and ribbons, flour and sugar, or paper and crayons, I love watching this girl make her projects. She gets so absorbed by her ideas. As a grammy, it is my job to step back and just enjoy her. Making the craft supplies available and then keeping my mouth shut unless help is asked for; that is my job!

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

An Unexpected Hiatus

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It has been so long since I have written a post, I hardly know where to begin! From mid-November to now, I have been sick with one thing after another. This has been incredibly annoying! There are so many respiratory viruses going around and I believe I have sampled all of them. Our area has been hit so hard that my primary care physician’s office is unable to see any respiratory/flu cases in person because the staff has come down with it and now they are very short handed. It is just wild. The kids have it the worst and the children’s Tylenol and Motrin is flying off the shelves. Anyway, in case you’ve wondered, that is what caused me to go missing. I have been reading and watching TV and doing bits and pieces of sewing as I could.

I think I need to do a general post to catch up with what has happened around here. This blog is somewhat a journal and I can’t just ignore a whole six weeks!

In mid-November my amazing sister hosted an early Thanksgiving for our family. There were about 50 people attending and another 15 couldn’t make it. We haven’t had the group together in a very long while and this was great fun. My parents have six children (my sisters and I) who then in total had 21 children and those grandchildren have had 16 children. If you add in all of the spouses and partners, we have one big family! When I think of the numbers that make up our group, I always come back around to my parents. I am so grateful they had a big family and started this whole ball rolling!

When we all got together it seemed like every single one of the kids attending was coughing like crazy. The following week, the adults started to catch the bug. It was nuts – but also worth it to be able to see everyone in one place.

Two weeks later was Thanksgiving. We had dinner at my son’s house. Look at this big girl learning to baste the turkey! We enjoyed a smaller group this time. It was pure luck that most people felt decent for the holiday. (The girls have also been sick constantly for the past 6 or 8 weeks).

Being home so much did allow me to work on a holiday quilt. I saw a free pattern by Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs called Candy Circle. I have a very large bin of holiday fabrics. Many of them were already cut into five inch squares which made putting this together quite easy. I chose the gray and white background to give it a modern wintry look.

When I had the quilt top on the floor for basting, I decided I wasn’t happy with the large expanse of gray in the center. Not sure how it popped into mind, but I thought adding a big snowflake would be fun. My husband created the template for the snowflake and I found some white, tone on tone fabric with a very slight shimmer to it. Perfect!

I fused it to the center while the quilt top was on the floor and then stitched the raw edges of the snowflake first, before I started to quilt it.

Quilting this piece was a bit unwieldy but overall, it went really well. On each section, white, gray, and colorful, I did a different motif. This kept me interested – honestly, quilting something this big becomes a bit mind-numbing for me after a bit.

It is now on Julia’s bed and I think she really likes it. (I couldn’t resist the snowflake pillow when I saw it in the store. It looks like it was made for the quilt!) Most impressive to me was the fact that I made the quilt top completely from stash. I had to buy the backing fabric but otherwise, this was all made using fabric and batting I had on hand!

In the early fall, I went to a quilt show and as I wandered the vendors, I saw this advent calendar. I know I could easily make this but it was all finished and so cute. Supporting the vendors is important – I know I was very appreciative when quilters shopped my booth at shows in the past. I picked it up for the girls and later on headed over to the Dollar Store. Each pocket has two items in it, one for each girls. Some candy, some hair ties, stickers, and holiday stamps. This picture is from the first December 1st. I think they have enjoyed their daily treats. (It is hung somewhat high because of their Labrador – A calls him a Wabrador– puppy who would surely sniff out the forbidden chocolate).

Moving on! I have also been sewing gifts for the girls for Christmas. I am excited to be able to spend Christmas with them. We haven’t ever been there to watch them on Christmas morning so this year will be extra special.

This apron is for little sister. It is lined so she can wear it either way. This fabric is an older print that has been in the holiday fabric bin for a while now. I think she will love the cookie print. For big sister I made one with princesses and castles. It is already wrapped and somehow I forgot to take a picture of it.

I also made each child a teddy bear. I have never made a stuffed animal and have to say, this was really easy. For me, the most challenging part was stitching the mouth. I had to take it out a couple of times to get a decent result. The teddy bear pattern is from TieDye Diva. Here is a link for you. The pattern comes with some clothes and I did use them for the pants. For the hoody, I went over to Best Dressed Bears. She has lots of simple and super cute teddy bear clothing patterns. Here is the link to the hoody. The patterns over at Best Dressed Bears are made for a slightly bigger stuffed bear so I just made the pieces a smidge shorter in length which did the trick.

OK – I think that sums up the last six weeks. After soooo many boxes of tissues, cups of tea and honey, inhalers, antibiotics, humidifiers, and more naps than I can even count, I think life is back on track. I hope you are healthy and happy. Julia is home and has been patiently waiting around for me to feel better. We love going to some of the cute towns around here for window shopping and just enjoying the Christmasy vibe. Hopefully we will do that tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

Linking up with lots of fun blogs. Check it out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.