It's time for grandkid's pictures post!

I'm finally feeling more like myself - I still have a cough that makes people turn and glare ... but I'm better. I'll be glad when I get my energy back.

We babysat the last two days and both L and I had great fun taking pictures.


Alas - the 2 bears are not really allowed outside, even though they are used to going everywhere Miss P goes. So they had to sit on the porch and watch the baseball game between beach-papa and Miss P.



Mr M turned 6 months old this week. He's growing like a weed - and has just started eating baby food - alot of baby food. Two containers 3 times a day PLUS 5 bottles of formula!



Isn't she adorable? This was taken one second before she fell back down the ladder of the slide. It knocked the wind out of her and scared Nana to death! But we were all okay in a minute. She was wearing my hat - and that was the end of the pictures today!

Sesquicentennial-ish FINISHED!

Thursday I handed in my sesquicentennial challenge. As you may remember - the challenge was to make a quilt replica using a pattern that was used 150 years ago and ALSO using the same type of fabrics and techniques. Of course, hand piecing and hand quilting. This is to celebrate Oregon's sesquicentennial AND advertising our quilt show in businesses this summer.

I felt called to participate since I followed the Oregon Trail [behind a Penski truck] last June when we moved here!

I made a signature quilt using the 'album patch'. There are 13 blocks - I wrote the names of 13 quilters I quilted with in Lincoln on a regular basis. I drafted the pattern after finding it in "Remember Me" - a great quilt history book.

The handpiecing went well - I'd forgotten how much I enjoy that. The hand quilting also went fast - then the binding from Hades! I joined the strips by hand and then wanted to finish it by a new method - sewing it into a loop before sewing it onto the quilt. It was then that things went terribly wrong!

1. Seam was on the outside of the binding - Rats!
2. Made a geometric figure - yeah - you know the one - the endless loop that turns on itself. Muttered a few nasty words under my breath!
3. Sewed a perfect mitered corner instead of continuous binding. I was loud enough that my DH looked up and quickly avoided eye contact!
4. Decided I liked my usual binding method!

But I handed it in on time ... just have to write 'my story' about it. Don't think I'll include the binding fiasco!

We are well enough to go back up to Portland and babysit again! We're driving up the coast tomorrow and eating at our favorite out-of-the-way restaurant and then over to Portland. Should be a beautiful day again tomorrow.

Pity Party at the coast - y'all come!

Mr M gave DH and I both a bad cough/cold. 5 month olds will cough in your face with no apologies!!! And I was afraid that I'd get nothing for Mother's day!! LOL!

I participated in the Oregon CoastRun quilt shop hop and did their FQ challenge. Let me tell you - those 13 fabrics DID NOT go together! AND some shops had the nerve to charge $3 for the required FQ - that's just not nice. I had a heck of a time coming up with a design ... finally I laid the fabrics in a stack with the selvedges showing and that seemed to calm them down.


I wanted to do something with selvedges - since it's all the rage now! The quilt is called "Did someone say shop hop?" You could only add 2 other fabrics - the green check selvedge and the roadmap border are the ones I added. The green check is the selvedge from mom's 'Gather ye rosebuds' I was working on at the same time. I needed another selvedge to make my squares square! I added comments about the shophop in the blank selvedges ... and the black spotted fabric made awesome spinning tires! I googled cars and came up with the pattern for the VWs I appliqued driving up and down the coast. I had a heck of a time finding roadmap fabric - looked far and wide and finally found it at "Greenbaum's Quilted Forest" in Salem. It's actually a map of France - but I figured 'wine-ing' was involved! All in all - it was fun and I got to experiment with a different technique. Alas, I didn't win - but I did get a free yard of fabric from the shop. Someone with an embroidery machine made a beautiful lighthouse/coast wallhanging - it was hard to believe she used the same 13 fabrics!! The different ocean machine embroideries really blended them. Well done!

Wishing you all a happy "Mother's Day Weekend". Hope you have time to do something you love to do!