Weren't summers long and lazy when we were growing up???

Well, summers aren't long and lazy now!  That was a busy summer!  My plan is to get caught up on the blog this week.  Write a memory each day?  We'll see, won't we! Tee-hee!

On Facebook I was tagged to share my favorite books.  No comments, just a picture of the cover ... you know me, oh, yeah, I'm leaving a little comment!  But here are the books I recommended:

 

Stephanie Plum (26 books in the series - so far!) is perfect for a rainy day and giggling.  Forty Signs of Rain is not recommended to read during a NW Winter storm!!  Just saying - good 3 book series, but read it in normal weather!!

 

Dies the Fire series (15 books) is based in Oregon!!  So fun to be able to picture the locations he mentioned.  Engines of God was printed in 1994!  Great space adventure that is all about the people, not technology!! Just went out to see how many books are in this series.  Now 8 - two I haven't read yet!!  SCORE!

But the big news this day is:   (insert suspenseful drum roll here)

Welcome to the Neighborhood has been accepted into the Santa Clara International Quilt Festival!!  It will be in the Traditional Category. Whoo-hoo!

Here's how it came about:  Quiltmania Magazine ran a BOM by Yoko Saito in 2012.  There were 6 blocks in that series.  But no schoolhouse!  That was the first block I designed and added.  I wasn't wild about the final layout of the quilt.  So I recombined the houses into new extra blocks.  Then I went to Yoko's "Houses, Houses, Houses" book and made houses out of that.  I DO have a collection of house patterns and other books, so I dived into them too.  I had to resize up and down to get them all to fit!  Just between us (wink, wink) there is a "cheater" house in it - cut from pre-printed fabric!  No one has found it yet!!

I absolutely loved adding the hand embroidery touches.  I could have done that for a few more years ... but I decided that this was the year - I was going to take this project out of time-out and finish it!  I still wasn't happy with the shape, it was wider than long.  I was trying to avoid making more squares, but I knew it would look better.  So I bit the bullet and made 3 more blocks (bottom row) and added top and bottom borders.  

Then I handed it over to my friend, Cindy Young, Riverjoy Quilting.  She had fun researching the other quilts from the BOM that were lo-o-o-ng finished.  And came up with the whimsical quilting that differs from block to block.  Cindy really made it come to life!  There are cobblestone paths leading to some of the houses.  She loved discovering all the little details as she quilted it.  And I loved all the details she quilted into it!  We had fun celebrating each other's work!!

It was very successful at both Brookings and Newport guild shows.  Two blue ribbons so far!  I'm not expecting a ribbon at an Intl Quilt show - but it's probably the only time I'll be accepted into one ~ so let's make hay while the sun shines!!  Let the party begin.

I'll be at the show, so I'll send pictures from there too!  October 11-14, 2018

But now for the scary part ... mailing it to them!

I have to share - you know I'm addicted to the free online game Wheel of Fortune.  The day after I got the news about Santa Clara - this was one of the puzzles I solved!!  LOL!  Everyone's celebrating!!!

Life sped up on me! Sorry!

We're having a normal Oregon Coast winter. The last 2-3 years we have been in a drought.  Not this year! And, well, you forget!  I've been wishing life could be more like that movie - "The Truman Show" where it mainly rains at night - not all day!!!  Welcome to 'partly cloudy' on the Coast!

There's been a lot going on.  I hosted the "Finishing School" in Bandon at the end of February.  And yes, I got those blessed little pin cushions done!  They turned out real cute this year - but I'm changing them up next year.  I mean really, paper piecing is supposed to be accurate.  But 3" schoolhouses that have one of the chimneys hanging off the roof just might be a sign that you're past that skill now!  Yep, feeling old and arthritic!!

We had added another day this year - and it was unanimous to do it again next year.  The added day made the whole thing seem more relaxed!!  There was no packing up the day before we left (by anyone else but me!) and that's unusual.  Granted we had enough food and drink to last a few more days ... We have a full kitchen and we use it!!  Our menu was varied and awesome this year!  With lots of leftovers!  But no leftover brownies!!!!  I'm not in this picture - my Ipad camera refused to work for the clerk who was taking our group shot!!

My DSIL's father passed away the night before Retreat ended.  So I did pack up early and left at the crack of dawn (6:45 these days) to drive up to Portland and stay with the 'Littles' while L & J helped out with all the paperwork and arrangements that follow.  Everyone has been doing okay.  But no matter how old you are, you're not old enough to lose a dad.

So I have recently become re-energized about Life and it's possibilities!  There are several new projects I want to do NOW!  There are a dozen UFOs I want done NOW!  And here's where it gets murky!  I don't want someone else to do them.  I want to do them and yet have them finished fast!

Here is the QuiltMania BOM of a few years ago.  I love the house blocks and even made up extra blocks to complete my town.  I'm "auditioning" the mountains border - I've been told it's too dark.

And this is my favorite "new" project.  This year, three of us quilting maniacs in our small town decided to split a subscription of the three QuiltMania magazines.  So far it's been very distracting!  When we got QuiltMania P and I fell in love with the "Camelot" quilt in it.  We gathered fabrics and worked on it at Finishing School.  Well, I dropped out after the first hour!  I could not get the curved piecing to curve!!  P journeyed on ... until the 2nd block - then she was joining me "at the burn barrel"!

So this is our first Simply Moderne issue - and we fell in love with the cover quilt!  I didn't like the mauve background (I don't care if it IS coming back!) BUT when I read further and the appliques were wool - Celebrate!  They had me then!!!  

But after our misadventure with the Camelot blocks - well we decided to do the first quarter and if we didn't like it - it would still be interestingly asymmetrical!   I'm using beige-ings for the backgrounds, a different one for each quarter.  There are a kazillion wool circles on this.  Trying to figure out the easiest, cheapest way to produce them! Don't want an Accuquilt - small apartment, no storage, no room.  Tried some circle punches, hard on my hands.  Bought a package of 30 precut 1" circles at the Ashland Quilt Store, but don't want to spend .16 on each circle!  Right now I'm trying to draw circles (from handy dandy template - $5!) onto freezer paper and fusing that to the wool and cutting them out.  They aren't perfect, no surprise, but neither are my houses!  And my hands seems to hold up to that.  I cut 68 last night watching tv!  BUT always open to a better way!  Suggestions??

I also want to lose weight; read books; watch the DVR programs; spring clean and declutter, increase our savings; cook healthier meals;  .... but oddly, not take a nap!!! (I always crave naps when I have too much to do!)  So whats your favorite method to work on everything at once?? I don't think the "scatter shot" method is my thing!

Last week we were back in Portland (in the rain) for the Memorial service. We went up early to spend an extra day with the 'Littles' and spoil them too.  We played games, including a Disney Trivia game - our 9 year old expert showed us who's the boss!

Then after school was the big chess match - will Papa keep his winning record?? Nope, he did not.  This is really a BIG DEAL!  Papa doesn't dumb down his game for children!!  Mr M was beaming!

Before we came, I repaired a cute little denim skirt for Miss P and have decided against ever doing that again! 5 hours later ... I ended up making the waist like a PJ bottoms waist.  Sewing in the elastic is apparently not completely covered in the tutorial!  When I got it sewed in there were strange little hard sticky-out parts along the waistband.  Uneven stretching of the elastic???? Don't know, but it's a PIA to rip out!!

I had asked my DD to measure waist to bottom of hem on Miss P - she "guesstimated" and last night I had to raise the hem by hand!!!  Sigh!  All I can say is it better be her favorite skirt and I should see her in it a lot!

We came home, I attended our "March Madness" sew in for quilt guild and we left to babysit the other "Littles" the next morning. Still raining thru all this traveling and adventures.  Had a great time with the boys; had a lot of light saber fights with short pool noodles.  Went to the science museum and I had as much fun as the Littles did!  Maybe more!

Coming home across the mountain, still raining and the river was in flood stage - we've never seen it so big and fast!  But home again, home again.  I'm ready to stay for a few weeks, no travel for me, please.  Not for a while at least!

Celebrate Labor Day by working on a quilt!!

That's what I'm going to do!  I've been working hours and hours on the Quiltmania 2012 BOM by Yoko Saito. A real sweatshop feeling but it's so addicting!  I have a few machine and hand embroidery details left on the blocks.  I may be avoiding it by sitting here at the computer ... but want to get those done before I put the beast together!

A quick review - there were 6 blocks in the Magazine series.  But I didn't like the final layout they did.  And if you're going to change something ... well, why not change everything and really make it yours!?!?!  Yep, that's how I get into so much trouble and have so many UFOs!  I wanted a square center so I designed 3 more blocks to fill in.  My next task is to add top and bottom borders.  Top being mountains and bottom being the beach and ocean.  The town will be Brookings Oregon, my hometown now.

Here are the blocks that you haven't seen yet.

This is block 3 from the magazine.  We sewed them out of order because we were a year behind anyway and wanted to save one "easy" block after the dreaded block 5 - which we called "Pile of houses"!  If you lived thru block 5, you were seriously hooked!!

Block 6 from the magazine.  6 houses, but at least they weren't in a pile!  My center background was cut too big - and it's been patch, patch, patch ever since!  So I do have an extra staircase coming down and a bird on the roof ...  I really got into the hand embroidery on some of the trees and the window panes!  Great fun in front of the tv at night!

This was my first block I designed.  It was basically taking my favorite houses from the other blocks, reversing them and guessing at what size I needed the block.  I was awake in the middle of the night this week.  You know how you lay there and think about design problems!!  Quilt or life in general!  And I thought - this town needs some pine trees!!!  I added triangular trees to 5 of the 9 blocks and am loving it even more!

We definitely needed a school. So I looked thru my house quilt pattern collection and found this schoolhouse.  Perfect!  The houses around the school are smaller because it's an older neighborhood!!  LOL!  I still need to put hand embroidery details on this quilt - window panes and the swings.  The flag was a happy design - I couldn't find the red stripe I was looking for but this worked well.

In this block, I picked houses out of the designer's book "Houses, Houses, Houses"  It's a great book!!  I had to reduce the 4 houses slightly.  P, a friend here who is also working on these blocks, mentioned something about a tree house and we just had to run with it from there!!  I remember climbing trees to get to the rickety-est trees houses in existence.  I need to add wood ladder steps up the tree.

It's coming together ... I love this portion of the design process!!  

Home again, home again and all is well!

April was a stressful month!  But at the end of it - all is well!

First, of course, darling Mr K was born.  He's doing so well and big brother is adorable with him.  His little voice making two syllables into 4+.     You should hear what he can do with "Hi!"  Too cute!

Then we had a scare with my dear SIL.  He's a jogger - training for a marathon and had a spot on his nether-areas.  He went to his GP and he said, "Hmmm, I pretty sure that's a bug bite, but I am concerned with this that I found. You're going to a Urologist."

Long 'nail-biting' story shortened -- after blood tests; Ultra-sound, CAT scan, MRI.  The Urologist wasn't sure what it was but  said, "I want it out."  Well, it was testicular cancer.  J is 35 this week and we thank God for that bug!  It was pre-stage1.  He's cancer-free and will be scanned several times a year for a while - but there's no sign of it spreading anywhere.  Of course, there always is the shock of going to a dr for a bug bite and finding out you have cancer!  But he's getting his mind around it.

When I was up there, he said - in a very pitiful voice, "L can you get me a glass of juice, because I have testicular cancer!?!?!"

I replied,"J."
"Yes, Mom?"
"You can get your own juice because you are a CANCER SURVIVOR!"
"Yes, Mom!"

So poor L - 9 months pregnant with twins (she was a surrogate for good friends of theirs.) was the caregiver for J after surgery.  It was a long week before he got the "All Clear".  L said, "Now we can finally relax!  Well, until labor!!"

The twins were born April 20.  The little girl was 4'12 and the big brother was 5'14!!  There was the usual concerns about twins, but all was well and they should be released today from the hospital.

L was so anemic they kept her 2 days in the hospital after a natural birth; and gave her two units of blood. But she is bouncing back in her usual style! Sunday they were all at the zoo!!

And during this period my mom was in the hospital for pneumonia for the 3rd time this year.  She's back home and I'll be seeing her Mother's Day for my spring visit.  Hey, Nebraska! Spring weather would be appreciated!! Work on that, would you???

I missed my Bayshore Babes quilt retreat while helping up at Portland.  But I was on my way home Thursday and they were still all there - so I stopped by, stayed the night and had a great time vegging out after a stressful month! Thanks, Babes, for the warm welcome for someone who was 4 days late!!!

I managed to get my house blocks done.  We're getting together tomorrow to start the last two blocks in the original pattern.  We, of course, are adding 3 blocks to make it square and top and bottom borders of mountains and ocean!!  Might as well make it your own especially if you're starting it late anyway!!

Here's the link to the first 2 blocks.  And here are the blocks - officially block 4 and 5:

These are 'almost' done - there's some animals but I think they need to be enlarged just a skootch!  I machine blanket stitch around them and they are pretty darn small!  But that means I have to be organized enough to remember to take the patterns into town and stop at the copy shop!  Hasn't happened yet!

Miss P is in an "ARTIST" stage.  She had me pose with a can of Sierra Mist!!  And my, she was cranky when I moved at all!!  But I really think she "GOT ME"!!!  What do you think??  Friends told me it looked like I was holding a cell phone, but that couldn't be right - my cell phone is always in the other room!!! LOL!

We had gorgeous weather yesterday - and an awesome low tide too!!  Here's some photos taken with my phone - just to urge you to visit the Oregon coast - especially on the gorgeous days!!!

That's home!  Last building on the left!

Tide pools - always fun to poke around in!

Wide beaches to walk.

View from the top of the hill where we started!

Enjoy spring wherever you are!!