Home again, home again!!

A week without a computer! It's amazing, but I survived ... of course, I have a LOAD of emails to sort thru and hours of reading Stashbusters digests ... one bit at a time!

Left last Friday - October 1st and what fun!! I headed up the coast and got to Bayshore early enough to stop in and see all the quilters at my favorite group! Friday evening 4 of us worked diligently on a lap quilt for our hairdresser who remarried in August. It ended up that 6 of us and 1 husband go to her!! So we organized a nickel quilt "Sunny Lanes" throw for her with everyone contributing blocks and time! We didn't get as far as I'd hoped, but we took the blocks to retreat with us [5 of us were there] and got the top and back together Monday night. We handed it off to our LA quilter with glee!!

Saturday, V and I left for Salem where Quiltopia was this weekend. We both have children in Tigard and had arranged to stay with them Saturday night. We meandered thru the country-side, from quilt store to quilt store!! Ate an awesome lunch at a local burger joint ... Burgerville! When you're out in our area you've got to try it!! They buy locally and change the menu to reflect what's in season! Yummy!!

Quiltopia had a boutique ... oh boy! We had fun there - scraps, FQs, yardage and books and magazines galore. We attended a lecture showing an awesome antique quilt collection. Then headed up the road for our lodgings with family that night!

V had it alittle easier than me!! Her family was out at a party. I was babysitting Mr M while mommy and Miss P went to a birthday party!!! We laughed and laughed about her phone call to me while I was chasing him down! He's a busy boy!! We wheeled everything with wheels back and forth between us. I rarely get him alone so this was a bonus visit.



Here's a picture of Miss P and Mr M with her princess quilt - she's also in her princess nightgown from us too! Notice the other pink blankie to the right ... yep, that's the one that's falling apart! Never very far from her.

Sunday morning V and I headed for the 'mother lode'! Yep, we went to Fabric Depot and enjoyed looking thru their acres of fabrics! Then we found "Cool Cottons" in a funky little neighborhood that we wished we had more time in. But on to IKEA for a lunch of Swedish Meatballs and a quick look-see thru their showrooms. Women on a mission, indeed!!

Made it to the Menucha retreat center with 15 minutes to spare!! I know you're all wondering what made it to retreat ... Mr M's big boy quilt blocks was number 1. I had a kit from years ago - Eric Carle's Brown Bear fabric line. Thought it would be perfect when the time came but it was too small for a twin bed quilt. So revamped it and did the cutting before leaving. I'm happy to say that I got all the blocks made! THEN I found a different Eric Carle quilt in the Fons&Porter Sep/Oct magazine that I like better. Oh well, there are bunk beds in his room ... two quilts from the same fabric could work - for twice the work, of course. How do I get myself into these dilemnas??

I also took the 'Birds of a Feather' hand quilting project and got a few hours in on it. Since the roomies liked sleeping with the windows open - I was glad I brought it, since I used it as an additional cover at night.



Monday morning, I taught 16 women the joys of fabric post cards at retreat and we had a ball. By the time I got the camera out, there were just 12 of us left!! I'd taken a paper ream box full of scraps and the peltex needed for the stiffener and everyone in class made at least one post card! I had also made "Menucha 2010" machine embroidery strips for all everyone at retreat to use in some way over our time together. A lot of them showed up in post cards and labels. I recommend doing a mini-challenge next time you retreat - it was a lot of fun and very little pressure.

Time for lunch ... more news next time!

Is it just me or is Fall going by really fast???

We were in Portland for the big birthday bash. Miss P turned 4 a week ago and it was "princess-elicious" all around! There were 5 kids from daycare and it was one of the loudest parties I remember!! There was no shy, getting to know each other - nope, it was full-out chaos from the get-go!! Or, perhaps Nana is just getting old?? Don't answer that, I prefer to be oblivious too!

I made Miss P a Disney princess panel nap blanket - it was a big hit. UNTIL it was time for bed and the beloved blankie was gone in mommy's car. Then we didn't like it quite so much! I didn't get a picture of it - yet - but I'll see her this weekend and try to remember to take one.

Stashbusters online has been interesting lately. A member suggested using up whole categories of stash that you are tired of. Some used all the holiday, or all the homespun and waved 'bye-bye' gleefully. I'm not at that place quite yet. I cleaned all the "I don't love you any more" fabric out of the stash when we moved two years ago. HOWEVER, I had some yellow and white 4patches I got in an exchange some time ago. Bright yellow's not my favorite - but I really don't like WHITE! Have you ever noticed that white on white fabrics kind-of glow in the dark??? I'm more of a beige-ings type of girl. Everytime I came across those blocks - guilt struck. So that was the category I used up!



I read in Nancy Goldsworthy's book "Quilter's Guide to UFOs" about a baggie of 4patches she found. Hmmm, sounds very familiar. I started out with a blue w/yellow-ish polka dots. It was in a kit I'd gotten at a garage sale. Started to make a baby quilt - not enough of the blue. Then my water aerobics bag fell apart. They tend to do that after years of chlorine dripping in them. So I switched to making a tote. It's very cheerful looking, isn't it! Not my style but it's growing on me!!



Of course, I lost some of the 4patches in the deep piles in the sewing room - made some more and after the last seam was taken ... found them along with some blue and green 4patches too. Just enough to make a small [very narrow] wall quilt to hang my ribbons on. Hmm, too narrow - but if I add a cute scrappy border of yellows and blues - perfect!! And those just happened to be sitting in a basket, left over from the wedding quilt this summer!! The blocks are G*O*N*E!! Whether it's the size or just the accomplishment of using all those darn blocks ... I like the wall quilt!



While I was in birthday party mode, Gold Beach - the next town north of us had their quilt show. I missed it, but Brookings was putting some quilts in it and 3 of my quilts went. My lighthouse, the antique pine tree and the new ABC quilt. S took them for me and brought them home. We were in Gold Beach last Sunday eating breakfast. R bought the local paper since there was news of the proposed golf course going in. He read the first page and then opened it to continue the article. I looked over at him and thought, 'that looks familiar!' And it was! Pictured in the Banner area of the paper was my lighthouse quilt telling people where to find more pictures of the quilt show!! How fun! When I got the quilts back and finally unpacked them again ... the lighthouse quilt had won the "Fire Chief's Award!" Surprise!! You can see the kite-shaped ribbon hanging on my new wall quilt!! Along with 2 ribbons I got from Newport. I still have to find my NE State Fair ribbon - Lord, help me, it's here somewhere!!

This weekend I head for Portland area for the Newport Quilt Guild's retreat at Menucha retreat center on the Columbia Gorge. I love retreats and this one is in a beautiful area. Since I can't really pack up everything I need for the project that is calling me right now ... Reminisce is back up on the design wall. I've been trying to figure out what to take. As of now it's the itty-bitty log cabins and the Birds of a Feather quilt that has sat too long in the middle of hand quilting. It would be wonderful to have the handquilting done for the October guild meeting ... there's prizes for finished UFOs!!! It's pushing it, but within the realm of possibility ... depends on how it goes at retreat!! IF I actually stick to those projects ... it's still two whole days away ... anything can happen!!!

Photo Opps

Hooray - the camera to computer to blog or email is connected! Honestly - sometimes I just put it off too long, anticipating problems - which usually don't occur!!

I guess the secret is to wear your lucky socks and not be in a hurry!! So here are some photos from last month ... 1st - I know I mentioned the ribbon I got on A&J2's wedding quilt. Beautiful ribbons this year!!




Here is the Back to School Block Exchange kid's quilt I finished - just in the nick of time to be in the Newport show. I love just bordering on 2 sides of the blocks and have the letters zigzag across the quilt.



I didn't tell you about our night visitor ... a bear walked across our parking lot leaving these paw prints! YIKES! We don't usually see bears between the highway and the ocean ... too small of a territory. Our manager here said he thought it was a youngster - under 100 lbs - and the CC construction noise probably got it turned around. He minced across the lot at first, then started hauling bear butt. Feet came together in this photo before jumping the 5' retaining wall! He apparently cleared that because there were no prints on top of it. Yep, tracking bears like Indians - pretty exciting!



When Miss P came to visit we broke up the car trip by stopping at the Bandon lighthouse. It's a river lighthouse - short and squatty. So Miss P and I climbed the steps ... I'd forgotten about the ladder at the top, but she was a trooper! We survived - and there were even smiles when we got back down.



This is the entrance to the cave on our beach. Anyone here for the wedding won't recognize it ... because then adults could walk into the cave with room to spare. What a difference a month can make on the coast!



Summer Postcards were made and mailed. I loved these little beach scene cheater squares.



AND ta-da here are the itty-bitty log cabins I've been having so much fun with. The logs finish 3/4" and there are 78 here. Blocks will finish at 3 3/4" if I don't add another round. Should keep me busy for a while!



Well, that's it - you're all caught up!! I'll have no excuses not to include photos from now on ... everything's back to normal on the computer!

It doesn't feel like fall today!!

We've had stellar weather the last few weeks. A little windy at times - but sunny and blue. The last week of water aerobics outside broke our hearts!! It was perfect and it ended for the year!!

Last weekend we scurried up to Portland to get Miss P. The weather and the tide tables looked promising for entertaining a 4 yr old Granddaughter. And we had a great week. Miss P has grown so much. She's much more adventurous now. Climbing the playground equipment and climbing the rocks and logs down on the beach.

Oh yeah - and she has grown into that chatterbox stage. Not Papa's favorite trait!! She announced that she was getting a new baby sister for her birthday - she was going to trade in Mr M! I told her that all brothers and sisters want to trade in their siblings ... but she convinced me she was really serious about it!!

To celebrate this long weekend I moved my sewing space out into the diningroom - with the view. I got into my bag of "too small to use but too big to throw away" scraps and pieced 4" log cabins. It's an addiction - I want to tell you!!

I started making these little blocks back in Nebraska - yes, I moved them and the bag of scraps - get over it!! But the bag was in the way during this new rendition of my sewing space and I was trying to decide if they should just be tossed! The answer was a resounding "NO"! Some of my favorite fabrics were in that bag - and it was like sewing with 'old friends'! I had 21 blocks from Nebraska - I now have 78!

The bag is maybe 2/3 of it's former glory! And there are strips sorted by size in little boxes ready for the next sweatshop session ... I have no idea how many blocks the bag will make!! I did have to break into a few nickel squares for that last log. I was running out of dark choices in that size. But everything else is from the bag! I'll keep you posted how many blocks come out of the bag!

What am I going to do with these blocks?? No clue!! I have a 48" size wall hanging space here - if I run out of steam I can make a wall quilt for that space. That would be about 144 blocks - easy peasy!! If I'm still on a roll - it could be an almost twin size lap quilt for watching tv OR a kingsize quilt for the bedroom!! If it ends up king size I'll add another round of logs to make the blocks almost 6". Then it would take only 400 blocks compared to 900 four inch blocks!!

Oh, by the way, don't think I can't do it!! [insert seriously evil laugh here!] I can probably do it without ever touching what I consider my 'regular' stash!! I have nickel squares and assorted size squares and strips and scraps galore - not counting my 'too small, too big' sack!! And remember - I moved 2 1/2 years ago - I gave away alot of scraps and strips and squares then!!

What can I say - I'm a scrap quilter!! And it's so much fun!!!

Summertime is fleeing!

Just settling in to normal life again after wedding rush. My computer had to go into the shop - he said to bring any computer programs I wanted him to load - and silly me, I thought, I have everything on here I want. Oh--h, he meant RE-load after he wiped the drive clean!! The computer is still not running well [crap!!] - and I have to find my photo software so I can load all the pictures from my camera! Until then - you'll just have to make do without pictures.

We were in the Valley last week - traveling from Newport to Portland to Talent ... and it was really, really hot! We are simply not acclimated to 100+ degrees anymore. The average temp in Brookings is 58 in the month of July! [I know - we were amazed too!]

We took the Portland grandkids to the park early in the mornings while it was still tolerable. Tried to interest them in movies in the afternoon after nap. Miss P is almost 4 and she has changed so much. She loves climbing the playground equipment now - that's new - before she was pretty much a big chicken! Mr M wants to do anything Miss P can do. He wound his way up and thru the equipment to slide down the 7 ft slide so many times he was staggering on the last trip!

We ate out and shopped too. I ordered new glasses this trip - should be here next week. DH doesn't like the wire rims I've had for 3 years ... the next ones are black plastic rims. [Hello, Buddy Holly!!] But I'll be glad to get them. These have been a pain lately - falling off every time I lean over!

In Talent we stayed with the newlyweds. We went out to dinner and breakfast everyday. DH went golfing and J2 and I went shopping in Ashland for a whole day! Two quilt stores and an awesome consignment store we both love. Bargains were had!

After six days out and about in the heat - coming home to 63 degrees felt wonderful. It's been grey [but cool] ever since. I'm putting back together my sewing space. I've got to get that under control soonest!

I need to 'spread out' enough to work but not so much that I can't quickly stash it all away to bring back in the twin beds for company. We hung the quilt racks in there this week - two of them that fit perfectly along the long wall. So I got my design wall back up. I thought I'd need it ASAP for Miss P's new nap blankie - and I might have IF I hadn't made a cutting error with the rail fence blocks. [For goodness sakes, how long have I been doing this?? Long enough to know better!! (or not)] I had a weird size block I needed to make - due to wanting to use every inch of a focus fabric I had - and figured the size out BUT forgot to add the seam allowances. I frog-stitched all of them [grumpy, grumpy] and will recut the middle rail tomorrow. It's the only fabric I have enough of to recut bigger!

Honestly, between making a 'non-scrap' quilt and using stash for most of it ... I think I need to go back to my usual: Carefree scrap quilts that grow like zucchinis in August!! Enjoy!! Photos soon, I promise.

The wedding of the year is done!

No, no - not Chelsea's!! A & J2's wedding!! We had a blast! We had lots of company to guide around our new home state. Two couples have promised to come back and one other couple hasn't even left the state yet!! So I think it was all a success!






Miss P was adorable as a junior flower girl - oh wait - that's Mr G from Nebraska!



Here's Miss P!



Mr M is not much of a wedding kind of guy! To remain calm, he and his dad mainly strolled around the perimeter of the wedding.



The proud dad [DH] and mom [me] of the groom. There was beautiful scenery, Hawaiian Luau food and dancing all night. Family and friends helped make it a wonderful party - a real celebration! A good time was had by all!



The wedding quilt was a success! They don't read my blog - so it was a grand surprise!! And I grabbed it back that same night so it can be in the Newport Quilt Guild Show this weekend! I really didn't get much done this year - and HAD to put SOMETHING in the show!!



AND back on the coast, we made commemorative pin cushions! We didn't remember to take a picture of the first one - but here is the second 'sweatshop's' results.

Countdown to the wedding ...it's speeding up!!

Hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend. We had lovely weather and did a few odds and ends to finish up getting ready for company!

I've been busy here - but unfortunately, not working on UFOs! I finished the row robin table runner. We were to designate a 'holiday' for a theme. My holiday was "May Day". I remember all the excitement of May Day as a kid. Finding your friends' favorite candy, picking flowers out of the garden [oh, no - not that one!!] putting it on their porch and ringing the doorbell and running! And of course, hearing your own doorbell and finding treasures!

There were 5 in our group (6 groups in all!) and we each set the theme and made our center block. The gals in our group did wonderful!! But when I got the row robin back - it definitely needed strips of color between all the yummy 'beige-ings' in the blocks. Which of course, meant that all the rows had to come apart to insert said strips! Bummer! I turned it like a pillowcase because I was under the gun to get it back up to Newport before the July meeting. For a 'time saving' step - it always takes me longer and is a pain to get it straight! Why oh why don't I remember that??? Machine quilted with invisible thread. But I think it turned out awfully cute! LOL!


And TODAY I finished the last of the small totes for the wedding party for DS's wedding! What a relief - we see the happy couple tomorrow so I can simply hand them off rather than mailing them. I used the free pattern on the web 5-6-7 tote by Windham Fabrics. It's so easy and I think it comes out cute! These are 4-5-6! and about 8" on a side.

I had yards of the VIP Pine tree print. I used 5" strips of that! I was lucky enough to find a great mottled jewel-tone green to match it - but not lucky enough that it was on sale!! Oh, never mind - lucky to find it at all! There are 3 little girls in the wedding - including the amazing Miss P! So their bags have fish, deer and iguanas on them! Miss P loves fish; Loon Lake feed deer every afternoon so the kids are bound to see them. And the iguana fabric because it was fabulous with the green!! I think A&J2 are putting bottled water, a flashlight and some trail mix in each bag! Should fit just right! Tried to make them the right size for a library book or two.

We're headed inland tomorrow. Quick stop overnight with A&J2 and then on to Sisters for the Outdoor show. Then on up to Portland to see Miss P and Mr M ... and pick up a piece of furniture that's done. Home for 2 days and then off to meet friends from Arkansas who are coming for the wedding. You may not hear from me much this month - it is filled to the brim with fun, fun, fun!