I'm OFF part 2?

Wonderful flight to Ft Lauderdale (I wonder where my 2 yr old is, not on this flight either!)  Smooth sailing; both bags arrived.  Caught the shuttle to the Hotel.  Saw the STRANGEST sight in the van.  A guy hauling you-know-what on a motorcycle.  Instead(?) of a helmet he had a full body racoon hat on.  And trust me, this isn't the weather for fur!!  The tail and back legs were hanging off his shoulders.  The driver asked, "We're all seeing the same thing, right?"  Yep we were.

Ipad doesn't want me to talk as much!  It cut me off mid-thought.  But my work around was to move my last paragraph to this post and continue on!!  Sounds like a "Carry On" poster.  "Carry On and start a new post!!!"

Getting punch-drunk here.  We'll 'talk' again soon!

And I'm OFF!!

The next few blogs will have few, if any, pictures in them.  I'm relying on my Ipad to post and I haven't found any easy tricks to add pictures!  I'll probably either update this entry later or do a photo heavy one next month! Yep, I won't be home until February!  But don't worry, DH is holding down the fort at home.  Soaking up that good weather we've been having all month.

I'm sitting at the airport gate in Portland and it's truly o'dark-thirty.  On my way to Ft Lauderdale and a quilters' cruise!!


As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted by the "get ready to board" announcement ... on my way to Ft Lauderdale via Houston to board The Independence of the Seas.  A Royal Caribbean ship.  I'm going on the 'Soul of a Quilter' cruise, a benefit for Libby Lehman.

This all came about because my good friend Mary won the cruise at the Des Moines AQS show last October.  Now really, can you imagine any cruise prize that would offer it for ONE???  I'm pretty sure that even "single" cruises offer 'for two' so you can take a buddy!  BUT, she won a cruise for one.

I've never been on a cruise before.  My niece was on one years ago, and she compared it to being in jail with chance of drowning!  Hope this cruise goes better than that!!

My DH thought a quilt cruise should be my dream vacation, and has been encouraging me to go on one for years. And of course, Mary is the perfect person to go with!!  She is a researcher by trade and we put her in charge of anything we want to know more about!  Don't tell her, but when we find a picture of a quilt that we want to figure out, we hand it off to Mary, saying, "I just don't get it.  Maybe you can figure it out." Within very little time we are presented with a EQ7 drawing, pattern, fabric requirements and even templates.  It's wonderful!

So I emailed her and asked if she had a roomie yet.  Lucky me, she does now!  We've managed to coordinate everything long distance.  Class supples, tour options, room choices, clothing options and of course, Mary is in charge of 'research'!!

My first challenge was getting to PDX at 4 AM!  I really have to talk to my 'travel agent' about that!! [DH!]  I drove up to Portland and stayed at my favorite Portland B&B - my DD's.  I had all the help I needed from Miss P and Mr M [7 & 5 yrs old respectively] and DSIL, after getting off work at 2 am - drove me to the airport at 3:30 am!!

That's 'other duties as assigned' in this family!!  Thanks J!!  This flight is going well, no screaming baby or 2 yr old behind me kicking the seat!  That's my usual flight experience!

Next challenge is Houston airport.  I'm in row 23; over the wing; it's a full flight and I'll have just under an hour to make my connection.  Last time I was in Houston I was doing my old "OJ Hertz Rent-a-car" commercial run to get to the gate.  You know you're in trouble when you come in at the very last gate in C and need to get to the very last gate in B!!  They were paging me for last call as I got off the airplane.  I did check in with my arrival gate, had them call and say I was here.  Then I took off - as only a 61 yr old water aerobics participant could!!!  It wasn't pretty, but I did make it!  Hoping for closer gates and a minute to use the bathroom this time!!  I'll let you know!

No time to update in Houston.  My gate connections were fairly close - 40 to 31.  I even had time to use a bathroom, and pick up a chicken salad wrap at Good Foods.  It was wonderful and if your airport has one of those ... it's a great choice!  After breakfast at 3 am - I was ready for food at 11 Pacific time.

Happy New Year + 15 days!

Funny story (?)  I wasn't blogging because I felt guilty about not blogging!  Well, that wasn't going to get better any time soon!  So, I'm b*a*a*a*c*k!!  [Hopefully!]

I do believe it's time for the 2013 roundup!  I know I love looking back on hobby accomplishments for the year.

First of all, I lost 20 lbs this year.  Not as much as I'd hoped for :>  But on the other hand - it's still off!  I was sick and tired of being overweight even though fairly healthy (for 61).  So after seeing Garcinia Cambogia on the web - I ordered it.

I did NOT have the success that I read about on the web, nope, didn't lose a 100 lbs or 20 dress sizes in a week!  Shocking, I know.  But I did have more energy and I felt better.  The first couple of weeks can be a little grim - gastric, if you know what I mean!  But then life is normal again.

My cholesterol went down and my PA was happy!  And my body was changing shape enough to be noticed even when I'm just maintaining.  I've been on it 6 months.  I'm ordering another round - then reassess where I am.  I do NOT want to regain.  I'd love to lose 40 more.  But okay with where I am. - for now!!

Now for the good stuff!!

I read 64 books last year, with a lot of rereading old favorites.  Like ALL of the John Sandford series.  Don'cha just love Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers??  All are fun to reread.  My favorite new one was Silken Prey.

Recommended books include:

Room by Emma Donoghue.  Riveting and you would think it would be creepy to read but it really wasnt'.  Promise!

The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman  I love books about the Coast now,  contemporary or even historic, surprisingly enough.  Good Read.

Betrayal of Trust by JA Jance  It was very good, although I especially love it when she blends her two series.  JP Beaumont of Seattle and Joanna Brady from Arizona.

Touch and Go by Lisa Gardner  I lost Ms Gardner for a period of time, I'm glad that I have a few books to catch up with.

I had a 'medium' year of quilting.  [I honestly don't know where the time went, since there's proof I wasn't bloggin!!]  I finished 16 projects - most you saw pictured over the year here.  Four were UFOs which always feels awesome!  Many projects involved muliple items - like the 7 schoolhouse pin cushions for my "Finishing School" - good reminder, I need to get busy on this year's pin cushions!!  Finishing School is coming up at the end of February again.

Seven receiving blankies.
15 Christmas Stockings!!
A pennant banner 63 feet long!!
8 pj pants - the MOST fun to give to the grands!!
12 cute little wool house gift card holders to my small group and selected friends!
NOTE:  Gift card holders are great for containing a package of sewing machine needles!

My favorite finish this year was Mr D's "Big Boy Bed" quilt.  I'd started this back when Mr M needed a BBB quilt.  He had bunk beds, so I was going to make two, different, but kind of alike! By the time I had the first one done and the second one started ... the bunk beds were history!  All it took was a dog barking, walking into his room and finding him hanging upside down, thanks to a shoelace being caught!!

I can't find a picture of this right now.  I don't think I posted it on the blog.  My job is to find one, take another one and post it next time.  Promise!!

I was pretty active in the Post Card Exchange group I belong to.  NINE exchanges!  They were fun - especially "Chocolate"  You know that is my favorite!

Oh, I may have spent a little time on Pinterest this year!!  I have 9.1K pins and 1K followers!!  Quilting is VERY popular on Pinterest!!  In fact, I had to force myself to come back to the blog when I checked the numbers just now!!  LOL!

I went to Nebraska twice.  In the spring it was an usual visit.  But in the fall I piggy-backed it to a quick trip to Des Moines for the AQS Show there.  It was fabulous fun!!  And a wee bit of a spending spree!

Miss P got a Target "American Girl Doll" for Christmas.  Now the only other doll clothes I ever made were for a troll doll (Barbie's daughter!) when I was young.  It was a rectangle with armholes cut out of it and a matching belt!!  But NOW this Nana has been possessed by making doll clothes for her!!  Just look!

  

The pink dress is from Two Hour Doll Clothes by Anita Crane  But there is some tailoring involved (rats!)

The skirt in the middle was from a web site!  The original skirt wasn't hemmed and had tulle under it.  But since this is for a 7 year old and years of play (I hope) ahead of it, I changed it.  I hemmed the skirt and cut apart a new shower scrungy for the perfect underskirt!!  Turned out darling, trust me!!

The PJ bottoms on right are from Doll Fashion Studio by Joan Hinds.  These patterns are very well done, I recommend this book.  I made the leggings under the pink dress from it, the PJ pants and I have many more on my To-Do list!!

The teal t-shirt on the right is from a Liberty Jane pattern.  This may be the easiest item I made.  Their patterns are really well written and I got this one free registering on their site.  Check it out!  I may even break down and buy some of their patterns!!

Being addicted to doll clothes now, I have a board on Pinterest.  Follow me, I will try to pin every good and usually free pattern on the board. There's a link on the left side of the blog.

I'm going to close for now.  Lots more to tell you.  Can't promise when I'll be back, but I have high hopes!!

Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas to all ... and to all a good night!

Oh, dear, I knew I hadn't felt good this fall.  I caught a respiratory virus the middle of October and I just kept getting it back everytime I felt better.  Then today I saw my last blog post was the first of November. Oh, dear! Sorry for the silent treatment!

It's obviously been a low-key two months.  We continue to have stellar sunrise and sunsets here.  Winter is the best for those, other than during seasonal monsoons!!  But it's been a dry fall-winter, and they just keep coming and coming!  DH has been headed out for golf the last 4-5 weekends, because you know, it could be the last chance for golf til spring!!  

My Christmas letter for you!

 Happy Holidays from the Boyds!

December sunsets on the Oregon coast are the B*E*S*T!  Here’s a view from our deck.  Wish you were here.

We’ve had an exciting year with a new member joining out family.  A&J2 have a new little boy, K.  At 8 months, he’s a great sitter, but needs a little work on his ‘dismount’!

D, being 2, is w-a-a-ay too busy to pay much attention to K.  He loves matchbox cars and ribbons!  He pretends the ribbons are snake monsters! What a great imagination!  Life is busy for A&J2!

P is 7, in first grade and loving it. I asked her if she had new friends and she explained to me that there were 28 in her class – all new friends, of course!  Did you know 1^st graders write book reports now???

M is 5 and in preschool.  He loves Legos, doing puzzles (he’s still a whiz) and riding his bike.  It’s so much fun to see the G-kids growing and learning.  We love this time!

When we’re not visiting the kids, Rick’s golfing and bowling; I’m quilting and going to water aerobics, but there’s a lot of walking the Coastal Trail and whale watching mixed in too.  After 5 years on the coast, it feels like we have ‘grown into’ our retirement – and we love it.

Wishing you and yours the best in 2014

Of course, the names have been shortened to protect the innocent (?) But, because I'm not limited to a 1/2 page of paper - here are the family photos that we couldn't decide on!!

D & K getting to know each other!

M & P hanging out in the kitchen.

Last night's sunset.  No wonder we don't get much done in the evening!!

Happy New Year to all!

Need a quick home-made baby gift?? Receiving blankets to the rescue!

An online friend lamented that she just heard a good friend is having grand-twins due in November.  She has to make quilts, but two in that time frame????  Here's my advise - based on experience, of course!!

Make a set of flannel receiving blankets for each newborn for the shower or new baby presents - thus, buying you time to make a crib quilt.

For one blanket(although I usually buy enough to make at least 2.)  I buy 1 1/3 yards of two flannels (front and back) - JoAnn's flannels are pretty darn cute and usually on sale or coupon-eligible!  Prewash.   (Empty dryer lint-catcher often!!) 

Layer right sides together; smooth or press.  Trim top edge with rotary cutter.  Fold down that edge diagonally. Mark with your ruler where to cut to make a square blanket.  Cut.  If you're making two, repeat and cut the second one at the same time.  Your edges are already together and the flannels are sticking to each other, easy, peasey!

Sew each pair of flannels together, leaving an opening to turn.  Turn - I found that a wooden knitting needle is great for creating edges and turning the corners.  Slip stitch the opening closed.  I top-stitch starting in one corner all the way around on the edge.  Then arbitrarily pick a place easy to follow to top-stitch again inside 4-6 inches away from edge.  On my Janome I follow the place where the free-arm splits.  Wherever, find a mark/guide/line on your machine that's easy for you to line up consistently. This second top-stitching seems to keep the blanket from getting too wonky - just a simple shake out of the dryer lines everything up again.

On my card I write:  Enjoy these blankets:  Wash and dry with cottons  - perfect for swaddling, tummy time or protection from those really big burps!

These blankies are simple and easy.  But they're a big hit every time.  And used too!!

When I'm "on my game" I have a few blankies stockpiled ready for the happy news!!

Enjoy!  doni @ Oregon coast

Oh NO !! NOT Winter settling in yet - please not???

I'm not ready!!  After all, I live with a golfer!  Or in the rainy season a grumpy bear pacing thru our too little space!!  And no, I won't tell you his description of me!!  But it's time to make a plan for the winter.  Quilting is a good hobby - indoors in bad weather, anywhere in good!  It's just a case of getting organized - in my mind - so I don't just sit and moss over!!


I've been quilting for 39 years (I started just before my son was born - so easy to keep track) but that number awes me!!  I was really active at the beginning - but I find I'm slowing down.  It doesn't seem possible I would do less after retiring???  What's up with that!  

But my body doesn't last as long!  Good old arthritis and dimming eye sight.  And I'm pickier??? If a project isn't going right - it goes straight into time-out!!  How long it's there - well, who knows!!  

My UFO project is "Birds of a Feather" by Barb Adams and Alma Allen???? The date embroidered on my top is 2007 so was probably started as a BOM in 2005 or earlier.  It's been in time-out since I moved to Oregon (almost 6 years)  Oh, it comes out with each new UFO challenge to be registered!  I'm just not happy with the handquilting.  AND let's be honest, fusible machine blanket stitch applique - well, it doesn't seem to be wearing as well as I hoped - and I haven't even used it yet!!  BUT I'm shaming myself into finishing it THIS YEAR!!!  It's out by the couch and I got a new LED light from IKEA last month.  It seems to give me enough light to quilt by, and doesn't blind my DH while we watch tv.  AND I've quilted on it for 3 nights now - that's geometrically more attention than the poor UFO has had since, well, I don't want to say when!!

Quilted Moose in Gretna NE set it up as a BOM, using Jo Morton fabrics!!  Ooooo!!  Debbie Roberts has the best eye for putting together kits and long term projects.  It's a gift!!  Seriously, I don't even like applique!!  And I bought into it!!  I made it my own - when don't I??  And changed the layout, designed a signature block, redid the border and block layout.  It really deserves to be finished, doesn't it???

Why isn't it finished??  I've lost a little of my mojo!  AAACK!  I've said it out loud!!  

In my 37 years of this obsession - errr - hobby, I've had a few dry spells and found my way out of one of them by picking up a baggie of scraps and deciding to just finish that baggie - what could I make with it?  Now it WAS a gallon baggie ... filled with 'beach' fabrics I'd picked up at garage sales, guild flea markets and etc.  I ended up making 3 baby quilts from it.  And of course, I added stash fabrics to it as I went. Even ended up with a pint size baggie of scraps left!!  Good Grief!!  I love the quilt I made for my latest GC arrival and it was so much fun to give the parents a few tops to pick from!!  What a concept!  

But you know what that means???  Who can even count the number of quilts in our stashes???  Who even has the time to do the math!!!

I love quilting while I'm actively doing it.  So why is it like pulling teeth to get myself into the sewing room to work on something not so inspiring??  We live in a small condo, the kind that if a project is spread out, it looks out of control??  Or it seems like that to me.  

My small sewing room is more of a staging area and DH sleeps in there in the middle of the night - he has insomnia and often is just getting back to sleep when I'm getting up for water aerobics.  He has a better chance of falling to sleep if he's not in the midst of the preparations to get a non-morning person out the door!!  That bed is the only uncovered flat surface AND it has to be cleared every day!!!  AAACK!

Moving on to the other problem, of course, is to get the projects quilted.  My body isn't really built to machine quilt - or as I like to call it, wrestle alligators thru the harp of my machine.  I even got certified on my LQS's long arm and worked on that off and on for over a year.  Not the best - I seemed to make the owner nervous about the machine not working right.  And it seemed that I broke the thread way too much.  She assured me it wasn't my fault, I was always following someone who had messed with the tension ... but so maddening when you're just learning and it's not going right. Felt like a klutz!  You probably need to work on a longarm every week, not just monthly ... but that's not happening.  I never even got good enough to do the type of work I like to do!!  Bummer!

So, enough of celebrating the "Why aren't I quilting more" problem!?!  My plan of attack this year is to make cuddle quilts.  If I'm taking a class, I'm planning on making it into a baby quilt.  

Last week, I found a picture on Pinterest that fascinated me - so I'm reproducing it (twice). One cuddle quilt for the Brookings Quilt Guild and one for my Newport guild. It's simple - and I love quilts that the piecing does all the work.  Not one for all the open spaces for clever quilting - I want my patchwork to shine!  This has grey "happy blocks".  I'm not a fan of grey but figured I probably had enough in my stash to do this!  AND I DID, of course!!  The alternate block is a bright 5 pt star on a white background.  Simple and I should be able to quilt it with my walking foot.  I'll keep you posted!

So if you are wondering where the Joy went?  Wondering how to get busy again and love it. I guess I'm encouraging you to go into the sewing space, pick a baggie, box or crate of something that looks interesting and just mull it over.  What does it want to be??  They say that working just 15 minutes a day in your space will get that mojo going.  Give it a try - what do we have to lose??  Pinterest, facebook, email will be there when we're done!!!  So will the laundry, dishes and housework!  

I adore designing and gathering [and buying] fabrics and making those design choices.  Quilting and binding, not so much fun!!  A fellow Stashbuster allows herself to design/start a new project after finishing two UFOs!!  I'm not very good at delayed reward systems!  But surely a little carrot and a stick never hurt either!!

Let's report back next week!!

Back to life as we know it!!

This fall has truly been a whirlwind!  I was gone from the coast THREE weeks!  It was WAY TOO LONG! and of course, it went really fast too!!

First we went up for Miss P's birthday and L&J's vow renewals.  Then I headed to Nebraska for my fall trip to see Mom.  I managed a side trip there to Des Moines for the AQS show - awesome!!  It was a whole lot of fun.  I have many pictures I need to put on the blog - soon, I promise, soon!!  Home from three weeks away - you can't imagine the to-do list, even in a small condo!!

We were home five whole days ... then over to see A&J2, Mr D and Mr K, then back up to Portland to babysit for 5 days while L&J went to Vegas for their actual anniversary.  Miss P and Mr M were fabulous.

The very first day the question of when mom and dad were coming back came up many times!  So I made a chart.  NOTE:  this works very well!!  If you find yourself babysitting for more than overnight, I highly recommend it.  I simply took a piece of art paper, folded it in 6 columns.  Labeled the columns with SMTWTF.  At bedtime each day, we sat at the kitchen table, listed things that we had done that day, and both kids "X"ed the bottom of it.  One day down!!  Example:

Sunday
timed bike races in circle
Connect 4 tournament
went to Dollar Store
Spaghetti for dinner
... and on until you fill the column

We looked at it every day, counted the blank spaces until mom and dad got home, it did go pretty fast!  And when mom and dad got home, we gave them the chart and they got to see what we did every day!  Win-win!!  Miss P is in 1st grade ... the very first thing written on the chart by her - on Sunday - was on Friday's space she wrote, "Papa and Nana gone!!!"  I think the "or else" was implied!!

We had such a good time, but we were all ready for mom and dad to come home!!  5 and 7 yr olds just need to get back to their regular lives, with mommy and daddy and their dogs!!!  And 61 yr olds need that too!!!

We got home Friday night.  Saturday DH left for his month golf/poker game/watch sports on TV until your eyes bug out weekend!!  I enjoyed getting back to life as I know it and then .... Mr M's cold attacked me!!  DH had gotten it while we were still up there.  I'm always hopeful that I'll miss getting it when DH comes down with it first ... but I always DO get it!  Poop!  This is such a busy week too.

I subscribe to "Ripples" - you can too!!  Click here to subscribe  I met this young man when I was working at the University.  He gives a dynamic program.  I've been getting his weekly emails for  - oh, my goodness, 6 years now.  All have been good inspiration, but sometimes there's one that really hits home ... today's did.

Today's "ponder" quote:

Once you have decided you want the present moment to be your friend, it is up to you to make the first move:

Become friendly toward it, welcome it no matter in what disguise it comes, and soon you will see the results. Life becomes friendly toward you; people become helpful, circumstances cooperative.

One decision changes your entire reality. But that one decision you have to make again and again--until it becomes natural to live in such a way.
-Eckhart Tolle

Go make friends with the present - whether you have a bad cold or not - and be prepared to make the same decision tomorrow too!! ... and the day after that!!  Yep, that's the step I always forget!