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!

Spring at the Coast

Here is our spare room - it isn't really a sewing room, but I get to hang quilts in there. My mom used to have a 'keeping room' out at the farm. Dad would say, "That's old and doesn't go in our house anymore - lets chuck it." And mom would say, "No, let's keep it." and into the 'keeping room it would go! So this is more of a keeping room - not that it doesn't go anywhere else ... just that there isn't room anywhere else. Our desktop computer is in there, the blow-up guest bed is there, the second tv ... and a whole lot of sewing supplies/projects.

Well, the month of May completes our first year at the coast. We arrived here last June 2 or 3-ish. We arrived, unloaded our part of the truck and then immediately drove up to Portland to unload L's part! It was a few days before we were actually residing here. It doesn't seem possible that a year could go so fast!

When we arrived the rhodies were in full gorgeous bloom ... this month we see the azaleas and the very end of the spring bulbs. The summer lower tides are back and I saw the first 'squadron' of pelicans flying this week. I guess it's like seeing the first robins in the midwest. It just soothes the heart! We also are seeing a hawk who must be building a nest close by ... guess she wanted to live on the beach ... the commute from the mountains was too much!!!

I'm nose to the grindstone trying to finish 'Sesquicentennial-ish' by the May 14th deadline. How do I get myself into these marathon finishes??? I have all 13 blocks quilted and am working on the sashings - then of course, the setting triangles and the dreaded sewing of the binding - both sides by hand! [insert scream of frustration here!] So I thought I'd throw in some detail pictures of our condo. I took them just before I went back to Nebraska to show friends and family back there.


My 'neighborhood' moved from Nebraska - there they were spread out between our house and my office window sill. I've added fossils and agates that I've found here. This is a kitchen window that faces our garage/parking areas.


And you all know I got a rock polisher for Christmas! Here's the first two batches I've polished since then. It's really addicting ... and fun to spot the agates and cool rocks on the beach during our walks.

Hopefully, next week I'll be able to show you "Sesiquicentennial-ish" finished before deadline! And I hope to get a picture of my coast shophop run challenge - I entered it into the competition without a picture on my camera. A friend took pictures of it at our retreat ... now if I can just figure out which friend and get a copy from her!!!

Back in Oregon

I'm back from Nebraska - my whirlwind trip! I had a great time. It was just the right mix of family and quilting friends! The photo above is my niece with Mom at cake time.

It's official I had the ugliest rental car in the nation! The "gold" Ford Focus was surprisingly BRIGHT! I was pulled up next to a school bus and compared ... I was just as bright but greener!! G's husband who is a shriner clown said "Egads!" when he saw it! No further validation needed!

I stayed at J&L's "bed and breakfast" There were even mints on my pillow! And it was delightful to sit and visit each night after a busy day. Thanks again!



And here's C, G, and J at the International Quilt Museum and Study Center. We saw the Grace Snyder quilts and a great chintz quilts display. You can see what we saw by following the link. We also visited one of my favorite quilt shops - a rolling party!!

Other highlights included lunch/quilt talk with the gals at the office; my small quilting group meeting; a book club meeting and the quilt guild meeting! It was a whirlwind of fun! Thanks to everyone for making room for me in their schedule!

We're babysitting in Portland - first we took Miss P home with us to the beach. Then we came up and took care of Mr M for the weekend. Monday and Tuesday we babysit our usual gig. We had so much fun at the beach with Miss P. When we went to the aquarium, we went to the Passages of the Deep - and I heard Miss P say "It's [her name], I'm here at nana and papa's." It just melted my heart!!

Mr M was wonderful - he slept thru the night for us. The dogs, on the other hand ... well, not as good! I think they have spring fever! It's green and flowering here - everyone is out in their yards or playing games in the circle - they're not used to spring behavior again yet! Dogs gotta bark!

Busy week!

We found it! The true generation gap!!! How can kids take this type of picture and have it come out???? LOL! Last Thursday L from southern California stopped by on her way to Portland for a family wedding. L and I met in the Yahoo Stashbusters group and she invited me to join one of her postcard groups too. We've 'known' each other for a few years. Her children were aghast that she was going to stay with me AND she was going to allow me to ride with her up to Portland! But we had no problems - except for the above photo! That's me on the right!!!

Friday we headed up the coast - despite the weather NOT cooperating. We saw a bald eagle fishing/hunting by the lighthouse. Shopped alittle in McMinnville and visited nonstop and in-person for hours. Fun! Thanks for the ride! Friday afternoon, she dropped me at my daughter's house and went her merry way - I babysat Friday night while the kids went out for dinner. I babysat saturday while my daughter went shopping with a friend and her DH worked. I pretty much had Sunday off - DD ran to IKEA while the kids were napping - and I babysat! Monday and Tuesday I babysat during the day while everyone was at work - and made supper most nights too! Did absolutely no quilting! Today I rested!! 2 1/2 yr-olds are always busy!!

However, my daughter and her husband held a 'soup intervention'! They seem to think that soup season is officially over [in March??] - at least at their house! My husband was surprised to hear that - and reassured me there was no such soup problems at the coast! Good thing - cause that's one of my favorite meals - ever!

The next three weeks are going to be a blur - alot of quilting including a retreat for 3 days and then a visit back to Nebraska for my mom's 91st birthday. During that 10 day trip I'm going to squeeze in lots of time with mom and my family; a night with my ScrapHappens small quilting group; a guild meeting; lunch with the office bunch; the water aerobics-social club 5:15 class AND a quilt til you wilt quilting session at a friend's house! I'm sure I'll need a vacation after this vacation! So- if I don't blog for awhile - you'll know I'm having fun!

Yet another finished project!!

This is one of the wall quilts I'm giving my mom for her birthday in April. It's a panel, I had to narrow it to fit in the space - so cut off the outer border. I also had to shorten her - so I took a little pleat right above her head. I free-motioned most of the quilting. I radiated the lines out from the heart on the necklace and I'm really happy how it came out. If you blow the photo up - you might be able to see those lines ... the flash flattened it out - have to work on the old photography skills!

Any powerpoint experts out there? I'm making a pps photo album. Is there any way to have the file names automatically print under the pictures? I know I can type them into the text box but with over 500 of them - I don't want to! I appreciate any tips! Thanks!

Happy St Paddy's day to all. A little Irish joke: "It's okay to pretend you're Irish on St Patrick's Day. After all, we pretend we're good on Christmas!"


Here's one of the little Leprechauns I was babysitting today! Mr M will be 4 months old tomorrow. Maybe that's why he was up most of the night last night - worried about his fleeting youth! His sister Miss P was much too busy to pose for pictures today - anything I took ended up a blur!

Last picture was the moon set last week - I just happened to raise the shade and caught it - by the time I ran to get the camera it was setting behind the clouds - still pretty cool!