Lilies

Since moving to the Coast of Oregon there is one plant that just takes my breath away. The Calla Lily. I think these flowers are just facinating and beautiful! I seem to take a million photos of them. They are blooming right now and I have discovered that we have some in our yard, which makes me very happy!

I hope all of you had a nice and relaxing weekend. I am hoping to have a productive day tomorrow since I have not been doing very much sewing. I need to finish a baby quilt, I have it ready to quilt but can not make up my mind how to quilt it. I will post photos tomorrow, I hope!

We are preparing for another weekend with company. We have had company for the last 3 weekends and I am enjoying it but a bit tired of changing sheets and towels. I guess I have to take the good with the bad.

But now about this photo. In my cleaning I came across a pile of photos that need to be in an album and this is one of them. This was taken in DC of my mother-in law in 1945. I think it is an adorable photo of her and look at the outfit, she was quite the dresser! My mother in law lived and worked in Washington DC while my father in law was overseas during World War II.

I found out today that our lap top computer is gone and I need to purchase a new lap top... I am not looking forward to this but it is a necessary evil. So many things seem to be keeping me from getting into the studio to sew. I hope next week to be able to be back to posting about my quilting.

Have a wonderful weekend, it may be a few days before I am back to blog land.

I have still been without my lap top so I have been unable to post photos of my work.

This is a sketch of an idea I have for an alphabet quilt. I love letters and would really like to make a quilt with the entire alphabet. I think it will have to be applique which I have not done much of but I think would be fun to try.

I have been working on my 9 patch squares. It is fun to see them all out together, I am becoming excited about this project. I have also finished my celtic knot piece and will post photos as soon as I get my laptop back. GRRRRR I am so frustrated with having to wait. I was told that I would know something by tomorrow.

Thank you for the nice thoughts sent to my sisiter. She is home and will have the monitor for a month and we are really hoping they find out what exactly is going on.

Frustration

I have been thinking about my sister so much!!! She had a medical procedure done on her heart yesterday only to have them say you have a healthy heart... That is a good and a bad thing. She has been having some problems that cause her to pass out and they had decided it was her heart so they did a procedure to test the electrical impulses and decided everything was OK.. So now they have implanted a heart monitor into her chest to monitor things for a month. I am frustrated with the fact that she does not know what is going on. I know she is more than frustrated at this point.

I hope they decide what is going on so she can get back to life and driving.... It is really tough to live in Wyoming and not be able to drive. Mass transit does not exist.

Anniversary

We have been married 26 years today. I can harldy believe that we have been together that long but then again it seems like we have always been together. I again feel very fortunate to be able to have M to spend my life with. He is an incredible husband, father and provider.

I am looking forward to spending the rest of our lives together and I wonder what adventures we will share!

I have been thinking about old work. 15 years ago or so I was making handmade paper and decided to make quilt squares with the paper. This is an old piece I made and sold. I have to wonder what takes us where we go with our creative processes. I have always been facinated with quilt design. I still own and enjoy a few of these pieces. Now I am moving to the real thing.

I still do not have my lap top in working order. It is in the shop and I am waitiing to hear the prognosis. I hope it is only a power issue but time will tell. So I am scanning old photos and thinking about old things as you can see. Not having my lap top has limited my time on the computer, Since the computer is in the basement and it is not as convenient I seem to be getting more of my daily chores done which is a good thing. I even got out and pulled weeds in my yard.



Today I am sending many good thoughts to my sister who is at the doctor. We are hoping she will finally know what is going on and what course of treatement she will need.

Computer Problems

I am sorry there is no photo and I really do not like a post without a photo but we have a laptop computer that is my main computer that shut off and will not start up again. I am hoping that it does not have a fatal problem but we will see. So for now I am using a very old desk top computer which we have not used in YEARS... Our laptop is old and it was the replacement for this one, but I am thankful that I can at least access the internet and see what is going on in blog land. Tomorrow I will work and see if I can get some photos on this one and then I will feel better.

I hope all of you are having a nice week!

One a Day Quilt Along

Here is my pile of 9 patch squares that are stacking up. I am so happy with the way they are going. I have never just made a scrap quilt and this is very fun. Since I do not know how they will all come together it adds an element of excitement. Crazy Mom Quilts came up with the idea of making one 9 patch a day and by mid summer I should have enough to make a quilt. I joined in and since I have never made a scrap quilt am loving the satisfaction of what is coming together. We should have 17 squares as of today but I am ahead of the game with 24. I am hoping to have a completed quilt by fall so on cool fall evenings I have a new blankie to cover up with while I watch TV and quilt in the evenings.....

Counting my Blessings

I went south to Brookings this morning with my son to pick up his truck. His truck is repaired and ready for him to head back to Ashland and look for a summer job. We had a very nice weekend. I am feeling so much better that he will be so much closer to us. Utah was just too far away. Now he is only a 3 hour drive from us and things will be much easier.

On my return drive home I spent the time thinking about how very fortunate I am. I have a wonderful husband and two very special children. Then to top it all off I get to live in such a beautiful place. This first photo is looking north along the drive from Cape Sebastian looking toward Home.
This is looking south from Cape Sebastian at the Pistol River area. I know there are many beautiful places in this world but I feel so lucky to be able to see things like this on a regular basis. I hope all of you have a wonderful week. Count your Blessings!

Happy Mother's Day

These are my babies. I love this goofy photo that was taken a couple of years ago. They are so funny together now that they have grown to appreciate each other. They are both wonderful people for whom I am very proud of my small part in their lives. It is a time in my life that I would not give up! For someone who in her early 20's thought she did not want to have children, it was one of the best times in my life. I am so thankful that my husband and I decided we wanted to have some babies.

I am happy and sad today. My son was able to make it home last night with a long ride in a tow truck since the brakes on his truck decided to die. But my daughter had to work all day yesterday and has classes tomorrow and lives too far away for a quick trip to visit. I will miss having them both home together. However I feel like a very lucky mother to have the great relationships with both of my children and I love them dearly.
Happy Mother's day to my Mom!!!

This is a photo of my Dad, Mom and my Uncle Jim. I think it is one of the best old photos. Of course this was several years before I came along but I just love this. My mom is an incredible person and has taught me so much. She loves life and everything in it. Thanks Mom for always being there for me!!!

I hope all of you have a great Mother's Day and I especially hope my Mom has a nice one!!!

I went for a walk on the beach the other day and came across this. I have no idea what happened. I would love to know the story. Last week we had some very windy and stormy days and I am assuming it arrived then, but I sure feel sorry for this boats owner and were they on it when it became beached? Questions, Questions... As you can see the name on the boat is New Life and I guess she has a New Life...

Just wanted to let you know about a cool company my daughter found. It is zaza gallery.
She received an 8X10 photo canvas from them and she was very pleased. I am considering one of these for myself.

Decisions need to be made

I need to make a decision, How wide do I make the light boarder? I have been trying to decide what I like best and I am not sure I like it at all. Originally I thought the boarder should be twice as wide as the green and when I got it up there it was so wide... So I have pictured it at half the width and now that I look at that it may be too wide still. Or should I put another color between it and the green or, or, or............ AHHHHH I am so confused. Any ideas any of you have would be welcome.

On the good side I have decided that when I quilt the white squares I should quilt them with western brands. I think that will make them belong. I have a feeling I will be working on this for a long time. I still have embroidery that needs to be done on about half of the squares.

Here is my Western quilt assembled. I am still adding embroidery to the squares but decided I needed some added motivation so I put it together. I like the way it looks. It needs quite a bit more in the boarders. I am planning on piecing a border but have not decided just how to do that.

I made it through my first day of my diet and half way through the second. I have discovered that while I am in my studio I am not thinking about eating at all so I am spending quite a bit of time in the basement.

We have sun shine today and I am loving it.

As you can see it is raining here. Raining and wind seem to be the order of business this week. We received two inches of rain on Monday and then yesterday was cloudy and windy and today it is raining again.

I have been sewing, working on making 9 patch squares for my scrap quilt, sewing on my Celtic knots and some embroidery on the western quilt squares. Nothing worth photographing at this stage though... Photos will follow as soon as they begin to look like something.

I have been doing quite a bit of thinking today about losing weight. I need to lose some (really quite a bit). I meet with some women here yesterday and we are going to meet once a week and do an altered low carb diet. The first 2 weeks are fairly strict and then it mellows out from there. It is a diet very much like that of someone who is diabetic. So not like the Atkins or some of those but it does have you reduse the carb intake and I LOVE carbs. I am not sure how I will do with this but I am going to try and give it a try. I may not make it through the first day but I am going to try. So off to the grocery store for some protein, vegies and fruits. Wish me luck...

I have joined Crazy Mom Quilts in a 9 patch challenge. She has challenged us to make one 9 patch square every day with the goal of a scrap quilt by mid summer. I thought this would be a wonderful way to use some of my scraps and anything else I might come up with. She also suggested sashing it with white and I just love what the white does to all of the colors.

I finally made myself an apron. I purchased this fabric with an apron in mind a while back and I really like it. I had some vintage ric rack that I used for trim. I am anxious to try it out.

I have had a busy weekend. It started out Saturday morning, helping with a "Kids Art Festival". I was asked to do a project with some kids at our local Art Festival. My daughter suggested I do marble painting with the kids. This is good for any age and they seem to love doing it. To paint with marbles you put drops of acrylic paint on paper inside a box and then drop marbles in and roll them around in the paint. I was amazed at how much fun the kids had. They really came up with some fun color combination's. I thought it went well. I am sorry that I forgot that I had my camera with me while they were painting so my photos are of some of their work. Then Saturday evening they had a Gala and presentation of awards for the Festival itself. This was the first year they held this event and the place was packed. I think everyone had a good time.

In between when I had a minute or two I worked on my Celtic knot. I will show you more photos when the knots are done. I will not bore you with more pictures of the progress.


Today I made an apron for myself and some of my 9 patch squares. I have 14 squares towards my scrappy quilt....

I hope all of you had a great weekend.

I got time to work on my Celtic Knot last night. I think I have a new favorite thing to do while watching TV. This process is very soothing and I love how it is coming along. The project I am doing started out to be a table runner but as I am working on it I think it would make a wonderful bolster pillow. My plan is to finish the 3 knots that intersect and then I will make a border, quilt it and then into a pillow.

I did make myself do some housework yesterday. I am also very proud of myself I got the ironing done. My husband wears cotton dress shirts to work so I usually end up with a pile of shirts that is very daunting but I made myself get them ironed and I always feel better when they are hanging in the closet ready to wear. For someone who loves fabric you would think I would not hate ironing so much.... Thanks to those of you who gave me suggestions and most of all made me feel like I am not alone!

Oh, I almost forgot about Spring to the Finish. I did not finish any quilts but I did get 4 projects done that I had started but not finished. So thank you Jacquie for the much needed motivation.