Weaving with Salvages

I have a bag of hand dyed Salvages from Chris at Dye Candy. I have been trying to find something wonderful to do with it and this is one of my experiments. I have woven the strips with a heart in the middle. I am also hand quilting the pieces in place. I have been having fun with this little square.
I am not sure if anything will become of this but it is fun to work with. If any of you have any suggestions for me please feel free to suggest away.

Regrouping

I am continuing to regroup and get used to things being as they are. Change seems to be happening all around. Both of my kids moved last week. Stevi to Washington for work and Rick to Eugene, Oregon for school. Both of my kids were going to be in Eugene and in one week things changed. I am thankful for the opportunity for Stevi and her boyfriend but moving further away was not what I had hoped for. :-( And as I say this I am thankful that my kids are happy and healthy and able to make these changes. But I thought it would be so fun to be able to visit them both in the same city.

OK, this is supposed to be a quilting blog and I have not been posting about quilting very much. I promise that will change.

I have been trying to teach myself to do needle turn applique and it is much tougher than I thought. When I feel I have something worth posting I will take photos but, not yet. I am also teach our exchange student to piece and quilt. She is having a good time. She is hand piecing some squares for pillow covers and then I will teach her to hand quilt. I think she is having a good time. When she feels like letting me photograph her work I will post that also.

Have a great weekend.

Guide Dog Graduation

While were in Portland we decided to take a side trip to Boring, Oregon to see a Guide Dog Graduation. Two of the pups I have taken care of were graduating and they were raised by two of my favorite women. It was so fun to go and surprise them and see the graduation. It is always an incredible experience to witness. Now look at all these wonderful dogs. They are all two year old lab, lab golden cross or golden retrievers. They are such attentive dogs and are such incredible partners. I was also able to meet the two people who have been matched with the dogs I puppy sat. Francisco the black lab on the far left and Lavette the golden retriever who is the 3rd from the right. With each graduate they have a few minutes to speak and so do the puppy raisers. So you get a nice sense of the dogs new partner and the person who raised the dog. If any of you ever have an opportunity to see one of these graduations it is worth the time.

With all of my preoccupation about our friends losing their son it was so nice to attend something so wonderful and uplifting.

My friends have been on my mind so very much. We attended the memorial service on Sunday and it was just wonderful but so very sad. I just do not know how as a parent or a sibling anything will ever seem right again.

Portland

I apologize for my long absence. It has been an interesting couple of weeks. There have been so many things going on with a trip thrown in the middle. I thought I would share with you some of the photos I took in Portland. We were fortunate to be invited to go on a dinner cruise on the Willamette River. It was such fun seeing Portland from the water. It was a beautiful evening.

The ugly quilt

Here is the Ugly Quilt. This has grown on me since I have put it together but not fully. Our Quilt Guild makes "Quilts for Comfort" which is where we make quilts and donate them to local organizations to give to people in need. We had bags of 8 inch squares of donated fabric and those who were interested could take a bag home and make a quilt top. I took a bag a couple of months ago and decided to cut the squares diagonally and put them together. Here is what I came up with and I added some sheet fabric that I had in my stash. I really hated the pile of fabric I started with but I have to admit it grew on me a bit. Maybe like mold but it did grow on me. I also had a roll of batting which was too thick to machine quilt with so I tied this quilt.
I am pleased with the results. The best part about it is that it is soft and will keep someone warm this winter. I was not going to share this but since it is all I have accomplished in the last couple of weeks I thought I would.

I am still in a bit of a funk but I am hoping being able to spend some time with friends and family in the next week I will be back to myself. Please remember to let everyone you know and care about how you feel. Life can be too short!!!

Thanks for every ones support. :-)

Loss

I have spent the last five days thinking about loss. How do we handle it and how do we help someone going through it.

We have a friend who has lost their 25 year old son to a tragic accident. This was an incredible young man who had such a wonderful life ahead of him, he was one of those people you meet and would instantly like. He was such a happy person. I just can not say enough about him.

Why do things like this happen to such promising young people. It was one of those things that happen, no one was doing anything wrong or making bad choices but just loving life and being part of it. I have not spoken to his family yet and I just do not know what I can say, words just do not come. The sadness is just so deep.

Enjoy every moment you have with your family and friends. LIFE IS TOO SHORT

Sunset over the Pacific

There has not been much sewing going on here to share with you so I thought I would show you what the sunset looked like last night. It was beautiful. We have had a wonderful weather week. So I have been enjoying myself....

I hope all of you have a great long weekend. We are getting company tomorrow so I may be absent for a few days.

Feeling like one of the lucky ones

While I was walking today I was thinking about the life I have been given. I really feel like I am one of the luck ones.