I'm plugging away on quilty stuff

First, let say "Woo Hoo!" I finished 50 little postage stamp blocks. #50 is done and in the pile. 1/8 of the way through making all the blocks I need. Oh yeah!



Remember just recently, I posted about needing to repair the kids' quilts? Well, one of them is finished and Wow! did it need a lot of repairs! Several spots in the middle and pretty much the whole outside border. It was cheap fabric, obviously, but it lasted over 10 years. Now, where it was is all covered with patches. I used all the dandelion fabric and most of my collection of orphan blocks to get this one fixed. What do you think?


Today, since it's like 100 degrees, I'm trying to stay in the house where it is a little bit cooler, or at least pretends to be. Time to go back and take advantage of quilting time. :o)

Our trip to the Oregon coast

24th anniversary trip ***The photos are better if you click here and follow the link.

fixing quilts

I love to make new quilts, especially the tops, and it warms my heart when a quilt that I made is so loved that it's worn to shreds. Then, I usually have an excuse to make another quilt. Unfortunately, my kids don't want *another* quilt, they still love the raggedy one that they already have. They just want mom to fix it, so that's what I'm working on today--fixing quilts.
Jack's, I took apart and patched the top, but it's going to be needing new batting and a new backing and then very lightly quilted on the machine. Paddy's quilt, on the other hand, has already been patched, so it needs more patches added to it to cover the raggedy-ness. Here is a photo of the quilt and the fabrics that I'm going to use for patches. She loves dandelion fluff, so this is what she requested. It's very light weight, so I decided that maybe I'd better work on them while it's still summer. :o) As soon as this one's done, I'll start on Jack's. A quilter's work is never done. :o)

Month 11 is finished Yay!

Be Grateful


I am so pleased that I'm getting all caught up with this set of blocks. That feeling of accomplishment is kicking in and I still have one more month to go. Doing this BOM is making me see that I really can pull it off. That's really good because I have two more BOM patterns in my sewing room waitng for me to make time for them. :o) Isn't it cute?

New Shoes!

I went to the coast last weekend and I'll have to tell you all about that later, but for now, I'm so excited! I got 2 pair of new shoes. Every year I get a new pair of shoes for school, but this time, I also found a pair of heels. I bet this is the first pair of heels I've owned in 20 years. They fit! Yay! Aren't they so cute?! :o)

Does anybody *do* crock pot/slow cooking?

Back in the day, let's say in the late 70's, I used to have a crock pot and tried to use it. To be honest, I was never thrilled with it. To me, it was small, hard to clean and everything had about the consistency of dog food. Well, with the new and improved slow cookers that are available now, I'm trying again. I bought a decent slow cooker last year (or maybe the year before?) and I couple of dinners have turned out nice. I'd like to expand my use of it, but I really don't know where to start. Do any of you have any suggestions? If you have a favorite site or a favorite cookbook, I'd love to hear about it.
I think using a slow cooker could save electricity, keep the kitchen cooler in the summertime, and even help me be more organized and ready for dinner, once school starts again... and give me just a little more time to play with my quilting. :o)

some songs I like

"The" Susan Boyle song: I dreamed a dream from Les Miserables
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

"Journey Steps" blocks

One of my online quilting groups is having a block swap, but I didn't join in. It my favorite type of swap, but it calls for batiks, and I'm running low. My sweetie has been off work for over 5 months, so somehow, buying batik fabrics didn't seem to be a top priority. Instead, I made my blocks out of regular purple fabric and played along. :o) Wanna' see my blocks?



It's not the same as a batik quilt, but it's going to be cute! And did you notice that every single block is a different color of purple? :o)

Instructions:
Some have asked how to make this blocks, so I wrote up some instructions for you:

The purple blocks are soooo easy to make. The little 4-patch are made of 1.5" blocks, 2 yellow and 2 purple, to end up measuring 2.5". Then, they are made into a 4-patch, alternating with 2.5" purple squares. Those are then set in 4-patch style with two 4.5" squares. When they are all sewn together, they measure out at 8.5", to finish as 8" blocks. So easy! Just make sure that your little yellow squares line up correctly.

2009 Sisters Quilt show

2009 Sisters show



2009 Sisters show #2



2009 Sisters show #3



2009 Sisters show #4

Rainmaker Day

Today, July 12th, is known as Rainmaker Day. In Salem, Oregon, there has never been measurable rain, in recorded history. I think that long-standing record is now broken. It's raining and there is thunder and lightning going on. Hmmm... it's sad to see the record go down, but it's nice to know that I was here. OK, electricity is starting to flicker and I need to save my computer.
Hope you are enjoying the very last Rainmaker Day in history. :o)

...and I don't even really *like* fishing ...lol

Here's the first fish I caught this fishing trip.

And this one's a little better size.


There were about a million dragon flies.

Here are the 3 that I caught. We will eat them tomorrow. Yum!

We stopped on the way home for lunch. I wanted you to see how big the trees are.
DH, Rick, is standing at the bottom of the tree so you have some perspective of size. It was a fun trip, but I was sure glad to get back home.

what a gorgeous place Oregon can be

A Great Blue Heron...

A Bald Eagle...

A Cormorant...one of many...

A Goose and her babies...

and another Bald Eagle.
I just had to share some of what I saw on our camping/fishing trip this past week. Beautiful.