OH MY GOD!

Why didn't Bill tell me that salmon fishing could be so much fun!  (Maybe he has a dozen of times but read on for a fishing story.....)

There are some things in life that you never think to put on your 'bucket list' and crossing the 'bar' at the mouth of the Columbia River is one of them, right along with salmon fishing in the ocean!  Dear husband has been sent out salmon fishing for years and it wasn't till this year that I said 'sure, I will come with you!.'  We scheduled a salmon trip with friends, Linda and RB down the road, to fish out of the town of Astoria, OR.  We all thought we were going to fish the Columbia River.

Well, we did salmon fish with a wonderful guide by the name of Mike.  We didn't exactly fish the Columbia River as he had fished that area the day before and caught nothing.  So bright (well not exactly daylight) we arrived to meet Mike and head out over 'The Bar'!.  The horror stories about the bar were not true that morning.  I had a ball and smiled and laughed the whole way across it.  Bill, as he knew he was going to, had second thoughts about this heading to the ocean.... (ocean motion is not his thing.)

Heading out of the harbor, dawn is just breaking, too early for anyone to be up.

Except for the happy salmon hunters (ok anglers!)  Linda and RB, and Sue and Bill.  (notice it is still dark!)

The Chinook Salmon were in season and gathering for their run up the river.  Ocean fishing is a bit different then river fishing.  There were five of us on the boat and we all had salmon tags so we were able to put out five baited rods.  We fished off of the WA coast in between 32-39 feet of water trolling back and forth.  The day was awesome; thousands of birds, swarms of bait fish, and dolphins to keep us entertained between salmon hits.

First fish brought in!

I promised Bill I would not show pictures of his chumming for us.  He was such a good sport spending most of the day just feeling ______ .  He was so happy to come back in over "The Bar" again (in worse condition then when we went out).

The end of the day's fishing!

Linda and RB with one of the Chinook (but why the small one?)

RB and Mike with the catch of the day.

And me with my first ever salmon!  

We all have our bucket lists of things we would like to see and do in life before the end comes.  Sometimes we are given a freebie in what is handed to us that is not on our list.  This day was not on my list but I am so thankful it was added to it.  We live in an exceptional wonderful world with so many unique experiences....I am so thankful that this one was given to me to have on my 'bucket list'.  Thank you Bill - I love you.

Happy free gifts of life to all of us.





 

"Ugly" can be a Challenge!

Six months ago I was at the local quilt store and Charlie, the owner, caught me at a very weak moment.  She has a yearly quilt challenge that I've participated in before and past on it last year due to the theme.  Well, this year isn't much better (gosh, I hope she doesn't know that I blog!!).  So I have procrastinated and quite frankly totally forgot that I had the fabric for this year's challenge.

The challenge is called: "Shades of the 60's".  Okay, so I am old enough to have gone through the 60's with the hippies, flower children, sit-in's, etc.  But that said I was also busy raising a family so never got involved in the cultural happenings of the time.  

To put it mildly, the fabric doesn't do a thing for me and couldn't imagine doing anything with the panel.

Are those 'magic mushrooms' ?  Rule No. 5: Entry must be suitable for viewing by any age group.  I wonder what Charlie was thinking of when she wrote that.  

And then there were three 1/2 yard pieces that came with this.

More mushrooms!!!!  So if you don't like what you have to work with - cut it up and use it as color.  Everything goes with white!

By George, I am beginning to like it !

More later as this one progresses.

Happy sunny days and quiet time to quilt.

 

Something Fishy!

Years ago Gaylen and I went to Joanne's and picked up this really whimsical fish fabric.  We were both going to make new purses for work.  Gaylen made a purse and used it.  Mine became one of those UPs until this last week!

Happy Fishing!

What to do with UPs?

If you quilt, you probably have plenty of UPs.  And you are wondering what are UPs...they are what I call Unfinished Projects.  And do I have plenty! (just ask Bill.)

I wish I could claim originality on this project but since I can't let me share with you how simple it is.

Take a quilted UP and cut it into a square.  What size - doesn't matter, just so it is square.

This was going to be a purse but now it will be transformed into a hanging bag.  I am using a 12 1/2 square and the only reason for this size is I have a square ruler that size.

If the back is ugly with a lot of stitches then add a new backing.  You will have a top, batting, and backing (or lining).

Then add binding to two sides, and zig zag the edge of the other two sides.

  Then add a little hanging strap to it.

 Tack two opposite corners before bringing up the third corner.

  When the third corner is secured than it is time to whip stitch the openings closed.

And..... this is what you will have in the end!

Now isn't that cute! (and easy).  Instead of having lots of UPs I can see I am going to have a lot of hanging bags!

Happy finishing projects.

 

3 Weeks in South Carolina

One thing you can say about retirement is that you can go visit family and almost stay forever.  Sarah, Joe, and the girls sold their house in Columbia, SC and bought a house in Mountville which is a little over an hour out of Columbia.  This property comes with a house and 6 acres of fairly flat undeveloped land. 

Going through the pictures I find that I did not take any pictures of the front of the house.  But here is the side view.

 The house is huge and comes with a room just for Grandma (okay and whoever else will visit!) The room also belongs to Stormy the cat who has the run of the house.  Stormy and I came to the understanding that he did not get to sleep with Grandma!

While there I helped paint both girls' bedrooms with their favorite colors, planted Sarah's irises that she had dug from the sold house, helped Joe pull holly bushes out, helped with the fencing for the new dogs, got poison ivy, spent a day burning with Sarah, and just plain relaxed with a good book now and then.  Was it a nice visit, you bet it was.

 This is what the 6 acres look like.  This road goes to the back of the house and this is what Joe has to back the boat up to park it.  This is also part of the snake story later.

This is what Joe has to work with!  We did go looking at tractors as the weeds, brush, etc. grow so fast in this climate.  Notice the boots - we all wore them while working outside.  Needless to say I did wear flip flops while outside and not working.  This eventually would have proved to be very unwise as the day I left the kids found a copperhead snake on the road behind the house.  

The new country look is shorts and rubber rain boots.  The girls usually had on long pants also.  If you live in the country then you need to have country dogs.  After 3 hours of trying out different dogs at Pets, Inc. the girls (more like mom) found two dogs with wonderful temperments for each girl.

Kenzie with Bacon.  Bacon will walk forever, chase balls, and just be happy whereever he is.  He is a sweet dog.  On occasion Kenzie calls him Bacon Bits.  They kept the names that came with the dogs at the shelter. Bacon has a lot of energy.

 And this is Kayla with BamBam. This dog either runs or lays down and Kayla has been known to drag the laying down dog behind her!  He also has a sweet temp but is more mellow and will not chase balls.  But Kayla loves him anyway.

The time spent was not all work.  Sarah arranged for a Mother/Daughter weekend out and had booked a room at a lodging in Jonesborough TN for us. 

Jonesburough is a quaint little town with art galleries, theater, and a free concert on the square.  I had a wonderful time with my two daughters.  It is also known for its Story Telling Center.  We attended an afternoon story telling performance and spent an hour laughing ourselves silly.

That evening we took in a show at the local repertory theater which was an enactment of a 1941 USO radio show.  Also very good and entertaining!

  Monica and Sarah enjoying a few minutes of sitting down and enjoying the free concert.  All the locals bring their lawn chairs and Main Street is closed to traffic.  Now is this small town or what.  The town also closes the street on Saturday nights and does a free movie. 

And we all shopped, and then went shopping some more. 


Saturday morning was the Farmers Market where they close off the street again! 

Saturday was the busy shopping day.  Across from the Visitor's Center was the Tenneseequilts.com that was so much fun to shop that we spent two hours there after the morning market.  For those of you who quilt they have a very comprehensive webpage and a wonderful fabric selection.

 There is a clown in every family and this is Dr. Sarah Sweitzer, PhD thumbing her nose at her mother!!!  The good daughter, Monica, wisely just smiled for the camera. Monica also has the only picture of all of us together.  Girls - thank you for a wonderful couple of days (even if you laughed and made fun of the meals you had to eat growing up!!!)


I don't know where the time went to but I am back in OR again and am missing my family time.


Family time is at the top of my list, so is watching the fire flies in the evening, listening to the thunder and lightening storms, and learning what true humidity is.  


Happy Family Time!

Dog Days of Spring

How did it ever get to be six days into June?  

First off I would like to thank my dear quilting friend Chris for her gift of the quilt decal.  I LOVE IT! and it finally made its way on to the back window of the car.  It looks so cool there.... I do many things but quilting brings me a lot of fun and creativity.

 Now isn't that the prettiest thing you have ever seen on a car?

I've been spending so much time trying to finish up just two projects so I can start on new ones and I can't believe the hours and hours that I have devoted to this.  And one of the projects is just a small wall hanging....

How hard can this one be?  There is only four blind dogs and one who is still missing its ear.  The lettering for "red dog" had to be cut twice as the first set is still missing in action.  Then the top stitching is still needed in 2 and a half of the dog squares..... and I still need the last three letter dog word:  Red, Fun, Old, and ???  and all to be hidden behind the toilet room door upstairs!

The dog quilt was inspiration for the 'frequent flyer' dog quilt for Kayla, my granddaughter.  It was first mailed to SC and started there, came back to OR to be finished, and then will go back to SC to be used.  And here it is....

 This one has a lot of hand quilting on it to keep it soft and cuddlely.  Kayla made the decisions of what color for the dogs and what color for the backgrounds.  Not a bad job for a 7 year old!

 DOGS, ARF, ARF.... but it has been fun!

 Okay so there is another quilt on the design wall....and it has a long way to go before being finished so this one doesn't count!!!!  Now how is that for a quilting rational?


Happy Dog Days of Spring (we can't wait till the warm days of summer!).
 

FAMILY!

Families are wonderful groups to belong to!  Families are love, support, fun, sharing, laughs, exploring, talking, and just great to hang out with.

This year we again joined Rosemary and Vern and their children and grandchildren at Roosevelt for their yearly Memorial Day weekend.  The Davidsons have been coming here for years now to windsurf, kitesurf, and just to be together. For the last three years Rick and Judy have picked up Grandma and brought her with them.  Bill and I drive up from Roseburg to join in the fun.

This is the first time I've blogged the event and now wish I had taken lots more pictures.  Maybe Kristen will fill in with more on her blog (hint, hint!) Or Jenny (hint, hint)!

Saturday was a mixed day of wind.  And WIND is what they all come for.  You can't kite surf without it.  So when there is no wind, you get to sit and eat, and visit, and catch up on the latest happenings.

 Wind is down so we visit.....

 ...and visit some more.  The children migrate in and out but the women seem to have the visiting part down pretty well.

 Grandma even had the visiting down!

 Hannah has a bagged trainer kite.  The trainer kite did come out and a few of us gave it a try but the wind was too light to really have fun with it.  There again where was the camera?????

 Rosemary and Rick in a deep discussion .... the red pile and the white thing on the ground behind them are the wind kites.  These things are huge...and take a lot of skill to fly and surf with one.  

Bill and Vern visiting.  I don't think they moved from the chairs all day!  Now that is taking visiting to a new limit.

Thank you Davidson families for a fun day!

Happy Family Day!