Kayla is Turning 10!

Today is the day....the big 10 for Kayla!  Happy Birthday to you!

But the fun and games were a few days ago on the weekend.  What better way to start it off but with a birthday breakfast complete with decorations, balloons and gifts.

 

And who better to help with the decorations but big sister Kenzie and dad (all done the night before).

 

On to the birthday girl....and a birthday breakfast....

 

 



The theme for this year was owls....and if you have been to any of the girls parties than you know that means, piñata and cupcakes made to look like owls or whatever the chosen theme is.

 

...problems with downloading more pics.  So Happy Birthday girl for now!

 

 

 

 



 

 



A New Year with Old Starts!

Lets start the new year off with a much muttered "I wish I could print out all my blogs".  I started this blog on Sept. 6, 2011 six days after I retired from my job at ODOT.  I never realized that three years later I would still be blogging about bits of family, friends, trips, quilting, etc.  It has become a journal of my last 3 years.  It doesn't matter that there are few readers but I wanted a way to recover in book form what mattered to me since I retired.  I had asked a few friends and the answers were always "screen print".  Having a lap and a laptop computer we spend a lot of time together.  Out of curiosity I googled 'blogs, printing, books' and came up with a site that prints books from your blog webpage.  You only have to enter your blog site and the day/year in the from and to boxes.  I did and this is what arrived in the mail.

 

 

Okay, so the cover isn't creative.... I am so thrilled with the book and wish I could give you the web address of the wonderful company I used but I tossed the invoice.  The only info is on the back page which has "SharedBook".  I can see this will become a yearly now! 

 

 

The best news is I am back in the loft again sitting with the sewing machine and feeling creative enough to pull out old projects and working on them.  It is like seeing old friends again.  The center of the yellow, black, and white wall hanging is filled with tightly stitched lines.  It is the most boring thing to do with a quilt but the over all effect is quite stunning.  The binding has been made and has sat on the table for over 6-7 months.  I did blog it once before a loooong time ago.



 

 

The following one was started at the Jan Krentz workshop given by the Umpqua Valley Quilt Guild back in November.  Most of the fabric matches Sarah's bedspread quilt that she made for the new house in Portland.  This will eventually go up on their wall in her and Joe's bedroom.  The center is complete and because it is on-point the corners have now turned into the challenging part.  It is a piece in progress.....

 

 

The weather has been bitterly cold for the end of 2014 and the start of 2015.  The sun came out yesterday and both Bill and I migrated outside to enjoy the brief spell of above freezing weather.  Who would have thought seeing a 40 would make you feel warm!

 

 

Happy New Year and may your next 12 months be wonderful.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

To all our family and friends, Bill and I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

 

 

 

 

 Happy Holidays!

Jan Krentz Workshop

Time moves slowly, time moves quickly!  November 5th seemed so far away until the calendar turned the page and then the 5th was here before we knew it.

The Umpqua Valley Quilt Guild brought in Jan Krentz, a well known, published quilter, to give a workshop.  Chris and I had signed up for it months ago and never thought the day would ever arrive.  But....it did.

 

Didn't take long to load the back of the car with the needed supplies...yep, sewing machine and one little bag of material, rotary cutter, lots of enthusiasm, and a set purpose in mind.  How little I knew of what to expect from six hours of working with Jan!

 

 

Chris and I arrived a bit early and soon had our design batting sheets in place. (Notice there are no sewing machines in place!)

 

 

These are two of Jan's quilts to give us inspiration!  We had a couple of group sessions with Jan and her presentations.  She was a wonderful instructor and shared a wealth of information and hand-outs.

 

We were fortunate to have a large area to spread out in.

 

 

Chris and the start of hers (to the right).

 

 





Mine without the foggiest of where I am going with it!

Sharon with a clear vision of what she wants.

 

 

It was a wonderful day and who would have thought that a room full of ladies could spend six hours cutting and playing with placement of fabric and be so happy.  My biggest surprise was that none of us ever got to the point of bringing in a sewing machine and sewing one single piece of fabric!

Happy Designing!

Happy Halloween

 

It's that time of year again.....boo, boo!

Happy end of October

Gone and back....

How fast time can fly when you are out and about.  But the main question is why do we not do it more often as we so love the coast and the ocean and the beachcombing and just being away for a few days.....

We left Wednesday morning and had two nights reserved in Gold Beach.  This left us plenty of time to take a few roads less traveled and now that summer is over the beaches were just about empty.

And we had windless sunshine on the first day.

One of our favorite stops is in Port Orford.  The big rock is "Battle Rock".  There is also a quilt store here that never gets passed by.

There is no way to take a bad picture of the Oregon coast, not even from the balcony of a motel room in Gold Beach.... by this time we already had driftwood and rocks in the back of the car!

Thursday was spent heading up the Rogue River out of Gold Beach.  We had stopped by the Ranger Station for a map of the old growth trail that was to be our main destination and while there just happened to mentioned in conversation the question of 'what are agates?'  The gal was nice enough to look over the few we thought were agates from the day before and WHOPEE three of the many rocks were! 

Okay, back to the trail....

 
 


 

 

 

The trailhead was 2 miles off the main road and was one lane the whole way as we wound our way up....once at the trailhead there was only one other car in the parking lot.  Trail was a 1 1/2 loop trail and when we returned to the parking lot the other car was gone.  We never saw or heard anything! 

 

 



 

 

A ways up the Rogue River...the mail boats use to go from Gold Beach to the town of Agness to deliver mail.  Now the Jet Boats do the 63 mile round trip with tourists... 

 

 

 

An old tug boat sunk at the mouth of the Rogue River.

 

 

Friday morning we headed down to Brookings as our southern turn around point before heading home.  The fog was in but the coast was still pretty....

 

 

 

 

Happy travels.





2014 NW Quilt Expo

Pure Eye Candy:

 Jean Wells - it is always exciting to get a close up look at one of her quilts.

 Our very own Georgia French (OR SAQA member)!

 

The finger of 'god'!  Must be my sister????

 

 

The center of this quilt was actually a panel which made me look twice.  It was very well done.

 



 

The camera kept flashing 'low on battery' so was never sure how many more pics I was going to be able to get.  All the quilts entered deserved to be seen here as eye candy.... BUT what a fantastic day!

To share this with my daughter and sister made for a perfect day! 

So many quilts were left without a picture being taken .... you just had to be there to appreciate the awesomeness of the displayed quilts.

(we won't talk about the vendor purchases!!!!)

Happy love of quilting!