Poor neglected blog

I have been sewing! But these lovelies are what has distracted me from remembering to blog my creative projects this summer!

Grand kids over for summer play.

Vacation time!

Baby cuddles.  She has finally gotten used to Nana. :)

Summer is winding down so I should remember my little blog again!  Hee, hee.  

Quilty pics to come.  

Apple Cider

We have several apple trees and usually end up giving most of them away.  There are only so many apples two people can eat!    This year we bought an apple press and decided to make cider.  We had the grand kids over, the weather was perfect and boy was it fun!

First up - picking....  

....and carrying them back to Papa in the garage.

Even their dog, Rusty, got in on it....though he was more about fetching and eating!  :)

Back in the garage grinding and pressing.  We ended up with 8 gallons.  Hubs and I pressed another 4 gallons on a different day.

Sent several gallons home with the kids.   Reduced a half gallon down to 1/2 cup and made apple cider caramels with it - soooooo good!  And the rest went in the freezer. 

Oh and a week ago a mama black bear and two cubs came and ate all the apples that had fallen on the ground!  Got to actually watch them do it...such a treat.

International Quilting Day

Today is International Quilting Day and SewCalGal is hosting a virtual Sew-cial.  We are suppose to share our sewing day.  I have my 8 year old grand son over for the day and he wanted to finish the I Spy quilt he started the last time he was over by himself.    That means I can combine many things I love -- loving on a grand kid, teaching and quilting!

Here he is from the last visit with his squares on the design wall and sewing rows together.

 

We used a fleece blanket for the back and no batting. I sewed it together like a pillow and turned it.  Then we machine quilted over the seam lines in a wavy pattern.  Here he is learning some of the machine quilting.

Good hand placement!  :)

Look Mom...I'm doing it myself!   

All done!!!!   

I'm sure he is as proud of himself as I am of him!

Working with kids takes a lot of patience and a lot of letting go.  My theory is develop the love of something and excellence comes after.  

Hope your day is full of fun sewing.

My only Christmas sewing

I only sewed one gift this year and it was for my adorable grand daughter:

  My daughter in law, Faith, snapped this pic of her when she had her "pretties" on!  She likes to take my ear rings off and "wear" them herself. 

I made her a pillow to cuddle with:

The fabrics and doll panel are all from Riley Blake designs.  I used their Lolly Dolly pillow tutorial with a few modifications.  One change was that I put a zipper in the back so the cover could be used on a pillow form rather than stuffed.  

Zippers are so easy to put in a pillow and being able to take the cover off to wash it is a good thing!

Christmas morning was a frenzy this year and I barely had time to snap any pictures.  Luckily my daughter did get one of Heidi with the pillow.

Good thing I reinforced the legs and arms with extra stitching!  I knew they'd get a workout.

I'm currently re-organizing my studio and purging my fabric.  Its taking so long cuz every piece of fabric has a story attached and its hard to let go....at least for me.  Time to get back to it.

The Mailbox and Six Year Old logic

I first told you about this mailbox in this post.  Hubby and I put the mailbox out some where on our property for our grandsons to find when they come to visit.  There is "mail" of some kind in it but WHO the mailman is is a secret.   :)    David is too young (3) to care about much more than what's inside.  Liam, on the other hand, is really trying to figure out who brings the mail....a little bit like wanting to see Santa bring your presents.

So this last visit, he asked me if he could write a thank you note to the mailman.  I said yes, of course.  He was hoping to catch the mailman getting his note!   LOL!!

Note written and gifts included:

Don't ya just love the handwriting of young ones?   So sweet. 

I have no idea how long we can keep the ruse up.  Hope it lasts a couple more years!

My latest distraction

Heidi Anne and Nana.   Sweet love.

Living My Memories

My Dad's side of the family has owned a camp on Indian Lake in upstate New York for about 100 years.  It started as a hunting cabin.  Not exactly sure when it became the family residence during the summer but I know that's how it was for my Dad growing up.  I was lucky enough to get to go for a vacation most years growing up...though never for an entire summer.  I LOVED my time on the lake.  "Camp", as we have always called it, holds fond memories for me...all happy ones. 

Here is Camp as it was in 1988:

Time stood still on vacation. My brother and I played from the time we woke up to the time we were sent to bed. We played in the woods, swam, canoed, water skied, caught frogs, worked on puzzles, visited at neighboring camps, cards & board games, read in the hammock, fed the chipmunks....so simple but unforgettable.

Me with our dog Charlie out for a canoe ride:

Me water skiing for the first time at age 11....still "got it" many years later as an adult:

My last visit to Camp as a child was at age 14.  My parents divorced and we never went again.  That is until I was married with kids of my own.  1988 was when we had a small family reunion at Camp with my Dad, Edie and my brothers family.   I was thrilled to introduce my kids to what was my favorite place on earth.

Here they enjoy canoeing (same canoe) with their grandparents:

We were able to take them back to Camp two more times after that trip.   Flying across the country was much harder to accomplish than a drive.   Who knows if my grand kids will ever get to go.  I hope so.

For now, hubby and I rent a house on Lake Cavanaugh here in WA and invite our family to come spend time at the lake.  The area is different, the "cabin" is a huge modern home, the lake is more crowded....but the lake is still a lake.  Our grand kids might not get to experience canoe riding on the same lake as their ancestors have but they CAN experience it.   And I get to live my memories all over again.  

A few pics from this years lake visit.

Jenn, Faith and David learning the fine art of summer relaxation:

David and Liam playing with dominoes:

Puzzles...gotta complete a puzzle:

Thank you Lord, for happy memories past, present and future.   :)

Weekend with the Grands

Jenn and the grandsons came over this last weekend.   The weather was nice so we had lots of outdoor time.   Hubby had found a wooden mailbox at Joann's that he painted a few weeks ago.  We thought it'd be fun to put it on our property with "mail" inside for the boys.  We put it in plain sight for this visit but will hide it more as they grow older.

Here it is under the tree...waiting for the boys to collect their mail:

Close up:

This time we put some cars inside.  Who knows what it'll be next time.  
Barely got this picture taken before they were up and running!

They also love playing in the back of the truck. 

And we topped the night off with a marshmallow roast.  :)

Fun visit!

Inspiration

The other day when visiting the grand kids I got some quilt inspiration from a book I was reading to Liam.    Hubby and I love reading to the boys but for some reason this is the first time the illustrations jumped out at me and said "QUILT"!  

(David currently doesn't like his picture taken...this right as he saw me with my camera and seconds before he yelled NO and wiggled off hubby's lap)


            This is the illustration that "talked" to me:

All the insects are singing.  Aren't these grasshoppers cute?   I love the bright colors and the cheerfulness of the picture.

And here's a different illustration that I liked:

I love finding inspiration all around!  If only there were enough time to make all the quilts that I want to make.

Kirigami

Every year hubby and I buy one of those page a day calendars.   This years calendar is "Kirigami" or paper cutting.  It's been lots of fun.  

Instead of throwing them away, we decided to send them to our grandsons and let them do whatever with 'em.   Our daughter has been putting some of them up on their bedroom wall.   It is so dang cute.....I had to share.

First Bike

Last weekend the grandsons were over for a visit.   It was Liam's 5th birthday!  Here he is on his birthday present.    After many times around and around the house.....and lots of tire marks inside........it was time to head to a park and use sidewalks.   Boy did watching Liam on his first bike ride bring back a multitude of memories....both of my kiddo's and their first bikes, as well as my own.   The only time I've broken a bone was falling off my first bike and breaking my wrist.   It never deterred me from riding.  I have always loved the feeling of freedom while riding....still do.    In fact, I'm looking forward to a bike ride with hubby in Maui on our upcoming vacation.  Woo hoo!  

This pic cracks me up!  It's David's boot after he was done playing in our creek!  Little guys simply don't stay upright when splashing and jumping in water.  He loved every minute of it!   

Christmas Joys

Jennifer told me I had to write a new blog post so that the skull on the beer bottle wouldn't show up when she went here....it was freaking her out.   :)    So here's a few pics from Christmas to share.  It was a great day!

Our crew...including the dogs.

Hubby with the special picture frame Liam made with the extra cute Christmas picture Jenn took of the boys.

Jennifer with the felted purse I made.  I blogged about those purses a while ago.  She loved this one so I added some buttons and made a little wallet (which I'll write about later...they were super easy) for her too.

Faith and Daniel enjoying present time.   I made the quilt on Faith's lap for her.  

This is my favorite picture of the holiday.  Liam is playing his new guitar and David is his lead singer...belting out some tune.  I'm thinking it's a rock-n-roll song since David looks angry.     :)

Apple Fun

We have 6 apple trees and this year the apples are abundant. I don't make jelly or sauce or bake pies so there are lots of apples for giving away....no way eating an apple or two a day would ever come close to using them all up! :)
The grand kids were over last weekend and they love going out to pick apples. I think they'd eat them all day long if we let them.

Here they are enjoying the treat of fresh picked apples:

Sickness Steals Surprise

I have this cute church birdhouse that Tink gave me years ago that I keep on a small table in my dining room area. It's one item I don't remove anymore when I child proof before the grand kids come over. Not because I don't care if it gets ruined....but because of what it contained after one visit a couple of years ago when I forgot to put it up.

There is a little door on the back......and we discovered this:

Such a fun surprise! Liam is consistent each and every visit to park his cars in here......only this last weekend my little jewel was sick during his visit and stayed in bed. Boo hoo. We missed our surprise........that's not so surprising anymore. :)
Next time.