Robert Burns: January 25, 1759 - July 21, 1796

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?  Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and days of o'lang syne?

Robert Burns

Today is Robert Burns birthday.   He was a Scottish poet and lyricist and regarded as the national poet of Scotland. I'm sure all of you recognize the line from the song above....we sing it every year!
 He is celebrated the world over on or around his birthday in a variety of ways.    We were invited again this year to dance at the Burns Night celebration at St. Pauls Church in Bremerton.   I wasn't able to get any pics of us dancing....kinda hard to do while dancing.  But I'll share a few I took of other things.

Music is always a part of Burn parties.  The Tacoma Scots Pipe Band played and were fantastic.  I'm actually not a big fan of the bagpipes but something about the intimacy of the event made it wonderful to me.

The "presenting of the haggis" is a highlight of the evening.  I've seen this done with a lot of "pomp and circumstance" but at St. Pauls its done simply.  

You'd think after all these years in Scottish Country dance I'd know the history behind all the traditions of Burns Night celebrations but I don't.   If you're asking yourself "wassup with the haggis", you're gonna have to google it yourself.    :)  I do know Burns wrote a poem called "Address to the Haggis" and it relates to strong Scottish pride of his time.  But then everything is about Scottish pride!  

Bruce (one of our dancers) and Hubby were the "presenters".

The Tacoma Scots Pipe band brought this young dancer with them and she performed two highland dances. This was the start of the sword dance.

A young harpist played two songs for us.  He was really good.

River Search

Remember I told you about the Yaya's weekly themed photo challenge for this year?   Well, this weeks theme was "Book I'm Reading".
The book I'm reading is called "Yukon Lady: A Tale of Loyalty and Courage".   True story about a gal named Emma who moved to the Yukon in the early 1900's as a new bride.   There were lots of things I could have chosen as my picture(s) for the week:  cribbage, Husky dogs, sourdough, glaciers, etc.    They lived on the Stewart River and the river was central to life for them.  That's why I chose "river" as my pic for the week.

Getting a river picture meant a field trip for hubby and I.  So this morning we took off across the Hood Canal bridge in search of the Quilcene River.   We parked at Rainbow campground and hiked a short distance down to the river.

Dennis and Bonnie on the way down the trail.

Some mushrooms we saw.  Love how plentiful fungi are here in the NW.  For some reason they have always interested me.

And here she is, the mighty Quilcene River.

Dennis dinking at the rivers edge.

Me on the way back UP the trail...lots of stops to catch my breath.

We finished our little adventure with lunch at the Timber House in Quilcene.  Yummy, yummy food.  I highly recommend this place if you're in the area.

Blog Blockage

I don't really have anything to blog about.  Haven't had blog ideas for a while now.   I just spent about an hour going through my pictures looking for inspiration.......got none.  Sad.    There really is more to my life besides fabric!    :)


So I decided I'd share a blog I diggin' right now.  It's called "A Year Of Slow Cooking".   Stephanie, the author, is passionate about her crock pot and has shared an amazing amount of recipes.   Today I made her Asian Shredded Beef recipe.....nummy.  I didn't add as much honey, cuz I don't like overly sweet main dishes.  I served it over rice (basmati, of course!) and the shredded cabbage. 

Enjoy. 

Fabric Friday and Firsts

This is just a few bolts from the "Nicey Jane" collection by Heather Bailey.   I hadn't seen any of her work before seeing these at the Kingston Quilt shop.   Seems like there are more and more new fabric designers out there!   Hard to stay current but I do love the additional choices I get for my quilts.    :)

Tink and I got to add another "first" to a long list of things we've done together.   I've mentioned that both of us got dream jobs at the Kingston Quilt shop last June.  Last Wednesday was the first time we got to work together ALONE.  The whole shop to ourselves.  So much fun.   

Days end....time for a rest.

We get to have another day next month....thank you dear boss.......can't wait.

Fabric Friday

Kaffe Fassett is an amazing artist who knits, paints, does patchwork, mosaics, needlework and designs beautiful fabric collections!    I took a picture of some of the bolts of his at work last week.   These soft colors have been calling to me lately.  Spring on a shelf.  

Here's a close-up of one.  As you can see the prints are large.   I like using them in big chunks in quilts. 
I don't have a project in mind for using them but I don't know how long I can resist the "call" to buy!    LOL!

Warm Wishes Quilt

I finished this Warm Wishes top today.  It's one I started ages ago and never had the "oomph" to finish.   Silly part is there was only one row left to do!!!  Sigh.   Warm Wishes is one of my favorite easy quilts to make.  Very fast and I love the way it looks.   I'll use it to practice my long arm quilting at the Kingston Quilt Shop where I am learning to use the computerized long arm.   Cool stuff.

Project 365 is over!

I did it!  I finished!    Last year I decided to join a fellow Yaya in doing this "Project 365".   I'm not a photography hobbyist but thought it'd be an interesting way to look at my year when I was done......which it is!    Plus I LOVE doing stuff with my Ya's!    You can read about the start of the project for me here.

This year all four of us Yaya's are gonna do a photo project but not a picture a day.  I couldn't handle that again!  :)     Instead we have picked theme's for each week of the year and will take pics according to the theme.   Our first week's theme is "Doors/Doorways".   I haven't "found" my pic of the week yet but have some idea's.  

Here's to another year of camera carrying and clicking!

Fabric Friday

Hungry, yet?    LOL!

I decided since I haven't done a "Feet Friday" post in ages, that I'd switch this year and do "Fabric Friday" instead.   There is always fabric to share.   :)

 I decided I'm gonna collect junk food fabrics.    This is a new bunch of fat quarters I bought last month. I don't have a quilt pattern in mind yet but that never stops me from collecting.  It's so fun to go from fabric store to fabric store and look for new pieces.   Hopefully I'll find more in the next year that I can show you.

Roosting Robin

I belong to a small quilting group that works on various group projects/challenges.  I just finished the top to one challenge we did -- a "Roosting" Round Robin.   In a normal Round Robin you make a center block and it gets passed around to each group member who adds a border.   In a Roosting Robin, the quilt stays with you but you follow different "rules" for each "round" as you design and piece your top.

We decided to start with any size center block and that each round could be added either as a complete border (all four sides) or assymmetrically or however you wanted to intrepret it.

I was basing my quilt on a set of three nautical themed fabrics that my husband gave me -- designing elements that held Christian symbolism to me.  I first appliqued an anchor (Jesus is the anchor of my life) and then decided I didn't want my center to be a square.  I've always done square centered round robins and thought the added challenge of a rectangular center would be fun.   Little did I know!  

Here is my center:

The rounds we were to add were as follows:

1.  Triangles

2.  Log Cabins

3.  Curves

4.  Stars

5.  Your choice

As you can see, I started fairly traditionally with my triangle round going around all 4 sides...which put the top on point.  Then I added half-log cabin blocks all the way around.   It was at this point that I knew the quilt would be gigantic if I kept doing that so came up with an over-all design for the top.  The Curves round became my border....stars were sprinkled throughout and my choice blocks were the sun, boat, lighthouse and fish.

The final quilt is 80 inches square and I absolutely love it!  

It goes out to my favorite machine quilter for some lovely custom work on Saturday.  Can't wait to see what she comes up with.

Crafts I can now show you!

Now that Christmas is over I can show you a couple of crafts that were made for some readers of my blog.  :)

We had Liam over for a night alone before Christmas.  While he was over we made some gifts for his parents and relatives on his Dad's side of the family.  I came across a cute idea for preschoolers on the net that would be fast and easy and usable.  Perfect, in other words!

Here he is proudly showing off a few of the candles:

So easy folks.  Spread glue over the inside of a votive holder, pour in glitter and shake it all around (that was the really messy part), let dry, then add some decorative jewels (Liams idea) and a tea light.

I made a couple of little wallets for my daughter and daughter-in-law.  Another fast and easy project.  The pattern is from Lazy Girl Designs and called Wonder Wallet.

There are 4 pockets inside.  It's only slightly bigger than a credit card or your drivers license.  Nice gift to quick make and tuck a gift card in.

I'll have to show you some cool things that were made for me in a future blog post.  Such talented and creative people out there.

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.     :)

Quilting has invaded everything!

Look closely at the name of this beer.   Do you see it?   Maybe you need a close-up pic!

Now do you see it?    :)

Don't you know that the maker of this brew has a quilter for a spouse or is a quilter....and there is some kind of story involved....boy would I like to hear it.  Too funny. 

And for those of you who drink beer (I do not).....hubby told me it was tasty!   

A Yaya Turns 50

"I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming that comes when you finish the life of the emotions and of personal relations; and suddenly find - at the age of fifty, say - that a whole new life has opened before you, filled with things you can think about, study, or read about...It is as if a fresh sap of ideas and thoughts was rising in you."

Agatha Christie

Happy Birthday, Miss MamaMama! We love you.

Yummy for the eyes and the tummy

I've been busy with a couple of gift making crafts but alas....one can not share pics in one's blog of gifts that one's readers may see and thus ruin one's surprise. :)

So instead I decided to share a picture of these lovely fat quarters I bought at our shop on Saturday. They were on sale for only $1.50.....how could I not? They aren't for any particular project....just me taking advantage of a great sale.

And today I made these nummy scones for a brunch. So easy. Just take a Fair Scone mix (Costco sells a big box of them...very cheap that way)....add some dried blueberries and white chocolate chips. Yummy.

If you buy the mix at the grocery store just get the blueberry one....makes it even easier.
That's it for todays yummy's!

Bump on the road of Traditions

When hubby and I got married 29 years ago we wanted to establish some traditions for ourselves and future family. So when Christmas was approaching we decided on December 7th as the day we would ALWAYS put up the tree. Nothing special about the 7th other than since it was Pearl Harbor day we figured we wouldn't forget. And we never did forget. Hubby always took the day off from work when the kiddo's were little so the whole day could be devoted to tree getting and decorating. A great tradition that has held fast...........until this year. :)

The 7th was gonna be Yaya day. Which meant I would be unavailable and hubby would have the task alone....not so kindred. So since our grandson was coming over for some alone time on the 4th, we decided to do the tree early. Breaking a 29 year tradition was hard....but trimming a tree with a 4 year is much more fun than doing so alone.

Here is Liam being distracted by my Christmas Beanie Babies. He loves to play with my collection of Beanies and these are with the Christmas decorations so he didn't remember ever seeing them.

This is lunch break on day two of decorating and making gifts.

And this is Mr. not-so-helpful Finnian. Whose holiday tradition is to take off all the red bows from the tree. He has a thing for red......which you can read about here and here.

Ok...so I realize there is no picture of the tree after we were done. Silly me never took one and I already had pics uploaded for this post before I knew and I'm too lazy to start over! It's marvelous! What Christmas tree isn't?

Kingston Christmas Decor

All the light posts in Kingston are decorated like this for Christmas. Simple and pretty.
I took this one outside of the quilt store after work today. Decided it was gonna be my "picture of the day" for the 365 project. It was photo number 332! I can't believe I am only 33 photos away from being done.

Where did all the pictures go?

I just spent a long time going through photos in order to gather up past Thanksgiving photos. I thought it'd be a fun post to show past pics. I knew we were bad about picture taking but apparently its worse than I thought. I only found ONE photo from a past Thanksgiving. One! And that included my growing up years....my folks sucked at taking pics too! Sigh.

So here it is. The one photo I found. Its 1986 and we were at my brothers house. Dig that hair style of mine....why oh why? Jenn is 5 and Dan is 3.

And this year? Well, I managed a single photo. So that makes two in 29 years. I don't think I'm getting any better. :)

This year was the first time someone from hubby's side of the family was with us. His brother and sis-in-law are in the Seattle area for medical reasons and were able to come over. Coolio.
Nice day.....even if I don't have the pics to show it.

Design Wall Monday - Birdie Big Blocks again

Same quilt project as last time but now the birds are fused in place. Next comes sewing it all down with a blanket stitch on the machine. I haven't done it before so I'm expecting it take a some time as I learn.

Won't be happening any time soon....its Christmas time and that means other projects. :)

You can see other projects in progress via Judy's site at Patchwork Times.

Feet Friday

I haven't had a Feet Friday post in ages!

We were in Seattle last weekend and while waiting for the ferry I had to visit the little girls room. Afterwards I sat down.....crossed my legs..........and noticed something. Yup, you guessed it........trailing toilet paper stuck to my foot. Embarrassing. My family never noticed so I'm hoping no else did either. :)

Working on the Longarm

I've rented a longarm machine several times to try my hand at all-over quilting. I'm not great at it but adequate enough for kids quilts or those really busy quilts where you can't see the quilting anyway! :)
Yesterday I tried doing some custom work for the first time. I picked what I thought would be a very simple design to do in the plain 6 inch squares.

I know it's not easy to see in the picture but I will tell you that those ovals are suppose to be pointed not rounded. Some look good....some look yucky. It was hard and time consuming.
I will just do a plain straight line through the pieced blocks here at home on my sewing machine. Not sure if I will attempt custom work again or just concentrate on getting better at free handing all-over patterns. My money for custom work will be better spent on someone who has the talent and experience.

I appreciate the work of talented long-armers so much more now. Thank you, ladies! You rock!

Seen in a Museum

Some things are just creepy. Just sayin'! :)

Design Wall Monday - Birdie Big Blocks

I have done a Design Wall Monday post before.....back in July....and my wall has finally changed! That other quilt is off, quilted and ready for it's binding. Pretty fast for me. Since this meme is still going on over at Patchwork Times, I decided to post what's on my wall again. I found this collection of fabrics at Leavenworth last June while on a quilt retreat. I've been waiting for the "perfect" pattern to use them in. I wanted something that used big pieces of the fabric so I could see a lot of it. I found one called Birdie Big Blocks that you can see at Cabbage Rose Quilts. These circles will have cute birds in them...and that's it. Simple. Easy. Fast. I'll be able to enjoy the bright colors this winter when it's gray and dull outside.

I am not a knitter

Nope...I wouldn't consider myself a knitter. I dabble in knitting but I am not a hard core knitter. I don't dream about yarns or projects to make like I do with quilting! But there is something about this time of year. The color and textures of fibers.....lovely. I'm safe if I stay out of yarn stores. Kinda like staying out of the bakery department when you're trying to lay off doughnuts! :)

Anyhoo. Last week I went with my daughter-in-law, Faith, on a fabric shopping expedition. She wants to learn to quilt and asked me to come along to help. Any good quiltaholic worth her salt would jump at the chance....so I jumped......and danced....and clapped! As it turned out my daughter, Jennifer, was also able to go with us. Extra fun. We went to the Kingston shop but nothing caught her eye there so we headed to Bainbridge.

First we had to fuel up at the Blackbird Bakery....home made soup and bread....so nummy.

Here is Faith with her new lovelies. Gonna be a beautiful quilt.

What does this have to do with knitting, you ask? Well......just across the street from where the fabric lives is a very scrumptious yarn store. Bad move. See some of the lovelies that live here?

My eye caught a pattern for a cowl made with silk yarn blends....oh man, its so soft. And this non-knitter could actually do it cuz it was a super easy pattern. So I bought the stuff. Not too bad. But then I went back. And I saw a pattern for the cutest ruffly scarf....so feminine.....easy enough pattern. So I bought the stuff. And then I eyed come cute variegated yarn for a child's hat....a pattern I already conquered. So I bought the stuff. Whatever! I really need to stay away....I have ZERO self control.

And just cuz.....here are some pics of a few other things I love excessively!

We bought swords for the grandsons and Liam insisted he needed a helmet. Hubby made a couple of paper hats to be helmets.

The wild grandson, who as you can see, gets into everything! Literally! :)

Life is full.