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.

Yummy for your tummy!

I was surfing blogs the other week and came across a recipe for homemade Snicker bars. Oh boy.....it looked so good! I copied down the recipe, bought all the ingredients and waited for the cooking mood to strike. Last night hubby decided he had waited long enough and just made them himself. Dang I love it when procrastinating pays off. Hee, hee.

I'm not sure exactly where this recipe originates. Some blogs were saying its a Taste of Home adapted recipe....most didn't say. All I know is you have to make some. The recipe makes a 13x9 pans worth.....perfect for sharing.

Yum, yum!

A New Passion

~ Passion requires focused direction, and that direction must come from three other areas: your purpose, your talents, and your needs. ~

Our son has a new passion.....it's Mixed martial arts fighting. Ya know, that fighting where pretty much everything goes? The fighting that makes a Moms heart skip a beat! He loves to tell us all about his training.....how he passed out cuz he didn't tap out in time.....oy vey! I do have to say that while it's a bit hard to hear stories and see bruises, I do *love* seeing him excited!

He hasn't had a fight yet but he did have a submission wrestling match. I couldn't bring myself to go watch (not ready yet....but some day) so I grabbed some photo's from the match he won to show ya.

That's what I get for putting him in Tae Kwondo! LOL! You go, Dan! I love ya.

Bloggers Fall Quilt Festival

Amy at Park City Girl is hosting another online Quilt Festival. I always seem to stumble upon these things after the fact but this time I am in time to participate! Barely....today is the deadline. :)

We are suppose to blog about a quilt we've made. I decided to show a quilt from this year but they are all still just tops. Oh well....tops are all I've got.

This is the "Cowboy" quilt I made for Liam, our oldest grandson. We gave him all cowboy themed gifts last Christmas and I wanted to follow up with a cowboy quilt for his birthday.

This pattern is called Fresh Linens and is from the book, "Let the Good Times Roll". Fast and easy.

This is a close-up of the block:

I even found some dancing fabric!

There are over 600 entries in this online quilt festival. Lots of beautiful quilts to see and fun stories to read about. Go read a few.

My First Hat

I knitted my first hat! It's a child's hat that I made for my grandson. I figured I'd start small, in case it was too hard for me. :) The beginning part was easy peasy.....just knitting in the round.....no pattern, no thinking. But then it was decreasing and double pointed needles and things got smaller and smaller. I felt like my fingers were sausages! I used a chenille yarn so its super soft. Cute, huh?

The only "model" I could find around here with a small head. LOL!

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:

Happy Birthday, Jennifer!

"A daughter is a little girl who grows up to be a friend." ~Author Unknown

Today is our daughters birthday. Our first born. The one who as she ages makes me feel old!

As I searched for photos to use in this blog I discovered that I rarely, if ever, took a picture of her alone on her birthday. I got shots of the cake and shots of presents and shots of friends but rarely just her. Oh well. Here's a small trip down birthday memory lane.

This was the day she turned one. The dress she is wearing was crocheted by my Grandma Dickerson. But the best part of this photo to me is how young my hubby looks. Good golly he looks like a child....no wonder the "older" folk thought we were too young! LOL!

I love you sweety.

Random 365

271 days ago I started a project that I can't believe I'm still doing! Taking a photo a day for a whole year. One a day. Every day. Pretty hard for this gal. I thought I'd share some of the photo's I took recently.....just for fun.....and since I couldn't think of anything else to blog about! LOL!

This is Lars. He was a "customer" at the quilt shop this week when I was working. It has become a challenge for me taking pictures at work. I'm not too good at being creative so I end up taking pics of quilts or fabric. But once Lars rambled in and I saw those green eyes, I knew he'd be my pic of the day. Mr. Cutie-Pie.

At a tea shop buying tea for my daughters birthday party. She's gonna be 28 this year. Can hardly believe it. I'll be giving her a shout out later when it's her real birthday day.

Hubby and I went to see Wicked in Seattle. Couldn't get a pic of the marquee cuz it was raining so I had to take it of the program. It was our first trip to the Paramount Theatre. Such a beautiful place. I tried taking pics of the theatre but nothing I took did the place justice.




And finally a picture of the season. These are "liberty" apples from our tree. The tree is loaded this year. Not sure if I can even give away this many. :)

That's it for now. Only 94 days to go! :)

Little Owl

Isn't this a cute little owl block? We got some new patterns by Barbara Brandeburg in the shop and I had to have them! I made this little guy up as a sample for the store but had to share him with you. Can you say 1970? :)

Now I can't wait to try the Birdie Big Blocks pattern...that one was my favorite.

A Walk About Town

We have been having fabulous fall weather here in the Pacific Northwest. And since we all know the rains aren't far behind, we are taking advantage of this sunshine. Today after church hubby and I took a walk around town. It was perfect walking weather.....which for me means no sweating. :)

We were up on the hill as the ferry was pulling in.

Even though we have walked through town many many times, we discovered a short public trail that cut across many backyards. Better than the road.

Decided to grab lunch here. We've heard good things about this restaurant but had never stopped in. They make all kinds of burgers and yes, they were great. We'll definitely be eating here again. Though we'll need to triple the distance of our walks to burn off the burger and fries! LOL!




And I couldn't resit sharing a picture of a couple of sauces they had inside. Be sure to read all the print....you man need to click on the pic to enlarge it so you can read it all. I cracked up big time!

What does a good walk and good food equal? Napping. :)

Fall Fun

I love fall! The leaves haven't fallen much yet but its the thing I remember most about fall. As a kid I used to make forts with my friends at school with the leaves on the playground. Also it was fun to try to burn them with a magnifying glass.....safely, of course.

Jennifer and Daniel liked their leaf playing too......as you can see in the picture above.

Nowadays what I see in the yard full of leaves is WORK. Our big leaf maple puts down a ton and it takes quite a while for hubby and I to rake them all. Isn't it funny how many childhood things we loved are work for us now as adults? :)

Extra Love

Yesterday we went to Starbucks for lattes. When we are out doing errands and notice our sons car (he works at Starbucks) we like to go in for drinks so we can bug him. :) I ordered my normal drink (short latte) and hubby his (tall vanilla) but this time hubby yells out "I want mine made with EXTRA LOVE"! Our son was on the bar....hubby got the appropriate eye roll and smile from him......and the sweet girl taking our order even wrote our custom order on the cup......and that made me smile! Oh the little things in life.

Feet Friday

I have recently seen ads for this group in a couple of magazines I get. Looks like a neat charity.....and perfect for Feet Friday! You can check out what they do, where they do it and how you can help at their web site: Shoes for Orphan Souls.

Eye Candy

Uh huh. :)

But wait....that's not what I meant.

This is more like it:

Tink brought me back this nummy collection of fat quarters as a thank you for watching her dog. They are from The Stitchin' Post quilt store and are a Valorie Wells line....don't know the name of the line, though. Can't wait till for the perfect project to use them in......until then I'll just fondle them. Hee, hee.