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It's Fall and Other Big Changes

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  A lot suddenly changed over the summer.  We finished a couple of projects and I finished the quilt above and a couple of other quilts. Then I looked at my UFO's which are mostly tops that need quilting.  I want to finish as much as I can in the next year because we're moving to Eagle, Idaho next summer.  We've been thinking about a move like this for a while and when we went to look in June, we found a new neighborhood going up that had both a lot we like (and hopefully the dogs will like) and a house plan we like.  I hadn't really imagined that we'd make these decisions so quickly, but all of a sudden we were picking out appliances and paint colors.  Work on the house begins next week as well as some things on the house we've lived in for 37 years, not to mention thinning of the herd.  We've collected lots of stuff for one reason and another and it's a lot.  On top of all of that I've started teaching Scrappy Applique for Shannon Brinkley. ...
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Hello to all, It's almost spring so naturally, it's raining in the Willamette Valley.  It may be sunny later.  On many spring or pre-spring days, we get all the weather.  It's actually good quilting weather as the sunshine beckons me outside and there's a bunch of weeding waiting for me.  In a couple or three weeks we should have blooming tulips.   I believe I've mentioned in this space that I want to finish more quilts than I start this year.  And I definitely am finishing quilts. However, this being the 250th anniversary of our country, I'm making the quilt below.  It's from a book called A Country's Call  which features Civil War Quilts.  This one is on the cover and I just needed an excuse to make it.     It's nine blocks that finish at 18 inches.  I've been cutting pieces on Friday afternoons and piecing the blocks on Saturday.  All the fabric is from my stash and most of it is from scraps.  The plan was to ...
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   I can hardly believe that Christmas is only three days away.  Gifts are dealt with and the decor is finished.  I did the last grocery shopping before Christmas this morning. At least, I hope it's the last one.  The only downer is that Dinah chewed on one of my hand-painted ornaments.   This dog is way too cute for my own good.  And it's not all bad: I can get Sweet Husband to cut a new small oval shape and I can find the original directions and paint a new one. Dinah is generally the instigator of most of the bad behavior.  Billy is more laid back but lets her wind him up to "Wild Bill" moments. He thinks he's hilarious and he really is. In my last blog I thought I'd finish Santa Stars within a couple of days.  What was I thinking?  Having a chunk of time this close to Christmas? SERIOUSLY?   It's finished now and I like the idea of getting an old UFO out of the pile.   And there it is!  I love this pattern for a c...
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To Finish or Not

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 December is here again and like most of this fall, it's creepily not cold.  Rainy and windy, yes, and occasionally foggy, but according to the Farmer's Almanac, it won't get really cold until after the first of the year.  If you could say a prayer for those in Washington who are being flooded out, they surely could use it. I planted some nasturtiums among my veggies this year   and they went crazy.  They've stopped blooming, but the leaves look great in what's usually two dirt beds in the winter.  I also have some volunteers that showed up in the pepper pots.  It looks pretty cool even with the slightly chewed leaf.  What looks like frost is actually dew. I haven't been good or even marginal about writing here for a long time.  However, this year (starting a little early for '26) I want to finish some UFOs.  The truth is that I'm a good starter, but not always such a great finisher.  For some, I just stopped to make something that ...
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Mother on a Broomstick: It's Spring Again!

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N       Time goes by so much faster than it used to.  I didn't believe it when my grandmother said it, but now that I'm somebody's grandmother, I get it.  I do enjoy sitting down and writing, even if there's not much of an audience.  But I tend to think of it in the middle of something else and put it off until tomorrow.  Perhaps if I put it on my list, it'll actually get done in a timely manner.       February granted us some beautiful days warm enough to be outside.  March came in like a lamb for about a day, which Barb and I loved because it made our drive to Empty Spools at Asilomar, California much easier than last year when it rained nearly the whole way. This year, it was still winter and we cherished the couple of sunny days while we were there and the dry weather for the drive home.  Barbara took a class on free motion quilting so now she can finish her tops with confidence.  I took a class from Pearl Perrei...
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A Year Went By and It Was Halloween Again!

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  It's been ages since I wrote anything here and it turns out that I've missed it.  This last year has been one of chasing around trying to catch up and guess what?  It's possible that I'll never actually catch up.  Does anyone actually catch without full-time staff?  I'm still working on it, but not worrying about it so much.  It's so much more fun to quilt. Summer here was a bit unusual.  It was cold and rainy through much of May and finally turned summery in June.  Then we had a heat wave at the beginning of July, which the hydrangeas hated.  The vegetables might have been okay had it not been for the deer.  The veggies are in the front as we don't have enough sun in the back and even though there were onions planted among the tomatoes and I used deer spray, the deer came in the night and pruned them back several times along with my front yard rose.  We had some tomatoes, but not nearly as many as usual. They also will pick one t...
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OUR LATE SUMMER HEAT WAVE

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  We've enjoyed a lovely, mid-80's kind of summer.  Warm enough for summer squash and what promises to be a good tomato crop.  At least until now.  It's currently 105 degrees out, with a few more days of high temps promised.  It's being compared to the summer of '81 when we had four or five days of 105 and 107 degrees.  I remember this well because I was about 8½ months pregnant and we didn't have air conditioning.   A few months ago I signed up to have my small quilt group to lunch with the idea that it would be mid 80's and we could sit outside and enjoy the late-summer breeze.  Instead we lunched in the house and ate Grasshopper Pie and ice cream for dessert.  No matter what, it's always great to spend time with these good friends. My Wanderer's Wife quilt is almost finished.  The binding is on and I'm hand sewing it down this week.  I did buy a stitch-in-the-ditch foot for my machine and it was so worth it.  This quilt is s...
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