Quick note

I just got this photo.  Cindy was one of the generous folks who assembled blocks sent to her, into a quilt that will go to a recipient in New Jersey - a la Storm Sandy.  Isn't this such a fun pattern.  Our instructions were to use any and all colors and simply do the last "round" in a very dark color.  Fun.

"Playing" in a foreign country [lots of photos]

We returned Sunday late afternoon from a very fun week-end in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada).  It is so easy to get onboard the Victoria Clipper (a boat) and head north to Vancouver Island.  It takes about 2 1/2 hours and there you are.  Like so many other places, Victoria is the capital city, but not the largest.  The parliament buildings are most impressive,

Day 1

Day 2 - note blue sky

The Provincial museum is a MUST.  We managed to catch a national photography exhibition.  Broke for a little lunch and returned for more very interesting exhibits.  Lots of impressive art by the First Nations (People) of B.C.

On Saturday, we rented a car and drove north to the sweet little town of Sydney.  They have a small but very well exhibited aquarium.  [The nice lady at the door, learned that we were from Seattle, and told us to go 'slowly' and ask lots of questions - we presume because she thought we would not enjoy their aquarium which is much smaller than Seattle's.]

We managed to find a great lunch locale and the yummiest local bakery.  We enjoyed a little taste treat and then brought a few home with us, as well.

We then drove south for a visit to Craigdarroch Castle.  Most interesting place.  It started out being built as a private home - the owner died and only his wife and children ever lived in it, then it became a military hospital, a college, offices, a music conservatory and finally today is the home of the Historical Museum Society.

For those of us in the sewing community, two things were particularly interesting,

The lace curtains are being lovingly repaired by hand - 60 women have worked more than 700 hours thus far.






Sunday morning the phone rang early to inform us that because of an impending storm, the boat would be leaving 3 hours early.  We still got to enjoy a DimSum brunch in Chinatown and do a shorter version of downtown shopping.  We returned to pick up our luggage and headed to the boat for a somewhat choppy but perfectly manageable trip home.

Great fun, all around.  Thanks to Elaine for lots of these photos.

Week-end happenings

We had a busy but very nice week-end.  But first of all, note what we discovered in the back yard,

Budding yellow crocus (what is the plural of that word?)  Yeah - some of those gray and rainy days it seems dubious that spring will come. 

Does anyone remember Bisquick's "Impossible" pies?  I found an old recipe and decided that it was just the thing for a quick supper.  It was still really tasty.  And oh so easy!

Grandkids playing with a small set of blocks in the toybox,

New earrings made by the oldest grand.  Aren't I lucky?

Got to visit with the neighbors over a glass of wine and talk about our various spring/summer plans.  Oh how exciting.

Shades of the Past

When I was (much) younger I was part of the Camp Fire Program for 10 years, from BlueBirds to Horizon.  It was great fun and I made several very wonderful friends.  Each year, in order to earn some money, Camp Fire holds a candy sale.  So Camp Fire Mints were part of each winter.  Not only did the sales help the "bottom line" for the organization, the sellers could get credits against the cost of summer camp.

And so, fast forward to last week.  My oldest granddaughter is selling Camp Fire candy - now expanded to mints, [2 other chocolate things I've forgotten], toffee peanuts and what they call "camper mix".  She left this morning for the last sales.  She is 45 boxes away from having sold 1000 boxes - enough to pay for her entire week at camp this summer.  She has had a bit of help, but nonetheless, it's pretty terrific and she is very excited, as is her leader.

Here we are, three generations of Camp Fire girls, on the sale day last week:

The kids are here this week-end.  The youngest is off to a birthday party and the middle one is headed to the Burke Museum, for an outing.  Busy, busy, busy.  [oh yes, and we have to finish Owen's pillowcase for his mom's birthday next month.]

I almost forgot

On Monday, Patty organized a trip for the various folks who help with Stone Soup Quilts, to have lunch and then we went on to Martingale Press (That Patchwork Place).  If you are a quilter, you are most familiar with their beautiful books.

It is always such fun to get to take their "tour".  You actually just walk through their offices, but the walls are covered with quilts made from their myriad of books.  Each office also has quilts on the walls (but you're supposed to be a bit more subtle looking in, if folks are trying to work in there).  Then the icing on the cake is the visit to the "book room".  There you can buy books that are more than 6 months since publication at a significant reduction.  I don't think anything is more than $5 per book.  So of course, one MUST invest in a few things.  I found 6 books that I really "needed".   Of course I also found a couple of items to take to my Dutch quilt buddies - so I can't show you those.  But here are some of the titles I found,

  Lucky to be living here.

Wednesday report

Just a quick little post to show you what I have been working on.

Before I put away all the Christmas fabrics, I have been making another Christmas Tree Skirt.  They get a bit boring to sew, but I like how they turn out.

This is the last one I made.  So another is on its way.

And, when I couldn't sleep the other night, I dreamed up a new quilt for the motorhome.  The sofa is "plea-thur" (plastic leather) and in the morning it is cold to sit on.  So why not a very nice quilt to cover it up, or to wrap up in later in the day.  So using only bits and pieces from Nana's quilt stash, I found these.

For my alternate squares I'm making brightly color 9-patch.  Hardly difficult at all, but so far, so good,

It should be a fun addition to the beige/brown color scheme.

More to make:

What are you working on these days?

Saturday update

Not much of nothing happening in the sewing room, but a couple of other events:

At the Seattle RV Show.  No, we didn't buy anything (this year) but it's fun to get to see what's new and (hopefully) improved.

Our humungous (how do you spell that? Spell checker didn't even recognize the word.) Rummage Sale (Rommelmarkt) at our church has begun it's "sorting" phase.  I'm working in the books department and we were greeted (first day) with 10's of boxes of books - already.  Wow.

Number 1 granddaughter is selling Camp Fire mints - to earn a discount for camp this summer - so had to go buy and get several.  Even Number 1 daughter was there, as well. 

Three generations of Camp Fire!

Old Song, "Monday, Monday"

"Can't trust that day"  Thank you, Mamas and Papas.  Actually today was just fine, but it just seemed to fit.  :-)

Over the week-end #2 grandchild (the only boy) came for a visit.  We played several card games and a board game.  And then he really wanted to make something with the fabrics he had chosen from Nana's collection.  We talked about several options and finally decided that he could make a pillowcase for his mom's birthday (in April, but it is a significant "zero" birthday - so rather important)  [Nana has made all the grandkids several pillowcases and they really love having their own special pillowcases.]  Nana did the cutting and he chose the arrangement and then sewed them together.

When he came over on Saturday he brought me a little gift.  He and his granddad had been to Home Depot for the monthly kids workshop.  And so I was the recipient of his efforts - a wooden box for "all" my valentines.  Don't you love it?

After jazzercise today, I was in a kitchen mood.  So today it was a new batch of granola:

Mix oats and other dry ingredients (recipe from King Arthur flours)

Add nuts and seeds and unsweetened coconut

Bake for 90 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes (sigh!)

When it's cooled, add whatever dried fruits you have in the cupboard.  (today it was dried cherries, apricots, golden raisins and dried pineapple)

Good stuff!

Friday check in

We even had two minutes of sunshine today.  Hurrah!  Perhaps it's just that I'm excited for spring to really arrive, but golly how the gray days depress me.  So a bit of brightness really made me happy.  And I even found:

Green things popping their heads up.  Goody goody.  Snowdrops and daffodils and hyacinth. Yeah!

My other major accomplishment was putting borders on Easy Streets.  Oh gosh, how I hope this lays flat.  We won't really know for sure until poor Alayne tries to put it on "Big Bertha" for quiliting.  (I'm not really sure if and what Alayne has named her!)  But I know for sure that I won't be able to do anything with it on my machine.  Waaaaaayyyy too big.

So there you have it.  My grandson is coming tomorrow for a little time with Nana and an overnight.  Sunday it's church and a Super Bowl party [although I don't really care about football, it will be fun to visit with folks]