Blogging Catch Up

So, it has been since May 9th that I blogged. Time to catch up. We went to Michigan for a whirlwind of family events. One of the things we did was help my mom with some things around the farm. This is the final picture of the "cold room" that I cleaned out for her.
While there, we went to Greg's for a relaxing afternoon. Carravagio was being himself - showing off for guests. He loves to play in the empty bottled water bag - funny to see him in it.

When we first got there, he was hanging out on the deck and this is our welcome to his home photo.

When I got home from my extended stay, this is what I came home to - a mountain of laundry.

Opps - this one got out of line - Phil was in his glory in Michigan mowing Mom's yard and digging up some small trees that just wanted to grow anywhere.

Making Strides for Breast Cancer Walk

Today a group of us called "BOOB" - Brasher's Optimists for Oncology Bunch - sponsored by Brasher's Auto Auction Company, walked the Making Strides for Breast Cancer 2.5 mile walk. It was a beautiful sunny morning, a little crisp but wonderful. Some of us were early as we rode the Max from Gresham to downtown. Fun but early for me anyway. Waiting for the Max at Gresham Station to take us downtown to the Rose Quarter.

This is Kathie Marcoe - she works at Boeing for a few more weeks anyway. She is pinning a breast cancer clay ribbon pin on Phil.

Stephanie, Stacey (who works with Phil and had all the treatments), her Mom-in-law and Heather. It was a bit crispy out and the girls were freezing.

Stacey, Phil and Kathie before the walk began.

This is most of the group of us BOOBs who walked this morning.

Phil and I are ready to go. Don't you love our outfits??? We are ssssooo cute. :-)

Stacey doing the Survivor's walk around the Rose Quarter before the walk began.

And we are off and walking. As you can see, there was a whole mess of us. We started at the Rose Quarter, went over the Burnside Bridge, through a few blocks of downtown area, back across the bridge and The Rose Quarter. It was a 2/5 mile walk - taking us about 1 1/2 hrs. They didn't stop any traffic for us so we had to wait for lights - kinda a bummer but they did a good job of keeping us safe.

We are crossing the bridge about in the middle of the pack. A little blurry but a good pic.
Downtown Portland just coming off the bridge. Not quite the mile mark yet. A very slow pace as we had to wait for the lights.
Stacey and I waiting for the light to change up ahead so we can cross the street. We had cheerleaders along the way - some a little quieter than others - these gals were great.
Even the little people were out walking. This little gal didn't want to wait for the light - she was ready to go.
We are crossing the bridge back again after the walk. Just about done.
We are finished!!! Natalie was getting her balloons for being a good walker.
When we were done, Justin, Kathie, Kristi, Phil and I went to the downtown Saturday Market by the waterfront. This was a group of elementary students who were entertaining us with their "bucket drums". A great day and lots of money raised for the cause.

Huge Fabric Sale

Last week, we did final preparations for a HUGE fabric sale. Janet "Chickie" Bacon began the Sandy Quilt Show 11 years ago and is now in the beginning stages of Alzheimers. She donated her fabric from her garage - 38 large plastic bins of it. We set it up Wed. & Thurs. in two rooms of the Museum and the sale was on Saturday.

Peggy is cutting off some of the "swiss cheese" sections of fabric.Inger, Peggy, me, Linda and Shirley are making lunch size scrap bags for sale for $1.00 each

This is room number 1 of the fabric. Each table was stuffed to capacity.
This is one half of the larger room with tables in the back as well.
This is the other half of the room. We fanned the material out so people could see what was there and hopefully do minimum damage to our displayed fabric. That worked well.
Some of our shoppers with large shopping bags full.
Toward the end of the afternoon, we moved all the fabric into one room. We ended up with7 tables of fabric, spread out as much of it was gone. In the end, we refilled 4 large containers with left over fabric and one container with the scrap bags. Unsure of the amount made for the Museum, but we sold lots of fabric. And, I am happy to say, I only filled 1 1/2 shopping bags full and one scrap bag. Not bad considering how much fabric I could have purchased.

Home of the Brave Project Demonstration

Saturday was a busy day. Before we went to the beach, we headed down to Eugene for the Lane County Pioneer Quilt Show. It is held at the Lane County Historical Museum where there are many wonderful displays of antiques. Here is a Model A that Phil took a liking to.

During the show, they had numerous demonstrations throughout the week. The HOB demo was the third section of how we can help our military from when they are deployed, those who are injured, and of course, the comfort quilts to moms who have lost soldiers. This is Ginger, she is in charge of getting small quilts to soldiers so that when they are deployed, they have a loved quilt to get them through their tours. Each quilt has a log cabin block in the four corners - a memory of the home that they will return to.

Robin shared the Quilts of Valor -- quilts that are made for soldiers who have been injured. The two on the far right are some that she has long armed quilted and sent on to soldiers - about 20,000 thus far.

This is my display of quilts going to moms who have lost soldiers. We have a display board of our Fallen Heroes and the status of each of their quilts.

I shared with them how to make the quilts from the same pattern of the Civil War quilts that were given to soldiers in the field. The dimensions are the same as their cot size - 84" by 48".

Here I am explaining the label that we put on the quilt.

I then shared a few other finished tops and quilts that I had, just to let them know that they are scrappy, can be the same and all signed by the Governor of Oregon. Our presentations were well received and we have more people who are willing to help us make these quilts to share with soldiers and families. I also had a mom there who had a son in Italy, had been on three tours of duty thus far and her daughter-in-law had been medically discharged. She was very grateful for us being there and needed to talk a bit about her son. That is when we do the most good - we listen and then give her a much needed hug - just to let her know we understand and care.

Clamming again at the Beach

Bill and Becky invited us up to the Beach to clam again - probably for the last time until October. Here Bill and Phil are getting ready.

The last time we went, we didn't do well. So, Phil and I are serious this time. We are gonna get those clams if we have to stay out all day!!Bill is ready. Clamming gear is simple, a good pair of boots, a clam gun and net to put them in.
This is called the "Get the water out of your boot" dance. I was digging for the clam when the wave came up a little too high. I didn't want to let go - can't let the water or clam beat me. So, I got a little - ok, a lot -- of water in my boot. Burr that is cold the second time around.

Here are the guys in action.

A very successful day. We all got our limit - 15 clams each.
Now comes the work - cleaning the clams.
When done, we ground them up to make fritters, soup, etc. yumm, yumm

On Sunday afternoon, we went into historical Oysterville for a little change of scenery. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom. A beautiful site.

There is a neat little church there, separated pews for women and men and a side area which was probably for the servants. Here Phil is giving us his preachin'

Becky has some beautiful flowers that are just blooming around the house. These were Calla lilies near the dining room window.

Time to say goodbye. Can't forget to give Penny a hug as well. She is a nice dog - was fun sharing the beach house and walks with her.
Til next time. Bye for now.

A peek at the Quilt Retreat

The week after Easter, I went on a quilting retreat with some of the gals I sew with on Wednesday. I didn't have a camera until Phil brought it when he came with Bill for the week-end. Here are just a few pictures to share with you.

This is a sneak peek of the quilt top (without the final border) that I made for Nick and Julie

Yeah!!! I am finished.

Betty had a mini iron and Bill decided to test it to see if it was still hot.
Since this weekend is the final weekend until October for clamming,

Phil was preparing his clamming gun to get those clams. Can't let the clams win!!!