Baby Shower for Caleb

On Saturday, March 13, my sisters, Mary Ann, Ginny and Carolyn, put on a Baby Shower for Nick, Julie and Caleb. It was a blustery rainy day, but relatives came from near and far to help celebrate his upcoming birth.
Mom and Dad arrived in plenty of time to greet most of the guests.

Have to have a pic with the parents-to-be.

Gram was very excited to see Julie and "hold" Caleb as she said hello.

Gram, Mom and Mimi enjoying the day.

Aunt Kerry arrived from Chicago to spend the afternoon with us. We were glad she came and had a safe trip.

JT (friend of Aunt Mary Ann's) did a great job on our cake. It was yummy.

Great-nephew, Benjamin - 4 months old, had a fun time with cousin Kerry as he waited for more attention from everyone.

Mimi and Gram - two special people in Caleb's life.

Great Aunt Deb made this lion quilt and toy to match.

Aunt Kerry made this cute bunny hat - the sweater is still in progress.

Caleb received many wonderful gifts and outfits - this one from Great Aunt Carolyn and her daughters.

Great Aunt Nancy gave him this wonderful bathrobe with a warm fuzzy towel to match.

Nick needed a gift as well. So I made him a "man backpack" to carry around all of Caleb's necessities such as diapers, wipes, rattles, toys, etc.

I also gave him Nick's christening outfit (that he and his brothers wore) as well as a blanket for the special day.

"Caleb's Toys" Quilt was my work in progress for many months. All the toys are appliqued on and then I quilted it by machine. A one of a kind.

Our niece, Kadren, was able to attend the shower from Lakeview, with her three daughters and niece. Since Kadren is pregnant with a boy after three girls, I made her a quilt for the little guy, to be born in late June. Suzanne had just ran through the room so she wasn't in the picture.

A wonderful day with many blessings from family. Thank you all for your wonderful gifts to help Nick and Julie prepare for Caleb's arrival.

Before I returned to Oregon, I was able to stay with Nick and Julie for a couple of evenings before heading to Chicago to visit with Kevin, Kerry and the pups. Here is the start of Caleb's library. Everyone at the shower brought him a favorite book so he has lots of books for us to read to him already.

Look for more posts from my trip upcoming soon.

February Clamming Trip

The Coast was opened again for clamming so off we went to the Beach. It was perfect. The drizzle didn't stop us from going out and it was daylight which made it great to see those little "v's" and divots. But first we settled in at the Doels and was able to enjoy Becky's Butterfly quilt in the room we were staying in.
I was prepared. I had my Boeing visor hat on to keep the mist off my glasses so I could see - a necessary thing. I had my rain gear on, gardening gloves (another necessary thing), clam gun, license, bag and most importantly my buddy, Phil.

Off I went - not waiting for Phil to put the camera away and come out to the water's edge.

It was fun. We got our limits, our aches and pains and great memories to get us through the cleaning process.

As you can see, Phil was very happy with the catch. We were on the beach a total of 45 minutes, from the time we drove on to the beach to the time we were driving off and on our way back to the house. 30 clams, 45 minutes, nice weather and a great relaxing time. Yep... very happy.

So after dinner, we needed to clean the clams and get them prepared for the freezer. Phil got the stock pot out, heated up the water and proceeded to dunk them for 10 seconds to get the shells warmed up and some of the sand out of the clams.

Then you put them in the cold water and ... tada.... the shells just fall off.

Ok, so maybe one or two are a little stubborn and stay on and you have to pull it off, but all in all, a great process.

I have lucked out so far when it comes to cleaning the clams. Usually the guys are outside cleaning them and us girls are preparing the meal or the packaging process or just doing some stitching. Well, the "guys" were just Phil so I helped him clean.

I wasn't too sure about this, but we did get a process going. I took the heads off, cut the clam in half and got the bottom to Phil where the really messy part was. An hour later, we were done.

So, now Phil says I am a true "clammer". I have caught them, cleaned them, cooked them and eaten them. Hummmmmmm - that means he isn't as he hasn't cooked them yet. Guess I will get a meal out of him so he can make that claim. :-) All in all, a great weekend. Looking forward to our next clam dig soon.

My Chick, Gertrude

Yesterday was Wooly Wednesday at Holly Hill Shoppe in West Linn. We do not know until we get there what our project in wool will be. This week, we made a chick, calling mine Gertrude. Here I am stuffing my chick after I had cut the pattern out and sewed it together.

Debbie Busby of Wooden Spools Designs is our teacher and a fun gal to be around. She dyes all the wool, teaches classes, goes on road trips as well as helps with her three month old triplet granddaughters. Whew, that tires me out just writing about it. She does a great job of teaching and helps us with all types of techniques and tips.

Donna sat next to me and we had a fun time stuffing our chicks. This is just about the time mine flew out of my hand and on the floor ... without it's wings. :-)

Dixie and Julie are having fun stuffing and creating their chicks as well.

Marilyn kept us laughing as she worked on her chick.

Across the room, the sky was falling. Sue (not pictured) had a terrible time deciding which way the beak on her chick should be. We thought it might be Chicken Little with it's head turned toward the sky to see what was going on. (yes, she turned the beak the right way after we all laughed with her about it. She wasn't alone though, another person had sympathy pains and did the same thing to her chick.)

Ta Da!!!! Our chicks pose with their owners, me and Gertrude; teacher Debbie Busby and Donna with their chicks. Great time working with wool again. Thanks, Debbie, for another fun class.

New $5 Quilt Project

I joined the $5 Quilt Project again this year. Wasn't going to...say that every year for the last few. But Phil liked this pattern so I am in again. Actually, it is not $5 to do the entire quilt. It is $5 to register; then $14.95 for the pattern booklet/box/insert pages; then you have to purchase your background, accents, focus, borders, backing and binding. You attend one meeting each month (mine is third Wed. at 6pm) and get one miss. Then you pay again when you miss the second, third, etc. time. But you receive the color and pattern for that month and if you don't miss, those items are free of charge. Needless to say, it is not $5 but I am not going to calculate it - - - you really don't want to know exactly how much it really is.

This year's quilt is called "A Season for Quilting" It has a big block in the middle, smaller blocks around and one in each corner. My color is the Autumn season... like I said earlier, Phil liked the pattern and color, so I begin. We are late in starting (usually start in November) so in January we were given the materials we purchased, the pattern for the first and second months and instructions on January 20th to complete the block below before this week when our block needs to be done and shown at class. Here is my finished block to begin sharing with you my quilt as it grows. This center piece is 24" square. We were told it is going to be a hard quilt so I took my time in reading the directions, pressing all my material and making sure to line things up accurately. Turned out pretty good. Stayed tuned to next month when I will share each block as we go along.

After I finished up my square, I made my dinner napkins. We are trying to be environmental conscious and not use paper napkins at all. I purchased some "fat" quarters in two different designs to go with my current placemats. They turned out well and match very close as I guessed at the color. One set is already in the wash after our Valentine dinner last night.

That's it for today. It is back to the usual Monday details... laundry, etc. Look for our "wall" posting soon.

Our Weekend at the Beach

This weekend we went to "the coast" aka the Pacific Ocean. Our friends, the Doels and Kirkpatricks have beach houses in Ocean Park, WA and we occasionally are invited to go there. On the way, we stopped in Clatskanie to visit the Quilt Garden and then to Homespun Quilts in Astoria. Must stops for all quilters on the way.
On our way across the 5 mile bridge between Oregon and Washington, a sign said that "Dismal Nitch" was right, 2 miles ahead. Not having been to the Nitch, we decided to stop. It is actually where Lewis and Clark spent six nights in wintery weather, with strong winds and high waves with no food to eat and dry clothing to change into once the stormy weather passed. Because it was so dismal and the area so flooded, Clark called it "Dismal Nitch". The carving on this monument is really neat.

This is the view of Oregon from Washington at the mouth of the Columbia River. It is what the expedition members might have seen - minus the 21st century improvements.

Saturday was rainy and cool so we took the day to sight see with Bill and Becky. There is a new quilt shop in Ilwaco called "Jelly Bean Fabrics". Andi just opened her doors about a month ago and we had to scope it out for future visits.

We decided to play Mexican train, a form of domino's game with the Doels after our evening supper. Bill won the first game, Phil the second, but Becky and I did go out a few times during the course of the evening.

The train got a little crazy here.

We stayed at the Kilpatrick home and the rhodie was starting to bloom with the warmer weather.

Although it rained most of Saturday, it dried out enough that we could pick up some of the branches in the yard. The beach area had a bad storm with 75mph winds in December and there were lots of trees down. Fortunately, Betty's home has strong trees and only smaller branches fell.

Once this dries out, it will be ready to burn in the spring.

On Sunday, before we left, we were able to get to the beach and enjoy it for a short time.

The waves were crashing in but it was actually warm out.

Phil went out toward the ocean to see if he could find some sand dollars.

The waves were coming in.......

and he got some exercise in running ahead of them. Unfortunately we didn't find any sand dollars, just a few broken bits of them.

It was supposed to be a clamming weekend, but the toxin levels of the water were too high so we were unable to get those clams.

But this picture tells what happens to clam guns that don't perform... they get made into house number plaques by the end of your driveway so people can find you from the road. Thanks, Doels, for sharing our relaxing weekend with us at the beach.