Military Appreciation Day

Saturday, May 8, Phil and I attended the Military Appreciation Day in Milwaukie, OR. Our Home of the Brave and Hugs Projects had a vendor booth to get the word out on what we do. They had food and projects for soldiers and veterans to enjoy. There were also vendor booths of all sorts of services for those enlisted, deployed, returnees, veterans and their families to check out.
This "G.I.Joe" was one of the largest soldiers I have ever seen. It was fun watching him interact with all the kids.

Our Home of the Brave booth was toward the back of the field. We had the "fallen soldier" board and some of our quilts there so people could find out what our service is. Phil was a big help in not only helping us prepare for the day, but talking to soldiers and their families about the programs.

I was telling ladies how to make "hugs and kisses" for our soldiers. Hugs are cooling ties, kisses are helmet cooling rounds. They have special gel inside them that expands when wet and keeps their necks and heads cool in the hot deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq. We also are beginning to knit some of these as it is pretty cold in the mountains of Afghanistan and some of our soldiers there need just the opposite to help with it being too cold.

Here Kaye Hansen, our Home of the Brave and Hugs project coordinator for Oregon, talks to a gal from the VA hospital who is part of the bereavement program at the hospital. We are always looking for outreach programs to help or hopes that they can help us with information and/or people to sew the hugs. We have about 2,000 Guard and soldiers who will be deployed within the next year so more hugs and kisses are needed.

Even GI Joe is interested in our programs. Hope one of the hugs is big enough for his neck. :-)

This gentleman is an Air Force veteran of WWII. I was sharing with him how to make sure his cooling tie was completely dry before being put away. He was leaving for Hawaii with his bride of 64 years the next day so she received one as well. They just might need them in Hawaii.

We had a wonderful day helping those who stopped by. We received inquiries of how people can help us and we passed out patriotic hugs to our veterans and tan hugs to our currently enlisted men. Thank you to all of you who stopped by to share our day with us, especially all the soldiers, both currently enlisted and veterans, who have given part of their lives for our freedom. May God Bless all of you.

Clamming and Quilting

After our trip to MI to see Caleb, the Quilting Retreat and Men's weekend, Phil and I went clamming once again for the last clam of the season...unless they have one more which is possible. Anyway, we made our way to the Long Beach Peninsula at the end of April for low morning tides to clam. On the way, we stopped in Astoria, OR to eat at the Baked Alaska. I had won a $25 gift certificate and we decided that would be a great way to start our weekend.
This is the view from the restaurant doors of the Columbia River and the Pilot boat house next door.

The views were beautiful from our table where we understand the line in America the Beautiful..."purple mountains magesty." They are always wonderful to see and admire as we head to the beach.

Our meals were wonderfully prepared and very tasty indeed. Phil had barbequed salmon and I had sea scallops. We also had a very fresh salad and great bread to start our meal off. A little pricy but a good place to start our weekend away.

This picture is of Phil after our first clam day, Friday morning. We actually got our limit of 15 clams each in about 30 minutes. A beautiful and successful morning.

While the water was boiling and I awaited Phil letting me know that cleaning the clam prep was ready, I put together some "hugs" (cooling ties) for our Military Appreciation Day the following week.

This was the first day's take of clam meat. We had two more pans like this the rest of the weekend as well.

The flowers were blooming beautifully at the Doel house. These rhodies were just stunning to look at with the green background.

I love cala lilies and we had some in the house from the week before that were still beautiful.

While waiting for church to begin on Saturday night, we went out to the beach to watch the ocean and talk about our day. These guys were waiting for us to give them some food. But since they have stolen some of our clams in the past, we didn't treat them to anything.

This was the beach on Sunday morning at approximately 7:15 am. Yep, we had our pickings of the field where we would walk around to dig.

It was a tough clamming session. I had two blisters and three hot spots from our weekend. Was it worth it??? You becha!!!

This was our final dig take...some mighty big clams and one lonely sand dollar. Love it!!!

So, last week Wednesday, Diane invited us over to her home to have lunch and enjoy the afternoon of quilting together. She and her husband, Steve, had just finished remodeling their kitchen and she wanted to share the space with us. Her father-in-law is a cabinet maker and he completely designed the cabinets adding some great hide-aways for her to use.

The hummingbirds kept us occupied as we enjoyed seeing them quite often during the day. They actually perched on this feeder while drinking and keeping still for some pictures.

Becky and Cindy were knitting on their neck warmers.

Marilyn and Donna worked on wool applique projects.

Diane had a charm pack that she opened to work on a small wall hanging.

I worked on my embroidery for a special pieced wall hanging. Sorry, cannot show you more of it.

We also visited the yard to check out Diane's garden, raised beds and flowers. It was a beautiful day with wonderful friends to share our love of quilting. Thank you, Diane, for being a wonderful hostess and sharing your home with us.

Beach Quilting Retreat

After my trip to MI to see our new Grandson, Caleb, I returned home on Sunday in time to do laundry, iron, repack my suitcase and head to Ocean Park, WA to the beach. It was our annual quilting retreat and I was ready for some serious sewing, laughter and time with the ladies.
It didn't take us long to transform the living room area with our machines, project boxes, material and snacks for our week of sewing.

Becky and I had to help Donna shake up her quilt squares for Elizabeth's quilt top. The only way to do it was throw them in the air again and again.

We finally gathered them up and placed them in a bag so Donna could pick them out for the scrappy look.

Our deer friends were across the pond relaxing in the afternoon sun.

I am working on quilting my Wool Applique Flower Basket wallhanging. I plan to enter it in the upcoming Sandy Quilt Show.

We occasionally had to take a few minutes to rest our brains and get caught up on each other's lives.

Becky's blooming cala lily made a beautiful centerpiece for our table at meals.

If I wanted to talk to anyone on the phone, I had to either walk the street or sit in the middle of the yard to get a signal. No matter, it was always nice out when I had to use the phone.

On Thursday evening, we attended the Astor Street Opry Company's spring musical "Quilters" in Astoria. The building used to be an old laundry mat and they are transforming it into their playhouse. The Quilters is a story about Sarah coming west with her family and their hardships, successes and the many quilting experiences they had.

These ladies portrayed the daughters of Sarah and the quilt on the chair will be raffled off at the end of the play in May. Will I win it???

During intermission, they held a raffle of two baskets filles with Quilters t-shirts, stuffed animals, photographs taken by a local photographer, tickets to their next play, garden gloves, etc. Donna and I were the lucky winners. Thanks to all the people who didn't show up so our changes were great!!

Lou was able to attend this year and Steve came on Friday bringing their foster daughters with them. I was able to help feed Rayea -- getting some practice in for my next visit with Caleb.

While her sister was off helping Becky with her applique, Rayea was my buddy on the fireplace hearth. Thanks, Lou and Steve, for letting us help you with the girls.

We had to pose with ladles in our finished aprons.....no they were not used to cook in all week.

Our photographer husbands arrived on Friday just in time to take a group shot of all our projects: Cindy finished her quilt top; Marilyn wore her finished apron; Donna wore her finished apron, held her wool project and daughter's quilt top; Lou held her mended tutu and our program from the play; I held my finished wool project, pillow case and wore my apron; Becky held her finished pillow and two blocks from her quilt top; and Betty held her finished seagull quilt and granddaughter's quilt top. Thank you, ladies, for a wonderful week of laughter, conversation and lots of fun with you at the beach. God Bless you all.

Saturday at the Beach

After all of our quilting for the week, on Saturday we went to the beach with our husbands to take a long walk along the beach and Pacific Ocean.

Uphill and then down to the beach. What a beautiful site.

Yeah...we are on the beach!!!

We saw many clam "shows" and Bill decided to see if he could catch him bare handed. No luck, that little guy was just too fast. Oh well...clamming is next weekend. Maybe we should mark all the shows. :-)

A great day and a wonderful crew to spend the day with.

The waves were out there as far as you could see. Yep, we had to run in a few times cuz they came up close to us.

Some of nature - love the look of the sand as the ocean paints it's picture.

So......how do we cross this stream????

After we returned, they guys wanted to see the lighthouse that a resident had built down the peninsula. They found some treasures and brought them back to do some outdoor decorating. Even Penny had to check them out.

p.blogspot.com/_KyQtIjcGUfs/S9czvaUnX_I/AAAAAAAABOg/ygKHbNcwJSg/s400/Quilting+Retreat+069.jpg"> We finished our evening with a wonderful dinner of oysters, schrimp, clam fritters, rosemary fries, coleslaw and a burger for Steve. A game of 10,000 (aka farkle) was after dinner, then off to sleep and dream of the great week and week-end. Thank you Doels for your generous hospitality and sharing your home with us. See you soon.