I really do quilt!!

I really do quilt! I have projects that I have done but not many have stayed here. A few have been asking to see some of the things I have done so, here are a few items that I have pictures of on my computer. The rest are pictures that I made prints of so I will have to find those cds and figure out how to load them on here, etc. But that is another day.

My sister & brother-in-law, Mary Ann and Jerome, have a stall at the Eastern Market in Detroit, Mi where they sell flowers in the spring, veggies in the late summer and pumpkins in the fall. So, I made Mary Ann a hand pieced and appliqued wall hanging that she can put up in their stall to dress it up a bit. They don't do anything with chickens, but this guy was too cute not to add.

When I was in MI in August, my mom had me go through her sewing machine cabinet as well as a closet to look for material. I found this red polka dot piece and decided to make myself an apron. So I added the checked material and red and white buttons and -- ta da - it was done. But then I decided it should go to my new daughter-in-law to be as she loves red. So it found a new home at Julie's house.

These little snowmen wall hangers were gifts to the neighbors. They did baking and brought over lots of cookies and fudge and stuff. Well, since I don't do much baking any more, I made them a mini version of the window hanging that we have as our Christmas treat to them. I added little sleigh bells to the tops of the hats before I sent them to their new homes. They all loved them.

Last year I made Greg some moose placemats for Christmas. He loved them so much, he asked for a Christmas tree skirt with the moose on it as well. So, I dug the pattern out and proceeded to make this with 8 moose on it, and added snow flakes as quilting. But there was a question from Phil while I was making this --- Since I made 8 moose, is the plural for moose - mice????? :-) Yes, you should have guessed he would ask a silly question like that!! Anyway, I will try and send more of my quilting later.

Marathon Group Hug

Tuesday, a group of us went to Mt. Hood Community College and did a marathon group hug in the Jazz Cafe. Kaye, Linda and I along with a few core people, set up the day with sergers, sewing machines, crystals, turners, irons, ironing boards, boxes, baggies,etc to accomplish our goal of 500 hugs in one day. Students from the nursing program, english courses, baseball team, transition class and other classes, as well as staff members came in to help us. We doubled our goal and did over 1,000 hugs in one day. A very tiring but satisfying day. Here are a few pictures to share.

First we need to make tubes so that they can be turned, ironed and filled with crystals. Diane and I are serging away. Notice my shoes are off - it was hot in there especially with the sun shining in on us.

This is the area where the tubes were turned, ironed and filled.

Some students were finishing the middle section before being placed in the baggies with instructions and a note of well wishes.

A group of VFW Auxiliary Members came and helped as well. They want me to join them once a month in making more hugs. I will have to pass on that for now. Josh is a veteran who spent 13 months in Iraq and received a medical discharge. He wears braces on his knees and has other issues that he is dealing with. He was our inspiration during the day to keep on going - knowing that these hugs make a huge difference in the lives of the soldiers in the hot desert sun.

The President of MHCC stopped by throughout the day and wanted to try the serger as he had been watching us zip through those tubes really fast. He wanted to know if he needed to smile while working. I told him no, but it made the day go better if he did. Thanks to all of those who worked on the marathon day. You made a huge difference.

Big Brother Phil, Little Brother Issac

Phil is involved in the Big Brother/Big Sister program. He was assigned a little brother, Issac a few months back and I wanted to introduce you to him. This was taken at their first outing at Issac's home.

Issac came to our house in December and made a pot holder for his Mom for Christmas. I had a log cabin block already done and he put it together and quilted it. Mom, Esther, loved it.

One of their outings was a trip to the Horizon Air facility near the airport. They were given a tour and wer allowed to sit in one of the planes.

They are now working on a Picture Scavenger Hunt. One or both must be in the picture. So, Issac is in front of a waterfall at the entrance to the town of Sandy.

Another clue is for the "little" to try and put his arms around a tree. Guess he has to grow a bit more.

Then it was Issac's turn to be the photographer and took this picture of Phil on a bridge. As you can see, they are having fun. Of course, after this there was a treat at the Dairy Queen where Issac gets his Blizzard. It is hard work being photographers and trying to find stuff. More to come as they have 25 things to find.

"Hugs" for our soldiers

As many of you know, I am involved in the Home of the Brave Quilt project. We make quilts for moms of soldiers who have been lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another aspect is making "hugs" and "kisses" for our soldiers. "Hugs" are ties that have crystals in them that when you soak in cold water, they keep you cool. "Kisses" are hat inserts that do the same thing. About 3,000 Oregon National Guard members are being deployed soon so yesterday we had a "hugs" work day. Here are some pics of us creating 180 "hugs" of the 6,000 that we need.

The morning started with four of us sewing, ironing, stuffing and packaging up the hugs. Kaye and Terry are using their surgers to create the tubes for the hugs.



Linda pouring the crystals into the tubes.



Linda is wearing the first finished hug.


This is our first finished hug, put into a snack bag along with instructions to be given to the soldiers before they leave for their duty.

Ellen, Julie, and Nancy, joined Linda and I in the evening to keep the project going. In the middle of the table is two containers holding our finished products. Photographer, Phil, brought me supper so I could have energy to keep on task. I was the "task master" for the day, and am excited to report that 8 ladies completed 180 "hugs" for the day. Quite an accomplishment but more to go.

Sewing and Clamming on the Coast

Last Weekend we went to the Beach again to clam. Becky, Donna and I went early to get the beach house ready. We loaded up Becky's Acura MDX with sewing machines, projects, food and clothing and headed up on Wednesday. Becky worked on finishing up numerous projects. Donna worked on a quilt for her niece and I started the quilt that will belong to Nick and Julie.

We went to Beards Cove toward the base of the Washington peninsula on Saturday and had wonderful weather to enjoy the beach.

I was running around the beach stomping on the "suds" that the waves were leaving on shore.

Phil found a walking stick on the beach and decided he needed it to get around the beach.

Who is holding up this tree??? It was suspended in mid fall in the nature cove.

We decided that God was watching over us by shining so wonderfully through the trees. .

We then went to the North Lighthouse and looked around. There were three building here and you can actually rent them so you can say you stayed at a working lighthouse.

Bill, Becky, Dan, Donna and Phil with the North Lighthouse in the background.

This lighthouse was built in 1851. We went up to the top and had the tour guide give us her talk about it.

We were walking back toward the car and I turned around to see this wonderful picture of the North Lighthouse.

Evening upon us, we set out to go clamming. Dan, Donna, Becky, Bill and Phil are patient with me while I take a picture of us going out to get those clams. Where we are standing is usually water. You can see the cars parked on the beach. We were about 4.5 miles from the entrance hoping to get a good catch.

Here is Phil digging for a clam after the wave went back out. Is one there????

YEAH!!! Success. However, it was only one of 12 that we all got that night. The weather may have been beautiful, but the clamming was not too successful. We had a great time anyway.


What a beautiful sunset we experienced. The sun was going down and the moon was coming up on the opposite side with blue sky in between. Oh the glorious views we had.



So, when we got back to the beach house, the guys were cleaning the clams, Donna was putting some touches on her applique piece and I was helping Becky make dinner. Here she is fixing clam fritters. Yum, yum.

What a wonderful week we had. Thank you Doels for the gracious use of your beach house; and to them and the Johnsons for a wonderful weekend of friendship and fun.

Clamming at the Coast

Living where we do in the Northwest, we are blessed to have great choices. If you want to be hot and sunny, go an hour East to Central Oregon and you will have arid weather and plenty of sun. If you want snow, we live about 30 miles from Mt. Hood - a mountain that has snow on it year round. Want beaches, the Coast is about two hours away going West. North west of here is the Washington State peninsula where our friends, Bill & Becky own a beach house. They have shared it with us Wednesday Quilters for retreat and recently asked Phil & I to go clamming with them and our friends, Dan and Donna. So here are some pictures of our weekend clamming at Ocean Park during January. Enjoy






First, you have to have the proper boots. Fashion is a must in the dark while you clam. :-) Becky wore black, Donna wore brown and mine are grey ones.











This is Bill and Donna on Saturday night getting the clamming guns ready to go out. It was rainy, windy (30-40 mph winds) and just plain yucky. I gave Phil my clams, picked up a few sand dollars and was happy. We had a great night.



We had a successful evening on Friday. You are allowed 15 clams each - doesn't seem like much but once you start cleaning, you are happy to only have 15.


This is Phil and I with our clams on the first evening. It was dry and not too bad an evening.












Bill is giving Phil lessons on how to clean the clams. I was lucky, Phil cleaned mine while I helped Becky with dinner.

We are planning to go again soon. Hopefully we will have good weather and the clamming will be plentiful.

Getting Started

I have been following a few family member blogs and decided that it may be a good way for family and friends to keep up with us out here in the Northwest. Being new at this, I am hoping that it will work well and that you all will enjoy our pictures that will accompany the blog - as soon as I figure out how to do this. So, today is a trial run to see how well my programming skills actually are. This is scary stuff - I can quilt rather well, stitch superbly but becoming a computer person leaves me unsure that all will go through. Of course, my sons say I do well and know more than most people. That may be true but still gives me the shivers. So, I will continue to explore this and you will see pictures and stories soon. Enjoy! :-)