Great holiday

Thanks for all the suggestions on how to avoid repeating the pumpkin pie debacle. The truth is that the home-made replacement was probably much better than the soggy store-bought one (before it got soggy).

I didn't get much sewing done this week, with the family being here. I also have been known to hog the darling grandson ...  I did get a bunch of strings done for Bonnie's mystery. I'm doing yellow instead of her blues. I still have quite a ways to go, though, but what fun.

Did I ever mention that Ryan sleeps in my closet? We have a pack n play in our somewhat spacious closet and he has slept quite well in it since he was first born... I think he finds it cozy and comfortable. It occurred to me that I'd never photographed these sleeping arrangements so I took a picture the other night after he'd gone to bed. Adorable or what??

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, whatever you did. I head back to California tomorrow...have an 8 hr drive to cover the 530 miles...Just me and Max. Everyone either flew home or drove back already. My house is empty and lonely...so I'll be happy to be back home in California.   Have a great Monday.

Pumpkin pie is.....

Greetings from snowy Sunriver! It's perfectly appropriate for Thanksgiving for it to snow here. And, mind you, I'm watching Wisconsin's weather, and it's NOT snowing!

I love pumpkin pie but I guess I can live without it this year. OMG. I bought a fancy pie at a bakery in Bend a few days ago and didn't have room in the refrigerator to keep it cool so I put it in a cooler with ice in the garage. Well, the ice  melted and the pie wound up sitting in ice water... Soggy pie was not what the founding fathers (or my family) had in mind for Thanksgiving. That was a big waste of $$$. And no pumpkin pie for the cool whip!!

So we're actually going to make a pie from scratch. Fortunately our local store here is open until 4.
Anybody else have some unforeseen calamity occur? As they say in France, c'est pas grave. Life goes on. And the important thing is everyone is together.  RIGHT??? VBG

Hope everyone had a good one!

Family's here

Greetings from Sunriver, where it has finally warmed up! The snow has melted and it's in the 40s...I know it's still colder than Wisconsin!@!!

I did put together a top before everyone arrived. I'm trying to decide if I should add a border or not. These are blocks that I originally made for an American Jane enormous quilt, which I abandoned.  The fabrics are all kid type themes and I fussy cut many of the centers in the Ohio stars.  I'm thinking of using the American Jane yardstick fabric for a border, which I had used in the center of the quilt, as a border between the stars. I'm curious about your opinions.

No border except the black one

With the American Jane yardstick fabric laid out...opinions??

So my daughter/son in law/darling grandson are here (as are my other 2 kids and husband). We HAD to get some new bath toys so I took him to the local toy store and found a duckie and fishie for the tub. But the best find was a little shopping basket, which he just couldn't put down. Here's a picture of my daughter Rachel with the darling boy, who turns 2 in about 2 weeks...Note the snow has almost melted.

I'm exceedingly grateful for my life and the people in it. Thank you for being a part of my world.  I wish everyone a wonderful day at Thanksgiving and hope you are spending it surrounded with people you love. I know we are all very thankful for the wonderful lives we have. I certainly am!

Cold outside... but warm to sew inside

I promised more posts this week.  Here you go.
I moved my sewing machine upstairs to a "permanent" spot so I won't have to move it from the dining room table when the family starts arriving tomorrow. This is the view from the window. It's kind of distracting, don't ya think?? vbg

We've had quite a bit of snow in the past 2 days. I showed you my snow blowing prowess already...I had to do the driveway again this morning. Good thing no one was there with a camera as I'm not very adept...the blower would blow the snow off to the side, but then it blew right back onto my face, hat, scarf and gloves. I looked quite the sight.  Anyway, here is our backyard.  We have put some plastic chairs to cover the natural gas line:

Did I say how cold it is? It's in the 20s...and this is Oregon, NOT Wisconsin!!

I want to take Max for a walk but I'll wait until it warms up to 30! Oh and I'll have to put on my "chains" for my boots...those rubbery-things that fit over the soles so I don't slip on the ice!!

I will show you what I'm working on later...putting together some blocks I made for a project I abandoned. My favorite kind of sewing!!

have a great Saturday.

It's almost Thanksgiving...holy ****

Hi all,
I can't believe where this month has gone. You can see what a lousy blogger I am...sorry.
I am currently up at our house in Sunriver (where we retreat in the summer) and I can tell you it's NOT summer anymore here. This was me early this morning:

Figuring out how to start the darn thing was quite a challenge. My husband doesn't arrive until tomorrow so it was my issue! there I was, manual in hand, gloves on, trying to get the darn thing started. But, TADA...women CAN run snowblowers afterall!

I picked up 2 quilts from the machine quilter who does most all my quilts, Sandy Lachowski.  The 2 quilts are related. The first one, Licorice Allsorts (which I've shown you) was made in July using 30s fabrics with a black background.

When I made this quilt, I made bonus triangles (Bonnie's method) and had lots of extra strips.  So I made strings (another Bonnie idea...where would I be without Bonnie, seriously??), used the leftover bonus triangles and set them like this.  I like how it turned out. And the cool thing is that the second quilt is made entirely from leftovers from the first!!

This is my first string quilt and I thoroughly enjoyed playing with it.  I didn't quite come out as I'd planned but it's good enough.

I'll be up in Sunriver all through the holiday and hope to get lots of sewing done this weekend, during which, I promise, I'll post pictures and do some blogging.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Are you doing the mystery, btw???

Another small quilt

I spent all last weekend with the darling grandson who stayed with us all weekend. What a joy!! We loved every minute, even though I'm not a fan of getting up at 5 am!! Downside, if there is one, is that I got no sewing done.

Since then, this week I cleaned up a bit and worked on machine quilting a top I've had for a while. It's a small quilt I put together from blocks I did in a group project some years ago, which got put away.  Anyway, I just have to put on the binding:

I'm still salivating over the time we spent in Paris. I am happy to share a picture of a typical bakery where we purchased our baguettes each morning.

How do you resist those breads? Forget about the sweets, though.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! What are you working on? I'm getting ready for Bonnie's mystery. Anybody else going to tackle it? I'm sure it'll be awesome!