Monday, June 30, 2008

Jacob's Quilt


I have to admit, when I see one of the baby quilts I've made and given away, being used---it makes me smile. Jacob's mom sent me these photos recently. I really appreciate it when I get photos of the babies and the quilts I've made for them. Now really, how can you not smile when you see this cutie? Jacob is one of the happiest babies I've ever seen. He always seems to have a grin on his face! Oh yes, and his parents are cute too...

Friday, June 27, 2008

In Memory of Jennie

Jennie Sherlock was one of my cyber quilt buddies. I think I'd known her for at least 10 years, from one online group to another. It's kind of funny about online friends, sometimes I tell them things I don't tell friends that I see on a daily or weekly basis---is it just easier to "talk" to a computer screen? Maybe for me it is. I have shared heartaches with these gals, as well as the sunny times of my life. They have done the same. I feel very close to my cyber quilt buddies and it was such a fantastic experience to finally meet some of them at our gathering in 2007. There were only 17 of us attending, including Jennie who came all the way from Australia! We had a great time, quilting...talking...shopping at local quilt shops...and talking some more. I am so glad I got to go! Here's the group that came to our 2007 gathering:
Jennie was a talented hand quilter and did beautiful work. She liked bright colors. Unfortunately, the breast cancer she'd battled earlier, came back and this time, she lost the fight, leaving us in April of this year. It really shook me to have her gone. Next year we're having another gathering, here in my hometown. I decided at our Jamboree last time, that I'd be sure to be able to go to one if it was HERE, so I started my campaign before we even left! I guess that makes me the hostess of this party we are planning. I'm taking care of arranging things, like the hotel accomodations---along with a wonderful committee working on some of the activities we're planning. It will be a sweet time, but there will be sadness too, because Jennie won't be here with us.
I thought it would be nice to have a quilty challenge, where anyone who wants to (even those not able to come to our gathering) can make a quilt--or more that one--to donate to breast cancer patients here in my area. In memory of Jennie. I know she'd be pleased! When she was first diagnosed with cancer, we all made blocks and a comfort quilt was put together for her. She loved that quilt, a tangible symbol of our love and friendship, and took it with her to her chemo treatments. Here is the quilt top I'm working on for the Jennie Quilt Challenge. I'm thinking it needs borders, but haven't decided on what color. What do YOU think?

Thursday, June 26, 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIZ!!!




Today is Liz's birthday! In honor of the day, I am posting some Liz photos. She has managed to have some interesting adventures, that's for sure. She's been to New Zealand--twice, Scotland--several times, Nepal, India and all over the U.S. and Canada. Tom and I have been lucky to get to go along on some of her travels. She's been a park ranger at Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington state, Mineral King in California, Acadia in Maine, and at Boston National Historic Park in Massachusetts. She's had training at Yosemite National Park, went to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia--I'm sure I'm missing something here, so Liz if I've left something out, let me know! She graduated from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and lived in both Fairbanks and Valdez for a while. Her latest job is as a law enforcement park ranger at Denali National Park in Alaska, but at the moment, she is at Cape Hatteras, on a special detail to make sure the Piping Plovers can lay their eggs and hatch their babies on the beach, without being run over by dune buggies or otherwise trampled by tourists. The tourists aren't happy, of course, but I'm sure the birds appreciate her efforts. Still, there she is, among strangers...for her birthday! That doesn't sound like fun. I suggested she postpone her birthday until she gets back to Alaska, which is where her birthday presents are sitting..waiting for her...


Happy Birthday Liz!!! WE LOVE YOU!!! We're glad it's your birthday, dear Lizzy, happy birthday, happy birthday to YOU...we'll sing you a song for your birthday, Happy Birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!! Happy birthday to YOU, Happy Birthday to YOU, Happy birthday dear Lizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOO YOOOOOUUUUUU!!!! (are you glad you can't actually HEAR me singing that? LOL)

End of a lovely visit...

Today Frieda has to head back home again. She stayed an extra week with us, after we got back from Oregon and Jeff headed back to Utah. Even though my Juki TL98E is under the weather and not in the mood to quilt anything at the moment (wahhh!), we managed to amuse ourselves. Quilt tops were made and shopping was done! Yesterday we invaded Babies R Us (a new favorite store for me!!!) as well as Old Navy and Ross Dress for Less. Here's a photo of our favorite thing that came back with us. Aurora's Blessing Dress!
I hope we'll be able to visit and see Jeff bless his first child. That will be a very sweet moment.

Frieda asked if I'd made a Blessing Blanket, a tradition she wants to start in their family. I'm thinking a whole cloth quilt in a satiny fabric to match Aurora's dress. Hmm...more pondering required here. Suggestions are welcome, so feel free to comment and give me some ideas!

Here is Frieda on the phone with her honey. While at Babies R Us, we found the perfect stroller. I phoned the store nearest to them, ordered it, and Jeff went to pick it up. He said it was awesome! It is one of the jogger versions with the big tires. A Jeep Liberty! Aurora isn't even born yet and she already has her own Jeep. That is pretty cool, all right. The selling point for me (not that I'm going to use it) was the CD/MP3 player. Now why didn't they have strollers this "awesome" when I had kiddos? Sigh!

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Back from Oregon

Tom had another radar project to work on in Springfield, Oregon, so I tagged along. while he is off doing his thing, I get to explore the town we're at, as well as hang out in the hotel and sew. My wee Janome, of course, came with me--and some quilty things for me to work on. Here's a photo of one of the quilts I took with me to finish. Another U.F.O. (almost) bites the dust!


It is made of 2.5 inch strips that my friend, Carol, sent me. Carol lives in New Zealand, so these strips are all beautiful New Zealand prints! Any of you reading this who are quilters are probably acquainted with "jelly rolls" of fabric--the 2.5 inch strips precut and ready to sew. Ahh..but New Zealand fabric! I love New Zealand fabric! It is so bright and vibrant, with wonderful designs. New Zealand flora and fauna, Maori patterns...wow! I think my favorite of this bunch, though, is the Kiwi bird playing rugby in his All Black uniform. The All Blacks are the New Zealand team and believe me, New Zealanders take this game and their team very seriously! They all seem to be avid fans and have quite a rivalry going with the Australian team. When we visited New Zealand in 2005, we happened to be in a grocery store when the game between the Australian team and the New Zealand team was due to start. We were, of course, the only customers--everyone else was at home in front of the telly! We hadn't known that, not even having a tv in the motorhome we'd rented to travel the country in. The people working at the store also wanted to be at home to watch the game and actually came to the aisle we were at, to help us finish our shopping! It was pretty funny how fast they scurried us out of there! While visiting Catherine and Paul in Lower Hutt, we finally managed to catch an All Black game on tv. I really liked seeing them perform the Haka before the game. That's a thing the Maori warriors used to do, to scare the enemy---involving making scary faces and loud noises. Here's another reason I like New Zealand fabric! All the memories that it invokes! ;-)

This morning, as it is the official start of summer, I was able to open my Summer Solstice Swap package from my friend, Paula. Paula and I are in an online quilt group and this is one of the many fun swaps we do. This swap had several categories, like a non-meltable treat, something to spoil your quilt swap partner, fabric (always have to have fabric), a favorite summer recipe, a homemade quilt item and so on. Eight categories. Here are a couple of photos of the goodies. My favorite is the sewing kit Paula made. In this photo, you see Mini-Mattie version 2.1, who was waiting in a box for me when we got home. I missed out on the mini-me swap this year, so my friend, Mattie, decided to send me one. Isn't she cute? Almost as cute as the real Mattie! Mini-Mattie helped me unwrap all the goodies from Paula.

Here is a close up of the sewing kit Paula made:
And here is mini-Mattie, hanging out at my sewing machine, with mini-Susie, who came to live with me as a result of last year's Mini-Me swap (mini-Yvonne resides in the U.K.) As you can see, they are bonding over the chocolate mini-Mattie brought along. In M.M's bag, there is a romance novel and a quilt pattern. She brought fabric and a project to work on.

BTW, a nice quilt shop in Springfield is Quilter's Junction. www.quiltersjunction.com They are very friendly there, even offering to fit me into the class they were having later that day---AND loan me a sewing machine so I didn't have to go back to the hotel and get mine! oooh, and they have a lovely collection of Fossil Fern fabric. Mmmmm!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Jeff and Frieda's Big News


Jeff and Frieda came to visit for Father's Day--and also so Frieda could use my quilting machine for some of the quilt tops she's made since she was here last. Aren't they cute? Notice anything? Hmmm????

They had a DVD they wanted us to watch and it turned out to be an ULTRASOUND! There, on the tv screen, were images of our granddaughter, Aurora, who is due to come into this world around October 23rd. WHOOOOPEEEE!!! Frieda had been wearing a big sloppy sweatshirt, so we hadn't noticed any baby bulge. Pretty sneaky. They wanted to tell us in person, which was a nicer way to find out than over the phone--and had planned on visiting for Mother's Day, but we were in Alaska. The news was worth waiting for, though, and took us totally by surprise. This is only year 3.5 of their "five year plan" before starting their family. AHA! They changed their minds. I'm very happy about that and I guess now I can stop asking for this in my prayers....

Naturally, I had to pull out the baby quilt I made a while back, for a future grandchild. It uses sock monkey theme fabric, and of course comes with a sock monkey and the sock monkey's quilt. Jeff amused himself with the monkey as you can tell.

We're pretty excited. Aurora is our first grandchild! Now how many quilts can I make for her in the next four months....

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Quilts for Foster Children


Like a lot of quilt guilds, mine makes quilts for charity. Our favorite is for the Royal Family Kid's Camp, a summer camp for foster children. The children who come to the week-long camp, go home with a quilt of their very own! Having adopted a child who spent time in foster care,this project has always been close to my heart. For some of children who go to this camp, that quilt will be the one thing they get to keep from their childhood--the one thing with pleasant memories attached, at least. Last night we had our meeting where the director of the camp comes and take the quilts away. We had 66 of them. As you can see, they were hanging on the backs of chairs when we came into the room. When it came time to give them away, everyone grabbed a quilt and we had a parade! They were wonderful!

Sadly, this might be the last year we get to do this as the director is retiring and is still trying to find a replacement. We've been making quilts for the Royal Family Kids Camp for TWELVE YEARS! A rough estimate, of about 65 quilts per year, that comes up to 780 quilts! When we first started, other Royal Family Kids Camps were springing up across the U.S. When they found out about the quilt program "our" camp had, they started doing it too! But it all started with us! How fun is that? I hope we will be able to continue with this project.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Rescued Quilt


I recently had the opportunity to rescue a quilt! It was cast aside, stuffed in a trash bag in a basement. Not in the best of shape, it was slightly damp and more than a little musty smelling. Several seams are split. Having gently washed it (figuring I couldn't do it much more harm), it now smells better! Does anyone have any idea what the name of the pattern is? I am clueless, as well as being clueless to whomever made it. Let's all label our quilts, friends!

Latest Quilt Finished

One of the nice things about Tom's job is when he travels, sometimes I can go with him! That is the other advantage to having an empty nest. No more kiddos to worry about getting off to school. I am retired! So..my time is my own now. That is pretty sweet and gives me more time to quilt. I have a little Janome, oodles of fabric--and like nothing better than one of these mini-retreats in the hotel room while he is off at work. Of course the maids are less than thrilled. I do tend to make a mess with threads on the carpet. No matter how neat I try to be, it still looks like a quilter has ravaged the room. Oh well!

Last year I had a baby quilt frenzy and made about a dozen baby quilts while we were in Oregon. I'm down to only one more to go, after this one! I think it must be about time to make another trip....


Here's little Rex, who is the owner of this quilt. I was hoping to get a photo of him WITH the quilt, but this will have to do! What a cutie!!!

Monday, June 2, 2008

Back at Home!

A wonderful trip, but it is good to be back home again! I have a lot to do--we managed to get our vegetable garden planted, but there are flowerbeds full of weeds...and all the lovely quilting fabric I got in Alaska to play with...

I gave away another baby quilt last week. Here is little Ezra with his quilt!

Last Day in Denali

A quiet day for our last day in Denali. We went on a hike, starting from Liz's place at Park Headquarters and did the loop. Rock Creek trail (2.3 miles) to the Meadow View Trail (.25 miles) to the Roadside Trail (1.8 miles) That brought us back to Park Headquarters. It was a bit steep in places, but nice hiking through the spruce and aspen trees. Things were starting to green up and we even saw purple crocuses blooming! When we got to the Meadow View trail, we could look down into the Yanert Valley to an old pond that's being overgrown with vegetation, and turning into a meadow. After coming back for lunch and to start a load of laundry (hiking is a muddy experience), we went to the Visitor's Center to do the little hikes there. It was such a beautiful sunny day; it would be a shame to waste it inside, but we've done most of the local hikes.
When Liz got home from work, we went out to Horseshoe Lake with her. It really is a beautiful spot but no beavers out this time, just a few people! This is one of the most popular hikes during tourist season. I'm glad we've gotten to enjoy it before the crowds show up. After that hike, the sun was still shining (it does that a lot in Alaska) so we drove to the Savage River where a friendly snowshoe hare came over to me so I could get photos of it.

On the way back, though, we had a real treat! A lynx ran across the road, right in front of us! Tom slowed down and we spotted it amongst the trees. It stopped and was looking back over it's shoulder at us! A typical curious cat. It was the size of a small dog, maybe about 40 pounds.

Dogsled Demo

One thing the park rangers get to do in the wintertime, is patrol the park with dogsleds. But what do the dogs do in the summertime? Well, one of the things they do is show off for the tourists! We went to one of the demonstrations. It was right there at Park Headquarters; all we had to do was follow the sound of the dogs barking. They were pretty cute. They knew when it was time for the sled run (pulling a sled, with wheels, around a loop track) and they all started jumping up and down , barking and saying, in dog language, "PICK ME, PICK ME!!!" Only five were chosen, then the rest went back to being quiet...and being bored.

The Park Highway

We got lucky on our next day at Denali. Just as we were about to leave the house to go hiking, the phone rang. It was Liz, calling from work. One of her co-workers was going to take her out on the Park highway and she wanted to know if we'd like to ride along. Of couse! Her co-worker, Jeff, is the law enforcement park ranger at Wonder Lake, which is at mile 86. He didn't mind having a couple of tourists in the backseat, snapping away with cameras. As we drove, Jeff talked about the area. Each section of the road has it's own name, so when there is an emergency call, Liz has to know the names so she'll know where she's needed. On the way back, Jeff tested her with questions like, "What is this stream called?" and "which mountain is that?" She did very well, btw.

On the drive out, the first critter spotted was a wolf Tom saw on the mountainside. It was up pretty high, so from where I was sitting, I couldn't see it.

At Toklat, which is mile 53 or so, there's a camp where the maintenance crew and interpretive rangers live. Actually, everyone except Liz! She has her own wee office there, a small cabin labeled "Last Chance." Also in that area are buildings that house the showers and the laundry. Here is Liz, outside her office.

Liz's cabin is down the road, far enough not to hear her neighbors, but close enough to haul laundry or go for a shower...or to a potluck. The cabin overlooks the river, with mountains beyond that (I'm sure Liz could tell you the names of those mountains!) What a great front yard! What a great view!!!


Liz's view from her cabin:


Here is Jeff pointing out where the wolf den is. Not far from Liz's cabin!



and a parka squirrel...

The window and door of the cabin had nails on them, pointy side out, to discourage bears. The door panel is removeable with a regular door behind it. The shutters also have nails on them. They open up, to let in light. Inside, the cabin is pretty nice, better than expected! There's a rocking chair, propane stove and refrigerator, a bed and a "loft." Liz says that's where she's going to sleep. It isn't much more than a single bed up there, but there is a bookshelf. "Downstairs" also has a bookcase, with books, although Liz will be bringing a bunch of her own along. All in all, it looks comfortable, but does need cleaning.

In the winter, the cabin is used for the dog teams that patrol the park. They left food behind, but it is questionable as to freshness. Jeff opened a pretzel container and ate one. Liz said, "It's no wonder you get sick!" He offered me one, but I declined! (this is a guy who was in India recently and lost 26 pounds from being sick there. He still isn't allowed to eat vegetables, while his system recovers) Nice guy. Funny! We enjoyed all his stories. I've been reading his blog about his India travels (to find it, go here: http://findjeff.blogspot.com/) I hadn't finished reading it when we met him---he said he didn't want to spoil it for me, but HE SURVIVES! Aha! I suspected as much!

The drive back to Park Headquarters was incredible. I guess it was late enough in the day, about 5 pm. or sos, that the animals were all coming out. We saw a mother grizzly and her three cubs (last year's cubs--newborns have a white fringe around their necks, and are smaller, of course!) They were digging at something along the side of the road--roots, maybe?




A bit farther on, we saw two moose, in the pussywillow bushes, munching away.
We also saw caribou, right on the hillside by the road. They galloped across the road in front of us, to get there.

It was kind of funny, whenever Jeff mentioned an animal, not long after he talked about it, we'd see it! So when he told a wolverine story, we looked around for one. Oh well, can't be lucky all the time.

It was an amazing day, though, very exciting to travel the Park Highway with Park Rangers!