Anyone Can Quilt

Quilting with friends.

I have so much to tell you all about!  I'm not sure where to start, it's been such a busy few months for us.  I'll have to share it all over a few posts, or this one would be waaay too long.  Every year as summer approaches, and as we are nearing the end of our home school year, I plan all of the sewing/home projects I want to get done.  Then reality sinks in and I realize how busy summer will be.  Then as fall approaches I am yearning for the routine of our school days, and hope to get some sewing in where I can.  My mom and I look forward to 4 uninterrupted days of sewing at our yearly quilt retreat each fall.  We went to our third one a few weeks ago, and had a blast. 

Picture it, 4 days of sewing with like minded people, all new friends.  Coffee and tea available all day and night.  Every meal provided.  Cozy lodging out in the country of the pacific northwest.  It is bliss.

Doesn't mama look happy?  She and I had the messiest tables in our little grouping of tables.  Ok maybe mine was the messiest.  Look at all of my stuff on the floor even.  Sheesh.  Down below is a quilt my mom was working on.  Isn't it awesome? 

I was working on my Victory Garden quilt, an awesome pattern designed by Michelle.  I've been wanting to make this forever. 

It just makes me happy.  Extra happy I'm sure because I'm using my Holiday Happy fabrics that Monica designed.  I literally smile all crazy (as I tend to do) as I make each block because I love these fabrics so much. 

It was so fun seeing old friends and making new ones of course! (Missed you Monica, Renee and Michelle!)

Here are Chara, Quynh, and Evelyn.  They were right behind mom and I, and are awesome.  Chara is a wedding/portrait photographer and she has a cat with diabetes.  Quynh is a food photographer, my new sister (mom adopted her), and throws elaborate birthday parties for herself.  Evelyn does something very smart and technical (good memory Sarah) has an adorable red haired daughter, and makes 400 quilts a day.  I love them all, but not so much that I wouldn't steal their fabric when they weren't looking.  Watch your backs ladies. 

Here are some photos of the ladies' quilts.  Maybe I should think of stealing the finished quilt tops instead of the fabrics.  That means less work on my part. 

Here is Karen, our gracious hostess.  She is posing with her birthday cake that some of her sweet friends surprised her with.  Isn't it amazing?

Now we met some more new friends.  They arrived the second day of the retreat and sat at our table grouping.  Meet Stacey and her daughter Dante. 

Stacey is a devoted mother and runs an alpaca farm.  Dante is a hair dresser and has a horrible rare milk allergy.  We had so much fun getting to know these girls.  Dante seriously cracks me up. 

One night just a few of us were still up sewing.  Dante had been string piecing her jelly roll strips all day.  We decided that we wouldn't head off to bed until her first official block was finished.  Here is her hallelujah pose.  By this time we were over the edge tired and couldn't stop laughing.

The block turned out great.  So then Dante, Mom, and I took the little walk to our lodging.  In the dark. 

We were on the lookout for bears and serial killers hiding in the woods. 

We made it back alive, and headed off to bed.  Of course we were hoping not to wake anyone because we were laughing so much.  I decided to take a picture of Dante as she headed down the hall to her room.  And she does this in the split second it took me to take her picture:

This sums up or delerious bout of late night sewing.  She cracks me up. 

The next morning, refreshed, I took a few pictures on my walk back to the building where we sew.

I love being here.  The retreat center is so peaceful and out of the way.

Cry Baby the cat escorted me the entire way.  When I stopped to take pictures she stopped to wait for me.  Cute.

Back inside, I continue to take photos.  This picture cracks me up because of the peeking. 

The lady on the right made these for her granddaughters.  I can't remember her name at the moment, but she was so nice.  I do remember her daughter in-law's name though, Roberta.  Of course that is not Roberta holding the other quilt. 

Hi Roberta's mother in law!.......peek.

Here's a kooky bunch.  Quynh, Melissa (who is pregnant and you can't tell!), me, Chara, and Evelyn.  This was the last day and mom took these of us before we packed up to go.  Of course everyone was sans makeup and not feeling purty.  But we sure had a blast.

Mom took a series of photos and ended up with this one:

Don't ask, cause I don't know.  Good times.

And lastly, my sweet mama and I. 

Warms the heart doesn't it?  I'll dissect the meaning for you, apparently, I'm reluctantly strangling her, and she's surprised, scared, and trying to scare someone else with her right hand. 

I'll leave you with that.  I'm hoping to get back on the computer soon to get some regular posting and blog visiting in.  I miss you all!! x

 

 

 

 

What a month!!

Here's the run down:  Bunny got sick.  I got sick.  Bunny on antibiotics.  Me on antibiotics.  Giving bunny antibiotics a challenge.  Bunny gets antibiotics dribbled down chin every time.  Bunny excessively licks chin.  Bunny has hairless chin. 

After a bit bunny and I were both feeling much better from our illnesses.  Then for me the daily headaches start.  Bunny's chin hair grows back.  Bummer, that naked chin cracked me up. 

Finally last week I was feeling back to normal, and just in time for the fall quilt retreat!  Mom and I went last year and had a BLAST.  This year we had a wonderful time as well.  I love getting to spend time with my mom.  We enjoyed sewing and visiting from Thursday through Sunday.  Not a meal to prepare, not a dish to clean.  Heavenly. 

I didn't take too many pictures of the retreat.  I wasn't in the picture taking mood.  Shocking I know!  That is not like me.  At all.  But I fell so in love with this quilt by the fabulous Renee, I had to lug out the camera.

You are awesome Renee!  I can't tell you how many wonderful people come to this retreat.  I was so great to catch up with friends that we met last year at the retreat.  And so equally great to meet so many more new friends.  I can't wait to see you all next year! 

I finished quilting a quilt (pics soon!) and put together a simple quilt top for Little Sis.  She chose every single fabric for her quilt. 

Now I've been slapping charm squares up on the design wall for Big Sis.  I hope to decide on a final design and start peicing this soon!

I was so excited to find this Halloween Fabric!  It made adorable pillowcases.

I'm also excited about the color of my hydrangeas.  I love the faded purple/green/gray they have become.   

Oh!  I came home from retreat with some new fabric.  We stopped at a great quilt shop that had a nice coupon for all of us retreat people. Isn't this a cute stack!?

Ok, now it's time for me to get sewing on Little Sis's Halloween costume.  She's got bell bottoms on order from mom's sweat shop. 

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!   xoxo

 

Summer went flying by...

Hello everyone!  I can't believe it's the end of August.  I've been all consumed with lots this summer and have been away from the computer.  So my blog (and blog friends, sorry!) were totally neglected.  Thank you all so much who have been checking in on me!  I'm looking forward to reconnecting with everyone, and I have lots of great projects planned for the fall.

We have had such a busy and wonderful summer.  We went to Washington for my grandma's 80th birthday. I did lots of gardening and painted all of the trim in the house.  Almost.  I also decided that the ceilings needed painting too.  I know, what kinds of crazy pills have I been taking?   

The main highlight of our summer was having our dearest friends from Florida come to visit.  We did lots, and took tons of pictures.  My most favorite memories of their visit were going whale watching, and just sitting in our back yard around the fire, visiting in the evenings.  The great thing about whale watching was anticipating the sea sickness that was sure to ensue.  Especially for my friend MT.  She gets serious motion sickness, even when she's the passenger in a car.  I've never been whale watching before, but I've seen our ocean off of the Oregon coast, and it is not smooth.  But she was not going to miss whale watching, so we doped her and everyone else up on motion sickness medicine and headed to the boat! 

We all walked down the stairs to the dock where our little boat was waiting for us.  Then we headed through the teeny harbor to the choppy ocean.

Under the bridge, and between the rocks.

Here we go!

 

At times it felt a bit like a roller coaster.  I couldn't stop laughing.  I was also so thankful that our motion sickness drugs worked!  Phew.

Fellow whale watchers in a smaller boat.  Look at the dog!  So cute, and how about a big 'no thank you' to the smaller boat.  Crazies.

Everyone enjoyed whale watching.  Except big sis.  She HATED it.  It freaked her out.  Here's my favorite picture of the kids.  You can tell which one is my first born.  She's the one who's face says "I will kill you in your sleep if you don't get me off of this devil barge". 

 

 

This is what our boat looked like.  It was nice because the water is so deep right off of the coast line that we didn't have to go out far to see the whales.  I was pretty happy about that because they didn't give us life jackets.  Seemed weird to me and believe me, we held on to the boat and our kids for dear life. 

Here's the best picture I got of a whale.   

There is the gray whale's back.  He didn't come much further out of the water. 

Me, Little Sis (mini me), and MT's sweet girl. 

Oh that was fun!  And then it was back up these stairs and back home.  We were all tuckered out after this adventure. 

Time to relax.  

The kids enjoyed setting up their fort.  Or as I like to call it, "The hobo village".

See?  Total hobo village. 

Random found junk....or carefully placed fort furniture?

 

Hey, a hobo has got to eat, and have a well set table.

Just looking through these pictures makes me want to cry!  It has been years since our last visit, and we have missed them so much.  We are so blessed to have such friends.  Wonderful friends that are truly more like family.  

I hope you all had a great summer too!  x

Camping on the 4th.

We went camping over the 4th of July weekend with my brother and his family.  It's our yearly tradition.  Camping at the river.  Here's how it went.

My brother Dave, aka: The Lord of the Pork Ribs.

 

Local oysters cooked on the barbeque.  So yummy!

Don't ask....the boys are weirdos. 

Rosie got to meet my brother's new dog for the first time!  Here she is running for her life.....  just kidding.  Actually this is when they were playing chase.  Have you ever seen a dachshund look like a greyhound?  They were happy with each other for the first 10 minutes.  Then my precious Roseanne got freaked out and growled and snapped at the big dog when she got close.  Gave me a heart attack.  My brother's dog is a shelter rescue and is THE sweetest dog ever.  But I had visions of Rosie snapping at her, and then the big girl snapping back.  Not good for the mini bully.... so, to keep me from going insane, Rosie spent time here when she acted like a little psycho:

Every time she snarled her little lip at the big sweet dog just for walking by, she made a trip to Rosie jail.  Each time I set her down in jail I reminded her that I was saving her life.  But look at sweet big dog:

She is a big kind girl and loves the kids.  Here she is being annoyed by Rosie:

Let me translate: Get away from me you little psycho.

Anyhoo, 

Big sis enjoyed making the scrambled eggs with her little cousin.

 

Quilts are ever present on every bed.  Even the uncomfortable as holy 'beep' beds in our little trailer. 

This next picture of my brother's wife Amy and her little munchkin is my favorite picture. 

 

She's saying, "Enough marshmallows!...and if you drink one more Dr. Pepper I might lose my mind."  Please excuse his reaction, it's the Dr. Pepper talking.

 

I love our river.  We've had a lot of rain lately and it's still a little high and cold for much swimming.  But the monkeys still got to splash around. 

 

Time for fireworks!

My sweet husband lit every single one of the 4 million little fireworks.

This is when he lit a horrid smelling smoking firework.  It was horrible!  And it went on forever, so naturally he picked it up and ran back and forth like he was carrying a stinky smoke bomb torch.  I thought I might have to put him in Rosie jail.

Aaaaaand he just keeps going. 

The kids were on fire patrol. 

 

I love him, smooch smooch!

And now for the most disturbing photo sequence of the night.  My brother's sweet dog went crazy for the fireworks.  Really crazy.  Not scared crazy, but "I want to jump on those cool things" crazy.  Of course he kept her at a safe distance and had her on a leash.

But then she broke free.  Literally, she broke her leash. 

 

She's a fast runner.  And before my brother caught up to her I snapped this next picture.

*disclaimer!!  It's a bit of an optical illusion, she didn't get hurt at all, and my brother grabbed her super quick, she was only this close for a split second....*

AAaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!  Isn't that crazy?  She's a nut that big dog.  But she was fine, not one hair singed, and she enjoyed watching the rest of the fireworks with her collar in the clutches of my bro.  Phew.  

After all of the excitement it was off to bed.  The uncomfortable one.

Hope you all had a fun and safe 4th of July! xoxo

The most fun ever.

I got to go on a quilting retreat!!  Four days of non stop sewing, eating, visiting, laughing, sewing and eating some more, more laughing... you get the picture.  And my mom even got to come with me.  We had an absolute blast.  Guess who my next table neighbor was...

Here's a clue:

 

Here's another hint:

 

It's my friend Monica of Happy Zombie!  She is so fun.  And her sewing table looked just like you would imagine it to.  Full of Happy... and booze.  Ok, not full of booze, but there were cocktails and fun snacks.  We knew we were destined for fun when we realized that we both had a My Little Pony toy from our Happy Meals to sit on our machines.  We put bows in their hair and they became our retreat mascots.

 

... and they got into the booze.  Monica's is passed out and mine is still dancing.

It rained the whole time we were there.  Which was wonderful.  I loved listening to the rain as we all stitched away.  All of our meals were provided too, so we didn't have to do anything but sew!  What a dream it was. 

 

Show and tell was amazing.  There were so many gorgeous quilts.  These were my favorites. 

 

This one was from the 1800's.  Holy cow.

 

 

 

 

 

Robin there on the right makes these huge quilts out of 2" squares.  She makes millions of them!!  Ok, maybe not quite that many.  I love her quilts! 

 

This one above is my mama's quilt.  She lives in Montana and sleeps on a log bed. 

 

 

 

This is fellow blogger/new friend Evelyn's vintage sheet quilt.  Isn't it gorgeous?  I even recognize some of the sheets from my vsq in this.  I love the zig-zags!

Ok, here's where the major heart palpitations started.  I've been wanting to make a Union Jack quilt for a few months now but wasn't sure how the best way to go about it was.  Then there was this:

 

Not only did the beautiful Michelle make this quilt, but she is the designer!  She is the designer of Busy Bee Quilt Designs and is so talented and kind.  She even gifted me with some of her patterns including this one called Liberty Garden.  I am so exited and can't wait to get started on one of these!  Thank you so much Michelle.

 

 

Look at this teapot quilt! 

 

 

One night nearly everyone was off to bed, except for Monica, Karen (the fabulous host of this fabulous retreat), and I.  It was so quiet. 

 

As I strolled around looking at everyone's projects I spotted these.

 

These were my favorites:

 

 

Then somehow this happened:

 

Oh yes I did.  There may or may not have been rollerskating/office chair with wheels races... and synchronized office wheelie chair dancing.  And there may or may not be a video of such an event in existence.  p.s., I didn't fall, and I give Monica a 10.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Monica:

Can you tell we had fun?  The retreat setting was beautiful. 

 

 

 

 

 

The building on the left was where we ate and the building on the right was where we sewed. 

 

 

 

It was sad when it was time to pack up for the 5 hour drive home.

The ponies said their goodbyes:

 

My purple pony thinks she's so cool. 

 

But Monica's pony is a little bit of a tramp.  Look, she's showing off her tramp stamp.

 

We said our farewells and headed on home.  The drive is so pretty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't wait for next year!  x