Wow. Last post was in February. It's not that I haven't done anything...it's that I'm so busy, I don't have time to blog! So....what's happened since then you ask? Well, I got a job with the Nooksack Indian Tribe starting March 7. I am the paralegal for the Domestic Violence program, Nooksack Victims of Crime. Really interesting and fun. In May, they sent to me Spokane for a three day training. We flew...had a blast. Learned lots. Then in June, I was sent to the National Victims of Crime Conference in Washington DC. That was amazing. July was a blur and August is flying by. I haven't done much sewing, and I don't get much "down time" with Kevin and Olivia and, oh, yea, Chris - who moved back home for a month. He'll be gone again September 1. I haven't seen him for at least three days now....

Let's see if I can't remember to post more often....

Hold on to your hat, Karen!

Wow - two blogs in two DAYS! LOL! Just thought I'd report in that I went to the party. Felt kinda bad for Ehlana - only had two friends her age, her cousin (who I didn't even recognize even though I watched her grow up too), and a bunch of us old ladies there. Oh, and Olivia and Trinity - the 10 year old from across the street. Had fun visiting...was on my way to winning that "you can't say the word BABY or you have to give up your pins" game...until the very end when she was opening gifts and I slipped. Must be getting old! LOL!

Ehlana was perplexed by the cloth diapers I gave her (best burp cloth-changing pads-wipe ups I can think of!)...and she was a little underwhelmed by the quilt, but she's young, not a quilter (so she has no idea the time and energy involved), and oh-so-ready to be done with the whole pregnancy thing. Poor thing was just exhausted by the time we got to the present opening.

Off to take the girly to school. Kevin has invited me to lunch at D'Anna's - which I've never been to but always wanted to go - and then back to school to run the class party and then sell SCRIP. I"ll be spending my Valentines evening with my wyves and a few dozen of my closest friends at the Moonlight Quiters Guild meeting.

Baby quilt time

I got a call on Friday around 11 am from my neighbor, Jacky, inviting me to her granddaughter's (Elana's) baby shower on SUNDAY (that's today) at 1. Jacky and Richard, a nice couple of brits, have raised Elana since she was about 2. I've known Elana since she moved in with them...but haven't seen her but once since I found out she was preggers. I didn't even know if it was going to be a girl or a boy...until Thursday evening when she happened to be outside and I saw her. So....I decided she needed a baby quilt. I will bring the top to her at the shower today and quilt it up in the next couple of days.

Karen reports she is done quilting the auction quilt. I can't wait to see it tomorrow! I need to get a binding on it asap and photograph it for the auction committee. Wayyy cool!

Kevin and I are celebrating valentines (gasp!) with an early lunch somewhere on Monday. I have to be at the school in Olivia's class for the Valentines Day Party at 1:15 or so to set up. A few decorations, a quicky game and food. What more can they ask for?

After the party today, I am going to work on friendship blocks for the meeting tomorrow, and then the game cards I am making for the class party.

Its a New Year

It's cold. We're supposed to get snow tonight. I stocked up on all the essentials and we are ready. Luckily, I have some UFOs I can work on to keep me busy. I was encouraged to list 12 UFOs I hope to finish this year, so this is what I came up with:

1) Christmas Pineapples. From the Common Threads swap, I have a pile of lovely blocks that need to be set and then quilted.

2) Christmas Sampler. From the Moonlight Quilters Friendship Blocks, I assembled a top which needs borders and, of course, quilting. I keep thinking it needs to be hand quilted. We'll see...

3) 30's Round Robin. From a round robin with Moonlight Quilters a few years back. Needs to be quilted. It may need another border to make it a little bigger.

4) 30's Row Robin. Also from Moonlight Quilters. It just needs borders and quilting.

5) Funky Chunky Churn Dash. A MQ Friendship block. Really fun. I have blocks...need to do something with them!

6) Cha Cha Chickens. Love the chickens! Still awaiting a few last blocks from MQ Friendship Blocks and will decide what to do with them too.

7) Signature Blocks. A bunch of frienship blocks from MQ circa 2002 that need to be set and finished.

8) Patriotic Row Robin. Another MQ project. Needs an outside border and to be fininshed.

9) Craker Quilt. MQ Friendship blocks - needs borders and finished.

10) Scrappy Houses. More blocks to be set and finished.

11) Stehekin Quilt. A pretty pictoral. Barely begun...

12) Scrappy Mountains. A Common Threads Swap. Still have the blocks in a baggie!

12 of my 120+ UFOs I'd like to have finished this year. Wish me luck!

I'm alive!

Okay, it's been over a year since I last blogged. I admit - I haven't been very attentive to this process. So much to catch up on.

The rest of 2009 was rather uneventful as I recall. 2010 picked up a bit.

My mother passed away in March. On her wedding anniversary. I think she planned it that way. Anyway, it's been a pain dealing with her estate and all the various problems she left behind. I think she planned that too.

Olivia turned 7 in May. 7!

We went to Disneyland/San Diego Zoo/Seaworld/La Jolla in June. Had a fantastic time.

Then we went to the Oregon Coast for our annual trek with Kevin's family. It was fun. Very relaxing.

I came home and returned to work August 2 - to be called into Dick's office at 8:00 when I arrived and informed that I was being downsized. Last hired, first to go. He was very nice about it, and stressed it was a business decision - they are looking at cutting way back so they can retire. My reaction? Okay. Good. Time to clean out my mom's house.

Since then I have gone to Everett every Wednesday where my best friend, Karen (aka Wyfe) has been helping me muck out the homefront. Sheesh the woman had a lot of junk. Old clothes dating back to the 50s. Barrels of grains and foodstuff in every closet. Knick knacks up the wazoo. I HATE knick knacks!

So, today I have to go down and meet a gal who wants the two twin bed mattress sets. I'm going to give them to her for the cost of her trip down. SHe has a pacel of kids and no beds. It's for a good cause. Maybe she'll take the sofas from the living room too. Might be worth giving her her gas money to take them!

See, K, I finally posted! LOL!

Last Call

On Tuesday, we said our final farewell to my dad. It was a beautiful service. Eleanor did a terrific job organizing and putting everything together. At the front of the chapel was a lovely display with a couple of pictures of my dad - the one on the left was blown up from a thumbprint size photo. John, Eleanor's son, did an amazing job making it into a good size picture. I'm hoping I can get a copy...

Eleanor is the lady on the left and my aunt Shirley is on the right in the lovely purple jacket.

I got to meet my cousins, Mark and Victor. Victor was a little abrupt, but he was also riding herd on his 2 year old son, so he barely said "hello" and that was the last I saw of him. Mark was a little more friendly, and at the end of the reception I approached him and we chatted a bit. Nice guy. Hope to see him again. He was off to Scotland last Thursday for work. He has one of those globe-trotting jobs where he does prep work for oil rigs by doing underwater mapping. He's a diving kinda guy. Spent his 20 in the Navy and just can't stay on land, I guess.

All in all, it was lovely. I cried alot more than I thought I would, and am still a little misty around the edges. But a fitting tribute.

Shop Hoppin Till We Drop

I have finally recovered enough to share our shop hop experience! This is a major event up here. There were 57 shops on the hop (yes - all within a 4 hour drive from my house!)...7 of them in Whatcom County, where I live, alone. So Michele, Olivia (my dd) and I went to Lynden on Wednesday (the first day of the hop) to hit the 3 up there. Then we went to Lynda's Quilts and Yarns in south Ferndale/north Bellingham. O

n Thursday, Michele and I met up for lunch and went to two of the shops in Bellingham near where I work. We each hit the third shop in Bellingham that day, but at separate times (I hate having a 30 minute lunch break sometimes!). That took care of the northernmost part of the state. (Lynden is at the Canadian border - about a 15 minute drive from my house)

Thursday evening, Donna,(who joined in the most recent scrappy swap - but still can't get into the Yahoo group for some reason), Olivia, Kim (another Pirate) and I went to Anacortes, a lovely little town on the sea (home to Angela Landsberry amongst other famous people) with two fantastic shops. We did those two, got in the car and decided to make a dash for Oak Harbor (Home to our local Naval Air Station). We hit that shop just as it was closing. They stamped us and kicked us out. Oh, well. I didn't need to spend any money there....and they DID call the Quilt Shop in Anacortes to locate my dd's lost "passport" (which is a list of all the participating shops - you have each shop stamp the "Passport" and you receive a free 8" block pattern with at least 3 pieces of fabric to make it). The Quilt Shop mailed it to dd - they are soooo nice there!

Karen O, Michele and I, along with our friend Kim, did the lions share of the Western Washington Shop Hop on Saturday and Sunday last weekend (28&29). Donna works at Fourth Corner Quilts in Bellingham on the days she isn't watching my dd, so she had to work all of Shop Hop except Thursday. I started by leaving my house at 6:30 a.m. to pick up Kim at 6:45 and Michele at 7. We arrived at Karen's just after 8:30 in Everett. Kim made the most wonderful cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and we noshed on those on the way to the first shop in Bothell. We hit a total of 18 shops on Saturday. It was a blast! I decided that collecting Christmas fabrics was going to be my focus, so I found every fun one out there and bought a quarter yard of each.

We lost our Pirate flag when Karen rolled the window down going over an overpass and trying to take a picture of Mt. Rainier which was out in all it's splendor. We saw it by the side of the freeway a couple hours later when we circled back to the main highway. No, we didn't stop. I’ll get a new one! We shopped until the hop closed at 7 p.m. We made it as far as the two shops in Kelso/Longview, WA and had dinner at the most wonderful restaurant named Judy's. Amazing food, especially for being out in the boonies. The crab cakes were to die for, and I had a prawn Alfredo that surpassed anything I had had before. I highly recommend it.

I should note that at each shop, we threw doubloons (of chocolate, of course!) at the weary shop- tenders, and they were highly appreciative. Most of them laughed and said, "Hey - I remember you guys from last year! Good to see ya!"

We drove back to Karen's to spend the night, and started again about 10 in the morning on Sunday. We first went east to Duvall and Woodinville. I should mention that I was fired as the navigator on Saturday, even though I never once got us lost....so I became the Captain and Karen was demoted to navigator. We found Woodinville right where we left it a few years ago (it had been on suspension from the hop for misbehaving about 3 or 4 years ago), and it was still a fun place. Then we tried to find Duvall. We go Sooooooo lost - and we lost about 45 minutes driving around in the wrong place, but when we did find it, it was a fun place. I found some lovely fabric to make Olivia a nightgown (my latest obsession - fun nightie fabric!) I think Karen has been fired as the navigator! Anyway, we hit the shop in Everett and then went back and dropped off Karen. We headed north hitting the last 3 shops along the I-5 corridor that we missed on the way down.

Whew. 33 shops in all. Two passports turned in (that means 2 chances at one of the grand prizes). Four days of fun, friendship, and going to shops that we never get to go to, except once a year when the pirates set sail.

Next year, we're planning on being a little more organized. Along with a new flag, we hope to have vests with a logo, and if we have a logo, I can have a stamp made and we can stamp our bootie bags with the doubloons in them!

So, that was the story of our shop hop. I hope we didn't scare Kim too much (she's a new Pirate), and she will join us again next year. The legend continues.....