Empty nest

It's hard to believe that after 37 years my youngest is out of the house! We took him to BYU-Provo last week. On our way we stopped to visit a son in Rigby, Idaho..... Now we are getting ready to move to Rigby! We are purchasing a house across the street from 3 of our grand-kids.
So the purge begins.....

A smaller home than we have now, but we want to retire near grandkids.
It has a full basement and a large room that my longarm AND my sewing will fit into. I have been  Quilter Upstairs; I will become The Quilter Downstairs. Those 2 windows at the bottom of the front of the house are to my studio. I can't wait until Spring!

Melissa's birthday

Today is the day that we celebrate Melissa coming into our lives. It seem as if I have always been a mother now. She was and is a joy to us; she just lives too far away. Airplanes are such a blessing in our lives I love to go visit her and have her visit us. (Although I am glad she is not visiting right now; wouldn't a 1 and 3 year old have a blast climbing the boxes in my house?) This was taken this summer in Los Angeles. Not the greatest of the rest of us but I love Melissa's smile here. Shes holding her baby; Lewis, and Jeffrey is next to her holding Liz's baby Landon.

Okay I have to show a good picture of the babies;What a joy Motherhood is. Oh this was supposed to be about Melissa not me. Maybe ' What a joy being alive is whether you are a child or a Mother!'

Battle Hymn of the Republic

A couple of weeks ago Roger got his guitar out and has been playing it a tiny bit. Jeffrey is working on learning a few chords too. Tonight after scripture reading, 45 minutes of it, we sang. (The goal was to read for an hour but we figured the singing would count.) Jeffrey sings bass, Chris; Tenor, the rest of us are all over. I Know That My Redeemer Lives sounded good to me. Then Sweet Hour of Prayer. Then we talked Jeffrey into playing the trumpet for The Battle Hymn Of the Republic; trumpet, guitar and few voices. Fun. The last was 'Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief' Not so great. The guitar music was written with 4 sharps, the hymnal had 4 flats, the piano music had one sharp. (yes, Andrew played the simplified version on the piano...I do not think he has touched the piano in a year.)

braided rugs

I love rag rugs, especially wool ones. One time I thought I'd make a BIG hooked wool rug and have a few books about it. I started a sample, well, a long time ago. (I WAS smart enough to start with a pillow size 'rug'.)Don't like doing it. Then years ago I crocheted one for the bathroom floor and thenstarted this one..using a beautiful madras plaid that will probably fade like all get out... I loved the colors but it doesn't go with anything in my house. When I work on it my hands turn blue...signs of a quality dye job. I should finish it and lay it down on our white carpet....NOT. Can you tell that all of the rows are from the same plaid; just different sections of the plaid cut out for the different colors.
The Houston Quilt Show often has exhibitors selling things to help you make a rug. I stand there and watch. Once I even bought the gizmo (Just like the hook to make these rugs). I did not make the rug. I have some rug braiding things I found at a garage sale.... I did a small sample of another technique, shirring, in a bag somewhere.... I purchase wool (I bought a pair of pants today) for the rug I'm going to braid someday.... I just haven't started yet.
In my rug hunting, learning, stage I found this web site that sells books and gizmos for rug making. Every few years I revisit and drool and wonder when I'm going to get in gear and actually make one. This is the best website for information about the home making of rugs and the only place I have ever seen information about a 'standing shirred rug'. I had seen one as a teenager (and had inspected it closely to figure it out) and hunted for information."
Here is one of the rugs my Grandmother made for her own home:It is in my youngest son's room. My Mother decided a few years ago to braid a rug for each of her grandchildren when they get married, so 3 of my children have rugs. Last summer another grandson, Zach, got married but didn't have a long enough engagement for his grandmother to get a rug made so she is working on it now.
Here is the one she made for my daughter, Liz.
I'm collecting wool...for one of these.

Grandma's afghan

My Grandmother, Belle Elizabeth; my daughter, Elizabeth Rene; and my sister, Leah Rene, about 1988.

My Grandmother did not quilt much (One quilt taught her that quilting was not much fun.) but she knitted and crocheted for years. I have fond memories of her knitting in her big rocking chair in her living room. I still have the mittens and hat she knitted for me while a child. Towards the end of her life she crocheted Granny Squares,using up the bits and pieces of yarn she had leftover. She got several afghans put together but I got a kit of squares a few years after she died.
During one visit my Mother made we laid the squares out and safety pinned them together. A couple years later during our 2005 Hurricane Rita evacuation I sewed them together. Five years later I got to spend 6 days in the hospital with Jeffrey and my project was to crochet around them. I quizzed my mother about how Grandma finished hers and did mine the same. (Less decisions that way.) Three rows of black and then a yellow shell border. I had to get away from the hospital once and buy some more black and get some yellow yarn. Sunday night my husband helped me block it. It is 65" X 53 1/2"Monday morning my son thinks it should come off the floor, it will stay there until it is dry. I had to wait for 2 weeks while he used the room for a bedroom. Since his healing may take a few more weeks we (Roger and Andrew) got the recliner up to Jeffrey's room so he's sleeping up there now. He still can't get up if he lays down so the recliner works to give him a little independence and then I can get him his pills in the middle of the night. (It only took one time of Dad having to lift him up for us to figure out a better sleeping arrangement. )

Monday Misc.

I was looking through some pictures and found this sweet one of my boy holding one of his nephews.

Happy Birthday Melissa

XX number of years ago I embarked on a very long journey. Motherhood. I remember laying on the delivery table thinking;'Stop! I will never be the same. I will be a Mother FOREVER!' Labor didn't stop and I really didn't want it to, I had looked forward to my babies forever, as long as I remember I wanted babies. Lots of babies. I had 6. That gives me the potential to have lots of grandbabies.:) Melissa was a remarkable child and young woman. Here she is playing with her little brother. Now she is playing with her own babies. What a wonderful journey it has been being her Mother.
Thank-you, Melissa

(When my children were learning to read I would write books for them about the things we were doing. The top picture is a page from one of those books. The original had hand lettering and were in those awful sticky photo albums. I have managed to rescue the pictures and put them in a more stable format; acid free. Since I have not managed to get all our slides to digital format it is hard to find pictures of my young children that I can easily get on the blog. Melissa is wearing a superman costume/pajamas that I made for her brother, Reed.)

Hearts

I imagine you will see lots of heart items this month; here is one of mine.

I made this for my sisters first grandchild. My sister died several years ago and wouldn't be making Aeryn a quilt, but I could. I wanted it to have some kind of nod to the quilt Rene had made for her only child over 20 years earlier. That quilt, made in 1976 was red, white and blue and had hearts and squares. I only saw it once, but I remember her talking about it. This quilt is made with 4" squares on the front and 10" squares on the back. It was also inspired by this quilt;

This was made by Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith of Possibilites. They have a blog and a store in Denver, CO. The pattern was printed in Traditonal Patchwork N0.79. I made my 2 quilt in 2003; but I don't know when the magazine was published. I don't think I used their pattern; I just saw it and read the directions and adapted it to suit me. I ended up with 2 quilts when I took the outside of the hearts from the first quilt and appliqued it to another fabric to get this quilt.
I thought they turned out rather nice and I'd do them again if I ever had a granddaughter. Here's the back of the first quilt. I bought yards of pastel fabric and cut them up into napkins for a spring lunch for Church then kept them and have used them....once, here.

Christmas

While visiting Liz in Idaho my boys went hiking to these falls. They thought the falls would be frozen but they weren't and they got to climb on them, yeah!
Here you can see the cave they found behind the falls, and you'll notice the WET JEANS. Everyone got very wet, no big deal IT'S ONLY ABOUT 30 DEGREES OUT THERE! I found out later that the pools of water were warmer than I thought; not exactly a hot springs (many are in the area) but 'warm spring'. No one got hypothermia and they thought it great fun. I was back in a warm house cuddling Liz's newborn.
Before getting to Idaho we stopped at my sister's where Jeffrey and Zachary played their instruments together. Adam got out his saxophone and played too. Their favorite activity was driving/riding on the 4-wheeler and shooting their soft pellet? guns.
Their church social was that night and everyone was encouraged to dress up. Daniel and Andrew did. the gym was decorated like a market in Bethlehem with soldiers and tax collectors. We were given plastic coins and got to purchase our meal, bread, fruit, cheese, and more modern dessert. Everyone sat on blankets to eat picnic style and then watched a Christmas play.

These are the mittens I knit for Carter. He's only 22 months old and these are just a little BIG. I washed them once and they then fit

like this:

I washed them again in hot water and they almost fit him. He is wearing them in this photo.

Finally most of the pictures taken at Christmas are loaded. Roger had put them in his flash drive which was attached to his key chain and was always at work when I thought I could write... It's time to feed the masses.

lost

Right! 'I' lost the drawer that holds the soap to my washing machine. I have a fabulous high efficiency washing machine and the detergent is dispensed through a drawer that I have actually NEVER taken out of the machine. Yet, today, when I have 25 band uniforms to wash for the high school and return tomorrow, it is missing!

Grandma's Quilts

One of the fun things I get to do in Denver is look at my Mother's quilts. She decided after she retired to make a quilt for each of her 24 grandchildren. She finished all 23 quilts about 2 years ago. This one is my favorite; today. It was made entirely by hand and is for my Jeffrey. I love it and will get to hang it in my home for many years since they all get handed out at our next family reunion and Jeffrey doesn't get to take this to college...I think he'll get control of it after he marries... a long time in the future.

She didn't fussy cut every block, just enough for you to look for the fussy cut in each one. Aren't these blocks great? The yellow block below is Jeffrey's favorite.

New Years

I haven't posted about Christmas but I want my sister to see this photo of her son. Adam is in the red tie. Both boys are 14, cousins that rarely see each other, in Grandma's living room about midnight.

When we arrived in Denver my sister was there and was leaving the next morning. We managed to talk her out of one of her boys. Adam is her only child whose age matches with mine. I knew getting Jeffrey to a dance in a strange city would be impossible with out some moral support. I took both boys shopping (4 hour marathon) for their stripped shirts and since ties were required Adam borrowed one of Granddad's and Jeffrey wore his new tie; they looked great. We found a church dance with a party before hand and these boys went where they knew no one! Very brave. They had a good time and stayed until 11.

home

I think I'm getting to old for the marathon trip we took this Christmas; 3,671 miles and that's just according to google maps-I'm sure we drove more than that. We saw 29 relatives, which was the point of driving such a long distance. We hopped from one house to the next all the way to Idaho and then back going a different route. I still get high altitude sickness and so it was very bad when we went up to 10,000 feet. I need to get a topographic map and try to route around the mountains instead of over them!
Monday I may have time to start adding some photos, tonight I'm way too tired to download them.
All that time in the car and no New Year's Resolutions! We listened to 2 books on tape. A biography of Einstein (no, we didn't finish) I got tired of it today and requested a change. So we started the shortest of the other books; 'Little Brother' a teen book about a ist attack on San Fransisco, interesting stuff but not my favorite reading material....but the boys enjoyed it. Unfortunately we didn't finish it, we got just past the half way mark.......... I guess we'll have to go for a drive....

my knitting

I can knit in the car. Haven't done much of it in the car though. Here's the project I'm working on for Austin. I knitted mittens for Carter (his are similar to the one's his older cousin is wearing at the snow fort) and worked on dishrags. I finished the binding on this quilt and did the applique for Tyler's 'hristmas' books. (he already has Merry C). I've almost finished all the 'kits' I'd brought to work on. I also brought a couple of books but I can't read AND knit. :(
We've been traveling for 7 days and driven 1,673 miles and slept in 5 different beds! We have 1,998 miles to go and only 3 more beds.
We have visited with 22 relatives and have 8-13 left to visit. WE're excited to see the latest addition to our family, Landon! We were looking forward to seeing all of our kids but Melissa isn't coming to Idaho this year since Austin broke his leg! What a sad experience this has been for them. I hope it will all seem like a bad dream in a short while.
It's time to pack for the next leg of our 'trek'.
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.

Melissa's birthday

It's my first born's birthday. Where did the time go? Now she holds her own baby instead of mine. Oh, the sweetness of life. What joy she brought into our lives.

Clearly she is having FUN today since every time I call she isn't home. So Happy Birthday baby girl that grew up so straight and beautiful. When I think of her I understand the verse; I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. 3John 1:4

no quilts!

I just got back from Washington D.C. My husband had a business meeting there for the week and we went along. I was at the mercy of 2 boys; 12 and 14. I saw 2 quilts there; neither were great; I didn't try to take pictures of them...the boys had the camera anyway. I figured they saw enough boring (in their opinion) without me dragging them to see quilts. I'm telling you that I should have worked out harder before the trip! The muscles on the top of my feet HURT! One week is not enough time see much; a drop in the bucket.

The poor boys... all day they were at my mercy; go here, do that, turn here. In the evening I stayed in the room recovering in hot water and the boys were then at their Dad's mercy. They took the metro in one evening and Dad let them run on and off the train at every stop... Let them? He was doing it too! (there was only 1 other person on that car.) They got to go to the top of the Washington monument and see most of the other monuments at night; jogging between them! Another night they went to Roosevelt's Island; a wilderness area.

Our flight was late 3 hours on Friday night; we could have seen something else in that time if we'd known. We got home VERRY Late. It was close to 3 a.m.

Here's hoping he gets another business trip to D.C.!

Gaming upside down

This morning my son claimed that the game on the Wii, or was it game cube? was boring. Can't have boring... so he did this:

I imagine that playing upside down makes it a bit more challenging...

but then this happened.

COPYCATS!

sheets

I signed up to attend my first quilt retreat; it takes place in September.

We're going to a Christian Renewal Center and I was surprised to learn that to cut costs everyone brings their own sheets, blankets, and towels. It made me think that I could do the same when I visit my parents or sisters to make my visit less stressful for them. (Not the blankets though.)

I remember, when visiting my Grandmother with my 4 young children, that I was worried about making extra work for her so we slept in our sleeping bags on top of the mattresses. She wasn't really happy with us doing that though.

I try to strip the beds when we leave or even go so far as to get the laundry started for the sheets; but when we have to get up early and get going for a 24 hour drive home it doesn't always happen. It would be simpler to just bundle up the bedding and do the laundry at home.

30 years

It's hard to believe that Roger joined Exxon 30+ years. His anniversary was in May and it has taken him this long to decide and arrange for his lunch. He had a budget and then got to choose who to invite (he invited me and some coworkers). One friend from Baytown, that works downtown, also came. We met at Fogo de Choa, a South American restaurant. They brought me an interesting drink; they called it lemonade, but it was lime juice with ice and sweetened condensed milk..... I prefer lemonade. We ate lunch, listened to some roasts( (evidently Roger is going to write a diet book when he retires) then we went on to visit the manufacturer of my long-arm. 

liz says....

I saw this yesterday; questions posed to a daughter and shared it with my kids. This is what I got;

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Is everything okay?

2. What makes mom happy?
Pretty Fabric.. currently free plaid fabric.

3. What makes mom sad?

When I forget to post comments on her blog. 

4. How does your mom make you laugh?

By wearing nightgowns from the 18th Century.(Remember when jumpers were in style? and some had lacy underdresses under them; mine is still in my closet and I put it on one day as a joke and she laughed and laughed...)

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Naughty. She hid from her mother in the wall; dumped lots of cleaner on the floor; climbed on top of the fridge.(Hey those are the only 3 naughty things I ever did!)

6. What is her favorite thing to do?
Cook and mail me cookies.

7. What does your mom do when you're not around?
A lot. I am not around much.

8. What is your mom really good at?

Cooking, Sewing, Crafting, etc.

9. What is your mom not very good at?
umm I would rather not say.. 

10. What does your mom do for her job?
mail me cookies and other presents and take care of the younger kids.. (I think I've mailed her cookies...once; do you think this is a hint? Hey, I did my job; I taught her how to make cookies herself!)

11. What is your mom's favorite food?
Gringos something something chicken ( A restaraunt nearby I always order Chicken Tampico; Yum yum.)

12. What makes you proud of your mom?
I am impressed at my mom's excitement of getting a long arm and at her working out skills.

13. What do you and your mom do together?
talk on the phone. 

14. How are you and your mom the same?
We both have a curled baby toe.. I got my mom's feet- THANK GOODNESS!!!

15. How are you and your mom different?
Well in many ways- I live in Idaho and only have one child and she lives in Texas and has six. 

16. How do you know your mom loves you?

She sends me packages... sometimes with cookies in them. 

17. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
To Idaho and visit me!!

My grandson answered the questions about his mom here.