June 14th

Is my birthday.

I was born at 8:ish in the a.m. on Saturday, June 14th, 1952 by caesarian and approximately 2 months early. Despite a shaky start, I managed to grow up hearty and healthy and in this photo about to face arrest by the bang police. Every time my hubby sees a woman with the trendy haircut and bangs that are short on the sides, I have apoplexy over the bad haircuts visited upon us by Mom and "Auntie Jewell" the woman next door who fancied herself a hair stylist and general know-it-all.

That is beside the point, though, I'm pictured here on my 5th birthday.

June 14th is also Flag Day, the anniversary of the day in 1777 that the Continental Congress adopted the stars and stripes as the flag of the U.S. (Was this the one hand sewed by Betsy Ross? No small coincidence there!

Numerous other auspicious occasions have taken place on this date, all viewable at Wikipedia.

Some famous events include:
1789 Whiskey was distilled from corn by Rev. Elijah Craig of Bourbon County, KY
1846 Bear Flag Revolt--Anglo settlers in Sonoma, CA rebelled against Mexico and formed the California Republic
1938 The first Superman comic is published.
1942 Anne Frank begins to keep a diary.

Famous births:
1864 Alois Alzheimer born---guess what he discovered???
1961 Boy George, the Karma Chameleon

Famous deaths:
1801 Benedict Arnold
1926 Mary Cassatt

My birthday cake was completed yesterday and we already had some as we are leaving town tomorrow on a road trip with my mother-in-law Daisy and didn't want to waste a bit. German chocolate handmade by my sweetie. Yum!

The only bad thing about today is that I can't believe I'm 54 years old. How in the world did that happen?? As Mary Engelbreit says, "Time flies whether you're having fun or not," and thankfully, I'm having a blast each and every day.

Thats Our Boy!

My stepson Scott (I hesitate to use the prefix as "step" connotes so many negative things--none of which apply in our lives) has begun blogging. The young man is a born writer and has always had a killer sense of humor and an eye for the ridiculous in the everyday.

While many his age are busy in the titillating world of My Space.com (as he may well be in his spare time for all I know), Scott is tackling the Seattle Department of Transportation on behalf of the people. The unwitting political activist--we knew there had to be one among our four children, we just didn't know which one.

I became a member of Scott's fan club very early on in my relationship with his father. I was at my sweetie's house after work one day lifting weights and premenstrual and not a happy chick. Scott came in and started talking to (or at) me and practicing his golf swing on the astroturf by the weight machine. Unfortunately, water had spilled on the astroturf and each swing was pelting me with miniscule drops of water. He chattered on and on and I was soon ready to kill him, but at the same time I was mesmerized by his wit. How could I not fall in love with him, too?

Long story made short, go check out his blog, Pottis, Inc. and you will not be disappointed--the kid is hilarious!

Old Friends

In the midst of preparing for the quilt show, I also prepped a quilt for hand quilting.

This process involves laying out the three layers of the quilt and securing them together temporarily and then either pinning with safety pins or hand basting.

Since I'm hand quilting the project, I opted for basting the layers as the safety pins interfere with the hoop I use while quilting. These 1 3/4" long pins have been a part of my armamentarium (like that old Dental Hygienist lingo??) for quilting, aka a gadget. The difference between this and many of the other gadgets I've purchased over the years is that this one has been with me since I started quilting in a hoop in 1980 when I made a quilt for my second child . I use them once a year or less, but they are just the right thing for the job and so far, I've not seen much room for improvement.

Another "old friend"is my 14 inch wood hoop. As with the pins, I bought it in 1980 to make Daniel's baby quilt. Over the years, I have purchased several alternative hand quilting hoops, but I keep coming back to this one. The last time I heard Mary Chapin Carpenter sing "This Shirt" I thought about my quilting hoop and the quilts I've quilted in it and the life changes I've gone through during those times of my life. I store this hoop around the handle of my sewing basket so I can see it whenever I'm doing handwork and whether I need it or not.

Here is Miss Anabel Lee aka Gator inspecting the quilting hoop. Tonight, while we watch Deadwood on Netflix, she will be mad because the quilting is in the way of her bed-hogging. Such a witch.

To the left is the project that generated the trip down memory lane with Gator in the back and Ace in the front, inspecting. This quilt top was made in July 2004 at a workshop with Billie Lauder using the pattern "There's a Dog on My Quilt!" I modified Billie's generic mutt to be a Miniature Schnauzer like my mutts and even included 3-D eyebrows and tongue.

I'm hand quilting this for our friend Michelle who is expecting her first baby, a boy, in August. Michelle was my husband's step-daughter for much of her childhood and they had Schnauzers, Cindi and Julie, so I thought she'd like this quilt for her son. When she was a senior in high school, Michelle asked me to teach her to quilt as her senior project and she made several baby quilts for the ABC preemie quilt project, so the girl knows quilts. I'm happy as can be since I've not had a hand quilting project since Mr. B's quilt.

It's Showtime!

The Moonlight Quilters of Sonoma County are hosting their annual show, Wine Country Quilts, this weekend. Submissions are due tonight, and I can't believe that I got everything done and ready to deliver two days early. This was not the Herculean task it might seem since 4 of the 5 pictured at right were finished quilts, just needing hanging sleeves and labels for completion. The mini quilt with Christmas trees, "O Tannenbaum," was a project of the Snooze-You-Lose Mini Group as was the scarecrow quilt called "If I only had a brain."

The background quilt, you may recognize as The Acorn, made as a surprise for me by my daughter Kate and her advisor Mr. B. I'm entering it in her name so she and I can be in the Moonlighter's show together. The quilt on the upper right has been featured on this blog in the past and on the upper left is a quilt I made 5 years ago as a challenge for my trip to Sisters, Oregon.

This quilt is called Quilting IS Therapy. I purchased the center panel at BJ's in Bend, Oregon in July of 2000 while staying in Sunriver prior to the annual quilt show in Sisters. I originally purchased it as a joke to show my co-workers and hubby because at the time I was working as the office manager of a non-profit counseling agency where hubby was working as a marriage and family therapist. I knew they would get a kick out of it, and they did. Then, the 2001 Sisters attendees were issued a small amount of a fabric and issued the challenge to use it in a project. I decided to incorporate the panel and mini-blocks to comemorate some of the blocks I've made into quilts, though some of these blocks were just easy to piece in the 3 inch size needed for the project. I embellished the quilt with a vintage measuring tape and sewing themed buttons. As time went by, I added quilt show pins and other quilty things. One of my favorite things is the first block in from the left corner of the top row, a skeleton key and puffy heart because....."Quilting is the key to my heart."

Shake It Up!

Yesterday evening, at 6:07 p.m. we had a bit of an earthquake. Like 3.0 magnitude at 3.7 miles deep, epicentered approximately a half mile as the crow flies from our house.

We were sitting down doing some computer work when it hit and Greyhair said it felt like a large truck hit the house, an event not out of the realm of possibility as new homes are being built up the street that intersects our street right at our driveway and we are downhill from the construction. Yikes! Runaway skiploader!


Alas, it was our somewhat annual Memorial Day Weekend earthquake, the first annual (in family records) occurred on Memorial Day weekend in '03, the first year we were here.

That evening, about midnight, a group of the FQ girls were here celebrating my liberation into the great blue north of California (from the red, red Central Valley) and Greyhair bailed to Lake Tahoe to avoid being contaminated by quilters. =) We are pictured above, Randy, me, Vanessa, the late Sandy B., Kathy and Pam. I was in bed and that quake felt and sounded like a wrecking ball hit the wall just behind my headboard. We all got up and compared notes, I called the Greyman on his cell phone and we went back to bed. The casualties included a small crack in the billiard room wall and a knocked over bottle of olive oil in the kitchen. Nothing major.

After the to-do over the centennial of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, in which the flatland of Santa Rosa was severely damaged, hubby and I talked about getting an earthquake kit together and I guess this was just another reminder that that big one is out there and could happen anytime.

More Sew A Row

Another Sew-A-Row done, this one for Moonlight Quilters of Sonoma County. I'm not a hugely active member, but my pal Phyllis from SRQG is and I love the Sew-A-Row program she started for us like the Moonlighter's, so I decided to participate.

I'll be gone in mid-June when this one is due so I finished my row early and handed it in today. My row is the starry sky. At the end of the year, I'll have a chance with the other participants to win this one.

Day guild (SRQG) met today and our speaker Diane Leighton's topic was "Finding More Time To Quilt," always an important thing for quilters. She suggested listing all of those UFOs, WIPs and PIGS on a separate sheet of paper--little does she know that uber-smart Fat Quarter members Nancy, NP (link above) and Moira have gone high-tech and are doing it on Excel spreadsheets. She suggested rating each project with an A, B or C rating with the C's being those projects one would bring and offer up on the guild's silent auction table. An example might be class projects for techniques that we just don't like. You tried, it wasn't your thing and now it is "finished" if only for the knowledge that it isn't a technique you will ever waste time on again. For "A" projects a note of what needs to be done to finish it will help hasten its completion. Finally, she suggested a shopping list of items needed to finish those projects in process for taking to quilt shows. Now there is a novel idea--rather than recreational shopping, planned shopping. Wow. Food for thought......

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY!

Today, Saturday, May 13th, is my beloved's birthday. Without telling his age, let's just say he's over 50, but not on the dark side of it. =)

Himself is pictured here in his favorite outfit (more on that to follow) sometime during his first year. Isn't he sweet?

Here he is in some Easter finery, not of his liking. When I first told my daughter, big-mouth Kate, that I thought he was good-looking after seeing him working in his yard when I dropped her at his house to visit Sarah, she replied, "You should see him when he's dressed up for work." She was right, of course, he did clean up really well, but his favorite outfit other than his birthday suit is shorts and a T shirt, and who can blame him?

Here he is at 17, all dressed up for Prom, 70's style. Don't you love the ruffled shirt? Wasn't he adorable? What a hunk--wish I had been his date, but better late than never, I suppose.

He is pictured here in 1992 at his mother's 60th birthday party with his children, Scott and Sarah, then almost 12 and 13. Hopefully, they will not be mad at me for posting this picture, but pictures of him with both kids are somewhat rare as he was usually behind the camera.

He loves his furry babies, too. He is hanging out here with Julie, the Miniature Schnauzer he acquired when his Mom moved to Carmel. Julie lived to be 16 years old and was very smart and sweet according to family lore.
Fast forward a few years and here is the birthday boy in 2002 with Sarah and Scott, now 24 and 23. He is at Lake Tahoe in December, where we celebrated our nearly annual alternative Thanksmas/Christgiving get together.

Finally, here we are last December, near the eleventh anniversary of our first date.

My husband is the most honest and accountable person I know. He always calls it like he sees it, and while it may not always be easy to hear, it is a very good thing. I waited almost a lifetime for you.

So, for you, my favorite person in the world to hang out with and my best friend, I wish you a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY and MANY, MANY MORE !!!

Another Good Read

Another page-turner done and I was sorry to see it end. The tome in question was Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian. Set in the past and present, it follows the trail of a family and friends who hunt for Dracula who is presumed to be "alive" and practicing his vampirical skills.

Check out the review on Salon.com (link above), for more details. Though I'm a die-hard reader and have been called a book slut by my beloved--he's wrong, I won't read anything, anytime, anywhere.

The trip takes the reader through the Balkan states during the 1930's, 1950's and early 1970's as our protagonists are called to search for the elusive Vlad Tepes aka Dracula. Along the way, we are treated to a virtual European travelogue and a picture of life in academia before the internet, when research took place in old libraries and in person. Kostova gives vivid descriptions of the local peoples and landmarks throughout the story. It is almost like being there, and I love that in a book.

A troll through the book reviews at Barnes and Noble shows some mixed reviews, but I had none. There was a small part in the middle that dragged a bit, but nothing too serious, so get out that library card and get reading!

Quilters Sweat Shop

We had a fine quilty day today. Instead of having our usual mini-group meeting for the UFO (UnFinished Objects), we met at Teddy Bear Quilts to have a work party. Our mini-group and the guild are making a memorial quilt for our friend and member Norma Viglienzone, who lost her son in Iraq when his Humvee was hit by an IED on February first. Caesar was an only child, and Norma and Dennis are obviously grieving. As quilters, we had to do something , so of course we decided to make a quilt. Doh!

Aided by Norma's sister and group member Vandy, we obtained a number of pictures of him from the slideshow presented at his memorial service. Vandy printed them on fabric and SR Quilt Guild members donated tons of patriotic fabric. I designed the quilt to be able to deal with the different sizes of the photos and today we got together to make the blocks.

Here is a shot of a few of the workers, Jackie in front on the left, Lynn in the yellow shirt, Carolynn and Angie are behind Lynn. On the right, in back, is Linda and Pat has her back to the camera. The gorgeous quilt top in the back of the room is owner Jim's block of the month program for 2006, and the blocks are gorgeous.
Heres a shot of Barbara, Phyllis (in red) and Vandy. Pat is peeking out from behind.



Heres a picture of Linda, hanging out in the back room where we had to overflow and stash the ironing board.

Finally, here is a picture of the blocks we finished in the workshop today. Pretty good work, don't you think?

Amazing myself....

with my productivity.

I finished friendship blocks for two members of my quilt guild. To the right is Marilyn's block. Marilyn requested that we use any method to create a block that shows our personal muse--that force driving us to make the quilts we do. My muse invades my brain in the wee hours and busies me with ideas for new projects. The same force also nags me about UFOs, WIPs and PIGs (Unfinished Objects, Works in Progress and Projects in Grocery Sacks to the uninformed.) I used MS Publisher to create the dream bubble and included some of my favorite quilt blocks and notions and on the left is my logo, a little girl stitching with patches flying all around her head. I titled it "My Muse is Moonlight Madness," and lest you think this is an ode to midlife insomnia, I'll have you know that I've been visited by this selfsame muse for most of the 30 years I've been a quilter. The embroidered saying is intentionally quirky as I used the swirls in the background fabric to help form my letters. It ended up a bit more primitive than I'd hoped, but I didn't want to fire up the embroidery machine at that point.


To the left is a block for Pat M., who requested blocks representing Sonoma County. Pat and her husband plan to retire to Oregon at some point in the future and she wants a block that represents her home and friends here in Sonoma County. I chose the Fountaingrove Round Barn, a relic left from Thomas Lake Harris' utopian community founded in 1875. We live in one of the subdivisions that dot the hills above the Round Barn, a neighborhood known as Fountaingrove, so I chose the barn as my representation. Rather than try to embroider the name of the barn, I took a digital picture of the sign and printed it on a treated fabric sheet as I did the eyes, dream bubble and clock in the "Muse" block.

Finally, here is the row I submitted to Phyllis in January for the Santa Rosa Quilt Guild's 2006 Sew-A-Row program. It is a mini-row, measuring perhaps 18" long and features Civil War reproduction fabrics.
That's it for today.

Getting Caught Up

I've been hopelessly behind in working on a few sewing projects and was actually able to do some catch-up over the last few days.

At the right, are four of the Eensy Weensy blocks (4 1/2 inch finished) that I'm exchanging with my pal Nancy, Near Philadelphia. My blocks are coming from Judy Hopkins' book Around the Block Again. The top two blocks, Grandmother's Pride on the left and Glacier Bay on the right are catch-ups for January. On the bottom row, Jack's Delight is for April and Mosaic is for May. Nosy Gretl is pictured in front. Sensibly, we've cut back to one block per month. Now that I've adjusted to working small (as in--I'm paper piecing them) things are going much faster. Now I have only to do my blocks!

The other project is the Sew-A-Row for 2006 masterminded by Phyllis. I added the top row of circle of life blocks, the middle row of checkerboard was started by Vandy and the bottom row as pieced by Pam. I'm still trying to decide if I want to add some tiny white heart buttons to the centers of each "flower." Two more people will work on this project between now and the end of October and we'll draw names among the participants to see who gets to keep it. I'm actually done early with this one, which is a shock.

Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting is one of my favorite quilting magazines ever. I've been quilting since 1975 and began subscribing to Quilter's Newsletter Monthly shortly thereafter. While QNM is a great magazine as well, you just can't beat the projects in Love of Quilting. Not only that, F & P gives our guild a rebate on each subscription the guild sends in as a group! You can't beat that kind of marketing, can you?????

On the nature front, hubby spotted a coyote meandering up our street this morning and I got outside in time to catch a glimpse of him. During the three years we've been here, we have seen a fair number of wild turkeys and deer, but never a coyote before. We live in a suburban subdivision in the hills above Santa Rosa, but with 80 or more homes, it is hardly rural. I hope the little guy was able to move out to the hills behind us safely....

Visit With a Healthy Toddler

I got to spend three days last week with Mr. B. and his parents, and amazingly, he was healthy which made us all happy! His Mom said that he was fond of twice baked potatoes, so we made some. He went crazy for the beaters when I mashed the potatoes. Once baked, he loved that too, but he tried to share the skin with the kitty, who wasn't having any of it.


Kate said that he liked vanilla yogurt, and I'll let the picture speak for itself. =) He ate continuously while I was there and even offered to share bites of his waffle. (Icky, but his heart was in the right place.) We had all sorts of fun and he was a good sport about the quilt shop, having been indoctrinated early.

On the home front, we have been working in the yard every afternoon and have moved through about 2/3 of the flower beds. Our nasty clay soil, though heavily amended when we first planted, is back to it's usual self in some places, so we are amending yet again. Thankfully, our homemade compost is saving the day.

On the book front, I finished Amalgamation Polka by Stephen Wright, an odd tale of a young man born to abolitionist parents in the pre-Civil War era. Very quirky, but entertaining.

Happy Birthday Kato!!!!

Happy 28th Birthday to my beloved daughter Kate!

Kate made her appearance at St. Mary's Hospital in Reno, Nevada on Saturday, April 22, 1978 at 2:26 p.m. She was two weeks early by the Dr.'s calculations and weighed in at 6 lbs., 4 oz. and 20 inches long.

After a stay of a couple of days at the hospital, Kate came home and began getting the lay of the land. Her Grandmother Brackett was there to help out and Kate returned the favor by letting her have the early a.m. shift during the scream-a-thon that became a daily/nightly ritual.

She is pictured at the left with me on the day after her birth.

The first year of Kate's life was very long. She hated being a helpless baby and as each milestone passed and she became more independent, her attitude improved considerably.

In the blink of an eye, Kate was chomping down some cake on her first birthday. Her party had an all-star cast including her Grandparents Marge and Jack Gibson, her Grandparents John and Wilma Brackett (she is pictured with her Poppi B. at right), Poppi's sister Aunt Madaline and her husband Merle, Madaline's son, Cousin Barry and his new bride Tova, and Aunt Gail Morris and her family.

Kate impressed one and all by taking five steps between her father and mother that day with all the witnesses. It may be noted that she didn't walk independently again for two months!! Talk about a show off!

A few years later, Kate and I went to Disneyland with our long-time friend Chris and her daughter Mallory to celebrate Kate's 4th birthday. To the left, she is pictured on her bike wearing her souvenir Mickey Mouse ears and T-shirt.

During her Junior year of college, step-sister and bosom buddy Sarah was studying abroad at the University of Leeds in England. We decided to celebrate their mututal 21st birthdays (Sarah is in one week on the 29th) by taking Kate to England with us when we visited Sarah. The girls took a 24 hour trip to Paris while we slept off the trip and we ended

up in an Edinburgh, Scotland pub to celebrate their first legal drink together. (Even though neither was quite 21 and the drinking age in the U.K. is 18). Aren't they beautiful??

Kate continued to grow up to be a wonderful woman. She's married to Steve and mother of the amazing Mr. B.

So, on your 28th birthday, I say to you, my darling daughter, happy, happy day and many, many more. I love you tons!!

xoxoxoxoxo
your mommo

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

Today is the 100th anniversary of the San Francisco Earthquake, sanitized to be known in history as the "Great San Francisco Fire" so as not to inhibit rebuilding of that great, but shaky city. The quake occurred at 5:12 a.m.

At that time, my grandmother was 17 years old and living with her mother in the city. My great grandmother, Rachel Samuel is the woman seated on the left side of the shanty they jokingly named "Cafe Tincana." The young woman standing to the right pouring tea is either my grandmother Emma or her older sister Etta. I've not been able to identify the others in the picture. Hubby and I were watching a special on KRON/4 Sunday night and one of the pictures that flashed on the screen was of Rachel taken from a different angle.

My grandmother died when I was eight years old, so I never heard about the event from her, and by the time I asked my great-aunt, Etta about it, she really didn't remember much. Too bad, I would love to know the stories of my family members who were there.

According to the shows we watched, much of the city was rebuilt without proper building codes in order that rebuilding progress as quickly as possible. Scary!

I love San Francisco and always will, but I hope the next BIG one happens when I'm not there!

Fun Quilty Stuff

Last weekend, I got to go to the Napa quilt show where I met my buddy Kathy B. from Yolo and her school nurse buddy Debbie and Debbie's sister Stephanie. Debbie and Stephanie are new quilters, being mentored by Kathy and they were on a mission to find Southwestern fabric for a quilt for a relative in Arizona. After the show, we visited Quiltmaker in downtown Napa before heading our separate ways.
Pictured to the left is my new pincushion, purchased at the quilt show. She is made of a couple of log cabin blocks in sweet 1930's reproduction fabrics and I've named her Gretl.

Lately, I've been working on a swap of "Widdle Biddy Blocks" with my pal Nancy, near Philadelphia. I was soooooo behind in making the blocks that we declared a three month break from January to March so I could catch up (not to mention the birth of Nancy's grandson Sam on February 1st!!!). Here are my blocks for August through December (2 per month). Nancy got caught up with the six blocks for January, February and March and I still have those to do. We've decided to continue on at one block per month, which will be much easier to stay up on.

I have other swap blocks of 1930's repros and think I may use one of Judy Martin's fabulous new sets from her book Knockout Blocks and Sampler Quilts. Judy has been a quilt maven since the early resurgence of quilting in the late 70's and I try to collect all of her books. Not always easy as she owns her publishing company and some are out-of-print, but Ebay and Half.com have come through for me more than once.

Tomorrow, I'll be working on some Frienship Blocks for guild, so more later.