La Familia

Yesterday we went down to San Anselmo for a mini-reunion at my cousin Ellen's home. Present were Dad's baby sisters Madaline and Blanche who will be 82 and 87 respectively in November. Also present were two of Blanche's granddaughters and some of their kids and two of my cousin Ellen's grown daughters. Pictured at right are Madaline and Blanche, the last two siblings of Dad's family left.

Below is a picture of Madaline with my cousin Ellen, an adoptions counselor in Marin County.

It was great to meet my Aunt Blanche's granddaughters Lori and Tammy, daughters of my cousin Barbara who couldn't be there. Laurie and Tammy both brought some of the kids, Tammy's boys are pictured below. The picture below has two of the kids, Ellen's daughter Camilla (in hat), Laurie, Tammy, Melissa and the boys.




Finally, there is a picture of most of "the girls", Ellen, Madaline, Blanche, Jan and Laurie. We had a lovely time and I really enjoyed talking about my Dad with his little sisters and seeing a few of the Brackett family members.

Finito!

Finally done, the top to the comfort quilt for Norma and Dennis Viglienzone in memory of their son Caesar, who was killed in Iraq on February 1, 2006.

Everyone in guild wanted to "do something," but no one wanted to take the bull by the horns, so I did. Ironic, in that I am probably one of the members of guild most opposed to the darn war, but there you have it.

Norma's buddy Vandy procured the photos and transferred them to fabric and Phyllis trimmed them into two consistent sizes. Thank heaven for that, I might have stumbled on that step, but it allowed me to design from there. I used my Electric Quilt software and the Judy Martin's Stars and Sets program for the basic layout. Several months ago, we had a work party at Teddy Bear Quilts and members of the guild showed up to make blocks for the quilt and I assembled them and added the borders this week.

Vandy will quilt it and Betty will bind it. All I have left to do is make a label for it.

Also, ironically, I displayed it at guild yesterday after Norma left. Yesterday was International Day of Peace.

'Nuff said.

Tahoe, Baby

We made a quick trip to Lake Tahoe for the weekend to hang out with Kate and Mr. B. while Dad was at a 2 day bachelor's party for a friend.

On Saturday, Kate, B. and I decided to ride the Heavenly Valley gondolas up to the top of the hill and it was worth every dime! The day was gorgeous, Friday's wind had cleared out the smoke from the wildfires in the Sierra foothills, so we had some pretty good views.

The weather was very cold when we arrived Friday, with a few snow sprinkles as we came down the hill into the Tahoe valley, but had warmed up considerably by Saturday.

This picture was taken from the top of the hill and is looking down on South Lake Tahoe, CA and Stateline, Nevada , two towns separated by a street that is more like an alley on one side of the road and a sidewalk on the other side. Obviously, the larger buildings are the Nevada casinos for those not familiar with this corner of the world.

Lake Tahoe is one of the prettiest places in California, in my opinion and certainly the prettiest in Nevada (I've lived there, I know.)

Finally, here is Mr. B, dirty face and all with me, his Nana. I found the "G is for Gondola" shirt at the gift shop and couldn't resist since it matches his eyes perfectly.

We had great fun playing with his dice and doing horsey rides on Nana and "Bop's" legs and playing "push-Nana-over-and-then-pull-her-up." Great fun!!

Until next time (in two weeks) buddy~

And Now, Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Quilting

And yes, it IS another Sew-A-Row, this one for Moonlighters.

I nearly had a stroke when I got this one, having signed up to participate when it was a mere 12" Dresden Plate block. Little did I know that it would grow to be a 48 inch behemoth by the time it reached me! Not only that, the beautiful bright plaids from the center had not been carried out into the other borders, giving it a dull, country appearance which was OK, but not to my liking. The person before me added fans, but did not finish them as she had no buttonhole stitch on her machine. (Doh, pick another design!) Enough with the complaining. I knew what I needed/wanted to do immediately, but was mentally shirking from the job. All the way to Sisters in July and ever since then I'd been searching out bright plaids for the job, but found few.

Finally, I contacted the original block maker and she provided me with scraps of some of the fabrics used in the center and away I went. I happened to have a small piece of 30's red that exactly matched the center of the original plate, so I added that as a 1 1/2 inch separator and made 40 (count them forty) double flying geese 5 inch paper pieced blocks. I do adore the Electric Quilt, in which one can design a foundation for any block in any size and print the papers. I opted to paper piece for accuracy as I would rather take the time to do that than fool with getting them perfect the other way.

The meeting for distribution of the projects is September 20th and I'm really hoping to win this one. I've gone from hating it to being very attached to same. If I am the lucky winner, I may replace the black corner squares with additional double geese so they look like they are going around the quilt, like so. I would also finish the fans just inside the red border with stems and appliqued leaves to give them the appearance of flowers.

Sew, keeping my fingers crossed, I'll win it and get to realize my ambitions. If not, like all group projects, it was a great experience in that it forced me to stretch a bit, and I've come to realize that this kind of thing, rather than repetitious, block after block the same sewing is what really floats my boat and keeps me coming back to my Bernina for more.

What else could a girl ask for?

Cojones, Chutzpah, Call It What You Will

You must check out Keith Olbermann via GreyHair and Crooks and Liars. I didn't know journalists like this existed anymore. Makes me want to re-watch "Good Night and Good Luck."

Amen brother.

Thanks to Nancy, NP

Thanks to my pal Nancy, NP for telling her story about cross party registration. It brought back memories of my year in third grade when JFK and Nixon were vying for the presidency in 1960.

I came home from school one day, most likely in September or October having enjoyed a copy of "My Weekly Reader" in class--remember those? Being in a newspaper family, things like that made a real impression on me--a paper of my own to read! This particular issue had a picture of John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon on it, shaking hands (likely this one).

I proudly showed the paper to my Daddy and pointed to JFK and proclaimed, "This is favorite!", whereupon, my father patiently but firmly explained to me that no, Mr. Nixon was our family's candidate. Oh well, perhaps another time......

My father's words made a big impression on me at the time and when I was able to vote in a national election, of course I voted for our man Dick Nixon. (Maybe they shouldn't have let us under 21's vote after all...)

After that election, embarassed and living out of California and away from prying eyes of neighbors at the polls who might report me to the old man, I changed my registration to Democrat in an overt act of defiance to the parents. Several years later, I voted independent for Anderson too.

Life goes on, I moved back to California and registered Republican. Eventually, I was working in the insurance business for a die-hard Republican (aren't they all??) and just kind of hung in with them, though my heart wasn't in it particularly. I remember my boss saying that the day Clinton was elected for his first term that it was the worst day of his life. (Being only 30 at the time, he had no idea how it can get as life rolls on. )

Enter my hubby. Blue to the bone. Like my pal Nancy, I came out. We were having a weekend trip to San Luis Obispo and walked past Democratic HQ and we stopped in so I could re-register, and who should be there but a Pediatrician who had fled Visalia and was now living in SLO. So, I registered and there has been no looking back. My pal Chris, who has known me since I was 13 said, "Its about damn time--you always were a Democrat, you just didn't know it!" She was so right and I have never looked back.

When I say "I'm forever blue, I mean it!"

Heartbreaker

Here he is, in one of his favorite places.....my grandson, the fabulous Mr. B., known to others as Benjamin.

Clutched in his left hand are his bathtub crayons, actually soap. He was coloring the sides of the tub and absolutely shreiking with glee. Then his Mama, the ever-ironic Kato observed that perhaps crayons that write on walls weren't such a good idea.......good thing his Grandmas didn't buy them, Mama did.

I can't wait for next weekend when I get to see my little sweetheart at the timeshare--Lake Tahoe!

Just another day in paradise....

One picture says it all......the grapes (with minimal trimming, and not on purpose) have formed a heart. This is one of our 5 Cabernet Sauvignon vines and is planted right next to the steps down from our lower deck level.

I noticed back before the grapes turned that hubby's trimming had formed the heart, so I'm watching the vine like a hawk for the perfect photo-op. This wasn't quite it, but I'll keep trying.

On the quilting front, I've got all the blocks together on the comfort quilt for Norma and just need to border it. I'd planned a couple of contrasting borders, a small gold one and a wider navy blue one, but now I'm thinking that a medium sized white one will make the stars float better on the background. Perhaps a photo tomorrow.......

Places to Go/Places I've Been

Thanks to DesertSky for this link:



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

A Little Bit of Sewing...

It has been a busy couple of weeks what with volunteering in our state assemblywoman's re-election office and nurturing my hubby post-op, but I have managed a bit of sewing.

I've been working on Sew-A-Rows again, two for day guild (Santa Rosa Quilt Guild), and two for night guild (Moonlight Quilters of Sonoma County).

First is a Christmassy Angel project and I just had to answer the "flying angel cats" with some flying angel schnauzers. This project has one more row to go for completion. It is a day guild project.

Next comes the "Patriotic Flutterbye" for the night guild. My row is the bottom and final row. The drawing for this will be sometime in the fall as it is due on September 6.

And finally, the Kitschy Kitchen quilt with some cute machine embroidery redwork by Joanie and Pat with X's by Phyllis. I added the checkerboard row and it has one row to go before the winner is drawn in December.



I have another to work on, and it is ginourmous, having started as a 12" block that was set on point and had several large borders added. I've been procrastinating on it, but need to get going as the deadline for that one is also Sept. 6th.

It looks like I'll be taking over the organization of the Sew-A-Row program for day guild (Santa Rosa Quilt Guild) in 2007 as Phyllis, our current coordinator is going to be Program Chair, a job she has done in the past (and is very, very good at) and she didn't feel she could devote the proper time to the Sew-A-Rows. Should be fun and I'll get to see them all FIRST!

Memories Old and New

Somewhat of a surreal experience I had tonight, sitting in a yogurt shop on this warm summer evening sharing a cool treat with my 28 year old daughter and 18 month old grandson. (Well, certainly that part is not weird.)

Then the oldies station started playing "All Right Now" , a 1970 hit by the British band Free--a make-out song from the days when I was dating the father/grandfather of these two, now that was surreal. Especially when this summer is the 25th anniversary of our splitting up. Where does the time go?

Next came Phil Collins and my daughter reminisced about driving to the coast as a young child listening to his tapes on the stereo with her brother and I.

I think that is why I love music so much, even though I couldn't play an instrument if my life depended on it and people have threatened to pay me not to sing "Happy Birthday" to them. Music brings back memories of where we were and what we were doing way back when, even if our conscious mind forgets.

And after all, the memories are our biographies, are they not?

Delicious says it all.....

Girls, just go read it. Now.

No Surprises Here

You Are Cookie Monster

Misunderstood as a primal monster, you're a true hedonist with a huge sweet tooth. You are usually feeling: Hungry. Cookies are preferred, but you'll eat anything if cookies aren't around. You are famous for: Your slightly crazy eyes and usual way of speaking How you live your life: In the moment. "Me want COOKIE!"

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

Hotter Than Hell

Unless you don't read the paper or watch the news, you know that California has been caught in the grip of a terrible heat wave.

We've had a few days of weather over the century mark with little night-time cooling. This, for a place where the normal high in the month of July is 82. The good thing is that we are not in the San Joaquin Valley--Stockton, Fresno, Visalia, Bakersfield--they are suffering over 110 degree temps. Our daughter in Fresno reports that even with her thermostat set at 77 and a house surrounded by large, old trees, the A/C is cranking 24/7 and can't achieve the 77. Ick.

In such temps, it is hard to get too worked up over blogging or much else.

The Sonoma County Fair started today and runs for two weeks. Hubby's Mom and her hubby will be here with some of his old IBM buddies for wine-tasting and horse racing. It should be a great good time and hopefully the weather will chill down a bit.

On the happy side, the Camry Hybrid arrived Friday and it is a dream!! More about that tomorrow.

The Sistahs Meet in Sisters

Home again, home again and recovering from a week of fun with my "Sistahs" at Sisters, or more correctly, Black Butte Ranch. BBR is a planned resort community about 18 miles north of Sisters, Oregon. We rented a home with four bedrooms and three and a half baths for our group of seven quilters.

Our trip began as planned with Becky and I caravanning with Kathy and Kat, and we arrived at the house tireder than heck at 7:30 Monday night. We decided to pick up a rotisserie chicken and do rice and salad rather than go out and that was an excellent choice.
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Tuesday was designated a sewing day, so we got our mini-sweatshop set up at the kitchen table and away we went. Kat and Kathy (at right) were doing a blue and green batik project that they had swapped triangles for a few weeks prior to the trip. Becky (below, cooking) decided to put together three gazillion 3 inch nine patches from swaps with the 3 inch hourglasses she'd made. The 16 rows were 16 blocks each and several times she put it down and declared that she wasn't going to work on it anymore, but she always picked it up again. She also put together some Bento Box Blocks of the Month from SR Quilt Guild that I won and gave her when she left town the following month as well as a set of beautiful Jacob's Ladder blocks that she got in a swap.

I took a ton of UFO's, knowing I'd not finish them all, but prepared nonetheless. First, I finished putting together the Christmas Lucky Stars top I'm doing as a 50th birthday present for my longtime friend Maureen. She was 51 in May, but knows the quilt is coming. I found the perfect binding for it on sale at the Pincushion too. My second UFO was a mystery quilt I started at Linda Ballard's class in Williams in Feb., using fabrics I'd bought 20 or more years ago for son Daniel's Christmas quilt. That top is done except for borders! Finally, I finished (or so I thought) a top from a Debbie Caffrey mystery at the Pincushion with Kathy a year or so ago. Our resident quilt teacher and long-arm quilter extraordinaire Kat decided that I needed to do half blocks to finish part of the design into the border, so there you have it--not done. The two Christmas quilts are pictured at left.
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Wednesday we went into Sisters to shop at the Stitchin' Post (the sponsor of the show) before the busses and crowds hit. We all found lots of goodies and I was especially glad that I found a great kit for a quilt for a certain person who will be having a major birthday this year (not that she reads the blog, but she is rather special). I'd been back and forth endlessly trying to figure out something not too old-fashioned or cutsey for her. Mission accomplished, the Snowball quilt in Daiwabo Taupes fit the bill to a "T." The link is the acutal kit I got, and I plan to add a bit of Sashiko quilting in some of the squares.
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Also on Wednesday, Molly and Nancy arrived from Sacramento, just in time for Becky's fabulous pasta dinner. Fun, fun, fun.
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Molly and Nancy took a class on Thursday and Lori arrived later that day. The fun continued. Friday was our day to check out the stores in Bend, which were jam packed and somewhat disappointing compared to years past. We did manage to drop a dollar or two, though. Busloads of quilters put us off a really great shop that was crowded and hotter than you can believe. We vowed to stop by on our way out of town on Sunday. We went to the park Friday night, had dinner and listenend to Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston give their show and tell and talk about their recent collaborations. More great fun.
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Saturday was the show, pictured above. We got there early, but it was hot, hot, hot. For many of us, the show is an anti-climax after a week of sewing, giggling, belly-laughing, noshing, sipping and shopping, and that was the case again this year.
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Sunday came all too soon and we met up on the way home at Sew Much Fun in Bend and did some farewell shopping, then again in Mount Shasta for lunch. Kathy and Kat, Molly and Nancy opted to shop at Sew Unique again but Becky and I, facing 2 hours' drive once we left I-5, opted to head for the ranch directly. Even so, we arrived home at 8:30 to wine and dinner waiting. Do I have the best hubby, or what?
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We managed to pass an entire week in each other's company without a ripple on the water. What an amazingly agreeable group of gals--can't wait for next year!!!!