Mini-reunion this past weekend, with the "little" cousins getting together with their "big" cousins! L-R, Abby (age 1 1/2), Nate (3), Audrey (3), Garrett (5), Casey, John, Alyssa and Gordon.
Now that John and Casey are living semi-locally, we're getting to see them more often. It was nice to have Alyssa and Gordon visiting from the east coast. This was Gordon's first visit here so he got to experience a lot of new things!
Monday, September 12, 2011
Cousins at The Boat
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Little boy, big pig!
Naters checking out his "year of" animal at the LACMA exhibit--http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/ai-weiwei-circle-animalszodiac-heads
Pretty darn cute!
Thursday, August 11, 2011
A Special Quilt
Time for a little photo essay here! These darling people are Pete and Marietta, who have been married for--hold on--64 years, and whom I've known for probably 20 or more. The number of quilts Marietta's made is pretty staggering, especially considering some of the physical challenges she's faced over the years.
Growing older is not for sissies.
The latest threat to her quilting productivity is a big one: she's losing her eyesight to macular degeneration. Enter Pete, who's always been interested in the whole process of quilting--he's an engineer, and has enjoyed learning about all the machines and the mechanics of putting a quilt together, but never felt any need to actually make a quilt himself.
But their grandson is starting college this month, at USC--aka the University of Southern California, which is pretty well known, at least in this part of the world. He needs a quilt to take to college, preferably one that showcases his school, right? Right. So a collaborative effort on the part of the grandparents is making sure he's going to get one. So Grandpa Pete has taught himself how to actually use a sewing machine.
This is one of those "takes a village" quilts--cooperation at a couple of different quilt shops, and lots of determination on the part of the quilters. After several weeks of piecing and sewing, this past Tuesday night the quilt top was completed and has been consigned to the quilt-by-check person. (You know what I mean--the age-old question of hand-or-machine quilting has had a new dimension added to it--now, quilting by check is another option!)
Here's hoping Grandson enjoys his quilt when he gets it!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Starting Early
Abby has found some of my more accessible yarn stash, and loves to carry it around, rub it on her face, snuggle with it, and pet it. I guess I'm getting her hooked young!
Sunday, May 01, 2011
Simon, napping
... on the Lone Star quilt. This one has a braided border made of scraps; the quilt itself is very scrappy!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Back In Action...
...sort of! Yes, that's meant to be a pun: my back has been repaired and I've spent the last two weeks being very very good (or at least trying to) in order to give it time to heal. Today was Easter Sunday and only my second time out away from my comfy chair. The back did beautifully. The knee, however, did not.
I think the warranty on my "parts" has expired.
The knee is an ongoing issue and its pain level is exacerbated by my having to be off ibuprofen for an extended period of time. That's because it supposedly interferes with the healing of the bone grafts in my spine, and of course we want those to take. I did spend a lot more time standing around today than I normally do, so this is to be expected.
It was, however, quite worth it. D4 and E picked me up and we trekked out to D3's where we were greeted by a pair of adorable boys. N8 is really into trains, and there were a couple of new ones in his basket this morning. The bunny also left a coloring book and "magic" pens for G, who can sit and color for an hour or two in total concentration. We had a lovely dinner of baked ham, potato salad (D4 has picked up the potato-salad torch and is carrying it extremely well), deviled eggs and roasted asparagus. D3 had made macaroons, and D4 made adorable cupcakes. I'll try to gank photos to post here--I didn't bring my camera with me, sadly.
So, this is me, once again here, and I'll be trying to post more often. Right now I'm trying to get the knee to stop cursing at me (wouldn't you think being wrapped in a nice warm heating pad would soothe it? Yeah, not so much.) and settle in.
I think the warranty on my "parts" has expired.
The knee is an ongoing issue and its pain level is exacerbated by my having to be off ibuprofen for an extended period of time. That's because it supposedly interferes with the healing of the bone grafts in my spine, and of course we want those to take. I did spend a lot more time standing around today than I normally do, so this is to be expected.
It was, however, quite worth it. D4 and E picked me up and we trekked out to D3's where we were greeted by a pair of adorable boys. N8 is really into trains, and there were a couple of new ones in his basket this morning. The bunny also left a coloring book and "magic" pens for G, who can sit and color for an hour or two in total concentration. We had a lovely dinner of baked ham, potato salad (D4 has picked up the potato-salad torch and is carrying it extremely well), deviled eggs and roasted asparagus. D3 had made macaroons, and D4 made adorable cupcakes. I'll try to gank photos to post here--I didn't bring my camera with me, sadly.
So, this is me, once again here, and I'll be trying to post more often. Right now I'm trying to get the knee to stop cursing at me (wouldn't you think being wrapped in a nice warm heating pad would soothe it? Yeah, not so much.) and settle in.
Saturday, April 09, 2011
Still Here!
Wow--it's been quite a while since I posted. Guess that's what happens when a person gets attacked by her own back. Yes, I've been down for the count for the last almost-month, 4 weeks today of pain and misery. However it's getting fixed on Monday, so I'm hopeful for good results and am anticipating being back to whatever passes for normal with me soon!
Just wanted to update a couple of things here. First, Entangled magazine is ready for a free preview. Do check it out. It's from Genny Stevens in NZ and I think she's done a smashing job with it!
If you've been following the story of the Great American Afghan raffle to benefit XRX's Sue Nelson, there's an update here. Angela, who won the raffle, is one of my Ravelry and Facebook friends, and I love what she decided to do. I also love that there was such wonderful cooperation and concern all across the knitting community--the nice people at Vogue Knitting helped spread the word and support the project. I have to admit I got a little teary-eyed reading Ben's post.
If I can sit up at the computer a bit later, I do have some "crafty" goodness to share. I did a project for a swap on Ravelry and documented the process, and I've been meaning to post about it. Right now I have a date with a cup of coffee and a couple of hot chocolate croissants!
Just wanted to update a couple of things here. First, Entangled magazine is ready for a free preview. Do check it out. It's from Genny Stevens in NZ and I think she's done a smashing job with it!
If you've been following the story of the Great American Afghan raffle to benefit XRX's Sue Nelson, there's an update here. Angela, who won the raffle, is one of my Ravelry and Facebook friends, and I love what she decided to do. I also love that there was such wonderful cooperation and concern all across the knitting community--the nice people at Vogue Knitting helped spread the word and support the project. I have to admit I got a little teary-eyed reading Ben's post.
If I can sit up at the computer a bit later, I do have some "crafty" goodness to share. I did a project for a swap on Ravelry and documented the process, and I've been meaning to post about it. Right now I have a date with a cup of coffee and a couple of hot chocolate croissants!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
You CAN Help!
www.ravelry.com
Ravelry is a community site, an organizational tool, and a yarn & pattern database for knitters and crocheters.
The Process Pledge
Today I got a comment on an older post (the one with Baby J's quilt) and tracking back the commenter, I found Rossie's blog and her post on The Process Pledge. It was an intriguing idea, and since I've been working at getting back into quilting more I think it was a serendipitous find.
Here's Rossie's original prompts:
I’ve made a list of prompts to get some process posts going. I will continue to update these prompts as time goes on, based on what I see in blogs, ideas that are submitted to me by email, and also in the comments.
As always, there will be way more photos on the Flickr page than I'll put in the blog, so do click through--especially if you also want to see cute babies, cats, flowers and sunsets and all the other things that appeal to my magpie mind!
Here's Rossie's original prompts:
I’ve made a list of prompts to get some process posts going. I will continue to update these prompts as time goes on, based on what I see in blogs, ideas that are submitted to me by email, and also in the comments.
- Do you have any new sketches to show?
- Is this design inspired by a past quilt or someone else's quilt you saw (link, please)?
- Does the color palette come from somewhere specific?
- Are you trying to evoke a specific feeling?
- Is this quilt intended for a specific person? How did that inform your choices?
- Are you following a pattern, emulating a block you saw somewhere, using a liberated process, or totally winging it?
- What are you hating about this quilt at this stage? What do you love?
- Did you push yourself to try something new?
- In working on the quilt, are you getting ideas about what you might want to try next? What? Did you sketch it?
As always, there will be way more photos on the Flickr page than I'll put in the blog, so do click through--especially if you also want to see cute babies, cats, flowers and sunsets and all the other things that appeal to my magpie mind!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Cousins!
Abby's birthday is Valentine's Day, so her party was today. She's sitting on her gift from her auntie and uncle--this wheeled conveyance has lights, music, twirling princesses, a keyboard, in short anything and everything required to be a wonderful toy! She's testing out the features with a little help from her cousin, who was riding it a few minutes before.
(His T-shirt has photos of the Beatles and says, All you need is love.)
(His T-shirt has photos of the Beatles and says, All you need is love.)
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
A Quilt for Baby J
My knit group is having a baby shower tomorrow for one of our members who recently adopted a little boy. I finished up this quilt and found a cute little tote bag to put it in, all ready to present to her.
Ragg quilts are great "play" quilts, and this one is also light enough to use for wrapping up baby. The colors are nice and vibrant, and it's been "Abby-certified" and approved.
Here's hoping Baby J and his mama will love it too!
Ragg quilts are great "play" quilts, and this one is also light enough to use for wrapping up baby. The colors are nice and vibrant, and it's been "Abby-certified" and approved.
Here's hoping Baby J and his mama will love it too!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Ready to clip
One of the two ragg quilts, ready to be clipped then washed and dried and washed and dried and washed and dried...
I wasn't quite sure how to put the colors together so they'd be at least harmonious, but I think I'm pretty happy with this arrangement. The checked squares really stand out a lot more than I thought they would, but this arrangement seems fairly balanced to me.
And yes, I did make "twins" out of the two sets of blocks, figuring that if the quilts weren't a good size they could always be joined into one big one. I think this size will work well for a baby/toddler/little kid quilt, though!
I wasn't quite sure how to put the colors together so they'd be at least harmonious, but I think I'm pretty happy with this arrangement. The checked squares really stand out a lot more than I thought they would, but this arrangement seems fairly balanced to me.
And yes, I did make "twins" out of the two sets of blocks, figuring that if the quilts weren't a good size they could always be joined into one big one. I think this size will work well for a baby/toddler/little kid quilt, though!
Supervising
The other part of the supervisory team. Simon wants to be sure he's up close enough to see that I'm doing it right!
"Step" Cat
Hi-Hi, watching me sew. Sitting on this step puts him just above my eye level when I'm sitting at the machine.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Cruisin'
A boy and his new birthday bike. Yes, bike--two wheels (plus outriggers!) cause now that he's 3, he can keep up with the big guys!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
First Pies!
My Xmas present from The Daughters was this "personal pie" baker. Cranked it up tonight and voila! Four little cranberry-apple pies. They only bake for about 8-10 minutes, and it takes just a little longer than that to prep them. Might need to do this more often.
Thinking of mini-tourtieres, for instance, since there aren't too many of us who really eat it. Or any time I have a pie craving.
The jar of TJ's apple-cranberry filling (which is VERY sweet) is probably enough to make a dozen of these little beauties. Yum!
Thinking of mini-tourtieres, for instance, since there aren't too many of us who really eat it. Or any time I have a pie craving.
The jar of TJ's apple-cranberry filling (which is VERY sweet) is probably enough to make a dozen of these little beauties. Yum!
Birthday Boy with Dinocake
People were singing to him! One thing our family is known for is the awful way we sing "Happy Birthday." This was just another outing for the Off-Key Chorale!
But he did manage to blow out his candle, so I guess he can turn 3 now!
But he did manage to blow out his candle, so I guess he can turn 3 now!
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