2014 –

Happy Holidays!

December 31, 2014 3 Comments

It’s been a very busy last few weeks. Dear older son has come and gone, dear younger son and dear daughter will be returning to the Bay area and University after the new year. The quilts I made for them were a hit. I had been collecting Japanese themed fabrics, and made them all the same quilt, with different sashings. We also still keep up the tradition of “picture with Santa”. A few years back, it became too difficult to organize going to the mall to take Santa photos, so I bought a Santa costume, and now, dear hubby dons the suit for our annual Santa photo. It takes a few attempts to get the “almost” perfect shot as the kids are always goofing off.

And, Santa was very generous to me this year – I am now the proud owner of a Featherweight! I can even join the Featherweight club, haha. And we also picked up dear daughters Elna Grasshopper from the shop – it runs beautifully now. It belonged to her great grandmother Frederica. She has named her Freddy :).

Happy New Year to you all!

Filed Under: Family and Friends, Holidays, Quilting

An Update

December 4, 2014 Leave a Comment

So much for yacking about my garden every month… I have decided to try winter gardening as I am such a hands off summer gardener. It just gets too hot around here during the summer. So, with the help of my gardener, my planters are ready to go – whenever I get going:

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Dear younger son and dear daughter came home. Dear older son went to his girlfriends… and so it begins :). Anyway, DD and I baked the first batch of Christmas cookies so DYS could take some back up north, and DD could take some back down to University and share with friends. Here we are in our festive aprons:

I was asked to help knit some scarves for our local Youth Hope. So for the last few weeks, I have been knitting along. As usual, my estimate of how fast I can knit was really off. I managed to make 5 Mariners scarves. There are apparently more homeless boys than girls, so I tried keeping the colors neutral, but that pink and variegated one snuck in there :).

Filed Under: Baking And Cooking, Garden 2014, Projects And Interests

IronBruin!

November 16, 2014 5 Comments

Now that dear younger son graduated, we have been deprived of watching Collegiate Ice Hockey games. But fear not, dear daughter has joined the Triathlon team in addition to the cycling team. So last weekend, we woke at 4:30 in the morning and headed to my alma mater to watch her participate in her first triathlon, the UCLA IronBruin. It was really a lot of fun! Photo taking was a bit difficult as they are in motion all the time.

We are very proud of her – her first triathlon, and she managed to come in #112 of 300!

Filed Under: Family and Friends

A Very Special Birthday

November 14, 2014 5 Comments

Last month was my Birthday. For whatever reason, I spent the last year thinking I was 53, when in fact, I was 54. So, it felt like I got two years older! Oh well, I am just happy to celebrate another birthday :). Normally, dear hubby bakes me a cake, but he was out of town. So, since I wouldn’t be alone, he booked a very nice hotel in La Jolla for me to spend the weekend with dear daughter. I started off by meeting best friend from 4th grade, Linda for lunch. It was really nice! Then I picked up dear daughter at University, and we went to a most wonderful quilt shop! The hotel was beautiful, and a bouquet of flowers was waiting for me from dear hubby – so sweet! Dear daughter and I ordered room service for dinner and watched a movie in our pajamas. The next morning, we headed to the Village and had brunch at a really quaint seaside restaurant. It really was a wonderful Birthday even though I aged by two years :).

Filed Under: Family and Friends

Gift Quilts

October 6, 2014 2 Comments

I finished these quilts back in August, and can now share them since they have been given to their recipients. I made the first quilt for my MIL, when we visited her in Europe. I used a kit I found at our local quilt shop. The second one, I made for my brother-in-law. He likes Japanese things, and my friend Ellie had a quilt that was just perfect, and gave me the kimono panel, so I copied her quilt :). They both loved their quilts!

Filed Under: Quilting

A Yoyo Quilt

October 5, 2014 5 Comments

I was visiting my parents today, and took photos of a yoyo quilt I had made for them years ago. I must have been a teenager, since the gift was for their 25th wedding anniversary in the ’70s? I don’t think they actually got the quilt until much later. Looking back, I am amazed that I managed to make such a big yoyo quilt. I guess I have always been a quilter without even thinking about it.

Filed Under: Quilting

The Start Of Another School Year

September 30, 2014 2 Comments

Since dear hubby drove up with younger son to the bay area, then flew home, it was my turn to drive dear daughter back down to University. We managed to pack everything in – I think it helped that she only took her road bike. Now it’s time to pick up and clean up the house. There is so much of their stuff still in the house. It doesn’t even seem like they moved out!

Oh, and I just wanted to share these cute horse drawn carts I found at a small village in Croatia. Not sure if they were intended for children’s toys, but I immediately imagined a vintage Santa or little gift packages in the carts for Christmas decorating:

Filed Under: Family and Friends

Kid #2 Launched… Sort Of

September 27, 2014 2 Comments

Younger son has moved up to the bay area to start his newly graduated life. Unlike older son, younger son goes without employment. It is an adventure of sorts. He and two of his friends are working on a Social Media start up, and will find jobs(eventually) to sustain themselves. Oh, to be young again, without a care in the world, and only to be responsible for oneself!

Second time around, waving good bye again… It is never easy…

Filed Under: Announcements, Family and Friends

Our Family Vacation

September 25, 2014 2 Comments

We had a wonderful family vacation the past two weeks. Amazingly, all five of us were able to take a vacation together. I took tons of photos, and here are just a few – from Croatia, Slovenia, and Austria:

Zagreb Cathedral, Croatia:

Church of St. Mark:

Shopping in Zagreb. As you can see, the boys weren’t much into shopping, but more into eating and tasting the local brew. As for dear daughter, she was happy to shop as well as eat 🙂 Even with all the walking we did, we collectively gained over 20 pounds!

We were fortunate to take in an ice hockey game. Medvescak Zagreb now plays in the KHL, and we were able to see their first home game – they won against Severstal Russia:

Market in Britanski Trg(British Square) down the road from MIL’s house:

A pretty window in Samobor – Cute quaint village outside Zagreb:

I figured out how to use Pano on my iPhone. Tito’s village where he grew up:

Medvedgrad Castle, Zagreb:

Bled, Slovenia – So beautiful! The monastery on the little island on Lake Bled is so picturesque.

The kids complained that we were boring photo subjects, so dear hubby and I decided to pose :). Austrian Parliament Building, Pallas Athena Fountain:

We even managed to hit a flea market in Vienna – vintage buttons, and amazing art!

Everywhere we went, there was graffiti. I loved this mural along the Danube:

St. Stephen’s Church, Vienna:

Melk Monastery:

It was so much fun! Honestly, I did so much walking, I was literally ready to fall flat on my face at the end of every day. Now, to recover from vacation…

Filed Under: Outings And Adventures

Cowboy Quilt Top

September 8, 2014 1 Comment

I started this quilt a year ago. It was a pattern from one of the classes I took. Since I didn’t like my fabric choice(too plain and boring), I decided to applique cowboys and horses that I found in the book Applique Quilt Revival. The cowboys and horses are raw edge applique that I blanket stitched onto the blocks. It’s a bit time consuming, but I actually like hand applique and embroidery. I also added the brown sashing and pinwheel cornerstones(remnants from the star blocks) to liven it up. I’m planning on hand quilting it with a thick floss. No hurries to finish, I’m thinking it will be for a future grandchild 🙂

Younger son is home for the moment, so I took advantage and had him hold up the quilt top 🙂

Filed Under: Quilting

September Garden 2014 & Norwegian Trolls

September 3, 2014 3 Comments

What has Norwegian Trolls got to do with my garden you ask? Nothing really, but there doesn’t seem to be much happening in the garden, so I thought I’d share. Here are some photos of the blooms hanging on in my front garden – so pretty:

Dear Hubby came home from a business trip to Norway, and brought home these two guys. I really like dolls, but I’m on the fence about these two. I suppose they have a certain charm :). I still have the troll dolls that were popular from when I was a child – somewhere in a box in the garage…

Filed Under: Garden 2014

Quilts For Project Linus And The Master Chorale

September 2, 2014 2 Comments

I was asked to make a quilt for Project Linus. A novelty fabric was supplied. I chose to use my scraps to make a scrappy baby quilt – I really like scrappy quilts. Most of the novelty fabric went on the back of the quilt. I even used the different stitches on my machine (finally!) to quilt it all together. You can see the different stitches on the photo – less than stellar, but stitched with the best intentions:

And a friend of mine belongs to our local Master Chorale. They are doing some fundraising, so I made a Christmas quilt for their raffle. I followed a tutorial by Missouri Star Company, and made it like this quilt I saw in blogland. There are only nine blocks, but they are huge, so the quilt ended up being pretty big. I rented a longarm and quilted Christmas trees & stars all over ( some designs are very forgiving, like this one). And I appliqued a folk art angel on the back – so cute!