Quilts in time for Christmas

 Well you can all see what I have been up to all year!  These are all quilts I have been busy making for Christmas,.  I can show them here because none of my kids look at blogs and don't think they even know my blog address.  This first one is for Heather my middle grandaughter.  The pictures don't show the brightness of the yellows, blue, green and purple. the backing is all blue and green fleece piece signs.

 This is one of two pillows that match a quilt I made for Brooke (15) the backing of this quilt is pink and has love and peace on it.

This is a king size I made for my oldest son.  I machine quilted all the white triangle sides and corners. It came out nicer than the pictures show.

 This one you can't see very well, all the fabric depict wine or wine labels or grapes or wine bottles.  The center is an old tapestry that was a book cover and it has women stomping grapes and picking in the vineyard.  The back is all wine bottles and wine barrel fabric.  This is for my younges son who has a vineyard.

This is a small throw. again the colors don't show well, it has bears and antelope and deer in the dark brown fabric and is Kyle who is my daughters boyfriends son.  They will be with us all on Christmas.

This next quilt the picture came out the best as it was taken at one of our Klamath Falls Charming Chicks Meetings.  This is a queen size all in black, white and red and is for my daughter.  I also made two huge pillow shams for it that I was just finishing up yesterday when the sewing machine went on the blitz so I am taking it in for
repair work today.  At least I finished all the quilts before it went on the blink.  The back of this one is all solid red.  It was quilted at heart to heart quilters in Merrill.

The next quilt is not good for color on the picture.  It is very bright pinks and orange and browns.  The butterflys were all applique.  The backing is all pink fleece and has soccer balls and the words love on it.

This one has the two pillows that match it.  This is for Brooke who also had a birthday on Dec 1.

this last on is for Kristen.  It is very bright in Pink, yellow and lime green. She is the youngest of my 2nd sons three girls.  I am sure they will all enjoy there personal quilts.  The next one I make is going to be for myself.  Right now I am taking a break from sewing.  Will start again after I come home from my trip to California for the holidays.  I will be taking the train down on Wednesday and coming home on the 30th.  Here is wishing all of you a Happy Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!!!!

December Chicks Meeting!

What a Great bunch of Gals!!! This is the Klamath Falls Charming Chicks Chapter of MaryJane'sFarm.  We are all farmgirls at heart no matter where we live.  3 members are missing from this photo.
Yesterday we had our Dec. meeting and collected the food and gifts that we all collected for the families we are adopting through the Salvation Army for Christmas.  We also had our Christmas party and had a blast with the white elephant gifts that we open and stolen.  Great fun.  We celebrated two birthdays and planned our calenders for January and February meetings.  We are looking forward to the class Patty and Susan are going to teach needle felting.  We will each be given a kit and learn together this craft.  There were many deserts and cookies and goodies, which I was good at refraining from.  I have lost 25 lbs in the last 12 weeks and am still going strong.  It is so much fun when others start to notice.  I am more or less on my own untill my next weight loss challenge class starts on Jan. 20th.  Mary and I will go tomorrow to cut down two Christmas trees that we will deliver to the Salvation Army on Wednesday.  It is so fullfilling to give to others.  No matter how bad your situation is , there is always someone who needs help and you can always contribute something.  I know these families will have a great Christmas with all the gifts and food we gave.  Thank you Lord for allowing us this privelage  of sharing. 

Christmas Blooms?

This is one of two camilia trees my daughter in law gave to me last summer.  She and my son live in Lodi, Calif.  They were re-doing their landscape and so I brought these two trees home with me in the u-haul.  We have had to keep them in the house as our Oregon winters are too cold for them.  In the summer , the only place we have for them is in the direct sun and they would burn so they stay in our living room.  Here it is almost Christmas and now they are blooming.  There are about 17 buds ready to open.  I just love the blooms that remind me of home.  Sometimes in our hurried lives we don't stop and thank God for all the beauty he has put on this earth for us to enjoy.

Pelican Piecemakers Quilt Guild

The guild I belong to has finally finished the quilt that will be auctioned off in December.  They have been selling tickets to it all year and it is just beautiful.

These pictures do not do it justice at all.  It was all had quilted by some of our senior members.  You can't see the detail in these but all along the brown border they have quilted in gold maple leaves.  The quilting is different in each area.  They started on this in Spring and work on it only on Wednesdays when we meet.  It is such a great work of art.  I tried hand quilting with them last week on our new quilt to raffle off later and believe me it is hard! I did the rocking motion but the stitches were too big and started over a couple time.  The needle alone was so tiny I couldn't even thread it.  I did do about six stitches they approved of but this is going to take much practice and bandaids for the fingers. I used a thimball for pushing but the other fingers were a mess too!

Taming a wild kitten

This adorable kitten was born under the house.  I have been feeding it and mommy when she shows up.  It seems that her /his mothers pattern is to be gone for a day or two and then come back.  I am now able to pet this little guy and he just purrs like crazy.  I think he is lonesome.  He knows we have dogs on the deck so if they are around he doesn't come on the porch.  Any ideas out there for a name?  I don't know if it is male or female.  He reminds me of my very first pet when I was a little girl, only that one was a purebred pursian and this is not.  I just have become so attached to it. 

November Chicks Meeting

We had a great meeting and planned the 2 families that we are giving a Thanksgiving meal to from Hospice so it will be their love ones last Thanksgiving. 
We are making it special.  Fancy tablecloths , candles and the meal all ready to eat so they wont have do anything.  They can keep the tablecloths, napkins and candles. It always feels so good to help others. We also planned some things we could do for the community and our Christmas family we will adopt and give tree,decorations and then come back with the dinner and gifts.  We did this last year and it was wonderful.

We had 4 birthdays this month and celebrated with our hostess who is also our mother Hen serving us a delicious White Chilli Chicken Soup.  There were breads, muffins and lots of desserts.  We also had show and tell where chicks show off any projects they have finished.  I showed my quilt.  First one completely done that will go to my daughter for Christmas. I am making large shams for it also.  One of our new gals Judy came and showed us some great decorations she made that are stoneware.  She is very talented.  There are 2 of our 4 birthday gals.  Jane got a new apron and Robin.  Happy Birthday gals.  Sorry I didn't get a good pic of Gail and Andrea.  We had 15 at our meeting this past Saturday.  Our group is now at 17 and we are growing.  What a wonderful bunch we have.

Chicks Birthdays

Sunday afternoon two of our Klamath Falls Charming Chicks had a birthday celebration and we honored them with a party at Susans house.  She had made a delicious homemade soup with potato and corn and lots of goodies.  We all asked for the recipe and she said she would tell us what she put in but doesn't remember the amounts.  Thank you Susan it was great!  The girls each got a cake , one spice and one Chocalate and many gifts to open.  We had a great time visiting and planning our winter projects such as a Thanksgiving give away food basket and adopting a family for our Christmas Give a way.  This is all done through the Salvation Army and we givers remain anominus( I know thats not spelled right).  We are having 4 birthdays next month so I am doing homemade as I can't afford 4 in one month.  Best gifts are always homemade, they show the love.  We always have alot of pictures at each event and I dont remember seeing one person with a camera this Sunday.  How did that happen?

Monday I took my last class on Quilters Acadamy Sophmore year.  Now I am ready to tackle putting blocks on a diagonal point.  It looks harder than it is and your finished quilts look so nice.

Last week I stayed with a friend who had just been released from the hospital.  He had 4 stints put in his heart and is recovering  nicely.  This week I am at Chick Cheryl's housitting.  Her dog Buster is alot of company.  Cheryl has a blog This Hen's a Cookin . 

Well I will be back in a week or so and hopefully have pictures for my blog.

Fantastic Saturday

Saturday morning our local women from our church (BBC) went to the fall womens rally in Alturas, Calif.   It was a wonderful day!  There was singing and a testamony by Connie Hays.  She was great!  The entire church was decorated in western style with hay bales, saddles and lots of hats around.  The centerpieces on the tables were straw hats with sunflowers on them.  We had a great lunch and snacks.  The key speaker was Kim Meeder.  Together with her husband they operate a horse rescue that is all run on donations.  They take in neglected , abused and abandon horses and restore their frail bodies into healthy animals again.  They also have paired this rescue up with children who have also been neglected, or abused, or abanded.  Sound similar?  All free of Charge!!!   What a wonderful ministry.  Kim has spoken in front of the Senate in Washington D.C. and won the Jacquelinen Kennedy Onassis Award for community service.  She has been offered millions of dollars by top sponsers if she would just not include the religious part of her ministry.  Her answer was thanks but no thanks.  They have met their need each year with more than enough to finance the operation.  One donar is giving the ranch 350 tons of hay yearly.  How nice. 
Then after we arrived home we had just enough time to change and feed the animals and back to town for the Patty Lovelace concert.  A wonderful Chick friend had tickets and gave them to us.  What a treat.  We had 2nd row seats and the concert was great.  Patty was out of commision for a while as she had throat surgery and now she sounds better than ever.  What a great day for us.

Fall is a great time of year !

Hi gang,
Sorry I haven't been on here lately to tell you of all that is going on in my life, Camera charger won't work and so no pics for a while.  I have been very busy taking another quilters acadamy Class 2 in Merrill.  Today we bring in our blocks and learn how to set on point instead of just straight rows.  This makes your quilt much bigger without having to make more blocks.  I have 3 quilt tops done and I am working on one now for my oldest son.  This is all in blues(his favorite color) and it is the starflower pattern.  Will put them on here when I get a camera. 
Miss all the chicks, haven't seen any since the Luau, and not having a meeting untill October sometime.
Mary and I rode over to Rogue Valley and went through a cute town called
Shady Cove and I would like to go back again and check it out some more.
Last weekend we went to Mt. Lakes Bible Camp which is off Varney Creek Road just a little after the Rocky Point cutoff.  Our church owns the year round camp and they had their 50th birthday celebration.  It was just so beautiful up there.  They served ordeuvres, and then a wonderful luch. Later the original men (only 2 left) told some interesting facts about the camp.  We saw a video history of the camp as well.  Next summer I will volunteer there.
Our baby calve we raised since they were 3 days old are now steaks someplace. bo hoo.  They weighed almost 800 pounds each and brought a good price at the auction but it was hard to let them go.  If you have an entire herd thats one thing but when you get attached to animals it is hard.
Mary was busy canning, she put up pickles, dilly beans and pickled okra. 
We have some baby kittens (2) under the deck that are just as wild as can be.  I have been taking food to them and if I am perfectly still they will come out and eat in front of me.  Once in a while mama cat shows up and we feed her too.  Last winter was the first year Mary said there were no mice problems so we want to keep the cats living under the house, even though the dogs would love to chase them away.  They can't stand it when we keep them locked on the deck and are feeding the kittens.
Well, thats about it for now.  I will update again soon.

Farmgirls Luau

Oh do we know how to have fun or what?  Farmgirl Gail hosted a wonderful Luau at her home in Bonanza, Oregon.  It was an overnight campout.  There was a fifth whell , a motorhome, an adorable deco small camper, and a tent. Some gals brought a truck with camper and one gal slept in the back of her truck with a shell over it.  We had fun the moment we arrived.  We dressed Hawaiian and first off we were given sandals to decorate with flowers and hot glue gun and decorateive jewely, we received a lei and went to the tiki bar for refreshments from a victorian ice tea, all kinds of cool drinks or even an alcholic beverage.  Everything was decorated to the max as if we were in the Tropics.  We all brought Hawaiian themed foods and had a great dinner.  Hawaiian Pork, bbg Hawaiian chicken, a spinach and fruit salad, cocunut shrimp, hawaiian fruit bars, rolls, chips and homemade salsa of differnt kinds, also homemade chips, a carrot salad, a green salad, a wonderful hawaiian corn chowder,and then we had all the deserts and blended fruit toppings (she called it bounced fruit ) pineapple upside down cake, buttermilk cake( yummy) homebaked breads of all kinds, blueberry, lemon, and cranberry, and I know I forgot alot of things but it was scrumptious!!!  We played games and even tried to hula hoop.  Our hostess gave prizes for winners of games and such and with our sandals we got pina colad flavored shower gels.  It was a fabulous weekend and on Sunday morning we had a  great breakfast of Kona coffe, juice, bacon, eggs(fresh  that is ) and breads and fruit.  We talked and got to know and learn more about one another and can't wait for the one will do next summer.  Check out our pics.  I can't explain the toilet paper game because I start laughing so hard which is what we were all doing during the game. 

A Day of Fun at Grants Pass

Tuesday 3 of us Klamath Falls Charming Chicks took a day for some great fun.  We left K.F. at 6 am and went to Grants Pass (first visit for me) and we went on the Hellsgate Rogue River Boat trip.  There are several trips and we did the 3 hour lunch ride.  It is actually longer.  We boarded the boat about 9:30 am and didn/t get back untill 1:30. We cruised down the river and saw eagles nest as well as blue heron and Osprey and Egrets. We also saw deer along the edge of the river.  After an hour and half we pulled up to a beautiful lodge style restaurant for an amazingly good lunch.  After lunch we boarded the boat and then the fun began.  We rode down Hells canyon for a while and then on the way back we did alot of 360 turns.  Of course we all got splashed and it was so much fun. This was well worth the cost of the trip.  Would do it again in a minute.  I hear the weekend brunch trip is fun too.  The weather was just great too.  It was a beautiful trip and when you see all the beauty in nature it makes you appreciate what God has given us to enjoy. You can't miss me in the 4th row from front in white with hands in the air.

On the way home (after stopping in our favorite Jackonsville and going to fruit stands) we stopped on the way home to pick blackberries.  Oh I got stuck and my fingers are a mess but the Jam we will have is going to taste soooooooo good!.

Another Quilt Project

I found this beautiful tapestry on e-bay when looking for wine fabrics.  It had been a vintage book cover.  I bought it for almost nothing and am now making a quilt around it.  As you can see I have sewn two different brown borders around it to set it off.  My son lives in the middle of a vineyard in Calif. and I saw this and thought of him and his family.  I have blocks with 6 different wine fabrics and 6 different solids I am putting together to make a wonderful quilt.  It can either be a wall hanging or a quilt on the back of their brown leather sofa.  I am so excited working on this.  I have so many varieties of ways to place the blocks to make different designs.  I don't want to share to much at this time.  I don't think they even know about my blog but wouldn't want to give anything away untill Christmas.  Once I get this done I will have my 2 major large projects done and then can concentrate on some small projects I want to sew for holidays.  To my fellow quilters out there happy quilting and God bless you all.

Another MaryJanes block swap

I signed up for another MaryJanesFarm block swap. We are doing 12 1/2 in blocks so that when we sew them in they will be 12 in,. blocks.  Our theme is anything Halloween or Autumn.  I chose Autumn for both.  I imagine most of the gals will do one of each.  I feel with halloween you are limited , but fall can be made into something that is displayed all year.  I did the Maple leaf, and Churn dash patterns.  The fabric is so pretty.  We didn't have a large sign up this time so I mike just make a sampler.  It is exciting waiting to see what   you get when the mail comes with a little envelope and you know a block from a fellow quilter in another part of the country has made. 

Our local chapter of the Klamath Falls Charming Chicks had a birthday party yesterday for Susan and it was much fun.  Two of the gals are getting together and going to teach us felting.  Can hardly wait.

job hunting

For a long time (at least it seems long to me) I have been looking for a job.
I took Social Security early and when I first moved here I was still on my workers comp. conditions from California and still in lots of pain and couldn't work.  This Feb. the case ended and I am cleared to return to the work field.  Even though technically I was cleared my back and neck didn't know that yet and I was still suffering many days and nights tormented with pain.  I don't say much to anyone about it but it is there.  Now I feel much better and I know I could work again.  This past week I went on 2 very different interviews and feel good about both of them.  Now I am playing the waiting game to see if they call.  I have a couple more applications ready to go out if I dont hear anything .  I can't live on my social securithy, I receive a little more than some people because I get widow and survivors benefits instead of just social security.  I am not old enough to be able to receive medicare so that is a real problem.  President Obamas health care hasn't helped my situation at all and there must be millions in my same situation.  How do the elderly survive?  I worked since I was 15 and all those years of paying in is not the reward you think it will be.  I had a private retirement fund but that was stolen on an idenity scam so its gone.  I know the Lord will answer prayer and put me in the right job and at his timing not mine.

Busy,Busy Summer

Well, I have been busy house sitting and pet sitting for some great people.

First off I watched the home of The Brannon Family.  They have lots of sheep, 3 outdoor dogs and 3 indoor dogs.  While they were gone I also was running back and forth to our place to feed the goats,cows , dogs and of course the Bird.  Mary got back from her visit to Bakersfield and now I just was at the Brannons.  I enjoyd taking their dogs out for walks.  They were so cute.  They came home and I had one night back home and then came to our Mother Hens Home to housesit.  This is Buster swimming.  He is a great little dog.  They have 6 chickens and I feed them and collect the eggs.

Last Saturday night Mary and I did one of our favorite things (being old cowgirls)and we went to the Rodeo.  Lots of fun and always good eye candy around. The fair looked very busy also. I love when the flag comes out that everyone stands up proudly.  I have loved that about Rodeo fans , I have been to other events where some people don't stand and I feel so bad for our Country.  This Rodeo has been ongoing for 17 years and are led by a riding unit of U.S. Marines.

I  also went to a machine embroidery demo and made a lovely pillow with embroidery and a monogram.  Of course that just makes you want one of the very expensive machines.  I would love to quilt fulltime and sell my work. That would be a dream job now wouldn't it?

Charming Chicks Mexican Potluck and Meeting

Our local chapter of MaryJanes Farm had a wonderful Mexican pot luck and meeting at Robins house yesterday.  She had a huge shaded yard and she along with Julie made enchiladas, tacos, lemonade and fresh strawberry,blackberry shortcake. It was delicious! We all brought Mexican dishes so we had a ton of food.  We had 99% turnout. Only one member  couldn't make it and we welcomed a new member Jane to our group.
Margie displayed her picnic totes that she made and then gave a quick tatting lesson for those who wanted to learn the old fashioned method of Tatting.  Not something you see much anymore.

We decided not to have an August meeting as everyone is so busy this time of year.  Gail has offered her home for our Sept. meeting.  It is an overnight camp out with a Hawaiian Luau theme.  We will bring food to represent that and I believe we are doing a pulled pork it a pit.  Should be alot of fun.  She has a motorhome, a teardrop camper and a tent for accomodations. lol lol can't wait.

This is our Mother  Hen Cheryl.  Love the Chilli pepper beads and sombrero.

Thank you again to our hosts Robin and Julie for a wonderful time.

Great Holiday Weekend/ What does the 4th mean to you?

What a glorius weekend!  The weather was just beautiful.  Do you ever stop to think what does the 4th mean?  To most of us we think of freedom, independance,liberty, a pariotic time to appreciate this great country we live in?  I too think of all these things but mostly FREEDOM of religion which our country was founded on.  So with that thought I became a member of the church I had been attending for over a year now.  It was so nice.  Then that evening we watched fireworks as well as watched the ones on tv from the Boston Pops  and the Capitol Court and the Macys one from New York.  Just think Americans everywhere were all celebrating in their own different ways the birth of our Country.  Monday we decided to go for a picnic which is something I haven't done in ages.  So we packed up the ice chest and my dog Gidget and drove to Fish Lake and then around Lake of the Woods.  We parked at an empty camp site (everyone was leaving Monday) and enjoyed our  lunch all around the beautiful trees that gave us great shade.  Oh it smells so good up here.  Gidget enjoyed walking and sniffing all the smells of the forest.  We took a nice walk.  We went for a ride and enjoyed the views .  Everything looked so nice and green.  Have to do this more often.  Isn't it great we live someplace we can do as we please?  Have we taught our children and grandchildren how lucky we are to live in such a great nation?  It is our responsibility to let them know how lucky they are.  Sure our nation has alot of problems right now but thank God to all the men and women past , present and future who have fought to ensure we keep our freedoms that this country was founded on.

My first Friendship Quilt

Here is my friendship quilt that was made with a block swap I joined on MaryJanesFarm.  There were 6 of us and we each made 2 different blocks and sent each person 1 of each block and kept 1 of each for ourselves.  It was so fun waiting for them to come in the mail.  I made 3 blocks so it would come out even.  The quilting was done by machine, however this photo is not so great so I don't think you can see it. I have 2 more quilts I am working on and if and when I ever finish I would like to join another swap.  It also is a way to meet new people and make new friendships.  After I finished my quilt this morning I ironed, cleaned my room and then took the vacum all apart and cleaned it all out.  I washed out the filter and then got a razor blade to clip out all the strings and threads and dog hair or whatever that were caught in the rollers.  Now it's just like new. Oh and I did a load of wash too, put away the dishes from dishwasher, clipped the dog.  Man I guess that now I am walking over 2 miles every day I am getting lots more energy.  Didn't realize how much I had done untill I wrote it all down,.

Canning Cherries

Today two of our local KLAMAT FALLS CHARMING CHICKS came over and we made cherry jam.  We made 35 jars, some pints and 1/2 pints. Nothing feels more rewarding then looking at all those jars of homemade jam.  Blackberry is my favorite but this tastes pretty good.  We even made some sugar free jam using sugar free pectin and agave syrup. 

Mary and I had never tasted the agave syrup but that jam is GOOD let me tell you.

Julie brought over a great 2 burner propane camp stove so we could have more batches cooking at one time because Mary only has 2 burners but we could not get the stove lit.  With 4 of us gals here we had no luck.  Wonder what the problem was.  Anyway with just the two burners and an electric hot plate we did around 8 batches of cherries.  Of course after pitting all those cherries we all had red all over us but that was fun.  Its always nice to do these type of things with friends.  It makes the job go faster and always more fun to talk with friends and catch up.  We plan on doing pickeled beets next time we are in the canning mood and later in summer do what comes from our gardens.

Victorian Tea Party-Farmchick style

Last Sunday, Mary and I hosted a Tea Party for our Charming Chick Sisters and our monthly meeting.  Oh, what  fun it was.  First off, Mary had all these gorgous tea cup sets and mentioned she always wanted to have a tea party, I said , hey great opportunity we are hosting the June meeting so we decided to do it.  We had a fun time gettin everything ready for it  Everyone had to wear their bonnets and aprons.  We served cucumber sandwhiches, oriental chicken salad in lettuce cups, stuffed peppers and shrimp.  We had scones that Mary made that were to die for as well as miniature muffins and Russian Tea Cakes. We served hot tea and a delicious Victorian Iced Tea.  We also had 4 new girls come and all 4 joined our group.  That was just awsome because we now have a big bunch of gals with diverse talents we can all learn from.

Our next meeting is going to be a pot luck Mexican style at Robins house.That is Mary in the pink hat and yours truly with the black hat ,  What  a pair!  We all had on our Queen for the Day attitude and it was so much fun.