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.