My Latest Project

Look what I'm making! It's the cutest rag rug using muslin and in my case, 1930's fabric strips. It is supposed to be made out of a Honey Bun (40 1 1/2" strips) from Moda, but I didn't have one in the colors I wanted to use. So I just cut 1 1/2" strips of many 30's prints and a whole bunch of muslin 1 1/2" strips. Isn't it just too cute? I want to make it about 36" across and use it in "Sydney's" room. She stays in that room when she spends the night at Grandma & Grandpa's house. I keep telling her that when Jakob comes to visit, he'll probably sleep there. So then she pipes up, "We can both sleep in that bed, Gwamma. Sadies can sleep in the crib." The quilt top for that bed is nearly finished. I suppose when it is done, I'll have to ask Liz to help me quilt it....I think I need to learn to use the big machine. I've done a couple of small things but I can tell I'm just at the start of my learning curve.
You can find all the directions for this cute rug at Moda Bake Shop.

Banana Slugs

One of the first things I noticed when I moved to the Northern California Redwood Coast were these yellow....things. Slugs, Banana Slugs to be specific. They are found in coastal forests (especially redwood forests) from southern Alaska to Santa Cruz, CA.I was raised in Southern California and we had snails. Ordinary garden snails. Pests, really. As a small child I delighted in stomping on them to hear the crunch or putting salt on them to see them foam. I know, I was heartless but then, so was every other kid in the neighborhood. The older ones showed us how. I bet they learned from their older siblings. But, I digress.

Banana Slugs are big, yellow, look like bananas and sometimes they have black spots that make them look like older bananas. They are big, did I say that? Not like the small black variety. I'd also never seen a slug before I moved here either, but a black slug and a banana slug are two different animals.

This one Bill found on the back patio was about 6" long. Fair sized. I've seen them nearly 10-12" long before. One of the weird things about them is that they can stretch out almost double their size. They secrete SLIME that is really gross. It sticks to you and cannot be washed off. It wears off. The best thing to do is to coat is with dirt and try to rub it off. Yuck! I've seen chickens & ducks eat them, but first they rub them in the dirt to coat the slime good.

Locally you can see the Slug Races at Prairie Creek State Park every Spring. Prairie Creek is one of our family's favorite picnic stop, hiking place and camping too. It's nice to be able to camp so close to home. Come visit us and we'll take you to see the most beautiful forests in the world...you'll probably see Banana Slugs, Roosevelt Elk, raccoon, and lots more.

FOUND: Olga!

Many thanks to my friend Darlene who read my blog entry about friends and did some research for me. After the work and tips she gave me, it was just a matter of time. I thought I had found my childhood friend, Olga......just had to wait for confirmation. It came tonight and lo & behold! She's just a couple of hours north of me in Cave Junction, OR. A place I drive through (and often stop for a bite to eat) several times a year. Thanks Darlene! I'm ecstatic and so are my friends, Terri, Toni, Vicki, Lynda & Maralee. Now to find Gail (and I think we're really close on that one too!)

The Bedroom (NOT X rated!)

As readers of my blog may remember, Mr. Scottie Dog has been working on our house. Ever since we bought our house in the Cutten area of Eureka, it has been in the state of remodel. We added a two storey addition of den, 2 bedrooms, study area & bathroom. Then the old dining room became another bedroom and guest bath w/shower and two closets. The kitchen was reconfigured and enlarged. Two years later new cabinets & counter tops and finally flooring. With each job, a few final touches were left undone. For the past year, Bill has been finishing up these projects. He also built a fantastic spa bathroom & walk-in closet out of the old bedroom next to our room. Then the laundry room got it's own finish job and new pantry shelves installed.

Last week he started in on our bedroom itself. It is getting new walls, carpet, an additional window, new light fixtures and a new ceiling. Since the original was only 7 1/2' high, he's re-shaping the ceiling so it will be 9' at the apex. Right now he's got 1/2 of the old ceiling down and is re-engineering the truss system so the roof won't fall down on us one night! (I'm thankful for that.) Our bed sits smack-dab in the center of the room while the work goes on.

The bed quilt is an old one I made in the very early 90's. It was a sample for the Beginning Quilting Class I taught. I love the colors in it.

I can't get to this dresser. It belonged to Bill's grandma when she was young. I love it, but it was made for clothing of a different era. The top two drawers are very shallow. Top one was for corsets, the 2nd for chemises. I keep my stockings in one and socks in another. I hope the room is done soon....I want to be able to post my AFTER pics!

Friends

Friends are special people who come into your life. Sometimes you aren't even sure why "people" become friends. It may be that you have common interests, family relations, or it could just be that "something" clicks. They say, "You can't choose your family but your CAN choose your friends." I think that sometime you don't even choose your friends. Some of them become friends through osmosis!

In my lifetime I've had great friends. Some long-term, some for just a short period of time. Church friends, school friends, neighborhood friends, Internet friends. Club friends, quilting friends, work friends, store friends, stab-you-in-the-back-friends, kindred spirit friends and more. Sometime friends move away and you don't see them for long periods of time but when you get together it's as if no time has passed at all. It's great when your friends have kids who become life-long friends and then THEIR kids become friends!
L-R: Gavin & Crizzy, Emma and Sydney. Their parents are our friends, their moms are friends (and were members of my Camp Fire group when they were young) and now THEY are friends. Isn't life grand?
Speaking of Camp Fire and friends......I grew up in Los Angeles and went to Cimmarron Ave. Elementary school. In kindergarten I met the ladies above: Toni Fisher & Vicki Riggs. We were Blue Birds together (Toni's mom was our leader) and then Camp Fire Girls (Vicki's mom was our leader and my mom ass't leader for a couple of years). We have great history. When we were all 13, I moved to the San Bernardino Valley and Toni & twin sister Terri moved to Simi Valley. I kept in touch with Terri & Toni all these years (although not as much in the last few years as I would have liked--my fault) but lost touch with Vicki. She found me a couple of years ago and we emailed a bit.

Exciting news! We're all getting together this summer! Terri, Toni, Vicki & I and maybe a few more of the old group. We're still looking for Olga Evergates, Jill MacDonald and Gail Plakos. Maiden names. Gail, I think lives in the San Fernando Valley. We're all 56 or 57 now. I'd love to find them too. Friends then, friends now. I can hardly wait till July.

Winding Ways

Scottie Dog Quilts is sponsoring a Quilting Cruise to Alaska in August. (If you'd like to join us CLICK HERE). There are several projects you may choose to sew on the ship. Bev Harrison is teaching a Karen Combs pattern called Transparant Stars sewn with two colors of Karen's Shade Cascade (gradated) fabric. Liz is teaching a big quilt made with jelly roll strips. My project is actually 3 smaller ones. A bag, a table runner and a hexagon project that may be done by machine or by hand. That one I actually think is faster and easier by machine, but you do have to have a machine with zig zag stitch. My little featherweight won't do for that one.





Last week Liz used the AccuCut machine and cut out two of my Winding Ways tablerunner projects. I finished one yesterday and sewed two more blocks of a second one. Don't you love the negative/positive look of the runner? The inner border didn't come out exactly right...it's actually a dark brown Shadow Play (Maywood Studios), not black as it appears in the picture. I'm also making a blue version and have a picture of one block.My Blogger friend, Tanya, recently made a lovely Winding Ways wall quilt but she cut and sewed hers by hand. Check out the quilting on hers....this was her 2nd machine quilting attempt and it is marvelous. It's one thing to be able to technically quilt a quilt well, but Tanya was quite creative and thoughtful in the quilting patterns she used.