by Karen on December 13, 2009
in family
It is my mother’s 85th birthday on the 16th – today we had a surprise birthday party for her so we were away from home all day as it is a little more than 2 hours one way. We had a spectacular sunset on the way home. Here are a few photos of our day. We had a lot of the family able to make it to the party. Mom was surprised although my 7 year old niece tried her best to give the secret away the other day from what I heard! Good thing mom thought she was talking of her last birthday party given several years ago. We have many in the family and it was not possible for everyone to be there.
the cake
my mom and a couple of her great-grandchildren and the one in the gray shirt is the youngest of her grandchildren. They thought she needed help blowing out the candles. The generations over lap in our family. Mom had 12 children, if I have counted right she has 25 grandchildren and 21 great- grandchildren
the sunset
another of the sunset
one more of the sunset. I took these while Mike was driving, rolled down the window put the action selector on the camera and shot.
Photos from Thanksgiving:
Melanie and I with THE QUILT
8 rows of the second Dear Jane quilt "Insanity Revisited" this one will eventualy go to my younger daughter Jessica
My family that I comment on from time to time on my blog - the most important people in the world to me. From left my hubby Mike, Melanie, Ric, Me, Jessica, Shane - in front Jessica & Shane''s kids Ciera and Utah
Ciera and Utah with Max their dog that came along for the family trip
And as if I don't have enough projects in the works - this is a new knitting project. Now that I have the knit stitch down pat I am working on learning how to purl so one side is knit, one side purl. This will be a shawl like thing - I say thing because I wonder if it will be more afhgan size when I am done? I am not following a pattern but just put 100 stitches on the big needles and going from there!
For now the Dear Jane quilt “Insanity” will reside on my bed. Melanie is going to hang it on a wall after I give it to her so I need to put a hanging sleeve on the back of the quilt still. I am going to make the sleeve in such a way that a bracket can go in the middle to give the weight of the quilt support as it is heavy. For now though the quilt is on my bed and it will remain there for about a year for me to enjoy. I put the Twisted Star quilt that I had on the bed so the back of the quilt which is a purple moda marble is on top, the Insanity is on top of that making the underneath quilt look more like a bed skirt. At night I will simply fold the quilt and lay it over the tall stool I have in the bedroom in the corner of the room so it is out of the way and then when I make the bed in the morning it will go back over it. I still need to design a label for the back of the quilt. I haven’t uploaded the program I use on my new computer but I decided to get a newer version of Print Master Gold anyhow so I will do that soon. I have Print Master 12 and I think it is up to version 17 or 19 now and have newer ideas for it with internet access. I’m sure plenty of new clip art also which I use a lot on my labels.
Dear Jane "Insanity" on my bed
My younger daughter-Jessica will be receiving the second Dear Jane “Insanity Revisited” sometime after that one is finished. I need to sew row 8 on to the blocks and then I will post a new photo of that quilt. While the grandchildren were here examining the quilts 
which they love to do asking what will be next I showed Ciera the “Little Brown Bird” quilt and told her that I was thinking of making that one – her words “that one will be mine”. (I told her maybe she would get it when she was 21 – she is 7 now – that should give me plenty of time to make it and enjoy it if I decide to do so). Utah spent one evening working on a design for a quilt that he wants me to make – he said it would be the quilt to use while watching tv in their basement family room which is a little chilly in the winter. Designed by Utah and made by Grandma – he specifically said that it had to have scraps of fabric in it from a quilt that I made him last year He had the big pad of drawing paper out, a square quilting ruler and colored pencils – he did a really good job but was only about a 1/4 of the way done with it when they left for home. He took the drawing home with him and said he will finish it and send it to me – I don’t know if he will keep his interest but if he sends it back I will see what I can do with it.
by Karen on November 29, 2009
in family
We just got back from our camping weekend. I haven’t had time to look through photos but I wanted to put a link here to my daughter Melanie’s blog where she posted photo’s of our Thanksgiving.
I will post again later if I get to it. While the kids were here visiting we got a photo of me and Mel holding up THAT QUILT that she has been waiting patiently for me to finish. Now she has had her first look at it and will wait awhile before I hand it over! She was drooling I will get one of the photo’s from Mike to post.
by Karen on November 27, 2009
in family
I don’t know about anyone else but I ate too much. We went through so many pumpkin pies – we love it. We eat it for breakfast, dessert, snacks – it is the only time of year I make it. We are bringing the leftovers with us.
We made use of our motorhome as we had too many people in the house the last couple days and when that happens it is very handy to have the motorhome next to the house. We make use of the extra sleeping space and the bathroom – it is heated and has water in the tank. But because we did use the bathroom and it is almost time for winter that means we must dump the tanks and then winterize the pipes. We decided the easiest way to do that is to go camping We will have fun, go hiking, enjoy nature and then dump the tanks and when we get home Mike will winterize the vehicle.
We will just be gone for the weekend – our last camping trip of the year – it will be a short trip but enjoyable. The campground that we are going to is a short drive - less than an hours drive from here. It is supposed to be in the 60′s this weekend although the evenings will be chilly.
While the kids where here we made use of the firepit that we had gotten for the stone area that Mike added to our deck. Here is a photo of the stone area and when Mike gets all his photos loaded on the computer I will put one on of the kids roasting marshmallows on Wednesday – they had fun and it made them feel like they were camping. We will be able to enjoy this fire pit almost all year round. It has a cover to go over it to protect it from the rain but most likely most of the time it will be put under the protection of the roof on the porch. There is a table top that you can put over the area that you put the wood in and then it turns into a table.
along the backside of this area Mike is building a rock wall that will provide extra seating if necessary (although most of the time it is just the two of us so plenty of room for the two chairs there) and maybe a bench on the side that is highest off of the ground (next to where the chairs are). It made for a nice area for a fire in the middle of a chilly afternoon. All this rock is from our land - we grow rocks pretty good in Arkansas! The flat stones though we had to buy - we hardly ever find any that flat in our yard
by Karen on November 25, 2009
in family
The house is full, the grandchildren are visiting here are some photos of my cuties having fun.
Wii game talent (Star Wars challenge)
Utah and Ciera working on a drawing
A Christmas tree all trimmed up and Santa peeking around the corner, gifts under the tree with their names on them
I am going to be out of town tomorrow for most of the day so I will do a quick announcement for the give away first thing in the morning before I take off. I need to drive to visit my mom and take her to a medical check up appointment. Little sis usually takes care of this kind of thing but she is under the weather and I’m her back up I had planned on visiting soon anyhow so this decided what day to go. Mom is two hours away from me and bad luck is that it is supposed to rain tomorrow so driving will not be fun – nor will getting the wheelchair in and out of the car! But needs to be done.
I managed to get 3 more blocks done last night – it seems like it is always 3 blocks before I quit! Maybe that means I can finish the last block and two triangles for Row K tonight? Hope so.
Row K block #'s 11 and 10
Row K block #12 - little blurry sorry about that.
I told you all awhile back that I wanted to learn to knit – well today after stopping by the library for a couple books I ran over to the knit shop to talk to the friendly ladies and see what they had. After talking to them I decided to make a simple scarf for winter first. I need to learn how to read a knitting pattern & instruction and just a general run through to brush up on knit, purl and get the technique going. I have knitted in the past but it was years ago (unless you count the one attempt I made about 3 years ago when a shawl kind of turned out looking like an afghan LOL – really). I learned basic knitting back in high school and we don’t want to remember how long ago that was!! Kind of getting close to 40 years — OMG — has it been that long LOL I can’t believe it, it seems like just yesterday!
the pretty blue variegated yarn and the supplies needed. Also with this scarf pattern are fingerless gloves, a hat and leg warmers -- people still use leg warmers? thought those went out years ago. Actually I liked a different hat that was displayed in the shop and if the scarf turns out I might give the hat a try.
Too many photos today I have been busy the last 3 days working on “So Charming” and pleased to say I am done with the top!! I started it on August 30th I think and finished it September 26th – less than a month to hand piece while on vacation in between hikes and sight seeing and now this past week in between taking care of the grandchildren and doing things with them.
I ran back over to the quilt shop today with the grandchildren after karate practice and McDonald's. I realized I had forgotten to get the backing for the quilt. I found this white with black polka dots that I thought would go with it well. I must say the kids enjoyed the shop really well and were very well behaved. They have always showed such an interest in quilting that they were asking questions and wanting to feel some of the fabric (they had clean hands). They loved the feel of the flannel. They were even looking at patterns and pointing out different ones that they though maybe I should make for them! Kids - they think I can whip these out quickly - Utah even told me I shouldn't be working on so many at one time and then I could finish faster - wise kid. They really don't need more quilts right now - they both have 4 already.
the kids.
karate sparring practice where for a little while they were sparring partners. Ciera really enjoyed that as shortly before her partner was quite a bit larger than her and she looked uncomfortable. Sparring with Utah put a smile on her face.
More sparring and I won't make you endure any more "grandma's pride and joy" photos I think I took about 20 of them at practice and at least as many again last night.
Mesa Verde, Colorado - Knife's Edge Hiking Trail -- where the rattlesnake was!
Scenery from that hiking trail. You can see that in places it brought us close to the edge of the mountain side.
The trail goes behind that mountain peak - the rocky part at the top is the Knife's Edge - The trail goes to the rocky area on the back side from what is shown - that is where the rattlesnake was close to.
Go to my daughters blog From Scratch and you will see how we spent our day yesterday. She has included photo’s from yesterday’s adventure and old family photo’s plus the recipes that we used.
by Karen on July 7, 2009
in family
I wasn’t going to blog this evening. I am tired. I left the house about 9 this morning and drove to North Little Rock to 
spend the day with my daughter. Melanie has been growing some cucumbers and wanted pickles. She had never made them so wanted a mom/daughter day – “show me how to make pickles mommy” LOL, ok not quite those words but kind of I had the canner, the jars, the lids, the recipe — she had the cucumbers, spices & vinegar. Kind of an even trade. When I arrived we first went to the river market area as the farmer’s market is held there. We checked to see if they had some small cucumbers to add to hers – they didn’t and turned out we didn’t need them. But they did have tomatoes and we got some to try our hand at ketchup – I had never made that but thought why not give it a try. I left most of the pickles with her but I did bring home 3 jars and a jar of ketchup. We only got 2 pints out of the tomatoes so we split it.
Here is Melanie on the left working on the pickles.
I got home a little after 7 this evening! I spent some time approving all of the entries that came in today for the drawing - my god people – I have got over 70 of you to pick from and there is still tomorrow!!! That is way more than I ever thought would come on over to this. What fun it will be seeing who the two winners are on Saturday.
My daughter’s dog was feeling somewhat neglected during the day as we were too busy to play with her. Here is the dog
Patty on the couch and on the couch is a quilt I make Mel years ago and a wall hanging on her wall. She doesn’t quilt but she likes them! She will be posting about our 
day on her blog with photo’s – her DH took a bit of photo’s and I will have to wait until tomorrow to see what they are like. She will probably post later tonight or tomorrow.
I managed to get in a couple stitches on the “Insanity” quilt last night on the quilting frame but not enough to bother taking a photo of – maybe later in the week. This morning before I left I did work on the border a little more of the Christmas quilt. It is coming along!
