Visit to Portland

Can you believe I went to Portland for 3 and 1/2 days and didn't take a single picture?  It was a fast visit.  Didn't go to Acorns and Threads after all.  I did make it to Fabric Depot and couldn't find any thing to purchase.  Lots and lots of great fabric but didn't buy any.  I did send $2.49!  I bought a package of snowman carrot noses in assorted sizes.  Can't tell you how many times I'm needing or wanting a carrot nose.  I had to have those.  We did eat at lots of great places and I think that's probably where my cash went.  But I didn't gain anything which makes me very happy.   On Friday my daughter and I went to a luncheon for her at her friends house.  The beautiful homes in Portland are amazing!  I just love old homes.  On Saturday we headed to the Boy Scout camp to pick up my grandson Simon.  In the early evening we went to do an home visit for the rescue group that I am part of.  Great gal and she will be adopting one of the rescue Chihuahua's very soon.  She works for Evanger's (sp) pet food and has agreed to feed our foster dogs.  In the rescue we have over 70 Chihuahua/Chihuahua Mixes.  This is a real blessing for us.  My daughter has been house sitting for one of her best friends for the past 6 weeks.  In exchange for the house sitting my granddaughter Francis went to the east coast with Lei and her daughter Opal.  When we got back to Lei's house we had to rush her cat to the emergency vet.   Kitty took her last breathe on the counter as we unzipped the carrier.  My daughter has been fretting the last 2 weeks that the cat was going to die on her.  She and Lei talked and talked about the cats health but she didn't think it was necessary to take kitty to the vet yet. The cat has been sick all year.  Lei and Heather were just a mess at the vet (over the phone).  Heather couldn't handle the pressure of the cat passing while she was taking care of it and poor Lei couldn't grasp the fact that the cat had passed.  When we got home several hours later we had to tell Simon.  He's a sweet gentle soul who loves animals.  He cried and cried for hours and then "everything" starting flowing.  He was going to miss his boy scout troop to will his dog Bailey die too!  Sunday I was on the train at 2:30 heading back to my little Anacortes, Washington.  Its so quiet here.  I really miss living close to my kids and grand kids.  I've missed so much of their lives and they are all 4 pretty much teenagers now. 

Now we are getting ready for my sister in law and her husband Sal to visit on Saturday.  I have lots and lots to do before they get here.

6 Fat Men Update July 31, 212

Can you believe we have gotten so far in such a short amount of time?  Yes it wasn't that long ago that I was gripping that this would never be finished and now I'm waiting for Lizzie Kate to bring out the newest installment of the 6 snowmen which is actually 6 snow ladies.  I thought I read that they were going to be named 6 Snow Belle's but I've also read that they were going to have another name.  Either way they've got to be darling!  The house is coming along and I think I'm going to add the borders for the last 2 charts so that I can get an idea of the finished size. 

6 Fat Men Update for July 23,2012

The fat men are finally coming along nicely.  I have 2 more charts to add and work in the box on the lower left which is a house.  I can finally see an end to this!   Not that I want this group to move on our separate ways but I noticed the other day that a local framing shop is having a summer sale and I would love to be able to go and get it framed there.  I'm hoping they do great work and they are affordable.  Of all the pictures I've posted I think this one really shows the real color of my fabric.  I can't wait to see Lizzie Kate's snow lady series. 

Hoping we can make it a SAL too!

Christmas Trees
This is one of the charts from Little Shop Around the Corner.  Its part of a Christmas SAL.  There are 2 more charts left to stitch.
My printer won't print right now so I'll have wait until my husband can fix it or I go and replace it.

Anyway its stitched on 14 count Adia cloth.  I used Weeks Dye Works thread - Noel.  It's much prettier than it looks in the picture.  I don't know if I will frame it or make a small pillow out of it for a Christmas basket.  I have time.

I'm also stitching on my 6 Fat Men SAL today and will get a picture of it post soon.




6 Fat Men SAL

Finally got some stitching done on my fat men.  I can see progress finally.  I have more stitching on the snowman with the pinkish coat, a few things on the bird house like to windows and some snowflakes.  I really don't care for stitching them.  The Let it Snow is close to being done.  I think I only have the scarf and about 3 lines of dark blue in the hat.  Oh and the face.  Several of these charts have little single cross stitches on them and I am thinking about adding single beads instead of the single cross stitches.  Whats everyone else going to do there?  Looks like I only have 2 more charts to add and them finish up.  At my pace its gonna be another 3 months but it will be worth it when finished.  I read on Lizzie Kate's blog that she is now working on 6 snow ladies.  That she is using the same floss colors so the 2 will match.  I guess I better try and remember where I got the fabric I'm working on so I can stitch the matching girls.  I love snowmen.  When my Christmas decorations are down the end of Christmas I put out the snowmen.  I have a nice size collection of snowmen.  Many are Jim Shore which were given to me as gifts.  I don't usually buy them for myself.  This year I'd like to make a mantel scarf with snowflakes on it for the winter.

Right now I am also working on the Lizzie Kate Summer Mystery.  I just got my package in the mail.  I wasn't happy with the fabric that came with it but I've decided to go ahead and stitch on it anyway and if I don't like it when I get a little bit done I can always frog it and start over.

Hoping everyone has plenty of time each day to get some stitching in. 

Trip to The Ozarks

 This is going to be my 4th try to get this posted.  I think I know what I did wrong each time when I lost the post.  You can't hit the back button on the site.

My sister and I had a great time in The Ozarks visiting with our families on both sides of the family.

The first picture is of my sister Debbie on the left, our cousin Helen on the right and me in the middle.  We are at Helen's in this picture.  We went over on Friday after we arrived.  We took our cousin from Dad's side Ann with us at Helen's request.  Helen is 91 and sharper than a tack.  She's the most amazing lady I know.  She never married.  She grow up on a farm and lived with her parents until they passed away.  When it got to hard for her parents to keep the farm going they sold it and moved to town.  Helen was an only child and I have no idea why.  I also don't know how old she was when she was told that she wasn't allowed to date or get married that she was to take care of her parents when they were old.  That really amazes me that a father could do that to his child.  Helen isn't angry or bitter about it.  She accepted it and went on.  She did work for the school in Republic for 15 years before she had to quit and take care of her parents.  Anyway when we arrived she had a nice dessert for us.  She made homemade angel food cake for us with a wonderful glaze on it, ice cream and sweet tea.  Not of which was on my eating plan but I wouldn't say no to her for anything.  Then she told us she wanted to show us her quilts. 

This is the quilt she showed us.  Its made of thousands of small yo yo's.  They are about 1" each.  Helen told us it took her 10 years to make this quilt.  The fabrics are all from the 30's.  Helen also has a doll collection of over 200 dolls.  We assumed that she purchased dolls through the mail or in stores but we were wrong.  She purchased dolls at garage sales and thrift stores and restored them to how they looked brand new.  She made all their clothes.  If they needed new hair she bought wigs for them.  She dressed dolls for many ladies in the area.  I think she probably made extra money doing that. 

This is Blades Chapel.  Helen grew up in this church

and still attends to this church today.  The church was started by my our family on my Mom's side in the 1880's (I believe).  We went to church there on Sunday morning.  Its pretty small now days with 28 members.  I was really worried to attend a little church like that but it was wonderful.  Everyone spoke to us.  A lady also came to meet us who is related to us on our Grandpa Britain's side of the family.  So we are now in contact with her also.  My Mother also grew up in this church.  After church we drove back to Helen's and she fixed lunch for us.  She wouldn't let us help her at all.  After lunch Helen told us again she wanted to show us her quilts.  We talked about quilts for quite awhile and she showed us lots of them.  Many that our great grandmother Blades made.  Some that our great grandmother made and Helen and her mom finished years later.  After talking for awhile she opened the closet and brought out 2 bags.  Inside were the 2 quilts below.  She told us she wanted us to have them that they were made by our great grandmother Emma Blades.  She told us we could decide who got which one.  My sister then told me that I could pick the one I wanted since I quilt also.  I chose the red, black and white quilt on the left.  My sister got the 30's quilt on the right.  Helen also gave us several things that our great grandmother crocheted with thread.  I'll post pictures of those later.  We had a great time with both sides of our family.  Can't wait until we go back again.  Hoping it won't be 4 years again.



Finally Home

I'm home from a wonderful vacation to the Ozarks!  The first thing that happened was my main laptop died!  So I've lost all my bookmarks, lots of photos, some machine embroidery designs etc.  We are going to take it to Best Buy tomorrow and see if it can be fixed.  If it can't the next question will be can you get all my "stuff" off of it and onto a new laptop.  I'm not good at backup files so now I need to be make that my priority from now on.  I need to take some pictures and put them on my blog.  I have so much to share.
Until then happy stitching!