Thank You Sarah Palin

I’m really not into politics. I haven’t voted in years. The biggest reason is I feel you should know what it is you are voting about & I avoid reading or watching , or listening to any news. I quit watching the news after 9/11. The coverage was so intense, & left me feeling so depressed that I realized I was healthier & happier not watching, or engaging in the news media in any way shape or form. If something big happens, I hear about eventually, & there is still nothing I can do about it, but I try not to let it effect me.  So when it comes to politics, I don’t feel I could vote intelligently, so I leave to the people who can.
Last year when we flew to Washington DC, everyone we met asked us if we knew Sarah Palin. No I don’t know her personally, but after a phone conversation with my Dear Dad a couple of weeks ago, I decided to write Sarah a note.  My Dad had just finished reading her  book  “Going Rogue”. He was really impressed with her, & made the statement that if she were running for office right now, he would vote for her. The reason those words really impressed me, is because Dad has always been a Democrat. He  ( & my mother & I),worked on many campaigns, as I was growing up. I dressed in a little “uniform”, & wore a campaign hat, & passed out literature, & made those annoying phone calls, knocked on doors, etc, all before I was 14 years old. (Maybe this is another reason I don’t do politics now.)
Anyhow, I decided since dad’s 90th birthday is next week, & he has this new little crush on Sarah, I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if she would send him a little happy birthday wish. So I wrote her a note. I told her how dad is the oldest, longest employee  in Muskegon County, Michigan. He still goes to work every day. He is the Assistant Director for Civil Defense. I asked her if she could please send him a note, & SHE DID! Dad called me today to tell me about it. He was tickled pink! So THANK YOU SARAH PALIN!

Jan’s Quilt Finished

 

I finished Jan’s quilt today, & she came & picked it up.  She seemed pleased.

Quilt Facelift

I got a lot of quilting done today. I have all of the background done on Jan’s quilt, & have started working on the baskets of flowers. It’s looking beautiful , but I think I’ll wait until it’s done to show more.

This quilt was started by my friend Kathy Harte, then given to the the guild in it’s unfinished state, when Kathy was getting ready to move to Texas, & she was trying to lighten the load. Another member took it & added the blue-green border, & called it finished, giving it to the Small Quilt Auction committee to be auctioned off in our next quilt show.
I asked Irene if I might take it & finish the quilting on it, because it really needed it, & she was very glad I had volunteered. So today I removed the binding & finished the quilting, made a sleeve & rebound it, so now it’s really done!

My DH is home ill tonight. He has what sounds like a very stuffy head & sore throat. Poor baby.

Calendar Girls, etc

Above are glass buttons made by my dear friend Mindy. She is the BEST!  I love buttons.  I always have. I still like playing with them, fondling them, arranging them, etc…

 

Today we had our Calendar Girl meeting at Jackie Carley’s house. Betty Bivins showed us this pretty butterfly quilt she did, & below is Carol Wight Jones’s “Stargate Portal”. The circle on the left has a semi-transparent fabric that is crinkled & sticks out looking very fluid like the special effects on “Stargate” the show, when the gate is activated.

Back at home, the yard is quite a mess,

but the rock is coming along well.

I continue to work on Jan’s quilt, & will show it again when I’ve got it done. Don’t expect any progress until after Sunday. I have to work at the hospital for the next 2 days. Bleh…

 

Rockin’ the House

 

The Shirk brothers were back again at 8 a.m.. Jerry boxed in the chimney on the side from the wood stove in Warren’s bar, & the rest of the guys worked on the rocks. They almost got 2 of the three walls outside my studio finished.  They said they’ll be back again at 8 tomorrow.

 

I worked on Jan’s quilt most of the afternoon, after doing some more vacuuming downstairs. My sister Em asked who our vistors are, it’s Warren’s Microbiology Professor from College, & her husband.

This afternoon my friend Cyndi Campbell brought this quilt to add to my to-do list. Her piecing is always lovely, & her quilts are amazing. I most likely won’t get to this one until later in October, as I have Jan’s, Shirley’s, Kathy’s, Michelle’s, Charlene’s, & now Cyndi’s, plus we’ll have company next week, & be gone for 2 weeks in Sept. Guess I better get back to work!

iGoogle

Rocking It!

 

It sounded like the Shirk brothers this morning as we were awakened to the noise of large engines. Soon they were stapling on the lathe, for the rock to be cemented on to.

The crane to lift the heavy boxes of stone was an impressive site.

Papa Richard came over to box in a couple of electrical wires & set Jerry & Jessie straight on which way the lathe should be hung, so the stone can grip it correctly. God bless Richard. He is a gem.

For most of my day I cleaned house. We have company coming next week, & I had to get the guest room ready for another round of summer guests. Later we stopped at the Quilt Tree to meet a lady who wants me to quilt her quilt, then had dinner & a movie at the Bear Tooth. We saw “Letters to Juliet”. It was really a nice movie. We both liked it.

SUNday! Quilting

 

Today I awoke with something strange in my eyes! The sun had actually risen & the sky was almost all blue! It’s the most sun we’ve seen in weeks. Broc enjoyed the open window, & caught a few rays.  

I worked on Jan’s quilt most of the day so far. It’s about 1/2 done.

I have found that taking pictures of it, the quilting shows best if I don’t use a flash. You can click on the images to get a closer look if you like.

 

Anchorage Weather

This is what it looked like on my street today. That’s straight down hill, shot over the hood of my car. Pea soup at the bottom.

This last shot was a bumper sticker I saw on a car. I’m not particularly political, I just thought is was kind of funny. Hope I’m not offending anyone. I just happen to be a Harry Potter fan.

Jan’s Border

I’ve been lacking in fiber content lately, so I thought  I should post a couple of pictures of the quilt I am working on right now. This is the design I came up with for Jan’s borders. Now  I just have to get it finished.

I am using a variegated King Tut thread in a soft yellow just for the border, the white background I will do in a So Fine white thread. I think I make take if off of Lily once that’s done, & do rayon to highlight the flowers, free-motion on my Bernina. I think it would be better for the appliqué’ , as I can use smaller needles on the Bernina.

You can click on the images to see up close.

The Guilty Party

 

Here he is, just read the previous post. A picture is worth a 1000 words.

Sneak Peeks & a brief Tutorial on Borders

 

Above is a sneak peek of the quilt I am working on for the Fiberactions challenge this month. I am having fun with this one.

Below is Jan Wills quilt on Lily right now. I have been doing a lot , of drawing in my computer on this one & the next one (Shirley’s quilt), but I hadn’t come up with a good border design for this one. I kept wanting to take it to a different level. Make it better. This morning I woke up with a glimmer of an idea.

I took Freezer paper & cut a strip 1/2 the length of the borders, then folded them into 4. I cut a gentle curve on one side, using one of my curve rulers from Kim Brunner.

 

Next I penciled in a design using the same curve tool.

I tried a feather & straight lines in the spaces. I’m keeping the lines, but have discarded the feather for a better design. I’ll show it later when I’ve quilted it on the quilt. I want it to be a surprise. When I do the quilting I will pin the paper to the quilt top for placement & use the curve tool to make those curves smooth along the edge of the paper, just stitching off the edge of the paper to get the placement of the curves just right. Then I will remove the paper & use rulers for the rest of the design, never touching a pencil to the top of this white & yellow quilt, but will be able to get a  consistent design.

 

Yesterday evening, when my DH stepped out the back door to go to work, this is what he found. The corner of our hot tub destroyed.

 

Wasps had apparently made a nest inside, & Warren’s first thought was a bear looking for honey. My reply was, we don’t have honey bees wild in Alaska, so why would a bear think he was going to find honey? I have a friend who raises bees for honey, but they have to be shipped, & can’t survive our winters without someone protecting them. We only have the paper wasps in the wild.

After walking all around the driveway & yard, I determined that the only animals that have been through recently were moose, & a certain whacky neighbor dog. It was harrassing me up on the deck when I was grilling salmon before Warren left for work, & the claw marks on the side of the tub are suspiciously similar to his paw size.Hmmmm….

So last night, when it was getting almost dark, I went out & sprayed the nest. It made me feel sad & guilty to kill these poor guys, but I don’t think we would appreciate being stung when soaking in the hot tub either.

 

Fungi

 

Alright, I don’t think Elderberries are part of the Fungus family, but I just wanted to post a few pictures from my yard today. It’s starting to show signs of summer’s end.

We have had a lot of rain this summer. It’s been cool & damp for the past 6 weeks. It was a warm May, but since then it’s been a wet one. I took a walk out around the yard & found dozens of Fungi. I would never pick them to ea because I’m not sure what’s safe & what isn’t, but I love the look of them, & I wonder if I should try using some of them for dying some wool fabric. Anyone out there know? I may just try a little experiment…heh..heh.. heh…..(that’s the mad scientist in me wanting to get out).