Today - a Birthday Remembered

Today would have been Stephen's 36th birthday here on earth.  But he doesn't reside here among us anymore.  He resides in heaven with God.  We, his family, who are left here take this day to celebrate our son, our brother, our uncle.  We love you Stephen.  You are in our hearts forever. 

A footprint to remind us of how you have left footprints on our hearts.

Jon's family celebrating you.

Flowers tossed out to the sea in remembrance of you

Mom meditates and sends out her flowers with love.

Remember this quilt.  Mom made it for you in 1996.  You were in college at Sonoma State

Laughing and loving our family, knowing you are looking down from above.

Window Out, Window In

Today is the day!  We've had the faux stained glass window (with the crack) removed and they've put in our new window.  It wasn't a cheap replacement considering that the window has a slant at the top.  It's double glazed which will help with noise and heat/cold.  Now we need to measure and get a blind for it.  The ultimate plan is to get a real stained glass piece to hang in the triangle area.  As I write, they are also installing the bathroom window.  Now ALL the windows in this house have been done.  Yeah! 

Old faux stained glass....cute but had a crack and the faux stuff was looking a bit "faux".

Can't believe how fast they got that window out of there.

New window in place......lovely!

Borders On

I went to Quiltinators today and got the borders on my scrappy quilt.  I've given it a name......Just Scraps.  I literally was able to make this quilt from scraps and stash fabrics.  There is not one new fabric in it.  Now I need to raid the stash and see what kind of a just scrap/stash backing I can put together. 

I would love to get it sandwiched and quilted this week so I can take it to Quilt Guild on Saturday but that is not going to happen.  I have DGD duty tomorrow and then on Wednesday I am heading out for a girlfriend get-together with my "other mother" friends, Mary and Sandy.  It's been a reunion weekend.  Yesterday I spent the day with my BFF from High School, Andrea.  We just picked up where we left off. 

There is nothing quite like the blessings that friends from all aspects of your life bring to you. 

Last Chance Fun Before School

It is now an official tradition.....the DGDs get to go on a mini-vacation with Nahn Nahn and PopPop the week before school starts.  Anything we do twice in our family becomes tradition and this was our second before school starts trip.  This time we included two overnights.

The trip began with a day at our house with crafts, snacks, and a movie before bedtime.  I finally got everyone to watch Pete's Dragon, which was one of Stephen and Jon's all time favorites (by my recollection).  The girls enjoyed it and weren't even aware of how dated the animation techniques were from 1979.  Jim and I enjoyed the songs.  Remember "Candle on the Water" sung by Helen Reddy? 

The next day we were off to Santa Cruz and the Boardwalk.  We were a little slow getting going but it turned out to be a good thing because the Boardwalk attractions didn't open until 1:00 p.m.  We had time for lunch and then it was off to the rides. 

This train ride had a little bit of Disney influence but not quite as polished.  The girls loved it.

Look!  It's Pete's Dragon!

Makayla's all-time favorite ride.  She rode it 8 times.

What's not to be happy about?  We just finished ice cream cones.

PopPop got talked into riding in the front of this one so Makayla wouldn't get so wet. (Her idea.)

The DGDs made a friend along the way and shared a ride together.

Miniature Golf for the first time.  They LOVED it.

Heading back to the car via the Sky Ride.  A perfect day. 

 Our hotel was a very nice Fairfield Inn in Capitoal just down the road from Santa Cruz.  Along the way, we discovered a great Pizza restaurant for dinner.  The hotel included breakfast the next morning and the girls loved having all the great choices.  Then we were off to Felton to ride the Roaring Camp Steam Railroad. 

Embarking on more family fun.

Sunlight through the redwoods......stunning!

The Little Engine That Could......

Never saw a log I couldn't climb.

Happiness on a sunny day.

Returning back to the station.

It was a great mini-vacation!

I'm Thinking......

..........of doing this with my flying geese.  I just love that this entire quilt top is made with scraps.  I love looking at the little squares and remembering what I used  the fabric for.  I think this is another quilt that I won't want to give away. 

And while I'm in a sewing mood, I finished the last three of the mug rugs for friends.  I've made 15 of them.  I actually have another 5 partially together.  Who knows when I'll get around to finishing them. 

Flying and a Finish

I've been scrapping around with some flying geese lately.  I love the fast flying geese method.  I could get seriously into making lots of flying geese. You can make a lot of geese in no time at all. 

The plan is to use these in a border around a scrappy four-patch.  I'm not quite sure if I'm going to do all flying geese or just a partial of flying geese on each side.  These are decisions to still be determined. 

Basically I'm just having fun and working on this project as I feel like it.  I seem to start everything as a community quilt and then I want to keep it.  Like this quilt below: 

The colors of this were totally out of my box but now that it is finished, I'm kind of liking it.  So do I keep it (to probably give away as a gift eventually) or do I give it to community quilts as it was originally intended.  TBA.

Stars For Friends

What a project this turned out to be.  I begin with the simple idea of making mug rugs for a group of friends.  It seemed that a Friendship Star block was the one to use.  But I forgot I was making a mug rug which would finish at about 7" X 11".  That meant the block was going to be small with lots of small parts. I began. 

Lots and lots of half-square triangles.  Thank goodness for Thangles. 

I had a great goal of making the 20 Friendship Star blocks while at my guild quilt retreat in June.  That did not happen.  Fortunately, I didn't allow myself to put things away.  Instead, I kept the project out and worked on it little by little. 

before borders

after borders

They weren't mug rugs yet.  They need an additional section and some trim and binding. 

chain sewing helped keep me going

Ahhhhh.........a mug rug

And to add the final touch of friendliness, I pinned on a tag, and added a tea bag and biscotti.  I hope everyone will like them. 

12 mug rugs ready to hand out.  Another 8 await finishing.

My friend Sue makes the best orange chocolate chip biscotti

It was a pretty big project.  I think I've made whole quilts in less time.  This just had a lot of detail work like sewing down binding.  Thankfully, the summer Olympics were on so I could get in lots of hand-sewing. 

And I leave you with this.......

Friends leave footprints in your heart forever.