It All Begins With Kindergarten

You get married. Six years later you begin a family. The children grow up, complete college, get married (or maybe not) and then they have children. Now you are a grandma. That's the cool part. Know one ever tells you how wonderful it will be to be the grandma. You get a special name and all the hugs and kisses and love you could ever want.

Then one day it happens. That grand-daughter that was the first one turns 5 and is ready for kindergarten. The beginning of her "official" school years. Time really does pass in the blink of an eye.

From this:

To this:

As her Nahn Nahn and as a former kindergarten teacher, I send my love to this little one as she begins the great adventure of learning. But of course, she's been learning all along. What I really want for her is that she continue to love learning and that she will always seek out truth and goodness. She is a bundle of potential just waiting to happen. Watch out kindergarten. This is just the beginning!

Applique? Not Me!

I don't do applique. At least that is what I've always told everyone. That doesn't mean I have never done applique. I've given it several different tries, using several different methods. I just don't have the patience most of the time. But that said, I did manage to start and finish a rather big applique project. Please note it was started in January of 2008 and this is now August of 2010. That would be about two and a half years to completion..........a lot of life interfered along the way.

It all began with a car accident that pretty much laid me up for several months. At the same time, TheQuiltShow.com was starting their first Block of the Month series. I decided to give it a try.It seemed easiest to go with similar colors that the designer, Sue Garman, was using. Not very imaginative but remember.....I don't do applique.

The first block. Uh oh! What have I gotten myself into? I decided to do fusible applique with an invisible thread zig zag stitch around all the motifs. That's a lot of curves and turning the block. But I finished it and felt quite proud of my accomplishment. I also used a lot of stash fabrics along the way.





Four months later and look what I have managed to finish. I'm one-third of the way done. I'm on a roll.








Six months later and I'm half-way there. I was also healing pretty well from my car accident and life felt good enough to make plans for a trip in the fall. Had to wonder if there would be time in the fall to finish these blocks.











Nine months, nine blocks and reality hits. These blocks are beautiful but they are a lot of work and more often than not, there are zillions of circles to applique. I'm just not having quite as much fun as I was. SO...........I decide to announce to the TQS blog community that I am stopping at 9 blocks and that is what I do. Turns out to be a wise decision since by the middle of October, life took quite a few unexpected turns.

But back to the present.....August 2010......Two and a half years later. The quilt is finished. I didn't know it at the time, but there was a reason for it's existence. I learned patience along the way and I learned new techniques. I stretched my sense of color placement and used up fabric from my stash. And I had an angel friend help me out through a difficult period of my life. It just seems right that this finished quilt should go to her. It's taken awhile but I hope she will like it.

Diary of a Storage Solution

Family Researcher Guy (that would be the dear husband) gave up a couple of precious computer search days last week to install a storage system from IKEA for my guest/office/sewing room. Here is how it went.Four Darling Sewing Machines need to be stored along with all the other accouterments of the sewing quilting life.

First the room must be cleared of all things against the best available wall for a storage system. Drop-down desk can stay. All other stuff goes out to the living room.

Let the building process begin. Each shelving unit has 25 cubbies. That means there will be 50 new places to store stuff.

Once it is up (and boy is it heavy!), you need to make sure it fits. Also need to measure to make sure that the second one will have enough room.

For a good fit, the baseboard needs to be removed. Well Looky There! Once upon a time, this room was painted blue. Fortunately we have extra wall paint to paint over the blue. It will be on the bottom in the back of the cubbies. Chances are it won't be very noticeable. But we'll paint anyway.

Hooray! Both units fit against the wall. The second unit is built leaving out one partition in order to have room for the printer when the desk is installed.

And there you have it! Storage solutions for my room. An extra 5 cube unit was added above and another was set up against a wall near the end of the desk unit. The installer (Family Research Guy) spent time securing everything to the wall. Though "stuff" is on the shelves, final organization has not yet been determined. There are still doors, drawers and basket configurations to figure out. But there is always time when you are retired.

A Gift for Amy Elise

Amy Elise is the newest daughter of Mike and Jeni. She was born on July 30th. To me, she represents God's continuing love. Mike and Jeni were such good friends to Stephen. They cared for him and about him as he struggled through his last few months. Stephen knew they would marry and indeed they did in September 2009. And now they have welcomed Amy to join them and Jeni's dear daughter, Rebekah into their family. Congratulations to all. I can't wait to meet her.

Scandinavia Interupted for a Trip to Sisters, Oregon

Summer activities just keep moving along. About a week and a half after coming home, my dear friend (and "other mother" to my children) arrived for a visit. Barbara came just in time to enjoy the Annual Fourth of July Parade in Alameda. The weather was perfect as we sat on the curb and enjoyed a true small town tradition.

Tuesday after the Fourth, we were joined by Phyllis, Barbara's friend from San Jose, for a road trip to Sisters, Oregon for the annual Sisters Quilt Show. Along the route north, we saw the magnificence of Mount Shasta and other mountain peaks in the volcanic valleys of the Pacific Northwest.On Thursday of our excellent Quilt Tour experience, we visited the Sisters Garden Club Home and Garden Tour. Here is a little of what we saw.

Poppies of all kinds everywhere. Incredibly beautiful colors.And quilts hanging out in the open among the gardens.

Friday night we attended the Picnic in the Park. It was a very organized event with high school volunteers bringing the food to the tables. The high school jazz band played in the background. Alex Anderson gave a retrospective of her quilts and Jean Wells-Kenan (the show founder) was honored for being inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame.Saturday......................the Show! In order to secure a good parking space close to downtown, we left at 6:00 a.m. to drive from Eagles Crest Resort to Sisters. We sleepily arrived there around 6:30 a.m..........yawn, yawn. First stop was for coffee. Note that quilts are already starting to be hung up around town.
And now that we were awake, it was time to start seeing the show. We lasted until about 1:30 p.m And here is a little of what we saw.....including some "quilting celebrities".

Denmark Continued

Jim and I both agree that we didn't have enough time in Denmark. In fact, the only city we saw was Copenhagen.......and we didn't thoroughly see everything we could have seen there. If we return, Jim wants to travel more around the country and see where his ancestors lived. His great-grandfather immigrated from Denmark. He married a woman from Sweden after arriving in the United States. Somewhere along the line, the "en" in Sorensen became "on" thus confusing future generations into thinking that everyone was from Sweden.



This is the small town of Dragon on the coast of the island of Zealand. Zealand is the island where Copenhagen is located. It is a small village that was originally settled by Dutch immigrants who were brought in to farm the land.






All The houses in Dragon were painted this lovely yellow and they all had tile roofs. It rained that day so we didn't have good contrast for pictures.










In the late afternoon, we boarded an overnight ferry/cruise to Oslo, Norway. The cabin was tiny and compact but basically comfortable. Guess who got the upper bunk? It wasn't Jim. We had a delicious dinner buffet that evening and arrived in Oslo, Norway the next morning about 9:30 a.m.








We by-passed Oslo at this point and boarded a motor coach to begin our journey through the Fjord country of Norway. We began to see the real beauty of the Norwegian landscape as we passed lakes, farms on hillsides, and snowy plateaus.









Our guide told us that Spring has only just arrived about a week ago. Until then, people were still skiing. In some areas, they can ski all year long. Many people have summer cottages in this area. Notice the hairpin turns that our motor coach was constantly making. Made for some exciting rides.



So ends another blog entry on our travels. There was definitely more to see on this day as we traveled to the snowy plateaus of the Hardanger Fjord.

Wonderful Wonderful Copenhagen

The next morning of our excellent adventure we were up early for an incredible Scandinavian style breakfast buffet. Jim was in heaven with all the choices. He especially loved having several choices of cheese. By 10:00 a.m. we were on our "coach" with our local guide, Gordon Bayliss. As you can tell by is name, he is not Danish. In fact he was born and raised in Texas but now lives full-time in Copenhagen. He speaks Danish with a southern accent.

He told us that it takes three years of residency to become a Danish citizen. One of the requirements is that you demonstrate a working knowledge of Danish. But we also found out that all Danish students begin learning ESL during their third grade year.






Gordon accompanied us on a short walking tour along cobblestone streets. He was full of interesting information and history about the city of Copenhagen.





You can see by the sky, that we were having a spectacular day weather-wise.










Copenhagen felt very pedestrian friendly and welcoming.












Back on the bus and a visit to The Cathedral Vor Frue Kirke (The Church of Our Lady). The beautiful sculptures inside are by Bertel Thorvaldsen. The church was an example of neo-classical building art.
























Next Post will be about our afternoon on our own. At this rate, it will be somewhere around December that I finish my travel blog about Scandinavia. But I have a goal in mind since we have another trip planned for this fall. Have Time (yeah retirement!) Will Travel.