My Favorite Spoon

Shhh - don't tell the other spoons - but I have a favorite. I've had it for years and don't really remember where I got it. It is a very old, white enamel spoon and is fabulous. The shape of the bowl is deeper and a bit narrower than modern spoons and you can really heap food up in the spoon. Did you know there is another name for the handle? Tang! I like that name for the handle - sounds so elegant.

My spoon can be elegant - or just plain down-home.

Mixing up muffin batter . . .

Muffins are in the oven . . .

A pork roast - let me help you lift that . . .

Cooking meat for stroganoff - smell heavenly . . .

Don't cry - it's just onions for French Onion soup . . .

Mixing it up with friends. . .

Nice and clean . . .

Perseverance - 2012

I've been thinking of my word for this coming year - and Perseverance keeps coming to my mind. I wanted to have Curiosity - but Perseverance keeps being Persistent! I have many thoughts when I think of the word - from having stamina through hard time to moving through many learning experiences and coming through the new year with new insights. Always before my Word of The Year has been simple to understand - but this year it is not so easy.



The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't. ~Henry Ward Beecher


The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places. ~Author Unknown


When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."
~Author Unknown


Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves. ~Dale Carnegie


Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain. ~Author Unknown


When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. ~Franklin D. Roosevelt


Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there. ~Josh Billings


The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its ground. ~Author Unknown


Fall seven times, stand up eight. ~Japanese Proverb



If one dream should fall and break into a thousand pieces, never be afraid to pick one of those pieces up and begin again. ~Flavia Weedn, Flavia and the Dream Maker, © Flavia.com


He conquers who endures. ~Persius


Stubbornly persist, and you will find that the limits of your stubbornness go well beyond the stubbornness of your limits. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com




I frequently-regularly-often trip while reaching for my high ideals. Then I giggle, or cry, and get back up. ~Erika Harris, lifeblazing.com




It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer. ~Albert Einstein


Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another. ~Walter Elliott, The Spiritual Life


People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them. ~G.B. Shaw, Mrs. Warren's Profession, 1893


There is no telling how many miles you will have to run while chasing a dream. ~Author Unknown


Perseverance... keeps honor bright: to have done, is to hang quite out of fashion, like a rusty nail in monumental mockery. ~William Shakespeare


The drops of rain make a hole in the stone not by violence but by oft falling. ~Lucretius


But the moment you turn a corner you see another straight stretch ahead and there comes some further challenge to your ambition. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Would You Like To Go To An Apple Farm?

2011 flowers 9-18-11 apple farm

Things I Don't Say

My dear friend Crispy did a blog about this - it was fascinating, and brave, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Things I Don't Say - but that are true, none the less.

1. I hate entering a room full of people by myself, I'd much rather walk in right behind someone else.

2. I love to spend time all alone - by myself - completely quiet.

3. I don't like big wide fabric borders on quilts - they seem like cheating and rarely do they add to the beauty of the quilt.

4. I like dolls and love to make clothes for my six dolls.

5. I'll straighten a crooked picture on the wall if at all possible, even though "they" say if you can't leave a crooked picture alone you have no self control - but I say, if you leave a crooked picture you have no taste.

6. I like to slop around the house all day in my old clothes - but I'll get dressed nicely if I have to.

7. My favorite fabrics are 30s reproductions and I greatly dislike the new color combos of reds, turquoise, orange and neon lime, or turquoise and brown - yuck!

8. I don't make fad quilts, nor table runners or wall hangings - just not my thing.

9. I'll catch a spider, fly or any other bug and take it outdoors - I have a special butterfly net for just that - I never squish a bug.

10. I'll give money to people standing on the corner - if they are brave enough to stand there and take the hate and disrespect that I've seen then I'm happy to give them $20.00 - when I have so much and they have so little.

11. I feel bad when I hear a sad story about someone's life - everyone is somebody - and is someone's son, daughter, mother, father, aunt, uncle, sibling - everyone is somebody.

12.

All the Lone Star Quilts

And now you have seen the quilts separately - here they are - all together.

You can read about the whole journey by clicking HERE there are posts for each quilt - starting with that first one

Rusty

Beccy

Lori

Jamie (Rusty's wife)

Jason (Beccy's husband)

Jay (Lori's husband)

Jahn-Zyel (Lori and Jay)

Ben (Beccy and Jason)

Donnie (Rusty and Jamie)

Don

And that's the story of 10 Lone Star Quilts.  The End.

Are We Walking To Alaska?

This is a different kind of post - but one that I'm very proud of - my book, Are We Walking to Alaska?,  has been featured on Fourth Wall Friday - at Cabin Goddess, a wonderful site that features authors and their books.  My book is a bit different than the ones regularly featured on the site.  Kriss did a fabulous job in the feature story.

That is me on the left in the photo.  This picture was taken on my mom's birthday. My little brother has a cast on his arm and a black eye - the story is in the book (no, I did not beat him up)

I'd be honored if you would visit and see the post about my book.  I'm very proud of my book - the story of our family moving to Alaska in the 1950s, before Alaska was a state.  My adventures were exciting to a young girl and I'd love to share them with you.  

You can purchase my book from a link on Kriss's page - or by clicking the postcard just under my header above, or from Amazon.com, just by searching the name of the book, "Are We Walking To Alaska?", in print or kindle.

 It is a book that the whole family can enjoy - I hope you will find it intriguing and as interesting to read as I found it to be when I was writing it.

Me and my youngest brother, Jeff, making snowmen in Alaska.  Notice that Jeff's hat is on the snowman in front of me.

Oh The Places I've Been  

Grandson's Lone Star Quilts - the last three Lone Stars

Continuing on with our saga of ten Lone Star Quilts

In April, 2012 our son and daughter-in-law were making plans to come and visit us in June,  Jamie was going to a Librarians' convention in Los Angeles - so the whole family would go to the conference and then come here for a visit.  We had not seen them since last October - when Donnie was four months old - we were excited.

But I didn't have all the quilts finished - none of them were quilted and the three for the grandsons had not even been started.  I had figured they wouldn't be coming for at least another year - so quilt finishing went into overdrive.  Julie, in Idaho began quilting and quilting on her machine - we met one day in Eastern WA where we were spending a few vacation days and she gave me four of the quilts, finished and ready to bind.  She went home to quilt on the other two quilts - and I came home to feverishly begin work on the three Lone Stars for the grandsons. 

I picked the fabrics online-  that was easy - except that the fabric for two of the quilts was brand new, had not been manufactured and was still on pre-order - but  I placed my orders anyway, because they were the perfect fabrics,  and hoped the fabric would come in time to get the last three quilts done.  One fabric was baseballs, and that I ordered immediately.  Another was planets and the universe and as the time drew closer the delivery date kept being changed, from April - to May/June and then to August, and the quilt store told me that the manufacturer was notoriously slow in sending fabrics - so I ordered different universe fabric - and it arrived in three days.  The next problem was - Star Wars fabric - it is perfect for Ben - but it is a brand new fabric and wouldn't be printed until May - so that is ok - I can work on the other two quilts - and finish the Star Wars one for Ben just in time for company arriving.

I decided this time that I didn't have time to piece each point of the star like for the adults' quilts - so changed the plan so that each point was solid fabric - and laying it out and cutting it so the fabric print formed a design  when sewed into the Lone Star.  Baseball quilt done - and I have to find a closer quilter - there now wasn't time to send the quilts to Idaho and get them back in time to bind.  My friend Susannah told me about Peggy, in Anacortes - Susannah had been having her quilts done by Peggy for years - and when I called, Peggy said she had time and could do a rush order on the three last quilts (all are bedsize, so that is lots of quilting).

- Pictures soon -

The baseball quilt for Donnie was pieced - off to Peggy to machine quilt - then the planet quilt was done - and off to Peggy and I picked up Donnie's quilt.  At last the Star Wars fabric arrived - from  Fort Worth Fabric Studio.  I have been in contact with them about the need to have the fabric right away - and she put my name at the top of the list and mailed the Star Wars fabric the day it arrived in her shop, and it arrived here in a few days. If you ever need  special fabric or need it quickly - that's the place to shop.

All this time I had been working on the bindings of all nine Lone Star quilts - and to say the least - I was glad when all were bound and the last label was put on the last quilt - now my family could gather and I could present the quilts that had for several years now, been a surprise. It was hard to hide all nine bed quilts in our house - I made pillowcases for each quilt and stored them in the backs of closets and under beds - hoping no one would discover them  I was ready - I was DONE.

Then two days before their flight in June, Donnie came down with the chicken pox - oh  no - you can't fly with chicken pox - so with some figuring and fixing we got refunds on the tickets (love that flight insurance) and made plans to have them fly out later in the year.

I wanted to present the quilts when the whole family was together - which does not happen very often.  It worked out great that they hadn't come in June, because our oldest daughter and her family had to go to Olympia to help with a family emergency and they would have missed most of the June visit.

Finally,  in  early Sept they arrived from WV - a long flight with a 16 month is tiring - but they were happy to be here - and we were too.

One Sunday when everyone was here we had a fabulous day - first was Jahn-Zyel's birthday party in the park, then friends came to visit with Jamie and Rusty (friends they had made while living in Tacoma - before moving to WV).  Next - home to get dressed up in our picture takin' clothes and at 5 - family portrait time.  After the portraits, which was a lot of fun - clowning and silly faces and good faces too - we came indoors and I presented the quilts - what a fabulous day it was - everything went smoothly and all had a grand time.

Donnie's baseball quilt - held by mama and daddy

Donnie was busy taking phone calls on anything he touched - I think this is a postcard in his hand

Peggy quilted circles to echo the baseballs in the fabric

Ben and  his Star Wars quilt - sitting with Auntie Lori.  Grampy is sitting behind them, holding his wrapped quilt.  I had them open the quilts one at a time - so I could really enjoy  it.

Jahn on the left - opening out his quilt - Ben in the chair with Auntie Lori.  Pile of shoes in between - lots of big shoes in this family.

Star Wars border and quilting - notice that Peggy made quilted stars.

I fussy cut the points of the stars to make a design in the center

Jahn and his Universe Lone Star

Stars and swirls quilted on the universe

And of course Grammy had a special reward for special boys - Lego sets to put together while the adults were busy getting dinner ready - which was to be a BBQ on our new deck.

Donnie would rather play with the paper and boxes

It was a most fabulous day!!



Donnie's baseball quilt




Jahn-Zyel's Universe Quilt




And Ben's Star Wars Quilt.

Don't you think Peggy did a fabulous job on getting these last three quilts done?

You can click HERE to read all about the Lone Star Quilt Project.  And the other 7 Lone Star Quilts that I made.

Time to Waltz