VINTAGE ANGELS

Three Hope Angels




I've been making angels from felt and vintage linens. They are "Hope Angels" - sent to people who need cheering up - or need a little extra special angel. So far they are in Washington and Florida - and one is on her way to West Virgina. They are happy to fly where ever they might be needed.



Their heads are of felt. The wings are quilt blocks - these are all 3" nine patches - cut to shape and then buttonhole stitched to felt for strength. I've added some buttons and lace to some of the angels, and one even has tiny YoYos. They are a quick project, and such fun to make, as you watch the angel appear as you work. I keep a little basket of "angel parts" handy, for stitching at odd moments, or for our evenings of reading. Don often reads to me while I stitch, making it even more enjoyable.

I find the vintage linens at thrift stores. I've been collecting the linens for a long time, with plans eventually to make a crazy quilt from them. For now - the doilies and hankies are a great use for the linens, don't you agree?

MORE BIRTHDAY SWAP BLOCKS

Here are more of the Birthday Swap blocks that I've made for the swap I'm in with my local internet friends. They are not due until the birthdays come around but I decided to get them all done and get them packaged up for mailing - then mail them when each birthday rolls around.


It was like making a sampler quilt, but in different color schemes. Each block was fun - gathering the fabrics (I don't have a stash so had to shop for most of them), cutting and stitching. Though I am glad I am done.

I spent most of my week making the blocks. Now I can go on to something else. For my handwork project I am making a butterfly quilt in 30s reproduction fabrics. I have 34 butterflies, in different sizes, on mottled blue background already hand appliqued and buttonhole stitched in black. I have time at work to do stitching so this week I cut out the bodies in black for all the butterflies, and got them pinned on. I will work on them at home in the evenings when we sit in the living room and Don reads to me - or at work over the next few weeks. I have to figure out some way to get the antennae drawn on evenly. I will use the blue water soluble pen for marking - perhaps I will have to make some sort of template to trace around - maybe out of plastic.

I'll post pictures of the butterflies next time.

Hope your days are full of quilts and sunshine.

House Block

One of my internet groups is making a quilt for one of our members. All the blocks are to be houses - of some sort - and mine is a lighthouse. This block was paper pieced and alot of fun to make - though there were some tiny pieces near the top. I used my FW to do the paper piecing - I wasn't having very good luck with my new Brother - the foot is part plastic and part metal and I can't tell where the needle is when I lower the presser foot. Maybe I'll need to get a new 1/4" foot.


We've had a lot of sunshine lately - and finally yesterday the rains returned. Rain is more normal for this time of year in WA - but it was fun to have the warmer days and plenty of sunshine. A few things are beginning to bud out - the Oso Berry bushes in the woods have their little sprout of leaves and their cute little blossoms already. They are always first in the woods - because they will be shadowed by the later appearing leaves. It is always a good sign when you see Oso Berries blooming!



And there were more robins this week - pecking about in the lawn looking for a gourmet treat (at least to a robin it is gourmet! The lawn is beginning to grow already - ahhhh spring!!!!


I made another block this week - all this sewing - unbelievable. :-)

This is for a birthday swap I belong to online - and it is called Stars and Scraps. I really like the way it turned out.

And I love the colors. The next block I am workingon is a Card Trick - wow - that is one that needs some concentration. I cut some of the pieces wrong and had to recut - sewed some wrong and had to frog-stitch (rip-it, rip-it) but now I have everything cut the correct size and the steps figured out so I can stitch on that - picture soon.

If I was making a whole quilt of Card Trick blocks it might get simpler as I went along. As it is - I have two more Card Trick blocks to make for the birthday swap - but they are all in different color schemes.

Happy quilting !!

SOME FRIENDS COME TO VISIT

Our new house is in the middle of a big community, only blocks from rushing traffic and much congestion - people hurrying and scurrying - cars flying past - but we seem to be set in a little oasis of quiet, with trees on 2 1/2 sides, only one neighbor visible from our property and wildlife everywhere.

The sun is out today, the air is warming a little (at least for NW WA is seems a bit warmer) and friends are all over the yard.


This deer is eating from a bird feeder (during one of our snow storms) - you can't see the actual feeder, it is behind the little bird house. The deer lick the seeds out of the platform feeders and slurp at the regular feeders until the seed is all gone.

We didn't have to tempt the deer to come into the yard, they were wandering about before we bought the house, and have come more often now that they have discovered they can eat from the bird feeders. Our grandson Ben tells them - chooo deers - chooo - don't eat all the bird seed, and then he tried to walk up to the deer and pet them. So far he hasn't been successful, but he keeps trying. The deer are fairly tame and will let us walk around in the yard without running, but get to close and they move quietly off.


You can see a bit of the birdseed on this deer's nose, after finishing off a tray of birdseed.


The squirrels race up and down the trees across the street, some even jump from branch to branch and when they come in our yard they always try to get the suet out of the suet holder - but so far - no luck. This one climbed up this skinny metal pole with no problem at all.


And here he is - upside down - trying his best to get this open - but no luck so he climbed down and found some sunflower seeds under the feeders to munch on. We need to get some peanuts for the squirrels.


And a crow standing on the rock wall at the edge of the yard. There were two out there but I must have frightened one off when I got out the camera. I took the pictures of the squirrels and crow through the studio window. I did have to entice them to start coming to the yard - I put out some bread yesterday and now they are coming on their own. I'll put out some apple peelings a little later on and see if they want to eat them.

One of my favorite times in N. CA was when the apples were ripe in the orchard near our house and the owners had picked all they wanted. Then the crows would come in flocks and sing out loudly as they ate the apples. If ever a bird enjoyed something, it was those crows eating apples. I could tell by the sound that they were stuffing themselves. When they were done with an apple there was nothing left but the skin - like a balloon - empty of any apple. I loved to find the empty shells of apples left on the tree. The crows would come every day for a couple weeks and as soon as I heard their special song I would rush outdoors and sit on the back porch in the warm sunshine, close my eyes and listen to their happy chorus.

At our last house we never had any crows - there were two Ravens that owned that area and we would hear them fly over and call to each other, and there were crows at the end of the gravel road, but none ever came to our property or flew over it. We are so happy to have crows back!! We loved the Ravens, though they are not as friendly and don't spend time in the yard like the crows do. Crows are funnier too - today one of them hopped up each rung of the ladder on the swingset and then hopped across the top of the swingset to the tower where the slide is. I half expected him to slide down - but he jumped off the back and walked along the rock wall.

We still have to set up the bird baths - it is super fun to watch the crows try and squeeze themselves into the birdbath - a refill is a necessity once the crow is done, all the water is gone.

There are other birds in the yard too, red breasted nuthatch, juncos, sparrows, chickadees - which Ben calls chickanees, towhees, blue jayes, and so far, one robin. I've seen flocks of the robins in other yards, and that is a good sign of spring.

We took a drive yesterday to the Nooksack River to see the eagles - they are there from Dec. through Feb. but they were all gone - flown off to their nesting grounds a little earlier than usual, I hope that is another sign of an early spring - I could really use much warmer weather, and I want to start planting things in the yard. I guess I need to find out what kinds of things deer don't prefer to eat, or I'll never have a garden.

Happy quilting, and wildlife and sunshine to all the blog friends.

MORE HOUSE PICTURES - WE ARE UNPACKED

At last - unpacked - well almost completely. We have a few pictures to hang in the bedroom and the guest room, and two closets to organize and then we are officially unpacked. We've been in the new house for two weeks now and just love it. As I am writing this it is beginning to snow - huge feather-like flakes - covering everything with a pretty layer of white.
We'll start in the living room - here is part of it. I love the lace curtains. I am making a new pad for the rocking chair, pine green checks.
I changed the dishes in the china cabinet, now I have the pine cone dishes in the open spot and the Desert Rose that I inherited from my Granny in the top glass doors. The botton is full of several other sets - can you tell I love dishes? The goose in front of the china cabinet is from my cousin in Oregon, a gift for making her a quilt.

Another part of the living room - my favorite chair and some wonderful items under the Raven House picture by Sue Coleman. She is my all-time favorite artist. I have several of her pieces, and lots of her notecards. The Raven House was a gift from Don one christmas.
Sue Coleman is from England, lives on Vancouver Island and paints First People images.
She is truly amazing in her work.
What you don't see in the picture is my sewing box and current project, sitting by the flowered chair. I keep some stitching handy beside the chair for evenings when Don reads to me as I stitch.


Next -on to the dining room - more of my dishes. I especially like the cupboard with the 'rainbow' of depression glass. Most all the blue was bought in Wisconsin when our kids were in grade school - and now it is spendy when you find it in antique stores. The fruit basket on the table is an aluminum punch bowl with ladle that I picked up at a yard sale one lucky day. The furniture has been in my family for four generations - if we passed it down to our grandsons it would be the 6th generation. It has been in California, Alaska, FLorida (was shipped there due to a mistake by the barge company that was supposed to ship it from Alaska to where we lived in California) and finally to Washington with us when we moved here in 2001.

It is solid oak and very heavy to move. They had to take the top off the table to get it out of the old house and into the new one. It was scary watching them put it back together but it is all set up now and looks super, don't you think.

Next to the kitchen - my teapots have moved from the counter to the top of the cupboards - so pretty! I've put the bread box and appliances in the kitchen also - so it looks more lived in , but don't have a picture of that yet. I am going to change the handles on the cupboards - perhaps some left imprints made with sculpey clay. There is a huge blank wall opposite the area you see here - and it is too close to the bar stools to hang anything on it - so my plan is to paint a mural on it. it is about 14 feet tall and about as long, so it is a nice big space, just begging to be painted. I want to do trees and flowers with fairies and gnomes - I can already see the fairy babies sleeping beneath the foxgloves.

Don's den, or part of it. He collects old baseball gloves, good baseball books and cards from when he was a kid in the 50s. The seat in the back corner is from Milwaukee's old stadium before they tore it down a few years ago. We were back in Wisconsin for a reunion before they tored down the stadium and he and his cousin went to the last game played in the old stadium. They had gone to hundreds of games together when they were kids.

The metal cart on the right side is a line chalker - for making lines on a baseball field. We found it one day in an antique store and Don hesitated about buying it - but he is so glad I insisited. Now he has old baseballs and gloves on it.

Our bedroom - with the bead curtain hanging in the doorway to the master bath. The quilt on the bed is Grandmother's Flower Garden, which I made in English Paper piecing, and on the foot of the bed is a YoYo quilt done in 30s repro fabrics. I love the combination. The tall quilt rack in the background is an old VRC tape shelf - a super way to display quilts. I need to get a few more quilts out of the closet and hang them on the rack.

Now to the studio - here is my new Brother sewing machine that was a gift from Don this christmas. I love the drawers next to it - they store all sorts of things and keep the area neat. my doll, Patsy gets new clothes now and then. She is wearing her school jumper today. And my Kit Kat clock - his tail moves back and forth in rhythm with his eyes - another gift from my cousin.

And my treadle machine - under a poster of Washington Wild Flowers and my gardening hat. I can't wait to get started sewing on the treadle. Just need to put the new belt on and it is ready to go.

So that is the new house - except for the guest room - right now there is no bed in there and it is full of our grandsons' toys. It will be a toy room until we have guests, then it will convert and the toys will probably live in my studio closet while we have guests.

It is so wonderful to have all this space - 3 bedrooms plus a den - and a kitchen with loads of cupboards. Do drop over some day and we'll have tea and scones.

LOOK WHAT SANTA BROUGHT ME FOR CHRISTMAS!!

A new house !! We put in our offer on Dec. 10 - and we closed yesterday - in just 3 weeks. We get the keys tomorrow. We are so excited. We've been living in the country - on a great property - but in a very small house. It was built in 1920, when there was no electricity out here - and the kitchen is not arranged to have a fridge - so our fridge has lived in my studio - which is just off the kitchen so it is not that inconvenient, but it sure takes up a lot of my studio space. Also - our small upright freezer is in there - taking up more space. And we only had 14 INCHES of counter space, making food preparation a trial, to say the least. I've learned to balance things on the toaster, in the dish drainer and all sorts of fun places when trying to prepare a meal.


This new house has 3 bedrooms plus a den - formal dining room, living room,


2 full baths, one with an oversize jetted tub and such a big kitchen -


tons of cupboards (we have 4 cupboards in the old house), lots and lots of counter space plus an island, with two levels, one for food prep and one for eating at, with bar stools. I won't know what to do with all that space.



The laundry room in the old house is for acrobats - with cupboards so close to the washer and dryer - yet on the opposite wall, that you have to bend backwards a little, over the washer and dryer, to open the cupboard doors - nearly breaks your back - and in the new house - a good sized laundry room that has a big pantry cupboard in it, and room for another plus room for the freezer, and the cat's bed. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee we are going to have fun!! And look at that pretty washer and dryer!!!!


The sellers left the swingset at our request, and our grandsons will have so much fun there. Jahn hasn't seen it yet, but Ben was there one day and said - Grammy I can't wait to get a look at that". He is only three and is so cute when he talks. We have a storage shed - and pretty trees on the property - plus public land across from us so we have trees on three sides.

I'll have a full size studio - one of the bedrooms has built in shelves, and Don will have his own den. He collects baseball memorabilia from his chlildhood in Milwaukee, he even has one of the old stadium seats from the original ballpark. He can fit his treadmill in his den, with space for bookshelves and all his collection of baseball gloves and photos - he even has an autographed photo of Hank Aaron, his childhood hero.

The other bedroom will be our guest/music/toy room - I'm planning for a piano. We will keep the grandson's toys in there when we don't have guests. It will be so nice to have a guest room - I can display quilts on the bed in there.

As you can tell, we are very excited about this - we move in on Jan 12 - and then have until Jan 20 to finish cleaning the old house and getting it ready to turn over on the 20th. That gives us plenty of time to get the cleaning finished.

MERRY MERRY - HAPPY HAPPY

Well our big day has come and gone - and we had a blast. We usually do our celebration on Christmas day, but one of our daughters was not going to be here on Christmas day so we moved it all to Christmas eve. Both daughters and their families, including our 3 and 6 year old grandsons arrived yesterday around 1 - bringing tons of gifts to be added to our already overstuffed tree. What a sight - all that love and happiness under the tree.


Our tree - lit and ready for presents. I made the tree skirt when the kids were little - it is pellon with ball point paints (Artex, for those of you who remember) and I'd like a new quilted one, but the kids howl in protest every time I suggest a different one. It is painted with a snow scene and is cute - but the quilter in me wants a different one.


Our youngest daughter's Seal Tree - she decorates it with white lights and all sorts of baby harp seal ornaments and stuffed baby harp seal stuffies. It is a gorgeous tree. She made the stockings hanging to the left of the tree - the one for her partner Jay, is a BigFoot stocking with a furry BIG FOOT on it - and the one on the left has a hot wheels car for Jahn-Zyel - our oldest grandson - with trees and racing flags - she is very clever!!

And this is her Sea Turtle tree - done again with white lights - some twinkle - and sea turtle ornaments and stuffies. The boys both love these trees. She also has a butterfly tree, but didn't get it put up this year.

Usually I set the holiday table with a red plaid tablecloth and white dishes with green holly on them, but I got this table cloth, with deer and trees on it this year and decided to go with a green theme. The pale dishes are jadite from my collection, and the dark green are Depression Glass. I think they go so well with the jadite and the red silverware - very Christmasy, and very soothing.


Some of my Lefton Holly dishes - we've been collecting these since the mid 70s when we found a few pieces in a local drug store. Now they are harder to find - and collectible. The lastest acquisition is the large bowl near the left side. The three little children standing on the back of the table are ceramic paintings I did when our kids were younger. The clothes and hair colors match what our kids wore during that time. One year in Kansas (we lived in a big old farmhouse) the kids dressed up in their coats, scarves, mittens and hats and went outdoors and walked around and around the house, singing Christmas carols to us - then we invited them in for cookies and cocoa. These little figures remind me of that fun time.

We had the traditional turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, corn, cranberry relish and cranberry jelly, and all the extras that go with - plus pumpkin pie and apple crisp for dessert - with spumoni ice cream for those so inclined. The boys were excited to open presents and at one time I found them in the livng room talking about "maybe we could just find one present for each of us (the six year old can read very well) and open it and play with it until dinner time". It was so cute to see the little culprits plotting against all the big tall adults.

I got them cute Christmas dishes to eat off - and they did really well waiting for dinner to be over. Neither of them ate much - but that is to be expected with all the excitement. They kept running over to the tree and looking for more presents with their names on them -even the 3 year old can find his name.

Some of my teddy bears - dressed by Don for the holidays. They sit on the steps leading up to the attic and Ben loves to pull them all down on the floor and take their hats off. They have different hats for every holiday.

Then we all pitched in and did the dishes - didn't take all that long, and in the mean time a big package was delivered from our son and daughter-in-law from West Virginia. Then at last - the gift opening - what a time we had - the boys loved all their toys and books and all the adults ooohed and aaahed over their stash of presents. I got a new Brother sewing machine - and I really needed it - plus several fabric store gift certificates - a perfect match!! Don got me another white covered chicken dish for my collection - and our youngest grandson, Ben, had a good time taking the top off and putting a bow in it, then opening it and being surprised every time - just darling.


A little teddy bear on the front door.

The rest of the day was spent munching on desserts and playing with our new toys - and playing with the grandsons - and talking to our son and daughter-in-law in West Virginia several times on the phone - and all too soon it was time for them to leave. Don and I settled down to a quiet end of the day - a little stitching on the Hawaiian quilt with Don reading out loud to me - what a perfect day.

My china cabinet - see the Santas inside - they are making the Peace sign - just my kind of Santa. Most of the dishes in this cabinet have pine cones on them. The dishes that you can barely see at the bottom of the photo are Loon dishes - given to me by our kids a couple years ago. As you might guess - I love dishes!!!

Today we have plans to drive down to the Nooksack River where the bald eagles congregate for the winter and see how many there are there. One time we saw over 200. Then on to Skagit Valley to see the snow geese and the trumpeter swans. They overwinter there and sometimes the flocks contain over 2000 birds - what a sight and what a sound - to stand nearby and then have the flocks swarm overhead - it is almost like being a bird yourself. Then a stop at our youngest daughter's to visit with them and see Jahn-Zyel's newest presents - they opened their family gifts this morning.

It's been a glorious holiday - so much fun with the family - all the rushing around before hand to get just the right gifts and get them wrapped - getting the house decorated and ready for company - and now we have a brand new year to look forward to with all the plans and fun to come. I hope your holidays have been as great as ours.

Merry Merry - Happy Happy