10,000 Visitors - WOW

I started blogging on July 5, 2007 - thinking this would be a great way to chronicle my quilt making. And it has been - and so much more. I've met wonderful friends - I've done things I didn't know I could do - I've found great projects and patterns - I've "traveled" to distant lands through the blogs of those who share so willingly - I've discovered areas within myself that I didn't know existed and improved areas that have helped change my life immensely. And it has all been because of you - my good blogging friends. I've met friends far away and friends right here in my own town.

In honor of all the goodness and friendship and help and sharing I'd like to give something back. How about a give-away? Maybe some quilt blocks - maybe some fabrics - maybe, who knows, I'll have to dig around and see what I can come up with. I have constantly been amazed at how many visitors I have on my blog - and the places they come from. All over the world -as my feedjit shows on the sidebar. Sometimes I have to Google the names of the countries as I have no idea where they might be - and with that Google search I learn more about those countries - broadening my life experience through your visits. Thank you for coming - and thank you to those who leave wonderful comments. I have been so fortunate in the comments - not one grumpy or mean or ugly comment. I just knew all you fabulous people were out there.

I think there should be two give-aways. One for the 10,000th visitor - and you will have to tell me who you are as I have no way of keeping accurate track of who that would be - and one from a random drawing - because 10,000 visitors is such a great number. I don't have as many posts in those almost two years as some other do - but I think 130 posts is great for me. I am in awe of those of you who post every day - without fail - what an achievement!!!!

I've blogged about
lighthouses . . .

and leaves . . .

flowers . . .

and friends . . .

Quilts I've made . . .

And quilts you've made . . .

Mushrooms . . .

and mushy stuff . . .

Snow . . .

and sunshine . . .

And more snow . . .

and even more snow . . .

Kids . . .

and Grandkids . . .

Fabrics . . .

and fun stuff from thrift shops . . .

About birds . . .

and more birds . . .

Camping . . .

and curious bears . . .

Deer . . .

And delicious food . . .

about crafts . . .


and christmas trees . . .

Napkins . . .

And nifty gifts won from other bloggers . . .

It's been great pleasure - all this blogging and visiting blogs - so be ready for the 10,000 visitor blog give-away - and you never know which set of comments I will be taking the random drawing from - this one? a past blog comment? a future blog comment? Surprises all around - and if you are the 10,000 visitor - please let me know!!! I'll post more about the random drawing give-away soon - gotta go and hunt up some good stuff to give away!!

And thanks so much for visiting my blog - and for the wonderful comments I've receive from all of you!!! Thanks friends!

Wonderful Winnings from Dorset

A little while back I entered a blog give-away - Leanne was giving away wonderful things from Dorset - in honor of her 1,000th blog post on Somerset Seasons. In just 18 months she had gotten that many posts - I was impressed. Her daily musings are wonderful - all about Dorset, her animals, snow, growing things, her new garden at the new house, baking, collections, the weather - all sorts of wonderful things that bring you right into her home and garden. I love taking a "stroll" with her - or riding along on Sally Bicycle to see some of the countryside - and when she announced I was the winnner I was so excited. My own little package - coming from England - how did I get so lucky!!!

Well today the package came in the mail - but I was on my way to the bank, then to pick up Don from work, then to our daughter's house (where Ben insisted on fixing us a "breakfast" in his play kitchen - so the package sat in the car - waiting for us to get home. I dug into it as soon as we got in the door - oh the fun!!!

Do you see the stamp on the right side - Royal Mail - oh how special - I've never had anything from Royal Mail before.


And look inside - the nicest cotton towel from Sherborne - castles and abbies all done in wonderful drawings. This will hang on a special rack in my kitchen.

Some chocolae - Green and Black's - dark chocolate with ginger - a mighty good taste. The package of the candybar is a little crinkled - I think someone got into it before the photo was taken.

A lovely card with a bunny fairy and butterflies dancing - two wonderful beeswax candles, a box of Dorset Ginger Biscuits ( I love to call cookies biscuits now - I think I'll teach Ben to say that also). They were definitely "scrummy" - as Leanne had promised. I ate one and fell in love with Ginger Biscuits - I must learn to make them. And a small cookbook of Dorset recipes.

Buddy E. loves the cookbook - he has marked some recipes he wants me to make first. Llook at that lovely painting next to the recipe - the booklet is full of such paintings. I am enjoying reading the recipes - Shearer's Stew - Moonshine (not the moonshine of the U.S. - illegally brewed liquor) but a "rich version of a traditional bread and butter pudding" - Dorset tea bread - Gooseberry Fool (for summer dessert) - Dorchester Scone Ring - Wareham Bears "biscuits made either with a plain shortbread or a chocolate shortbread mixture", now who can resist that? Then there is Nutty Baked Cabbage (as opposed to sane baked cabbage?) - Uncle Bert's Apple Chutney and Old Harry Rock Cakes - plus lots of others.

And the ingredients - I love them. I have to do some research to find out what Demerara sugar is, also wheatmeal flour, caster sugar, strong white flour, single cream, sultanas and treacle ( I think that is molasses). What an education I'm getting - along with the delicious treats and lovely gifts. The candles I will save for a very special ocassion - for Earth Hour 2009, on March 28. The biscuits will accompany my cups of tea and the recipes will fill us with food that is eaten in a far away country that has been brought so much closer with this lovely package from England.

Thank you Leanne - this is a wonderful treat!!!

At Last - a finished quilt!!!

I started this quilt about two years ago. First I had made a Santa quilt . . .

using panels of Woodland Santa and his friends . . .

Our oldest daughter liked the design - and wanted one (but not seasonal) for her office. She is a massage therapist and has a charmingly decorated office.

I found the panels with vegetable seed packets and we picked colors to go with the panels . . .

The seed packets . . .

I had a lot of help with this quilt -

Ben helping pick fabrics . . .

Lots of fabrics to pick from . . .

OK - that is enough fabric picking . . .
These photos were taken in March 2007 - when he was 2 years old. . .

Time to get busy making the quilt . . .

Trying the quilt on for size . . .

Tasting the quilt . . .

Helping Grammy lay out the quilt pieces . . .

There - that's just right . . .

The whole quilt - don't you think Ben did a great job helping Grammy put the quilt together? I think it was super for a two year old.

The the quilt went off to Julie - in Idaho. She is a fabulous machine quilter - using only her home machine. She's done several other quilts for me and I love all of them.

I was so excited to get it back in the mail last week - quilted and ready to bind.

All the binding strips . . .

Stitching the scrappy binding together on my trusty Featherweight . . .

Stitching the binding to the front of the quilt . . .

Binding pinned on the quilt - ready for hand stitching. Ben wanted to help with this and was very cautious of the pins - he calls them pokies.

Close-up of the quilting - you can see the amazingly straight lines that Julie did - and the pretty variegated thread. Julie has such good design ideas for quilting.

Another close up . . .

Trying to pick up the quilt . . .

Ben decided that it was a great quilt to hide under . . . once it was finished and all the pokies were taken out . . .

Popping out!!! Look how that boy has changed in two years!!!

The quilt makes a good garage for Ben's school bus - and some pretty fabrics for a roof for the bus.

It is a wonderful quilt - and I had a wonderful time putting it together. Thanks Julie and Ben, for all the help. Who helps you make your quilts?

Happy Valentines Day

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh!", he whispered. "Yes, Piglet?" "Nothing", said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you."

~A.A. Milne

Today is such a neat day - we always celebrate doubly - because Valentines Day is also the day Don proposed to me - 45 years ago. Of course when he tells the story that we got engaged so many years ago he likes to add - don't you think it is time we got married? He's such a silly guy. It makes his eyes twinkle!!


I was still in high school and of course my parents highly disapproved of Don. (They spent most of their time disapproving of things, so it was no surprise.) He had come from Wisconsin to work in the pulp mill and make his millions (well thousands anyway) - he had just finished his first year of college and had a chance to come to Alaska with a friend to make over 4.00 an hour, when wages in Wisconsin were 1.78 an hour. His mother had passed away the year before and he felt no ties to stay in Wisconsin.

We lived in a very small town and any new young man was really the main topic of discussion among the girls in my high school (we hardly ever dated the boys in our class, we'd all grown up together and they were more like brothers than date prospects.) There were 36 in our graduating class - - so not many choices to pick from anyway.

I worked after school in the local drug store - which had an old fashioned soda fountain - and when Don and his friend walked in and ordered a milkshake one night after they got off work - we both knew instantly that this was the one for us!!!


That was in November - and when we got engaged on Valentines Day I couldn't even wear my ring - but we were happy anyway - and eventually eloped to Texas (all the way from Alaska) to get married in the town where Don's dad lived. Of course we heard all the dire warnings - you are too young - it will never last - you don't know what you are doing - but 45 years later you see we weren't too young - it did last - and we did know what we were doing - we were following our hearts - to a wonderful place.

We sometimes celebrate with candy - or with flowers - or with a lovely dinner in a restaurant - sometimes all of those things - and sometimes none of them. This year we are going for a nice Valentines breakfast - then over to help our daughter and son-in-law do the last bit of moving and cleaning of their old apartment - they just bought a house and this is moving week. A lovely day that is quite typical of our lives together - family - friends - and each other.

Hope your day is super special!!!

Oooh What Pretty Fabric

I had a chance to buy some fabrics the other day, from a Picasa photo album - and I jumped at the chance. Someone had listed photos of fabrics they had for sale, with descriptions and prices (2.00 and 3.00 a yard for really nice cotton fabrics) Several of the pieces already have projects assigned to them - the others just seem to be too pretty to pass up.

These go with the seat covers on the dining room chairs.

Seat cover fabric - don't you just love it??!!??

I know - apples in Washington - probably overdone sometimes - but I love the fabrics. I am going to make some potholders to start with - not sure what else I will make - any great ideas? Since I don't need new chair seat covers - those are out - - - thinking - thinking - - -

And the fabric goes so well with my Corelle Chutney dishes

I needed some small christmas prints for my ornaments that I made earlier this year. I want to send one with each christmas card next year. These two fabrics seemed perfect.

And here are three fun fabrics - the corn is for a Crow quilt I am gathering fabrics for

This is part of the pattern for the quilt - I just love crows!!!

The middle batick fabric could go in christmas ornaments or stars like Belinda lured me into making - and the bottom fabric with multi stars is just so darn cute I couldn't resist it.


And then here is the yarn and plastic canvas I bought last weekend - these are colors that I need for the lighthouse project .


You can get plastic canvas books for any project you could imagine at this ebay site - she has lovely things to choose from - and so many choices!

It was fun to get the package of fabric - Ben was here (our four year old grandson) - and we had just finished binding a quilt when the package of fabric arrived. He looked at the quilt and then at the fabric and said "Grammy, you are quite an expert on quilts". That little boy just melts your heart!!