REMEMBERING MY SWEET SISTER

Elsie with Susan, Joe and Linda

Elsie and I at one of her craft shows

Elsie passed away in her sleep on December 26, 2017

These were two pictures I decided to put on this blog.  The top one was when Elsie's children brought her to Sequim one time. Susan is in the maroon top, Joe (Linda's husband) is next to Susan and Linda is to the far left. The bottom picture is one of her craft shows we went to. A reminder of better times.

On December 14, 2017 Elsie was in the hospital and Donna took me to Everett to see her.  

I will be forever thankful that she did that.  It was the last time I would see her.  We stayed over three hours and had such a nice visit talking about so many things in our lives.

Elsie was very weak when we saw her.  I just was hoping she would make it longer but she had so many problems. Also her eye sight was so bad I would have to sit close to her so she could see my face,  She was too weak to go back to her apartment from the hospital so she went to a rehab to try to get her strength back but she died in her sleep after a couple of days in rehab.

I miss her but I know she is in a better place now.  She loved letters and we had been writing letters back and forth since I got married and moved away from Everett. 

SNOW FOR CHRISTMAS

Snow for Christmas

It snowed some more during the night.  I just wanted to post this so we will remember that there was snow on Christmas in Sequim.  The temperature was up to 36 degrees by afternoon so I think the snow will not last.  The snow is pretty as long as I can just watch it through the window.

SNOW AND DINNER ON THE EVE BEFORE CHRISTMAS

SNOW VIEW FROM DOWNSTAIRS

SNOW PICTURE FROM UPSTAIRS

Leif and Donna had invited a few people to dinner.  It started snowing just as we were ready to start eating.

The Sister Missionaries and one of the other Sisters from the ward and her granddaughter had to leave early because they wanted to get home because they both lived on hills.

Everyone had a good time.  We had a gift exchange and everyone visited a lot.

MACHINE EMBROIDERY QUILT PROJECT

Two blocks from the Big Blossom quilt I am making.

My newest machine embroidery project.

I saw the pattern for this quilt in the December All Access magazine we subscribe to and immediately fell in love with it.

The blocks are nine inch squares and as you can see there is a lot of embroidery on each.  I am making a queen size quilt so I need to make 63 squares plus embroidered strips between the rows.

This is the most ambitious project I have attempted to do so far. This will probably take me between two and three months to do.  I am excited about doing it and it will look so nice on my bed.  I chose the maroon background because this will match my electric blanket and my bed skirt.

WINTER PROJECT

Covered Bridge Wall Hanging--Not finished yet but you can see the beautiful Fall colors

Yesterday was the first day of Winter.  The weather is chilly. I hope we can get through the Winter without snow.

My machine embroidery helps me get through this winter weather.  I keep trying to think of something positive about Winter but haven't really come up with a good idea yet.

MACHINE EMBROIDERY PROJECTS

Matching squares from covered bridge wall hanging. These are not sewn together yet.
Just wanted to show how they will look. I have done seven squares and have five more to do.

I am excited about starting on my quilt.  The fabric is a little darker than this photo shows. The material is a maroon.  I chose this material because it matches with my electric blanket and the skirt on my mattress.

The quilt will be a long term project.  I do have the squares picked out that I want to do.  I still have to decide on the colors for the flowers.  Each flower square is a different design.  I will have to decide on colors for each square.  Some of the colors suggested will not go well with my fabric so I am going to have to lay out my threads and make decisions on what looks the best.

Donna picked out this fabric for me because she and Laif had gone to Portland and she was able to go to Fabric Depot. This is a large warehouse filled with all kinds of fabric. Donna texted pictures to me and the camera showed the  colors were pretty close. This fabric is one of the more expensive ones but she had a coupon for 50% off. I got a little over six yards for $41.00. Donna got the stabilizer I needed at Joanne's $21.00.  I really have not invested that much for a queen size bed.  I should have plenty of thread.  

I may have to take breaks from the quilt if some exciting pattern comes up in our All Access Magazines that come out every month.  Each magazine has a disc for all the patterns in that magazine. Our subscription is up July 2018.  Donna and I split the cost. These are expensive magazines but Anita Goodesign patterns are very unique and give you step by step instructions.

Fabric for my quilt

COVERED BRIDGE

FIRST SQUARE OF COVERED BRIDGE WALL HANGING

Our sewing room is back together after the Thanksgiving Holidays.  Donna did a great job arranging everything.  The room looks very nice and things are actually in order.

Today is the first time I have done any machine embroidery in close to 3 weeks.

Donna helped me get the threads together I needed so I could arrange them for the project I started working on. We found other things we had put away and now I am set to go.

The project I started is the Covered Bridge.  I got this pattern shortly after I won the machine. I just put off starting it because I thought it would be too much work.

The picture at the top is the Covered Bridge pattern.  It is not very good because I took this from my laptop.  This pattern was not in one of the magazines but you can get an idea what it will look like.

I made the first square today. The colors are really beautiful.  I used the colored thread called for in the pattern because this is a copy of an original painting.

GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS

New television for Donna and Laif from Kyle

Christmas tree up already

Gingerbread Houses

Anna,Katie, David and Christopher worked on making the Gingerbread houses. They also helped decorate the Christmas tree.

When my sister and I were growing up, we always put the tree up on Christmas Eve and then we would have hot chocolate and cookies. We did not open presents until Christmas morning.
We did not have a lot of toys. We were happy with simple toys and games. We did get dolls for Christmas. One of my favorite toys was a little metal cat on wheels. You pulled the tail down and it went across the floor.

My mother always made a nice Christmas dinner. There were only the four of us. We had no cousins to visit us. My mother's family was in Iowa and my father's family was in Montana.  We played games and did a lot of reading.  Elsie and I really enjoyed our time with our parents.

Stores did not sell things for Christmas until after Thanksgiving.  Stores were only open from 9am to 6pm.  No stores were open on Sunday.

THANKSGIVING DAY

DEBBIE WITH HER SWEET GRANDSON, JAYDEN

RELAXING AROUND THE TABLE AFTER A NICE DINNER

Just a couple of pictures I took. We had a lot of people for Thanksgiving.  Michael and Rachel and  all their sweet children came.  They wanted to surprise Donna and Laif. Debbie let David and me know so we could be prepared.

Donna and Laif were totally surprised. Donna said she wondered why we bought more food. 

We ended up with 24 people including the kids.

We had a noisy but fun Thanksgiving.

I am thankful that I am still here to be able to enjoy these precious times.

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE THANKSGIVING

POWER OUTAGE

KATIE MAKING CINNAMON ROLLS

DONNA AND DAVID WORKING UNDER MY LED FLASHLIGHT

Katie was just starting overnight Cinnamon rolls when the power went out. The power was out a little over 2 hours.

The pictures below look like we have light but that light is from a large LED flashlight that I had.

I had not used it before and I was just amazed at the brightness of the flashlight.

SHOP HOP WALL HANGING

This is the last project until after Thanksgiving.  I had a few squares made and my neighbor had come over to see my Halloween House and she saw that I was working on this. She was studying every square and looking at the rest on the pattern pages. She was so fascinated by each.  I decided I was going to give it to her as a surprise when I got it finished.  A couple of weeks ago I asked her if she could help me arrange the squares because I wasn't sure how I should arrange them.  She had so much fun arranging them.  After she left I numbered them in the order she had done.

Yesterday with Donna helping we got it finished. Donna called her and told her I had something for her to see. My neighbor came over this afternoon and I gave it to her. She was so thrilled.  She said it was like a surprise birthday party.  She said now she will be able to study all the details.

I just like making these projects and I was so happy she liked it.

VETERAN'S DAY

STATE BIRDS AND FLOWERS



This is one of my favorite wall hangings. I am planning on making a lighter quilt for my bed when I can find a pattern I like.  I am still planning on making the Covered Bridge wall hanging so I will be busy with my embroidery after Thanksgiving.

       
More about Hummingbirds.  All the Hummingbirds left a couple of days ago.  Now there is just one bird again.  Actually there is another Hummingbird that tries to get to the feeders but this one bird keeps chasing it away.   A few months ago David started calling her Miss Piggy.  When all the other Hummingbirds were here for those few days Miss Piggy tried running them off but there were too many.  I guess the flock flew to a warmer place.


               
Diane put a picture of my dad on Facebook.  My dad was in the Navy in World War one.  Also, today is my Sister's birthday.  She is 88 today.  We both just keep hanging in.

ANOTHER EMBROIDERY PROJECT

BUTTERFLY AND FLOWER SMALL THROW

I have not started another project yet.  I think I needed a break from embroidery.  I will probably get something started after Thanksgiving.  I am getting ready to start on the Covered Bridge wall hanging. I have sent for some thread for the project.  Donna found the site for me.  This company has the good quality embroidery threads much cheaper than buying them in the store.  I still have to get the material for the squares.

I LOVE ANIMALS

Leopard

Tiger

I made these Anita Goodesign pictures from the "Big Cats" series. There are several cats.  You can make the cats into a wall hanging or a quilt but I just chose these two to frame.  I now have them hanging above my Couch.

An update on my Humming birds.  As of this morning, there are still eight.

SNOW AND HUMMINGBIRDS AGAIN

NOVEMBER 5th AND IT SNOWED AGAIN LAST NIGHT.  IT IS NOT EVEN WINTER YET.

EIGHT HUMMINGBIRDS ARE STILL HERE.  THEY ARE EATING CONSTANTLY.

I can hardly believe that all eight Hummingbirds are still here. I have always wanted more Hummingbirds. There has always been the one for months.

In the lower picture you may be able to see the bird near the feeder and there are several in the tree.  It is hard to capture pictures as they flit around so fast.

Now of course the Hummingbirds are drinking so much nectar we will have to keep the feeders filled more often.

snowI don't mind the extra expense though.  It is so much fun to watch them.

HUMMING BIRD INVASION

hummingbirds flying near the feeder

Hummingbird feeding

For months and months there was only one Hummingbird at the feeders.
   In recent days there were three and then yesterday we had eight birds feeding all day.  It will be interesting to see if they stay around.

We did have a small amount of snow yesterday.  It seems early in the year for this to happen here.

STARTING UP MY BLOG AGAIN

Front of My Halloween House

Back of my Halloween House

I decided to start working on my blog again.
The last time I posted was in October 2016.

I will try to do better.  I used to post a lot.  Actually, blogs are good because it is just like keeping a diary.  This Halloween project was my last finished project.  I have a Shop Hop wall hanging in progress.

I have a pattern of a covered bridge in an Autumn scene.  I got this pattern when I got the machine because it is so beautiful but have yet to start it.  This will be a wall hanging.  I have hesitated about starting it as it is going to take so much embroidering.

Open view of My Gingerbread House

Gingerbread House

I love the Gingerbread House.  I have given away a lot of the Anita Goodesign houses but I am keeping these for myself.