Iraqi Bundle of Love, Enjoying Summer

I’ve  seen a few bloggers  preparing packages for IBOL,   I have been cleaning up the sewing room and  I knew I could definitely fill a box myself.     What an inspiration to be involved in this  too!!!     http://ibol.wordpress.com/building-a-bundle/ ,  here is the website to go get information.   Just send them an email and they will get you the address.

Here is a picture of my bundle,  I added some ribbon and embroidery thread after I took the picture.    Wrapped it in one of the larger pieces of fabric and tied it with a ribbon.

                  The general information is here: http://ibol.wordpress.com/what-to-send/

Now its off  to the post office plenty of time to reach the destination.    The latest date to mail is September 7th,   this will give the package enough time to reach Iraq before there unit comes out of Iraq.  

Sunday we went to visit a friend  Linda, who raises goats.   The purpose besides visiting a  our good friend was to purchase some of her cheese.   It is so delicious,  after weaning the kids she makes goat cheese from there milk.   Linda got a real chuckle about me asking if I could take pictures for my blog.     I think she thought I was kidding………   oh couldn’t resist the pun……

Friendly little guys………

We arrived as they were enjoying there late morning feeding.   The closest goat there is the buck,   he has the biggest thickest neck.   Kind of does what he wants, which is eat at the moment.

And this is what I will look like if I keep eating the Dill and Garlic flavored cheese.     It very good, and fresh!!

After taking our purchase home we had a class on preserving fruit and vegetables at Allysons Kitchen.

Our instructor was a very knowledgeable  “Master Food Preserver, Bonnie Koenig.   Her website , Intellifare.com has some excellent links on food preservation.

We canned Peach Pie Filling, Hot Salsa with Tomatoes and Pepper and Dilly Bean and Pickles. 

We are going to start doing some canning,  after a few  years of not doing any,  we are enjoyed getting some updated tips.

One very important one I will share is NOT to use your Grammy’s recipes.    Vinegar was much stronger years ago and so the quantities are not correct.    You can get very inexpensive books,  Ball is a good one with the correct recipes.

We each got to pick two items,   one of our choices was a bag a Clear-Jel, which is a cornstarch product that stands up to the high heat process of canning.     If you use regular cornstarch it will separate and be watery………that wouldn’t be to nice.     This product is used in the pie filling as a thickener.

  The Dilly Beans take two months to achieve their flavor, it will be hard to crack open these pretty jars and use them up.

Bonnie is going to teach a class in October on canning smoke salmon.   We are planning to take the class in Redmond at the extension service.    Canning  meats is the main thing we want to do this year.  

We have been doing some planning for enlarging our vegetable garden next year.   Bonnie has a very productive garden so we are encouraged that we can have some success too.    We certainly have the space!

I have started sewing up some 4 1/2 inch basket blocks for a JLW exchange.    I will make 25 of them,  5 sets of 5 blocks.      They go together pretty quickly ,    I made a couple up to get familiar with the pattern.  

It’s the last weekend in August,  can it be true,  I love summer,  we wait so long for it to arrive, then poof.    It’s all good because fall is really beautiful in Central Oregon.   Well not like New England, but  almost!!

Summer blessings,

Carrie

Jaxon’s New Glasses, a Giveaway

Krista shared a picture this weekend of Jaxon and his new glasses. Our little pumpkin is far-sighted with astigmatism. Just like alot of his family.

Wow, I was so amazed that they could detect this in an eye exam without him reading the chart . I just didn’t know, did you?

I think he is so cute in his glasses, ;)) he wears his little helmet for a few more days. He will get to pass it along after his doctor appointment at the end of the month. Preemies heads can get flat on the back so they have them wear these little helmets. It has kind of been his signature look for some time. Now it will be the glasses!!

Joe says he looks just like his mom with his new glasses, I thought he reminded me of myself, I got glasses in the first grade, on the way home I remember saying, “ Oh, I can see all the individual leaves on the trees!”

Jaxon loves to watch Sesame Street, lol…….can you believe it. They have a couple episodes taped for the boys to watch. He is the one who really is attracted to the show!!! That is what he was doing when I saw him for the first time last month. I just sat right down and watched it with him, he gave me the cutest smile!!!

Farmhouse Countrystyle is having a Harvest giveaway, give her a visit if you would like to win her little sign.

We had a fun time at clients party yesterday, they have a landscaping business and live on a small farm. They grow some trees and have some greenhouses. But they also have a 9 hole golf course, which goes around their Aspen Orchard. It is a par 18 course and there were 13 foursomes that competed. It was such a fun family time. Lots of kids playing in the water, sandbox and trampoline. And the cutest little puppy!!! I am glad I went, I really wanted to sew all day, but it was good to get out and meet some new people and old friends.

I didn’t get to the local guilds quilt show :(, you just can’t do it all sometimes. So you can go here for some show and tell. Anne went and I am going to go over and enjoy her pictures. Love her new quilt, too!

OK today I am going to sew all day, lol…….we’ll just see, but that's the plan.

Summer blessings,

Carrie

Watch Ya Workin On ~ A Winner

Well in my case it seems to be “What am I not workin on…”  ya know what I mean?

Everything at once, and nothing is getting done.   If I would sew a binding on a quilt then it would be done.    I could say I finished something.   Maybe that will get done this afternoon,   I should make a list, that’s  one tip that works for this girl.   

First I will show you the newest BOM I started, through Farmhouse Woolens.   Vintage Halloween, by Buttermilk Basin.     Karen’s selections for the wools are wonderful.    I received  the 2nd block this week, this is going to make up into such a special holiday quilt.   I won’t want to take it down.

I sewed on this block while we were on the plane and on our delayed layover in Denver.   I am so glad they didn’t cancel our flight,  we waited 7 hours for a new crew!!  Weather  related so no free tickets would have been given.

Then while I was in Omaha, Krista and I snuck a visit to Country Sampler, it was pretty close to where they live so I look forward to visiting them again.    I have to say this is the perfect shop.     They have a wonderful selection of gifts as well as quilting goods.      I could have stuffed my suitcase with lots of stuff.         But I was a good girl……..    I bought 3 kits from Primitive Gatherings.       Krista chose,  Love Ya Man,   it will be her Christmas present.    Three snowman, just like you know who!!!

They had a wool kit to make the Pumpkin Row Pillow out of Autumn Gatherings book.       Perfect kit because I want to put it on the top of a quilt, not make a pillow.  Either way would be awesome.      And Old Saint Nick , an 18” table topper.     They fit nicely in my suitcase and didn’t  add to much weight!!     

Next is my progress on A Tisket, A Taskit  BOM,   I have created myself a dilemma.     I found my antiqued muslin and love the way it looked so I am changing backgrounds.    The printed muslin has really been bothering me,  to white.    So I am  thinking I can dye the backgrounds.   Tea, Coffee or Rit tan dye, this is the question?    I will experiment, but I am not sure how the wool will be effected.     I am wondering if I can sponge it on the fabric instead of immersing the whole block.      I really don’t want the block to shrink up since I have cut them to the finished size. 

Some blocks need there embroidery finished,  and August is looking a little bare isn’t it.    I am auditioning wool for those cute cupcakes!!   Anne had given us the cutest darn gift to make!!!   Each month feels like Christmas on the 5th!!    I get tickled over the comments here, she always gets hers done  so quick!!

Any suggestions on my dying these cute little blocks,  I  would love all you have!!

This is the center of my JLW, Holiday Inn quilt.    Boy I have really slacked off on this project.    I was going to have it ready to appliqué on our trip but it wasn’t happening so I am doing the appliqué in the evening and  sewing some flying geese up during the day.      I am really preferring hand work over my machine.    But this quilt isn’t going to be all hand work, at least if it is going to be finished by Christmas.     I want it on the wall this Christmas.   If I don’t have a goal, well things just go on forever…….

I purchased a new design wall,  not a fancy one but it is a bit wider and  longer.       Now I can see progress on some of my projects and I really love that.    I am a visual person,   if its put away, it doesn’t get worked on.    Without a big enough wall this really makes for a big mess in the sewing room        I would like to have two walls,  maybe I could move that desk out of my sewing room…….lol……just kidding dear!!    So you can see I have two untouched blocks to my Wool Garden BOM.      I love that one,  I know I say that about all of them,  no ….I said  TT was cute so I can use “Love” here.   

And I have the next wool kit for Vintage Halloween, this “charming pumpkin man” is  going to have a friend so he doesn’t stand alone on this scary white cloth.  I wish it was gray, maybe I could dye it too.  Probably not,    I better keep moving if I am going to finish anything.

OK there you have my progress confession!!!               Now…..

Last month I was a winner at Mary’s Cottage Quilts, and I received a pattern to make her Figgy Pudding quilt.     It’s so fun to win!!!       This is a versatile pattern,  she has a picture of a large quilt on her website, this pattern gets even better in a larger quilt.

Thank you Mary for sharing your talent and I hope your vacation is fabulous!!

Oh!   The picture of Figgy Pudding is Mary’s,  I borrowed it to only show the gift!!!   No, its not part of my progress report and I take no credit for the very cute quilt.   :))

Summer blessings to all of you,

Carrie

p.s.   “Blessings”,  new fabric line by Brannock and Patek,  its wonderful!!

Memoirs of Omaha

We had a wonderful time!!!!! Such happy little boys, even with their colds they shared with me!

We really had the best of luck weather-wise, the temperature was in the mid 70’s until our last day. Wow, we don’t have the high humidity that is in the Midwest so we were very pleased.

I will start off this sharing time with the invitation and a bouquet of flowers from a friend. Grown in their garden and so nicely arranged!! The birthday theme is E~I~E~I~O with some fun fun here and some fun fun there!! LOL……

Birthday Banner too!

We started off the party with FOOD, gee what else!! Krista made delicious pulled pork, she had a recipe for a colorful salad I made, Joe bought some fresh corn from a local farm, potato salad. It was so delicious! And colorful….

Jaxon with Grammy Teresa!!

Jaxon not to happy with everyone in his space………it is so fun to learn about the boys personality. Jaxon has a definite personal bubble!!!

Krista kept a monthly calendar on the boys, posting all the details of their development and experiences. This last week she was going to transfer all the info into their baby books. Amazing gal……we were all impressed and really enjoyed reading the calendars.

The birthday cakes were made by a neighbor friend, they were just the cutest.

No shortage of help from aunties, grampa’s, mommies when it came time to eat the cake. It was pretty sweet and they haven’t had cake before!! Very interesting.

We had so much fun with the boys, feeding time was so fun. They all eat at once and love it. Our grandson Tylor came with us and had fun taking pictures of the boys. He could make them all belly laugh, he had the best time too.

Joe loved getting to know the boys. They all had a little issue with his moustache, a new experience for them. It was so funny to see them get brave enough to touch it and them wrinkle up their noses. Let alone those kisses!!

We made a trip to a park, it was a bit warm our last day, we are all aglow! They love the swings, went down the slides rode the bouncing frog. Got some group pictures, I just love the picture with all four of our grandsons. We were in heaven.

The guys pushed the strollers home, what memories, we will treasure them in our hearts…….till we meet again!!

Krista and I made it to a wonderful quilt shop, Country Sampler. I got some goodies to make up for Christmas, I will share them in my next post.

I haven’t shared my BOM for some time so my next post should be about that for sure. Yes I actually do some quilty things. I have a new wool BOM that I sewed on the plane trip. I love it!!

Hugs,

Carrie