Hope all are safe.

Well almost ready for trip, first glad to see that my prayers have been answered ,hope not too much damage has been done, and that the rain and wind has stopped,and that all friends and family came through with very little destruction, Irene really needed to say goodnight alot earler.

trip and bookmarks

Well this seems a little off, planning for a trip to Las Vegas to see my oldest son and his family, my daughter Michelle and I fly out next Wednesday, the 31st, so before I leave I,d like to figure out the design I want to do for the Titus bible study bookmarks, I,ll need to do at least 40, or so, it will have at least Titus on them ,just need to decide on what fabric ,I,ll use.Have not seen Blaine in a few years ,It,ll do my heart good to see them,Maybe I,ll go ahead and add a few pictures from the Kangaroo farm I went to a couple of weeks ago.What a fun day with Michelle and James,well need to get moving, Laurel

tribal pictures

Well here we are at picnic,myself, with cousins Ron and Connie, have not seen either of them for a few years. Ron and his wife will be moving to Mexico in about a month, so they wanted to be sure they made it to the picnic, Connie and her family live close ,but still don,t see her much, what a fun ay and did I make a extra large batch of salmon chowder ,will have enough for the winter cool days, well looks like it may be warming up some so need to get back to staining sundeck, talk soon, Laurel.,Ps, forgot this was the first time they were able to see this item that Terry had done and was on display in the lobby office building.

Black dinner napkins and tablecloth

Well this was a challange for me to do, saw this done before, I have a hard time, to think bright ,bold and neon colors ,but I think they came out ok, guess I,m more of a gal that likes soft, minty and pastels ,I do like fall colors ,but on lighter fabric, with this warmer weather I,ve been outside trying to help my son-in-law stain the sundeck, just to cool and misty in the mornings, this week, hopefully it will warm back up, need to get this done, have a ton of items to get ready for craft fair,will try to get to one more blog later, have a few pictures of tribal picnic from this weekend,.

Gifts

I made these for Blaine and Teri,s Anniversary along with three other sets, forgot to get pictures of them before I mailed them ,seems like I plan ahead with time to spare, but something seems to get in between me and my project, did not do any towels this time just pillow cases,I think Teri will like this set and Blaine will like the others, now if they will just use them,I know Teri tends not to use some of the things I do, I don,t mind, I know they like them, I remember for about 5 or 6 years in a row, my mother-in-law gave me frying pans, how many does one need , I finally said Mom I think I have enough, unless you want your son in the kitchin cooking too, well then it went to blankets, so I learned how to make those, so cash worked its way to my birthday and Christmas, I did love her dearly, just needed to know how to talk to her, well hope to get more items done, need to get Laurel.

Should be towels for the 4th.

You can tell its been a month or so since I,ve done this,did not get pictures with the right post anyway, i was not thinking about all the flags and eagles i have for 4th type towels, just did these, my daughter Michelle thought that these were ok, she was wondering where Andy was, made me think, what about all the other design i should have done, ,it has been a challenge to get items done for Blaines anniversary next week ,so far have only three set of pillow cases done, just can,t decide what else to do, I am always doing towels, so trying to think of something else that they will really use ,maybe I can see if i have any table runners out in the shop, or a wall hanging ,well need to get ,have been trying to clean all day, have not had much rest, will do more first of next week, hope my sis is having fun on her trip with Don and his son,on their way to Kansas,Laurel

4th towels

Behind times

Gary and I at his house this May, my older brother, how proud I,m of him,Pastor of a church, he took care of us when we were kids, still taking care of people, just in a different way, we had a great visit, also with my sister, we could spend hours doing nothing,and still have a great visit,so sis and I on the stairs, we did leave the craft room a few times.will be adding a few more pictures later, now working on pillow cases, tried to work outside yesterday, hand just are not what they use to be ,Laurel.

almost ready for trip

I really love this photo shot,Michell gave me a mothers day card last night after dinner, so i took it down stairs and placed it on the tv, this little Easter egg item was still sitting there, so i open the card up and placed it so you could see the pair of chicks peeping through the card open, I thought ,I,ve got to get a picture of that and sent it to my sis, Loretta who had given to Easter egg to me a few years ago. Well went to the doctors for Dwayne yesterday, alls about the same, thought his body temp was only 97, I guess with heart failler, it does lower his temp, that why the organs will start to shut down, with such a low temp, have meds to pick
up today. also they want another ECHO done on his heart to see how that is,will have that done in a few months,have all stuff sewn and packed, have pictures but will take care of those when we get back ,ladies in bible study are saying prayers for safe trip, well need to get, also Kevin will be taking care of our dogs till we get back, really quiet here last night without them , no one to walk this morning. Laurel

Throw or small quilt

Well I finished this for Carlee, special fabric on front , scarfs from her Grandmother Norma,Mom loved scarfs, when she did her hair set with bobby pins, she always had a scarf on, in winter it was her thin wooly ones, warmer weather it was the silky ones,this was a testy one, how thin of a sewing needle and how thin of a yarn that I tie with, hope the colors work ok,I have one more for me to get to later this month, all have a great Easter,Laurel

New project

Well I think I,m ready to get working on a few throws,first I,ll go through a bag of scarfs, pick out matching type of fabric, thinking 4 or 6 per throw, sew those together and add batting and pick out a backing fabric, in thought only, Need to buckle down and not put it off anymore, not sure why I,m taking my time, maybe work on them this week, thinking maybe 48 square sounds good, but again i think my batting is 45, well I,ll check on that, then it will depend on what I use to tie them together, on how the scarfs are,sounds good to me, Mom sure liked all kinds of scarfs, didn,t matter what Terry brought her, see liked them anyway, well need to get ,Laurel

Very busy

No pictures at this time ,Have been very busy , doing items to take on our trip in a few weeks, hoping for May 1, depends on a lot of things, and trying to get both computers nearly empty of designs, may start working on craft items when we get back, I am so hoping Dwayne will do well on this trip, I so need it, can,t just get a sitter for him ,he would not put up with me leaving without him, I did that ten years ago ,went to Hawaii with out him, all I ever heard from him was that would be the last place he would go , so i took my sister, for 5 days, maybe Maui next, my grandfather was from there, and Dwayne has been mad at me for tens years for not taking him,So i have all my towels ordered, fabric for now, nearly ready to get sewing, hope my machines can wait another year for their cleaning, I do what i can with them, well need to get, all have a blessed day,still waiting for spring, we had snow last night, Laurel

Pine Needle Baskets

I need to get my stuff out to work on some baskets, its been a few years since I,ve made some, guess for Blaines wedding gift might have been the last ones I,ve done for gifts, think before that i did one for Michelle,s anniversary, I need to do one for me, this time i would like to do a little larger one, Not sure if Loretta still has the chance to get more needles, I do have a few boxes that should be used up first. I still also had a few more health issues for Dwayne I did not get to, he did have one surgery on his veins on the side of his neck, that was 4 years ago, the other side they could not do anthing ,veins were no good at all, now they wanted to do it again last year ,the same side was already 75 blocked, so very little oxyigin is getting to his brain, so they wanted to do a stench,in his body to relocate the blood flow to get more oxygin to his brain, but he did not want to anything done at this time, and I wonder if his heart or lungs could take it anyway, never what the doctors want done, will he do it, only the lord knows just what more his body can take, well I,m going to try and work on some towels for our trip, Laurel

more health issues

i didn,t have time to talk more of Dwayne,s health issues, I can imange what you thought when you saw all those piles of cloths, with his dementia he does things different, he need to see his shoes, which he did only have 5 or 6 pairs by the sofa, but his cloths, he need to see them all the time ,if he can,t see them , then i got rid of them, I need to try and keep some things covered or else his items will cover what ever space he can claim, I finally said he does not need to see his sox drawer, no matter what I put on that dresser or the other ones, he still takes the stuff out so he can see them, even his tools, we tried to down size the room he has to work with , but he is always asking me where this tool or that, finally last fall I said I have no idea where i put his car wax,so he went and bought another jar, or bottle, and hides it so no one will take it,then back to his heart ,he also has a valve that will short out and not work, the one pill that will help that some he is already on,well that is it for now, I did finish the quilt I was working on.Laurel

Tears of joy

Here is Karla with brother Terry, we went to her wedding,I just don,t remember the year, I do know that her girls are in their teens,i do remember a few of the cousins and Aunt Anna Butler was there , who was dads sister,I only had a few pictures,think Ken was there also, I do think that Karla and Carlee do look alike. The tears of joy was meeting Carlee, I just could not say anything about Terrys birthday which was the day before, the 16, of March.I knew if I said anything I would shed a few tears,i must just be stressed out , to be on the tearfull side, I,ve done that before.It is amazing to meet someone and feel so close so soon,I do hope the rest of her visit goes well,well back to sewing, Laurel

One bee

kind of hard to see ,but there is a bee very top center crocus, the sun did come out for a little bit, thought I,d see what was going on outside, think we have had just about enough snow, wind ,rain,hail, you name it, but we need to give prayers for all the victims of weather realated going on this morning,and I need not to complain to much,guess we are always asking for what ever we don,t have, as they say, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fench,well need to check e-mail, waiting on cutting fabric directions.

Kim,s Birthday,

Here are a few pictures taken for Kim,s Birthday, my youngest son Kevin,s girlfriend, the tablecloth had 12 flower blocks on it, the towels were on the stove, and the angel food cake turned out great, we had strawberries and raspberries with vanilla and strawberry ice cream, main dinner was a turkey dinner, tried to think of something filling and yet soft, she had to go to the dentist that morning. We never had Birthdays growing up, only when we were small, Keith did get a birthday celebration when he was I think 38, and Terry had one at moms place ,did have a few pictures of that, so when I got married , my mother-in-law made a different cake each year for me, I didn,t care what kind I got, I really do prefer Blackberry or Raspberry pie,as far as I know, I don,t know why we didn,t have birthday,s another question I should ask Gary when I see him,anyway Kim loved the quilt ,dinner and gifts from Michelle, and they were even a little early to visit, don,t get to see Kevin all that much, but I really enjoy the chance to see them both,
I did everything , both James and Michell had to work that day, now I can rest, need to start another quilt, for Kims daughter to have ready by the end of next month,Kim gave me the fabric that she would like to be used.Laurel

Fossils

Terry and the rest of the family would spend hours on the shore In Clallam Bay or other shores in the area, either looking for agates or fossils, Gary is a really good finder, I too have saved many, you do need a fairly dry day to do that, and lots of patience,even my Aunt Myrtle when she lived in Florida came back here with all kinds of sea shells and fossil shark teeth, not very large , but very old, I had the one picture of Terry at the beach in Clallam Bay, on a sunny day, lots of fossil clam shells saved,I do miss laying on the beach , I have not been back to Clallam Bay or Port Angeles in ten years,although now I do have alot of petrified wood, when Blaine,oldest son moved to Las Vegas, he gave me what he had, I really need to place more if it outside in the yard,his first wife,s family had a store, and the grandfather would travel the world to look for items like that, so some pieces are very different ,have them stored out in the green house for now, well need to go for now, Laurel.

Another sign of spring

You can tell spring is not too far behind, these friendly yard creatures appear each year, no more then 2 or 3, one year I wish I had my camera handy, a very tiny rabbit was trying to hide under a blackberry leaf, don,t know which one was bigger, but it didn,t want anything to do with me being in its space,It was so good to hear that Carlee will be in the area in a few weeks,and hopefully we will be able to meet one another.I can remember Terry was always trying to be able to get over here, His wife Dee was always changing things, he did make it over for a few family gatherings, but never during any holidays, I,d even wait till Christmas Eve before I,d do shopping for dinner, and he,d have to call and say they would not be making it over, only had a few xmas gathering with him at his place, I did have a few close calls with him, Dee just wanted to be only with her Mom and Dad, I did learn after getting married ,we made our own memmories with out kids and family,well need to get working on a few things, Laurel.

spring

I guess spring is trying to tell us its there turn, it may still be to cold for us, I know I didn,t get the winter project done I should have, I,ll get at least part of it done this spring , the other half will have to wait till next fall, the ground was just way to frozen to move anythiny including my body,a few croucus and a elephant ear saye do you see me, how amazing with as cold as it is. I don,t think Terry had a favorite time of the year, I know fall was Moms ,I guess I like spring and fall,I feel they show more color,Have been busy with picking up the candle work area, Michelle will have some friends over this afternoon to work on some Easter candles, for their spring fair, still waiting on items I ordered first week of Fab, they say they shipped them, finally 1/2 order was shipped Monday and 2nd 1/2 should of been sent out by thursday night, should take care of my orders till fall when I,ll order one or two more bolts of fabric, well seems like I always have to get to get lunch or dinner, once and a while can Dwayne fix him something, he hasn,t cooked anythid for at least 8 ot 9 years now, does not have the strengthh to stand in on place that long, getting worried about our planned trip for next month, I am praying ,Laurel.

I have to come clean i missed bible study this morning, did not get much sleep, usually i have at least 6hrs, once in a blue moon 7, but last night 4 hrs if that, and I didn,t have my lessons done, its been more then a challengeing week with Dwayne, and usually going to bible study gets me out of the house at least once a week, I really need to make it next week, my turn to bring morning fruit snacks, this time of year its going to be mainly canned fruit, I do miss doing summer canning, Mom would do 4 or 5 hundred jars of stuff just for herself, I feel guilty just thinking about doing for one, no one also likes canned fruit around here but me, Terry did some canning, thats hard to believe, He loved canned mushrooms, he,d go in the woods and collect the wild ones, don,t remember what they were called,he knew just what ones were good or the bad ones, he tried to get me to try them, in those years I couldn,t eat mushrooms , any kind, I,d break out from anything with them in it, let alone, just canned, he would also freeze fruit,mainly blackberries, he,d find good patches while working in the woods,Dee said she did canning, but don,t know what that was,but Mom, everything from fruit to meat, and fish, she wanted to make sure she would always have something on hand,her apples were more then good, all she had to do was do a crust and her pie was out of this world, here I just thought I,d have a little to say this morning, better get , Laurel

Sewin items

Well here are a few of the new bins nearly full from dinner napkins to the different threads that I use, sewing thread, embroidery thread,may be just a few more pictures of the batting for the quilts and the different stabalizers I need for embroidery work, then the different sissors also,,trying to get some what order in here,I am always doing something,not to mention all the bolts of fabric, cut and not cut, I can remember Terry saying he couldn,t get things in order, Dee his wife had so much craft items laying all over the place ,she never did things in order, I loved that lady dearly, it was a challange for the rest of the family to get along with her,so sometimes his stuff was in second place,and because most of his work was done on wood, that did take up a lot of room in the house, as long as he had room for his coffee and cups, the bigger the better,and his paperwork, he did do alot of journals, he would be up in the middle of night writing,he,d prefer to be alone when he did that,I may have his last one he wrote, only read a few pages then someone added words to it,I guess either Dee or her daughter did that, well getting close to lunch ,need to get, Laurel.

still snowy thoughts

On this cold and snowing day I remember when Keith was very critical, we were told only a matter of hours before he would pass away, him in Yakima hospital and us on our way, Terry was driving with Mom over to pick me up, this is the first week of January,and that meant two passes between here and there, Terry had already driven nearly 4 hours to get here ,and we had nothing but trouble with Moms cables that they had on, Terry would get out of the car into freezing tempature to repair them,I know it was really hard on his fingers, but he was not going to stop us from getting there. , We didn,t know till then that they delayed shutting off the machines till we got there, somehow we found the hospital ,Mom and I went into his room, to say our goodby, Mom holding one hand and me the other, his wife was in the family room, and the nurse said go get her now, this feels just like it happen yesterday,and that was it, I am pretty sure I can never do that again,it took everything Terry had to get us there,I also had to do that for my Aunt Myrtle in 2001,Its amazing what god gives us the strength to do.

Thoughts about Terry

I,m taking a break right now from trying to arrange a few things ,yes again in my sewing room, my daughter Michelle brought home some items from a garage sale yesterday,these have from 12 to9 drawers in them, four of them, so I thought well maybe I,ll try already cut fabric by the season in each drawer, save one for printed out pattern charts from embroidery sites ,good thing I made room a few months ago, or else Id have to double stack them up , which would not work to well, I,m only 5-2,Loretta, Gary and I are the shorter ones in the family, Keith,Ken, Terry were the tall ones,I think Mom was 5-3,Terry was one of the leaner ones, rest of us were on the chunky side ,I guess I better just speak for myself, Loretta has lost about50 pounds. with her MS that must of been a real challenge,Terry was always working out, or trying to figure something to help him workout different routeins, he even tried a kung-Fu type gym, for about a year ,then he would check himself out to see if he could to something better to get different results,he was never happy with something,but weather he was working in the woods or just at home, he was always busy with that on his mind.He really competed with himself,well time to stop my break,Laurel

Inside and out

Inside and out, this quilt I started thursday night,24 of Feb, and finished last night the 27, thought that I needed it for a birthday gift for Kevins girlfriend Kim, but because of the weather it may have to be delayied till next week, this is a large log cabin design, only took 12 blocks to get the size I wanted for a throw quilt,about 60x 45, a little bigger then I usually make, and the other picture of foot prints in the snow was made by one of my little dogs, lady, she goes in circles to go outside and then goes in more circles to go, she was a rescured dog,,not knowing nothing about her I,m guessing on her at about 7 or 8 ,just by the way she acts, so she really leaves a foot print from her past, I do know she hates to go to bed, just the word she starts to shake, so we don,t say that word very often,she,ll bark a few times before she settles down for the night,hope next week is warmer then this one, Laurel

Snow days

snow days,I know growing up we sure liked to have those days, remember before Terry was born, we lived in White Center, low income housing area in Seattle, it was so cold that our shoes were frozen to the floor, we didn,t have much heat, the oldest brother Gary would go out and look for coal for the family for heat, never did know if mom asked him to or if he went out on hisown, I ,ll try to remember and sak him that when I see him this summer, also we still lived there when Terry would go outside with me to play, on Wednesday afternoon right at 12 sharp they would have a air raid sound alarm practice , terry was afraide of that noise all the time, as long as we were there.Grandma May Ferris stayed with us for a little bit there, i think she was going to a hospital for tests,I think we were in the 3rd grade when she passed away,well need to get to lunch Laurel

sewn items

Not much new here today, Have been busy trying to work on new quilt patten, if it turns out will post a picture, i remember one year I made Terry a sheet set, pillow cases and a quilt, mostly eagles, wonder what happen to that set, Dee may have tossed them after Terry passed away, also mom had made him a really nice indian blanket coat, he wouldn,t even let her see it on him, never did know what happen to that also, and why he would not put it on for anyone to see, i know when it came to 2nd hand items he would not even look at, but on the other hand when he liked a pair of shoes he would buy 4 or 5 pairs of them at once, he said he always wanted his shoes to look nice, now when it came to Keith or Ken, you did not touch their hair, keith did not like grey hair ,Ken it didn,t matter to him.Well back to sewing ,Laurel

Banners

Yes we do like banners, looking at a picture of Terry and I reminded me of our banners, the flag one i recieved from Kens memorial, the others came from garage sales, love to go to those, it all depends on how Dwayne is doing that day weather we can go to one or not, or if i say that its one mainly for ladies stuff, such as sewing items ,I just about have all the holiday covered, wow, It would cost a pretty penny to buy them new, only if I really wanted it, but not yet, Terry really liked to put different items in his yard, don,t know if I have any pictures of them, the more goofy the better, sometimes it was hard to read into what he was doing, we.d talk about how detailed some of his items he was working on for an hour or so on the phone, he,d get really charged up for Halloween or Christmas , living in such small towns you didn,t get to see very large displays, nothing compared to N.Y or the big cities.well I,m starting on a new pattern for a quilt, better hit the books, Laurel.

Terry again

Well its getting close to dinner, try not to fix dinner to late for Dwayne, somedays he,s ready for bed about 7-8pm, so try not to eat no later then 6pm,Terry really liked to cook whenever we went to visit, seldom did we eat out with them, he even planned dessert, he loved blackberries and dumplins , but most of the time when we were in the area Mom wound end up fixing dinner,and other times Gary and Martha would have us stay with them.Terry learned to cook early, Once all we had left home, he had to learn to cook when Mom didn,t, i know that Loretta and I cooked alot,when we were growing up.I cooked for many years when the family would gather here, don,t know if I can still for 40 or more people.Terry and mom moved alot, she marreied 8times I think it was,needless to say we all were in alot of different schools growing up,. I know how hard it was on Terry, never really had a chance to make friends. Keith and Ken lived with Dad, Karl, in the summer they would stay with us,Mom,.Don,t remember if I said anything about our real Dad, Mom and Bill were married till we were about 3 or 4, divorced then several years later Bill married my Aunt Myrle, moms sister, meanwhile Karl had adopted the three of us, Loretta,Gary and me. So my Aunt you could say was my stepmom, and also my dad , Bill could be my Uncle, wonder why our generation did so many different things,I tried to get close to Bill when they moved back up in this area, but by then his health was was not very good, and Aunt myrtle would only want me to see her when she needed help with something.When Dwayne and I starting going together, Dwayne would come over to see me, and Terry was always trying to sit in between us, I would get made at Terry and Dwayne would just laugh about it,I remember one night we thought that Terry ran away, no one could find him, he fell asleep in one of the closets reading something that a boy should not be reading, boy did mom get really mad at him,well better go for now, Laurel

Terry and I, Laurel

Well this was taken around dessert storm, can,t think of the year, everybody was putting a flag on display, in yard ,on buildings and cars and trucks,this was Terry and Dees drivway, went over for a visit to see him and Mom, in Clallam Bay, well mom was in Clallam Bay, this was in Forks,,must of been close to a weekend, I worked then during the week.Hard to believe he was my baby brother, or younger brother, he always laughted when I called him that , he didn,t mind,and he still had some hair, I remember there for a few years he shaved his head , he was so upset for loosing his hair at such a young age. So he said that I might as well be bald.Since he was born I had to help and take care of him, About that time Loretta was starting to get sick, she was then getting a form of MS> so Mom was not at home much, Loretta was at the hospital and doctors alot then, so even when Terry was about 4 or 5 , he always wanted to tag along with me and my friends outside , I d get so mad at him, ,so we were closer then other brothers ,and Loretts was just to sick to be around him then and when he was older Loretta and her husband Dale weren,t around the family much, Dale didn,t want to be aroun d the family,well this is getting a little long for now ,will need to get for now, Laurel

towel gifts, some days I wonder why the mail is soooooo slowwwww, I know it took three weeks one year for a gift to get to Vegas from Washington state, I do know that snow and ice gets in the way, so the next question is why over a week to get from Washinton to Virginia State, and we wonder why it coasts so much to mail items, well off to the drawing boards ,trying to figure out a new pattern, thanks for letting me vent, has a new friend says, Laurel. note my table is clear,working on bible study.

a few summer flowers 2010