Good Bye 1990's!

I think it's been a long time since I have stripped wallpaper, and that's a good thing!  And luckily, it's only a border strip and not entire walls.  This was so very pretty back in the early 90's in Brita's bedroom, but it has lost its charm!  The room is due for an update.  

Repaint and new flooring to start with.  Then window treatments and who knows what else.  There is still a twin bed in there along with a baby crib.  That's in addition to a boatload of sewing, knitting, crafting materials.  That all had to be moved out during the past few days.  Now small job.  I started out sort of sorting and organizing before packing stuff in boxes, but I'm on a deadline, so most of it just got lumped into boxes and will have to be sorted before it goes back in the room.  I'm leaving in a couple days for a little sewing getaway for a week, and Bob says he will work on the paint and floor while I am gone.  I could not pass up an offer like that!

 Thought I would share a couple fun Christmas pictures with you--we went to North Carolina and had an excellent time with kids and grandkids and friends there.  A very warm and friendly holiday celebration for all of us.  We gave the little boys each a sleeping bag, and they were immediately rolled out on the floor for play naptime!  I tried to get a selfie with Ian and Jack, but it's hard to maintain control of the camera when those little guys want to see what's going on!

Before Christmas, I made a fun new tablerunner for the Christmas display at Bear Patch--

Pattern by Tiger Lily Press, and all those curvy lines are pretty easy to sew.  I'm offering it as a class soon.  I also made the tablerunner shown below--

This one happened on a whim, because we got the new Mini Quick Curve Ruler (by Sew Kind of Wonderful) in the store, and I took one home to try out.  There was a little tablerunner pattern included with the ruler, and that orange and red popped off my shelves to make some quick blocks.  Really not so hard, and I have another pattern for pumpkins made with that ruler in the works.

In October (I think) I worked on this quilt at 2 retreats, and it's finally all together and on display at Bear Patch for a future class.  It is a pattern called Delight from Jaybird Quilts.

I finished the pair of Man Hands gloves I talked about in the previous post, along with a stocking cap.  They are both on their way to Whitefish, MT, to keep Dan from freezing this winter!

It's not very often that I get my kids together in one place, plus my mom, so I have to share our Christmas picture with you!

Back to the wallpaper!

book report

I just finished reading a fun new mystery book, rather, I just finished listening to it.  I think I simply found it while at the library browsing the recorded books shelves.  It is titled The Preacher and is written by a Swedish author, Camilla Lackberg.  (I don't know how to find it on blogger, so I had to skip the correct "a" in Lackberg.  It is supposed to have the 2 little dots over it, which means it sounds like a long A in our terms.)  It's not a lighthearted story, it is kind of morose and creepy at times, like most murder mysteries.  The fun thing about it is that the story is set in a village on the west coast of Sweden, an area that I love and visited many times 40-some years ago.  So I could really picture the scenes with certain locations in mind that I remember, making it seem much more real.  I have now requested another book by this author, since she has published several titles.

And, on a cheerier note, we are ready for our Christmas celebrations!  We aren't having anyone here this year, we are going to visit parents and family.  So we left the big tree and all the ornaments packed away, and brought out our little tree instead.

 And I was able to put together a nice display on the mantel without stockings this year!  This was a decorative box that I found at a furniture store, The Wood Shed, in Augusta, WI.  They have loads of beautiful furniture, much of it made by the local Amish community.  They also carry a lot of decorative accents, like this box.  And those candy canes and lights came from there, too.  The berries came out of my Christmas boxes, and the greens and hydrangeas came out of the yard.  All together, it looks fun and not totally dorky-homemade!

Merry Christmas to all of you!

a little bit of quilting

I have been seriously lacking time to quilt on my longarm, but I hope to kick that habit soon!  Right now I am using a poinsettia pantogram on this Christmas quilt--

The quilt blocks were all made by members of my quilt group, the Ham Lake Piecemakers.  At Christmas time, we take up the challenge to use one or two chosen fabrics to create a block.  Then we have a drawing to pick the winner(s).  Our friend, Thora Lee, won this group of blocks.  She has moved away from the area, but still comes back here occasionally so I hope that this can all get done and be ready for her soon.

One big reason why my quilting time has become minimal is the fact that I have been involved with the kitchen and bath renovation at home.  Some days it just isn't conducive to creative work, and other days I just have to be out of the house.  To have our cabinetry all painted, the 2 rooms had to be completely taped off and sealed up.  The fumes were very strong, and we stayed 3 nights with Ben and Brita.  Here are some pictures of how much has been accomplished--

tile floor in the bathroom looks wonderful

counter tops and sink installation looks fantastic

shower is coming together, still some grout left to do on the dark sections

and the wood flooring is now completely done

I really love to see the craftsmanship that goes into all of this.  I regret that I was not at home when the counter tops were done, because I would really like to see that process.  We chose to use a laminate product, meticulously installed by our friend, Dana Lewis.  He can undermount sinks from a certain manufacturer, and the join is flawless!  And now the faucets and drains are in working order, so we can start using them.  Oh, the things we take for granted!

the story of our holiday

And here's how it all went:

We had a very enjoyable holiday over the last few days.  We did do a little driving, but not terribly much.  It takes about 3 1/2 hrs. to drive to Jackson, MN, where we gather for the Hansen group.  We were there in plenty of time to help with the meal set-up for the ~25 people who could make it.  The food prep is all shared by the families, and sister-in-law Jean has a big open home that can accommodate all of us sitting down to eat at once.  We spend the afternoon visiting, playing card games, snacking, and then we have a little Christmas "service" that is our tradition.  Complete with reading the story of the birth of Jesus, candle lighting and singing of carols.  It is memorable and important for all of us.

After the hubbub of that gang, we spent the next day in relative quiet at the home of my parents.  They live about 30 miles away from Jackson.  My mom loves to cook a traditional meal, so we had ham and turkey and all the fixin's together with my brother and sister-in-law.  Ian, Ben and Brita were with us, but because Ian had been up the night before with a bad croupy cough, they decided not to risk staying overnight and took him home to his own bed.  Thank goodness, his cough improved and we were so glad for that.

On Christmas Eve day, Ian needed a babysitter since both mom and dad had to work.  So he came to visit us for an overnight!  How lucky can we get?!  We had such a good time playing, learning, exploring and entertaining each other.  Brita and Ben joined us Christmas morning, and we had a good lunch of several appetizers, salad and a tray of cookies and candy for dessert.  We tried to learn a new game, Farkle, during naptime.  I know it's a pretty popular game, but we found it a little hard to follow and none of us had ever played before.

Ian looks a little sad below, I think he was not happy because he knew he was leaving Grandpa and Grandma!  But he did get to go home and open up a bunch of other presents, so I'm pretty sure he forgot all about us quickly!

Yesterday I was putting away some of the Christmas wrapping supplies, and found a favorite old album on the shelf.  This was from about 1979 or 1980, a singer, Nicolette Larson,  that I really liked.  I would like to hear it again, especially her songs Just in the Nick of Time and Dancin' Jones.  This was music that I would put on the record player and turn it up when I was cleaning house, and it made the job much easier!  I wonder what happened to Nicolette?  She was partly responsible for my daughter's middle name, Nicole.

I finished some quilting on this quilt yesterday--

I don't remember the pattern but I will find out.  It is going to be a class at Bear Patch this winter.  I quilted it simply with a flower pantogram.  Here is how a pantogram works--

It is a stitching diagram printed repeatedly on a roll of paper, laid on the table that supports the longarm.  Normally, those white rollers would be holding the fabric of the quilt.  You can see the needle at the top of the picture.  On the bottom right, the little blue thing is a laser light clamped to the carriage of the machine.  You can just make out the little red light on the paper below it.  As I steer the machine to keep the laser light on the stitching line, the machine is running and the needle is stitching on the quilt fabric.  This is a good functional way to do some quilting that gets the job done faster than most freehand designs.

And that's the lesson for today!

P.S.--sorry for the weird picture placement and spacing, having a few issues with them not following my directions!  They are all supposed to be appearing in the center of the page, according to my formatting, but something is not lining up correctly!

Merry Christmas

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A Holiday Greeting to my faithful blog readers!

Best Wishes for the Holidays!

Whoa!  There has been some time lapse since the last posting here!  Sort of slipped onto the back burner for a couple weeks.  Actually, I was busy posting (and still am) over on the Bear Patch blog every day for our 12 Days of Christmas event.  So handy to use the wonders of the internet even when I am away from home.  The same magic happens in Arizona just like it does from my chair at home!

And suddenly, I have only a few days until Christmas!  Since we are having some family gatherings on Saturday and Sunday, I have only today plus 2 more days to organize what's going to whom!  I have some handmades to gift, along with some other goodies, but the shopping has been minimal so far.  Have made good use of the availability of items via the internet, plus the shipping is fast and when done via Amazon it's FREE due to the fact that I paid for a Prime membership.  That has proven to be totally worth it for 2 reasons:  the free shipping plus the free video availability for movies and programs on TV.

Decorating has been low-key around this house, we chose not to put up our big tree for a change.  So we are using this little fella instead and I like the pretty simplicity--

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care--

and gathering little lumps in them gradually.  Next year there will be one more stocking for the new little grandson, and I think I might have to get a bigger mantle!  Got a big box shipped off to Dan in Montana, he won't be with us this year and I just hope the box gets there in time.  Wish I could have Amazon ship all of my things, because they sure get it to happen fast!  Sort of like the Jimmy John's of the shipping world!  The package arrives a few minutes after the order is placed!

Bob and I bought presents for each other already so that eliminates some planning and shopping--

we really needed to retire our good old couch and recliner, they had become less comfortable for sitting without extra pillows for back support.  Not sure whether it was a result of aging bodies or aging cushions, but we are loving the comfort of these new pieces!  We got extra firm seat cushions on the couch, and they are just right!  The only downfall I have encountered is that this couch has exposed space underneath so the floor has to be kept clean down there!

From our couch to yours, Merry Christmas!

assorted thoughts

I finally finished the bind-off for a scarf that I have been working on for quite some time, but a project that didn't need to be rushed since it was for myself and it's the dog days of summer here--80 degrees and plenty o' humidity!  There is a link in the title below the picture that will take you to the source for the directions.  This is not my first Mini Mania, I have shared it before.  And I have shared it with several people that I know, all of them working on their own version now.

Another "Mini Mania" scarf done!

We have had a few babysitting gigs lately, much to our delight!  Since I haven't shared any recent pictures of our little guy, here you go--

This was towards the tail end of one of our many walks, but this time he declined the stroller and strutted his stuff.  Got a little tired, but slept really well!  I can carry him for a bit, but his is packing on the pounds.  And Bob can't even lift a gallon of milk yet, so he has no choice.

I have carved out a some time for a little indulgence in watching this series--

And I can say that I have enjoyed this bit of historical fiction, and look forward to the next season!

I have been learning some more things about the embroidery attachment for my sewing machine--Bernina 730-- and have accomplished a finished project!

This is a pattern and embroidery design from Claudia's Creations.  I felt quite a sense of accomplishment with this, I have a bit of trepidation when it comes to this new venture in computerization.  New to me, that is!  But it really went off without a hitch, once I got it going!  So there will be more ahead, I am sure!  The design CD and instructions are available at Bear Patch.

a very special memory

When my Brita was just a little bit of a thing, she loved books and learning letters and learning to read and write.  She liked to write little "stories" about things that happened.  For a Christmas letter to her grandpa and Grandma Hansen, she wrote them a little "poum".  I think she was 5.  She wrote phonetically and we didn't worry about pushing her to learn correct spelling, feeling that it was just more fun for her to write her own way.  Grandpa and Grandma Hansen are both gone now, and an auction is coming up.  Yesterday we were able to gather together a few special mementos from their house, and this was an important thing for us to bring home.

A translation might be helpful:

A Poem About Christmas
Dear Grandpa and Grandma
The Christmas tree shimmered in the living room as people came walking in the house to celebrate Christmas.  People were singing beautiful songs about Jesus.  People were passing out candles and then they sang "I am lighting my candle because I want Christ to be the Light of my Life".

That last part refers to a Christmas tradition for our extended Hansen family.  We all sit down together and take turns reading the story of the nativity, singing carols, and finishing with a candle lighting.  We pass the light from person to person around the circle, and we recite the verse Brita wrote at the end of her "poum".

Grandma Hansen framed this and always had it hanging in her kitchen at Christmas.  I am going to get a copy for myself to hang here, and I'm sure Brita's will hang in her own home.  I'm so glad it has been saved for us!

in the works...

I have been a busy girl lately, getting quite a few things accomplished and crossed off the list.  Here is the report:

A road map playmat for Ian, whenever he gets big enough to be entertained by little matchbox cars.  This was a printed panel which I quilted to a layer of craft felt.  I outlined around the roads and railroads, then serged around the outside edge for a quick and easy finish.  I am thinking that it needs a little tote bag to keep it with the appropriate cars.  This makes me remember when my kids were little, and how the car/truck thing seemed to come naturally to my little boy, more so than my daughter.  And little boys seem to be able to make that little buzzing motor noise naturally, too!

I think Ian is already thinking about playing on his mat!

Little boys need little mittens to match their little hats and blankies, so here you go!  We are going to try either mitten clips or the cord through the sleeves, and hopefully they will stay on better than his socks!

Pair #2 for Ian started.

I found the metal clips with the sewing notions at Joann's and sewed the elastic to the clips.  Next time I will look for colored elastic!

This looks kind of messy, but it's a work in progress.  This is a lattice strip quilt that I have started and have about half of the blocks made.  I laid it out to get some perspective, and have concluded that it's just not right.  Debbie suggested that the solid gray squares would be better white.  I am thinking at this point that I might just stop and start fresh with a different group of fabrics.  We have a lot of great solids at the store and I am thinking about using those.  I would like to get this done to teach as a class this winter, it is made with the use of partial seams and that would be a good technique for our quilters to know.

 Time to get some binding on a quilt that was wonderfully hand quilted for me by my mom--

I made the top a few years ago and when she told me that she was looking for something to go on her quilting frame, I was more than happy to provide this!  Her little stitches are so straight and neat!


I just took this Christmas quilt off my machine frame and will deliver it to Leisl later today.  She will put the binding and finishing touches on it and then we will display it at the store.  Not distinguishable from here, but I quilted a poinsettia design on it in red thread, and it turned out great.

There are a couple of other customer quilts that I have recently done that made it out of here without photos.  One of them was another lesson in perseverance for me, due to the fact that I had a lot of problems with skipped stitches. This resulted in hair-pulling, headaches, curses, tears, ripping stitches, tweaking thread, tension, timing and anything else I could think of.  Some advice from my company rep finally got me back on track, and the quilt was finished and delivered to the owner, who loved it!  99.9% of the time my machine works like a precision tool, but every now and then something goes wacky and makes me very cranky!


 Next up on the quilting frame--

happy holidays

This holiday printable is available free here. Maybe I could get it printed and framed in time for Christmas 2012!

nearing solstice

As our hours of sunlight grow increasingly shorter, we are all wrapped up in the Christmas holiday festivities. This made me wonder if there was any direct connection between these 2 significant events, so I looked it up to try to figure it out. But the explanation didn't really clarify it for me, a lot of references to really ancient times, actual number of days in a year (more that 365) and variations in calendars. I did learn that Leap Day helps correct for that fracture of a day greater than 365. That happens to be the expected date of the appearance of my little grandson, so I'm wondering if we are looking at a lifetime of adjusted birthdays for the little guy!

We have trimmed back on the trimmings this year, guess we are going the minimalist route. A little greenery on the stair rails, ascaled down tree, and of course, stockings hung by the chimney with care. I did get a package shipped off to #1 son since he won't be traveling home for this holiday. I only hope that it gets to him and his housemates before the 25th, so they will have our presents on the appropriate day.

Still working on a few little gift things--Brita had asked for some of these zipper bags to replace the old ones I had made, they are great for travels. The white mesh can be purchased at fabric stores like Joann's. The red mesh can be purchased at your local produce market, along with fresh fruit or vegies! I hadn't sewn on it before, and found it less wonderful to work with, but as long as it holds together I am happy!

A little knitting has been snuck in during a few hours on the couch, continuing with a baby afghan that had been on a break while I searched for some more of the gold yarn. It is Cottonease and that happens to be a color that is either being phased out or just plain unavailable in the stores around here. I tried something new and searched on Ravelry for someone wanting to sell it from their own stash. I lucked out and connected with a nice woman who sent me 2 more skeins, so I can make this blankie big enough to last. Also starting a new scarf from the Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn purchased last summer in Bishop, CA, at Sierra Cottons and Wools.

Baked scones for the first time from this recipe-

Not 100% sold on them, although you would think there is enough butter and sugar and spice in them that I wouldn't be complaining! I guess they just aren't as good as some others that I've had.

This brings me to the subject of Pinterest. Because I have that recipe on my food board there. If you haven't heard about or visited or tried Pinterest, check it out. But I am warning you, it can suck up some time! It is like a bulletin board of my favorites and bookmarks, sorted into categories, and accompanied by a visual cue to remind me what my bookmarks are! There are a ton of interesting ideas that can be gleaned from one another's boards, all with a link back to the origin. Kind of cool.

My family has been asking me what I want for Christmas, and all I can come up with is a new bathrobe since the one I am using is a raggy hand-me-down from my daughter. I think it was a gift to her for a Christmas past and wasleft behind on a hook in her bathroom so I claimed it! Not a very excitingwish list, so I think I will add something else that I want:

a lovely tattoo! Which, by the way, I found on Pinterest!

holidays and health

It seems like we talk a lot about how much we have to do and how busy we all are during this month of December. Often I think we have an attitude that it is just all too much, and we get very little enjoyment out of what is intended to be pure enjoyment! So I am focusing on the big 4: family, friends, faith and fun! I do what I can with what I have, and keep reminding myself that it is all good.

We always do some outdoor lights, but simply done. A couple strings on the front porch, maybe a small tree near the road, and that's enough. Then we light up the tree in the house, and depending on my mood and time, we might wrap the log beams with garland and lights. Altogether, they create a nice glow and a noticeable bump in our electric bill! We have decided to convert over to LED lights for their low-energy consumption, but we don't want to shell out the money for a total light makeover. So we started with 3 new strings for the porch lights this year, and will add more as we go. They do seem to have more light output, I hope we don't have any wandering aircraft mistaking our front yard for a landing strip!

We had a little excitement this week and a reminder of how lucky we are to be living in the 21st century. My sweet parents had a bad scare when my dad's heart started acting up a bit. Here's my mom and dad from about a year or so ago--

Normally healthy and happy, this pair just seems to keep on ticking. They really are those people who are "young for their age", and although they have slowed down a bit over the years, they keep plenty active. This really is the first experience of this type for him, and was distressing at times, but overall things went smoothly. He developed a very slow heart rate, which brings with it additional problems. A heart rate of 35 might be desireable for a marathon runner, but not so much for an 85 year old guy! A quick helicopter ride from Worthington to Sanford Medical Center in Sioux Falls, pop in a pacemaker, and voila! Looking and feeling much better! These little devices seem routine and commonplace to someone like myself who has worked in the medical field for many years. But when I step outside of that perspective, this can seem much more amazing. And if this had happened 50 or 60 years ago, my dad would not have had such a good outcome from this heart problem. In fact, his life would have suddenly become severely limited and shortened. So THANK YOU to all those medical researchers, past and present, who work continuously in some lab somewhere, doing a job that might be considered boring and tedious.

When we found out early Tuesday that we would be taking an unplanned trip to Sioux Falls, I needed to quickly get not only some clothes packed, but a project or 2, of course! I had started out a pair of socks not so long ago, using the technique that lets me knit both socks at once, so I tossed that in the car to keep my hands busy. I am using a nice yarn called Noro Silk Garden Sock, which I purchased early in 2009. I would have liked to work on it sooner, but ran into a little problem. To make these socks, I needed to divide the one skein of yarn into 2 equal balls. But then one ball disappeared, and I had no idea what happened to it. I looked high and low, and resigned myself to the fact that it was permanently gone. I occasionally looked at the one sad ball remaining, and wondered what to do with it, but never was able to pick it up and do anything with it. Lucky for me I didn't! Because 2 years later, when I am removing couch cushions to clean underneath (yes, I know I should do that a little more often than once a decade) I find that missing ball of yarn way smooshed down in the crack! So I finally was able to cast on for those socks, and was making a bit of progress during waiting room and drive time this week. Until I looked more closely at what I had been creating, and realized that the cuff was going to be too small to fit over any ankle that is not emaciated! So time to rip back, and recalculate. These socks are a long time coming! Maybe I will eventually have enough to take a picture of and share, but no guarantees!

a special gift

We are back home and getting sorted out again to resume a partial routine. The holidays were festive and fun and fattening and tiring! We had mild weather and no storms, unlike last Christmas, so driving to visit family was not life-threatening. Surviving the delicious meals and treats was more of a threat! I managed to bring home 2 more pounds than I left with, so will need to focus on that along with getting back on the treadmill.

Lest you think that all of my Christmas decor is totally tacky and gorilla-laden, I want to show you this very special hardanger tabletop piece on my Christmas tablecloth--

This was made by my friend, LeAnne, and it is a treasure. This example of needlecraft shows the intricate nature of the stitching, the little open squares shown in the picture on the left are shown in detail on the other picture so you can get some sense of what goes into this work of art. Since this needlecraft is connected to Scandinavia, it is not unusual to see it in this area of the country full of Johnsons, Olsons, Larsons, etc. But of all the people I know who do many kinds of handcrafts, I know of only 2 women who still know how to do hardanger.

Our Christmas Eve kick-off was a fabulous sleigh ride with our North Carolina visitors. Steve Wood (the fellow in the red jacket at the reins) was our host at Wildwood Sleigh and Carriage near Elk River (actually closer to Nowthen, one of the best named towns ever). Steve raises and trains horses to pull people around, much to our delight. Steve also doubles as an excellent vocalist and choir director at our own little church, Cedar United Methodist. We had a fun excursion around the woods and fields, and even learned interesting facts about the area and its history.

After the ride Brita and Ben took a moment to thank our team for the trip!

One of the fun things that were given to me this year is perhaps one of the simplest, again proving that it doesn't require a lot to make an impression! Not everyone might think this is so special, but one of my necessities and favorite things is ziplock bags--they are my go-to storage system for my sewing, quilting, knitting, etc. So when Nancy gifted me 2 boxes of these bags I was in my happy place!

These are the Istad bags from IKEA, in 4 sizes and colors and designs. A sampling of them is traveling back to CA with Dan to go to Katy, who is a fellow appreciator of special bags. I have not yet met Katy, but I feel we must be kindred souls because we both like the same bags and Marimeko fabric!

I leave you today with a snapshot of my 2 little kids, happy to be together.