travel here and there

We've been visiting back home in Iowa for Thanksgiving.  We had a yummy dinner at my brother and sister-in-law's place on the farm.  We had both wild and domesticated turkey and all the necessary side dishes.  The wild turkey was contributed by my nephew, Spencer, from a spring hunting foray.

Back at my mom's we took care of the list of odd jobs that she needed doing.  And had some reading and sewing time.  I finished up these 3 hexagon pieces, each made from 6 triangles.  They don't necessarily look like they go together, but they might all end up in the same quilt!

The maple leaf print was a souvenir from a trip to Fernie, British Columbia, last May.  If you are ever there, make sure you visit the Cotton Tree Quilt Shop.

I've been admiring some of the artful decor here at my mom's, so I took some pictures to share.  My mom and dad traveled all over the world, and brought back interesting things from all over.

This plate is displayed on the mantel and mom can't quite remember where it came from.  This label is on the back--

 Looks like Greek to me!

The colors and designs are very impressive.

These pieces came from Russia, from Petrozavodsk, a town northeast of St. Petersburg.  They went there to teach English in a Russian school for several weeks.  These were given to them in gratitude for their volunteer work.  The colors are very rich and vibrant.  The gold seems metallic.  They are made of wood.

Also from Russia, but not sure exactly where.  I love the shades of blue and red and gold in the figurines painted on a large (about 5" high) wooden egg.  I would love to know the stories behind the characters.

one turkey bit the dust

 We had a lovely drive down to "home" in Iowa last Saturday, and a Thanksgiving dinner with my parents, brother and sister-in-law on Sunday.  It was a very good dinner and afternoon.  Mom cooked a turkey roast instead of the whole bird, and that was just the right size.  Plus, she cooked it in the crockpot so the oven was free for the side dishes.  We (Bob and I) will celebrate the actual Turkey Day at our place so Bob can be handy to his computer and troubleshoot problems that might arise at work.  Somebody's gotta' do it, and this time it's Bob's turn.

I will be finishing up this quilt while Bob is tuned into whatever football marathon he can find!  This is for Laurel, who will be teaching a class on it at the store.  An update on the traditional Dresden Fan blocks.

I have been intending to share some books with you, since I know many of you like to read something new.  And we are coming up on a good season for giving and receiving books, so maybe this will give you some ideas:

Brita suggested this one to me--

It is a murder mystery by an Irish author, Tana French.  It is set in Dublin, and the reader that I am listening to while driving and quilting is British, so the accent really gets me into the story.  And it is a good mystery, not something I can figure out yet and I am on disc 13 of 18.  Plus, she has written 3 more books that I believe are all about the same police detectives.  This is the first in the series, so you should start with this one.

Here's a book that my sister-in-law, Jean, recommended:

Secret Daughter by June Cross.  This is a memoir of a bi-racial woman who grew up in a divided world.  I'm not very far into it, but am curious about how it plays out.

Then, a reliable writer that always comes up with some good lawyerly story:

I am about halfway through The Litigators, and am continually amazed at the treachery and trouble that lawyers can get involved in!
So, between recorded books, actual paper books, and Kindle books, I have a good assortment.  Plus, there's a stack that have made the cut and moved from the basement bookshelf to my suitcase for my upcoming vacation reading!  What are you reading???

turkey day approaching

I had a chance to work with my cameraman (Bob) last night while I was quilting and thought I would post it here for you--

We are still learning!

I did finish up this quilt last night, and started on the next one. This one is for myself and I wrote about it already here. I think I will be doing a freehand design over the entire piece, which isn't really large but will be perfect for sitting on the couch. I don't think it has any chance of being ready for tomorrow's couch time so I will have to use a substitute. One thing I am not short of is choices for a quilt to curl up in!

What are you doing for Thanksgiving! We will be having fun just enjoying a day off, but the best part will be spending time with Brita and Ben, celebrating the first big holiday in their new home! Ben will be doing a lot of the cooking since Brita will be working at the hospital (we are very used to this necessary evil since it has happened many times during our nursing careers) and his preliminary menu has me drooling! We will be traveling to visit other family on the weekend, providing the roads are OK. There is snow forecasted for today, but hopefully it will be minimal. On the other end of that minimal snowfall is our son, Dan, enjoying multiple feet of fresh snow in Mammoth Lakes, CA. That's feet, not inches! Luckily, he will be able to spend the holiday with his CA family in San Francisco--thank you Jan and Dennis! However, his drive over the mountains will likely be extended due to road closures. Let's hope he makes it safe and sound and in time for turkey!

Please enjoy your holiday in whatever way makes you happy!

Turkey Day report

I have the Thanksgiving report for you today, and then the much-anticipated big reveal of my Posse Pass. What's that, you ask? Well, you just wait and see!

Bob and I drove over the river and through the woods (sort of) on Thanksgiving, heading south towards Lake Park (IA) with a stop in Jackson(MN) along the way. Have you ever driven anywhere on Thanksgiving or Christmas? It's really hard to find something to eat on the way! All we wanted was a snack of some kind to tide us over to the real food, but we found fast food places closed at 11 so we ended up getting a cookie and a muffin and coffee at a gas station! We had not thought that we would be able to join the Hansen dinner but when the Herbert dinner got moved till later, we decided to swing by Jean's house to say hi to the family there. Arrived just as the turkey was being passed and Jean had saved 2 seats for us, how lucky can we get!? I think there were 14 people there, and we ate rather conservatively (well, at least I did!) and had a good, although brief visit. Then it was another 30 or so miles to Lake Park to my parents house where the turkey was roasting on the grill and the table was set. Jarry, my brother, likes to grill the turkey over charcoal, so he was in charge of that and my mom had prepared the rest. We are a smaller group, there were 8 of us around the table. It was a delicious dinner.

My mom likes to work on hand quilting during the winter, so she has started on this project.

It is an old quilt top of unknown origin, probably something a great grandma might have pieced together. It is feedsack fabrics and just randomly placed squares and rectangles of great variety. I did a little bit of cleaning and patching on it and now she has it on the frame. We decided to just use a muslin backing and will probably bind it with a solid color.

And the lovely day ended with this colorful sunset over Silver Lake.

The fun continued throughout the weekend with special attention for my mom's 80th birthday the day after Thanksgiving!

She really doesn't look 80 at all! She's not sure when this was taken, but she looks lovely in her good dress (which I am sure she sewed for herself). This looks like the yard at our farmhouse, complete with the fuel oil barrel in the background. We drove out to the farmhouse on Friday, it is not habitable anymore so stands empty and sad.

So it was a busy and fun weekend, catching up on a lot of family news and happenings. And just a few weeks until we get to do it again for Christmas! We are lucky that we are within driving distance of our family homes and that many of the relatives still live in the area. They are a good bunch!

sliding downhill fast

Choose one of the following to describe the picture:

a. Olympic slalom champion in training

b. cover guy on Mammoth Mt. website

c. quilt pattern cover design guy

d. very happy transplanted MN son

It's great for us long distance parents to see and hear that Dan is doing something that he loves to do. Not everybody is so lucky. To get to use your education in a job that also happens to be your passion--what could be better? Well, maybe living closer to your mom would be good!

Back home again tonight after several great days visiting our families. It was a good trip with great celebrations: Thanksgiving, birthday, card games, dinners out. But we headed for home today after church in Jackson, in time to enjoy the Vikings' victory! Well, actually I was quilting through the entire game, but I was cheering them on subconsciously.