13th Birthday means an Afghan from Nana!

And on May 29, 2014 it meant TWO afghans because Max and Sam both turned 13.  We were in Seattle to celebrate however the afghans were just in the process of "becoming" at that time.  So bags of 13 items, each beginning with the first letter of their name had to stand in as a gift.  The way this works, and has worked for years, is that the birthday kid gets to choose their favorite colors and I make the afghan. I've encountered a variety of color combinations from pink, yellow and blue (Trisha, niece); red and black (Matthew, nephew); grey and black (Richard my godson), white (Shayna, niece), black, blue and yellow (Michael, nephew), red, white and blue (Jake, nephew).

Max has always loved red, black, orange and purple.  When I asked him what colors to use in his afghan he dropped the purple and focused on the red, black and orange.  I spent the most time finding just the right pattern to showcase his color choice and found it in the ripple afghan.  I love it and it will be very warm for Max as it is made of single crochets.

Sam hasn't wavered in all the years of having a favorite color so I wasn't surprised when he selected blue and green. I started this afghan when Bill and I spent a few days in Napa on a holiday (thanks to my sister Holly). You can imagine my shock when I realized I was making an afghan that would circle the planet.  It was HUGE!! So, I unraveled and started anew, perhaps two times before finally getting it right. Needless to say, it will keep my Sam cozy on cold Seattle days.

I love working with yarn and patterns and taking a color combination and trying to find the right fit for it. When we were in Seattle for Cousin Jeanne's 70th birthday, we got to celebrate birthdays and I finally gifted the boys their afghans....only five months late but just in time for the crisp autumn days.

 

Welcome to the Placemat Club Willa Chivers!

Three years old!!  The day came on October 20 and the package arrived in time.  With the advent of her third birthday Willa became a member of the Conlin Family Placemat Club. It actually feels like I've been making these placemats forever but they began when Max and Sam turned 12, or was is 11?  Don't really remember but I have one more to make in November for Olivia Belle.  The video of her opening the placemat is precious and you can see it here,  https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10105688406843904

A quilt for Ennis Conlin Chivers

Bernard and Maggie Conlin Family Placemats

Mike and Georgie Gerrard Family Placemats

A Stitch in Time.....catching up on finished quilts

 A quilt made for my sister, Holly Marie.  We spent the weekend in Vino Bello, Napa and I placed the quilt on the bed, unknown to Holly, before going to dinner.  When we returned, it took several minutes to realize that it was there but she was so delighted.  I am delighted knowing that this bright quilt will liven up her bedroom and provide a soft resting place for her naughty cat.

A quilt for sweet Riley Sophia, my great niece.  I started it as a baby quilt and ended up being a third birthday gift.  Featured side-ways, the quilt celebrates the importance of the ocean in her father and grandfathers lives.

 Toni, a friend and co-worker, helped me put together this donation quilt for a shelter to provide refuge for women suffering domestic violence.

A quilt for my niece, Jenna Mae, to celebrate her graduation from high school.  Fun quilt for a special niece.

Liquid Gold

 The day finally arrived when we "robbed" the hive and harvested honey.  It is important to leave approximately 80 pounds of honey for the bees to consume during the winter so we only gathered honey from the supers.  One hive had honey for the taking and we managed to harvest approximately 18 pounds of the liquid gold.

Imagine, it takes the lifetime of 12 bees to produce one teaspoon of honey!  Realizing that, the golden nectar becomes even more valuable than it
actually is for, believe me, this honey is

priceless. 

The gifts of beekeeping are many....I enjoy sitting and watching them as they come and go from their hive.  They do that little "bee dance" at the hive entry to advise their sisters of the best sources of nectar and pollen.  To help them out, I've started planting "bee friendly flowers" in our yard.  I think the bees struggle in Silver Springs to find enough nectar to keep them going.  I also want to thank my neighbors for contributing to the adventure by growing gardens and planting flowers.

 I enjoy watching the bees at their local watering hole, the bird bath and am delighted to see them returning from gathering pollen with their "baskets" full.

I think beekeeping makes me slow down a bit as I watch the bees and enjoy the flowers.  I am thankful for the honey they gave us this year and look forward to the next season.  Now it' s time to prepare for winter; put up the mouse guard to keep themrodents out of the hive, test for vorra mites and feed pollen patties. 

 I'm so very grateful for my dear friend, Debbie, who has walked me through my first year as a beekeeper.  Her knowledge is immense, her patience is equally as large and she shares without reservation.  So, as I write this my first beekeeping season is coming to an end and I'm thumbing through books... looking for more flowers to plant and anticipating the adventure of a new year.

Sorry, Sudoku....you've been replaced.

Sorry, Will Shortz, the Sudoku puzzles no longer appeal to me the way that Zen Doodling does.  As I put that Sharpie pen to paper, I am enchanted with the designs that flow.  Although I'm currently limiting myself to paper and pens, I anticipate sitting at my machine with rich colored Aurifil thread on solid cotton fabrics.  Oh....to imagine!

Food Truck Friday in Reno

She moved seductively, hips swaying as she belted out a Nora Roberts song.  She rubbed up against his leg, and nested on his shoe, knowing how much he loved her!  This was my introduction to Food Truck Friday, a puppeteer well versed in his craft. Cheyenne selected a Vietnamese sandwich from the Dish Truck and Bill tried out ribs from the Saucewagon.  Noah had a burger and fries from Fatburger and  I tried the Asian Tacos from Kenji's...the pork were especially delicious and priced at $1.50/each - best deal of the evening.  Beer from Great Basin Brewery and home-made chocolate ice cream with chunks of chewy chocolate and almonds made the evening perfect.  Then we headed over to Chey's house and watched Freddy Frogface with Noah.  Cheyenne brought out movie candy and offered popcorn to end a fun night with our grand kids.  Check out Food Truck Friday (the first Friday of each month) on their facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/RenoFoodTruckFridays

Birthday Placemats...a year long project.

As you may imagine, my family has lots of birthdays from the oldest, William, to the youngest, Willa Rose, we manage to fill up calendar pages, month after month with reasons to celebrate.  I think the only months we get a breather are February, June and December.  But, if you agree with me, December definitely does not qualify as a "breather."  I decided I wanted to make individual placemats, celebrating what makes each of us unique, so I began in May with Max and Sam's 11th birthdays and followed in July with Larry's 35th! Molly is next, the end of August and then I charge head on into the fall months with celebrations for Chaja, Willa, Marcel, Dylan, Rachael, Scott, Ivan and Olivia.  I'll be so glad to have December "off" for January brings four more birthdays!  I'll be posting pictures of the placemats as I finish them.  Since I'll be doing the little grand daughters closer to their 3rd birthdays, Willa and Olivia will have a wait.  I think this will be a  very long, drawn-out adventure in figuring out how to capture each person's personality in a placemat.

The Best of Dandelion Wine

Queen replacement bee

I'm listening to Ray Bradbury's semi-autographical recollection of a small-town summer in 1928, Dandelion Wine.  This quote is magical  "...searching out the smell of the gold fuzzed bees that hung around our back-porch grape arbor.  Bees do have a smell you know and if they don't, they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers."

Placing the queen in the frames.  The bees will eat through the candy nougat plug and release the queen.  By then they will accept her because of the pheromones she releases.

The Backside Offers the Best View!

Now, I guess that really depends on what you are looking at, doesn't it?  For me, the backside of quilts typically offers the best view of the quilting and the work I enjoy the most.  Rachael, when she and her family visited over spring break, worked on a disappearing nine patch for her mother-in-law, Ellen.  She ended up taking it home to rework the squares and when Bill and I were visiting Seattle in June, she put it together and sent it home with me for quilting.  By rights, the only side I can claim is the backside of the quilt, for that is where my creativity hides.  I finished my part and am returning the quilt to Rachael so she can bind it and prepare the label for this warm and cozy Christmas offering.  And so I offer you the backside of Rachael's quilt.

Feliz Dia de las Madres

Five baby birds on Cheyenne's front door wreath

Mother's Day crosses state lines, national borders and continents.  Mother's Day, a time to reflect on motherhood in general and our own mothers in particular.  Mine was perfect for me...short, fiery and a heart as large as her body.  It's been over five years since her heart stopped beating and I miss her every day.  We didn't always agree but she never expected that.  She wanted her children to speak up when there was injustice, comfort the sick and feed the hungry.  She was a "people person" and we learned from the best.  So, to all mother's everywhere, especially my four daughters who are learning about life from their children, blessings to you on Mother's Day.

Front door nesting site

As Pregnant as a Pea

Something about springtime makes people want to dig in dirt, take in the rich, earthy smell and watch minute particles find hiding places under fingernails.  Bill is the family gardener and he tills the soil well.  I, on the other hand, am more like a butterfly or a dandelion....not one to rely upon, for in a poof!, I'm gone.  I like to be outdoors but prefer to flit about, checking out this or that; digging a hole, pulling some weeds, planting a few seeds but commitment is not in my genetic code.  For that, I look to Bill. Currently, he is planting old seeds with expiration dates that came and went long ago stamped on the colorful envelopes.  Sunday he decided to plant beans and peas and began to head outdoors when I asked why he wasn't soaking them.  "I never have" was his reply.  Having seen Jessie, our neighbor with green thumbs and garden clogs permanently parked on her front porch, soak seeds over the years, I gave her a call and she said to soak them about a day and a half.  As we sat down to dinner tonight, two jars filled with water and soaking seeds were at Bill's place at the table. The beans and peas were swollen with potential, not unlike the belly I gazed upon when I was near term.  He finished his dinner and headed outdoors to find a nesting place for the peas, after all their due date has long passed.  

Poem in your Pocket Day

In celebration of National Poetry Month, we were encouraged to carry a poem in our pockets to share with friends and co-workers.  Thursday morning, April 26, I thumbed through poetry books looking for a poem with my name on it.  As I checked out Billy Collins poems, I looked in particular for The Lanyard.  This poem delights me and I am putting it in my "online pocket" to share with you. Alas, I didn't have enough time to find it and settled on two other poems instead; one for each pocket.  If I didn't get to share my poems with you on Thursday, I will take this brief opportunity to share with you on the blog.

Left pocket poem

Today

                        If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
                        so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze


                        that it made you want to throw
                        open all the windows in the house


                        and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
                        indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,


                        a day when the cool brick paths
                        and the garden bursting with peonies


                        seemed so etched in sunlight
                        that you felt like taking


                        a hammer to the glass paperweight
                        on the living room end table,


                        releasing the inhabitants
                        from their snow-covered cottage


                        so they could walk out,
                        holding hands and squinting
                        into this larger dome of blue and white
                        


                       well, today is just that kind of day. 

 Billy Collins

Right pocket poem

A. B. SEMIC

Death and Me

Death and me.

Death is not withour me.  She is within

from the very beginning:  she grows with me

every moment

                    One day

I stop

                    and she grows on with me

Until she completely outgrows me

reaching my borders.  My ending is

her real beginning:

                    Thenceforth she reigns alone.

Only a few more days to celebrate the poems and poets in our lives.  What is your favorite poem to share?

The Queen Comes to Visit

My Linus Quilt donation

Each year, members of the Ditch Stitchers make donation quilts.  Last year we blanketed the children of the deployed Dragonlords with quilts to comfort them while their mom, dad or both parents were serving in Afghanistan.  This year, we donated our time, talent and fabric to Project Linus.  As we worked on our quilts, we learned that Miss Teen Nevada, Bailey Gumm, set a goal to collect 100 quilts/afghans for Project Linus.  We invited her to our monthly meeting to gift her our quilts, share good food and conversation.  Good luck Miss Teen Nevada!

Members of the Ditch Stitchers