Oliver

I'd be remiss in my Grandma duties if I didn't post a picture now and again. Wouldn't I? He's thinking about sleeping though the night or at least Mom and Dad are dreaming of the day. He does sleep in his big crib now and he has started solid foods. Who can account for taste -- he likes baby food peas!

Catch-up

My latest Hexagon Project

Jo and I are exchanging center flowers and then adding our own next ring. My second ring is all Moda marbles with a few shadow play when the color was right. I am using 3/4" diamonds and triangles as connecting paths. These are all tiny prints with flowers in them and I have 11 different fabrics that I am adding in sets of 3. Toralf calls this my Mitsubishi quilt!

My Mexican Bathroom

This is the catch-up part.

I finally finished the Cactus basket wall quilt for my Mexican bathroom. It is 4 - 16" blocks that I rotated. The striped fabric is cut from a set of Mexican napkins, a non-traditional heavy woven fabric. Because of that and the diamonds, I English paper pieced the whole thing. It is an optical illusion. The diamonds are 2 different sizes and of the 3 cactus flowers in each basket only one is really square. Picture below shows the paper (card stock) and more accurate colors. I printed the paper pieces on EQ which was handy. I had to trim the foundations for the striped squares to by about 1/8" to make them fit. I was pleased with the accuracy and flatness of the piece and it was a pretty cuss free project this way :)

Picture below is my shower curtain inspired by the classic blue/white Mexican Talavera tile designs that were everywhere in Mexico. Now I just have a second wall hanging and a wool proddy rug to finish and my bathroom will be complete. Shower curtain has a tiny gold flippy between the body and the center and you can see my bright gold walls peeping through in the background. The shower curtain is lined like a curtain to give it a finished look and not quilted. It hangs with a plastic liner.

Happy Mother's Day

We went for a long (2 hour) bike ride up the Rattlesnake this morning -- a gorgeous sunny day with temps in the low 70's, very comfortable for biking. I printed out the picture on a t-shirt transfer and added the bicycle. I should have added 2 bicycles, one for me and one for Toralf.  It was nice to be out and enjoy the sun. There is still quite a bit of snow on the mountain tops. I made the picture into a little mini quilt for my journal of mini quilts -- a quick fun momento.

Happy Mother's Day. Mother's Day takes on new meaning for me as I recognize and celebrate my daughter-in-law celebrating her very first Mother's Day and remember my mother who is gone.

-o0o-

Montamos en bicicletas por dos horas cerca de los montañas éste manaña -- un día espléndido con mucho sol y temperaturas cerca de 21C -- muy comodo en bicicletas. Imprimo el foto en papel especial imprimir fotos en tela y añado la bici. Debo añadir dos, uno para me y la otra para Toralf. Fue muy agradable afuera en el sol. Todavia hay mucha nieve encima de las montañas. Coso la foto en una colcha chiquitita para me diario de colchitas -- un recuerdo divertido.

Feliz Día de las Madres. Este dia tiene sentido nuevo para me. Es la primer Día de las Madres para mi nuera y tambien recuerdo mi madre.



Happy Easter!

I made this little quilt for our quilt show in June. The theme is  "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend. It was fun to play with the theme a bit.I really like humor in quilts. Then I realized it could be a cute little Easter Quilt as well.



Last Sunday Oliver got to visit the Easter Bunny. He kind of liked the way the fur felt. Saturday Toralf's nephew and his wife and toddler are going to come visit. There is a children's event in the park near here so perhaps he will see the Easter Bunny again.

 In the meantime Happy Easter from all of all to all of you!

-oOo-

He hecho éste pequeño colcha para nuestro exhibición de colchas en junio. El tema es "Diamontes son las amigas mejores de las chicas." Fue divertida jugar con el tema. Me gusta humor en colchas. Tambien parece bien para La Pascua.

El sabado pasado Oliver visitó con el Conejo de Pascua. El le gusta el toca de piel. Sábado el sobrino de Troalf y sun esposa y niño van a visitarnos. Hay un evento en el parque cerca de nosotros. Quizas los niños pueden ver el Conejo otra vez.

Entretanto ten un muy buen Santa Semana y Pascua!



News from Oliver

I wear special bands on my arms called "No Nos" so I don't put my fingers in my mouth. I don't like them very much and am learning not to touch my face all by myself. If I stay calm I don't have to wear them. I have to eat with a syringe and I don't like this either but Grandma and Grandpa help me stay calm.



This is me after they took my stitches out on my nose. Now I don't have a blue "button"."My tongue is pretty cool. I can touch my chin with it now. It is also kind of neat to lick my new lips.

-o0o-

Llevo éstas cosas en mis abrazos. Se llamen "no-nos." No me gusta éstas pero tengo que llevarlos. Me ayudan porque no puedo tocar mis labios or nariz por 3 semanas. Tengo que beber con una jeringa. Es diferente y no my gusta esto tampoco. Mi abuelo y abuelita ma ayuda quedar con calma.

Este es mí despues de quitan puntadas de mi nariz. Ahora no tengo un botón azul en mi nariz. Mi lengua is divertida. Puedo tocar mi barbilla y lamer mi labio nuevo.



Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The Baby -- 6 months old today! He weighs about 17 pounds and can sit up on his own now.
He has one tooth and is working hard on another.

Surgery is still on track for March 22. As soon as that is definitely in the works we will head down to babysit. Prayers welcome.

The Boys -- growing up is hard work.

The cats-- note who got the quilt:)

Oliver tiene 6 meses hoy. Pesa 17 libras. Tiene 1 diente y otro viene. El ouede sentar solo ahora.

La cirugia todavia está planeado para 22 de marzo. Tan pronto como tiene la cirugia vamos a manejar allá otra vez para cuidar  el. Oraciónes acogida.

Death Valley -- Valle de Muertos



We left Missoula on Valentine's Day headed for Death Valley to camp for a week by way of Las Vegas and Hoover Dam. Vegas isn't my cup of tea but the damn was fascinating. 

Death Valley --  These are salt flats. To us northerners it looked like snow.

 

 Ruins of a borax mine. This was the primary mining interest in the valley though some gold was found there as well.
The wagons of borax were pulled by a team of 20 mules just like the commercial for borax says.






 
Sunrise. It surprised me how mountainous the area was. And also the snow on the mountains.

Death Valley is a land of many contrasts from some of the lowest area on earth to some of the taller mountains in the US, from extreme heat in the summer to quite cold in the winter.





Scotties Castle, built by a wealthy Chicago insurance mogul before the Depression, the fulfilment of an incredible dream, an oasis in the desert and the object of much folklore, another interesting tour.







These are charcoal kilns up in the mountains where there was forrest land to cut. They look like beehives to me.

This is definitely an area we would like to go back to and explore further.

 Manzanar National Historic Site

As we headed from Death Valley to Folsom we stopped at Manzanar. This was quite a moving visit. It is the site of one of the larger Japanese internment camps during WW2. Most of the building are now gone but the main community hall at the camp has been turned into a visitor center with many pictures and voices from the original camp.  Fort Missoula was also the site of an internment camp but a much smaller one. Somehow seeing this huge camp in the middle of high dessert country made a greater impact on me.

Foto 1: Presa de Hoover

Salimos de Missoula 14 de enera acampar en El Valle de Muertos. Manejamos  por Las Vegas (No me gusta) y Presa de Hoover (fascinante!).

Foto2: Valle de Muertos

Esto es sal por la valle. A mí parece como sal.

Foto 3: Ruinas de un lugar donde procesaban borax.

Borax era la mineral mas común en el area aunque fue algo do oro tambien. Las carros eran tirado por 20 mulas como la comercial dice.

Foto 4: La Madrugada 

Me sorprendaba todas las montañas en el area  y tambien el nieve. El Valle de Muertos es un lugar de extremos, lugares muy bajo y muy alto, muy caluroso y muy frio.

Foto 5: Castillo de Scotty

Construido por un hombre rico de Chicago antes de depresión, un oasis en el desierto -- increible!

Foto 6: Hornos de Carbón

Ubicado en los montañas cerca del bosques para encender. A mi parece como colmenas. El parque es sin duda un lugar que queremos visitar otra vez.

Foto 7: Manzanar Sitio Historico Nacional

Cuando salimos del parque manejando norte hacia Folsom paramos a Manzanar. Este es el lugar de un campo de internamiento de japonesa durante La Guerra del Mundo 2. La mayoria de los edificios son desaparecidos pero el centro de comunidad queda. Ahora es un centro para visitantes. Tenemos muchos fotos y voces del pasado. Fue una visita muy emocionante.