Life

Life....you never quite know what each day will bring. I haven't been blogging much lately or keeping up with all my lovely blogger friends. Lots of babysitting, helping my dad and waiting over the weekend to see if Jimmy needed to make plans to go home to Springfield, Illinois. His mom is failing and last night, he made the decision to book a flight and go home. So as Otto begins his new little life, we say good bye to Anne as she ends her's. She is 97 and has been blessed with quite a long life and a lovely family.

The Quilt Show

This is really a ROMANTIC picture of sewing that made me smile! I don't think the average sewing machine had this type of life. Things have certainly changed. It's a fun vintage advertising piece.
My friend Nancy talked me into going to the Portland Quilt Show on Thursday after our bible study. I was going to skip it this year but I'm really glad that I went.

The quilts on exhibit this year were very arty. It's always interesting to see what quilters are doing and where quilting is moving. I will always adore vintage quilts and traditional quilting, but it is entertaining to see the work of talented quilters. I really liked this quilt within a quilt!

The colors in this quilt were amazing. Wouldn't you like to hang this in your home? Great color.

This quilt was hand quilted and was fascinating to me. Again, lots of color and the shape was so neat.

One of the local exhibits was entitled "Bridges of Portland". Portland has many bridges over the Willamette River which runs through the city. You have to cross a bridge to get from the east to the west side of Portland. They are actually building a new bridge that will be for mass transit, walkers and bicycles only...no cars.

This last bridge quilt was amazing and an award winning quilt. It represents our Steel Bridge. The rivets looked so real! Portland is also the City of Roses, so I liked how the quilter worked in the roses.

This was a fun quilt. I just loved the border. The strand of pearls are so perfect to tie it all together.

This next quilt was made by a friend of Nancy's. She does all this quilting on a regular sewing machine! We met her at the show and she was looking at a small long arm machine for her work.
She actually won a ribbon for second quilt, but I didn't get a picture. I guess I was too busy chatting with her and just forgot.

This next series of pictures is really interesting. One of Nancy's quilt groups took the same little quilt but quilted it differently. The first one is Nancy's piece. She is getting so good with her long arming!

I really enjoyed the quilts at the show this year. I was good and only bought thread from the vendors. I have so many projects to finish up. It is quite tempting when you're are walking around looking at a lot of fun fabrics, patterns and new tools and such! 

Tea Time Thursday #50 and Annabelle

Another cooler yet beautiful fall day here in Oregon. Happy Tea Time Thursday once again. This is number 50. I love the art and books of Sandy Lynam Clough. She is a wonderful artist and illustrator.
I have collected several of her books on tea that are filled with lovely illustrations and tea time ideas.
When I redid the wallpaper in my very small kitchen, I chose this wallpaper by Sandy Clough.

It's been on my walls for years now and I just love to look at it and find the gifts of the Holy Spirit that Sandy has carefully worked into her art work.

I have tucked in several of her books here and there for fun. They are at home in the kitchen.

Annabelle has decorated her home for fall too. She wanted to surprise Annabelle of Montana when she came to visit.

Do you remember that Annabelle of Montana gifted Annabelle of Oregon with this wonderful stove?

A few decorations to welcome fall. The animals wanted to welcome Miss Annabelle too.

Here the girls are together once again. They were having a little tea while they were chatting away for days. They haven't seen each other since last May, so they had a lot of catching up to do.

It's time for a warm cup of tea, now that the weather has changed. I'm having a Rooibos Vanilla this afternoon.

Welcome Fall!

Oh WELCOME FALL! Summer has been reluctant to leave us here in Oregon with a very hot weekend. I am longing for cooler weather and more fall like temperatures. I haven't been posting lately as my dear friend LaVonne from Montana is here for a quick visit. She so needed a break from her busy life and we have been having a great time. I will be posting about our adventures this week.
Of course, when company comes, it's time to clean the house. I didn't want to decorate with all the orange of October, so I decided to do a soft white pumpkin look with my brown tones. I had fun doing something really different for me. Here's a little look to get you in the mood for fall. Enjoy!

Even Mother Nature is getting moving towards fall. We have had a great deal of our famous East Wind again and lots of leaves came falling down. Wishing you a Happy Fall.

Tea Time Thursday #49 and Souvenirs

Most of you know that I am a big Lincoln fan and my Jimmy is from Springfiled, Illinois...THE LAND OF LINCOLN! I found this interesting cup and saucer from New Salem, Illinois. Yes, a souvenir. I love cheesy souvenirs and I think this qualifies for just that. Poor Abe, he looks a bit stern I do believe.

Whenever I get to go back to Illinois, I love to go to all the places on the Lincoln tour. New Salem is a lovely historic park, about 20 miles outside of Springfield. It is a reconstructed village where the young Abraham Lincoln spent 6 years of his life. Volunteers dress up and enjoy telling you about life in the 1830's when Lincoln lived and worked in New Salem. I'm not sure when this teacup was sold there and I'm not sure how it migrated to Oregon, but it's in my collection now.

We all look at Mr. Lincoln on our pennies often. So what can you get for a penny anymore? The very first penny was issued in 1909. I like the graphics of this Abraham Lincoln.

I collect "smashed pennies" so that's what you can do with a penny! I bought this Penny Passport at a souvenir shop at the beach...yes, another souvenir! So, what is a smashed penny?

Many tourist places have these machines. You put in your penny and usually two quarters. You turn the crank and an imprint is stamped onto your smashed penny.

Yes, there was a machine at the wonderful Lincoln Museum in Springfield and I had to get a Lincoln image on my Lincoln penny!  The first penny I ever got was one that a favorite uncle, my Uncle Rich, gave to me when I was a little girl. It has the Lord's Prayer stamped on it and I don't know how it never got lost, but I still have it. My uncle died really young and I have always treasured it.

This is my latest addition to my collection. It's from Alaska when we were visiting earlier this summer.

Maybe it would be fun to put together a bracelet like this one!  I love bracelets.

Happy Tea Time Thursday and happy souvenir gathering and hunting. I know this is a little different than most of my Tea Time Thursday posts, but I had fun with it.