July 2, 2021                   The American Cemetery @ Omaha Beach, France

        On July 4th, the USA will celebrate our Independence Day, when we separated from the British Empire in 1776.  However, we're not celebrating our independence from helping other countries keep their own independence.  We have come to Britain and France and many other countries' assistance in times of war and oppression.  Land of the free, home of the brave.  But not all are free, even in America.  We who can, need to do our utmost to ensure all who live here can feel free and brave.  Lots of work to be done to make that happen.

        I took the photo above during a special trip to Germany, the Netherlands, and France some years ago.  My son and I took his teenage son to see several WWII battle sites and cities that have captivated the imagination of so many of my grandson's generation.  Visiting the city of Berlin and the expanse of Omaha beach were particularly moving experiences.        

          This is the closest I have come to making a 'traditional' red/white/blue quilt in honor of our country.  Different from many quilts I have completed [this one in 2013], it represents some of the patriotism I felt as an American, as a quilt artist.  Like most of my quilts, it was donated - and I trust it is still keeping someone warm when warmth is needed. 

        July 4th, 2021 will dawn in a much different world from the one in which this quilt was created.  The covid virus has changed our culture and that of most countries around the world.  The USA is trying to 're-open' after being shut down in varying degrees for the better part of 15 months.  I trust that some day soon we will find the freedom to live openly and safely once again - each one of us. 

  March 7, 2021  

    This Oregon beach was a wonderful happy place each summer for Lucy [left] and Ellis - Leonbergers who changed our family's lives.  Both are now 'angels' - and deeply missed and loved by us all.  They lived with their humans [my daughter, Lise, and her hubby, Paul], always loving and enjoying hours of swimming and chasing balls and eating a bit of pizza crust every Friday night.  They live on in our hearts.

    Following a detour due to medical issues, I'm slowly returning to quilting, sewing, and art-making.  2021 appears to be a year of potential promise and longed-for family reunions as we become eligible for vaccines and evolving immunities. 

    Every day is a gift.    

 January 30, 2021

     Having spent the past four months working through five different health issues, two hospitalizations, and four or five different antibiotics, I have been derelict in my blogging duties.  I also have been away from my sewing and quilting machines that entire time.  Two days ago, I laid out two equal-sized pieces of  fleece with which I intend to start sewing another double blanket, child-size, for South Dakota,.  

    It's time to move back into life and look into the future.  I'm hoping to receive my first covid-19 vaccination in a few weeks and the second not long after that.  Then comes the 'two week' waiting period after which I will relax a bit from the worry about becoming seriously ill with covid-19.  I've had enough of 'serious' illness for now.  I'm ready for creative activities.  

   The view photo above was taken six and a half years ago, when I took my then-eleven year old grandson to Victoria, BC to view the Viking exhibition at a large museum there.  We enjoyed a circle-island bus tour, and this view looked across  the Strait of Juan de Fuca from Vancouver Island to Washington state's Olympic mountains.  It was a 'back to the future' moment.  I love remembering being drawn into the promise of the return journey to come, and years to enjoy other road-trips together with him.

   Covid-19 has kept me almost totally in self-isolation since this past March.  Outside of the unknown  of the disease itself and how it might affect a person of my age, I have enjoyed the time removed from public view.  I have not enjoyed the separation from family and friends.  Hopefully, that will be gone in the not too distant future.

      

Old Year, New Year

January 1, 2020

   I spent a good part of November, 2019, sewing double fleece blankets for deserving people on the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation in South Dakota.  The blankets pictured are only a portion of those I finished, boxed, and mailed. 
  Earlier last year I sewed this type of blanket for gifting to Head Start pre-schoolers on the Rez.  Quilts I made were also delivered to elders and other adults.  If ever there was a worthy project, this is one! 
  My goal in 2020 is to completely use up a large inventory of fleece that I purchased on sale at Jo Ann Fabrics close to me.  I don't have to drive very far to scratch my sewing itch!
   This morning it's above 50 degrees in the Seattle area - almost spring-like, but dark.  Colder, more wintery rainy days are forecasted to return by this weekend.  If ever there were reasons to stay inside, warm by a lit sewing machine, these days are those reasons.
   My sewing and quilting to-do lists are lengthy, and a New Year stretches out in front of me during which I should be able to finish a lot of blankets to help keep folks warm who live in the freezing temperatures of our country's Great Plains.  This type of creativity feeds my soul, and is a most pleasant occupation that helps keep away the negativity of the journalistic haranguing that is already unfolding regarding the 2020 election.  In the meantime, the summer Olympics in Tokyo are on a nearer horizon and will provide a happy distraction in an unhappy world. 
   My small world in the Pacific Northwest is a happy place, where family are close at hand, and a focus on fleece blankets and quilt-making lights up the dark days outside!
 

Fall Has Fallen
   Here in the Pacific Northwest, the change of seasons is in full swing.  The furnace is coming on early every morning, and darkness arrives earlier and earlier each week.  Leaves began turning color not long ago, and now are drifting off the trees as they dry out.
                                                 

   This photograph was taken on a Vancouver, BC street in 2012, not far from the waterfront.  Amid the glass-fronted buildings, this maple tree in full fall hue was a great example of what inspires the main design feature on Canada's national flag. 
   I'd like to head back north of the border again, but that will be another year.  I've got dozens of fleece blankets to sew for the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, and a baby grandson [born this past June] to watch over for several months when his mom returns to her teaching post at the end of October. 
   South Dakota has transitioned from screaming heat and flooding to nearly-freezing temperatures at night.  Folks without adequate sources of heat are in need of blankets and other warm clothing.  I am warm and clothed and in a position to help.  Time to create more blankets!

Back In The Stitching Saddle

   After a hiatus of some months, I have "fired up" my APQS longarm quilting machine [Lenni] and am quilting again.  I cut out and began piecing this 'log cabin' pattern over twenty years ago, and decided last month that I needed to complete the top and make a backing for it. 
 
This particular pattern requires piecing the blocks [made of strips cut into appropriate sizes] with some accuracy, so the pattern lies straight and even from one block to the next.  In other words, it takes some concentration - and I have to really focus on keeping pieces even and equal.  I can assure you that even with this "easy" pattern, I spent a fair amount of time 'unsewing' here and there, to ensure an accurate design structure.

    The 'log cabin' design pictured above was first discovered centuries ago on mummy wrappings in ancient Egyptian tombs.  After making its way through European countries and then onto the New World, it's safe to say that this has been a design originating in the mists of time!
   
My Lenni has performed like a champ - after a bit of cleaning and oiling, and a few minutes adjusting the thread tension, my quilting machine was off to the races with nary a hiccup!  I can highly recommend the APQS company in Carroll, IA.  Their products are amazing and their customer service all around seems above reproach.  My sales representative, Barbara Mayfield, of APQS Northwest in Issaquah, WA is absolutely wonderful.  Hopefully someone reading this blog feels welcomed to contact her with any questions and maybe even stop into her store to try her longarm quilting machines on for size.
 
Time for another ride. 
   

                                                             
As The World Spins 

Last week I woke up with vertigo.  What a bad morning.

 
  Not recommended.  But survivable.  I've slowly come out of my spinning world, resuming what I can only hope will be a 'normal' life once more.  I learned again [I've experienced vertigo once before, about 14 years ago] that I would fail at being an astronaut without gravity, and my childhood dreams of space flights to distant planets belonged to a different someone who does well with being totally unbalanced.

  Now that my world is 'righting' itself, I've been able to return to my current retirement vocation:  creating fleece blankets and quilts for folks who live on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.  While we've experienced more snow and cold during February than we normally do in the Pacific Northwest, in no way has it been the bone-chilling, non-stop biting blasting cold of the prairies of Pine Ridge in South Dakota.  January, February, March, even April - it's just plain freezing cold there. Below zero cold, and some of those incredible people aren't prepared for it.  The fleece blankets will hopefully continue to travel from my apartment home eastward across half of our country, thanks to the US Postal Service, now that I've resumed sewing and can safely drive to the post office to send them away.

 Once again, my mornings are good, and I'm grateful to be grounded again - and balanced [at least for the time being].