Thanksgiving 2011, Split the Baby

We traveled, we split the baby, we ran, we headed home.  Such was our whirlwind visit to Oklahoma.

My folks live in Clarlemore, Oklahoma near Oologah lake.  The fog was rolling in when Chelsea and I walked Fawn in the early morning.

We ran the Owasso YMCA's Thanksgiving Day Hog Jog.  It was a 5K race.  The important thing is I got to run with my daughter, Chelsea and her cousin, Kyleigh.  My dad, sister, Lisa and her daughter, Rian, as well as Kyleigh's husband, Jared and daughter, Nora were in attendance, along with Tea, Rian's daughter.  In essence, my whole family was there.

Like Sampson and the decision, who gets to keep the child, when you live a 10 hour drive away, we must split the baby and share our kids with both sets of families.  Bob's family lives in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

Yes, there are all kinds of Indian jokes about the names of the towns in Oklahoma.

I had grand plans to work on quilts and teach my daughter how to make one.  She has made one, but, this was to be another balloon quilt which she was really excited about at the time, but, splitting the baby means traveling back and forth from grandparents to grandparents, as well as great grandparents.

I got a hat and I'm ready to attend the Winning Purse Luncheon

Yes, I got a hat.  I think I was inspired by the Royal Wedding.  America has it's own big hat day, that's the Derby at Churchill Downs.  The first Saturday in May is our version of the Royal Wedding, I suppose.  Women don their best dresses and hats for the day.  

I'm going on the Wednesday before the Derby.  The Derby is just too much chaos.  You can't even see the horses, there are so many people there.  I will be in the Trophy Room on the Wednesday before.  We will be helping to raise money for the Mom's Closet.  It's a charity that gives women a hand up, not a hand out.  In other words, you must be making movement forward in your life, attending school and working.  So these women need help with their children and finances.  Each woman that in the program needs about 2,000.00 a year to help them through the year.  This includes financial aid for school.  This sometimes excludes them from the Food Stamp Program from the government so there is a pantry of donated items on hand for weekly help with groceries.  

Quilters through Quilters' Day Out, this year, gave about a ton of groceries to them.  My part in that was to bring them into our program and give them some publicity for the good work they do.


Now I'm donating, at least 2 quilts to the silent auction and raffle ticket sales.  I'm hoping to finish a third quilt, but, things keep coming up and I can't seem to get motivated to complete the third.


When your daughter has had cancer, things just change.  And I know it's up to her to make the moves, and I can't do it for her.  All I can do is pray and wish she was the Queen of Spain and every move she makes is done for her.  Nope, that is not her life, she chooses to live it in her room and not come out and not eat and life is not good right now.  Yes, she was dealt a crappy hand, but, life does go on and she's got to live it.  We are not her handmaidens.  She needs to reinvent herself and become the Queen of Spain.  Or just suck it up and get on with it. 

Cincinnati Quilt Show-Preview Night

Those of us that go to quilt shows know a little about crowding in to see a quilt.  Shows usually go over Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  However, there is a little known day called Preview Night, where you can go and avoid some of those crowds.  You are limited to 4 hours, which, for me is plenty of time to spend at one time at a quilt show.

Our quilt group, Northeast Quilting Friends, started out going with 6 people and room for others.  I guess I got a little nervous about all the people that were going to the Cincinnati show and decided our group needed to go to the show on Preview Night.  The change caused a drop from 6 to 4 people.  I've been to a few Preview Nights, and I'd say on the whole, there were a lot more people at this Preview Night than others I'd gone to.  But, I have no doubt, the emptiness you see in my pictures will be completely filled with people on the regular advertised days of the show.

First we stopped off at Pompillios in Newport, Kentucky which is less than 10 minutes away from the Duke Convention center in downtown Cincinnati.  The quilt show started at 5:00 so we got to the restaurant at 3:00 thinking it would take some time to be served, etc.  We ordered and food came pretty quickly.  It was very good, I highly recommend it.  We got the sampler platter and 2 could split it.  Then you want the tiramisu for dessert, some of the best I've ever tried.

Off to the Preview Night we went.  We parked at the 5th street parking garage with a covered walk bridge from our parking garage.  You want to park on the 3rd level (green) to be able to walk right on to the bridge.

The next bit of information for future reference, get the program and plan your day at the Preview Night.  Since there is only 4 hours you might want to be able to plan to see certain quilts.  The program is laid out very well and of course you have the list of all the vendors to see as well.

The Blah, Blah Blahs of Winter

Are only good for one thing, quilting of course.  So it's on to the next UFO, my owl quilt for the lovely little raven, Nora.  I call her a raven because she has black hair and seems very smart for her all of 2 years old.  From what I recall about ravens, other than the poem, although I guess it did "quote", they are quite intelligent and crafty about getting food and attention.

So off we go into the wild gray yonder and turn up the music and put the sewing machine pedal to the medal and get something finished!

WooHoo!

Poetic Things

Some things are just naturally poetic. A bridge in the distance seeming to disappear in the fog; a log cabin in a green field in the morning; a horse nuzzling it's colt these are pretty usually Kentucky poetic things.

A wilting rose must be considered a universal poetic thing. New fresh roses have a different bent some sort of promise maybe possibly poetic but without question wilting should win the argument for being the most poetic. The petals seem like naturally aged human skin, what can be considered more beautiful than skin that has earned its look.

These are roses from the two dozen my DH got me for my birthday. Sometimes he hits it out of the park and sometimes...at least he's trying...smile. These roses were given to me fresh and new on my b-day.

Some Birthday Fabric

My DD Chelsea who is in Albuquerque, New Mexico working on her masters degree for geology from the University of New Mexico, gave me some fabric for my birthday.

We have been on the same wavelength because lately I've had a hankering for this more modern fabric. I'll always like the warmth of the more traditional fabrics for quilting, but this is something light and fresh, just what I need right now.

Here's what my DD #2 Chelsea has been up to...smile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRneUe7td9c

She and a group of grad school students at the University of New Mexico went on a snow shoe hike to Jemez Springs and hilarity ensues.

EVERYONE'S A LOBO...WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!

smile.

Family Ancestry, Snow and Quilting

The generations are important, I suppose, if for nothing else they give us a glance of what our future might be like and then again, maybe not.

Here is my 4 generation family. This is my Grandmother Margarete Julia Ann; Mom Marlene, named after marlene Dietrich; my daughter Chelsea Elizabeth; and me Elizabeth Julia Ann named after my dad's mom and mom's mom.

We've been in the deep freeze of winter and I've managed to clean my dining room/quilting room. I really like this room for quilting the windows bring in the right amount of natural light. The wooden floor is great for scooting my chair as I quilt.

Even though we are getting ready for Quilters' Day Out and I've been pretty busy helping with the committee for the event, I have managed to finish this quilt top. It was a 3 part series of patterns in Mccall's Quilting Magazine. I also subscribe to Quiltmania magazine. It's got really different projects and sometimes the English to French conversion isn't all that smooth, it's still my favorite magazine.

White water rafting and skunked at fishing...still all goodg

The girls have flown the coupe.  Jennifer is in Spain and Chelsea is in San Francisco, doing what they are supposed to be doing-abandoning their parents. Well, you know it seems that way.  We raise them to be responsible adults and then they are off to live in the world, without us.  

Oh well, more time for quilting and white water rafting.  

We got to the Rivermen, our fishing guides were waiting for us.  Our boats were loaded into the upper Gauly and down the river, for 14 miles we were paddled by our guide, Peter.  Peter is probably a very good fishing guide, if he weren't working with such inexperienced fishers.  Honey Hole after Honey Hole we were guided to and told now toss it right there and you'll catch a fish.  It seemed he was right and we did what we were told.  Maybe we got a couple of bites, either that or a snag.  Needless to say, they call it getting skunked and since we were paying for it, it was our guides fault.  But, we really can't blame it all on him.  Getting skunked was probably mostly on us.  Even the other group of well outfitted fishermen, only caught 6 fish so we weren't the only ones not getting our share of fish.  

Mostly it was a little smooth and a little rocky ride.  But, one section we did have to walk around while our guides rode the boats down a treacherous bit of river.  In the end it was a nice boat ride and the guides had to work really hard, paddling against the wind.  

To cap it off, we had dinner at a great outdoor restaurant called Smokies, directly across the street from the Rivermen campgrounds.