Stocking # 3 and Our Backyard

Yesterday I just finished my last Christmas stocking with this really fun fabric. This one is two-sided.  I think I mentioned that my quilt group makes these for the Ronald MacDonald House in Seattle.

                   

 

Lately, we've had some interesting things in our backyard, including a Steller's Jay that loves to eat peanuts whole and some very interesting mushrooms.

                                                                           

Do you know what these mushrooms are?

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                                         Enjoy this day and have a great weekend!

Two Finishes!

Well, we didn't have one trick-or-treater because of the rain, and it's still pouring this morning! But I have 2 Christmas stockings finished with one more to go before our next quilt meeting. We make them for the Ronald MacDonald house in Seattle. Can you tell the difference in these 2?

Have a nice weekend!

Happy Halloween!

Have fun!

A Fun Couple of Days and Another Finish!

Last week we went to Port Angeles, WA, which is one of our favorite places. Near the ferry terminal we saw lots of cormorants.

We also did some walking on one of the trails where you can see Mount Baker in the distance.

The next day we walked on a trail near Lake Crescent.

There's lots to see on this trail which used to be part of the railroad, and there's a very long tunnel where you have to use a flashlight! However, this time we didn't get that far.

And I also finally finished this pair of short socks that were a bit challenging.

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Hope you are having a nice Sunday!

 

Finally a Finish

 It's been a couple of busy months, but I finally finished another pair of socks. The pattern is for toe-up socks, and I did it from the top down adding my style of heel instead of the short row one on the pattern.

The pattern is called Slip into Fall.https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/slip-into-fall-toe-up-socks

Have a nice weekend!

Block Party Quilt Show

 Good Morning! If you live anywhere near Seattle and like quilts, you might want to visit the Block Party Quilt Show in Issaquah. It's open today and tomorrow from 10-5.  Here are a few of the quilts:

 

Here's my favorite!

 The hand stitching on this one is amazing!

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Have a great weekend! 

Busy August!

 We have done some traveling lately. In July we went to Palo Alto, CA, to celebrate the Fourth with Dick's brother and family and right after that to Boulder, CO, for a funeral for Dick's long time friend, Art.  Then just this past week, we went to Mount Baker on our anniversary. We stayed in Sumas, WA, at a very interesting hotel Sumas Mountain Lodge. The rooms there were decorated with antiques and located above a nice restaurant.  Besides antiques, the walls of our room had lots of pictures of Loretta Young because "How the West Was Won" in which she was one of the stars was filmed in Sumas! 

Taken by a friendly hiker at the visitor center.

This is our oldest grand son who's leaving tomorrow to study animation in Ireland! We also celebrated early in August so the whole family could be there. School for his two siblings started on August 13th!

Old skis hanging on the wall!

The bed with a quilted fabric that wasn't truly a pieced quilt!

Despite the busy days, I have finished a couple pairs of socks

and this hat.

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That's all for now. I need to go work in the yard and then maybe work on some socks that have been fighting me.  Enjoy the last few days of August!

 

A Donated Quilt, Another Pair of Socks and a Guess What!

 This is the most recent quilt that our group finished. (We all made 3 blocks. Can you find my mine?) If you look closely, you can see that we used some Seattle fabric that I purchased long ago to use for pillow cases.  It will be donated to the local Ronald MacDonald house.

I just finished this pair of socks, and they almost match! However, I also just ripped one sock back to the cuff because I discovered a dropped stitch when I thought I was almost finished!

Can you see who was visiting our yard twice this week? (You might have to enlarge the photo though.) Fortunately I scared him away before he did any damage to our plants!

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We are hosting a family gathering on Sunday, so we are busy today preparing for that. Hope it doesn't rain!  You have a good weekend, too .

Another Finish

Recently our daughter requested bootie and a hat for her friend who was going to become a grandma when her daughter has a baby girl. So I got busy and did them! I hope they will fit!

Here's the first hat, a 12 month size, which I decided would be too big, so I made the newborn size and will donate this one.  And I still have some yarn left!

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Enjoy the rest of the week!

 

Excitement in Our Neighborhood!

Last week our neighbors across from us had a tree removed. It was about 160 feet tall and very close to the house. This brave guy did all the cutting and sawing, and the whole noisy process took 2 days. The second day our street was closed to all traffic.

They took all the stumps away in a big truck, and the branches were run through a chopping machine before carting them away, too. It was an interesting and somewhat scary process but sad to see such a beautiful tree destroyed. (The house is a rental, and the owner ordered the process much to the renter's surprise.)

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Hope you've had a good couple of weeks without any chopping in your neighborhood!

Finally a Finish!

 This pattern has the same name as our second daughter! It's not very easy, but it's interesting.

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Hope you all are having a nice summer!

Birds and Flowers!

We recently went to Cannon Beach in Oregon and saw lots of flocks of pelicans heading north, more pelicans that we've ever seen before.

Here's the prettiest Columbine.

This tiny little rose that makes me think of a candy cane!

Korean dogwood, and it's still blooming.

The Mock orange always makes me think of my Grandma Taylor.

We have several Hydrangeas.

Daisies from a plant give to us by a dear friend.

And last but not least this pretty lily that started blooming today!

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Now I need to get back to some knitting. I am working on a sock that's been fighting me as well as a summer sweater where I discovered an extra stitch when it was time to split it into 2 parts, so ripping on that one, too. Sigh. And then there's always yardwork waiting.... Hope you all had a nice weekend.

 

Our Afternoon at Coulon Beach

This past Tuesday the weather was beautiful, so we went to a nearby park called Coulon Beach. It's on Lake Washington, and there are lots of trails, a boat launch, and things to see. Luckily for us, this eagle was visiting!

We also saw this heron. Doesn't it look proud?

Then we saw this family of snow geese.

It's fun to see these statues and what they are wearing at the time. As you can probably see, they are celebrating Juneteenth.

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Enjoy the rest of the week!

Two Finishes and More Flowers

The babies' hats are done, and everyone is waiting for the new baby to arrive and discover whether it's a girl or boy! Hopefully by the time hat weather arrives they will fit, since now they look too big.  As you can see, it will be easy to tell them apart, and to make sure, I added a football button to the big brother's hat.

Our poppies bloomed right on time for Memorial Day and are still going strong. The two buds in the photo have bloomed along with the other buds you can't see.

All of our rhododendrons are blooming, but this one has the most blossoms.

And not to be forgotten are the roses that bloomed despite being pruned on their lower branches by some deer. Thankfully all of the rose blossoms are way up high this year!

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Have a nice weekend! It's supposed to be in the eighties here, and we are having a visit from our nephew who lives Massachusetts!