To the other end of the globe and back......

It's been a while since I posted anything to my blog.

Time has a way of getting away from me

sometimes!

The first three weeks of October my husband and I got to go on a trip that we have dreamed about for the 32 years we've been married. We spend 9 days in Melbourne, Australia and 9 days in New Zealand. It would be difficult to recount all that we have seen and done, so I'm just going to post a few pictures.

View of Melbourne skyline.

The Great Ocean Road- Australia

We saw Koala's in the wild....

And kangaroos.

Western Australia

Now on to New Zealand........

The New Zealand Alps on the South Island

Museums were great for finding inspiration for future quilts.

There are more sheep than people in New Zealand. This little lamb is one day old.

We got to go to the place where they filmed part of "Lord of the Rings".

All in all we had a wonderful time. Saw beautiful places, experienced new people, new food and new places. We feel very fortunate to have been able to take this trip of a lifetime.

Now on to our sweet little Kellen.

Today he is 16 months old and finding new ways to bring smiles

to his parents, grandparents and all those that know and love him.

He was a dinosaur for Halloween.

He's finally enjoying getting a bath!

Happy as ever and ready for an adventure.

Kellen and his Daddy.

Well that's it for now. Christmas will be here before we know it and then a new year... unbelievable!

Chirp, chirp,

Robin

New Pattern now published

My new pattern is finished and in a quilting store near you!!!

I was so fortunate to find just the right setting for photographing my quilt for the pattern front.
I asked around and was told about this one not too far from where I live. I drove down the road and found it and went up to the house and knocked on the door. I explained that I was one of those "crazy quilters" and wanted to use her windmill to take a picture and she was more than happy to let me.
This is a super fun quilt to make and turns out really cute!

Now on to the "Grandma News". Kellen is doing super and is as cute as ever of course! He's now waving hello. He looks like a Lucky Cat and waves with his left fist. He's also rolling over now! His daddy said he's teaching Kellen to "high-five". He's all boy, that's for sure!

Chirp, Chirp,

Robin

Hot Off the Longarm......

We just got back from a great week in Nebraska. It was Kellen's first birthday on the 9th and we didn't want to miss it. It was so fun to be able to hold him and play with him. He's had a hard first year of his life, but he's as sweet and cheerful as any baby could be. Here is a collage of just some of the pictures we took. What a cutie!!!!!

Here is a picture of one of my newest designs. It's called "Wind Catcher Charms". I just finished quilting it on Angie's long-arm over at All Washed Up. Can't wait to get the binding done and the pattern written.

This design is called: "Table Scraps". It's made from scraps I've been saving for years and finally used them. I think with the economy being the way it is, more people will be using every bit of the fabric they buy. Kind of like quilting used to be in America when "Waste not, want not" was a common saying. I think it's good that we are getting back to that mindset instead of the disposable nation we have become.

Hope every one's summer was as good as mine!

Chirp, Chirp,

Robin

Wonderful Quilts by Wonderful People....

Getting to go quilting with your friends is one of life's greatest joys for me.

Of course my family is my greatest joy, but quilting is certainly at the top of my list!

The last weekend in July at Pieceful Days some of my friends shared what they have been working on.....

Patty always makes such awesome quilts.

She never ceases to amaze me!

Pam showed the table runner she has almost finished.

Just the binding to go!

Cyndee showed some gorgeous quilts.

I love this one!

This one however was "Best in Show" for the weekend for me.This picture doesn't do it justice believe me. The colors are wonderful and the quilt was sooooo much work. It was a quilt that she started at the All Washed Up Retreat. This pattern doesn't cut corners!

Great job Cyndee!!!

This is Paula modeling her bags she made for Scottie Dog Quilt's Alaskan cruise. She bought the hat that day and is all ready to go! I'm sure the group will have a great time cruising and sewing! Someday maybe I can go to one of these fun cruises. I'm just afraid I'd be seasick all the time!!!


Well that's it for now in my quilting world.

Chirp,Chirp,
Robin

Wakey wakey eggs and bakey!

This is an adorable video of my grandson Kellen.

He recently went to the eye doctor and now has to wear a patch for his "lazy eye". He's as cute as ever with his patch and hopefully it won't have to stay there long!Kellen doesn't seem to let new things bother him. He's amazing!!! Ahoy there Matey!!!!

Thanks for letting a Grandma share!

Robin

Wow...how time flys!!!

I can't believe how long it has been since adding to my blog.

Well here's what's been going on:

I got my featherweight back from Joan, who repairs and restores sewing machines. She's a fellow member of our local Quilter's guild. She did an awesome job for a VERY reasonable price and it sews like a charm!!! Can't wait until the next Pieceful Day to use it!

Our little Kellen has his first teeth!! His Mom and Dad sent us this priceless picture of him showing them off with is big grin. If you look closely you can see the upper front teeth just below the gums. Pretty soon he will have a mouthful of teeth!

I got to go visit my Mom for a week. My niece Riley was there along with her new baby sister, Parker. Riley is 2 and Parker is one month in these pictures.

This is a picture of my Mom holding Parker. This will probably be her last grandchild, but the great-grandchildren keep coming! I've lost count....
Here's my Mom and my sister, Connie. Both are holding their new grandbabies. Connie's grandbaby is Ryan, only a week old.

After a wonderful week visiting with family it's back to work! We are super busy, which is fine with me. Just wish I had more time to quilt!

Chirp, Chirp everyone,

Robin

Beautiful Earrings from a very talented Etsy artist.

One of my favorite things to do when I have a moment is look at the wonderful things that people have made and offer for sale on the Etsy website.

Etsy is an online marketplace for buying & selling all things handmade. Their mission is to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers. Since their launch in June, 2005, over 100,000 sellers from around the world have opened up Etsy shops.

I have an Etsy shop where I sell some of my patterns. It's been lots of fun to get to know people from not only around the United State, but also around the world.

Anyway.....back to the earrings. Yesterday I was looking at what was new on Etsy and found this wonderful artist that makes beautiful jewelry. I clicked on her shop called:

Pamela's Jewelry Designs

I was taken in by her stunning and very affordable handmade jewelry and looked at everything she had to offer. There are lots of things I loved!

The best part was that she was doing a special promotion to get the word out about her Etsy shop by giving people earrings for FREE!!! No kidding...no charge. I decided to get these beautiful earrings called, Blue Sky Earrings. Aren't they just georgeous!!!!

Just as a little thank you, I wanted to let everyone know about her designs. Maybe you can get some of your gift list taken care of early!

I encourage everyone to take a look and pass the word!

Thank you Pam....

Chirp, Chirp

Robin

May Basket Auction

I belong to our local guild here in Fortuna. It's called The Eel River Valley Quilt Guild. Every year they have a fund raiser where businesses and other members donate a basket full of goodies. They then have a silent auction where people put their bid on a sheet of paper. The trick is to come back and check a lot or someone will out-bid you. Most of the baskets go for lots of money, so I never get to actually buy them. I guess I'm a bit cheap. I did want to donate a basket this year. I filled with 4 of my patterns: "Charmed...I'm Sure", Criss-Cross Charms, Charms in the Car and my very first pattern, Sewdoku for Quilters. I put two charm square packs in there along with my famous "Taco Purse". There is some homemade stationary with birds, a "Deely-Bob-Scissor-Fob" and a pendant I made from a Scrabble tile. I also put some of my favorite things like: a "Purple-Thang", UdderCream hand lotion, quilting pins, a seam ripper and some chicken buttons. The duck in the middle of the basket is a recipe card holder from my favorite store, "Art and Old Things" right here in Fortuna on Main Street. I also bought the cute little bird that is sitting in a nest. I'm hoping everyone likes it and it makes the guild a lot of money.

Chirp, Chirp

Robin

Best Mother's Day Gift Ever!!

My grandson Kellen gave his "other grandma" (me) the best Mother's Day present ever!

A special greeting card he made himself. Here's what he said in his e-mail.

deer granma

hav a hoppy granma day!

luv Kellen.

Look at the concentration.....

"Let me see....I think I spelled everything right...."

"Yep....it's perfect!!!!""I love you Grandma Robin!!!"

What a little sweety! Thank you Kellen for making my day!

Robin

Yum!!!!!!........Rhubarb Pie

What a beautiful day here in our little world!! "Mr. Bird" loves his yard ( I think that's what I'm going to call my husband in my blog from now on) and was out side doing some gardening. Mostly getting rid of the weeds that have dared to show themselves in the borders and between the porch slabs. Every year we have to spray Round-up to kill them. I love our yard this time of year when it finally is warm enough to actually enjoy it.

I had noticed the other day that my Rhubarb plants were getting ready to harvest, so Mr. Bird pulled and topped them for me. I'm going to make two pies later today.

What a beautiful bunch of Rhubarb!!!

Since tomorrow is Mother's day I thought I would pay tribute to my Mom by sharing her Rhubarb pie recipe. My mother makes the absolute BEST Rhubarb pie in the world, bar none!!! Now that she's 80 it's harder for her to make pies, but I remember some Saturdays when she would make 5 or six pies at a time. We have a very large family (11 kids) and everyone wanted their fare share! Mom ran our family like a well oiled machine.

Here is the recipe:

Helen’s Rhubarb Pie

For one 10” pie-
Filling: Mix together:
4 cups raw rhubarb, cut in ½ inch pieces
1 ½ cups sugar
1 tsp cinnamon, or to taste
4 Tbs flour
1 scant tsp dried orange peel
2 eggs
Crust: Cut together 2 cups flour, ¾ cup shortening, and ¼ tsp salt. Beat together 1/3 cup milk and 1 egg yolk. Add to flour mixture and toss with a fork.
Add more liquid if too dry and less if too wet. Roll out dough for top and bottom crusts. Place bottom crust in 10” pie plate, fill with rhubarb mixture. Dot mixture with butter. Place top crust over all. Seal and flute edges and cut slits in top crust.
Bake at 450 degrees F for 40 to 50 minutes. Juice should bubble through slits in crust.

Enjoy!!!!

Here are my pies. The juice on top is the "bubbling" that has to occur before you know your pies are done. The house smells wonderful right now. I'm going to have a piece later on tonight when I watch TV.

Mother of the Year (with the cutest baby ever!)

I also want to send my awesome daughter-in-law a very special Mother's Day wish. This is her first Mother's Day and after all that she had been through since he was born, I want to nominate her as "Mother of the Year". Today our sweet little Kellen is 9 months old! He's been home from the hospital 3 months now. Time is flying!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the special mother's out there!

Chirp, Chirp,

Robin

Kellen's Happy Dance

My grandson Kellen has been through alot in his short 8 months (almost 9) of being in this world. Thankfully he's doing great since finally being home from the hospital these 2 + months.
You can tell he's really happy being the center of his Mommy and Daddy's attention.
Shannon sent me this short video of him doing his "Happy Dance".

It just kills me not to be able to hold him and love on him! What a cutie pie!

Robin

Happiness is.........

Happiness is.....many things really. One of them is going to Ferndale to "Peaceful Day" and quilting. As you can see it was a beautiful day. Even the cows in the field behind the building were enjoying themselves!

Lots of us finished things that we had started, like Pam B. Here is her beautiful quilt from Sally Frey's retreat in Benbow. Pam does beautiful quilts, but doesn't like her picture taken.

Liz Scott from Scottie Dog Quilting finished a quilt she made for her sister.

She said, "If I had know how much I would like it when it was finished, I would have kept it for myself!"

It's always great to be able to spend time with some of my favorite people....like Brenda Lou from Scottie Dog Quilts, (Liz's Mom). She showed us how to make a braided rug that she found on Moda's Bake Shop.

I started the cute bear quilt for Kellen that I ordered from Connecting Threads. It's going to be super cute!

I also won a pattern using 36 charm squares. It was VERY tedious, but I managed to get this much finished. I just have to put the borders on. I will never make this pattern again, so I gave it to Pam.

Well, that's what I got to do yesterday. Friends and quilting. Life is good.

Oh...by the way...that sneaky Angie tried to get me to eat sugar by getting that cute little Cade of hers to give me a cookie! You have to watch that Angie like a Hawk!

Robin

The sugar challenge is on......

Yesterday when I was using the long-arm over at All Washed Up, Angie asked me if I wanted to join her in a challenge of giving up sugar for a month. I said, "Sure!!!".

So now the challenge is on........

Just to give us both some incentive, Angie suggested that if either of us gives in and falls off the sugar wagon, we had to buy the other one a Jelly-roll. That for me is keeping me commited.

I'm just going to have to turn to more healthy subsitutes when I get that craving. I'm really excited to see how it helps get some of these pounds off. (A never ending battle for me!)

I'm going to do some research and see if there are any non-sugar recipes out there. If I find any, I'll share them...

Wish me luck guys!!

Robin

Wonderful Neighbors

It's great to have wonderful neighbors. We are blessed to have great neighbors on both sides of us. A few days ago our neighbor Linda and Jay showed up at our door with a surprise.
Linda had made me a quilt rack. It's beautiful!!!! She's been working on it secretly since Christmas after I gave her a quilt that she had admired. I never expected her to make me a quilt rack!!! I quickly found a place of honor just inside our front door and loaded it up with some quilts. She said she might want to make them to sell if there is enough interest.





I just ordered the cutest quilt kit from Connecting Threads. It's their brand new pattern called "Baby Bear". I'm going to make it for our sweet little bear Kellen.

It reminds me of one of my favorite pictures of Kellen with all of his "stuffed up" bears.

I also got a call from Kellen....breathing into the phone. He got the 3 soft books I had made from panels. His daddy says he loves them. I forgot to take a picture of them before I sent them, but hopefully they will take a picture of Kellen reading them.

I'm almost finished piecing the quilt I'm making for Shannon's friend's wedding. Just the outer border to go. Then I can go quilt it!

Chirp, Chirp,

Robin