Hundreds of YoYo's

It's been a while since I put up anything quilty. Since I've been home, I really haven't worked on much except doing the little bunny block which is not quite finished enough to have it's picture taken. In the early 90's, my sister was very sick in Illinois. One of the things that she did to keep herself occupied was to make yoyo's and from those there were several things that she made. After coming home from visiting her, I cut a lot of circles from my stash and sent them to her. I also cut some for me. This was the result of my yoyo making. There are over 1100 of the crazy things in this coverlet and, of course, they are laid out in the Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern. I think why I was so taken with them is that I can remember a yoyo coverlet on my grandparent's bed - but I have no idea who made it or whatever became of it. What fascinated me was that it looked like a bunch of little tams! We should ask more questions when we are younger!! I used a lot of scrap cream on cream and blues and pinks. Those colors were what I used most in my early quilting days - there was lots of blue in our homes. (Click to enlarge)

Pictures Side by Side!!

There was a comment from Julie to my previous post about putting pictures side by side. She mentioned she had googled the subject and suggested we work together on finding out how to do this. Well, lo and behold, I did find a Blogger help group and the second method suggested I found was really quite simple to do as you can see from the pictures above. The idea is to upload your images and select "none" in the formatting choice of none, left, center, right. The images must be small enough to fit side by side on the page. Click on the left downside of the 2nd image and backspace. The images will be side by side. You can then caption the pics. I intend to play around with this and check out how to center them, etc. Where you put the cursor makes a big difference - if you put it right up against the right side of the picture and backspace, the picture is gone. Of course, that can be good - or bad.

Easter Past

I did a little searching and found these from 1956 - Sherry was almost 5 and Bill 2 1/2. This was one photo, of course, but I isolated their images for calendars I did for everyone a few years ago and don't know where the original photo is. I can't imagine that I found the file on my zip drive so easily. Just thought this is very appropos for this day and cute pictures of my little kids. Hope I don't embarass them too much, but they were so enthusiastic and cute!! (Wish I knew how to place the pictures side by side or how to move them around after they are uploaded. Will stumble on it one day, hopefully.)

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to you on this beautiful morning. May God bless. And I hope the bunny left you lots of chocolate! Will post more later! Enjoy the day.

Back Home Again

We flew in yesterday evening after a really great trip to Portland for Barclay's birthday. The weather was picture perfect - it was as if we had put in an order and had been served in a very grand style. In the 70's and sunny - who could ask for anything more!

On Saturday we went up to Mount Hood and it was like going from one season to the other. The snow is still really, really deep - in feet - up there. It is so incredibly beautiful. We ate at the lodge - which you can barely see in this picture. I don't think I have ever seen so much snow. Here we all are ready for lunch. Not a bad looking group, really. The birthday boy and his wife, Sher and Barclay, are first couple on the left - then Hannah, Norah and her Chad, Doug and Molly, the old hag and Bill and Ann.

Happy Birthday, Barclay - and many, many more! (Today is his actual birthday)
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It's Party Time Coming up in Portland

This evening, Sherry and Barclay will be picking me up to go to Detroit to start our trip to Portland in the morning for a family celebration of Barc's 60th birthday. We will pick up Hannah in Ann Arbor, and Bill, Ann, Norah and Chad will fly out from KC tomorrow. Molly and Doug, here we come! On Saturday night, a big card party is planned with Doug's family which promises to be lots of fun. It makes me so happy that we can all get together even with the distance between us. My camera is going along so I probably will have a few pictures to post when I get home.

Speaking of pictures, here is another old one. This time it's my grandparents with five of their six grandchildren. Jo, Bud and I are on the bench with them, and my older cousins from California, Bob and Ken, stand behind. The only one missing is the little fellow in the baby buggy in a preceding picture. Probably a Sunday afternoon - folks really used to dress up. Notice the rocks in the righthand corner of the picture. My grandfather had two rock fish ponds along that walk - and also a big v-shaped raised rock garden on the other side of the back yard. I remember their yard vividly - it was like a second home to me at their house. I probably mentioned in a post earlier that I grew up with an outhouse (makes you tough) and no telephone. How I loved taking a bath in Grandma's old clawfoot tub when I visited there - but she used Kirk's Hardwater Castile Soap and it made me itch!! Memories! And an added note, today my sister would have been 78 years old. See you next week!

(Click to enlarge)

On TV

My new favorite man on television - Castle! I think his name is Nathan Fillion and he is so smooth, so cool. It is a good show - one that I like as well as The Closer. Even when you get old, old, old, you still like some eye candy! Have also been hooked again this year on American Idol and, naturally, Dancing with the Stars. Idol has some really great singers and the Dancing stars are good, too. I don't think he will win, but I think Ty, the rodeo cowboy, is just so cute and has really turned into a good dancer. Hard to get past that handsome Gilles, though, who is really wonderful. Lil Kim does a great job, too, along with the jilted girl from Bachelor. End of review!