ribbon quilt

There are a lot of new babies arriving in my family within only a few months. I still like to make something if I have the time. It's easy to go into a fabric store & be inspired too. Blankets never go out of style & I'm not sure you can have too many. Even as an adult I have blankets strewn all over the house in the winter. Even the dogs have blankets. I'd seen mention of ribbon quilts on other blogs & wanted to try it out myself. It's not so much a blanket to keep a baby warm but a blanket to snuggle with & play with the ribbons poking out the sides. I'm sure it could even include teething on these ribbons. So I pieced together six inch squares with old (note the cupcake fabric, Angie) & new fabric & sandwiched some cotton batting between my cotton fabric. The finished quilt measures 21x26". I tied the quilt. I got some help from this blog.















It would be easy to make this with two layers of flannel fabric too. I thought it was an easy & quick project.

playground fun

When I heard my friend, Linda, say she was going to get her long hair trimmed back it seemed like a great opportunity to photograph her before the big event. I suggested taking some photos at the nearby Roberts Park & Linda got herself talked into it. We had a lot of fun on the playground & caught one of those warm February days. These were taken early last week. I knew the swings were there but didn't realize there was a very large puddle of water underneath them. This first photo is of Linda trying to figure out how to get in the swing while avoiding the puddle of water . . .





Linda has a gorgeous smile that she shares with everyone. I met her at the gym. I think she knows everyone there & everyone knows her. I am delighted she let me capture that smile in these photos.















Linda got enough hair cut off to make a donation to Locks of Love. I'm hoping to take the "after" photos now!

granny squares

While I was in Texas last week this afghan caught my eye. Carolyn said it had been crocheted by her aunt. She'd used scraps of yarn to make it. Some of the best things get made from leftover scraps. I love the color combinations she came up with. And she crocheted the squares together in such a way that I could not tell a right side from a wrong side. This afghan has got to be thirty to forty years old or more & it has been gently loved over those years.

Goodbye, Art.

That was Don's Facebook comment on Saturday afternoon, two hours after his father passed. We arrived midday in Texas last Thursday after Art had already been unresponsive for five days. Hospice nurses were at his bedside continuously by then. He received medication under his tongue to keep him comfortable. I felt it was a wonderful gift for him to be at home where his family could be at his side & talk to him yet find respite in the kitchen or living room as needed. He remained unresponsive for eight long days except when the nurses were bathing him on Friday & they both swear he said "shut up" to them while they'd been chatting away. The hospice staff kept telling us how acute the hearing is for people who are dying. Kathy, Don's sister, brought along her three dogs. Here is Dolly resting on the back of Art's recliner.



Dolly & Kazie rest in the warmth of the sun.



Simone, my favorite hospice nurse. We spent time talking shop. I was so grateful that she was the nurse on duty when Art passed.



Art was a chef by trade on oil tankers. He attended culinary school. He has a library of French cookbooks that I perused while sitting at his bedside. Carolyn, his wife, always raved about his danish pastries. Years ago I asked him to show me how he made them but he never did.





A favorite photo of Art that I took last May in his home.

vollleyball

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of watching my niece, Briana, play volleyball. She plays on the Creighton club team & they played the Husker club team in the Coliseum on a practice court. She is a good player going after digs, spiking the ball over the net & making blocks . . .

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ted Kooser is a local poet. He was the United States Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006. He's published a few books. A few years ago he sent out postcards with a poem for Valentine's Day to whoever wanted to be on his mailing list. I have one of those cards (I picked it up at a book signing). The title of the poem on this postcard is "A New Potato". He makes one reference to the "red skin" of this new potato which is his tribute to Valentine's Day. If you are not familiar with his poetry he writes about everyday things that we often don't give a second thought to. His poems bring those events to life. But, I'm no poet & I know it, so to take a thread from his idea I have photos today from a few everyday things (and some not so everyday) with a touch of red in the photo. Sometimes a lot of red.

This first photo though if one that Austin took. It is a photo of one of the Moffitt Cottages in Iowa City. It was a great photo to include today.

















I saw Jayden, Nancy & Mike's granddaughter, yesterday & she was wearing red . . .



This geranium sits inside the front door of the Catholic grade school in my hometown. Whenever I drive by I often look to see if this plant is blooming. And it always is. Yesterday I stopped to take a photo.



I hope you enjoy some red in your Valentine's Day!