Next Up...

Next up in my sewing room is this quilt that I am making for my dad.  Two weeks ago he was diagnosed with cancer.  Kinda sets a person back on your heels.

This week he finished his first round of chemotherapy and so far, so good.  He has a fantastic medical team that is working with us.  We are so impressed.

My parents are both huge Gonzaga Bulldog fans.  I few months back, I decided to use all the scraps from the red and white car quilt that I made for Oliver, to make a red and navy quilt (Gonzaga school colors).  I found a pattern that I liked and set to work cutting.

This week seemed like a good time to piece together this quilt.  Happily, it has gone together very fast, and I even like it!  I wasn't sure........   My goal is to have it to the quilter by next week and back a few weeks after that so that dad can snuggle under it and watch the Zags play a few more games before the season ends.

This is one of the color strips, ready to be pressed.

A really cool technique, using a "jelly roll".  I made my own jelly roll by cutting 2 1/2 inch strips to sew together.

A closer look at the color blocks.

And this is kind of what the finished project is going to look like!  One more color strip to add and then one more solid navy strip.  I'll put a cozy flannel on the back.  

Stay tuned for the finished product!  It's so fun to have a project go together more quickly than anticipated.  Hmmmm........what to do next?

Porch Quilt

A few days ago it started to snow.....that big flake kind of snow that just kind of floats down to the ground quietly and gently.  It was so pretty.  This happened right as we were finishing our lunch.  Though we both felt like we had tons of work to do, we decided to extend our lunch break and quickly made a cup of hot cocoa, grabbed the winter porch quilts and went out to the porch to watch the snow fall.

This is exactly why I made these two porch quilts.  OK, so, the snow only lasted a flake or two longer, once we got our chocolate heated, and then snuggled under the quilts, but it was still wonderful!

This was supposed to by the "boy" quilt, because of the colors, but these colors suit me better than they suit the boy in my house.

 Before Christmas, I bought a tin of the Starbucks hot chocolate mix.  It was definitely worth the extra pennies!

My two boys with the "girl" quilt!  Reynald favors these colors more than I do, so we are going to have to switch our designation.  

Baxter doesn't really care what color the quilt is!

Winter carrots

 Last week, or maybe even the week before (goodness how time marches along!) I headed out to the garden to dig some carrots.  Lucky for me a handsome man with a shovel came along just in time to help.  He had a cute little dog with him too!

We leave our carrots and parsnips in the ground over winter.  I cover them with about 2 feet of loose straw to keep the ground from freezing, and this year, Mother Nature helped with an additional cover of snow.

The result is carrots and parsnips that are as sweet as candy all winter long.  Such a treat.

This year, with the snow cover, it's especially important to mark the rows of carrots so that you know where to dig.

My shovel and Home Depot orange bucket!

And just in time, help arrived.  You can see how deep the straw and snow are covering the carrots.

They are so pretty, such a bright orange, fresh and crisp, right out of the ground.

My job was to grab the carrots as Reynald dug them.  He grabbed these so that I could snap a photo.

After we had a full bucket, we moved the marker and then re-covered the exposed row with straw.

It's not quite as pretty as it was before we dug, but the results are worth making a bit of a mess.

 

Barn concert

This past weekend, Alicia and her pianist, Kevin Garnica, gave two fabulous performances in the barn.  Sadly, Mother Nature didn't cooperate and threw a bit of a snow storm at us on Sunday which we believe kept several concert attendees away,

Nevertheless, those that braved the storm on Sunday, and the very frigid temperatures on Saturday night were treated to some amazing music.  Kevin flew in from Los Angeles on the 30th of December and rehearsals began the next day.  I'm not sure which I like better, listening to the kids rehearse or listening to the performance.  Both are wonderful and we are so happy that we get to be a part of this process.

Here are a few photos of the weekend.....

No recital is complete with out Les on the parking crew.  He was dressed up in many layers to combat the zero degree temperature on Saturday night.

Again, the beautiful banners displayed by fiber artist Louise Kodis, whom we are privileged to call our good friend.

We serve hot drinks and cookies to concert goers.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of the cookies, which are the best part!  Grandma Jo bakes for days to provide us all with the best sugar cookies ever!

Some of the crowd on Saturday night.

Alicia and Kevin in the "green room".  I tease the kids that when they are big time musicians they can tell people that one of their first green room experiences was a potato cellar!

Jay Nordling did the audio and video recording at the Sunday performance.

Alicia and Kevin greeting fans after the performance.

Alicia and Louise.

Kevin and Verne Windham, voice of Spokane Public Radio.

Alicia and her Godmother Vicki and Vicki's husband Jim.  

Alicia and Verne.  Verne has been a tremendous supporter of Alicia since she was  12 years old and auditioned for the Spokane Youth Orchestra which Verne conducted at the time.  We are all so grateful for his positive promotion of both Alicia and Kevin,.  Actually, Verne promotes and supports all musicians and the arts in our area.  He is an Inland Northwest icon.

Following the Sunday performance we had a hot dog and baked bean dinner in the garage.  It was supposed to be a bonfire, but due to the weather we had to use the grill and retreat to the garage!  Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of the fun that was had at this event!  We all had a great time, talking about the recital, talking about the weather, talking about each other!  We were warm and happy tucked in to the garage, reflecting in the glow of music, well rehearsed and well performed.

The concert is scheduled to be broadcast on Spokane Public Radio on January 11th at 7pm PST.  If you are outside the listening area, you can live stream at spokanepublicradio.org.

Christmas gift

Alicia gave us dinner, planned and cooked by her, for our Christmas gift.  It was SOOOO wonderful.   She busied herself in the kitchen most of the day.  I kept popping in to see if I could help but each time she said, "no thanks...I'm fine".   It was really hard not to help, but she insisted on doing it all herself.

She sent an invitation and requested that we attend in formal attire, so we did!

We went outside while Alicia was in the kitchen and rang the door bell!  This is the first time that I have worn the fur coat that Reynald bought me a few years ago at a thrift store!  

Reynald, appreciating the beautiful table.

Alicia has a collection of Mason Vista dishes, that she used for this dinner party.

My mom and dad had these dishes when they were first married.  Over the years mom got rid of all but one piece.  Alicia loved that one little tea pot, and has been collecting the dishes for the last ten years or more!

This salad looked so pretty in the Masons bowl.  

Stuffed mushroom for our appetizer.  So good!

Roasted pork loin topped with a cranberry/apple/ginger sauce.  Mmmmm!

Spaghetti squash, salad, roast pork loin and the stuffed mushrooms.   It was a million dollar meal!

And for dessert, a souffle with a raspberry sauce.  She found the raspberries in the freezer that I processed this summer.

These salt and pepper shakers were my grandma Berna's.  She loved to cook and would be so proud of how both girls are carrying on the tradition of preparing tasty food and sharing with so many friends and family.  

What a fun gift this was.  It was a memorable evening to be sure!

Barn Concert

We're getting ready for a recital in the barn featuring Alicia and her very fine pianist Kevin Garnica.  I have to think hard to count how many times Alicia and Kevin have collaborated for barn concerts.  I know it's quite a few and it's always a wonderful performance.  This weekend will be no exception.  Saturday night the music begins at 7pm and Sunday at 3pm.  All proceeds from this event will go to Spokane Public Radio.

Today we moved the piano in.  It's always quite a project, but once again, we managed to get a grand piano up to the top of the barn.  Tomorrow the kids will go out to give it a try.  Today they worked in the house, getting to know the pieces that they will be playing this weekend.

Les, our good friend and neighbor,came over a couple days ago and helped hang the banners that his sister Louise Kodis generously donated for the weekend.  Louise has donated work for display for every barn concert.  Each piece is amazingly beautiful and the perfect compliment to the musical artistry.

Here's Les explaining something to Alicia and Baxter!

Louise carefully packs the banners for transport.

Les is supervising the hanging of the banners.

Reynald had lots of help from those on the floor, to determine the proper hanging height for each banner.

This photo and the next, do not do this artwork the justice it deserves.

You really must see these in person, which you can do here at the barn of course, but also at the Saranac Art Gallery in Spoknae, beginning today and running through the month of January.  

Next we remove the flooring to expose the north stair case.  This is where the piano will make its way up to the concert hall.

Alicia and I carried chairs from the main floor to the concert hall and then wiped them all down with a damp cloth.  Summer dust storms tend to deposit a dirty film on each chair, even though they are covered with old sheets.

Wiping down the chairs....

Les made place mats from all the past recital invitation art work that he has done for these events.  Alicia gets to take them back to Boston with her to share with Roni and David!

Place mats made from Barn Concert invitation art work.

Today the piano arrived.  The fellows that came today were new to our venue.  They didn't seem to be a bit deterred by the staircase.  Reynald has an electric winch that helps with the lift.

I guess this means they don't move couches!

Moving the piano in to place at the foot of the staircase.

The moving company guys are hanging on to the piano right now.  Our friend Crayton never has an "I'm busy that day" excuse ready when we call and ask for help from him!

Made it!  Piano at the top of the stairs.

The moving boys put the legs on and then tipped it up, almost ready to play.

So that we don't have to heat the barn for the next four days, we cover the piano with blankets, then put a milk house heater under the piano "tent".  It seems to do a really good job at keeping the instrument at a constant temperature until concert time.

If you were a little kid, this would be the perfect hide out for the next few days!

It's still quite snowy!  And now it's very cold so the snow isn't going to go away any time soon.

We had to shovel a path across the grass to the garden path, past the outhouse.

Baxter was happy to have his University of Texas sweater on today in the chilly weather!