It's Been Awhile Again

It is amazing how fast 2015 has gone by.  In the past three months, I barely realize another week and then a month has gone by with my longarm business took off like the wildfires that ravaged our state this summer.

My weekdays are spent quilting, doing housework, laundry and running errands while the weekends were reserved for home improvement projects and yardwork.

Sammy, our new kitten, has grown like a weed, and has quite the personality. He loves running water and that includes the shower, but the bathroom sink is his domain. If he has laid claim to the sink, hopefully it's after you have brush your teeth.  He gets mad when you spit toothpaste on him and proceed to wash him off.  Sammy loves outdoors and yes he brings the wildlife in.

His other favorite thing in life happens around 3 am. When he proceeds to imitate a B2 bomber and stealthily get on the bed and walk up which ever parent is laying on their side and start purring as loud ad he can.  Once you pet him and he knows you're awake, he leaves like I've done my duty now leave me alone.  I have finally gotten him to stay out of the litter boxes while I clean them.  He thought it was a game.  Rolling my eyes at the tjought of how many times I would pick him out of the boc anmd the he would jump right back in or going into the next box and then wait 10 seconds before ending bavk in the box I picked him out of.

Sammy's other interesting character trait is that he

won't come to "kitty kitty". I noticed when doing his dinner jingle, "dinner, dinner, chicken winner" the other night that there was no obstacle that can keep him back.  All I can say is the neighbors will get a kick out of this when I'm calling him in at night.

Thank you again for reading my post.
Have a wonderful day and Blessings.

Welcome Summer and a New Addition

The past couple of months have gone by so quickly.  I cannot believe summer is here and in full swing.  Today will be the first day of an extreme heatwave for our area.  Our temperatures will be above 100°F for the next week and the we cool off to our normal temperatures mid to upper 90s, and then bam we are back to triple digits.  As we endure the next couple of weeks, I will be thankful that I live where I am because I cannot imagine these temperatures with limited modern conveniences like the people of Pakistan.  Please if your area is going into a heatwave too, check on your elderly neighbors, give your pets extra water and do not even think of leaving your children (both the two and four legged variety) in a vehicle. 

So what have I been up to?

• traveled a bit not our big trip that Don & I thought we were going on at the end of May,
• spent time with family, picked up a book and started reading again,
• stitched a few stitches here and there (nothing worth showing),
• longarm quilted a couple quilts,
• finally got all the paperwork and licensing to officially start my longarm quilting business,
• recently added a new family member,
• and of course dealing with how my body is not liking the temperature changes

Most exciting on that list is the new family member.  The Sunday before last a bird (magpie) alerted me to something outside.  I could not believe it a baby kitten and all black.  When I went out to investigate, it ran under our siding that is setting on pallets.  I tried calling it but it would not come up even though it really thought about it.  I decided that I better see if it needed water.  When it came out to investigate the water dish, I saw how tiny it was.  I knew that I needed to feed it.  So a quick trip into town for kitten food.  Oh my, was the kitten hungry.  

Almost 7 hours after spotting the kitten, Sadie finally convinced the kitten that I was okay.  It was starving.  I could feel everything bone in its body and it was tame so someone dropped it off.  I think when I was changing water it followed Cash & I back to the house the night before last.  I knew it would not last the night outside.  We have a family of owls that live next door who frequently hunt our yard and pasture at night plus the coyotes have been known to come into the yard and I had not seen as many bunnies lately.  For the next couple of hours, I went to work getting out, cleaning and setting up the large dog crate, found the litter box that fits into the back of the crate, and made the kitten a home in our spare bedroom, oops guess we will not be having company for a bit.  The spare room is the only room that I could block the kitten off from our elderly cats and the dogs without causing them a major change in their routine.  During my trip to town, I even picked up some kitten milk replacer to give the kitten some needed nourishment just in case it couldn’t eat enough dry food.  Did I say he was small?  When he wanted to nurse, I found a new kitten bottle that I had in my pet supplies.  It was then I noticed that his eyes were just starting to change color.  Those eyes and his big motor made me fall in love.

Now what to call him?  Of course, I had a bunch of cute names for girls but no boys names that fit

him.  When Don got up for work, I asked him what he thought.  His suggestion was Sammy, hmmm, maybe I thought.  Several hours later, yes I was still holding him, I narrowed the names down to Griffey for the baseball player, Ken Griffey Jr, Ollie short for Olaf from Frozen, Sammy D for Sammy Davis Jr.  I finally decided that he looked like a Sammy and our other boy who is mostly black is named after a signer so Cash needed his brothers name to the follow pattern.  So introducing Sammy D. Cat Jones.  He is quite cute which balances out his naughtiness.  Oh my can he be naughty.  He is trying to rule the roost and is finding that there are limits and he has to respect the other members of the family.

Sammy has just woken and is insisting on my attention.  He probably wants some breakfast as well.  So I better be going and get some things done while it is still cool this morning.  Before I publish this, I just want to thank all of you who endure my dry spells of not posting.  Summer is just a hard season for me to prioritize all that needs to be done.  Oh Sammy is checking out my fingers typing.  So I have to go he has sharp baby teeth.  I keep wondering do they have kitten teething rings?   Now he is in my face so I have to go NOW!!!!

Again thank you and have a splendid day,

Spring Distractions

It has been some time since I post so yes that means our weather has turned nice and I am trying to get the yard under control. So by the time I get my laptop out to type a post, I am sidetracked by email, photos, Facebook to name a few computer distractions.

So what I have I been up to??? No cross stitching which is quite sad as I was on a good role. So no cross stitch updates for my Turtle Trot and TUSAL. Good thing since these are both stitch-a-longs with no pressure. I find quite a few patterns and a whole bag of DMC floss at the quilt guilds silent auction. I even found two large Q-snaps frames. I did find one partial stitched Lavender & Lace project. Sorry I cannot remember the name and I'm afraid if I go digging for it I will be pulled into my sewing room.

Sewing and quilting have been my pleasure lately. I bound several quilts that I had quilted. I normally hand bind quilts but I decided I needed to practice machine binding quilts. Each quilt I get better and better. My last quilt that I bound only had a couple bobbles so I was quite pleased with my work. 

This quilt was the second quilt that I machine quilted on my longarm quilt machine. I used a pantograph as the fabrics were scrappy and had various themes. At first look you would think patriotic but the scrappy fabrics called for something to tie the patriotic, flowers and paisley together. This is why I used Anne Bright's Ocean Froth. I think this will be my "go to" pantograph.

Nice weather means time outside and not in. The spring flowers bloomed and wilted so fast but the lilacs made up for it.

This year all three varieties of lilacs bloomed one after another. The white lilac was first to bloom and it is hidden so I almost missed it. It has so many new shoots this year that I will be able to transplant them so they will be front and center. The lavender lilacs were next. They are the most fragrant and stepping outside was a joy. The last lilac starts very dark purple and the blooms fade to lavender. Their scent is not as strong but still distinct. I was given the starts from a friend's parents (Buddy & Ellie May) place so I refer to this lilac as Ellie May. Since the lilacs were in abundance I was able to make a bouquet hope you enjoy it.

A book cake for the retired librarian

Grandma's shirt says, "At This Age, I Need Glasses"

Last weekend my mom and I drove to our home town to celebrate my Grandma's 80^th birthday. What a party it was. We had great food, drink and entertainment, local singer/songwriter Lindy Gravelle.

What a hoot it was to see my Grandma, Mom and Aunt dancing to José Cuervo.  Oh my! Besides partying, my Mom and I visited a place, Petersen Rock Garden, that is or was a staple to many that grew up in the Redmond and Terrebonne, Oregon areas. More to come on this in a later post.





Have a great week and enjoy the first week of May,

Turtle Trot – March 2015

When I started putting the cooking utensils away in the refrigerator this morning, it should have clued me into the day that would lay ahead. I also found myself getting distracted while trying to wash the items that are not dishwasher safe and having to drain and restart my dish water twice. To end the day, I shrunk one of my favorite pair of slacks by not making sure the washer was set to cold. So who knows what this update might end up like.

Since it is once again the 10^th of the month, it is time to show my stitching progress over the past month. I really felt like I had stitched much more than I did but when double checking the project to my pictures I found I only worked on one project this past month. It was my Drawn Thread's Sampler Gameboard.

It appears that this piece has been neglected for months but maybe longer knowing my scatter-brained ways. I have enjoyed working on this project once again because of the floss. I decided to change things up when a group of online friends said let's do a stitch-a-long. They left me in the dust and I continue to plug away at a turtles pace. Anyways, I choose to use Rainbow Galleries silk floss, Splendor. I love how the floss lays and how plump the stitches look on the 20 x 20 house blocks. My favorite bit to stitch was the little squirrel near the edge.

As I was stitching it I was thinking of my grade school friend, Holly, who now cares for abandoned and orphaned squirrels. Boy are they energetic little creatures and what personalities they have. Holly releases them back to the wild when they are health and old enough to leave the nest.

I see that just like my day, I am getting a bit side tracked. The Turtle Trot SAL (stitch-a-long) is a no pressure SAL that you pick 10 of your WIPs, UFOs or new projects to work on during the year. We post our progress on the 10^th of each month and link up to our wonderful host Claudette's blog, BAP Attack. For a list of participants, click here.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday and Happy Stitching,

Arrivals

As I stated a couple of weeks ago, I would reveal the mystery prize when the 2015 Grow Your Blog Party Giveaway Winner, Joyce, had received the package of goodies. Joyce said it arrived last week and I am just getting a moment to sit down and post the pictures. Besides the Jane Kirkpatrick book, Every Fixed Star, the package included several different greeting card blanks that pictures or cross stitch can be placed in, two fingertip towels with cross stitch bands for stitching and a free older cross stitch chart from DMC. It was fate that Joyce won this prize as she likes to stitch and also enjoys scrapbooking and card making.  Be sure to stop by Joyce's blog, Joyce's Love of Life, say "hello" and see that her blog name is the perfect fit for her blog.  

Before I head to bed this evening, I thought I would leave you with a couple of pictures to show you why I think spring has arrived. Well maybe the proof of the garden being tilled is not proof but it means that I am getting an anxious to get my hands into the dirt and make things grow. Today I noticed that my forsythia shrub has buds on it. Guess I will be putting the crabgrass preventer on the lawn in the near future.

Have a good night and a beautiful Tuesday…

TUSAL – February New Moon

Not sure why I kept thinking that the new moon was on the 20th this month but I guess that was last month and next month. With the New Moon hitting the skies, that means it is time to post an update for the TUSAL (Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long) that is hosted by It's Daffycat. Click here to read about TUSAL in our host own words.

Yes, it might seem a bit odd to keep and then take pictures of our ORTs (Old Ratty Things) or snippets if you prefer to call them, but there has to be somebody a little crazier than you right? Well there are quite a few of us that are participating in the TUSAL this year. Here is the link to It's Daffycat's posting that has the link of the participants who have posted an update this month. I have been keeping my ORTs in a small square bottomed canning jar that came from my Great Grandma's supply. The crazy thing about using this jar for this is that hanging onto odd things was common for her to do. She was not a hoarder like you see on some of the TV shows today but kept things that she knew there was a future use or caused her to be quite frugal. This was due to living through many hardships like the Great Depression, two World Wars and all the innovations that happened in her 96 years.

Without further ado, here is my ORT jar. I have continued to get time to stitch. Lots of tree as I had been working on a tree. I'm planning to change projects so there should be some silk ORTs mixed in with the normal cotton ORTs when I start working on the Game Board Sampler. Once again Chocolate Mouse wanted to appear on my blog and he does quite well holding onto the ORT jar that I said okay.

Happy Stitching,


Well that is where I should have posted this but I had connection issues and thought I would get back to it, oops guess not. Once again…Happy Stitching

2015 Grow Your Blog Party Giveaway Winner

And the winner is…Joyce (Joyce's Love of Life) Congratulations!!!!

Joyce and I both love counted cross stitch and have Accounting backgrounds, which I just found out during the blog hop. She is so inspiring and I love seeing her latest cross stitch projects that she is working on. My current favorite is Cochise, which was designed on PC Stitch of her granddaughter's horse. What a treasure it will be when she is finished just like the Snowman and Friends Stocking that she is also working on. Please stop by and say "hello" to Joyce and be inspired like me. Congratulations Joyce. I will reveal the surprise part of her prize after she receives it. I was so certain that a quilter would be the winner guess those charm squares will be a prize later this year.

It was wonderful meeting so many new bloggers during this years GYB Party. I truly appreciate every one of you who stopped by and said "hello". So many new followers, thank you and hope you will enjoy my blog. It will take me awhile to get around to all the blogs. We have a busy couple of weeks and trying to balance my health and how much I can do without having setbacks is a challenge all in its self.

Once again I would like to say thank you to Vicki from 2 Bags Full for hosting the Grow Your Blog Party. A special thanks to all the volunteers too. Vicki will have the list of participants on her blog for the coming year so the party can continue.  Click here for the list of 2015 participants.  

Turtle Trot - February 2015

This maybe my turtle trot post but life seems to be at the hares’ pace lately.  So I am quite surprised to be able to report how much progress I have made on two of my ten pieces that I selected to work on for this year’s turtle trot.  If you are unfamiliar with the Turtle Trot, it is a SAL (stitch-a-long) that is hosted by Claudette on her blog, BAP Attack's.  Each month on the 10^th (sometimes a couple days late), we post our progress on the ten pieces that we selected at the beginning of the year. 

Click here to find the current participants that have linked their progress to Claudette’s blog.  There are some great stitchers out there if you have time to take a peek at their blogs too. 

The first piece, Bent Creek’s Patriotic Row, is one that I have changed up (fabric and floss colors) to fit my taste.  As I was stitching I had to remind myself that if I kept going and finished it then I would not have a project that did not place on my stitching stand. I love my stand except it is really hard to get it set right when I am sitting in my favorite chair (our 24 old La-Z-Boy recliner). 

You will notice that most of my stitching time this past month was spent on my Paula Vaughan’s Good Neighbors piece.  It is hard to tell from the photographs but the sky area between the porch posts is now filled in with half stitches.  I was so happy to have those stitches finished and be able to move onto complete stitches. I would get a nice rhythm going and next thing I would know it was time to fix dinner or go to bed.  I had thought about changing to one of my others pieces but I was challenging myself to get to the house.  The black and gray is the roof, which is not as far as I wanted but quite an accomplishment. 

Since I am a bit late on posting this and it is now Thursday, I thought I would give you a throwback for Throwback Thursday.  When preparing the before and after photos, I found that I had taken a picture of the PV Good Neighbors exactly ten years ago on the 10^th.  Not sure if this makes me sad or excited that I am finally getting closer to having it stitched. Sorry about the quality, I think I was still putting my pieces on the scanner bed and scanning them since I don't even think I had a digital camera at that time.  Oh my the times have changed. 

Thank you so much for reading my post and hope that your Valentine’s Day is splendid. Hopefully out new couch will arrive.  Now I have to get busy and shampoo the living room carpet.  We had to buy a new shampooer since I wore the old one out.  Not sure what that says but it was six or more years old.  

Happy Stitching and Quilting!

Grow Your Blog Party 2015

Welcome to my blog, Easy Street Ramblings.  My name is Toni and I live in the SE corner of Washington State not far from the Columbia River.  

This year will mark the 25^th anniversary of marriage to my wonderful husband, Don.  

We are the very well trained parents of five furbabies (three dogs and two cats).  Two of our dogs, Sadie Jo and Cash, are Australian Cattle Dogs, which most people call Heelers.  Our third dog, Barry, is part hound and who knows what else, but he has personality and sad, sad hound eyes.  Both of our cats, Sophie and Zowie, are domestic shorthairs.  

I am a stay at home wife, who loves to cross stitch, quilt, read, garden, bake, cook, can and preserve food all while living in the country.  Washington State University is my alma mater and I faithfully root for the Cougars football team.  I love watching the Seattle Mariners baseball, most of the time on TV, but once or twice a season we drive over the mountains to watch them in person.  In the near future when my quilting/sewing studio, I will begin my new adventure as a professional longarm quilter. 

I started blogging almost eight years ago as an outlet to express myself and share my cross stitching.  As the title of my blog implied, my post can be a bit rambling at times.  When I am feeling silly or needing a pick me up, I let Sadie Jo paw her Wednesday Woof.  They say laughter is the best medicine. 

I joined the 2015 Grow You Blog Party (GYBP) so I could increase my followers and connect with others who have similar interest.  I love being inspired by others so I look forward to visiting other GYBP participants. 

This year on Easy Street Ramblings you are likely to find the following:

• Lots of quilting especially my adventures in longarm quilting on my Baby Lock Crown Jewel,
• Some stitching including updates on SAL (stitch-a-longs) that I participate,
• A bushel of tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash and other garden yummies,
• One or two camping trips that may include an adventure across the country,
• And of course a bit of rambling about life on Easy Street and its residents. 

As a little thank you for visiting and partaking in the 2015 GYBP, I have a book, Every Fixed Star, from one of my favorite authors, Jane Kirkpatrick, and a mystery gift.  

Please leave a comment and tell me if you are a quilter, cross stitcher or other type of crafter/artist.  Comments left before February 15^th will be eligible.  I will use a random number generator to select the winner.  I will respond to each comments via email.  If you have not heard from me then you need to check that you are not a no-reply email when commenting. 

A great big thank you to Vicki of 2 Bags Full for hosting this event once again.  Make sure to check out the other participants of 2015 Grow Your Blog Party.  Vicki will have a list of them on her blog.

January 2015 TUSAL

What a beautiful cold winter morning it was but spring is definitely in the air.  The little feathered friends were quite thrilled when I filled the feeders this morning.  I heard the most beautiful bird song coming from my rose bushes on the far side of the lawn.  Finally he decided that it was okay to identify himself to me.  I remember seeing this little guy last year just after the crouches started to bloom.  Back then I looked up what kind of bird he was and found that he is only in our area for a few months and then continues his journey.  I believe he is a Spotted Towhee and our local Audubon Society says that he is only in our area during the winter.  He was quite happy with the little finches like to sit in one of the bird feeders and toss out what they are not interested in. 

Well this post is not about the wildlife in my yard right now.  It is about TUSAL (Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long).  It is a fun SAL for those of us who like keeping our ORTs (Old Ratty Things), which I call snippets.  Each month on the day of the New Moon, we post pictures of the container that hold our ORTs.  As with last year, I will continue to use an old canning jar that came from the jars that were from my Great Grandma.  My plan was at the end of each year was to put the ORTs in a glass ornament and label the year.  Well, I have not gotten around to doing this so I have a couple years of bags for the last couple of years.  I have been thinking of placing this in a container and letting my little feathered friends use them for their nest this spring.  I have the snippets of thread from my sewing so I might start with this first and see how it goes. 

Since the sun was shining this morning, Chocolate Mouse wanted to sunbath so I asked if he would mind a picture or two with the ORT jar and he said anything to get myself of your blog, lol.  Chocolate Mouse was my prize from Bunco in November.  Yes, I know how moose is spelled but this moose is scented and called Chocolate Mouse.  When you sunbath you need a nice cozy blanket so Chocolate Mouse choose one of the quilts that I quilted some time back.  It is awaiting binding, which I hope to get to as I officially handed over the files for the Quilt Guild Community Service Chair position yesterday. It is a little bittersweet but I am looking forward to having extra time to quilt, stitch, garden, and spend time with my family.  

It has been wonderful to be able to finally get an extra moment here and there to stitch.  I had hoped to do a little stitching today but I had to get some rest since I did too much yesterday. 

I almost forgot to mention that this TUSAL is hosted by It’sDaffycat.  Thanks again for hosting our little SAL.  By clicking here you can read about the TUSAL in her words ;)  

Happy Stitching,

Toni

Wednesday Woof

Sadie Jo here, pawing another edition of the Wednesday Woof. It has been quite some time since Mama was occupied with something else and I could get my paws on the laptop. She even had the nerve to take the laptop with her when she was gone for what seemed like a couple of months. She says that it was only ten days but to me it was way too long. I am still a bit mad at her. I would not snuggle with her for four days after she came back. We have decided that she is not allowed out of the house without supervision by one of us or Daddy because we know he will bring her back. So today when she said she had to return an overdue book, I volunteered to go. It was wonderful being in the vehicle and going someplace besides my doctors (i.e. the vet). We even picked up dinner. Since she is home we are back to only getting chicken nuggets instead of a burger.

Besides Mama being gone our winter has been kind of boring especially since there has not been any snow just a lot of snow and cold temperatures. Hopefully spring will be here soon. Mama did mention we might have to go out and clean up one of the flower beds if the temperatures stay in the high 40s or above (8°C and above). There is also talk of having to dig out around the basement window wells. This has to do with all the construction that has been going on in the basement. Mama keeps saying that it will be her sewing and quilting studio. She said this one will have a spot for me to come and hang out with her. She has been training my cat sister to lay in cat beds. I still think the pink one is a fluffy Frisbee. I have stopped trying to pull it out from underneath Sophie when she is laying on it and I want to play.

Well the tea is ready and Mama says she wants her laptop back.

Until next time…
Hope you had a woofunderal Wednesday, Sadie Jo ^. .^

Ready, Set, Go Turtle Trot 2015

I was thrilled to see that BAP Attack was going to organize another year of the Turtle Trot.  This is my third year and hopefully this will be the year that I get through the summer and complete a year of stitching and most importantly posting updates.  Many of the projects on the list are continuing from the past two years.  There are a couple projects that are new to the list since I did complete a couple of small projects last year.  Every stitch gets me closer to starting new projects and I just picked up several new patterns. 

Here is my list for 2015:

1. Paula Vaughan, Good Neighbors
2. Bent Creek, Patriotic Row
3. Drawn Thread, Sampler Gameboard
4. Stoney Creek, 1 Corinthians 13 (Wedding Sampler)
5. Dimensions, Holiday Fun Ornaments
6. Rediscovered Worlds, Needleworker’s Prayer
7. Zweigart, Flags & Flowers, Petunias
8. Bent Creek, EduCATed
9. Pangaea, St. Basil’s Cathedral
10. M Designs, Peace Tree

In the near future, I will be identifying a special project that I will be stitching on this year and posting my progress alongside my Turtle Trot projects.  This project will be in honor of a wonderful lady who inspired me with her post and photos of her stitched pieces.  She had so many kind and encouraging words.  Debbie, you are greatly missed.  

Here is the link to BAP Attack’s post with the other participants blogs.  Make sure to take a moment to see what projects they will be working on this year. 

So what is this Turtle Trot that I am seeing?  Our wonderful organizer is Claudette who has BAP Attack blog.  At the beginning of the year, we pick 10 projects that we plan to work on throughout the year.  There is no deadline to finishing them.  We move at a turtles pace and once in a while we finish one or more of our projects in a year.  On the 10th of each month, we compose a post of our progress on the pieces we worked on.  We then link up to Claudette's post with the other Turtle Trot participants.  This is a great place to see the progress everyone has made and cheer them on.

I have a special page dedicated to each year of the Turtle Trot, which shows the progress that I made on my projects.  These pages can be located in the sidebar.  

Happy Stitching,