Mt. Rainier and the Narrows Bridge

We went to an antique show south and east of Seattle today. We were about 60 miles closer to Mt. Rainier than we are from home. The weather was very clear and sunny. I hope you enjoy the pictures we took of the mountain. Sadly, during our last big winter storm 4 people died on the mountain. Two folks had gone climbing and 2 had gone camping. I must admit that I don't understand either activity when a storm that is predicted to be very severe is eminent. However, I'm not a climber and my idea of camping is a very nice bed and breakfast!!!

Here is the famous Tacoma Narrows bridge. There are now 2 bridges. That is very recent. When we first moved out here, there was only 1 bridge and traffic was often a mess. Now it's smooth sailing!

Hope your week-end is going well! Thanks for taking a look!

Valentine Decorating

I really don't do much for this holiday. I love the color red so it's fun to do a bit of decorating. I mainly decorated the area of the antique desk. As usual, I had fun with my little feather tree. That was a great investment! I use it all the time. I tried lots of different arrangements and different cross stitch projects. I'm happy with the end result even though I didn't use the last cross stitch that I finished- the SM 1841. The header picture is also for Valentines Day. We collect those hand blown jars. They are such fun to have in the kitchen. In fact. I planned the counter top around them. Unfortunately, we never see them out here. I usually put dry pasta in them. One year, I put Christmas candy and that was a disaster as I kept nibbling on my display!!!! I hope to get a few hours in on the Rebecca Robinson tonight. Maybe I'll have a up-date by the end of the week-end.

The overall display.

We bought the red garland at Christmas time. I didn't use it till now. I liked the silver at Christmas.

This is not the best photo but it fits the theme. This is "Emblem of Love," by With Thy Needle. I did it in 3 shades of Atlantic Blue Range by Needlepoint Inc. silk threads. I made this to commemorate our 30th anniversary. The initials of all the children and 2 grandchildren are stitched in the design.

This is a picture of my maternal Grandparents on their wedding day.

Love the heart frame!

Here are my paternal Grandparents.

If you have been following the blog, you know that I just finished a sampler to honor my husband's maternal Grandparents. We are still working on the arrangement on the wall.
Thanks for taking a look! Have a great week-end!

Two Cross Stitch Projects

Tonight is the big play. I was at the final rehearsal this morning. I have been watching the script but tonight I have the job of helping the teacher keep the off stage kids quiet!! Doesn't that sound like fun??!!! Well, each night I have been working on Scarlet Letter's Rebecca Robinson . This is very large and will take some time. I thought I'd show what I have done so far. Sorry for the wrinkles. I continue to have problems with the color. One of these days, a new camera is in order!! This will be especially important when I take summer flower pictures. I need good color!

This is the honeysuckle border. There are 38 of these little flowers to stitch. I have 7 done.

I'm adding some of the little motifs as I go.

I'm really having trouble liking the colors of this vase! I might have to change little Miss Robinson's choice. I will wait till I get more done and then decide.

Her colors for the flowers are fine so far. Now I look at all the colors first in a given design so that I can make changes if I really don't like the combination. I suppose that is not the way to do a reproduction but it will be hanging in my home and I have to like it.

The Blackbird design sampler is back from the framer. I like the work of the new shop in Poulsbo. It is called Bluewater Artworks. They did a super job. I walked in to get it and they had it on the counter as a show piece to demonstrate to customers what they can do. They have only been open a few weeks.

Here's a close up of the frame. We are working on the arrangement for the dining room wall using the old oval pictures , a few more old photos of James and Bandena, their marriage certificate, and this sampler. James and Bandena are the SBA's Grandparents.
Have a great Fri. We have a fun antique show coming to a town near here. I think that will be our Sat. Thanks for taking a look.

More coverlets plus one quilt

I've been busy today! I volunteer at a local school. I work in a 4th/5th highly capable classroom. They are having their yearly play tomorrow night. This is a very big production. It is at the local high school and they have been practicing for weeks. I have been on script and that means getting up early and out!! I'm thinking retirement has made me VERY LAZY. I did this almost every day for many years! The play is tomorrow night! On Fri. I think I'll just sleep in. I hope to have a update on Rebecca Robinson tomorrow. So far it's going well. It is the biggest sampler I've done in a long time. Well, anyway several folks mentioned the coverlets so I thought I'd show a few more.Thanks for the very kind comments, and thanks for taking a look!

This is probably the oldest coverlet that we own. I bought it from a family when we lived in upstate New York many years ago. That's the SBA's prize mug collection on the shelf.

A close up of the New York coverlet.

This is about 2 feet by 4 feet. We found it at an antique shop in Kentucky. It's not that old but it looks good on an old blanket chest that I put family pictures on.

This is a label that is on the piece. We visited Berea several times when we lived in Louisville.

This is a very old quilt. I was with a good friend when she purchased the quilt. I told her that if she ever wanted to get rid of the quilt to let me know. Well, she made a huge error!!! She put the quilt in a plastic bag in the attic. It was in perfect condition when she bought it. When she took it out for me, she found brown spots on the quilt(known as foxing). She lowered the price way down so I still bought it. It's probably late 1800's.

You can sort of see a brown area. What a pity! I love old textiles so I still love the quilt. It is beautifully hand pieced and hand quilted.

Puppet Theater

We had a fun day on Sun. Our dear daughter is working on illustrating children's books. She is using the wonderful Woolpets as characters. She is very interested in backgrounds. She knew that this a particular puppet show had interesting background so we decided to accompany her to the show. This all took place over in Seattle. I really enjoyed the museum part of the theater. All in all, we had a great day.

They had various displays of previous shows.

There were two amazing chandeliers in the theater. These were made of blown glass. Not my style, however, they were beautiful!

These puppets are part of a collection of Italian puppets.

This is part of the Cook Mark collection circa 1950. They came from China.

A little bit scary looking.

In the past, we went to the theater to see a Makah folk tale. The Makah live on the far NW coast of Washington.

A close up of those Italian puppets.

Here is an example of the background we came to see. It was called a shadow play. After the play we had lunch at a great Mexican restaurant. We love to go to Seattle with Laurie. She lived over there for several years and she knows lots of great places.

We got to the ferry early so we had coffee at one of my favorite coffee places, The Red Twig.

Time to go home!
Thanks so much for taking a look. I have decided to show a few more coverlets on my post tomorrow.