The Twelve Days Of Thanksgiving….Day Seven

When we became snowbirds in Florida it was like coming home as so many of our friends were already in the area.
Moving to a new area does give one a chance to meet some new friends and I have been lucky in that regard.
I have met new friends through some of my long time friends.

I belong to a card group and that is how I met Pat and Marion Gallagher.

I also met Chuck and Mary Odders through my long time friends John and Lynn Maher. Turns out Chuck was a friend of my sisters in Jr. and Sr. high school
Quilters are such friendly people. I wish I had a picture of our whole quilt group but since I don’t I’ll have to share a few pictures of those I get together with outside of our quilt meetings for lunch….and you all know “Ladies Who Lunch” is one of the most important jobs for Florida ladies!

Beth and Pete Sherman are great friends. I met Beth through our quilt group when she welcomed me to the first meeting I attended.

I met Robbie Porter Payne when she gave a presentation to our quilt group. Little did we know that we had been part of a group quilt coordinated by another BFF Tommy Fitzsimmons and we had spent a lot of time talking by email.

Nancy Burkhalter is another friend I met through Beth Sherman. She was a snowbird but now is at home in Florida.

Debbie Jones and I met at a fiber art retreat and have kept in touch and seen each other many times. She lived in Florida but now is back home in New Mexico. This picture was taken as she was leaving after she was my houseguest last year.

Teddy Pruett and I are new old friends. We met years ago at a Jinny Beyer Seminar at Hilton Head and have renewed our friendship here in Florida.

My newest new friends, just met them on 11/21/2015! Carol Williamson and Kathy Metelica Cray.
I am going to try and drop a few more names of new friends even though I can’t find pictures of them!
Carol Gordhamer, Tommy Fitzsimmons, Karen Blachowiak, Kay Webb, Peggy Smalser Ehrlich, Marilyn Kosmider,  Sandy Donabed, Betty Freese, Carol Baxter, Donna Oxandale, Jane Badura and so many more. Many of my Florida friendships fit into more than one of these groups of friends.
Then there is a group I call The Village People Girlfriends. I knew two of them before I moved here but met the rest and love them all.
When I start to make these lists it really makes me realize even more how many friends I have and that I have even more to be thankful for.

The Twelve Days Of Thanksgiving….Day Six

Over the years I lost track of most of my cousins.
I never lost track of my cousin Cindy and still see her at family gatherings.
I also see my cousin Georgia at family gatherings.
There are others who I hadn’t seen or had contact with in years.
Because we didn’t always live close to all our cousins it was always exciting to get together with them when we were growing up.
It is just as exciting to see them now.
I received an email from my cousin Jim 12 or more years ago saying “I think  you are my cousin Kay”.
Of course I replied and although we set up a meeting it had to be postponed.
We visited he and his wife Marilyn in Florida.
Since they we have seen each other both in Florida and Wisconsin.

This picture of Marilyn and Jim was taken the first time they visited me in Florida. He sure picked a great wife. I try to take arrival and departure pictures of my houseguests and this was their departure one.

I had lost track of my Rehorst cousins and wondered how to find them. They weren’t on Facebook….but I guessed their kids were and I was right.
I connected with Mary Rehorst Engelkamp and Jane Rehorst Lobo through their kids on Facebook.
They came to Wisconsin from California and Ohio a few summers ago and we had lunch at my sister Karen’s house.
Pictured are Jane Lobo, Carol Sherman, Karen Marquardt, Me, Connie Richards, Mary Engelkamp and her husband Glenn. Although this was the first time I met Glenn it was so easy talking with him and I felt like I’d known him forever.
We all enjoyed each others company and also catching up with the intervening years.
Mary and I have seen each other several times since then.

We were able to arrange a date for Jim and Marilyn and Mary and Glenn to come for a visit at my house in Florida.
I had seen each of them several times themselves but this was the first time in maybe 50 years we all were together. We are the 3 closest cousins in age.
Lucky Andy just happened to drop in after golf and could take a picture of all of us.

My cousin Paula Koeper Hashek and I have connected through Facebook and keep in close touch since she retired. I even got her interested in quilting and she bought a brand new sewing machine.
Yes, I have had some contact through FB and email with some of my other cousins but these are the ones I keep in closest touch with today.
I really enjoy being in touch with all of them.

The Twelve Days Of Thanksgiving….Day Five

I have another trio of friends I am so thankful for.

They are the ones I call First Friends!

They all live near me in Florida and they all are special to me.

Left to right:

You have seen Donna Dempsey Lee before.

She was the first of my first friends as she was my first room mate in college.

Sally Rue was the first person I met when we moved to Ohio 50 some years ago.

I still remember her walking across the street to welcome me to the community.

We had many happy times in Ohio, but we each moved away. As so often happens we lost track of each other.

About 5 years ago I found her living 15 miles from me in Florida. We now keep in close touch and if you hear me talk about my Florida family it is because her family has welcomed me into their family.

Jean Antes was the first person I met when we moved back to Wisconsin from Ohio. She is one of those people I never lost track of.

We now get to spend more time together as we live 6 miles from each other.  She also is one who welcomed us into a group of friends I call The Village People.

The picture was taken when I invited all three of my first friends to my house for lunch.

It was so much fun. You would have thought they all knew each other forever as everyone hit it off and talked like they were long time friends.

The Twelve Days Of Thanksgiving….Day Four

Today I am sharing my college classmates.

I had lost touch with so many of them but many have been found.

I received a message from Marilyn Schley Roessler that she had been reading my blog. When someone reads my blog I have no idea they do. Even if they comment there may be no recognition if I don’t know their married name and they don’t post their maiden name. We were ASA sorority sisters.

After many messages back and forth she and her husband Rich visited me in Florida and it was so good to see them.

I also have connected with Cindy Goehring Bartel, another ASA sister. I remember seeing her at a quilt show years after we graduated from college and she looked exactly like she did when we graduated.

Karla Hanke Olander and her husband Bruce were two people I never lost touch with as we exchanged Christmas cards and letters over the years.

We visited them in California in 1980. Another ASA sister.

Rita Anderson Young and her husband Ron are another ASA sister I am in touch with. They spent most of the years since college living in Brazil.

Donna Dempsey Lee was my first college room mate and also an ASA sister. We have had a chance to get together as she lives about 8 miles from me.

Pat Wenner Reisinger was also a college classmate who I now keep in touch with. She never seems to age.

I have also made contact with several other college class mates but these are the ones I maintain the closest contact with.

Who’d a thought when we all lived in the dorm our freshman year we’d be connected over 50 years later?

The Twelve Days Of Thanksgiving….Day Three

I am thankful for friends and relatives.
I put them into three categories:
1. Those  who we’ve kept in touch with for years and still do
2. Long time long lost friends who I’ve found again
3. New friends
Today I am going to share those long time long lost friends.
Like many of you when we were raising families and busy working I didn’t have time to keep up with many friends and family members.
Now that my time is my own I have been able to rekindle friendships and that has been one of the greatest joys of my life.
When we visited out Category 1 friends John and Lynn in Florida 12 years ago they had become friends with two of my high school classmates

Pat and Ron Brodsko.
Within 24 hours we decided to build a house in the same community they both lived in and have never been sorry.

Pat Davidson Maranger was also a classmate of mine….2nd grade, 9th grade and high school. She is also Ron’s cousin.
She and her husband John also live in our community. We had not seen each other from 50 years and we each recognized each other when we saw each other here.
,
I has also lost track of most of my high school classmates. We had a 57/57 class reunion here in Florida in January 2015.
Here are almost all the attendees. Sharon Nyiri Leffler, Terry Hagen, Barb Tesolowski Coleman, Bill Dawson, Lynn Crane Leithleiter, Me, Pat & John Maranger, Lee and Moly Edmonston and Tom Hansen.
A few had other commitments on the night of our dinner in The Villages. It was a lot of fun. Missing were Pat and Ron Brodsko, Merle and Joan Henry and John Dickey.
I keep in regular touch on line with many of these people. I have never been a letter writer or liked to spend time talking on the phone so the internet has been a godsend for me.
Then there are the college friends I have found in the last few years.
I am thinking this is going to take more that one blog post so I will finish this now and go on to that chapter tomorrow.

The Twelve Days Of Thanksgiving….Day Two

I am so thankful  my girlfriends mother taught us to knit when we were 6 or 7 years old.

It is something I enjoy doing so much.

I love knitting things for my family, friends and even myself.

I just finished knitting this simple small scarf.

I had one skein of the Thick n Thin wool yarn that someone put out for anyone to take at our quilt meeting.

The color is one of my best colors. It is warm, yet very light weight.

It was something I just picked up in spare moments the last few days.

Now I will think about another project to get started on.

The Twelve Days Of Thanksgiving….Day One

We’ve all heard of the 12 days of Christmas.
Yet we only give Thanksgiving one day…..as it seems to be lost between Halloween and Christmas.
So I am encouraging everyone to give thanks for something each one of the 12 days of Thanksgiving.
It is hard for me to come up with JUST 12 as I have so many things to be thankful for.

I am thankful for my family, all of them.
I am particularly happy when they can all get together.
As the family grows that is next to impossible with everyone’s work, school and travel schedules.
This picture was taken last Christmas when each one of them received a miniature hand knitted sock from me with a treasure inside.

 

All my siblings, spouses, 2 cousins and a niece and nephew joined me to see the opening of my solo show in January 2009.

Sally’s Afghan

I showed part of this afghan on Facebook while I was working on it. Sally said she wanted to see it when it was finished.

I replied that it was a gift for a friend and I couldn’t show it until the friend received it!

Here is Sally and one of her Cavalier King Charles Spaniels having their first cuddle with the afghan!

The colors are perfect in her living room.

We spent the day catching up on everything since we last saw each other in May.

It was also a sewing lesson refresher as she worked on her wall quilt.

While she was doing that and when she didn’t need my help I wove all the ends in a sweater I finished months ago.

When that was finished I did a little knitting on another simple scarf I am making for myself.

So Friday the 13th was a good safe productive day for both of us.

UPDATE:

Sally sent me this photo this chilly morning as she was curled up under the afghan in front of the fire…..showing me that even her slippers match it!

Sock Knitting On The Lanai

Today was a perfect morning to sit out on the lanai and work on knitting this sock.

It’s matching one is done so I am working on this one now.

It will take me a while to finish this as it is knit on size 0 needles which are my preference for socks.

I found the light on the lanai was perfect for knitting.

How Many Years Ago

 

Facebook offers to show you what you look like from a variety of years ago.

I only got 2 photos when I tried that so I decided to do a search of my own.

This was taken about 16 years ago when we had our family portrait taken with the entire family at the time.

This photo was taken at my niece and nephew in law’s wedding 9 years ago in Illinois.

This was taken about 4 1/2 years ago in Florida.

I’m guessing this could have been about 25 years ago as we were setting up the quilt sale both at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Maybe 23 years ago taken at Hilton Head Island at Jinny Beyer’s Quilting Seminar? I don’t have a date or anything for reference on these older ones. Many were printed photos which I scanned into the computer years ago so even the date they were scanned in means nothing,

It’s fun to look back and see different hair styles and also the glasses or those where I didn’t wear glasses!

Once Upon A There Were Two Little Boys Named Teddy And Jeff………

and they were best friends. They even dressed alike! Teddy was a little older than Jeff.
One day I heard them talking and this is how the conversation went:
Teddy “What are you going to be when you grow up Jeff?”
Jeff “I am going to be a Daddy.”
Teddy “That is good because boys can’t be a Mommy. But I will be a Daddy before you because I am older than you.”
Well as often happens Teddy and his family moved to Florida and Jeff and his family moved to Wisconsin and they didn’t see each other or hear from each other for a long, long time.
After many years their mothers found each other and became BFF again in Florida.

Sally, Ted’s Mom and Kay, Jeff’s Mom

Ted

Jeff
One day Teddy’s (who now was called Ted) mother asked Jeff’s mother when Jeff’s oldest daughter Heidi was born.

Jeff’s mom said Heidi was born 11/1/88.

Ted’s mom said Ted’s oldest son Brandon was born on 11/1/88 too!
So these too little boys who were best friends in 1961 and 1962 both became fathers on the same day.
Happy 27th birthday Birthday Heidi and Brandon!

Happy Halloween!

For many years it was a tradition to decorate a full size Christmas tree for each holiday.

It was a challenge to decorate one for Halloween as I did it for my young grandchildren which ruled out anything scary.

Eventually I gave it up as it was way too much work. The biggest part was changing the lights for each tree. I did luck out on the Halloween and Thanksgiving trees as I just turned the face on the jack o lanterns to the back and I had pumpkins for Thanksgiving.

It’s About Time–Another Ice Tapestry Finished!

I have been so busy knitting and doing other things that this piece was just waiting for some hand sewing.

I finished it yesterday.

Each one is so different, even though there are some similarities among them.

I couldn’t duplicate them if I tried.

Again, the colors that have red in the mix take top billing as they are the strongest.

Another Throw In Progress

I’m sharing a work in progress.

This is a section of the afghan/throw I am currently knitting.

I love the relaxation of knitting. I use a simple garter stitch which is the easiest way to knit. It also makes a very warm cover.

When I knit these if is a great exercise using color.

This group of yarns are the ones I will be making my next choices from. The blending and changing of colors is what makes these so gorgeous.

Each one uses at least 50 different yarns. This is the 4th one I have done recently.

I purchase no new yarn to make them. I often use up small balls of yarn left from other projects. I also pull orphan balls from my yarn collection.

I start with a group of yarns in the colors I need for the color scheme I plan to make. As I work I go through my yarns and add whatever it seems to need.

Years ago when I put all my yarn in my first yarn cabinet, an old post office desk, my son came in and looked at the beautifully arranged yarns by color.

He said “Mom, and when are you going to knit?”

My answer “What, and spoil that beautiful arrangement?”

But I do knit and use the yarn. I know have a second yarn cabinet which is really a china cabinet. Almost all my yarns are now visible, with the exception of some bins in the bottom of the second cabinet holds odd or small balls of yarn.

I have made a major dent in my yarn collection this summer, so much so that I have a display of some colored glass, along with the yarn in the china cabinet.

Round Square Basket

I decided I needed to knit yesterday and wanted a simple project.

My decision was to knit another one of the square baskets with the turn down cuff like I had previously done.

I selected two of the same balls of yarn with a questionable amount of yarn on each.

The yarn was a thick and thin yarn which was quite different than what I used for the last ones.

I knit the “square” part exactly the same as the last ones.

When I finished that part I realized I would not have enough yarn to do the cuff.

I did some purling and ribbing and then bound off tightly.

I ended up with a round, rather than square basket, and I am pleased with it.

The way I knit I never quite know what I will get and that is fine.

My Own Personal Afghan/Throw And Two Others

I scrunched this up so you can see all the colors together.

This view shows it spread out as flat as this type of knitting allows!

It is very soft and fluid.

I decided to knit this one for myself after knitting the two for grandchildren earlier this season. I found them so soft and warm on my lap as I was knitting them.

I also love making color changes to make a pleasing finished project. I have an extensive collection of yarn so I don’t have to purchase any yarns as I work on these. I usually start with a general idea of the colors I plan to use and take out all the yarn left from other projects.
I continue adding more yarns as I go and as I find it necessary. I have made a dent in the amount of yarn I have this summer.

This is the one I knit for Cooper in his favorite colors.

I knit this one for Heidi and Nate. I chose turquoise and blue Caribbean colors. They spent their honeymoon in the Caribbean.

This will be timeless as turquoise goes with every color there is.

I enjoy knitting these and enjoy giving them to people who I know will use them and love them.

Time Spent With Heidi And Nate

Sunday evening I had dinner with my granddaughter Heidi and grandson in law Nate.

After dinner we came back her and Heidi showed Nate around the house and then we spent time in my studio where I shared my recent work, etc with them.

Nate and I are on the same wave length when it comes to art. Heidi and I are on the same wave length for many things including color! I started playing color with her when she was about a week old. I disagree when people say babies don’t see color as she could arrange colors at a very young age and knew the names of some unique colors.

The lighting at the restaurant was not favorable so the picture is not the greatest but they are.