The Wedding

 Hello Everyone,

Here's just a brief snapshot of the wedding of my granddaughter Harleigh, and her wonderful husband Dan at Calaveras Big Trees State Park. The colorful dogwoods were the perfect background for a Fall wedding. 

We call this our Wilder gene or gene Wilder picture. We are lined up in birth order from our two sons, our daughter, three granddaughters and two grandsons. Mr. Joe and I are the shrinking violets!

This is our first Wilder gene picture in 2014.  The little boys aren't very little anymore!

The kids were married at the base of the Sentinel Tree at the park.

They asked me to be the officiant. I made it through the entire ceremony without a tear.....a shaky voice, but no tears. With the wedding at the base of the giant redwood, I had a lot of good material about family roots, strength through storms and longevity. I compared their wedding rings to the rings of the tree, and how every ring is a sign of growth. 

Mr. Joe and me in my officiant jacket.

My two handsome sons. I always thought I was tall.....not anymore.

My delightful, loving grandchildren cleaned up real good!

My sons, daughter and Auntie Gail.

The reception was held at Blue Lake Springs in the same room where I host my Sew'n Wild Oaks retreats.

The table numbers were so cute.

There wasn't a dry eye during the father/daughter dance....it was then that I cried.

It was a day full of wonderful memories we will carry with us for a lifetime.

Soon,

Lynn

Blue Plate Special Pattern is Available

 Hello Everyone,

Between the wedding and preparing for my next retreat, I managed to cut kits and have the patterns printed for Blue Plate Special. The pattern is now available in my Etsy shop HERE.

This pattern has all the charm of a vintage diner favorite... comforting, classic, and impossible to resist. The graceful, scalloped design creates beautiful movement across the quilt, while the soft florals and geometric blocks give it a timeless cottage-inspired look. The quilt is made from my Timeless Stitches fabric collection HERE.

The wedding whirlwind is finally winding down, and pictures from my granddaughter's wedding last Sunday are starting to trickle in. I'll be sharing them soon. Much to my surprise, I managed to deliver the ceremony without completely dissolving into a puddle of tears. My voice may have wobbled a bit now and then, but I made it all the way to "you may kiss the bride" without requiring oxygen or a timeout.

The last of the company headed home yesterday, which means the cabin has officially transitioned from "wedding central" back to "retreat headquarters." Now my full attention turns to the upcoming Sew'n Wild Oaks retreat, which begins this Sunday. There are tutorials to organize, supplies to double-check, and class materials to wrangle into some semblance of order.

And, of course, I need to clean the cabin again.

I'm beginning to suspect that cleaning the cabin is less of a task and more of a lifestyle. Every time I finish, it seems to immediately enter a new phase of disorder. Perhaps there's a quilting gremlin living here, scattering thread, fabric, and pine needles the moment my back is turned.

Wish me luck. The retreat countdown has begun!

Soon,

Lynn

In My Spare Time......

 Hello Everyone,

Between wedding and retreat preparations, and cobweb extermination, I've been making kits for Blue Plate Special, my new design.

I finished appliqueing all of the 'frames' around the blocks while watching TV, since I don't seem to be able to just sit still for a nano second.

I've enjoyed every minute while working with this color palette from my Timeless Stitches collection from Marcus Fabrics.

If you would like to purchase a kit, please send an email to:  sewnwildoaks@gmail.com and I'll add your name to the list. I won't be able to ship until mid-November, after my Sew'n Wild Oaks retreat.  I will be posting the pattern separately in my Etsy shop.  I will NOT be posting the kit on Etsy, because of the extra charges that Etsy imposes on higher priced items.

I'm also making kits for more Lucy Boston blocks.

I'm indecisive on which way I want to stitch this block together.

Fabrics like this, make the best Lucy blocks since there is so much potential in this fabric. The fabric is from the Canton Quilting Circle collection by Judie Rothermel.  The red is from Lily's Locket by Pam Buda.

I started decorating for Fall with some very old decorations that I remember my mom put out every year.  These are decorations made with pipe cleaners and the faces are ceramic.  

My friend Kaaren gave me the Amish baskets when she moved away.  I LOVE them and she couldn't have given then to anyone who would love them more.

The Autumn colors have been a bit disappointing this year. Our nights haven't been cool, and the poor leaves are falling off of the trees before they have a chance to change color.  This is about it for our little maple tree.

Our electricity provider, Pacific Gas & Electric, thoughtfully decided to turn off power to more than 80,000 customers in California for three days last week because high winds were expected. PG&E clearly took the "better safe than sorry" approach. The only small problem? The high winds apparently got lost on their way to our area and mostly hung out in Southern California instead.

This sort of thing happens occasionally during peak fire season. It's annoying, but admittedly preferable to the alternative of watching the neighborhood become a giant bonfire.

During the outage, I kept two running lists: things I could do with no power, and things I could do once we fired up the generator. To my surprise, I crossed off a remarkable number of items from both lists. Apparently, a lack of electricity is an excellent productivity tool.

In fact, I got so much done that I'm beginning to wonder if we should lose power more often...

...and then I remembered cold showers, warm refrigerators, and no internet.

Never mind. Let's not get carried away.

Soon,

Lynn