Flashback to the mid 80’s.  Melissa is in high school and I’m hooked on MTV!  Melissa’s favorite band–Bon Jovi!

Fast forward to a few months ago when Melissa tells me Bon Jovi is touring and the number one thing on her Bucket List is to see them again before they’re too old–or she’s too old!  I tell her to buy us tickets and she does–fourth row.  FOURTH ROW!!!!

Bon Jovi’s first stop–Seattle.  Melissa and I spent the weekend at my parents condo.  Here’s the view from First and Spring.

Mount Rainier over Safeco Field and the Quest Center.

The waterfront.

Tall buildings.  Hey, I’m from a really small town.

Of course we had to go to Pike’s Place Market.

Aren’t the flowers on the rooftops beautiful?

Years ago when the Market was being refurbished, they had a buy-a-tile fund raiser, and my mom and dad bought tiles for the whole family.  Here are ours!

But, come late afternoon, we’re ready to go!

The concert was at Seattle Center.  Here’s a view of the Space Needle over the top of Experience Music Project.

Great public art on the way in.

Past the International Fountain.

Quick mother/daughter photo op.

Now here’s the cool thing.  A semi-circle comes out from the stage–about four feet wide.  We’re in The Pit–the area inside the circle!  That’s VIP section, baby!

Another peek at the Space Needle before we go inside.

Of course everything is in Melissa’s name–and her name is on the list–BUT, she took her ID out at the airport and put it in her carryon.  It’s not in her purse!  Must be nice to be young and cute.  She just smiled, batted her eyelashes a few times and the guy said No Problem!

We were escorted to a special reception room and the band was there to greet us–well, paper cut outs of them!

The appetizers were waiting for us.

As was the open bar–always high on my list!  As you can see, I did my part to support the cranberry industry.

Soon dinner was served–the pasta bar was yummy!

And who could argue with a Build Your Own Cupcake station!?!

The band didn’t join us, but one guy I nicknamed Phony Bon Jovi was loving having his photo taken with all the cute girls!

I know you want pictures of the real thing, but that will have to wait until Part 2!

Really!  I got to have breakfast with Joe Biden in Seattle last week.

It was a fund raiser to kick off Senator Patty Murray’s re-election campaign.

My parents bought a table, and we were right up front.

I think Bob may have been the only one in the room with a John Deere tie on!  And speaking of Bob, he was turned away by the Secret Service at the security checkpoint!  He had a pocket knife!  Luckily, he could leave it at coat check, but I think the SS kept a close eye on him all through the event….

My sister and her friend Robin were there.

My brother-in-law, Ray.

Cole got an excused absence from school–but had to report to his classmates!

Of course we had warm-up speakers.

I had a clear shot of the stage, and while they aren’t the best quality photos, I’m happy to have them.

Here’s Dow Constantine, King County Executive.

And Congressman Jay Inslee.  He and I have hiked to the old growth cedar grove on Long Island together, but that’s another story!

And Senator Murray, of course.

Then the Vice President himself.

He talked about a half hour and was very engaging.  He pressed some flesh in the crowd afterwards.

Mom, Dad and Cole got to go through the receiving line and had a professional photo with Senator Murray and VP Biden, but we weren’t allowed in.  Bummer!  All in all, a very fun morning.  Oh! Oh!! Scott at http://www.redfishphoto.com/, the official photographer, has given me permission to use the photo.  Here it is!

Doesn’t it look like Joe’s telling my mom a great joke!?!  Actually, he was leaning in to kiss her on the forehead!

I didn’t mean to buy another quilt.  Really, I didn’t.  But it was only $45.00, and it was so sad–but beautiful at the same time.

It was really in bad shape, with lots of spots, fading and disintegrating fabric.

This quilt was such a study in contrasts.  The Sue’s were all appliqued on flour sacks.

But the stitching was amazing.

And there was an incredible variety of stitches around the girls….

…and on their hats.

And did you notice that each sleeve has a little white cuff?

As you can see, I took the quilt apart.  It was tied, and the edge of the top was folded to the back and zigzag stitched.  The filling was a worn out old blanket.  Boy, did I make a mess!  And, of course, as I worked, I made up a story about the origins of this quilt.  Here it is:

Tillie, the maker of the quilt, was born in the late 1800’s.  She had four brothers.  Tillie was the youngest.  By the time her four brothers were married, her parents were in failing health, so Tillie remained at home to care for them.  By the time they passed, Tillie was past marrying age.  She had no marketable skills and no resources.  It fell to her brothers to look after her.  Tillie would spend a month with each brother.  Of course, this didn’t thrill their wives, but Tillie tried to make herself useful.  The one skill she possessed was sewing, so she passed the time at each house sewing clothes for members of the family with whom she was residing.  Her sisters-in-law would purchase fabric before Tillie arrived and have a list of things for her to make.  Tillie enjoyed this and felt that she was contributing to the household.  One brother had a little girl, Matilda, that was Tillie’s favorite.  Tillie asked Matilda’s mother for fabric to make a special quilt for Matilda, but her mother said that would be a frivolous thing and wouldn’t buy the fabric.  So, Tillie saved scraps from her other sewing, and at each household where she stayed, she gathered discarded flour sacks.  In her spare moments, she would make another Sunbonnet Sue block until she had 36 beautiful blocks.  She had even saved enough flour sacks to piece a backing.  Back at Matilda’s parents house, she was ready to baste the quilt together when she fell ill.  She soon realized that she wouldn’t be able to finish Matilda’s quilt.  On her deathbed, she pleaded with her sister-in-law to finish the quilt.  Her sister-in-law begrudgingly promised that she would.  After Tillie’s death, her sister-in-law found an old blanket, laid it between the quilt top and backing, turned the edges of the quilt top to the back, not caring that she caught some of the pretty applique in the seams, and zigzag stitched around it.  Matilda loved her quilt and the memories of her Aunt Tillie.  She enjoyed looking at the pretty fabrics and beautiful stitching and slept with the quilt every night for years and years, eventually passing it down to her daughter.  Of course the ungrateful wretch thought it was just an old rag, sold it at a garage sale, where an antique dealer bought it, put it in her booth at the antique mall and it found its way to me!

And I love these blocks.  They’re really inspiration to me.  Thank you, Tillie.

We spent a fun weekend at The Great Wolf Lodge with Bob’s boys and their families.  Do you know about these places?  It’s a chain, but there’s only one here in the west–and it’s about 20 minutes south of Olympia.

They certainly have the “wolf” and “lodge” theme figured out.

But the big draw is the indoor water park.

There are lots of areas, including a great toddler pool.

And a wave pool.

Several tube rides you could shoot out of!  I discovered I can still scream really loud–especially when your tube is doing a vertical drop!

This was the view of the tube rides from our room.  Great fun during the day, but nobody told me it would be pitch black in the Howlin’ Tornado after dark!

It was several stories high inside, and there was a HUGE bucket that would fill with water….

…and once it was full, it would tip……

….and splash everything in the middle of the room!

The kids had so much fun.  McKenna was big enough and brave enough to go on all the rides.

Justin loved the slides and jet skis.

Carson and Jason had lots of fun in the toddler pool.

Carson nearly drowned me when I tried to take his picture!

Peyton got some Grandma time.

And some time in the pool, too!

It was great fun, and I highly recommend it!

It’s been a ton of work, but this is what the Anne Frank room looks like now.

Yes, there are still empty totes, but that’s because I’ve only emptied eight of the huge drawers that used to be in there.  There are 20 more to go, but there’s still a lot of shelf space on the new shelving Bob installed.

And the plastic racks for quilts and quilt tops are working out great!

They go down the center of the room.  Every quilt and quilt top is neatly folded and stored in its proper place.  Wow, I never thought I’d say that!

The Swedish immigrant’s trunk is nice and orderly once again.

But I’m not finished.  The sorting goes on…….

If you look closely at the wood paneled wall in this guest room, you can see the hinges on the door that lead to the Anne Frank room.

Anna Lena Land is become more organized everyday.

Last Saturday we emptied out the attic storage room–the room we call The Anne Frank Room because of the hidden door.  The big, deep drawer units that were in there weren’t the best for organized storage, and Bob is building me shelves.  The plan is that everything that goes back in will be ORGANIZED!  Of course there were some quilts in there.

Since my nephew, Cole, always spends a few days with me after Christmas, and we usually need a project, our project turned out to be organizing the quilts!  He made Excel Spreadsheets for five categories of quilts–Quilts from Karen’s Fabric, Quilts from Karen’s Books, Newly Made Quilts, Quilts from the 1920’s – 1950’s and Quilts Pre 1920.  Each spreadsheet has a spot for the name of the quilt, it’s size, where it’s stored and a place for notes.  Then the fun began–sorting, photographing and tagging!  But not just the quilts that were in the Anne Frank room.  Oh, no!  We did them all.  The quilts from my Swedish immigrant trunk.  Honest, there is a trunk under all those quilts!

The quilts in the studio.

The quilts in the TV cabinet.

We brought the last of the quilts home that were still at the Anna Lena store!

And the biggest stacks of all–the quilts from my books!  On the left, the quilts from Bundles of Fun.  In the middle, the quilts from Fat Quarter Fun.  On the right, quilts from Quilts From My Garden.  Why did I think it was a good idea to make each quilt twice–in different colorways–to see how different they could look?!?

Right now there are quilts EVERYWHERE!  It takes longer to fold them up neatly and store them than it did to open them up and photograph them!

But I brought home my baby crib, and some are going in there.

Quilts from my books are stored at my mom and dad’s house.  The Swedish trunk is full.  The guest beds all have quilts on them.  I’m even going to be selling some of them.  That’s what this stack is.

I’m sure I’ll come across a few more, but I’ll add them to the great spreadsheets Cole made, and it will be so nice to know where everything is!  Thanks, Cole, for making Anna Lena Land a little more organized!

Could it be the two loaves of cardamom bread?

Or the sugar twists?

Or this plate of assorted cookies?

Or the second plate of assorted cookies?

Or the Nanaimo bars?

I’m afraid it’s like those multiple choice quizzes in high school–All of the above!

Wow, I’m in the new Fons and Porter magazine–and I didn’t even know it.

I got suspicious last week when I started getting lots of orders for the Sweet Pea bundles and dress panel.  Then my friend Loretta came for our Redwork Christmas Party, and she had a copy of the magazine!  Jean Nolte designed the quilt, and all the little dresses are embellished with ribbon or rickrack or lace or aprons or pinafores.  It’s just adorable!

I always have fun making samples with my own fabric lines, but it’s so exciting to see what other people do with it.  Thank you, Jean.

In addition to all the other Christmas decorating Sally does, this year she added some special wreaths–six of them, in fact.  Each wreath has a special theme, and they are on the doors to each of the upstairs rooms in her home.

Luckily, there are double doors on the master suite, so there was room for a wreath for Sally and one for Ray!  Ray is quite the coffee guy.  Can you believe she found ornaments like little Starbucks cups as well as an espresso maker!?!

As you might imagine, Sally is a super shopper!  And her wreath reflects that passion with shopping bags and gift cards from some of her favorite stores.

Cole’s room has a baseball theme–and so does his wreath!  If you look carefully, you can see part of the baseball mural on his wall.  Go Mariners!

Some of you may remember the post about Sally’s craft room party.  The purpose of Sally’s craft room is gift wrapping and scrapbooking.  For the party, she had a wonderful centerpiece with adorably wrapped boxes.  Always the frugal one, she repurposed those little boxes for this wreath on the craft room door!

The bonus room contains Cole’s computer, so it got a computer themed wreath.

And last but not least, the guest bedroom.  This room is most frequently used by my daughter Melissa, our friend Robbyn from Florida and me!  We’ve all been known to enjoy a fancy martini or two!

My sister Sally takes Christmas decorating very seriously.

Of course the planters on her front porch are embellished for the occassion.

This large wooden ornament on the front door is a hint of the theme inside.

The stairway in the entry is so lovely.  Couldn’t one make a great entrance down that stairway?

And the niche is the perfect place for this modern tree.

The main tree and packages are in the formal living room.

I love how her skinny tree tucks right in next to her fireplace.

The decorations this year have a really fun and funky theme.

Sally loves polka-dots, and this theme is really ‘her’!

Every gift is a work of art.

With paper and ribbons perfectly chosen.

The mantle has it’s own unique trees.

We got some of these Kosta Boda Sasntas on our trip to Sweden last summer.

There are even matching toss pillows on the sofas.

The coffee table shows off some of her Murano glass trees.

The powder room is, of course, decorated.  More Murano trees….

….and a little something in the shower.

There are Murano trees on the piano.

And elsewhere in the house.

The family room mantle has more of the polka dot lights and a snowman.

On an end table a modern tree shows off her crystal ornaments.

The dining room looked stunning.

Aren’t the place settings adorable?

Even the windowsills are decorated.

Sally has a wonderful collection of Steinbach nutcrackers.

Upstairs there are two trees in the bonus room.  The ornaments on this one are all Cole’s.

And these are Cole’s “international” ornaments from various trips.

You never leave Sally’s house without a favor.

I’m lucky enough to have been to two parties there this year–including a lovely luncheon yesterday.

Thanks, Sal.

P.S.  I have more photos to show you tomorrow!