A Little About Me

My home is in the beautiful Pacific Northwest in a rural town in Oregon. My husband, Mike, and I have been married since 1975. We have two adult sons, Erik and Matthew, and a beautiful daughter-in-law, Mae.

My dad was in the Marine Corps for 32 years. He is a WWII and Vietnam veteran. I am proud of him for his service to our country, and I am very proud to call myself a "military brat." 

My passions include cooking, canning, gardening, photography, RVing and, most of all, cats!

My grandmother introduced me to quilting when I was a little girl. She made beautiful quilts, including this Double Wedding Ring that won her grand prize at her county fair one year. Isn't this gorgeous?

All hand pieced and hand quilted by her.

She made a number of other quilts. They all sat in my cedar chest until a few years ago. When I started quilting, I realized more than ever what a treasure they are. I started feeling badly that they were hidden away and never seen, and they were simply too precious to use. They would get dirty and worn out, and I just couldn't bear it. So I looked for and found a home for them where they can be enjoyed by generations to come. They are now in the collection of the Latimer Quilt and Textile Museum in Tillamook, Oregon. The folks there are very accommodating, and so if you ever find yourself in the area, call ahead and ask to see the "Bertha Maust Collection." They will gladly bring them out so that you can see them. Here are a few more of her quilts.

And can you believe this?

I did keep a couple of her quilts, including this one that she made especially for me:

The pattern is called "Star and Diamond." It was always fun looking at her quilts and seeing fabrics from my mother's and my dresses.

My oldest son, Erik, graduated college with a degree in industrial management and he works as a service advisor. He married our lovely daughter-in-law Mae in 2009.

My youngest, Matthew, graduated with a degree in embedded systems engineering, and so he followed in his dad's footsteps. He's also a musician. 

We are fortunate to live (literally) in our dream house. My husband and I married young: I was 21, and he was 23. We moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where he attended school, and I worked as a legal secretary. During the early years of our marriage, we always said that we'd like to have a five-acre parcel some day, with the house right in the middle so that no one could build around us. This is our third house. It's on a 6-3/4 acre parcel, and lo and behold, the house is smack in the middle of the property.

When we moved in, we had three cats. We lost our little Krissy (age 19) in 2010. She lived with us longer than either of our sons. George followed her to the Rainbow Bridge two years later in 2012. Then the third of the original three, Gracie, followed shortly before Christmas in 2015. When we moved to our place, we took to calling it the "Three Cats Ranch". Despite the dwindling population of cats, the name is going to stick for good. Smitty and Sadie are the current cat residents.

A retired social worker, I'm glad to be at home now sewing, cooking, canning, and gardening to my heart's content. I recovered from a life-threatening illness shortly before starting this blog, and I hope I'll have many more good years. Mike followed me into retirement in April of 2017, and now we live a quiet life of leisure enjoying our home, traveling, and one another's company. Read on, and I'll tell you about life here at the Three Cats Ranch.