Summertime

How do you know summer is really here?  For me, I just realized it's when I make my first batch of Carrie's Cabbage Salad (better known as Freezer Slaw).  This was always a mainstay in our fridge when we were kids.  As soon as the peppers would come on in the garden my mom would make a gallon jug of it.  With every meal it would be my job to get a bowl of slaw out of the jug.  You had to know just how much "juice" to get out and how much to leave in the jug.  Because every time it got just about 1/2 to 1/4 full it would be time to chop some more cabbage, peppers and onions to add to the jug. So it was there every evening, sweet, crisp and cold, a taste of summer.  

Next best taste will be the first ripe, juice tomato of the season, but that is still a way off.

Truck

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day.  We decided to visit a couple more shops in Shipshewana and tried to do a couple of other shops on the shop hop.  Unfortunately, we got a little lost looking for the show in Topeka, but have a lovely drive in the country.  It was surprising just how far you can see in Indiana because it seems so flat compared to where we are in Michigan.  We got to watch a farmer driving a 3 horse hitch raking hay.  It was really enjoyable.  Mom had tickets for a show last night at 7 so we decided to head back with a stop at the quilt show in Marshall.  All in all it was a couple enjoyable days.

My truck enjoyed a lot of notoriety in Shipshewana.  But after all she does stick out in a crowd and especially in a quilt environment.

Shipshewana Quilt show

Mom and I came down to Shipshewnna Indiana for their Second Annual quilt show.  Things have change soo much down here over the last 30-35 years.  When we started coming down here the flea market that is on Tuesday and Wednesdays was purely an antique flea market.  We would bring our camper and just pull in to a field across from the market and camp.  Ah the good old days. 

Now the flea market is mostly crafts, tube socks and hardly any antiques. But today is Thursday so it's just tourists and quilters.    By the time we got here we went to the Blue Gate Restaurant for lunch.  Checked to be sure the hotel had our reservation and then went to the quilt show.  Following are just a few of the quilts from the show.  We were surprised how many King size quilts there were in this show.  There were about 150 quilts and maybe 10-13 vendors.  I was surprised to see a few ladies from the Capitol City Guild.  Evidently at National Quilt Day plans were made by the church where they meet to have a bus trip down to the show.  It was nice to see some familiar faces.

I didn't buy too many fabrics at the show.  I did get started on a polka dot binge though.

After the show we went to Yoder's and Lolly's.  We stayed at the Country Inns and Suites in Shipshewana.  In the evening each evening they opened one of their meeting rooms and had it set up so that quilters could come down and visit or work on their projects.  I was thinking of going down when the phone in our room rang.  I was surprised that it was a friend from the guild who had recognized my truck at the hotel.  So we had a nice visit.

Crafty Wednesday

Well, today was Wednesday, so that means Crafty Wednesday on your lunch hour here at the College of Law.  Sarah and Rhonda were discussing items in a scrap booking catalog.  Sue was getting a quick rotary cutting less from Jo and I was cutting out fabrics for my 6 pillow cases that are due in our small group, the Variable Stars, in October. 

Estate Sale

Oh, for these short summer weekends.  Saturday a friend, who is also a quilter was having a garage sale, with quilts, fabric, clothes, and other items.  There was also a Bloomquist estate sale that I wanted to get to.
First things first I got a couple of loads of wash done.  Then I could justify going out and having fun for awhile.  At Cindy's I got just a couple of pieces of fabric, a Brackman book and a great new spring coat. 

Then headed out to the estate sale in Haslett.  I'm addicted to estate sales.  My brothers has a sideline of doing estate sales which I often help him with.  In enjoy seeing everything, looking at the homes and sometimes I come away with some cool stuff for half the price.  Best deals have been a metal workbench for in my garage for $5 and a 4 chair, glass top iron patio set for $25.  This weekends sale was interesting because there were a ton of old toys, doll highchairs, and just interesting stuff.  I passed on a toy rotary mower that would have only been $17.50 on Saturday.  Now I'm kicking myself.  Oh well, you snooze you loose.  I did pick up a crochet pin cushion, on which I have quite a few. And the cutest miniature wooden clothes pins in their original box, which was in rough shape.

My strategy is usually to go the 2nd day or last day of the sale.  Usually items are reduced to 1/2 price so if you get there early you can get some bargains.  A great site for finding sales is at estatesales.net which has listings for around the country.  Not all listings have pictures, but more and more do which helps to set the hook a little deeper.

Then in the afternoon it was time to buckle down and get the lawn mowed.  Mowed and pulled enough weeds to fill a paper composting sack. My sunny pot on the deck is doing pretty well.

Sunday my mom and I went shopping. She has had a couple of gift cards and they have been burning a hole in her pocket.  So we went to Christopher Banks and she got a couple of new tops and a new pair of Capri's. Then we had lunch and she headed home.

Thursday and Friday of this week we are going to the big quilt show in Shipshewana Indiana.  I decided rather than rushing to see everything in a day, I would get a hotel room and we could take our time.  Will try to include pictures from the trip.

Started sewing on the quilts for Darryl and Mike.  Something I'm doing now to keep more organized is I cut the entire quilt out and put it in a box. I used to cut as I went because the cutting was so tough on my neck and my carpel tunnel.  But now I'm trying to cut it all. For the pattern I make a color copy of the quilt and instructions and then have it laminated.  This quilt is from the January/February 2010 issue of McCall's Quilting  and was designed by Kim Brackett.  I'm doing it scrappy but it would work great with a jelly roll.

By  having it laminated I have an easier time keeping track of the pattern, and when the quilt is completed I can punch the pages and put it in the binder where I keep the information on each quilt that I make.  My grandmother and mother never documented their quilts.  Both have made many, many quilts, but I don't think anyone other than me has documented any of them. I try to fill out all the pertinent information, who made it, who was it made for, where, when, I made include scraps of the fabric, the cost of fabric and the story behind why it was made.

In 1987 I volunteered at Michigan State University Museum with the Michigan Quilt Project.  I always feel bad that so many women get no credit for the beautiful things they made.  So I try to document all the quilts that I make.  I also make sure now that any quilt my mother makes are at least labeled.

Crafty Wednesdays

At least a year ago some of my fellow employees and I were discussing at lunch how hard it is to sometimes fit in time for the crafts we enjoy.  We have several scrapbookers, quilters, & knitter/crocheters here at work.  I proposed that one day a week we reserve a room (as I work at a college) and take advantage of oue lunch hour a week to get something accomplished.  We have just started up again as things are settling into a slower pace.  Yesterday I brought a quilt that I had gotten cut out for my nephew at our last quilting retreat to start sewing.  Rhonda brougt the materials to start cutting out a Trip Around the World quilt.

I picked up the tradition from my Grandma Pline to made a quilt for highschool graduation.  She did it for almost every one of her 44 grandchildren.  I only have 3 nieces and 1 nephew so that was a more realistic goal for me.  I started however with a quilt for my goddaughter, Sarah, who was the last grandchild and who graduated after Grandma passed away.  Darryl's quilt was an extra long twin as he was off to college.  But the 3 nieces each got a double size quilt. So a few months ago I decided to make him a full size quilt as he just turned 30.  But I thought to check with him first and found he was in the market for a queen size bed, so will have to make the quilt bigger.

I have also started making quilts for my family members for their birthdays.  So far both my sister-in-laws have received quilts as well as my youngest brother.  Mike, the middle brothers birthday is coming up in October I would like to get one done for him as well.  His and Darryl's might be the same pattern, only Mike's will be a lap size.

If I can find pictures will try to put them in over the weekend.  So much to do and so little time.

Quote for the day:

If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.  Lin Yutang

Little of this, little of that

While in England on vacation in April, god that seems eons ago, I kept seeing greeting cards, posters and books with a vintage look that said, "Keep Calm and Cary On."  This was designed during World War II. And with these economic times it is making a comeback.  There is also a little red books  by the same title that is "Good Advice for Hard Times."  It is a collection of quotes from Socrates to George Bush.

So from time to time I will be throwing in quotes out of this little jewel, and others I have collected over

the years.  Today's is:

"The greatest mistake a man can ever make is to be afraid of making one," Elbert Hubbard

Now on to sewing things.  I was watching  "Sewing with Nancy" this weekend.  It was a show encouraging us to get our sergers out of their boxes and using them.  To that end they showed several easy projects to get people using these machines.  In one segment they were making potholders.  I was surprised to see them using a product I hadn't seen before.  It was an insulated batt used for a hold host of projects.  When I was in JoAnn Fabrics on Saturday I remembers to asked if they carried such a product and found that they do.

It is a batt made of hollow, polyester fibers needlepunched through Mylar.  So a yard of this along with some of the home dec fabrics I bought at an estate sale a year ago, will hopefully lead to some interesting gifts. This might also be good to use when I recover my big board.  I think the price was $6.99 per yard.