Jack's park bench

Lots going on this week.  Have the week off of work to get ready for our family garage sale on Friday and Saturday.  All my plants are doing great this summer. Tomatoes are doing great.  And I will probably have cherry tomatoes out my ears.  But I can always take them into work for the city slickers.

I love this planter, petunias, lantana and persian shield.  I love the persian shield.  I first saw it on a garden tour a couple of years ago.  I like it because in the right light it has a metalic sheen to it.

And this is a new cone flower I found Saturday.  It is papaya colored and I think it will add more color to the front flower bed.  This time of year I kind of have a lack of color in those beds.  I'm also going to transplant some black eyed susans when the weather cools down.  I also have some stokes asters that my lavender has overgrown that need to be moved.

Also this weekend I went out to Portland to see the park bench my mom purchased in memory of my dad.

Well back to working on the basement.  Maybe I can get a couple of quilt blocks sewn.  And I have to dig out a table that I promised to Claudia.

Quilting Retreat

This weekend was a Variable Star Retreat at Hankerd Inn at Pleasant Lake.  In the past there have been 10 to 12 us us able to attend.  This summer there were only 6 + 1 part-time attendee.  We usually have 2 retreats a year, one in the summer and one mid-winter.  This year attendees were Wendy, Sheri, Roxie, Beckie, Jo, Claudia and myself.

The last few years our small group has made pillow cases that we have donated to various charities.  This year we each have to make six pillow cases and they are due in October.  Some of us figures this was a golden opportunity to get our finished ahread of time.  These are my six.

I also finished putting the borders on our last challenge quilt which was a jelly roll challenge.  I picked Bali pops in kiwi and berry and used a patterns I had seen done up in brown and aqua.I'm very happy with the results.

 

Everyone one brings several  projects to work on.  Usually it is a good time to finish up some projects or to get a good start on new ones.  The next several projects were tops that Wendy was adding borders to.  She was also working on samples of her for her new line of hand dyed fabrics.

Roxie was working on making a T-shirt quilt for her son-in-law.  He is a stage manager and had quite a selection of T-shirts from past projects.  Wendy, who makes T-shirt quilts as another business, was able to give Roxie some great tips on prepping the shirts..

Jo was busy working on her pillow cases, but she made 12.  Six were from her stash and six were from fabric that Marge gave us when she moved to Minnesota a year ago.  Jo was also busy setting together blocks for Dian who recenty moved to Florida to be closer to family.  Top and backing are completed so now it goes to Wendy for quilting.

Sheri was working on a Hilton Head Island quilt, sorry no photo, and this veggie tales quilt.

Beckie was working on several projects as well.  This was one of her ta-dah's!!

This photo shows part of the space we were working in.  Nice big room so we can all visit.  And this time we each has 2 8 foot tables so spread  out on.

So lots was accomplished.  We all hated to head home, especially those of us who have to go back to work on Monday.  Wish we could do this quarterly!

Keep on quilting.

Happy 4th of July

Well, it's been a good holiday.  My home town had it's July 4th parade and fireworks on Saturday, with the parade at 6 pm.  Saturday morning I baked cupcakes and mowed lawn, then loaded everything in the car and headed out.  Made it home in time to join my mother, niece, her husband and Jack and Molly.  Molly is the thinker.  She always seems to be deep in thought.

It seemed a bit much for her 1st big parade.  But today she had a smile for me.  She still doesn't see me often enough to not be leery of me.

Then we today we had a picnic at the "homestead".  My parents have lived here more than 50 years.

It was a beautiful day but was especially hot.  Plans to eat outside were quickly changed to eating in the house in the air conditioning.  Then after lunch it was time to play in Great grandma's sprinkler.  Jack was game by Molly didn't like the sprinkler as much as her pool at home.

My nephew recently got engaged  and this weekend Anna's parents were here from Chicago to spend time with the lucky couple and to meet the new inlaws.  Today was also time to update family photos for Great Grandma Beard.  So first is was a picture of just the grand kids with Grandma.

Then Grandma, grandkids with their husbands, kids, fiancee and boyfriend.

Then kids and spouse...

and last but not least the engaged couple, parents and Grandma Beard and Grampa Brown.

One last show stopper.  My mother got the seeds for these poppies from a friend last year.  Now she has them coming up all over in her flower beds.  She doesn't even have to try but I can't even get them to start.

Happy 4th of July!!

Hopefully tomorrow I will be abe to get some sewing done, but if not that's ok, because next weekend is the Variable Star quilt retreat at Hankerd Inn at Pleasant Lake.

Hope you had a happy and safe 4th.

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.