South Carolina

A couple of things from our South Carolina trip.  In looking through my aunt's gardening magazines I came across an unusual piece of artwork.

These old shovel were cut out and I thought there was something very beautiful about them.

When we went to our last quilt retreat in February we stopped at Keans in Mason and mom fell in love with a fabric there.  She had been looking at a new book I picked up called Take 5, which makes quilts using just 5 fabrics.  Plans she had made was to make a quilt for her sister to thank her for her hospitality.  So we rushed to get the quilt made and Wendy quilted it for us, so it was finished by the time we went.  Below is the result and Patricia and Phyllis.

The other thing I discovered in SC were beautiful blue beer bottles.  I had not seen these before, but then I don't spend a lot of time in the beer aisle.  I had run into Bi-Lo to just get some beer for us that evening and I spotted these.  I figure that they will work great for my garden whimseys.



South Carolina vacation

Thanks to my mom's sister, Patricia, we just enjoyed a wonderful vacation in South Carolina.  We spent 7 days at Hilton Head Island and had one side trip to Savannah Georgia before their big St. Patrick's Day festivities.  The weather was marvelous there the entire time running from 82 to 90.  But that meant that the pollen count was also higher than I have ever seen 9000.  Awfully glad I got my allergy shot before we left. 

We make it a 2 day trip and spent our night on the road in Knoxville, Tennessee.  It was amazing to watch for what was blooming in each state we went thru.  Pear trees, redbud, azaleas, and peach trees.  As we got closer to my aunt's home we went through Johnston SC, US Peach Capitol.  It was beautiful to see acres upon acres in bloom.  Here are picks of some of the blooms.

I am also always entranced with the Smokey mountains and the Appalachains.

At my aunt's home it was as if someone had covered her cars with corn meal, but no, it was just tree pollen.

The weather at Hilton Head was Marvelous!!  I got to walk in the Atlantic Ocean in MARCH and it was actually warm.  Walking the beach was my favorite thing to do.  There were all kinds of interesting things to see.  Jelly fish, dolphins, life guard training.  Second best thing was shopping in North Agusta at Hamricks, best store in the south!

While in South Carolina I got to see my cousin Lisa and her kids and Kurt and his family.  It always makes me feel older to see younger cousins I remember as little kids who now have kids of their own.

Since we were in the south at St. Patrick's Day my aunt suggested we go to Savannah, which has the largest St. Pat's day celebration outside of Chicago.  The tv kept talking about expectations of over 1 million! people being there for the celebration on Saturday.  So we started planning on going before Saturday.  We heard late in the day on Wednesday about a charter boat that goes from Hilton Head Island to Savannah twice a week.  Unfortunately, we called too late and the boat was booked solid. So since I had my gps we drove down and I did the driving.  We took a trolly tour of the squares and houses of Savannah.  After about an hour we got off the trolly on River/Bay street to do some shopping.  About 4pm we took the trolly back to our car and headed back to HHI.  It was a nice say and the weather was gorgeous.

Coming home we spent the night in Lexington, Kentucky and were surprised to find that midweek, with nothing special going on that it was hard to find a room for the night.  But we did.  Then it was the long 333 miles left to get home.

Retirement musings

On tough days at work one can hardly resist the urge to dream about retirement.  Last week we found out they have again changed a system here at work.  I found myself right away saying to myself that I'm not willing to learn one more new computer program and just as soon retire.  Boy, I just sounded like some of the old cops I worked with.  But it does get hard when you just get comfortable with a system and they decide to change it.  Lack of training also adds to our aggravation.

But retirement is certainly closer now that it has ever been.  At the most I hope it will just 4 years, and I'm sure that time will really fly.  So I have been thinking of what I want to do with my retirement time.  I want to still stay involved and around people a good amount of time.  I have started a list of possible retirement activities.

Number one on the list would be to devote more time to sewing and quilting.  I would like to get involved in making quilts of valor for veterans. And donation quilts for other charities like our guilds heartwarmer quilts or quilts for the local homeless shelter.  Since the problem with my hands has not gotten any better I have thought about getting a quilting machine or atleast getting proficient at using my regular sewing machine to machine quilt.

Other possibilities are volunteering at Hospice again.  I did this for a few years a while back and would consider it again; volunteering at the local humane society (no I won't turn into the cat lady or dog ladies, allergies you know).  Maybe working at one of the local antique malls. I still have time to think and research.  Getting ready to head to South Carolina next week to visit my mom's sister Pat.  Should be a good time.

PS.  Last night in talking to my mom, we came to the realization that now, all of her children are over the age of 50 and all of her grandkids are over the age of 25!! Where has the time gone??

Estate sales or "picking"

I tend to go to a lot of estate sales.  Back in the 70's and 80's it was auctions.  I loved to see all that was being sold and always hoped for a winning bid.  But often times the one item I might be interested in would be the last item the auctioneers would get to.  So estates sales became a better option.  I could be there early or come later, but I didn't need to spend the whole day waiting around.  My youngest brother, Dennis, runs an estate sale business as a second career. Actually he just has a passion for neat old stuff and the thrill of the hunt. His business is Beard Estate Service Team (BEST).  In working with him over the last 15 years, I have learned a lot and seen a lot.

I especially like that now there is estatesales.net on the internet which has listings of sales by state.  I especially like that some postings have pictures.  This way I can decide if it is worthwhile to go the first day, go at all, or wait until the 2nd or 3rd day of the sale.  Generally here in Michigan estates sales are usually 2 days, sometimes 3.  Prices the first day are always FIRM.  The second day and third day discounts are usually offered on most items, since the sales teams job is to sell as much as they can for the family.

The types of things that draw me in to going are, sewing related items i.e. sewing maching (toy or antique), sewing baskets, threads and fabric.  Quilts are also a draw.  I also am interested in quilting ephemera (patterns, books, quilting templates).  These are the items I have gotten at the last few sales.

This sale yielded a partial set of Wedgewood dishes including the platter and serving bowl, some votive cups, candle holders and vase for my craft work.  An old spooner, a dress length of vintage fabrics and some vintage trims.

This sale yielded an antique (treen) spool holder, a white hobmail fenton vase, an old pitcher, a sugar bowl with a replacement wooden lid a small cup in Royal Copenhagen and some pate spreaders.

I bought the spooner because it had almost a quilt pattern of feathers on it.

I also like to do crafts and often find these sales are a good place to pick up supplies.  This past year I have started to make garden whimsey's out of old glass items: vases, glasses, places, mirrors, ashtrays, etc.  Glue them up and put them in a piece of rebar or pipe in your flowerbeads.  So now at sales I look for those types of items to add to my inventory.  Here are the 2 I have made up so far.

But then I'm also attracted to blue & white china.  The last few years after my brother's estate sales I would note that there was still a lot of really nice items left that hadn't gotten bought.  I began filling boxes at his sales and then offering those items at the outdoor fleamarket's here at one of the Antique Malls.  These sales are just on Sundays, so it wasn't a big time commitment.  But after a number of bad sunburns, last summer I opted out of most of the sales.  Recently I have been thinking of starting again as a way of having something to occupy me in retirement.  Booth and show case rental at the 2 local antique malls is more that I want to pay right now for a $20 investment, I guess maybe this year I will try the outdoor fleas again.

The other items I often pick up are vintage jewelry.  If at Dennis's sale there is a lot, I will put it in a vintage suitcase and take it to work for my coworkers to look through.  I tend to pick up a variety of pieces as witnessed below.

Well the dryer just buzzed. Guess it's time to fold.

Almost forgot to show the best piece a probably 1940's quilt top.



What now. . .

I know I have been negligent in keeping up.  And now I'm behind and don't know what to talk about first. I have been helping my mom with a couple of quilt projects and 2 of them are at the quilter's now.  Although my mom has been a hand quilter her whole life, I think now that she has had a couple machine quilted she sees the benefit of getting things done a little quicker.  And a few years ago she finished her heirloom quilts for I and my brothers.  So now rather than suffering with her hands, it's just as good to get them machine quilted.

At Christmas time I saw a great tutorial in Quilts in the Barn on doing a sort of pinwheel block.  I figured it would be a great way to use up some of my old 80's christmas fabrics and benefit the VFW.
The tutorial is here:
http://quiltsinthebarnaus.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-twister-quilt-and-bonus-quilt.html

These were the fabrics I pulled out of my stash to give it a try:

Then using the ruler I modified according to the tutorial, here is the wallhanging I ended up with:

I think these would sell well. And now that I've done one I know better what to look out for in color placement.

Well at least this has been an update.  Upcoming subjects estates sales and retirement volunteer opportunities.

Wouldn't you think...

I would have outgrown my childhood nickname of "Tumbleturd" by this point in my life.  Every year I hope that this is the year that I don't end up with at least one substantial bruise or scab in a years time. But no such luck.  I thought I had just about made it through 2011 but nooooo.  I was priming my basement stair case today.  I was probably about half done when I stepped back to admire my work, only then realizing I was 3 steps from the basement floor.  Thank goodness the paint tray broke my fall, ha! After laying there a minute saying Damn! Damn! Damn! I started assessing if I had any injuries.  Fortunately I landed on my posterior.  I'm sure I will have a wonderful aray of bruises tomorrow and I have a bit of a twinge in my left lower back.

But I picked myself up, cleaned the paint off my butt, and got back to work.

When I had to wait for the paint to dry so decided to sew a little.  I found a tutorial online on a twister quilt block and decided today was the time to try it.  So far so good.  I also finished another table runner.  I made one at Thanksgiving to donate to the VFW's December craft show.  So since I still had strips precut, I might as well use them up.  Below is the result of that work.



 Also I forgot to show one of my Christmas gifts.  John D. help Dennis with his estate sales.  John came across this at another sale and knew just the person to go to.  He figured, I'm sure, if Dennis didn't buy it I would.  So here it is, another selection for my toy sewing machine collection.  It even still had it's original box.

whimsical paint job

A couple of weeks ago when Rosanne hosted the Variable Star Christmas party, she invited us to take a peek at the painting she was having done in the half bath that is attached to her master suite. Beckie Beaudry (sp?)is doing the painting for her. In the past we have seen her work on garden stakes and last time she was painting evil eyes. Here is what she is up to now.

Good news of the furnace. Won't need a new one this heating season, wuh-hu.

Quilting was good this afternoon. My aunt had made what I think is a full size quilt. My mom, her 2 sisters, my aunt's friend and I just about had it all quilted by the time we left about 4:30.

So it was a good day.