Shell Lake, WI

We were in Shell Lake, WI for a number of days recently. There was a Celebration of Life for my oldest brother while we were there. I wanted to spend time with Tom's widow and also my brother Jim who was widowed about 16 years ago. We had a chance to visit and enjoy time together before family and friends arrived. 

 With my brothers: Jim and John in age order, oldest to youngest

LOTS of family came and that was fun. Both our sons came - the one from North Carolina flew in with his wife while the one from Illinois came with his wife and three sons. 

oldest son, me, Ray, youngest son

Our niece, Tracy, has a print shop. She used a picture of this wood carving on the red and blue shirts she made for all of us. (Notice we are all wearing the same shirt in the photo above.)

My brother Tom's nickname was Fuzzy.

One night as we were cruising the lake, we saw this two loons going through a mating routine - bill dipping, synchronized swimming and diving together,

We stayed in a house across the lake from our family cabins and this gorgeous eagle spent a lot of time in one of our trees.

We didn't have a lot of flowers but this one was growing in the sand.

I found prints the first morning right at the shore line. We had lots of rain but we found more tracks another morning and I took pictures. The print is slightly smaller than my hand. We are quite sure it was a gray wolf with the help of an app and the knowledge that there are gray wolves in the area.

We had a couple pretty sunsets.

Before leaving home, I made a list of quilt shops I wanted to visit. I found out the Wisconsin Shop Hop was going on during part of our trip so I collected a few freebees along the way.

At Quilt Corner in Sparta, WI, I found two backs - the blue one will be used for a quilt top I have finished. I also received a pattern for a Reversible Fabric Basket. I think this is my second visit to this shop. The owner and her daughter, a longarmer, are so nice and I enjoyed their selection of fabric.

I found a cute truck panel and some needed green fabric at Busy Bobbin in Rice Lake, WI. I want to do something with quilt blocks around the outside of the panel. The freebee in this section of the hop was a free spool of thread - I received YLI 250 yds. I've been going to this shop for years and they have a good selection of fabric.

In Spooner, WI, at Seams Like Quilting, I bought a pattern, Petal Palette. This section gave out a free block pattern with the option of buying a kit to make the pattern. If you visited each shop in the section, you would have the blocks for a cute sampler quilt. The owner of this shop is always so pleasant to visit.

The Little Gift Shop is Solon Springs, WI, in the same section as Spooner, gave a different pattern for a block of the sampler. I bought a colorful backing. I always enjoy going to this shop - it's amazing the amount of fabric they have nicely displayed in a small space. It was raining hard the day we were there and we had hoped to eat at the tiny restaurant in the back of the shop. Probably due to the weather, there was quite a line of people waiting so we passed.

On our way home, we went to the Nancy Zieman Sewing Studio in Beaver Dam, WI. It's not like going to Nancy's Notion years ago, but it is a very nice shop and the clerk was fun to talk with. We also spent some time upstairs looking at all things Nancy Zieman - it was interesting and brought back many memories. The shop hop was over but we did get a great tip to eat just a couple doors down at the bakery. I found purple backing that I needed, some jumbo clips, a wrist ruler, 

and my big splurge - two fat quarter bundles. I think this will be enough fabric to make Petal Palette (above) and the Luminary Quilt Pattern (which involves some improv). I'm sure I can add a little fabric from my stash if needed.

Now we just need to stay home so I can sew!

McNabb, IL

In mid-June we spent a few days in McNabb, Illinois. Ray recently became aware of the Dixon Waterfowl Refuge and thought we should visit the area. The area historically was a wetlands but for most of the 20th century has been drained and farmed. The Wetlands Initiative gained control of the area and in 2001, turned off the drainage pumps and began restoration. In 2012, the Refuge was designated a Wetlands of International Importance.

We hiked with backpacks. It was hot and buggy so long pants and mosquito repellent were necessary.

We were hoping to see a variety of waterfowl. The surrounding fields were full of wildflowers.

We found lots of black raspberries that were just getting ripe. We might have tasted a few - so sweet and good!

I loved this cone flower.

We climbed the Arthur J. Nolan, Jr observation tower - this is the picture at the parking area -

and looked south,

north,

and ahead.

Do you see the swans. They were far enough away that I couldn't get a good picture. They were the only waterfowl we saw.

One day we had a picnic lunch in Hennepin right by the main dock. We saw some cool boats.

We were close to both Starved Rock State Park and Matthiessen State Park. Since it was a weekend, we went to the less popular Matthiessen State Park. We hiked very defined trails there

and found MANY steps.

We found Lake Falls but the signs told us not to climb any further down.

There were three quilt shops we planned to visit on this trip. We could not find the first one although we really tried! The second was closed down with a for sale sign. And the third was closed the day we were there. I did find some shops on the next short trip coming soon...