Five Finishes!!!!!

When we were in Virginia earlier this month, our grandchildren each made a donation quilt  top. When we got home, I used my one week between trips to quilt each one and sew on the binding. I finished hand sewing the binding on this last trip. I don't sew in the car but I do enjoy handwork while watching sports on TV.

I laundered the quilts this morning and took some photos in the wind before the rain began.

First is Grace's quilt. She wanted a little more interest so she added random blue squares/rectangles. She called it The Bright Quilt. The binding is the same striped fabric she used in the quilt. 

Next is Jackson's Baseball Quilt. I knew his would be symmetrical. I was going to use black for the binding but Ray and I decided the brown was a better choice.

Colter's Frog Quilt is very cheery.  I was surprised that Colter established a pattern for his strips. Since he used that wild striped fabric, I used it for the binding.

Crosby wanted a pattern for the strips in his Truck Quilt but then he/we decided not to use the last yellow strip and to add a little length with the red on the ends.

After I trimmed the sides of Ivy's Pretty Quilt, it just seemed too long for the width. So I folded each of the bold colors (blue and both green strips) and sewed a seam with the adjoining strip and made the bold colors about 1/2 the original size. I think it is even prettier now.

Now I am working on the pile of unfinished quilt tops that are threatening to take over the sewing studio. I am determined to get the pile down to around 4. We'll see how that goes....

We are home and busy!

We arrived home late Monday night, just in time to see the Cubs win their game. We unpacked Tuesday, did laundry,  bought 1-1/2 bushels of apples to put up, and watched the Cubs win. I have lived my life with diehard Cubs fans.

On Wednesday, I finally bought groceries. I've been busy - the apples are almost done - the last crockpot will be done soon. I have these three apples left. I kept them to make Apple Pie Tacos, a recipe I saw online.

I've made lots of crockpot applesauce no additions, just apples, dehydrated sliced apples, dehydrated apple chips with cinnamon, and now I'm dehydrating applesauce. It supposed to turn out a little chewy. I made some plain 'blobs' and some with cinnamon. We should know how they are tomorrow.

I've tried a couple other recipes this week too. This Cheesy Baked Asparagus was good. We aren't big on asparagus but we'd both eat this again.

I also made Butternut Squash Au Gratin. We really liked it but it makes LOTS! We've had it twice. I'm thinking about freezing the rest for later. That's bacon on the top.

Two of the grandkids' quilts need to have the binding sewn down, another is pinned and ready to quilt.

We are leaving on a short trip Monday celebrating my birthday. We are headed to Hamilton, Missouri to the Missouri Star Quilt Company. I'm packing light - I might need room in the van for all of my purchases!

Country Roads ...

Almost heaven, West Virginia,

Blue ridge mountain, Shenandoah river,

Life is old there, older than the trees,

Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze

Country roads, take me home

...

- John Denver                

Tonight we are in West Virginia and today we traveled country roads most of the day - just the way we like!

Let me back up a bit. After we left our son and his family, we went to Charlottesville, VA to visit a good friend. Y is doing well and we enjoyed catching up. We enjoyed dinner at Bella's! Everything is served family style and the servings are huge. We had garlic bread, gorgonzola grilled salad ( grilled romaine lettuce salad), ragu bolognese, and tiramisu. If we lived close, we would just work our way through the menu!

While in Charlottesville, we did stop by Cottonwood, a great quilt shop with some very nice ladies working. I didn't buy much but I did enjoy seeing all of their sample quilts.

We also spent some time shopping in the Historic Downtown Mall. I found a great yarn shop, The Needle Lady. I restrained myself and didn't buy any yarn!

We stayed at The Suite @ Caty Lane , an airbnb.com rental. We were in the carriage house and it was so luxurious - we were spoiled with treats chocolate chunk cookies, croissants, Greek yogurt, sparkling water, apples, bananas,... and extra touches. We'd love to return there again.

Yesterday we drove to Durham to visit the rest of Y's family - A, J, K, and L. This family is separated geographically due to work right now and we pray that will change one day soon. We had a great visit but it is never long enough. We are hoping that next time we can see them all together on a weekend rather than a school night.

While getting caught up on things, we ate at Chai's Noodle Bar and Bistro. It was another amazing meal. I had Thai noodle salad with chicken. I really wish I could duplicate it! After dinner, J was really hungry for Krispy Kremes so she and Ray picked up some on their way back to the house. Warm doughnuts are so good!!!

We found a new place to stay while in Durham - another airbnb.com rental. This place is in the country, just outside of the city. Our apartment was above the garage. We loved being in the country and did not have enough time to explore the whole place so we have to go back!

The main house used to be a horse barn and is now a clean barn on the first level used for exercise equipment, bike storage, pool and other game tables, etc and a 3000 square foot gorgeous home upstairs. We loved our tour!

The trees are changing and we have enjoyed some beautiful days this week. As much as we'd love to drive country roads tomorrow, we have to compromise because we need to arrive in Champaign, Illinois sometime Sunday afternoon. So I think we are going to drive a different route and try to avoid cities.

Disclaimer: Again I do not know why blogger is displaying different size fonts. Sorry.

Which blender is the best?

I'm not looking for a new blender but every so often, a friend on Facebook will ask "What is the best blender to buy?".  I didn't go looking for blenders to compare but the opportunity surfaced and I decided to go for it.

I used a Blendtec blender while we were staying in Basye, VA. It worked well but really bugged me that there was no way to tap down the contents while making a smoothie. I had to stop the blender and use a spatula to push the contents down. Then it worked well and chopped things up making a mean smoothie - my grandkids loved it!

Now we are in Charlottesville, VA and have a Ninja. Our host left us Greek yogurt, OJ, and bananas in addition to other things including chocolate chunk cookies, croissants, and apples; it was too much of a challenge for me to pass on so I bought frozen fruit yesterday to check it out! It made good smoothies but I had to pulse a button to blend. I did not like the way the container poured but maybe there are other choices; I don't know. It did seem to do a good job of blending.

I own a Vitamix and I love it. I make smoothies but I also use it to make and heat soup, to make peanut butter, and to grind wheat berries into flour. Sometimes I mix muffins and I do lots of shredding with it. In any event, I'm NOT looking for a new blender. I just thought it would be fun to compare the ones that many of my friends talk about. Of course, I only compared the blenders by making smoothies so my test wasn't the best!

When I make smoothies, I usually use

• plain Greek yogurt
• a mixture of frozen fruit usually including a banana If there is no citrus fruit or mango, I'll add the juice of an orange.
• milk
• Optional: carrots or spinach (which will not affect the taste but will affect the color)

Do you suppose I could be a little biased? I have lots of Vitamix experience and really know nothing about Blendtec or Ninja blenders. What I do know is that we've enjoyed a few smoothies on this trip and there will be more tomorrow morning!

A Great Week with the Grands!

We had a wonderful week in Virginia despite the rain, rain, and more rain. We met son Brad's family at Twin Peaks (a rental house) in Basye, VA on Wednesday.  It was a great home and the host left us treats - one was a coconut cream pie!

The rain limited our outdoor time but we still enjoyed ourselves. And we were very thankful that Hurricane Joaquin veered away from the coast. When possible , the kids were outside on the zipline, 

The adults tried it too!

in the playhouse, doing a scavenger hunt, painting rocks and shirts, and more. 

Vampire Teeth

3-D hand drawing

One day we visited the Shenandoah Caverns. We spent lots of time inside - I had lots of help in the kitchen. We also played games and sewed. Each of the five children made a donation quilt top. I took fabric strips along in kits - more than enough for each quilt. That way each child could design his/her own quilt. Sometimes a strip was borrowed from another pile. I think they enjoyed themselves. Of course, I loved sewing with each of them! 

Ivy sat on my lap and put her finger on the fabric to help me guide it. As we sewed - Ivy constantly told me that her quilt was very pretty. The pale pink isn't showing up very well in the photo.

Ivy and Grandpa with her very pretty quilt

Grace decided to add a little interest and cut up some fabric. Can you see Grandpa's hands?

Grace and her bright quilt

Jackson likes baseball and I thought he'd enjoy this fabric - he did! Grandpa's hands are there again.

Jackson and his baseball quilt

Colter worked with the frog fabric. I kept calling it the turtle quilt to bug him.

Colter and his frog quilt

Crosby is now 6 so this was his first year sewing. He was so excited! He ran the foot feed while I 'steered' the fabric. Because of the trucks and stoplights on the fabric, we talked in terms of red, green, and yellow lights. Grandpa's hands are busy again.

Crosby and his truck quilt.

Another big project was the paracord bracelets. I think everyone had more than one when we finished.

Brad and family stayed an extra day - our gracious host offered all of us an extra day, free of charge, because of the horrible weather and the fact that the house wasn't rented until the weekend. Thankfully Brad had taken an extra day of vacation expecting to have a day when they arrived home.

Ray and I left this morning because we had another rental house paid and waiting for us further down the road. It has been a gorgeous day - in the 70s and lots of sun. I'm glad Brad and all got a nice day. We enjoyed the day too. It was a great week.

I guess when I get home, there will be 5 more quilt tops waiting to be pinned and quilted! I've never added five in one week before!

Going places that I've never been...

On the road again

Goin' places that I've never been

Seein' things that I may never see again...

                  ~Willie Nelson

We are headed to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. After a super busy weekend, we managed to get on the road Monday morning. 

Yesterday we drove very familiar roads through places we've been many times but we picnicked at a place we've never been! We stopped north of Bloomington, IL at Comlara Park on Evergreen Lake.

It was very quiet and peaceful. Every so often you could hear a hickory nut falling somewhere close or maybe a fisherman's voice from one of the fishing boats on the lake.  

This was the view from our car.

And this was from our picnic table. It was in the upper 70s and overcast - perfect picnic weather.

Today we decided to get off the beaten path a bit and head to Clarksburg, WV. Google maps led us to believe that we would be more on back roads. Our GPS forgot to consult with Google maps but I finally found a map and got it all straightened out. A couple miles past Chillicothe, OH, we turned onto highway 50 - all new territory for us. 

I didn't take any pictures because we were in rain ALL day - no picnic, no shopping, just great company and great music in the car.  

We saw a few accidents today and avoided a few! Heading down a hill, there was a one semi, a 2nd semi, and a car with a travel trailer. We were just passing the travel trailer when the car pulling it was following the 2nd semi too closely. When the semi braked, the car with the trailer couldn't stop fast enough and came into our lane. Ray was barely able to miss him. Within a minute, the first semi cut across three lanes of traffic right in front of us and blocked our lane. Once again, Ray was barely able to miss him. We were both glad that the day's travels were almost over!

I'm not sure how many people we saw go through red lights - not as near misses but just blatantly blowing off the light. We probably saw more police officers than we've ever seen in one day when we've been traveling - of course they weren't around for the running of red lights. Oh, do all West Virginia officers drive Chargers?

Hopefully people drive better in Virginia than they do in this part of West Virginia. We've seen too many accidents and near misses. I think we've worked our Guardian Angels overtime today!

Tomorrow we will meet up with son Brad and his family. Can't wait to see everyone. It's been a year since our last visit - way too long!

Disclaimer: Not sure what blogger is doing with the type. The line spacing is very strange.