Some finishes and more...

In the end, everything will be okay. 

If it’s not okay, it’s not yet the end. 

-Fernando Sabino

Ray's recovery is progressing. It's becoming more challenging as he is incurring more pain when his arm is lifted higher. The CPM machine lifts his arm; he doesn't. In a couple of weeks, he will begin using his arm and, sadly, I guess that will hurt more. He's a great patient and following doctor's orders. We'll both be happy when he is okay again.

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I try to get into my sewing room for a few minutes most days. I finished this Scrappy Trip Around the World. It was my least favorite in the pile to quilt so I decided to do it first. It's about 52" by 72" and I actually like it now that it's done! I took pictures outside today - the temperature was in the 30s with wind but, at that moment, we had sunshine and no snow!

I free motion quilted this with a meandering stitch using Aurifil 50-weight thread, #1103 dark red. The quilt has Dream Cotton batting. The back is a blue with a small off-white dot that was in my stash.

This donation quilt was made from some 2 1/2" squares left from my scrap cleanup in May, 2018. The dark red border is left from a grandson's quilt that I made  in November, 2017. I've used that red in a number of projects but now I think I only have about a 12" square left.

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I began this wool project early last spring. As much as I used to enjoy hand stitching, my old, arthritic hands just don't like it as much anymore. I'm glad to have this one done.

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I picked up a pattern from Christina Cameli for some Quilted Nesting Buckets. I enjoyed making these yesterday - they are quick and easy. Christina has you draw rectangles on fabric and then you free motion a different design in each one. Each area becomes a bucket.

Here are my buckets:

Large 6.75" X 6.75" X 5.5" tall
Small  4.5" X 4.5" X 4.5" tall
Medium 5.5" X 5.5" X 5" tall

They nest nicely. You can see the gray lining in this photo.

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I've spent some time trimming my blocks for the Crosswalks quilt again! The instructions from Missouri Star doesn't have you squaring up the blocks but I decided I should. For some reason, I used the diagonal connecting the two white corners to square them. After I was done with ALL of the blocks, I began to sew them together and realized my mistake. The blocks should have been squared up on the center of the colored strips. Notice the chalk line where the white arrow is pointing. The end of the chalk line should be the corner. 

I didn't take any after pictures, but all of the blocks are now squared up the RIGHT way! 

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Our high school football team coops with a team just across the border in Wisconsin and they play in a Wisconsin conference. For the first time in history our high school has a State Championship team! It's been an exciting season and we are so grateful that the games have all been on a streaming radio station. The championship game was yesterday and a real nail-biter. 

We live in a village (a very small town) that enjoys celebrating the accomplishments of our youth. The parade bringing our team home last night was incredible. We had firetrucks, police cars, ambulances, and lots of cars and trucks accompanying the team and the cheerleaders. We watched and cheered from our front porch. 

Indy Weekend

On Friday we traveled to Indianapolis where Ray had signed up for a photography workshop and photo shoot. We decided to keep the date and headed out. On the way, we traveled south on I-39 and west on I-74 in Illinois. We saw many cars and trucks pulled over by the police. Every single time, all of the traffic moved over. Every. Single. Time! It did our hearts good. Maybe people are beginning to follow Scott's Law or the Move Over Law. Sadly on the way home, we did witness a couple of violations but thankfully, no accidents.

In Indianapolis, we rented an Airbnb right downtown. We thought we'd be within 5 minutes driving distance of the photography store and we were within 2 minutes walking distance! It was a great rental and we were very close to Massachusetts Avenue District. Mass Ave is a 5-block diagonal street that showcases art, galleries, live theater, restaurants, and interesting shops. We walked there and walked the entire district plus more every day.

On Friday night, we were both excited to see jonquils blooming. Spring!

Saturday was sunny and warm. When Ray got 'home' in the late afternoon, we again headed over to Mass Ave. The sun was bright - you can see my shadow.

There were lots of flowers and some of the flowering trees were blooming too.

There were pedal powered bars. The patrons provided the power by doing the pedaling. They had to pedal faster to turn the corner. It looked like fun! 

We passed the frozen yogurt shop, Yogülatte, on Friday night and stopped on Saturday night. I didn't get a picture but we both enjoyed our treat.

     

I wanted a picture of this Mass Ave structure and finally found a moment when no one was standing by it. Of course the construction stuff was still there.

I spent much of my weekend resting. I managed to pull a muscle in my back a couple of weeks ago and then irritated it so rest was in order. I did a lot of reading, sewed the binding on a quilt, and did a little knitting. The rest helped and I'm much better. I was checking out the stores online while Ray was at the photo shoot on Sunday - I wanted to know if we had missed anything because we still had most of Sunday afternoon to be tourists. 

We needed to head a block further north than the main part of Mass Ave to find Crimson Tate, a cute little quilt shop. So of course, we went back to Mass Ave Sunday afternoon.

First we had a great lunch at Ralston's Drafthouse and I forgot to take pictures.

Then we walked on to Crimson Tate. 

I found treasures. The fabric fat eighths (measuring 9" by 22.25 to 25") are African Wax Block Prints. I'm working on ideas to use them them in a quilt. The price of Aurifil was good if I bought 12 spools so I did. It was hard not to buy LOTS of fabric. The shop is mostly geared to modern quilters and I loved their solids among other things, many, many other things!

On the way 'home', we walked by Kilwins candy store again. (I just found out it opened 2 weeks ago.) We decided that we NEEDED to stop. We bought one caramel pecan chocolate pretzel stick and one caramel pecan chocolate Rice Krispie treat. When we got 'home', we split them. Oh my! 

We headed home on Monday. On the way we stopped and enjoyed lunch with some friends. 

We decided this little trip was just what we both needed after our very sad week. I'm so glad we went and Ray said his workshop was fantastic. 

Heading on to Canada

Post delayed due to very slow Internet connection.

Friday was dreary but the rain stopped before we packed to leave. The temperatures were in the 50s and 60s all day. Shortly after getting on the road, we encountered a semi truck with the trailer on fire.  We were there before the fire/police. The driver was okay but the trailer did not survive.  

Our first waterfall was at Cross River where we saw this rushing one. 

Then we stopped at Temperance River and hiked down to the footbridge. I love the way that this river has carved the rocks. 

On the other side of the footbridge, the water slowed down a bit. 

Then the river emptied into Lake Superior.

At Cascade River, we watched the water cascading towards Lake Superior. I loved the views of the Lake there.

Then it was time for some shopping! In Grand Marais, I found that the quilt shop had closed 😞. There was one yarn shop open, That Little Red House. We spend quite a bit of time talking with the owner. I left with yarn for three pair of socks. The skeins on the outside are alpaca sock yarn. It is soooo soft.

Near Grand Portage, we stopped at an overlook . The day was overcast but the lake was no longer covered in haze.

There was some color in the rocks.

It took a while to cross the border but when it was finally our turn, it took about 1 minute! And just like that we lost an hour. Ontario, at least this part, is on Eastern time.

We found our rental which is nice. We are on the edge of the city and it feels like the country.

Quilts Delivered - Wow!

We delivered the quilts to Mom's home this morning. Lots of oohing and aahing! The camera phones came out and pictures were immediately shipped off to the CEO! An interview was interrupted so the director could see the quilts! Whoa - this was a little overwhelming for me!

Some of the residents remembered painting the squares. They all checked out the quilts and some pointed out their blocks. A former policeman, the fellow who painted the police car, teared up - he said he now felt a part of something!

Eventually I explained the choices for the piecing and quilting. The stars in the corners of the sashing are for the staff and the residents - they are all stars! The hearts quilted in the sashing symbolize the love of that home. And the paisley quilted in the outside border symbolizes that we are all connected in this journey.

I am so glad we had the opportunity to be there this morning for the unveiling. The first quilt was hung before we left and the second will be hung later today(?) - as soon as they get the necessary hardware.

It is an honor to be a part of this special project!

A great day with friends and I found the Quilt Police car!

A few days ago, my friend Sandy called with the wonderful idea of going on a Quilt Shop Hop. So yesterday, Sandy, Barb, Krista, and I headed out on our own little shop hop.  Sandy decided the general location would be southern Wisconsin and we would just wing it from there.

We began the day with a nice breakfast at the Sand Burr Family Restaurant outside of Brodhead.

Then onto our first shop - At the Heart of Quilting in Beloit. This shop is mostly about longarm quilting machines but I did find some thread. We also found out that one can get instruction and rent long-arm machine time - I want to do that!

Second stop was Life's A Stitch Quilt Shoppe near Janesville. The shop is in an 1863 Victorian Farmhouse.

This is a nice shop with a very friendly owner. I found a Martelli rotary cutter to replace the one that just broke. I was very surprised to find one in a shop. It is so hot, another 100°+ day, that we spent little time outdoors.  Here is Barb headed for the van.

I just had to take a picture of their barns with all of the quilts.

Next stop was Woodland Quilts in Whitewater. We looked around. The person working was having a loud visit with a friend and was a bit too busy to greet or help us so no purchases were made.


On to Fort Atkinson to The Quilt Patch - a very nice shop and owner. Before entering, we stopped just a minute to take a couple of photos. This shop did not feel like it was in the owner's huge garage.

I bought a couple of things. One was a Christmas tree by RagSpun. A RagSpun is a dimensional textured shape that can be appliquéd or used alone. None of us had ever seen them before. We asked the owner where to have lunch. After finding out where we were headed, she suggested Beauty and The Bean and gave us detailed instruction. 


Off we went, through the country down more two-lane roads, onto a Rustic Road, and eventually we arrived, just as our directions said, at Beauty and The Bean in Fort Atkinson.

We had a nice lunch. My panini and salad were wonderful and the cheesecake bite was the perfect ending!

All refreshed, we headed for the Backyard Quilt Shop which is also in Fort Atkinson. 

This shop is in the lower level of the owner's home. We were all rushing to enter as the temperature was still going up!

I had to take just a second to get a photo of the darling little Quilt Police car in the window. That should have been my first clue that this would be my favorite shop of the day!

We found a friendly owner and a great selection of fabric that we all loved. We ended up spending quite a bit of time here and all walked away with treasures.


Back out in the high temperatures, but a cool car with cold drinks, we headed to Sun Prairie.  Prairie Junction Needlework and JJ Stitches are almost next door to each other. The people in Prairie Junction were very helpful and pleasant. 

JJ Stitches is a nice shop. Some members of our group bought lots of fabric here!

Time was running out as we headed to Mill House Quilts in Waunakee.  We arrived in time for a few minutes of browsing before they closed. Actually we all managed to shop, checkout, and be at the car by 4:58 PM!

As we started south toward home, I asked to stop at Greenway Station. I did my errand at Erehwon and then we all decided we needed to do a little shopping at Marshalls and Michaels. 

Shopping was followed by a relaxing dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise. Then we headed home.


It was an awesome day with awesome friends!

A cool peaceful day

We decided to not spend a lot of time in the car today so we went to Maryville, TN - about a half hour away. The first stop was Pappy's Quilting Place. The building used to be a gas station and convenience store. We met Pappy, his lady. their cat, and their other cat. They really wanted us to adopt their other cat! Rooster's Quilt Shop south of Maryville closed a couple of weeks ago but someone else is supposed to open it soon. Next stop was Kroger's for a few groceries. Then on the advice of both Pappy's woman and the Kroger clerk, we headed downtown to the The City of Maryville's Foothills Fall Festival. Tickets for the concerts have been sold out since August so we couldn't see Alan Jackson, Sawyer Brown or any of the others but we did see the ArtWay Show - many artists and crafts people, and we enjoyed good food. We saw this Maryville officer on a Police Segway.

This was the largest pumpkin in the county.

There were lots of license plate sculptures.

The weather was very cool - in the 40's, and damp but not raining where we were. Later in the afternoon we rested - this is a very stressful life we lead! We went out to dinner and now are enjoying a roaring fire. Ray is enjoying football games on TV and I am quilting by a fire in a cabin in the mountains. Life is good!

We worked in the barn

We quilted on the second floor of the barn. In addition to quilting space, there was a refrigerator, freezer, microwave, and snacks - who could want more? The ceiling fans and the floor fans were used a lot since we had wonderful weather that got a little too warm in the afternoon.

We each had our own workspace. People were setting up for camp.

There were quilt everywhere - on the walls,

and by the snacks.

The work area was very busy at times.

We had access to everything - the barn and the shops 24 hours a day!

I worked too! The snacks were right behind me. Notice the quilts in the background. In the right back of this photo is our meeting place. We officially met twice a day for new patterns, announcements, to play games, etc.

The girls from Missouri. On the far right is Marcia - the quilt police! We could not have asked for a nicer or funnier police person!

This is the place I cut my fabric too. In fact, that is my cutting board on the table.

We could work anywhere. Sometimes people chose to work on the porch of the barn.