After a long vacation to the Northwest, we are now back home!  Sorry if you’ve been checking back to this site and wondering where I am.  We were away from computers (and cell phone coverage as well) in most of the places we’ve visited.  It was a little strange at first to be so “out of touch”.  No newspapers and very little TV news. 

We had a wonderful trip through North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Wyoming.  And of course Minnesota!  It’s good to be home.  I need to unpack and start some laundry, so I will post more later.  Also, I’ll post maybe one photo a day of the sights we’ve seen.

Sue

Yesterday was Mom’s 80th birthday party, and it was a lot of fun.  It’s always amazing to me that when you have an open house, different groups of people come and go in waves, and yet we had a nice, comfortable group at any given time.  We were just going to do cake, nuts, mints, and beverages.  Then I saw the strawberries.  On sale.  $1.50 a quart for big, beautiful, red strawberries.  So we had strawberries.  As I was driving home from the grocery store, I had a vision of strawberries dipped in chocolate.  Perfect for an afternoon (mostly ladies) party.  Yummy!

(I can’t get the photo to come up right now, so the link to my photo album is the best I can do.)

I asked my mom if she ever had a birthday party before this one.  She couldn’t remember that she ever did, being the third of seven children (closely spaced) during the Depression.  She did, however, remember a birthday when she was about four or five.  Her mom (Grandma) made her a birthday cake in a 1# coffee tin.  Grandma allowed my mom to take the knife and cut the cake into five servings: three children and mom and dad.  Mom carefully cut the cake down the middle.  Then she gave one half of the cake to her dad (my Grampa), and divided the other half four ways for the rest of the family.  What a Daddy’s Girl!  I love that story, and I would never have heard it if it wasn’t for this little party.

Road trip coming up, and I’ll be working on my Grandmother’s Flower Garden (see post below).  I’m excited to get a large chunk of time to work on it, so I hope I will be able to post progress soon.

~Sue

I am typing my fastest so I can get to a window and watch the show.  (I have GOT to start planning my time better.)  We live within a very few miles of a large lake, a large casino, and a large amusement park, and so we have a pretty good view of multiple fireworks displays every year.

Wednesday our DayStitchers group continued our box exchange.  We each have a “box” with fabrics we’ve chosen and specific theme or instructions for our box.  We take home some else’s box for the month, and return it on the 1st Wednesday of the following month.  I’ve added the new June photos of the DayStitchers’ boxes.  It is so much fun to bring back someone else’s project and surprise her with what you made.  And it’s even more fun to see what someone else made for you.

My mom’s 80th birthday is Sunday, and we’re planning a birthday party for her in the party room of her apartment building.  Nothing elaborate, but still a million details.  Tomorrow I’ll make sure all the details get pulled together and make sure I haven’t missed anything, as I’ve been picking up what I think I need here and there.  As I said, I’ve GOT to start managing my time better. 

Then we’ll be heading west to Seattle for a grand-nephew’s wedding.  Woo-hoo!!!  Family weddings are always the BEST!!!  We’re looking forward to seeing all our Washington family, as well as family from North Dakota, Minnesota, Denver and Texas.  In addition, we’re going to make it somewhat of a road trip, so we will be able to also do some family visiting on the way back home.  Yes, we had the wisdom and foresight to plan on driving THIS year. 

It will be a fun trip though.  I have been cutting and preparing Baggies of fabric for my in-car project.  I’m going to start a Grandmother’s Flower Garden.  Should be done just in time for my first grandchild’s graduation from college.  We don’t have any grandchildren as of yet, so I figure the timing will come out just right…

Friday I went with friends to Rochester for the Minnesota Quilters show.  The eye candy was fabulous, and of course, even though I couldn’t think of a single thing I needed to shop for, I still managed to go home with a bag of hand-dyeds.  I have only used them once before, so this is something pretty new to my stash.  And I think there were four different vendors tempting us with such a depth of color and texture, it was impossible to resist!  (No, my mermaid didn’t win anything, but it was fun to see her hanging out at the show!  And I think she had a good time too.)

I ordered some Moda charm packs from Hancocks of Paducah a while back.  These are the Posh line.  I thought they were so pretty, and I ordered four packs, so I started sewing them together randomly with a dark yellow-green sashing.  The border will be all the dark green with maybe some feathered quilting in yellow or gold or … who knows?  Maybe a variegated.

I also completed Kate’s chicken block for our box exchange on Wednesday.  The block turned out really cute, but can’t share it yet.  I think Kate stops by once in a while!

–Sue

It will be our 37th anniversary this week.  This is my favorite photo of all our wedding pictures.  My Uncle Dwight was our photographer, and he really captured the moment in this picture.  Is Jim handsome, or what???  And don’t you love the glasses?  And THEY’RE BACK!  I could probably go and buy the same glasses now.  I made my dress and veil, and my bridesmaids made their dresses also.  We all sewed back then mostly out of necessity; now we’re all sewing for fun!

(A note to those looking for Judy Laquidara’s last Quilt for an Hour quilt, her link is “Judy L — Patchwork Times”, to the right.  You can see my rendition of her quilt by clicking on my Quilt for an Hour blog entries (lower right).  Judy does remove her directions shortly after the QFAH is completed, so watch for her next challenge!  Glad to have you visit.  Stop by any time!)

Retirement is wonderful — it totally changes your view of Mondays.  This week is a pretty open slate for me, which is a treat.  I have two customer quilts I want to get done this week (maybe three, if I’m ambitious).  The only things on the calendar are fun things.  Tonight is our once-a-month guild meeting.  It’s our summer party (with a cowgirl theme), so we’ll be having a potluck dinner.  Fortunately I have a pair of boots to wear, and of course jeans, and — yee-haw! 

It’s been nine years since my dad passed away, and I still think of him every day.  So Father’s Day was a little nostalgic.  It still feels like he’s here, and I could call him up and…then I remember I can’t.  I don’t think that will ever change.  So I’m drinking an extra cup of coffee to you, Dad.  (He was Norwegian, and LOVED his coffee!  Me too.)  And a tip of the mug to any of you who are missing your dad, especially this time of year.

We are being re-roofed today.  Our entire townhouse development had hail damage to our roofs last fall, so a huge roofing crew is here.  They do the tear-off and re-roofing in one day. four twin-homes at a time!  We woke up before 7:00 to the pitter-patter of workmen’s little feet.  It’s very noisy, and this is before there’s any nailing going on.  A good day to sew!

And speaking of sewing, I’m working on the first quilt I’ve taken in from a gentleman.  He does wonderful work.  He’s in our guild, so I’ve seen a number of his quilts, and they are distinctive from what we women tend to do.  His patterns and colors are more bold, and he will do colors I wouldn’t think to do (he did one memorable quilt totally in shades of green), but his quilts ALWAYS draw oohs and aahs.  This one is very scrappy black, white, and some red.  I’ll post a picture if/when I get his permission tonight.  So I’m heading downstairs, I’ll put on my wireless headphones (a MUST if you’re a longarmer), and get to work.  I won’t hear the roofers at all!  Enjoy this fabulous day.  Even if you’re at work.

–Sue

Minnesota Quilter’s organization has a big show the end of June.  Every year they sell a challenge package — several pieces of coordinated fabric (something I would NEVER buy normally), along with size limitations (no bigger than 160″ around) and a theme.  So last year I bought the packet for about $15.  All year to work on it.  Well, it turned out to be all year to think about it, a week to get it done (just like high school).  I won’t share the picture yet, as the deadline for turning in our finished projects is Friday 6/20.  So after that date I will post a photo.

The theme for this year is Quilted Jewels.  Besides the three pieces of fabric (a 60s-looking daisy print on black background, a black with silver crinkles, and a light turquoise with silver coin dots), we were given a little bag of beads.  We’re required to use recognizable amounts of the fabrics and at least half the beads.  We can also add other fabrics and embellishments, if desired.

I am NOT a beader, NOT a fan of silver coatings on fabrics, and NOT real crazy about the daisy print either.  Wonder of wonders, I love my little quilt!  I will finish it tomorrow, more than a week ahead of the drop-dead due date.  Another wonder!  It always amazes me that, when we’re forced out of our comfort zone, we can dig down deep and surprise ourselves.  Oh, and I didn’t even mention that it’s — I can hardly say it — applique’!!!

–Sue

This week I quilted Julie G’s sock monkey quilt.  It’s her first big quilt, and she did a great job on it.  I quilted the Popcorn pantograph design on it, but stopped short of the sock monkey.  He seemed to need some special treatment, so I quilted around him.  (The quilt is cut off in the photo at the top — the rows below the monkey are repeated above the monkey.)

May was the first month in 2008 for our Wednesday stitching group (Daystitchers) to resume our box exchange (we had to wait for all the Snowbirds to return from the south!).  I posted photos in my photo album of our first month’s efforts.  It’s always fun to see what everyone did and how they interpreted the theme and the fabric into a block.  Note:  The person holding the block is the person who MADE the block, not the owner of the box.