Summertime…

…and the livin’ is easy. Or hectic. My summer has been hectic. Lots of fun…but hectic. Each year my “summers off” have become shorter and shorter. And I try to cram as much into my summer off as I can manage!

We went here:

and here:

and here…where we saw little peeks of snow on the ground in July:

Then we went here:

and here:

We came and took MiniStitcher and MarioFan here:

We were home for a few days and went here:

and here:

where we saw this:

and this:

Two thoughts on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame–I loved seeing all of the “stuff”. But, I wonder, do we really need to see Jimi Hendrix’s family couch? Nothing better to display?

And even though I’m assuming that Jim Morrison wasn’t always the Lizard King, I could not wrap my brain around him being a Cub Scout.

I’m guessing you can see why the blog posts have been slim pickins lately. Not much sewing, quilting or stitching going on. But back to work now. I think I need a vacation from my vacation.

Who thinks this stuff up?

How do you go from this

to this?

Who looks at a mountain and says, “I think I’d like to see George Washington’s face on that mountain.  And as long as I’m carving, why don’t I just add Tom and Teddy and Abe so George won’t be lonely.”  When I look at a mountain, I see rocks and not faces.  But Gutzon Borglum saw faces and went to work to be sure that we saw them also.  Some well placed explosives, drills, lots of time , blood, sweat and tears and there are four president’s faces looking back at you from the side of a mountain.

I get the thought process…the creative vision.  What I don’t get  is the actual process.  I don’t get how you look at this huge expanse of rock and say if I put X pounds of dynamite in this little, drilled hole and press the plunger, I’ll have Washington’s nose big enough to see it in Wyoming.  Well, maybe not Wyoming, but you get the idea.  Someone had the patience and vision to take a small sculpture and reproduce it on a grand scale.

Aren’t we quilters similar to Borglum?  Obviously, not on such a grand scale….although who wouldn’t want to see a quilt the scope of Mount Rushmore?  I think if I had time I could piece it and still have stash left over!  But we are very much like the sculptor.  We take a piece (or pieces) of fabric and we see a quilt.  And we all have our own vision.  I know that I could show a piece of fabric to ten different quilters and see ten different visions.  Some would see flowers, some would see faces, some would see landscapes and some would see abstract shapes.  We would all see something different…something uniquely “me”.  And we would create something that may be similar to something else; (I adhere to the theory that there is very little that’s new under the quilting sun.)  but at the same time, something that speaks to us alone.  And the best part is that we can do it without one stick of dynamite!  Unless we want to…….

And here it is….

…my paltry haul from my trip west.  Can you believe this?  Two shops and just this!  My second stop was at the Quilter’s Store in Sedona, Arizona where I found these.  Really nice shop also…just not my “stuff”.  But if you like batiks, this place is for you!  Nice ladies and great service.  I also purchased another pattern that didn’t make the team photo above because it had to be ordered.  It nearly beat me home!  I had it in less than a week.

The shop is for sale.  I told my husband that since he’s retired and I will be shortly we should buy it.  Go home, sell the house and buy the shop.  It would give us something to do and we could live in drop-dead gorgeous Sedona!  Sounds like win/win to me.  He just turned the radio up louder!  Go figure…..

It’s a miracle!

While visiting a small town in South Dakota,  we drove past a quilt shop.  Later in the day we took walk down the street to visit.   And….wait for it….I didn’t buy snything!  Not one fat quarter.  Not one spool of thread.  Not one needle.  My husband is still stunned.  I may leave him stunned…he’s much quieter that way

In fairness, the shop was small and very nice.  Just didn’t have things in my “style .  It’s interesting how fabric trends are different in different areas.

Virginia

My husband and I share an interest in the Civil War. (No, not the Cub/Sox battle that we wage each baseball season.)  In recent years, we’ve visited some battlefield sites and homes.  They are interesting trips, but at the same time, they’re sad.  Walking through the battlefields, it’s easy to imagine the battle that took place.  But it’s also hard to imagine what it actually felt like.  It’s bittersweet….it’s a piece of history tinged with such heartache.

This summer, we decided to visit Richmond, Virginia.  We toured several battlefields, a shrine to the fallen General Stonewall Jackson and Appomattox.  We wanted to see where the surrender took place…where finally someone decided enough was enough. They call it the place where the country was reunited.  I like the sound of that better!

Appomattox is a really a neat little town.  Old storefronts, antique shops, a book store.  Yes!  A book store.  I was beginning to think they were a thing of the past…thanks to Mr. Kindle.  We wandered through an antique store where there were some quilts for sale at a very reasonable price.  But they weren’t very pretty and were pretty well-worn.  So, I left them there.

One of the small shop owners recommended the Babcock House for lunch.  Her reason for recommending it…you won’t find anything fried there.  At that point of the trip, that sounded great!  So off to the Babcock House for lunch.  The Tarragon Chicken Salad was awesome!  We had to try the Hummingbird Cake.  It was terrific.  But the calories I saved from the no-fry zone were spent on dessert!  Worth every one of them….  I might have taken a picture of our lunch but I was too busy enjoying every bite of it!

A stop at the Museum of the Confederacy was next.  There were a lot of really neat things there.  I was interested in the uniforms.  They were displaying the uniform that General Lee wore to his meeting with Grant.  I’m still amazed at how well-preserved many of the uniforms are.  Imagine this!  I even bought a quit pattern there!

Into Appomattox Courthouse.  It was a little town at the time of the war and it’s been restored by the National Park Service.  The building that I was most intrigued with was the McLean House.  This is where the papers were signed.  The house was initially taken apart around 1900.  A company was going to bring it north and rebuild it as a tourist attraction.  The company went bankrupt and the National Park Service rebuilt it on the original site using what they could salvage.  It’s only off by a quarter of an inch they tell me.  Most of the furniture and quilts are period pieces although they did not belong to the McLean family.

This is a bed and trunk that was in the guest room.  That quilt is actually around 150 years old.  (I’d like to look that good now!)

This quilt is also around 150 years old.  It’s in the master bedroom.  It’s in beautiful condition.  Fortunately, you can get a little bit closer to this quilt than the others.

This old sewing machine was in one of the bedrooms.  We’ve come a long way, Baby!  Imagine trying to maneuver a quilt under that needle!

This is maybe my favorite.  Love the colors! It was in the slave quarters.  I love it because it’s scrappy and well-loved…and it’s easy to believe this one is as old as it is.  I wish the antique store had one of these!

Millstone Quilts

As promised….the quit shop!

In the Fall/Winter issue of Quilt Sampler,  I was introduced to Millstone Quilts in Mechanicsville, Virginia.  Since we had already planned a trip to Virginia in July ( I know….hot, hot hot!) I convinced my chauffeur that we had to stop!  Besides, I was sure it was air-conditioned!

After visiting the Cod Harbor battlefield, we set out to find Millstone Quilts.  It  was nearby.  How difficult could it be to find?  Pretty darn difficult!  But, please, don’t let that hold you back.  When we travel, my husband and I can get lost going around the block!  After driving down some very beautiful backroads, we finally reached our destination.  The shop is in an old nineteenth century grist mill.  You can see some of the workings on the third floor.  Yes, I said third floor.  There are three wonderful floors of fabrics!

I’m so sorry that I didn’t get the name of the woman working that day.  She was so very nice!  She made us feel welcome the minute we walked through the door. There is a small collection of 30s prints in the first room.  Made me think of MiniQuilter.  She loves those prints.  I had to buy her some Sock Monkey fabric.  OK…maybe for me, too.  😉

I nearly made camp in the next room.  It was full of Civil War reproduction fabrics and samples.  I did drop some coin there!  I got a nice bundle of CW fat quarters, some fat quarters for my sister…and for me…and a Kim Diehl book.  I fell in love with the Idaho Girl sample that was displayed.

The two upper floors had a nice variety of Thimbleberries and fabrics with a country feel.  And of course, the mill workings that fascinated my husband!  Guys!

If you’re looking for brights or batiks, this may not be the place for you.  But if you love reproduction fabrics as much as I do, you might want to bring a lunch!

Enjoy the slideshow!

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I feel as though I’ve been MIA….even to my family.  I’ve been hanging out here this past week with Kaye England.  I learned that you can certainly teach an old dog new tricks!

Fun in the sun…

….the very, very hot southwest Florida sun.  We spent three and a half days visiting our son and my sister and her family.  Lots of fun and good food…bleu cheese bacon burgers, New York pizza (Yep, in Florida!), chile rellenos, scallops, tres leches cake….  Yummy in the tummy but not so good for the button on the jeans!

You may recall that a few posts back, I teased you with some strips that I was taking along to Florida with me.  My sister and I spent the day working on a special project.  We have a project that we work on long distance.  We make lap quilts for the veteran’s home.  The goal was to piece a top while I was down there.  But not before we went to an organic cafe for breakfast.  Mmmmm….zucchini quiche!  A quick stop at the quilt shop for sashing fabric and we were back at her house.  She had her machines ready to rock and roll.  We had decided on a nine-patch.  Should be simple.  Yes…should be simple…but it wasn’t.  We had decided on a scrappy quilt but had different ideas about what that meant and had planned our strips that way.  I was thinking of a more planned block and she was thinking of a truly scrappy block.  We finally got on the same page…I liked her idea better and it was easier to do.  At some point we both went mathematically brain dead.  We had the strips figured correctly and the cuts figured correctly…just couldn’t figure out how many cuts we needed.  Each time we thought we had it licked…it was wrong.  So I sewed while my sister raided her stash and continued to cut strips.  What began as an organized project became organized chaos.  The sewing room floor looked like Eleanor Burns was working there!  But we finally finished the blocks and got them up on the design wall.

Before we left, she called to let me know she had completed the top, so I brought it home to quilt.

My son and his friends went on a swamp walk in the Everglades a few months back.  Yep, walking in swamp water up to your waist; sharing said water with alligators, water moccasins and spiders.  Oh my!  He tried to tell me that I told him I would do the walk with him when we came down.  I know I didn’t tell him that because my mama didn’t raise a fool.  Apparently his mama did…but mine did not!  One of the good things that came from his adventure was that he discovered a photographer by the name of Clyde Butcher.  Clyde Butcher is a black and white photographer specializing in Florida wilderness.  You can see his gallery here.  My favorite is the ghost orchid.  While I certainly couldn’t afford the $16,000 price tag on some of his images, I did manage to buy a few 5×7 notecards to frame.

We left Naples for Virginia.  It was too long to drive in one day so we stopped in Orlando.  You can’t visit Orlando and not visit The Mouse.  It would just be rude!  So we spent the next day at Epcot Center.  It’s one of my favorite places.  Lots of good entertainment and good food.  We had lunch at Le Cellier in the Canadian pavilion.  For all of my Canadian friends, I have to tell you that my husband and I shared an order of poutine.  I had heard of it but never had an opportunity to try it.  As bizarre as the thought of cheese fries covered in gravy sounds, they are actually quite tasty….and quite filling.  Between the two of us, we only managed to finish half of an order.  I think I was in carb overload, however, because I was looking for a place to take a nap.  We decided that regardless of how tasty we thought they were, we would probably never have them again.  An hour later, we were trying to figure out how to duplicate them at home!  Is it any wonder I gain weight on vacation?  🙂

I’m baaaack!

And I hope a few of you missed me!  I have so much to blog about but so much to do to catch up at home.

We had a great trip!  Visited with our son in Florida, finished a quilt top with my sister, spent a day with The Mouse in Orlando, visited some Civil War sites in Virginia and spent the day at an amusement park with the grandkids the day after we got home.  Whew!  I’m tired!

In the very near future I want to share the quilt top my sister and I finished, a visit to an awesome quilt shop in Virginia, and some photos of a few antique quilts I saw in Virginia.  As soon as I can get to my computer with the photos, I’ll share!  Until then…I’ll try to catch up!