Trick or Treat

Hey, I just needed to get with the season.  Yes, I have put out my Fall/Halloween decorations this Year.  I was a little slow but at least they were out by the first of October.  I sprinkled a few thanksgiving decorations among them so I am set until the end of November with the exception of removing the really Halloween looking decorations like this cute little plate.  

 I have quite a set of little decorative plates that have been collected over the years, one for each month and then some.  Several of the ladies in my life have similar sets.  We started collecting them before they became a 'thing' so we were 'trend setters'.

SO, what have I been doing with myself lately????  This is one of my latest projects.  I showed you the start of it a while ago and this is the finished product.  I am taking it to my quilt group today and then I am going to hang it in my dining room.  When I was at the quilt show a couple of weeks ago I noticed that some people are starting to mount their pieces on stretched canvas.  I liked the concept and am going to try it with this one.  I will paint a canvas a gray color and then put the piece on the canvas with the gray paint as the frame.  I will show it to you when it is finished.  I think that is a new a good idea for displaying quilts.  There is a lot of turquoise blue in this piece because that is our 'accent' color in our living and dining room.  I am still decorating that space even though we bought the new furniture almost a year ago.  I am not fast at decorating.

This is another piece that I am finishing.  This one is a pattern that I found on line.  I thought it looked interesting.  Of course I used my colors for this piece.  I love the way it turned out.  Right now I am working on sewing down the flowers and then I am planning to do the quilting on this myself.  My quilter has been encouraging me to try and do my own smaller pieces so I will give this one a try.  It is really quite big even though it may not look like it in the picture.  I think it is about 40"x 50" but I did one this big a couple of years ago so I am willing to give it a try.  I won't go fancy with my quilting though  I will do a lot of straight lines because this piece already has a lot going on and doesn't need any more fussing.  I am planning to stretch this over a frame too.  I will have to get Bud to make a frame for me on this one  though.  (I made the other one to fit a canvas but didn't do it for this one.)  I am planning on hanging this one over the fireplace or in our entrance.  I am really pleased at hou it turned out so far.

Bud has been busy getting everything ready for winter.  Lately he has been working on our front door.  He has decided that we need a storm door there to keep the cold out.  I am not that fond of storm doors but I understand the reason for it and know that cold air comes in around that door a lot.  When he gets the outside things done I want him to help me with a few inside projects.  First I want to change those hanging banners in our entrance way.  I plan to hang some quilts there and change them with the seasons.  I already have two ready to go and would work on more if I had a place to hang them.  I am also thinking of painting our dining room a different color and doing something to the wall that has all my family pictures on it.  Maybe I should invite Eva up when I am ready. She loves to paint and decorate.

Thaaaat's all  from up north this week.  I am off to my quilt group.

A Northern Michigan Fall Weekend

 Last weekend was a beautiful weekend in Traverse City.  The weather was perfect with the fall air and the leaves showing off.  I used this wonderful weekend to spend time with a friend and explore Leland.
Friday night I went to a great quilt show with my friend Kathy and her daughter in law.  There were over 200 quilts to look at and we had a wonderful time exploring different techniques and patterns.  Casey is thinking of taking up quilting although she has a cute little son to watch over and has just moved here from Vermont so I am sure that her time is limited for too many hobbies.  This was a good way to introduce her to the hobby though.

 Saturday I decided to drive north to the little town of Leland.  It was a spectacular drive with the sun lighting up the trees and the leaves so beautiful.  Here I am overlooking 'Fishtown'  This part is full of cute little shops and I just wandered around checking out the 'tourists'  and pretending to be one for the day.

 Fish Town has been around for a long time and is a popular place for visitors to explore.  I do it about once a year in the fall.

 The REAL reason I went to Leland was the annual Fiber Arts Show.  It is small but I like to check it out every year.  I didn't buy anything but did enjoy the artists.

This is my favorite artist. She was the 'featured artist' last year.  I sat and talked with her a little this year since she wasn't quite a busy.  I LOVE this style of Art Quilt but am totally lost as to how to make them.  The color combination and the technique fascinate me.  I really don't know how to start this kind of project.  I think I need to just explore smaller pieces.  She advised me to learn more about color and to just begin.  All the fabrics in this piece are solids not prints.  I usually use some kind of print or batik in my pieces.  I don't have a large supply of solids and am reluctant to go out and buy some as I have a LARGE stash of fabrics that I have already bought.  But, like I said, maybe small pieces would be a good start.

This is more my style lately.  I started this piece a couple of days ago.  I am planning on keeping this one for myself.  I have made a couple like this  before but have given them to someone else.  I think I will hang this one in my dining room.  

This is a quilt that I just finished.  Someone at my quilt group gave me the center part of this quilt.  It had been given to the group from a family that their mother died and it wasn't finished.  I put the borders around it and will give it as a charity quilt back to the group unless someone in MY family wants it. (Let me know if it suits you and your style) It really isn't my style of fabrics but it is nice.

While I was enjoying the out of doors Bud went for his last motorcycle ride with a friend.  The toys are being put away for another winter.

SO. the beautiful weekend was not wasted on us.  That is a good thing since it is raining this weekend and the air is a lot colder.  It is still beautiful outside my window but more of a warning that soon it will all be white.  I will enjoy this beauty and try not to think of the snow.

No excuse

A wedding took place in Texas.  Leo's family rallied and took the trip to meet Josh's new wife and celebrate the wedding.  We almost made it but Glen and Penny had some difficulty with their airport authorities and parking in Minot so they didn't make it.  We were all VERY sad as we were hoping to have a family reunion in Texas and relax together.  

 Eva, Bud and I flew down a day early and met up in Houston.  We rented a car and drove to Galveston for the night.  The Thursday night scene was pretty quiet but we managed to walk around a little and find dinner.

 Friday we met Jessica and just relaxed and had a nice day.

 The beach house was beautiful and big.  our room was in the very top.

 Josh's mom arrived in the afternoon.  Josh and Jessica decided to 'photo bomb' this picture.

 Leo had been down in Texas for a week and had a chance to get to know Garrick.  They seem to get along well.  Leo hadn't seen his grandson since he was a baby.  They had some time to catch up.

 We were right on the ocean so we had a few walks along the beach.

 Friday night was time to set up for the wedding. Garrick did a good job of helping.

 The two guys just 'chilling' waiting for the rehearsal.

 They sure look alike.

 Garrick and I had some fun together.  It was great to get to know him.

 Our room was very nice except the fold out couch wasn't very comfortable.  Eva just slept on the top.  The nice part was we had our own bathroom.

 Bert and Gloria (Josh's grandparents) Eva and Leo.  We spent a lot of the time on Saturday afternoon relaxing on the porch before the afternoon wedding.

 Leo knows Josh's family fairly well and the week before he teased Aunt Sally (on the left) how much he loved her lemon pie.  These two wonderful ladies are Bert's sisters.

 Jessica's mom put the pearls around her neck.  The pearls belonged to her grandmother.  Jessica spent a lot of time with this special grandmother so this was a touching moment.

 We cleaned up pretty well for the wedding.

 Jessica's uncle walked her down the steps.

 It was a nice ceremony with the ocean behind them.

 The veranda was a great place for taking pictures.

 Father and son.

 AND of course Aunt Sally made a wonderful lemon pie just for Leo.  I was thankful that he shared a little of it with us.

 Grandma and grandpa, Mom and Dad and the new couple.

 I thought this one was cute.

 A touching remembrance of the grandparents that had a great influence on both the bride and groom.

 I gave them a pair of pillowcases that Mom had embroidered.

 Sunday morning everyone was up early and cleaning the beach house.  We left about 11:00 and made our way back to Houston.  Leo left shortly after us and drove up to Iowa to see Uncle Eldon on his way home.

 Everyone at the wedding told us we needed to stop at this resort area on our way home and since we had lots of time we checked it out.

 It was a great place to eat with many aquariums all around the room.

Finally we decided that ice cream would be a good way to beat the heat.  The ice cream was especially delicious.

We had a wonderful time and enjoyed meeting Jessica, Garrick and all of the extended families.
I can't promise that I will be much better at posting,  It seems that I am in a lazy streak.  I have been doing a little sewing and maybe I will try to post some of those pictures.

Technology abandoned me

WELL, the last two weeks have brought some challenges to my free time activities.  I took my sewing machine in for a 'ONE DAY' cleaning and then was told that it needed a new computer board.  I sadly told them to go ahead and order the part which was suppose to be there in a couple of days.  However the repair person (I think she was new to the job because the old repairman wasn't there) didn't get it done AND didn't get it done and  kept putting me off with little things until I finally went in this past Monday and they said that someone would work on it that day if they had time.  I told them that I would be back that afternoon and I wanted to take it home then,.  SO, they complied and got to work on it.  I was very happy to pick it up after it had been gone for over a week.  I am thankful that it is back at home 

To make things even more difficult here at our house, the computer was in the shop for a couple of days too.  It had been slowing down more and more and we decided to get it checked over.  It is old for a computer, about 6 years old, but we are in limbo about what to do in the way of a new home computer. We wanted to put off buying a new one while we were researching what to buy.  I am thankful that this old one is back in working order.  

 While my machines were being repaired I needed to find new ways to entertain myself.  I had lunch with a friend and we went to our local museum.  The quilt landscape artist that won Art Prize in Grand Rapids had an exhibit and we spent some time enjoying this art.  The picture above is one of three panels  depicting the Pictured Rocks in the U.P.  It is a beautiful piece.  I have taken a couple of classes from this artist and she is very inspirational for the quilting world.  It was a great way to spend the day if you can;t quilt yourself and lunch with a friend is always nice.

Bud has been very busy with his outside chores before winter arrives.  The trim on the house is all painted and he started working on the front deck.  Today he is doing the last step, staining/preserving the deck boards.  It looks great.  He has been taking half days off this month to complete his projects. He has been very busy, maybe he will be like this in retirement?????  It makes me look a little lazy but I have had more practice at this retirement thing and he continues to work as much as possible at the office.

I wish that I knew how to rotate a picture once it is on the blog but I don't know the secret so tip your head to the left to view this unusual piece. (or maybe not if you like it hanging this way) It has a funny story.
A couple of years ago I went for an overnight quilting retreat with my great friend Mary Anne.  We were told to bring along several different types of fabric and I really can't remember what all of them were except I know that one was suppose to be black and white and one was suppose to be something we considered 'ugly'.  When we arrived we were to make these blocks with the fabric using a fusible to put them on the background.  I think the directions were to use every one of the fabrics in each block and there were some other directions too but I can't remember.  ANYWAY, I bought these blocks home and I was to 'stitch' around each of these pieces that I fused  on the background.  I am not fond of that process so it went into a box to be finished later or thrown away. Just before my machine abandoned me I found these blocks and decided I should do something with them  When I got my machine back I went right to work and did all that tedious stitching and put the blocks together.  It is now hanging in my sewing room.  One more UFO (unfinished object) completed)
The class was suppose to be followed up with a 'therapy' session with the person running the class.  I can only imagine that she would have us talk about our fabric selections and why we put them is this order and arrangement.  I didn't go to the session.

So, there you have it our accomplishments and challenges.  Aren't we lucky that we have such small challenges?

Too much for one post

Sorry, I really haven't been keeping up with my blog.  My computer has been slow and temperamental.  My sewing machine is in the shop waiting for a new computer part and I seem to be equally sluggish.
I will try to update you on my life but it may be a long post.

 For Charlotte's last weekend in T.C. before heading off to college, she requested an afternoon of sailing.  It was nice to be able to take her out on a nice Saturday afternoon.  Ringo wanted to come along too.  He is such a sailing lover.

 Of course the captain took us right past Red 8, a popular mark on our way out the bay.

 Charlotte and her friend David were enjoying their weekend together.  David has already started school at Western but came home for Charlotte's last weekend home.  This was his first time out on the boat this summer because he was always working when we went out.

 The sky was blue and the winds were favorable.

 Saturday was also Sue's birthday so we went over to their house for dinner.  Walt fixed a wonder steak and salmon dinner and the family and friends brought along the 'sides'.  Sue has some great friends and we enjoyed coming along as family.

 The birthday cake was cut up before we put the candles on it.  Maybe that was on purpose because they didn't seem to have any candles.  We sang anyway.

 Tuesday (Sept 9) I drove down to Coleman to spend the night with Leo.  He met me in Clare for dinner and we were up fairly early for two people that don't work, and headed to Midland to buy him some new clothes for Josh's upcoming wedding.  He found a nice pair of black pants.

 I joked abut him buying this shirt as it is a lavender check but he wouldn't go for it.

 Instead he got two new shirts, one white and one kind of a gray.  I think he is ready for the wedding.

 We did go to lunch afterward.  I love Panara Bread and they have on in Midland.

 Leo has been working on the landscaping around his house.  It has been a bit of a challenge since they really didn't put the house on the crawl space correctly.  We are still fighting with the company about that issue.

 However, it is looking pretty good anyway. He has been doing a lot of work with his back hoe and digging trenches to help drain the water around his house.  You can see that he has a Kohl's bag there with his clothes.

 One other thing I decided to do is follow the advice of Penny and rearrange his living room.  I moved the sofa and loveseat around. He will try it this way.  I think it looks good and probably better.  I have a rug to take down that I forgot so next time.

 Before I left Coleman I decided to visit Aunt Mary.  She lives right up the road from the farmhouse and is now a widow so I thought it would be a good idea to stop and see her.  She is looking as good as usual, still getting out to do her own grocery shopping.

I didn't mention the other stop we made in Midland.  Denise told me that there was a nice quilt shop in Midland that I hadn't visited.  Leo so kindly went along and watched me pick out some fabrics to add to my stash.  They are all batiks which I love.  I am sure that I will find some way to work them in to some future project. Anyway, they are pretty,.  

Leo and I joked about helping each other spend their money.  I won because Leo spent a little more than me by about $10.  

So there you have it, my too long post.  I will try to post more often but maybe if I received more encouragement by the way of comments, I would try to post more often.  Just saying......