Love the old ones

Abandon vehicles in a Minnesota field brings

back memories. I learned to drive in one of these.

Oh the joy of a stick shift. Good thing

Indiana is flat land. The first summer I was

driving I got flustered and forgot to turn

I drove the tractor right into the ditch.

It didn't matter how much we dinged it learning

to drive.  Memories. Lately my thoughts go back

to the 50's and 60's and how we lived life then.

Life was richer then. Families mattered.

Today I will clean the garage again. It is

going to be cool so it is a good day for the

task. Yesterday I got another 7 quilt blocks done

for hot pads for the Christmas stockings.

All in browns and turquoise. Nice colors.

My art teacher grand daughter is coming

to get some more furniture and art

supplies. Grandma is a soft touch.

That is our job after all.

Well I chopped it up.

 The quilt I was working on last week is now

 3- 12 by 12 canvases, 3- 8x10 matted pieces

and 3 greeting cards. Now I just have to add

some hand stitching, crystals in the flower

centers and they will be done.

 I had not been very careful when I sewed the strips

together and use cotton batting that showed through.

So this is the best use for the piece. I will drop them

off at the gallery next Saturday and let them sell them.

Today we did sweet corn for the freezer.

42  individual serving bags and 3 large bags for

the holidays. None for me. If any one knows of

a way to remove the hulls and center kernel let me

know I will just have to get use to not eating corn.

 Once the tomatoes are ready I will make skinless

seedless stewed tomatoes for the winter.



Life is good ar Cedar Ridge Studio

 The windows are open and the cool breezes are

flowing through the house. This is my kind of

weather. The quail are calling each other out

in the yard, Life is good.

 I am going to do a abstract quilt Wednesday.

Something rusty and organic.

I need to step up to the plate and be more creative.

It is so easy to get wrapped up in the piecing

and forget design and color. Now that I have plans for

tomorrow it is time to rest for the night.

More Christmas

I started some more hot pads Saturday.

Only 20 more to go.

Today I spent my afternoon in the Express Care

clinic for 4 hours. 4 days into sweet corn season

and I am banned from eating it anymore.

Oh well it will be good for the diet.

I decided I will take last weeks quilt

and make some little gallery wrapped

quilts. It was a good learning experience

but I was a little sloppy in my stitching.

I am all about the finished look.

It goes back to my Singer sewing teacher

when I was 8 years old she was picky.

We ripped out more seams until they

were good enough for her.

Looking forwards to the morning to get

back in the studio.

Work in progress

A new style for me.

Thursday Nancy come to spend the day with me

in my studio. I had read Jean Wells books

and was ready to branch off into a new

direction. I love the Kaffee Fasset Lotus fabric.

Using that as a starting point I choose several

fabrics from my stash and in my usual style

I was off and running. I wasn't much company

for Nancy as I quickly became obsessed

with my new project.  Hopefully she still

enjoyed her visit. It is not usual for me to

invite people into my space but we seem

to mellow out with each other. She made

several helpful suggestion giving me some new

directions I could take my piece.

We had a nice lunch with a tomato, basil,onion

pizza, salad, fruit and glorious lemon

cookies from Bit of Swiss a awesome

bakery in St Joseph Michigan.

My husband picked some sweet corn for her

to take home along with a dozen of the

fresh eggs from his pet chickens.

Another day in the Summer of 2013.

It is turning into a very good year.

 

 



Christmas in July

 I had a spare morning and started on my stocking

stuffers. I am making hot pads for the ladies.

Nice thick hot pads. A little bit of art for the

table. I would like to keep them myself but

I need 12 pairs of them for the stockings.

 I really like the touch of color in this one.

I think my family and friends will find

this a useful gift. I also bought hand made

scented soap in Minnesota. I will be making

salsa this summer also. I found some bright

colored bowl scrapers in Minnesota too.

Now to start on the men's stocking.

Maybe salsa too?

Always harder to be original.

One more hot day and a cool off.

Always hot for fair week.

wordless wednesday