Retreat finale

Home from retreat.  When I drive through these gates my heartrate slows.   The three women who own this inn have created something very special and I know I gush about it every time I come home. I don't even care if I sew, just to be here.  

We are in true summer here. A 5 day hot spell is coming starting tomorrow and it's going to be brutal.

 I'll start with some photos of what the others were working on.

Joyce used this book to choose 25 stars and foundation pieced them. 

She laid them out on the floor and we all offered suggestions on what should go where.  

She and I spent the most of Wednesday tearing off the paper from the backs, she took it outside to shake off the bits and you can see the color better.  She is a batik girl and definitely teal, turquoise, wine, purple for colors. It is a beauty.

Lisa was working on a big foot quilt for a member of her family

Jan was helping a grand daughter make a puffy quilt by doing half of it.

Barb worked her fingers to nubs to applique her vine quilt.  There are 13 rows, thousands of leaves, miles of vine, and it's stunning.  

Everyone was busy (except me) but I want to focus on Sally's project because it astounded me.  The patience of that girl. I can't understand why she doesn't go blind.  Sally works in itsy bitsy piecing. 

This is a pattern for courthouse steps that will FINISH at four inches. Each step measures 1/4 inch. It's absolutely tiny.  It took her a whole day to do this block because she was figuring it out and ripping out.

Now, being a new thing and being that she was in a room with other people she was distracted a lot so had a lot of angst as she ripped out tiny seams.  This piece above was going into the waste basket before I took it and said it would come home with me.  There are two mistakes in it.  One is very obvious and I'll fiddle with it but the other is almost impossible to spot and I know where to look.  But Sally is persnickety and so if it isn't perfect it isn't perfect.

These three were finished, declared good and went home with her. 

So. Every year we take a photo of our group and this time we wanted the innkeepers/friends to be in the photo.  From your right, Innkeeper Marcia, behind her, innkeeper/chef Sharon, Barb, Jan, Sally, Joyce hiding in the back, Lisa, Innkeeper Pat and me. What a great photo.  

When we go back they won't be there but they are moving to Grand Rapids so I can and will see them anytime. 

The torch is being passed to nephew Ryan, his sister and her husband. We know we will be in good hands but it will be very strange not hearing Marcia's laugh. 

Strawberry

                                               It's that most wonderful time of the year!

 There must be a fresh strawberry pie, made with strawberries we picked with our own little ol' hands for Father's Day.  We picked just this bowl full.  It's an exercise in self control to stop when we have enough but we go just about every other day to pick just what we need.

I don't make jam, I don't freeze them so we pick what we need for immediate pleasure eating. And pies.  I make a lot of strawberry pies and we indulge.  The season is short.

She Loved It!

 We celebrated Elizabeth's birthday

We went out for sushi and let me tell you, the owner of the restaurant pulled out ALL of the stops!  In addition to what we ordered, he brought out a huge piece of salmon, special sushi that were not on the menu, soups, drinks, and finally green tea ice cream.  It just kept coming.  What a meal!! And she loved and ate everything.  Even the sea urchin.  And eel.

After the cake, which none of us could eat because our tummies were absolutely stuffed it was time for her quilt.

She loved it!  We looked at each block and it's significance to her life

Here's a better photo in daylight.  Each square is about her and the year I spent working on this meant a year of really thinking about her.  I am really happy with how it turned out.  

She brought home a piece of this fabric from Williamsburg and asked if I could fit a piece of it into the quilt.  I did use it as the background on her initial square and fussy cut a few flowers but still had a good piece of it.  I decided a pillowcase.  But in the measuring there was really only enough for half of a pillowcase. I decided to try something I've never done with pillowcases before.

I made it reversible.  This fabric, too, came from Williamsburg but was one I purchased.  It worked great to make a two-sided pillowcase and it solves a problem for future ones!

So, after months of waiting to see it, it's done and gifted and it worked!

Grand Party

 Elizabeth is officially not a high schooler anymore.  Her graduation party was Sunday and oh, what a crowd and good time!  

I can't even believe I didn't get a photo of her and her parents and sister at the party but to be honest we were all flitting around like busy bees touching down for only a minute or two between the guests.  PH and I and our son and his family were all helping: reloading food, emptying trash, refilling drink dispensers, talking and laughing with the guests, I don't think any of us finished a sentence, certainly not two. 

So many of the cousins said it was so nice to be together at a time that didn't involve a casket.  I know distances are relative but we had people driving from 2-5 hours away and truly, around here, that's a miracle.  But we are at the age when we have one eye on the hour glass and are taking advantage of seeing each other in happy times if we can. 

These are photos our daughter took because, sorry to say, I took hardly none.

Centerpieces were all about Elizabeth.  She is a lover of old.  Books, bones, games.  The boxes held sand, mini shovels and scattered in the sand, archaeological finds.  She is going into archaeology, has said that since she was three years old and stuck to it, so mini digs on the tables was just her.  Also there were assorted growing up photos on the tables.

You all probably do this, too, but here because of weather possibilities tents are mandatory at grad parties.  You can plan till you turn blue but you can't control the weather.  The party we were at on Saturday had a sunny day but it was COLD and windy.  Sunday's event was absolutely perfect weather. But it could just as easily have not.  You just never know.

One thing I have to say about this family is that their dad has instilled in them the value of play.  They play.  And the girls and their friends are in the theater at school and play and pretend is an essential component of theater.  There was a table of props, with plenty of moustaches, hats, swords, goofy glasses, and play they did.

In the quiet after everyone left, Elizabeth's two most long and faithful friends since little girlhood still played. Quiet laughter, bubbles, smiles.  They will all be in different places come fall.  And I will miss these girls.  

 Did I say we laughed?  What is it called when you laugh so hard your eyes are closed?  Friends Sue and Marge and I have been friends for 60 years....maybe more if I do the math.

Grandson Mike (in navy blue) was just itching to play euchre with Grandpa.  He heard about Ceci playing with the old guys the day before and he was just itching.  When things started to quiet down and a table became available, PH, cousin Barney and four of the littles had a game.  I loved seeing this, it means there will always be a game going as the kids take up the torch. They are learning from the best.

Elizabeth gets her quilt tomorrow so there will finally be pictures. 

Euchre

 In PH's family, there is always a deck of cards, two quarters in the pockets and time for a game of Euchre.  Always. Always, always.  You will find the old guard who learned the game sitting on the laps of the ones now gone. They are good at it, they've played together their whole lives and they can read each other's and your mind. They can know from the first card played what everyone has and which way the hand will go. PH and our beloved Bob, now gone, were especially good at reading minds. But PH says Sandy, the one is the red sweater is the best in the family.  They are more than willing to teach and be patient with the learner but the learner has to do their part and learn.

They play for those quarters, pay up at the end and they mean business.

So yesterday at a graduation party it was so good to see Ceci say she will play. She's new at it and wants to be a better player.  The veterans are always willing to help a novice learn as Sue is here with Ceci.  

But apparently Ceci was doing well enough to hold her own. This is gratifying because the grey haired ones are all over 70 and some paving the way to 80 and no one wants to be at an event of any kind in the future without a table of Euchre happening.  It just wouldn't be a party.

We have Elizabeth's party today and there will be a deck of cards brought out of someone's pocket and quarters, too.  Because without it, it just wouldn't be a party.

Temperature Tree

Thoughts on the tree project: 

In the beginning of my hand work life, over 50 years ago, I started with cross stitch then moved on to needlepoint then quilting. As I progressed from one to the other, the previous activity was put aside. 

SO, it's been a very long time since I've done cross stitch. I 'forgot' how tedious it can be. My eyes are older and not so inclined to teeny anymore.  Neither is my patience. 

This tree would not stand the test of comparing it to the pattern. Certainly not the leaves.  But as I fiddle and struggle while stitching I am pretty much finding space for another leaf and sticking it in. I know nature is more perfect than this but I'm not.

Too late I realized I didn't really have to stick to the color chart and if I had been thinking logically for this hemisphere I would have for these warm green months made the leaves green, not the yellows the chart is using. I would have had some oranges and reds for the coming fall months.  I'd leave the blues for the winter but I'm not loving the yellow for now and looking at the color chart there isn't much room for change.  Maybe.  It IS only May. I could green up the summer maybe. Saying this, I understand it's a temperature chart so the temperatures are represented, not my esthetic desires. 

Maybe the yellows aren't making me happy because I used an oatmeal color for the background and they kind of disappear. 

And yes, there are still days left in May but our weather people are SO precise I can take the projected temps for the rest of the week and finish the month.

Yes, I will finish this, I've gotten almost through half the year and I am happy with my system of collecting temps for a couple of weeks and then stitching.  I could have and would have never made a temperature quilt so this is a good substitute. 

Graduation

 Last night our Elizabeth graduated from high school.  It was a proud evening for all of us. 

I think my fingers are holding onto her very tightly 

The ceremony was held in the football stadium (outdoors, COLD and very windy) and this procession of the graduates from the high school building down the hill to the football field was so impressive and beautiful and well, there could have been a tear or two.

Here it is, the moment. They can't take it away.  She worked hard for this.

After, we all went to a late dinner on the river and basked in her.  Notice mom hanging on tightly, too.

Well, that's two of the five fledged from the nest.  Sigh.

Decisions

 I am not a good passenger.  I get bored and I tend to backseat drive.  Ever since I was a child I would be carsick.  But about ten years ago I discovered I could do some hand work if I'm careful about the carsick thing.  

My latest take along project if we are going to be driving 2 hours or more is to stitch hexies together. I keep a small tightly packed tote of everything I need.  When we are leaving for anywhere, I grab the tote all packed and good to go.

They are scrappy, used up scraps of fabric, no rhyme or reason to placement except for trying not to put two reds or dark blues together. 

I put this box on my lap, the thread in the door handle pocket and when I take out the cardboard pieces they go in the bottom of the tote till we stop for gas somewhere. The box is thinning out and I need many more for the road trip

so last time I zoomed I cut fabric to fit the foundations and put everything in baggies.

Now, I make more hexies to store for the big road trip we are planning this summer.  It's a long one and I will need lots.  It's porch work.

The decision?  As I recuperate from new hip surgery I have to decide whether to sit on the front porch or the back.  Front porch chairs are more comfortable and I can easily fall into a nap so not much might get done.  Back porch offers an aquarium of bird activity at the feeders, which is distracting to getting anything done.  But it's such a gorgeously beautiful day today I won't be inside.

Tinkering

 I've packed up the piles and put away the stuff for a bit because I'm going to have a new hip Thursday and won't be in the mood for messes.  Instead I've been tinkering with my ladies.

A few days ago Lou was going through old linens and wondering what to do with pieces that were stained and damaged by time and use.  I told her when I go to estate sales I head first to the bedrooms where the linens are stored. I want those pillow cases, table cloths, dresser runners, etc.  Some are very damaged and have holes or big stains.  And because of that I get them for pennies. Some are in good condition and useable.  Still very inexpensive.  

What I've done is cut the handwork off the damaged pieces and tucked them away for....I don't know, just another stash, I guess.

But then with Lou's post I thought "hmmm" and dug out the crochet trims that I saved from disintegrating pillow cases and they fit nicely as trims for my ladies.  The pattern I am using for inspiration for the ladies shows a pieced 'lace' around their faces.  This sure beats that!

There was a piece that was salvaged I turned into an apron for this one.

I really like the look, the crochet pieces - and I do mean pieces - that I saved are resurrected.

I am making up this project as I go along.  It's going to be very funky when I finally decide it's finished.

Books this week.  Probably the last week for me.  If not, then possibly just one or two more as I heal.

Another Holly Hobbie book.  This one from her own life.  

Holly's family lived in a thriving, busy, noisy neighborhood and suddenly her parents bought a run down old farm house out in the country with no indoor plumbing and no electricity in her bedroom. It was culture shock.  But Holly learned to love the animals of the country and their little farm.  But mostly she loved the horses the neighbors had and wished for a horse more than anything.  They had a barn, there was tacking hanging on the wall, she learned to draw horses, she even picked up 'road apples' from the neighbors' horses and put them in her barn.  

On her birthday her big present was in the barn and she ran her fastest to get there.  The kids and I had a good chat about that ending. 

I always save this book for the last book of the year.  Gum wasn't new.  The ancients chewed pine resin and other things. Chewing gum was good for you.  But what if you could make a gum that was able to hold a bubble?  And when you succeeded in that, make it a color but pink was the only thing available in the lab?  The kids LOVE this book.  Or is it because I bring in a big bag of bubble gum for them?  

We discussed that things don't just magically appear.  Someone has to think...."hmmm, what if?" and tinker and tinker and think and think to invent the things we have now.  

CIRCLES! and books

 I don't think I've ever been happier finishing a quilt top.  During covid Friend Barb and I started a circle quilt.  It was a way for me to appreciate the Liberty of London fabric I bought but was afraid to use

                                It's taken that long for me to finally get from this point Five years? 

To this.  I was so excited this morning when I whipped it out of the machine I didn't even iron it before hanging it for a photo.  So if it looks a little wonky, well, it is till it's ironed.   But that will have to wait till I'm ready to layer it and that won't be for another while.  But this far?  Ecstatic.

They are four inch white squares and the reason it took so long was because I got bored with sewing circle after circle after circle.  Barb?  She's made seven circle quilts. SEVEN.  We sew differently.  She uses her TV downtime in the evening on boring but that's my main sewing time and so there are other things to work on. 

This week's books were a little prehistoric-ish.  

After surviving a shipwreck a young boy finds himself on a remote island with a creature he has never seen anything the likes of before.  Hom is his name.  Hom is the last of his kind.  There are cave paintings of his family to prove it.  Hom shows our young boy what foods are safe to eat, how to live on a deserted island.  Our boy shows Hom his first wheel.  They play, become the best of friends.  After a note is put into a bottle telling civilization where he is, a ship does come and there is a silhouette that looks like it could be the boy's mother on board.  But boy also knows what will happen to Hom if he is found by the world. 

Can you remember what it was like to be dragged along with your mother on Errand Day?  But this day is different.  Instead of a balloon at the barber there is a dinosaur to take home.  And another from the bakery, the doctor, and every other place they stop.  Mom is furious.  What are we supposed to do with a real DINOSAUR?  Every kid in town is delighted, though. Dream come true!