Colonial cooking

 Our Elizabeth is totally immersed in Colonial American history and she is bringing the rest of the family in with her.  This past weekend was Father's Day so they had us up to their cottage and we/they cooked a meal over an open fire, just like a Colonial encampment.  Well, maybe not just like it, but it sure was our best attempt.

    Son-in-law skewered an eggplant as part of the experiment. We thought that would turn to eggplant mushyness and fall off but it didn't.  It didn't cook to mush level. 

                                                               There was a pot of veggie stew

                                                                            And biscuits

We may not be up to the par of Jennie's Bernie and Josh and their open fire cooking but for our first attempt this was absolutely luscious.  We sat there thinking of what to try next...chicken?  turkey?  We might ask Bernie or Josh what they recommend.

PH and I then went less than an hour to his brother and SIL's cabin for three days of boats, cards and more eating WELL. Summer is looking pretty good and it's only mid-June!

Chicken or egg?

Remember a few posts back when I talked about the eggs on the shelf in England?  We bought some, ate them but I couldn't throw away those cute little egg boxes.   I know, I know, but I also warned you about keeping cute containers, you never know when you might need a cute container.  I look at many things with the cute-container-eye. 

So, yes, I somehow got these two fragile paper boxes home in the overstuffed suitcase.  This is one of those things PH said I had to make fit in MINE because it was so weird to be bringing them home.

But look what I did with them!  Pincushion!!  Cute chick fat in the stash was just right. 

I had a couple of other chicken fabrics but they are lost in the translation.  The bright graphic chickens don't show up, they were too big.  Maybe someday I'll switch them out and maybe they can stay.  But for now they're all pretty darned cute.  See? Save those cute containers, you never know!

Waiting in the pile

 It occurred to me I've mentioned three quilts that have been pinned and now sit in the basket waiting their turn to be quilted.  But I haven't showed them.  

I've started on the applique for Charlie's graduation quilt and it's testing me.  It's a simple design but it's still testing me so I'm glad I have some choices in diversions.  There are, of course, all of those Liberty circles to applique.

So here are the ones waiting. By waiting I mean they've been layered and are ready. 

This Liberty flying geese quilt makes me smile every time I look at it.  It's all Liberty of London fabrics, even the backing!!  When we were in London and at Liberty again I was told (after I made some purchases) that there was a sale floor.  I found the backing for $9.95 a yard!  Usually, Liberty runs close to $30 a yard!  I wish I wasn't so darned tired that day, and I wish I didn't have a closet full of fabric I still need to use before I die. But I did get backing for this one.

                                                                I love the bohemian look to this.

This one turned out exactly like I wanted it to.  Now, usually I make things up as I go along, pulling from the stash and just going with it.  But the print I used as my white separating blocks was special, I love, love, love it and didn't want to spoil those little sheep and children by cutting them up too much. Yet, I'm not getting any younger and MUST choose to use those special fabrics.  So I decided to do a very, very low volume 9 patch and chose colors for the 9's that went with the colors in the sheep/children squares and I am very happy with it.  Can't wait for this one to be done.

I think I showed this one before but it's finally layered and ready for the needle.

Ghost

 Do you believe in ghosts?  I do, but I don't know that I actually call them that.  Have I seen any?  Well, yes, but sometimes you don't have to "see" them to know they are there, are real or exist.  I've seen my grandma, my father-in-law,  knew of my mom's intervention when it was needed, knew of a nephew's return to 'visit' his son, grand daughter talked with them in their house when she was a toddler and even now says they are still in their house, there are many instances.  I think if you are open they will let you know they are around.

Yesterday evening I went on a ghost tour in downtown Grand Rapids.  Our guide took us on a walk through the streets stopping at the oldest buildings and sites in the city and told us of 'ghosts' that make themselves known within the old buildings.  

Luckily there are many old buildings in Grand Rapids that have not been replaced by 'progress' and have been renovated and still occupied.  The stories the people who still work or live in those buildings tell!   

Our guide is well versed in these stories, and it was a lot of fun to hear them.  

I grew up in this city and during a time when I was my grand kids' ages our downtown was accessible and fun for us.  We grew up knowing these old buildings and hearing the names of the town 'fathers' so this was a special treat for me. It was also very interesting to see how much the center of the city has changed from my wandering days.  I worked down here for many years and watched the decline over time so to see so many new places filling in again was fun.  And hearing some of these stories was the frosting on the cake. 

Making progress

 Well, it's been said before, and many times by me...if you aren't working on it, it won't get done.

I have a thing about being inside when the weather is nice...warm, sunny, blooming, tweeting.  I can't be inside, even if outside means just sitting on the porch with the afternoon and a book.  

But I've also discovered that if you're not working on the stitches things don't get stitched. Those elves that helped the shoemaker out are apparently not quilters.  So. The other day I took my Liberty circles out with me and stitched.  

                                  Sitting out back with the container of circles, needle and thread

 enjoying the view and the sun and the sounds (birds, chipmunks and squirrels running through the leaves, turkeys out on the hill, deer running past ) and the green, Oh, that green!

I started to work for real. I stitched them outside and inside in the evening while we watched a little TV until we chose a program that's subtitled so no stitching now till that series is over.

                          and actually accomplished enough that I could think "wow! I have a pile!"

This is a project Friend Barb and I were doing together.  She, of course, is finished with hers, it's been machine quilted and bound. Done.  I'm not even close but getting closer. 

Stratford

 Yes, it's true we just returned from England a couple of short weeks ago but it was PH's birthday this past weekend and he wanted to go to Stratford on Avon in Canada. PH discovered from us it's about a 4 hour drive so very easy. We were there once before but can't remember how many decades it's been. Really. We can't remember if the kids had been born yet so that makes it at least 4 decades. 

When we were in England (very recently!) we went to Stratford upon Avon for a couple of days and even though it was rainy and cold we had a wonderful time and saw a play none of us (PH, me, Brian) ever heard of - Cymbeline.

So maybe that's why PH wanted to go back to Canada's Stratford.  Or maybe he just didn't feel like unpacking his suitcase. But it was his birthday and so we went. 

Unlike the weather we had in England, this weekend the weather was picture perfect. We couldn't have ordered prettier days.  Like Stratford upon Avon, there are swans on this river Avon.

And boats.  Canoes, kayaks, this Stratford doesn't have canal boats but we did happen on this pontoon tour and since we had the time and the weather we took the river tour. 

One thing PH and I do very well together is travel.  We are both willing to pivot, willing to fly by the seat of our pants without reservations.  Sometimes we don't even make hotel reservations, we just go with the flow.  We talk to everyone we happen to be standing next to, we find out where the locals eat, what we should see, where we should go. This time, of course we had a hotel and we had play tickets but there was a lot of down time and we just let things happen and as it turned out, that was to our advantage at every turn.

Our tickets were for Spamalot and King Lear.  If we had not gotten tickets to King Lear, if we were walk-ins we would have chosen not to see it.  Spamalot was superb. King Lear not so much.  Absolutely no one we talked to beforehand had one good thing to say about King Lear...wooden actors who don't know how to "do" Shakespeare, technical difficulties, lighting, you name it, it was wrong.  But we had tickets and thought, "what do we know? Maybe we won't notice."  We noticed. Ugh.  At intermission I even asked PH, "do you want to stick it out or leave?"   It wasn't so bad it spoiled our wonderful time in Stratford, though.

We stumbled on an art fair as we walked the park in the morning.  We chatted with the artists and I even bought something! 

                                                                                  We ate well.  

Again, we stumbled upon a restaurant our first night there as we walked around town getting our bearings.  We walked in, chatted with the owner, got a tip on a marketplace to go in the morning and we said we would return the next day for dinner. He was SO helpful about so many things around town and we did return the next evening for PH's birthday dinner.  When we walked he met us at the door with hugs.

This is the first piece of Wagyu beef I've ever seen in person.  Look at the price (and it was on special!)  PH said, "who would pay $90. for a steak?"  I said, " Look again.  That's $89.99 PER POUND and those steaks weigh more than a pound." But it's beautiful, isn't it?  

We had a great time, we kept saying it over and over. And then I saw this blanket. No, I didn't buy it. 

Aunt Sally

 Some people have lots of projects in pieces and parts.  Friend Marilyn used pizza boxes to store her projects in but I don't have that kind of space either in my sewing storage or my brain.  I get itchy inside my head if there are too many things started but not actively being worked toward completion.  I have the mindset that if I can spend lots of time working on little parts and pieces of projects then I can devote that same amount of time and make real progress on ONE project.  Same with books.  I don't understand people who can read several books at once whereas I devote that same amount of time to ONE book and finish it then move on.  Besides, reading more than one book at a time just gets them all tangled up together in my brain. 

So, before I start Charlie's quilt for his graduation next year (remember I work by hand) I needed to clear up the projects laying out on the spare bed in Jenny's room. Yes, Jenny, I still call it your room.  The bed had parts and pieces and piles and I had to clear my brain of them.  So, three are now layered and pinned and yesterday I finished putting together Aunt Sally.

Remember a few posts back when I told you about the bag full of Aunt Grace pieces and parts Friend Sally gave me at retreat?  There was a center medallion possibility.  There were 8 inch squares and 3 inch 9 patches and a bag of spare fabrics.

And that's how I treated them.  I used the center medallion and decided this was going to be a Frankenstein quilt top.  There were three extra flower blocks so I used them to even out the 8 inch block layer.  Then I squirreled around in the pile for a border and found the blue.  Then I put the 9 inch blocks on as another border and they fit perfectly if I did NOT divide the blocks with a sashing.  They just lined up.  Then I hit a wall and the dining room table looked like a kindergarten art class for a few days while I tried to find something to do an outer border.  I knew it had to be pieced.  Blue was my first choice but there wasn't enough of any of the spare pieces.  I had a perfect blue gingham but again, there wasn't enough of it.  I'd audition colors, leave it and come back hours later and take it all apart. Pink wasn't right.  Then I dug around in the bag of pieces and found I had enough yellows of the same depth of color to piece the border in yellow.  I like it.

It isn't ironed here, it's fresh off the machine after the last stitch was put in so it looks wonky in the photo but it isn't in real life. I think it turned out just fine for a Frankenstein quilt.  There are still some nine patches left but there wasn't enough to do a double border so they might become pillows. For now, till I get more batting, it's folded and living with its cousins in the basket. But it's finished to the part I can live with.

The point is I now have a bed cleared of pieces and parts and can begin for real on Charlie's quilt.  My head is cleared.  Well, except for that retreat challenge I'm spending way too much time on. But just one more evening will take care of that.