SOME SHOPPING ON TRIP

I stopped at several quilt shops while on my trip and I mentioned a couple of them before, but here is a picture of some fabric.  The red and piano fabric were purchased somewhere in Virginia - sorry, no pictures of the store and I forgot exactly where it was.  The cheddar and 2 reproductions on the right are from The Quilt Merchant in Winfield, Il. It specializes in reproductions and has a great selection!

Here are the patterns I got - only one is a quilting pattern.  I'm thinking about adapting the Blue Snowman cross stitch into a Christmas stocking for the new baby coming in December.  On the left is a wool pincushion pattern (for a possible pincushion exchange?), and the other 2 are just because I like to embroider.

In going through my mail when we arrived home, I received a package from Canada!  I won a giveaway from Janet at Hall's Harbour Handcrafts & Quilt Studio.  It is a lovely hand embroidered pillow sham.  I love it!  Thanks so much, Janet!

Another quilt shop that I stumbled across is Lucky 2B Quilting in Pecatonica, IL.  We were looking for a camp ground and couldn't find it, so we stopped there for directions.   DH saw this panel of construction equipment and thought I should get it for Jonah because he has a mural on his bedroom wall of a dump truck, etc.

Another treasure of my Mom's that I got is a box full of paper dolls.  These have to be from around 1918-25.  Mom used to let us play with them occasionally.

I always thought the twin buggy was so neat with a place for the faces to show through. 

 Can you believe what good shape these paper dolls are in after 90+ years?

I have seen some giveaways for the Go AccuQuilt cutter and Jane is having one on her blog.  I am entering this one (and others) and for an extra entry, I'm blogging about it.  Wish me luck!

My sister has a real green thumb and this is from her garden. 

Have a great week!

HIGH SCHOOL REUNION, etc.

Saturday night we went to DH's 50 year high school reunion at Doubletree Hotel in Oakbrook, IL.  That morning we had attended a tour of our high school (I was a year behind him).  We were able to connect with some of his friends and the best man from our wedding.

Since the dinner was at this fancy hotel, we expected a really good meal, but we were disappointed.  There were several hundred people at the reunion the room was packed.  We were squeezed around  tables so tight that we could hardly cut our chicken.  The main dish was good, but nothing special.  The rolls were stale and for desert we had a cookie!!  Am I expecting too much want a piece of cheesecake or a really nice desert?  The cookie is similar to what you would buy at Walmart's bakery.  Next year is my 50th reunion.  I guess I'll go because I would like to get back in touch with some friends I have lost touch with.

While in the Chicago area, we drove over to the neighborhood where my family lived while I was a little girl.  We moved to the suburbs when I was five years old.  The picture below is where my Dad had a grocery store in the 30's.  I won't bore you with all the other pictures we took, but it was nice to see the places I lived way back when.

We also went to the Leaf River and German Valley, IL area to try to do some family tree research.  DH's father graduated from the Leaf River High School in 1924.

We took pictures of some old buildings and barns.  This old school house was in Adeline, IL.  Maybe it was the place where DH's father taught school for one year, but we don't know.

One of the many barn pictures I took.  This one was in Seward, IL near the camp ground that we stayed at.

The house is still a mess and I still have lots to share.  Hope you check back soon.

HOME AT LAST!!

Late yesterday afternoon we arrived home after being gone for 5 1/2 weeks. It felt very good to be home again. We had a wonderful trip and I will expand on the last couple weeks on some other posts. Below is our stack of mail to sort through.

The last week we were in Illinois at my sister's house (which is the house we grew up in). While there, we started going through some of the pictures and other old items that were still left from when our parents died several years ago. We scanned lots of old pictures, looked through papers and many boxes.

My sister asked me if I wanted this antique doll - and of course, I did! We don't really know anything about it, except that it was on the shelf in Mom's closet for years. It is about 10" long and I laid it in a little doll bed for the picture. I don't think she will stay in that doll bed, though, because it is pretty new and she should have an old one (since she is old).


Her dress and slip are real pretty. I will wash them and fix any things that need fixing soon.

I better start putting away things and getting the house organized. I'll post more pictures soon.

AMISH COUNTRY AND BARNS

We spent time in amish country in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and Indiana. We didn't actually plan it that way, but it ended up that way. I love their buggies and barns! This buggy was at a farm that has a little store. We were looking for baked goods, but it was the wrong day, so we bought some swiss cheese. DH saw a bag of candy that he wanted - grapefruit candy. I had never heard of grapefruit candy before, but I tried it. Wow! It was really good, so we went back for two more bags. We are bad....

This is an amish farm. I wanted a picture of the sheep.
Who ever heard of a blue barn? When I saw this one, I grabbed my camera and took a picture as we drove by. Don't these people know that barns are supposed to be red???
Yes, I saw some Amish quilts, but didn't feel comfortable taking pictures in their shops. I suppose I could have asked, but didn't. I did buy an amish rug, some jars of jelly and a cookbook. Now we are on our way to the Chicago area and will visit my sister, brother and other relatives. Have a nice Labor Day weekend!

CAMPING IN PENNSYLVANIA

We are really enjoying our stay in Pennsylvania! The barns are real big here as you can see below.

This is our camp site. We unloaded the camper off of the truck because we are driving around a lot while we're here. The state forest/park is awesome! Last night the temperature was down to 48 degrees, but now in the afternoon it is warm. It is really nice to be out of the stifling heat!!
I stopped at the Our Gathering Place quilt shop in Montoursville PA and purchased a few pieces of fabric there. The airplane fabric might be for a shirt for Jonah. It is a really nice shop with lots of reproduction fabrics. However, since I spent most of my wad at Verna's, and have a lot of reproductions at home, I didn't buy much.
I finished the star applique for my flag quilt and am working on a few other hand embroidery projects.
Tomorrow is the big game for the US championship and the Texas team is in it! We will be going early so we can get a seat in the stadium. It should be an exciting game! Then, on Sunday, we'll be there for the world championship game. What fun!!

BTW, thanks to all who voted for my quilt in the Quilters Gallery embroidery contest! I'm sorry I haven't thanked you sooner...I kept forgetting.....

LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES

We are at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA now. Actually, we are camping at a state park. Today is the third day and it rained all night. The main game we want to see today is at 8:00 PM.

This is the team we are pulling for. They are from Pearland, TX. They won their first game and they play again tonight, so we want to be sure to be there.
We are staying at Bald Eagle State park. Below is a picture of their office.
There are several Amish towns around here and I took a picture of this buggy we were driving behind. The scenery is beautiful and there are lots of farms.
Yesterday on our way to the games, we drove past a house that had a sign in front saying "Fresh doughnuts on Saturdays." So, since it was Saturday, we decided to stop. Some cute Amish boys peeked at us from the barn. The wife let us into the kitchen where she had about 10 or 12 varieties of doughnuts for sale - 50 cents each! We got two apiece and were very happy. Next Saturday we plan to stop there again.

A blogger gave me the names of some quilt shops in the area and I went to Verna's Fabrics in Mifflinburg, PA. It is an awesome shop with extremely good prices! I plan to visit that shop again. I want to visit a couple other shops also. It remains to be seen whether I will buy fabric at them or not.

WILLIAMSBURG PART 2

We ended our visit to Williamsburg with the fife and drum march yesterday. That was probably the highlight of the visit! Too many other photographers were in the way to get a really good picture.

The tour of the governor's palace was wonderful! The tour guide was excellent.
We spent some time in the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg and enjoyed that very much! The air conditioning wasn't bad either!
There were three quilts by Virginia Alsop. The one above on the right was made around 1870-80. The baby quilt on the left was made in 1852 (when she was 15 years old, I believe).
The yellow on the left was also made by Virginia Alsop when she was 15. Not bad, eh?

This quilt was made by Ruth Bower Swinney Ogden in 1839-47. The doll below shows the quilted petticoats that women wore in those days.

We could have spent lots more time at Colonial Williamsburg, but would rather be there when it isn't hot. Spring or fall would probably be the best time to visit there.

I don't know if you can see the train in this picture. I took it from the doorway of our camper without zooming it in at all. We figure the tracks are about 30-50 feet away. Chugga Chugga!! Luckily, they don't blow their whistle!!
Monday night I spent some time sewing and got all the HST's (that I had made before our trip) put together for the baskets. This will be a wall hanging. You can see my tiny sewing area in the camper.

Today we travel to Pennsylvania for the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA. DH has been wanting to go to this for years. I have already staked out some quilt shops in the area - Hee Hee! We'll be staying at a state park, so probably won't have regular internet access (unless we go to McDonald's).

COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG

Today we went to Colonial Williamsburg and had a wonderful time in the past! Below is the courthouse. Tomorrow, we plan to go to a "trial" there.

There are various artisans demonstrating their craft there. I didn't see any quilters, though!

This is a portrayal of Martha Washington receiving an award for her husband, George Washington.
And this is a portrayal of the Marquis de Lafayette announcing the winning of a battle. He was very good!
Tomorrow we will be going back to see the governor's palace and hopefully the fife and drum march!

We have had a few negatives on the trip so far and we had to spend the first night in a hotel because our electricity wasn't working. We discovered that it was just the plug, so it was easy to fix. The other negative is the train that zooms right past the campground several times during the night. DH said he didn't hear it!

Garden Party quilt on Quilting Gallery

I posted my Garden Party quilt on quilting gallery, so if you are so moved, please go and vote for me! Click here.

THANKS!

BINDINGS FINISHED

On our weekend trip to take care of Jonah, I got the bindings hand sewn down on several items. This is my first Cheddar Cheese & Crackers doll quilt, which is a reproduction of an antique quilt. Lori, at Humble Quilts, had a quilt along for making this and I still have the second one to finish. I love this little quilt and will be keeping this one for myself. I don't know what I'll do with the second one yet. The colors on this picture didn't come out really well, especially the pinks on the lower part of the quilt.

This quilt was a BOM from the LQS. I did two versions of this one and gave the bright one to our GD for her birthday. I have plans for this one too.
I quilted it on my sewing machine.

You can't really see the quilting on the back of the quilt, but here it is.
This is another little doll quilt bound.
Two table runners bound. I did most of the hand sewing on the bindings during our drive to Arkansas and back.
Sept. 18 is DH's 50 year high school reunion and this is the outfit that I got to wear (I hope it qualifies as cocktail attire). The pants are very loose and the top is sparkly. You can't tell, but there is a lot of aqua in the top (around the edges and the sparkles). I needed a purse, so I made one out of some fabric I had on hand and put a sparkly thing on it. It's black and brown, but I think it will work. I didn't want to buy something for one night.
We're starting to pack the camper because we leave on Friday and will be gone 5 weeks. We'll post pictures during the trip if we can find wi-fi along the way. We can't wait to get farther north where it isn't 100 degrees - we've had 12 days in a row of over 100.

BABYSITTING FOR JONAH

This weekend we stayed with Jonah so DS#3/DIL could get away for a weekend. This will be their last getaway before the new baby comes.

Grandma & Grandpa (us) took Jonah for a trolley ride.

Jonah decided to rake leaves into the garage.
What a helper!
While Jonah naps, I have been working on my cheddar cheese & crackers quilt (the second one). My DIL got a sewing machine from a neighbor (either a gift or a really good deal) and I wanted to check it out. It sews great - no adjustments were necessary!
It came with a cabinet.
I spread out the pieces on the side, but it didn't all fit. However, I got about 1/3 sewn together. I don't know how much I'll get finished, but I'm sure not all of it. Tomorrow we go home to get ready for our next big trip - leaving on Friday. I plan to blog along the way and I have a list of possible quilt shop stops ready - just in case!!