Delivered to Camp

We got both of the grands delivered to Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp this afternoon.

John, Jr. and his top bunk in the Beethoven cabin.

He chose a bed close to the cabincounselor, Zek.
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SaraRachel in her top bunk in the Barbirolli cabin. She chose to be farther away from her counselor, Jen.

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Once we had finished our delivery, we took the opportunity to go to the beach of Lake Michigan again. It is very relaxing to sit and listen to the waves coming in, digging our toes into the lovely sand. Charlie jumps in the waves a bit, but I just listen and watch.

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No sewing today, but I made progress on knitting a brown sock.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Grandkids willing to try something new!
Beautiful day for temperature and breeze
Leftovers available for dinner

Pfaff returned!

Yes, they "fixed" my sewing machine and it is HOME. Here's what they sad: "Your screen contrast dial was turned to the extreme." What? No, it wasn't! I hadn't touched my screen contrast dial.

Well, now it works just fine, and they didn't charge me anything. Only I didn't have my machine for a month while it waited in line to be serviced.

I got right to work on that quilting of the confetti quilt, where I had such a problem with the Featherweight. The dual-feed foot solved the mis-feeding perfectly.

So I am moving forward with the quilting in sections plan. The center section is now quilted.

Next to add a side section. I'm going to cogitate about this for a while before I really sew anything. For one matter, I need to piece together another section of the backing!

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I think I am going to name this quilt "Finally Got My Scraps Organized".

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Sara

Another BIG mistake--this time family

I made a terrible mistake over the weekend. I came home from vacation with two grandchildren I wasn't really expecting to have for five days. I came home to a kitchen with new cabinet doors and a refinished floor (all of which was wonderful) and all the kitchen gear piled around in the dining and living rooms. I can keep TWO things in mind.

But I totally forgot the third thing: that I was promised to go to Chicago on Saturday for the wedding of a cousin's daughter. I was going to stay with his sister in the hotel and have lots of time to talk. I was going to see the other two cousins in the that family and their spouses. I was going to have a great time with MY Carey family. I didn't remember a thing about it until I got an e-mail from Trish last night saying, "What happened to you??????"

Oh, the aging brain!

I had the wedding invitation out on the kitchen counter, but it got cleared away so the workmen would have open space. And I never thought of it again. What an idiot I am.

I should know by now that I need to write notes on the bathroom mirror.

So I went to the store to pick up my FIXED Pfaff,

and we drove the kids to camp to buy the necessary uniform shirts and fill out paperwork,

and we went to the beach at Lake Michigan for two and a half hours. All good things, but not any conversation with my cousins, whom I haven't seen for several years.

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On a lighter note: here are John Jr. and Sara Rachel joining in with a sculpture in Tassel Park. The artist intentionally left a space for kids to join with the bronze children.

And here is the venue in John Ball Park where we went last night for a jazz trio concert and picnic.

The band shell is in the distance in the middle of the photo.

Sara

Gratitudes:

My cousins will probably forgive me

Grands have all their stuff ready for camp tomorrow

A frog was rescued from the streetside mailbox (How did it get in there?)

July finish

Charlie took the two grandkids who are with us to the Harry Potter movie this afternoon, and I used that time to finish the fold-over-from-the-back binding on this 9-patch quilt. It has no batting, but a flannel backing. Another light weight quilt for the summer.

Then "Uncle Pete" and "Aunt Lynne" came over for dinner and a hot game of UNO.

They were joined at the table by President Obama, who just watched.

Next timre we will not seat the two kids next to each other. They did not take well to each others "bad" cards.

Charlie had to draw and draw and draw to get the right card to play.

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Sara

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Gratitudes:

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Grandpa helps me with grandparenting (morning walk)

Grandpa helps me with grandparenting (movie)

Grandpa helps me with grandparenting (plays UNO)

Grandpa teaches Grandson

When grandkids are visiting it's a good time for Grandpa to pass on the wisdom of the older generation.

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Then the younger generation takes up the work and hopefully doesn't make any life-threatening decisions.

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Good to see some real attention being paid. No wandering minds forthe moment anyway!

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Went to Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp today to get the two grandkids the camp uniform shirts they will need starting on Wednesday.

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Then we had lots of fun on the beach of Lake Michigan for the rest of the afternoon.

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Sara

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Gratitudes:

both males survived this learning experience

SaraRachel helped me with dinner

I did NOT get sunburned

VACATION was great!

We had seven nights at a cottage near South Haven, Michigan. We started with eleven family members, and after three had to leave on Monday, we were eight: our two children, their spouses, and two grandchildren.

We went to "the big lake" for sunsets. and the beach!

We picked blueberries, and then ate them.

We used the pool.

We crowded the kitchen with LOTS of cooks.

And ate marshmallows and jaw breakers.

We celebrated a birthday.

We played lots of games, outdoors and indoors.

We enjoyed extended family!

Sara

Gratitudes:

The Beach

Grandkids

Other cooks

Zig-zag and Queen of the Prairie

The Zig-zag top is mostly together, at least all the diagonal strips are now sewn together. There is one black zig-zag. You can now see that I also made one triple zig-zag with black around a red fabric. This is NOT in the middle.

I'm going to study some various small strips for an inner border.

We have only one more day before leaving on vacation, so I doubt that I will get this totally "bordered" before we go.

And out in the garden the Queen of the Prairie is in full bloom, though it seems more appropriate to say "in full FLUFF". This is a perenniel plant which totally dies back to the ground in the fall, and before that the foliage turns brown and looks really ratty. I hope to get some started in the meadow where it will look great from a distance as well as close up.

Sara

Gratitudes:

gentle rain this AM

breakfast with friends

no grocery shopping necessary today

Zig-Zag start

I have started a Zig-Zag quilt top following the "no triangles" method described by amandajean.


Red and white and black are the chosen colors.

First I sewed together two 3" strips, one colored, one background.

Then cut into 5.5" segments.










Two of these blocks are then sewn together are shown to the left.

The really tricky part

[I did this incorrectly several times]

is putting the double blocks together

so that it makes a zig-zag.

The secret is that this is put together on the DIAGONAL.

I'm having a good time so far, expecially because I have quite a stash of red and black fabrics. I even made a slight change in the pattern, which I will show you later.

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However, my only place to lay it all out and check my work is on my own bed. Therefore I had to get going to clear the bed for sleep tonight.

I got "columns" all together so I was eventually able to pick up the columns in order and lay them neatly in the sewing room for tomorrow. After that: BORDERS!

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Sara

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Gratitudes:

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Another warm, sunny and breezy day

Planning our family vacation

Ice cream in a cup, sitting by the river

Confetti DISASTER

This is what happened on the BACK of my confetti quilt when I "quilted" one line. YIKES! I knew I was in trouble when I got near the end of the line and a ran OUT of backinig material. Clearly there is a tension problem because the front side is not gathered like this.

I am using a borrowed Featherwieght because my Pfaff is in the shop. I can see the knob where I should adjust the tension, but the knob won't move. Dang! Now I think I'm going to have to wait until I get my Pfaff back. Or do I dare get a pliers and try twisting the knob with that? Oh, oh, this is NOT my machine. Better be careful.

Guess I'll just start unsewing that one seam so that I'll be ready for better tension on my next try.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Sunny and breezy day after a night thunderstorm

Started on aandajean's Zig-Zag quilt with NO triangles

Leftover steak for dinner

Confetti quilt section #1 layered

I did get all the columns together today.

Then I made a backing wide enough for the middle section, cut the batting to fit that section, and I began layering it together on the kitchen counter.

My plan is to simply machine stitch down the length of each sashing in the ditch, and then sew down the length of the quilt a couple of times through the blocks. This plan is partially based on only having Dianne's Featherweight machine to use. Straight stitching will work best!

Once this section is quilted I will attach one of the side sections at a time. More on that later when it occurs.

Sara

Gratitudes:
Queen of the Prairie starting to bloom
mosquito repellant!
phone conversation with Kate

Confetti columns

So here's "the look" when the confetti blocks are being sewn together. Every third sashing strip is twice as wide, going for a semi-plaid effect. Only five more loooong seams, maybe tonight, or maybe not until tomorrow.

I'm leaving this in three sections so that I can try quilting it myself. At least that's the current theory!

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Sara

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Gratitudes:

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Elizabeth George novels

a set of "computer eyeglasses", work much better than my bifocals

fresh bread baking smell in the kitchen

Getting my confetti together

I have sewn most of the confetti blocks together into columns, and here is a sample of them on my bed (yellow quilt showing underneath). I've been combining four at a time, and have 30 sets. Looks like it needs to be 10 blocks across and 14 long, so I need to make another two for each column.

Getting there!

Sara

Gratitudes:

our Monday outing for breakfast

Lots of blocks and sewing today

Dragging the sprinkler around gets me outside and moving

Confetti blocks again

More flowers blooming in the garden. Here are some coreopsis:

Here is a daylily that I think is "Hyperion":

And here are some roses that I think are blooming on the under stock--in other words the rose that I purchased has died and the root stock is now showing it's idea of a rose.

On the sewing front I have been working on "confetti" blocks, or as Nann calls them, "Mile-A-Minute" blocks. I pick up a "center" and start sewing strips around the sides. Here is a stack of them piling up behind the sewing machine:

And here are some of them laid out, not yet up to 6.5" in size, which is the size I have decided on. No reason except that I have a ruler that is 6.5" square.

I think I need about a hundred to make a decent sized quilt with some sashing. But what color sashing? I think it has to be light in this case because some of the blocks are VERY dark, lots of black in them.

And for the Fourth of July, here is what is decorating the wall behind the kitchen stools:

Finished this is 2004.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Living in a country that keeps on trying to live up to its ideals

Wimbledon for breakfast

Temperatures warming back up