Back to Peace Park

We walked for an hour yesterday, and the snow is all gone. Just up from the road, following the two-track, you arrive at this rolling meadow.

And then the two-track goes into the woods. There are so many oak leaves on the ground that it is hard to pick out the two-track in some places. I think there need to be some trail markers!

But we found our way back to the beginning eventually. That was a pretty long walk for me-- next time I am going to stick a granola bar in my pocket for when my energy fails.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Charlie gets me out each day for this exercise routine

Charlie lets me hold his arm when I am worried about falling

Out for one free birthday dinner at Marco's

Bonnie's workshops

Monday's workshop was on Cathedral Stars. Here are the twelve blocks I finished during the class time. I made one change to Bonnie's design, changing the corner four-patches in the Jacob's Ladder block for additional red HSTs. Oops! one of those red triangles is pointing in the wrong direction!

Tuesday we worked on Star Struck blocks. What a nice, simple unit to make with a spectacular result! I finished 16 that day.

Sara

Gratitudes:

I did need an injection in my eyeball this time around, but in 24 hours I was fine.

Charlie's good care while I can't open that eye.

NCAAM basketball continues to be exciting

Bonnie Hunter visits

Yes, here she is HERSELF!

I've had a wonderful time with Bonnie Hunter staying at my house while she taught and lectured to the West Michigan Quilt Guild. Here she is with me in my kitchen.

Yesterday we had the workshop on Star Struck, and lots of blocks were made. I myself finished 16, but apparently I didn't take a photo. Nevertheless, I now have the starts for two more quilts that need to be finished before the end of June.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Large crowd at the Guild meeting

Bonnie's lecture on "Scrap USER's System"

Lots of good sewing time over two days

I turned in 6 neonatal quilts and won a pretty FQ

Finished before vacation

I finished the paperdoll quilt for the neonatal unit.

There were some extra dolls at the end of the rows in the fabric, so I made a tight row of friends for the back of the quilt.

Then the big ones, the Christmas quilt for my oldest granddaughter: simple nine-patches with alternate snowballs.

Second the mystery Bonnie Hunter supplied between Christmas and New Year's. She called it "Carolina Christmas" and used red and green. I changed the green to black.

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Sara

Gratitudes:

Bonnie Hunter is here,doing two workshops, and staying at my house!

I finished twelve blocks of "Cathedral Stars" at the workshop.

Beef stew made in the crockpot while we had first workshop.

Back from Arizona

Charlie chose Arizona for the baseball spring training games we could see there. Above is the ONLY photo I took of a game in action. The point of interest is the large number of players in the infield. The bases were loaded for the A's with only one out, so the Padres brought in the center fielder to help cover the infield, FIVE infielders, plus the three base runners and two umpires. There really wasn't any room to get a ground hit. So the batter struck out, and the center fielder went back to his usual position.

Our first day we went to the Botanical Garden in Phoenix. We learned a lot about desert plants, saw the desert wildflowers in bloom, and had a good lunch on a shady patio. Later we noticed that many of these same cactuses and plants were growing on the medians and verges of the highways as well as in people's "lawns".

Happily for me, the Arizona Quilters Guild was having their Show in Mesa and I was able to spend almost two hours there on Friday. Here is one quilt with a Southwestern feel that I enjoyed. Since we are having our Guild bi-annual show this October, it was also interesting to note how their show was set up and what the categories were. I took lots of photos!

We came home to MICHIGAN to find all the snow was gone, and the crocuses were blooming. Overnight it started snowing again, and has lightly continued all day.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Safe travel with no real hang-ups

Good times with Charlie Ramsden

Kept up our daily exercise program while away from home

No Photos today

Something is wrong with my connection to Blogger. I have several quilting photos on my iMac, but Blogger doesn't think I do. All it can find are earlier photos.

My good LA quilter returned two quilts to me on Tuesday, and now they are bound and labelled and washed. And photographed. But you wouldn't know that.

Charlie and I are going to Phoenix for eight days tomorrow. He is going to see LOTS of baseball spring training games , and I am going to see SOME. I just read that there is a quilt show in Mesa this coming weekend, so I expect I'll get over to that at some time.]

I'll see if I can post something from his laptop computer.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Dianne is going to take care of my Secret Sister bag

my new suitcase can be expanded!

Ray, the airport chauffeur

Spring IS coming

See. here are the eranthus bulbs trying to bloom next to the snow in the garden.

With that encouragement, we set off to the nature park.

It is not yet officially open, we knew that. But this is pretty UNwelcoming!

And the walking was not very good. Good thing we had our overshoes on. Every steps meant breaking through the crust on the top of the snow. After ten minutes I had had all I could do, knowing I had to walk the same distance back to the car.

Next two Fridays we will be away in Arizona, so the THREE weeks, we will see how much snow is left. NONE I hope.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Sun, sun, sun for several days in a row--nice for walking

Met Opera on the radio while I sew

Finished a sock

Recent quilt on a bed

Well, I should have used this photo before. The one I used had the quilt crunched together, and one person mistook it for an Art Quilt! Goodness, it's just a flannel cosy quilt.

And here is one corner to show the narrow border and the golden backing fabric.

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Charlie and I have been working with others in our township to create a nature park for the last five or six years. Now it is getting ready to open. We were involved in the naming and were inspired by a poem by Wendell Berry "The Peace of Wild Things" to name it Peace Park. The Township Board suggested that we should"post" the poem in the park, so we are looking into a bronze plaque affixed to a stone.

We went out to the "stoneyard" behind Tom's nursery to day to look for a local ROCK yesterday.

These are some possible stones because they are flat, but they are not really from our part of Michigan. They are from the U.P. [Upper Peninsula], not down here "below the bridge".

Here's Tom himself with the stone we would prefer to use. He has laid a piece of plywood the same size that the plaque will be to check the size of the surface. This one is really local granite. It will have to be stood up on end and buried about two feet in the ground at the park.

Now we wait for the monument company to say if this rock will work for them.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Tom's enthusiasm and love of nature

Brussels Sprouts more palatable when served with spaghetti

More exercise means sounder sleep at night

UFO finish #6

A mixture of left-over scraps of binding finished off this quilt of "waste triangles" from another flannel quilt. To make it this size, I included some four-patches as well.

This close-up of Catherine's quilting shows off the sailing ships that she included.

I don't know where this quilt will go in the end, but it is the sixth UFO finished this year.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Enjoyed my four days with Sue in Richmond, VA

Learned much about curling during the Olympics

Charlie agrees to be my partner in new exercise program