Margaret's Hope Chest workshop

Amanda Jean of http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com came to Grand Rapids this weekend with a pattern for "boy" quilts for Margaret's Hope Chest. I put this one together on Friday night and Saturday AM with the blue Confetti blocks I recently constructed.

Carin succeeded in getting Amanda to show her stippling technique on a quilt that "just happened" to be all basted and ready.

As directed, I had prepared plaid 6.5" squares in advance, and in the afternoon I used Oxford cloth for the sashing. Hurray for the someone else who is going to layer, quilt and bind these quilts.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Potluck lunch

A "slave" who did my pressing

The public library

Luggage

Here is DGD Samantha who with her mother left by train to return to St. Louis at 7:30 this morning. They'll be back in 10 days to attend the final concert at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp for the other two kids.

I used the rest of my day making more Confetti blocks and then sewing 16 together for a baby quilt top.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Classical music on WBLU

Swedish movie of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"

Dinner with Jo K.

Finished porch

Yup. Here it is.

Pretty sunny after dinner as the sun gets below the trees.

Lovely all the rest of the time.

Sara

Gratitudes:

All the porch details now fixed

Quiet day while Martha took the kids to camp

Kids playing in the fountain at Tassell Park

Bocce

My daughter Martha and her three kids are visiting for a few days. Here is a bocce game in progress.

And here is the group deciding which ball(s) are closest to the palino [target].

They also enjoyed the lake, both floating and fishing.

And I have been making Confetti or Mile-a-Minute blocks. Here is a stack of 60.

Sara

Gratitudes:

BLTs!

Corn on the cob!

Fresh green beans!

Day Lily Season

Seems that almost all the flowers I have right now are day lilies. This is the closest to white.

A "blush" color that doesn't look like much next to the others, but is very nice on its own.

Around here these are called "Ditch Day Lilies" because they do proliferate in the ditches. Obviously they multiply easily, and hence I like them for filling in spaces!

The workmen did come today. They are currently putting in the porch door. They are also considering what might be wrong with the fan remote. Carpeting WILL be done tomorrow!

Hurray! After they leave I will be able to move one chair out there and read this afternoon. Ha, on all mosquitoes!

So I need to go to the library for new books, and to the Ford Museum to pick up my three patriotic quilts that have been on display with many others. Then I can sew a little and finally sit on the porch.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Greg Mortenson ("Three Cups of Tea" tells his story)

He's almost as big a challenge as Mother Theresa.

The other grandmother of our grandkids

Going out for breakfast

Progress

The current view out the dining room slider, showing the porch furniture and view with no screens yet.
Thursday the electrician did come and installed the fan with light and a REMOTE control. The light has twice turned itself on in the middle of the night, while the remote is innocently sitting on the china cabinet. Moisture in the air?

Currently we are assured that the work will be finished this Monday and Tuesday!

And here is the dining room table in the middle of our family foundation board meeting. DD Martha was too sick in St. Louis to make the trip up to Michigan, so we met by iChat. Marti and John are on the big screen, our "president' is on the left laptop and our secretary on the right laptop.

Here's the view from my chair at the table: Lynne, Peter, and Charlie.

We got through the business in two shortened meetings, and will reconvene after Christmas for updates on the grants given.

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No quilt progress tho' my Bee met here on Thursday night and I forgot to take any photos.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Marti is feeling better

Attic exhaust fan cools the house in the evening

Watermelon, and spitting seeds from the deck

Sister Singers' Network in Chicago

Here is what The Grand Rapids Women's Chorus looked like on stage at Loyola University a week ago. We did an amazing job, really focusing on our director, Lori Tennenhouse, listening to one another, keeping the rhythms, and really having a lot of FUN!

There were twenty-one choruses that each performed for 30 minutes. How interesting to find we are NOT all alike-- different styles, different costumes, different missions, different proficiency. I really appreciate our director more than ever after seeing 20 others!

[I'm in the back row, furthest right, stabilizing myself with the trekking poles.]

Sara

Gratitudes:

Fun on the rented bus to and from Chicago

Interesting workshops in the mornings

Closer relationships with other members of our chorus

Sixteen Patches

The Sixteen-Patches are progressing into

baby quilts for my Bee friend, Susan, who is collecting them for layettes.

With four blocks left I added a border of two parches, leftovers from Carolina Christmas. Need to find one more border fabric to size it up to 36-40".

This one has nine blocks in the middle, and so I added a small red border. It only needs one more wider border. I just need to find the right fabric in my stash; and then find some more for the backing.

I found that two WOF strips were enough to make two of these blocks.

And here is the progress on the porch, as of Thursday afternoon, when all the workers left. They worked on the siding and wrapping the wood edges all day. No one came on Friday, tho' I was hoping the fan would be installed, or the carpenter would come, or the outdoor carpeting. . . .

But I did find a small table and two chairs on sale [end of season!] at Home Depot. They are assembled and sitting in the middle of the living room currently. I hope they are small enough to leave us some room on the porch for a few additional items.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Peach flavored iced tea mix

Piano Jazz on NPR

"End of Season" plant sales

New Porch

Construction workers have been here for these past two weeks, turning part of our deck into a small screen porch.

This is the second part of our plan to NOT move to a retirement home, but make our present home into one we can use for the next 10, 20 [?] years. Since the entry fee to local "continuum of care" residences with two bedrooms [after all I NEED a sewing room] is $350,000, and then there is a monthly charge of over $1000. . . .we

did the math. Now we are going to SAVE money in the lang run by spending some money in the short run to make our house "perfect for US".

This follows the step of adding a main floor laundry to the sewing room.

The porch will be the right size for two people to eat at a small table with no interference by mosquitoes. THIS IS A SEASON IN WHICH MOSQUITOES FREQUENTLY DRIVE US INDOORS. In about one more week, they won't be part of our al fresco dining.

I am starting a little sewing again, now that the sewing room is finally useable. For some unknown reason I have been making Four Patches, which have turned into Sixteen Patches. Currently there is a pile of 13, odd, that.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Daylilies in bloom

White liatris in bloom

Fresh tomatoes