One week until Quilts & Vines

One of the highlights of last summer was attending Quilts and Vines with my friend Sylvia. This is an annual outdoor quilt show held at the Strawbale Winery, near Renner, SD. There were hundreds of quilts hung outdoors IN THE VINYARD and on the winery buildings. It was such fun! There was music, food vendors, wine sampling, and quilts, quilts, quilts. We took lawnchairs and set them up in the shade of the big trees so we could relax and could come and go as we pleased. So the afternoon was spent listening to music, sampling wine made by the Strawbale Winery, and looking at all of the beautiful quilts.

This year I think several of us plan to attend on August 8. I'll let you know how much fun we had. In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures from last year.

"Good Ole Summertime" mini quilt top

Here is the mini quilt top - ready for quilting. Thought I had the perfect stencil for handquilting "ocean waves" around the blue border. However, it was too narrow, so I'm searching through my stencils for a better choice.

Then it will mailed to _______ .

Supper guest

We are very fortunate to have a beautiful back yard, full of trees and lush grass - and it ends at a shallow ravine. That all adds up to a bounty of wildlife coming through our yard. Wild turkeys, hawks (see my post a couple of weeks ago), and deer. Every day we have deer come through - in the morning and in the late afternoon or evening. And they usually stop to nibble at my bird feeders. Tonight we had a beautiful big doe spend about a half hour in our yard. I sat next to the window and shot several photos of her. Another smaller doe and a fawn came through just a little while later, but they didn't stop to eat. I never tire of watching these lovely creatures - even when they are cleaning out my bird feeders!

Sneak peak at my Summertime swap mini quilt

Blue - like a summer sky - and bright colors! The hand applique is done on my Good Ole Summertime mini quilt. Next step is the hand quilting.

It's always fun to work on a project that you know has a home already. And I hope to have this one in the mail by the end of next week to the mystery recipient.

ABC's of me

Taking a break from sewing and working on some wedding things for my daughter - and had to catch up on my favorite blogs. I saw this on Tonya's blog today and couldn't resist participating too. So here are my ABC's:


A - Age - the speed limit . . . 55

B - Bed size - queen, which is just right to share with a BIG cat and my hubbie

C - Chore you hate - yard work, and luckily my husband is willing to do it all

D - Dog's name - no current dog, but we used to have a border collie named Betty

E - Essential "start your day" item - coffee and an oatmeal bar

F - Favorite color - red

G - Gold or silver? Silver or white gold are my favorites, but I do love Black Hills gold and it is yellow, pink, and greenish.

H - Height - about 5' 3"

I - Instruments you play - I'm not musical in the least, unfortunately

J - Job title - education specialist (just a fancy way of saying I do staff development with teachers)

K - Kids - 2 grown daughters

L - Living arrangements - my husband Dave and a 19 pound cat named Sammy

M - Mom's name - Jane

N - Nicknames - never had one

O - Overnight hospital stays (except when giving birth) - getting my tonsils out, my appendix out, my gall bladder out, . . . and I know there are more.

P - Pet peeve - people who are narrow minded

Q - Quote from a movie - there are too many to list here, because I LOVE movies.

R - Right or left handed? Right

S - Siblings? none

T - Time you wake up - through the week 6:30 am, on the weekends 7:30 or 8:00

U - Underwear? of course - except in the shower!

V - Vegetable you dislike - stewed tomatoes

W - Workout style - are we supposed to workout? Does going down/up the stairs to and from the sewing room count?

X - X-rays you've had - broken toe and a couple of chest x-rays

Y - Yesterday's best moments - going to the movies with my husband

Z - Zoo favorites - I love going to the zoo, but my favorite exhibits have to be the big cats

Reflections of home

I'm taking a "forced" break from sewing for 3 days. I say it's forced because I'm in Denver for some training and just didn't have any hand sewing to bring along that wouldn't have taken up my whole suitcase. I may go through withdrawal . . . I'll miss my evening routine of curling up with some handwork and my cat.

So while sitting in my hotel room this evening curled up with my laptop, I thought I would share another photo of my furry little helper from home. My 19 pound cat Sammy loves to be involved in my quilting process. If I'm in my sewing room, he lays on my ironing board so he can look over my shoulder while I sew. His other favorite locations are on my cutting board or right behind my sewing machine. If I lay blocks out on the floor to decide a layout - he gets right in the middle. He'll actually burrow right under the blocks and rolls around in them. Sometimes he'll even steal a block and run off.

If I'm handquilting using my lap hoops, he'll lay on top of whatever section he can find room. So the picture below is Sammy, burrowed under some blocks of a quilt. There is an obvious path of destruction behind him, with blocks rolled up and out of place. (Judging by the furniture and stacks of books in the background this was the last quilt I made before we moved to our new house about 3 years ago.)

I'm a WINNER!

Imagine my surprise when I was contacted by Ailsa at http://nettc.blogspot.com/ to say I had won her giveaway! She lives in Cheshire - in the United Kingdom. I found her blog as I was checking out the participants in the recent Spring Blooms Mini Quilt Swap.

My package arrived in the mail yesterday and I couldn't wait to open it. She sent 2 lovely fat quarters of Laurel Burch fabric and this fabulous counted cross stitch pin cushion. I needed a new pincusion and I love counted cross stitch. And I'm a big fan of the late Laurel Burch's designs.

So - - - I'm definitely a winner!! Thank you Ailsa!