Quilting In Charm...The Rural Thimble Quilt Retreat...Photo Intense

I first and foremost must thank Mary and Paul Troyer for inviting me and my QBees to be the first guests in this beautiful house/retreat center.

l to r:  me, Gladys, Jackie, Michelle, Debbie & Barb

This house used to be connected to Miller's Dry Good Store and was the home of Mary's sister, Katie.  The house is not longer connected, and has been totally redone to accommodate quilters and crafters.  I cannot wait to see the before photos! 

When you walked in the front door before modification, there was the staircase.  It's not there anymore, and you can see the wonderful space we had to work in.

You can arrange the room to fit your needs.  We made a square O so we could all see each other and talk.

 

Here are some photos of the arrangement of tables and the QBees hard at work!



Momma Barb's workstation!

 

Debbie trying to get those snowballs perfect!



Here are some photos of the house.  They speak for themselves.  This place is beautiful.  Four bedrooms two full baths, one half bath, dining room, kitchen, living room and two porches, one front and one back. 

This is the only downstairs bedroom.  To the left is the open area and to the right is sliding doors to the back porch.  I chose this room!  This room is made private by closing doors to the open area.

One of the upstairs rooms.  Each twin bed had a Yellow Brick Road quilt, quilted with the 'big stitch'.

Another upstairs room.  Sorry it is sorta fuzzy.

This is one fun room!  The final upstairs room has two twin beds and a double bed.

I didn't take a photo of the upstairs bathroom, but here is the full bath on the main floor.

The Living Room...

The Dining Room.  This table is beautiful!!

The kitchen is top of the line and all the modern conveniences we are used to having.  Except me, I don't have a dishwasher!

 These cabinets in the kitchen are the most beautiful cabinets I have ever seen.  Sorry I didn't get a close up.

Front porch....



Jackie & Michelle taking a break



Beautiful front door



The back porch through the back door.  There was very comfortable seating out there!

The Laundry Room...

and of course, the new staircase.....

We had a wonderful time and made some great memories.  I hope I will be able to come back for more quilting fun with my QBees! 
I'll put our projects in the next blog post...there are already too many photos here!

They're Coming Home!

     This coming Saturday our youngest child will be getting married.  That means his brother & sister will be coming home.  I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to have all my children under my roof!

In previous posts, you have met my daughter Amanda, and youngest son Nathan.  It was pointed out to me I had not posted anything about our oldest son Joshua except that he lives in San Marcos, TX. 

l to r:  Nathan, Amanda & Joshua

This was taken last Christmas when our gift to them was flying them home for the Holidays.  It was a wonderful time that ended way too soon.



Just The Boys!

 Joshua & Alessa live in San Marcos, TX. 

Amanda & Keegan live in San Francisco, CA.

Nathan & Kirstie, who's wedding is Saturday, live just 6 miles up the road from me in West Lafayette, OH.


Our family photo!

...and one for silliness!!

I love my family and each one has made me so proud.  I am honored to be their mom or mom-in-law!

Drought Conditions

Most of the Midwest is experiencing drought conditions this year.  It is so evident in the corn field across from my house.  I have lived here 31 years and have never seen it look this bad. 

This photo was taken on May 29th.  Everything is so green and growing good!  Notice my nice green yard too!

I love being able to see the corn rows.  From this stage, it is only a few days before you can no longer see the rows, only a mass of green.

These pictures were taken just a few days ago.  It just makes me sad to look across the road.

These corn stalks are usually 13 feet tall.  There is a 70% chance of rain tomorrow.  I would like it to rain for 3 days! 

On a happier note....here is a picture of the first tomato out of my garden!

It is a cherry tomato and it was delicious!!!!

It's A Long One!

This post is going to be quite long.  I have been so busy lately, I am having a hard time finding time to blog! 

I have been shopping for a dress for my son's wedding on July 28th.  I am glad to report I found one on Saturday and found the shoes on Sunday! Jeff has his new suit being altered and we'll pick it up this coming Saturday.  No photo of the dress until after the wedding.
My children from Texas and California are getting ready to head home for their youngest siblings wedding.  We will have a wonderful time.  I am so excited!!

My friend & I have become part of the Soldier's Angles sewing team for the Patriot Pillowcase Project.  These pillowcases are sent to a combat support hospital and given to every injured soldier.  I asked our local quilt guild if they would like to participate too, and have been rewarded with 10 pillowcases so far!!

These 6 were made by Connie

This one was made by Nancy

 

I made these 12 pillowcases



These 3 were made by a guild member

 I hope this will be an ongoing project for whoever would like to make pillowcases.  I know it is getting expensive to make quilts to donate to charities and many want to do something.  I think this is a great project in which you can show our service personal how much you appreciate them.  If you are interested in helping, send me an email!

As many of you know, I have Thursday Sew Day at my studio.  Barb Richards (Momma Barb) and Gladys Ashenfelter from http://www.gladysgab.blogspot.com/ have been coming every week to get some of their projects done.  Gladys drives almost 2 hours to spend time with me and Momma Barb and whoever else comes to sew.  Gladys & Momma Barb took the Zippy Zippy Zig Zag Quilt class from me a few weeks ago.  Gladys put the final border on her quilt this week.

She will be using the black fabric as the binding.
Gladys found this wild fabric for the back of this quilt.  Can you tell where she pieced it?

Believe it or not, she took the time to match the design.  I have the honor of quilting this quilt and will post again after it is done!
Momma Barb is still working on her quilt.  She decided she wanted it BIGGER! 


Momma Barb is cutting the final outside border while Gladys is trimming up the I Spy Quilt she is making for her granddaughter.

I have so much fun when these two women get together.  I can only imagine how much trouble they got into as youngsters! 

While they were busy working on their projects, I had time to work on a few of mine. 

I finished sewing the rows together of the Jungle Quilt.  Here is a block.

This is just so darn cute.  I can't wait to get it quilted.  This fabric was from a dear friend who has passed away.  I will donate it to one of the charities she supported.

I started another quilt project!  I know, I know I don't need another UFO, but I can blame Mrs. Dillydally (http://www.dilly-dallydays.blogspot.com/)  for this.  Mrs. Dillydally posted this quilt on her blog and I knew I would have to make it too.  My friend Barb Bond really liked this quilt.  I had it cut out and ready to piece.

There is more to this pattern than I thought there was...

Lots of marking and I figured I handled each piece 6 times.

Finally, a finished block!

Thank You Mrs. Dillydally for inspiring me to do this quilt.  More block photos to follow.

I'm thinking maybe me, Jeff, Gladys & Momma Barb should make a trip to Alaska in the near future!

What Are Little Girl's Made Of?

Sugar and spice and everything nice, of course! 
I quilted this trip around the world for my friend Bev.  It will go to her great niece, Anna Marie.  I love how Bev fussy cut the borders off the backing fabric and used them for the borders on the front of the quilt. 

This quilt has a very cozy country feel to it.  I cut the binding at 2" instead of my standard 2 1/2" because I didn't want to sew into the girls heads on the top border. 

I used pink thread with a meandering design.   The name of the collection of the border fabric is "Child's Play with Kate & Nate."  I love it since I have a son Nathan! 

I'm Back!!!

You thought I was on vacation again didn't you?  Well, not this time!
A powerful storm went through our county on Friday evening, knocking out our power and doing quite a bit of damage.  We lost electricity at 6:02 p.m. on Friday, and it was restored at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday.  That's 121 hours without electricity!!!  No power, no phone, no Internet, no water....no nothing, except limited cell service :(
Now, I am OK not having power except for the fact my well pump runs on electricity.  I never realized how many times a day I washed my hands or how much we depend on water.  This outage made Jeff and I realize how resourceful we can be!  I learned how to hook up the 120 gallon hot water tank so we could take showers, how to cook on a Sterno burner and Jeff became proficient at making scrambled eggs on the gas stove in the cast iron skillet.  Our dinners were made on the grill, using Jeff's Boy Scout skills!  We went to my brother-in-laws to get water.  The whole bed of Jeff's truck was full of containers to hold water.  On Monday we filled all our drinking bottles while at choir practice at our church.  We made do!
I know this could have been so much worse than it was.  I am thankful I still have a roof over my head and everyone I love was uninjured.
A big THANK YOU goes out to all the AEP employees who are working endlessly to restore power to all affected.  They have given so much and there is still so much more to do.  I was able to personally thank the AEP men who worked in our area.  They are so humble and say, 'We're just doing our job.'  What a job they have and I am thankful they do what they do.
I think today may be a power on/power off day as they get the rest of this area of the county on line.  I'm OK with that.  I have containers full of water and the bath tub as well.  New storms are in the area over the next few days and I'm ready!