Saturday, July 31, 2010

Just a Quickie

Just a quick note, I've been outside taking advantage of the cooler temps.  We have a huge pile of wood that needed cutting and stacking, found some muscles that I forgot I had!  Still had enough energy last night to have my own private Friday Night Sew In and I finished piecing the Storybook quilt it's ready to be sandwiched and quilted.  Hopefully, I will get photos of the blocks and book to share with you soon. 

Time to make open the can of Saturday night baked bean and cook the franks!

Friday, July 30, 2010

Dreams....Part 2

Here is the rest of the tour, I'm sad to say that I didn't take as many pictures as I should have...


This is the brand new gym that was put in during a big renovations that was taking place. 



The indoor pool, there is also a new outdoor heated pool  both are beautiful, next door is the gym.  You can see the hot tub on the right side of the picture. 




This is the back see the lovely circular porch, there is also one similar to this on the side, you can walk all the way to the front from this porch.  We had breakfast one morning here on the porch and one morning in the round room on the porch is a great place to sit and read the paper if it's too cool to sit outside, there is a fireplace and a piano.  Below the round porch is a great place to have a lunch, a nighspot called "The Cave",  and a little coffee shop.  We really enjoyed walking about the whole place inside and out, they have done lots of renovating.  If you like to golf they also have a great golf course.


This photo shows the large windows of the formal dining room where we ate our four course meals.  In the evening after eating we would go out on the porch, we were very fortunate and had beautiful weather and mild temperatures. 


I could go on and on describing the lobby, the historical details, the ghost of the Princess, the food....


That completes our tour, I should have taken more photos inside, but I was really enjoying myself and didn't walk around with my camara for the most part.  We plan to make regular visits to recharge ourselves, it was one of the most relaxing times especially since it was not like most vacations where we go here and there and here and there.....we just relaxed.  If you like historical places like we do check it out, off season is the best time, it's more affordable and quieter. 

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Dreams do come true.....

Recently something I read on another blog gave me the idea to share something special from my life. 

As you may have noticed,  if you are a regular follower of my blog, I changed the heading picture.  The picture is of The Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, NH,  located in the White Mountain region of New Hampshire.  I will preface this with a note of caution:  this may be boring!

When my husband and I were dating, we often would take day trips to the White Mountain region of New Hampshire.  There are many beautiful sites to see,  places for a picnic lunch, to swim, or just sit and enjoy.    We drove by The Mt Washington Hotel  many times and we would say, "some day we will stay there", this hotel is one of the last of the Grand Hotels from the early 1900s.  There is a long winding drive with a guard house, a large wrap around porch with comfy wicker furniture you get the picture.  I can imagine ladies arriving with long summer dresses, gentlemen with suits and hats chatting while the carriage was unloaded....

Fast forward to April 2009 and our 25th Wedding Anniversary, my husband decided that we had waited long enough to make this dream come true.  He made reservations and off we went!  Our plan was to check in on Tuesday night and not leave until we checked out on Thursday, we just wanted to relax, nap on the porch, walk the grounds, and enjoy the beauty of this "grand lady".  We went during the week and because it was their off season we were able to get a great deal on two nights with four course meals both nights that we were there.  When we arrived in the afternoon we were told that they had upgraded our room because there were only 10 other reservations in the whole place, so they showed us several other rooms and let us check to see which one would work for us, we needed a handicap accessible room. I have bored you enough with words here are some pictures...

We chose one of the older rooms, some have been recently renovated, and we plan on staying in a renovated room the next time we go. 


The open doorway leads to the bathroom with the great view.


View from the bedroom of  Mt Washington.This is the view from our bathroom.

I have a few more photos, but I think I will save the rest for tomorrow since this post is already long enough.  I hope you enjoyed the "trip" so far, if not you can wake up now I'm finished for today. 



Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Happy Birthday to my Husband

Today is my husband's birthday, this will be one of those days that goes by in a flash.  This morning we had a visit from a neighbor and my MIL, then we were off to lunch.  We had a birthday coupon to eat at a local seafood restaurant and I also had $10 credit on our club card so lunch tasted sweeter!  After a short stay home we are packing up the fur kids and going to my son's house for burgers and cake.  Needless to say I won't get any sewing done today, but that is okay it will still be there later. 

Yesterday we were visited by my husband's cousin, David (he lives in Ohio),  he comes home to Maine every other year and usually stops in for a visit .  We visited all afternoon with David and his wife along with his parents, they live an hour north and we don't get to see them very often.  Didn't get any sewing done yesterday either so I see an all day sewing marathon in my future, soon.  The weather has been beautiful, yesterday was low 80s today is mid/upper 80s with no humidity so these are great days to be outside! 

I plan on posting about the new welcome picture on my blog soon.  For now I thought that you could enjoy the "cool"  feeling from seeing the snow on the mountain tops.  Hope to get a post with pictures soon.  Enjoy your day.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Progress on the Storybook Quilt

This afternoon I decided to continue working on the Storybook quilt, heck I might have this one finished with time to spare!  Instead of taking the red border off of the bird I decided to make more smaller blocks and add the red.  The teacup has been redone using the same background as the others and similar fabrics for the cup and handle, the puppy is the only odd background, but I think I will leave that one, unless I have enough of the background to redo, it will be close for the other two blocks that I need to make.  I took Terry's advice and made the yellow border smaller, it also allowed me to make the center block mathmatically compatiable with the other blocks.  I will be making 2 more blocks with red borders and I will probably add a 2"  blue inner border and a 3" green outer border.  The green border that I hope to use is darker than the one shown, I didn't have a small strip of that one and don't want to cut until I'm sure what size I need.   I will check the quantities needed to see what size or if I can put borders.  Who knows it might be a pieced border, or maybe some blocks in the corners??  While it has been challenging to use scraps that I have limited quantities of I have a new appreciation for those that came before me and only had scraps to use.  

Also wanted to share with you this "warm fuzzy".  I had decided that since the book I chose for this challenge was not a well know story I would try to find one on e-bay to send along with the quilt.  Well I found one today and made an offer for less than the seller was asking,  I included a short note about why I wanted the book, she accepted my offer and she is not charging shipping! 

Have a great evening.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Here's What I Did Friday Night

I decided that I should work on the Storybook Challenge quilt since it is due in mid August.  Those of you that follow my blog know that I am making the blocks from several books I have and I am selecting and cutting each as I go along, wow does that make progress very slow.  I did manage to redo the chicken,  I made it larger and selected colors that matched the other blocks better.


I also made the bird house block and the flower block shown.


This morning I decided to keep on plugging along and made another flower block, the truck block, and the teacup.  I added a border to the bird to make it the same size as the others, not sure I like the red border it "pops", but I am using my stash as much as possible so it may stay as is, I need to remember that this will be given to a child with cancer that I am sure will love all the bright colors!   Also put a border around the tree, that block might not end up in the middle it might go to one side??   I will play around some more with the layout and then decide what other blocks or fillers I need to make, boy I'm not sure I'm cut out for doing my own thing! 
The hardest part is that the blocks that I liked did not all have compatiable sizes, the center tree is 15" (before border) and the others (except the dog) are 10", I will probably add borders and plain blocks???

Enjoy your weekend.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Frolic & Friday Night Sew In

Tonight's the July Friday Night Sew In, what are you gonna work on?  Have you decided or are you gonna wing it?  I am not sure, but here are some of my choices:  Start the Frolic Quilt, continue with my challenge Storybook quilt, work on a table runner for our new neighbor, prepare the backing for All Stars, or get my July Civil War BOM done (I haven't done any and we are meeting tomorrow).  So you see I have many options, I will think on them and you'll see what I decide tomorrow.  For those of you that haven't signed up yet just click on the box below and get to it, whatcha waitin for??




Here are the photos I promised of Frolic by Sandy Gervais for Moda. 



I had been hearing about Schnibbles on other blogs and finally I picked up a book, since I have never used Layer Cakes before this was the perfect chance to try some cake!  For those of you that don't know what a layer cake is or if you want to make your own from your stash, it is a stack of 40 - 10 inch squares, it contains different fabrics from the same line.   I don't have a stash that has alot of fun fabrics like Frolic, mostly reproductions, something I need to work on for the future so I have a bigger selection for quilts that I make to give away.  As I mentioned before this is a wedding gift and so I don't mind spending some $$,  and it will add some variety to my stash.  I was able to use my BYOB bag for 10% off and got 20% off the backing fabric because I finished the bolt!  The fabric with the squares will be the backing, the brown floral is the binding, and the light floral is the background and inner border fabric.  The name of the quilt is Imagine, but I will be refering to it as the Frolic quilt on my blog. 


Gotta get moving!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

It's Not Nice to Fool with Mother Nature.............

I told you that I would try get some pictures together for my blog, thought they would be pictures of the Frolic fabric and some other fun quilting stuff, but instead I have these.........

Last night we had the second storm, of what I would consider to be unusual weather for Maine, now you Midwesterners are used to this but not us folks here in the Northeast.   A thunderstorm watch and several warnings were posted for our area and after the one on Monday I was prepared for some strong winds along with thunder and lightening, but along with all of this came several Tornado Warnings NOT watches.  After the weather officials check out the areas where there is a lot of damage we will probably find out that there were several Tornados that touched down.  The northern part of my town is one area as well as several other towns around us. 

Our next door neighbor had two trees that were down across the road so we,  (hubby, me & son, Nate) went over to cut them up and bring them home for to use for firewood this winter (they don't burn wood) .  One of the trees snapped about 15 feet up and the other uprooted and fell over.  We were out after 9pm in the rain limbing and cutting these trees and will probably go back to finish cleaning the stuff on our neighbors property over the weekend.  We have two other trees that he lost on during Monday's storm, they were very fortunate and none of the trees did any property damage.  Here are the toys tools that we had to help us with the task (I wish I had taken pictures last night).

The orange "Cadallic"  has hauled many many loads during our
marriage, the newest is our 2305 John Deere Hydrostat (traded the older standard one last year so hubby could use it) and of course our trusty 30 year old Stihl chainsaw.   

Some of the fruits of our labor,  for most of the 26 years that I have been married we have not had to purchase any firewood, God has provided us with opportunities like this one! 

Whenever we get heavy downpours our side driveway washes out, on Tuesday we got a load of crushed gravel and tried to replace what had washed away on Monday night. 


So hubby had to go from these wheels.......


to these wheels....


He is going to drag the stuff that washed away during last night's storm back up the hill.  He has some creative ideas that we will work on to hopefully prevent more washouts.  One  "idea" involve me and a shovel with the "bossman" directing the ditch digging.  It's times like these, when I would rather be quilting, that I smile and I think of how our lives have changed in recent years, then I thank God for the trials and blessings that He has provided us with, because they have made us both stronger, spiritually and physically!

Gotta go and get my shovel.  God Bless you and have a great day!!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Nuttin much going on....

Thought I would just drop a quick note to say I'm alive just  been lazy about posting, hope to get a post with pictures together for tomorrow or Friday.  I did get some yummy fabric for the wedding quilt I hope to start soon and I want to share pictures of it and let you know what quilt I will be making.  The name of the fabric is "Frolic", when Kathie at the quilt shop showed it to me I thought what an appropriate fabric for newlyweds!  LOL 

Picture from the garden....

Time to make supper, talk to you soon.

Monday, July 19, 2010

The Finished Product

I got it done!  I was able to sand off the blue RV letters with fine sandpaper, got some of the old paint off  but some still remains as I think I would have done damage to get it all off.  The paint tells the story of its life and after using Howard's it looks fine.  There are still sharp edges from several nails that went through to the inside and I will probably file them in case I use it to store fabric??  For now it will sit in the garage until it drys and the smell is gone.  I love the way it looks and that Howard Restor is great stuff, I will definately be using it again!  Thank you again to Deb from Proper Prim for your wonderful suggestions

Before pictures are in the previous post.  Here are the AFTER  pictures, what do ya think??

No, that's not a bear in the background it's Midnight!

Latest Finish & The Box

Here is a recent completed quilt top,  my All Star quilt,  I need to prepare the backing and then it will be ready to send off to be quilted.   I am looking forward to when this is quilted and the binding is done then I can decided where in MY house I will put it! 

Today I hope to work on the box that I found several weeks ago in our shed.  Thanks to Deb @ Proper Prim I will be using Howard Restor to try and give it a cleaning and make it a little prettier, I have already used the air compressor and blown off the dust.  Now I am going to try and lightly sand off the blue RV and try to get the paint spots off then I will be putting on gloves and Howard's wish me luck.  FYI, I have stained wood in our house before but never anything old, as a matter of fact my hubby showed me how to cut molding and I used that skill for the basement room where all my unused exercise equipment is set up!  While I wouldn't be able to get a job with as a finish carpenter I can get by.   


p

Have a great day!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Childhood Book in a Quilt

I decided to start on Kathie's Challenge, we are supposed to make a lap size quilt that represents our favorite childhood story.  The best part of this challenge is that our quilts will be donated to the Maine Children's Cancer Program after they are viewed and fellow quilters try to guess which quilt goes with which story!  I chose a book called Laurie and the Yellow Curtains by Sara Asheron, probably nothing you have ever heard of before but it was the first book that I could read by myself and I still have my original copy. 

Now I have never made a quilt from "scratch" before so I am going to go with the "box" version, which is picking blocks that represent parts of the story from these two books. 

The one with a tree house was originally only a tree, I added the house since the story ends with Laurie getting her own house with "a yellow door and yellow curtains on the window" , I just changed the squares in the middle of the tree.   I think that will be the most difficult so I decided to get it done early. 


 Another part of the challenge is to use  your stash so I am trying to match colors best I can and I think I will change the fabric for the nest on the Henny Penny Block so that it goes better with the fabrics I have used thus far.  I will share as I go along, it is due on August 12 so I have plenty of time to finish and quilt it if I get moving :0)

Tomorrow my niece will be here and I will be showing her how to use her new birthday gift, a sewing machine!  I also plan on taking her to the quilt shop to select  fabrics for her first quilt.  Here are the goodies she will be getting to start what will hopefully be a lifetime of sewing/quilting.


Have a great evening.



Monday, July 12, 2010

Have You Signed Up Yet....

July 23 is the next Friday Night Sew In so.....if you haven't signed up yet click on the button below and read all about it.





I'm still not sure what I will work on yet, I need to decide on what quilt I will make for my nephew's wedding gift, I also need to think about those Christmas gift quilts I HOPE to make.  Kathie's Quilt Shoppe is having a challenge that is due in mid August, I hope to get something started on that soon or I probably won't be motivated to participate.  Who knows  I might have to use the night to get my blocks for this month done on the Civil War Tribute, which has me wondering which one I should do, the more difficult one or the easier version??  The more difficult one has cuts that are in the 16ths and I know that will probably really frustrate me, and I know that the easier one will still help me to improve my skills, which one do you think??  The harder....


Or the simplified version......

When I look at the beautiful quilts that others have completed I think WOW, I have so much to learn.  I am someone that is always wanting to get to the next step and have to remind myself that I need to enjoy the process,  learn from the process, and practice makes "almost perfect".  Quilting for me is very enjoyable and sometimes frustrating but so worth it,  this is something that I do for myself, but is an opportunity to share with others, how much better can it get! 

Gotta go mow the yard before I have to get some cows to come over and take care of it, have a great day.