That was the week that was...

OK, so I worked in a hospital my entire career and loved most of it. As a patient, not so much love. While I was really not feeling so well, and the morphine pretty much kept my mouth restrained, I was fine. Last night, at 10:47pm, time was up. I needed to get out of there and could hardly stand it until I was discharged today. All of this has nothing to do with the care I received. I loved the resident I was assigned to ( I thought maybe he must be the son of a nurse). During the hours building up to my need to leave, every little sound on the unit seemed to magnify into my room. At one time, as I awoke from a pixel of a snooze, I thought I was laying in a barnyard somewhere-I heard beeping, and grunting and groaning and doors, endless doors opening and closing. I know that 70% of patients with pancreatitis are drinkers, but I did get a little tired stating "I don't drink, I am not constitpated." On a higher note....I am back home, feeling much better and grateful that I can say so.

No sewing today....great story!

Peasant Soup

I love hearty soup in the winter.  Tonight I tried to recreate Olga's Kitchen Peasant Soup.  It's full of wonderful fresh vegetables, ground round and ground veal.....still simmering on the stove!

This is one of the blocks from the Hummel quilt.  The stitching is very intense -- like armor.  The design is made from Mettler threads, some shades very drab until the last dark brown outline is stitched.  This will be a 48 block quilt!

The Dresden plate is one of my favorite patterns.  This is one of the blocks from the Dresden plate pattern my sewing group is doing - each one of us using our own color schemes.  My fabrics are Modas from the Kansas Troubles collection.  One is using vibrant batiks, one pastels and one is using simply scrap fabric.  They are all beautiful but very different from one another.

This is Beth's graduation quilt. That would be my favorite grandson adding to the picture!

Ruby Tuesday

Today I spent the day at Country Stitches, learning to use the intricacies of my new sewing machine -- a Husqvarna Ruby.  I first learned to sew 4-H projects on my grandmother's Singer machine.  It was basically straight and limited zig-zag stitching.  The Ruby is a computerized embroidery machine with more capability than the average sewer (me) needs.  For the really beautiful, older quilt patterns I like, the embroidery capability is probably overkill!  I would like to finish two quilt patterns that require the embroidery capability. One is sampler of Hummel figures, each one stitched on a separate block.  The second is one called Dresden plate.  For that, I am using Moda fabrics from the Kansas Troubles collection.  Pictures to follow. 

Favorite Places, Favorite Things

Doc Ford's

We all have special places that we like to visit.  One of mine is Sanibel, Florida.  There are wonderful places to eat and visit.  A few of mine are the Bubble Room for lunch, Bailey's General Store (especially the hardware), Doc Ford's for a sandwich and beer and Captiva at sunset.  For this last visit, I had the grouper sandwich and a Blue Moon at Doc Ford's.  Good company, good food, unrelenting sunshine.

Smokey Mountain National Park

In late July, we took a family vacation to Tennessee.  One of the best parts was our tour through the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.  At Beth's suggestion, we started early.  It was a great idea as we missed the heavy traffic and we toured during the cooler part of the day (the heat rose to 98 degrees in the afternoon!)  During a time when we were the only car in a secluded area, we were fortunate enough to see a black bear crossing the road in front of us.  I'm not sure who was more surprised. Besides the bear, we saw lots of deer, wild turkeys and the most beautiful views of the mountains.

It Finally Feels Like Retirement

My last official day to work was July 1st.  This week, I am finally realizing I am retired!  I finished quilting a queen-size quilt on Van's Gertie Gammell and had time to browze the Barefoot Contessa's site for stuffed cabbage.  The stuffed cabbage was wonderful with Nicky's fresh tomatos for the sauce.

Ledgecraft Lane Quilt Show

Ledgecraft Lane in Grand Ledge, MI showcased quilts made by LAP members this month. The top quilt is a scrappy using batiks that I would like to add to my "to do" list. The middle red, white and blue quilt is the LAP raffle quilt. My part was making one of the little red and white star squares in the border. The bottom picture shows a few of the other quilts on display.

Not Quite Ready for the NBA

Buddy Basketball; 6 year olds; no attention span; every parent video-taping every move; soccer-moms on patrol; what a hoot!

Two more quilts for the LAP show

This quilt is called Lacy Fans. I didn't have a pattern but I saw a similar quilt hanging in a quilt shop in Plymouth and thought it was really interesting.

Civil War crayons is the first quilt I made using Civil War reproduction fabrics. I love the colors.

Just Settling Down for A Long Winter's Nap...

Christmas is over. The sweets have been eaten. The tree is down. Now, for the long winter's nap..

Christmas Wall Hanging

Val gave me the pattern for this wallhanging that uses wonderful buttons made by the Just Another Button Company, well, company. I found them locally in Jackson at a cross stitch store. Noel helped me pick out buttons and create the project. He colored the leaves on the wall hanging and picked out which buttons we would use and in which order!

Santa's Little Elf

Noel is decorating his "real tree." You need to double click on the picture to see the mischief in his eyes. As usually, he is wearing the bare minimum of clothing.

A Little R & R

Thank you Kathy and Barney for the wonderful Thanksgiving feast! We had a great time visiting, seeing you both and Kyle. Noel loved his prizes from the board games.

I spent most of the remainder of my time off either sewing or shopping for fabric. I machine quilted the LAP Mystery Block quilt (above) and one called Twist and Turn (below). The Twist and Turn will be my LAP Ele's Place quilt for this year.

I also machine quilted the hand embroidered "Snowmen through the Year" quilt. I need to add some final touches to the detail but hope to hang this quilt in the LAP quilt show next May.

My other machine quilting "finishing" project was this machine embroidered redwork snowman wall hanging.

On Friday and Saturday, we did our own version of "shop hops." Fridays visits included local quilt shops like Country Stitches and my favorite, Everlasting Stitches in Holt. Pam Henrys owns Everlasting Stitches and makes it a pleasure to go into the shop. Even my six year old grandson loves the shop and the fabric!

On Saturday, we ventured further away from home to South Lyon, Pinckney, Brighton and Howell. The shop we visited in South Lyon called Lake Street Mercantile was awesome. The shop was located in a restored building that used to house a bank. All of the sale fabric was located in the vault. All of the counters and cutting tables were heavy, antique furniture pieces. The owner allowed us to pull fabric to better choose colors and patterns. It was a wonderful shop with a great selection of Civil War reproductions and many other fabrics.

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Machine Embroidery

These quilt blocks are from the current machine applique pattern I am working on from Smith Street Designs. The embroidery part is completed. There are pieced blocks and sashes yet to make before a complex assembly.

Love

The love one has for a child is equaled only by the love one has for that child's child!

Rose of Sharon

The Rose of Sharon "bush" in the back yard is beautiful. Although the picture makes the blooms look pink, they are really quite lavender......and then there are also white blooms on the same bush. They are beautiful and are attracting lots of bees.

Pottawattamie Park

We spent last Sunday at Pottawattamie Park in Grand Haven. It was a balmy day, great for a family reunion! Noel climbed up on top of the Tahoe to get a better view of the lake. I finished reading Randy Wayne White's new novel, Dead Silence.

Independence Day

It was slightly overcast all day, but in the late afternoon, just before the parade was to start, the sun came out. These beautiful maple trees provided shade for us as we watched the parade in Mason, Michigan.

The parade in Mason seems like a Norman Rockwell calendar event. Crowds always gather around the Ingham County courthouse. Families of all shapes, sizes and configurations bring their lawn chairs and blankets to watch the parade.

We set up our chairs on the corner of Barnes and Ash Streets. This point was nearer the end point of the parade (and much closer to the parking lot!) We were across the street from the court house. There were tons of people and twice as many mosquitos.

The color guard led the parade. It is, afterall, the reason for the celebration, right? My dad participated as a color guard through the American Legion for many years, both in my hometown of Harbor Beach and then in Fort Myers Beach during retirement. We learned from my parents, flag etiquette. It is really amazing how many people either didn't learn, don't remember or just don't care.

This is the truck that Beth bought three times! Noel loves the truck!

These ladies were having a great time! They were making rounds before the parade when I asked to take their picture. They said they had been complaining that there were no queens in the Mason parade and thought it a tragedy. Someone told them to change that---so they created their own float and became queens for the day. They were having a spendid time and people at the parade enjoyed seeing them have such a good time. In no way, did they take themselves seriously!