memorial

The "Field of Heros"

Central Ohio,

Memorial Weekend, 2010

2000 flags, each eight foot tall,

dedicated to our heros

The Moving Wall:

a half size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

I couldn't tell if this picture was blurry from my movement with the camera when I was snapping the shot,

or

from the tears in my eyes...

BFF a.k.a. stalker

So,
This is another person that has me standing in front of quilts in awe.
In awe because of her talent and creativity.
I do not stalk Jo Morton.
Though I did warn her of someone that I know that could potentially be her stalker.
(Stalker sounds so harsh...maybe "follower" would be better.  No, "follower" sounds too nice...maybe BFF-stalker.)
Anyway, that someone/stalker/BFF did not attend Quilt Market this spring, so Jo is good. 
But to appease the potential stalker, I asked Jo to sign her new book "Coming Home" for this would be someone/stalker/BFF. 
Hopefully that works.
And the new book is GREAT!!!

wool

OK gals...
When I was at Quilt Market I got to see something spectacular!!!
When I was at Quilt Market I got to meet someone talented and spectacular!!!
(I really got to meet a whole lot of spectacular and talented people, I just didn't take pics of all of them to share...sorry!)
Back to spectacular and talented...
Wait for it...

I got to see

THE

original....

Wool Crazy!!!!

Check it out!!!

And that gal standing in front of the quilt...

the one with the gorgeous smile,

is

JoAnn Mullaly herself!

Such a nice person, and always smiling,

even after standing on concrete all day,

meeting and greeting all of her fans, shop owners and buyers.

I stood there in from of that quilt, in awe...

Can you tell that the corner to her right is wet with drool?

I told her

 "I Was Not a Stalker".

And then I drooled all over the corner of her quilt.

I don't know if she believed me...

p.s.  JoAnn has other patterns available-

but I neglected to see where they were available, I was so in awe..sorry!

market gatherings

gatherings......

Driving cross-country? 

Some folks don't like the driving and time spent,

but, well, I love it!!!

Seven hundred plus miles...

Through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and into Minnesota.

Beautiful countryside...

Great sights, sounds, and pictures.

Sunrise and sunset...

Of course, I packed a bag of stitching to occupy my riding-time:

(and, yes, I always over-pack and over-estimate the amount of stitching I can get done in a set amount of drive time, so, yes, this gathering of projects was not even close to being all worked on and stitched, let alone touched!)

I would like to share a few pics

of the gatherings

from the drive across

part of

the United States of America's heartland...

First, a picture out the front window:

Note the beautiful blue sky and the soft, puffy clouds. 

Also note the nice, big bug splats on the windshield.

This was daytime, so a good gathering of specimens,

don't you think,

 for the middle of the day?

Then, after a couple of filling station stops with windshield scrubs,

which was basically a hopeless endeavor I found,

I decided to photograph the best collection of gatherings....

Aren't they just the greatest "gatherings"????

Another great thing about driving 'cross country?

Being able to "gather" things besides bug splats...

We stopped in an antique store that came highly recommended.

And I found this:

It's about 18 inches by 30 inches - an enamel tub!

And imagine, it fit right into the back of the vehicle!!!

I am going to tell my sweet daughter that I now have a baby tub in the house....

(we only had showers up to this point) and see what she has to say about that :) !!)

I know there is a while to wait for THAT announcement,

so I already put it to another use...

I filled it with "gatherings" from market!

conveniences

Driving cross-country to Spring Market...
I found this...

a very cool looking barn...

 

It really is a rest stop/welcome center in what I think was Iowa!!!

(sorry, the time started running together, it could have been right inside Minnesota).

Anyway, isn't it a cool building???

And inside:

 An ice cream shop up stairs, with restrooms down!!!

Those folks are so very thoughtful, aren't they?

meandering

So this is a view somewhere in Iowa - (remember to click on the pic to see enlargement)

a beautiful wind farm and corn field. 

It was a beautiful, sunny day driving meandering from Ohio, through Indiana, Illinois, and into Iowa.  Just a couple more hours and Quilt Market/Minnesota, here we come!

I really enjoyed the sights traveling across our heartland. 

 I saw great dust-plumes following trucks traveling down gravel side roads. 

Red-winged blackbirds sitting on fence posts...

 there were about a million or so (really, I counted!)

checking out the newly tilled and no-tilled fields. 

Then we came to the wind farms - so elegant and peaceful!

I miss all the local big farms in Ohio. 

It was nice to drive through the farmland here and

see all that I have been missing:

the beautiful farm homesteads so pridefully attended,

big ole' bank barns, with or without animals present.

old farts in old trucks going out to the fields

 and to town to get parts for something that needs parts.

Seeing the freshly turned earth.

And, the dust plumes...

I guess I miss gravel roads!

Only until it's time to wash the vehicle, though!

More market stuff meandering hopefully tomorrow

meandering

Meandering - across quilt tops and across country.
A couple of quilts that I stitched up last week:
The yellow and black is lady bugs by Joell.

Isn't it very striking?  Here's a close-up of the quilting:

This one is about 50" by 50", an under the sea quilt by Julie.  I think it's for a baby!  Great, isn't it?

I am on my way to quilt market with a colleague. 

 It was a twelve hour "meandering" driving day and driving wears you out, I think...

so another update tomorrow, I am beat, so off to bed for now. 

Thanks for stopping by.

simple things

I received a box in the mail this past week!!!!!

And I don't remember ordering anything lately...

so I tore into it,

and

Inside,

a zip top plastic bag,

filled with

paper towel wrapped

somethings!

And the box was HEAVY!

So I carefully unwrapped all the little bundles...

and:

My daughter thought of me while she was walking the

rocky east coast beaches!!

Aren't they wonderful?

I'm sure these are exactly the ones I would have picked up

if I was there myself!

And she said they are better looking when they are wet!

I need to get going,

I have rocks to get wet!!!

the sound of a train

Sometimes late at night, I can hear the sound of a train... The track is probably at least eight miles away.  So the wind must be just right, and the clouds just right, and the wind blowing in just the right direction, (and my ears not clogged), perfect conditions for sound to travel.  I love hearing unusual noises and figuring out what they are and where they are coming from.  I love to have the sounds take me back to old memories...

My son works near downtown metropolis - lots of sound traveling there.
His first sound that was just a little out of place:  a train had stopped somewhere close...

This is part of the train cars that had stopped:

The Greatest Show on Earth...
The circus is in town!

Something was going on in the street in front of his office...

There were police cars and unfamiliar noises...


Here is what was contributing to his unfamiliar noises:

I hope this memory for him is like mine - you hear the sound of the train, and it makes you smile.

swayed...

Yes, that is me...easily swayed by the sun! 
I can find all kinds of things to do around the house - inside and out. 
Turn on that sunshine, and I'm telling you,
I have at least 20 things that I am in the middle of doing simultaneously. 
I think the sunshine makes my brain mushy! 
As I was working on a commission quilt,
I felt the need to review my mushy-brain list of things to do... 
Check out these pics: 
This is the south end of the house last fall. 
OK, it still pretty much looked that way earlier this spring, too!
Yes, the first picture is of a chicken roost.

No, I no longer have chickens in my life.

I would love chickens again, but Sweetie has had enough of the feathered friends in his life (his family had a turkey production when he was growing up) and his vote is no on the chickens.  I can live with that.  I enjoy have the roosting box up though.  I have all kinds of plants chosen that will "roost" here for the summer and into the fall!  This end of the house gets the sun after noon and throughout the rest of the day.

This window box is on the same end of the house, so same sun exposure.  I had to try to get some heat tolerant plants. 

I think I might have accomplished that this year. 

Sometimes I get swayed by all the beautiful plants and colors and vibrancy and choose plants that are really not great for the area.  We shall see. 

Now that we are past the local frost date,

I am thinking that I could go do some planting.

Swayed by a little sun...

marketing

marketing...
Yep, I get to go marketing again this spring!
To see all the new "stuff"!
To touch all the new fabrics,
to pick up all of the new patterns and try not to drool all over them.
To smell the wool
(sorry, that one sounds a little troubling, but really, it's just the wool smell that I'm addicted to),
To meet the creative people
(hoping some of that creativeness will rub off on me!),
And, maybe, if I'm lucky,
to find Helen, from Australia 
and see what kind of new obsession
she will introduce me to this year!
Remember last fall, the market obsession for me? 

The hard candy?  The Tasmanian Apple ?
Don't get me started, please!

And, I promise, this "finding Helen" will not be stalking.
Not even a little, promise...

I will be enjoying all the aspects of marketing too much to stalk!

eleven o'clockish

“When late morning rolls around

and you're feeling a bit out of sorts,

don't worry;

you're probably just a little eleven o'clockish.” 

W. the P.

I don't know if it's the weather, or the change of seasons, or the storm fronts barreling through every other day, but that describes, exactly, how I feel today.... eleven o'clockish.  
Maybe I should get on to quilting. 
That should perk me up and get me out of that eleven o'clockish feeling...

If not, I'll have to try some dark chocolate.
I recently had some dark chocolate that was sprinkled lightly with sea salt. 
I'm sure this will cure me,
I'll let you know.
Oh, and thanks, Winnie the Pooh! 
I knew there had to be an answer!

Mamas

and other supportive women in our lives.....

Happy Mother's Day!

What are your plans for the day? 

Do you have any traditions for Mother's Day?

Today I will try to get a little gardening done.

Mostly flowers planted, a few vegetables, too.

But first,

I must weed and weed and weed!

All this very warm weather we have been having has created these

giaganto-normous non-flowering weeds around my entire house!

(If these things called weeds have flowers and are not entirely invasive...well, I let them grow...you know weed-flowers are flowers in my little part of the world!)

It's like these weeds are on steroids! 

I may have to enlist help.

Also, today, the grill will be going.

Not that this is unusual, as I grill

year round...

snow, sleet, hail, rain, sun, wind. 

But my grill has been down and out and needed a couple of new parts. 

The parts will be installed tomorrow I have been told!  Thanks, Sweetie!

Today will also entail a little family visiting.

And later in the day I may pull out some more stitching!

AHHH, that is a happy Mother's Day!---

family, flowers, weeds, food, stitching, and hopefully a little sunshine.

Hope your day is as great.

you know you are a farm girl when...

this makes you laugh:

This is sweet corn...
ready for planting in your garden...
Yes, this was a cell-pack for purchase at the local garden center...

This little container of sweet corn makes me laugh because,
well, because it is just too cute.  And sweet.  And small.
And, because corn doesn't have to be started in little cell packs.  You just have to drop seeds into the earth and as the soil warms, the seeds sprout...in just a few days...
And, it makes me laugh because this quantity of plants would not feed me for dinner (I will admit that I really like sweet corn).
I guess you can never get the dirt out from under you nails.
To me, sweet corn is planted in at least a 2 acre field
in rows at least 1 foot apart,
dropped into the warm earth
by a corn planter
being pulled by a John Deere tractor that putt-putts it's way across the field,
with the sun shining down and the earthy smell rising up to greet your nose.

And when it's picking time...
You head to the corn patch after the sun has had a chance to dry the dew...usually between 9 and 10 a.m.
You and another two person team take a couple bushel baskets...
one person being the picker, the other two people are the runners.
The picker, well he or she picks...picks two rows at the same time, and pitches the corn ears into the basket of the second person on the team, who is backing down between the two rows.
When that basket is full, person #2 heads to the pickup truck to dump his load, and team member #3 comes in with his basket and backward-proceeds the "picker" until that basket is full and he heads off to the pickup truck.  By that time, person #2 is back and the process continues down the two rows of corn.  It helps if there is also a truck driver and that person keeps the truck moving down the side of the field at the same speed as the picker. 
You stop picking when the rows that are ripe and ready are all picked and/or the truck bed is full.
Then you all head back to the shade of a large tree and start husking corn, sitting right there on the back edge of the truck bed sides. 
At this point, when neighbors pull in, you can bet that they want some of the fresh corn, they're not just stopping to help husk!
After there are a couple of bushel baskets husked and silked, a couple of the corn-pickers head to the house and start the cutting/cooking/chilling/freezing process.  This usually leaves at least two folks still out under the shade tree, husking corn and visiting with the neighbors that stop by.

And lunch that day???
Fresh corn on the cob!
(More corn than those little cells packs will produce!)
Yum! 

Still, it did make me smile!

Enough about corn that makes me smile... here's the latest quilt I meandered across:

(it also made me smile)...

Joell's cats. 

I really need to get back to work, so this farm girl (with just a little bit of dirt left under her nails) wishes you a happy, smile-filled weekend.

flowers, wool and real

My next project???   

 From this book, of course...

I have chosen wool!  Imagine that!

I grabbed the pre-purchased wool from the kit...

I gathered my little pattern - and starting cutting.

 see the white, four petaled little piece of freezer paper? 

That is my pattern!

Only need 85!  The size of a dime...

Not a problem!

Snipping, trimming, mini scraps...

on the arm of my lazy-girl chair

(though I'm not usually so lazy in this chair,

as this is where I stitch every night;

I may have to re-name my chair!).

One, one-hour silly television show later:

All of my geranium flowers cut and ready for pillow making.

Then, today I went to a large garden center/nursery with garden club gals...

and I chose this:

A very nice geranium to put out on the back deck!  And the picture probably doesn't show, but there are soooo many more of those little flowers and blooms on this plant than I cut last night.

I am really going to like this working on this project

and seeing the blooms open on this geranium at the same time!

Happy May Day

Happy May Day wishes to everyone!

A day late, but better than not at all, I suppose...

I didn't realize it was already May!

Did you ever participate in the old tradition of May Day?

You know, leaving flowers in little baskets on your neighbors' doors?

I know I did a few times...

And I really liked it.  I may have to start doing this again...

some of the neighbors already think I'm off my rocker, so what the hay?!

Anyway, I can't believe it's May already...

that means graduations and weddings and reunions and all that fun stuff is coming up shortly!

I finally did a little more spring cleaning.  Why is that not so fun? 

Is it because there's always soooooo much to do? 

I know that I "save" it up and do it, well, try to do it all at once.

Maybe it would be better to do it more consistently?

Probably, but not my style, I guess. 

Give me a deadline, and I will whirlwind through it.

So, in the spirit of "spring cleaning", 

I did a little hanging and rearranging of "stuff" aka decor.

This is the finished (!!!) "Easy Catch"

 from the BlackBird Designs book "Small Favorites for All Seasons"

(blog link here if you want to see what else Alma and Barb have going on).

I like it a lot... a whole lot. 

The dog-tooth border is my favorite border now. 

 (Subject to change with the next project!) 

I used an old wool camp blanket for the fish - don't you love his belly stripe? 

I used new hand-dyed wool for the flag blue ground and red stripes. 

The rest is cotton from the kit I purchased at Good Wives a while back. 

Now that this is finished, I am allowing myself to start another project...

which one shall it be???

So exciting! 

I think it will be from that new book "Summer Gatherings" by Primitive Gatherings. 

And you may remember, that I cheated and already started one from this book...

when the blue wool  jumped out of the wool bin and onto the cutting table, along with Blue's cousins white and green and yellow?

Remeber the daisies in the Mason Jar...

it just needs stems and framing or quilting.

I think it will go on the wall with the "Easy Catch"

I think I will start filling this wall in the great room with small projects. 

Small, finished projects! 

Or maybe I should stick to the spring cleaning thingy?!

Happy May to you!

and may you have baskets of flowers on your doors!