Welcome July!

My welcome to July is a day late, but once you hear about all the activities of  my past few days you will surely agree I have sufficient excuse for a delayed acknowledgement of a new month.

My June collage contains a hint to this past weekend. But first let's get through the first 7 pictures. June started with my effort on Kim Diehl's Simple Friendships II quilt along. Most of the Frankfort Girls worked on this together - and my version is the first picture. My next is of Schnormeier Garden, a day trip that DH and I took to Gambier, OH. It was a lovely day and a tour of a lovely garden. The final picture of the top row is my finished Weathervane quilt, borders included.

The middle row shows my two blocks for the Quilter's Planner QAL; one of our planters doing quite well despite the rabbits and because of all the rain; and daughter Emma sewing a baby quilt.

The bottom row begins by featuring my progress on a UFO called Six Degrees. The we have the final two pictures that represent our fantastic weekend. The card reads "Jayne, you are my favorite wife. Happy Anniversary, Love, Kevin"  - yes, we celebrated a milestone this weekend, and our daughters really pulled off a great surprise for us, which is shown in the last picture, the Granville Inn in Granville, OH.

They'd told us a good while ago not to plan anything for our 40th. So we didn't. And they were very secretive about what was going to happen. I was told that the "anniversary fairy" would call on the 28th to provide details. And sure enough, that fairy came through - a night at the very posh Granville Inn, complete with wine and cheese delivered to the room, dinner reservations, all courtesy of the girls. What a great gift!

The whole 40th anniversary experience was full of surprises within surprises. I credit both daughters for their creativity in making a truly special weekend for us. Upon arrival, flowers were waiting on us -  shown above. They were from the girls who had instructed the florists to sign their dad's name to the card. Smart girls!

Since the dinner reservations were at 8:30, they'd ordered a charcuterie platter and wine to be delivered around 5. Yet another surprise, and what a treat. It was delicious and did the trick in tiding us over for a late dinner.

The Inn is a beautiful 1924 structure situated on the spacious, historic main street of Granville. Folks from around the area know Granville as a college town (Denison University) as well as a quaint New England-style village full of historic landmarks. After checking in, we took a walk from one end of town to the other (not a very long walk at all) enjoying the architecture, beautiful homes and yards, and reading historic markers. People we passed were friendly, and I actually exchanged IG handles with one man who is a prominent landscape designer. (That whole bit was rather remarkable and warrants a story to be told later.)

The best surprise of all was yet to come, though. We headed down to dinner and instead of seating us at a quiet table for two, we were taken to a large table at which sat the kids! What a surprise! Neither of us had an inkling that they would come to join us, but oh, how glad we were to see them! It was the best of all possible surprises. I still get teary-eyed and emotional when I think of it.

Our dinner was divine. Every single bite was delicious, and all was so beautifully prepared and presented.

My dinner ~ Cajun Salmon on a bed of cauliflower rice and fried green tomato.

Kevin's dinner ~ New York strip on sautéed asparagus with a side of mashed potatoes (not shown).

Special anniversary dessert ~ crème brulee with shortbread cookies.

From the appetizers and drinks all the way to the desserts, the entire dinner was wonderful in every way. I don't know how it could have been made any more perfect. Having the kids there was just the best of all scenarios. My heart was so full. The bride I was 40 years ago surely never imagined how much more love could ever come into her life.

And that is why I am a day late in welcoming July here on the blog. Well, that and the fact that from Granville we drove over to DH's hometown of Coshocton for the funeral of his Uncle Tom. A sad part of our weekend, to be sure, but such is the way life works. The pendulum of time brings us a fair measure of highs and lows, and along the way the love of family propels us on our journey.

Happy July, dear readers, and
Happy Quilting, Friends!

Howdy, July!

Here we are welcoming in a new month - over halfway through 2017 already! I have spent some time this morning thinking about what I accomplished this past month, and discovered it was more about what I did not accomplish. If you study the collage below, very little has to do with quilting or sewing. What can I say?

It was a fun-filled month which included a couple of short trips with DH that we both enjoyed immensely. We returned to our college campus (where we met in 1975) for a fraternity reunion. That weekend turned out to be a lot more enjoyable than I expected, and I found myself becoming quite overcome with nostalgia on more than one occasion.

Later in the month we headed north to Lake Erie and Cleveland, taking in an Indians game with our DD and SIL. We celebrated several "firsts" on this getaway: first bed and breakfast through Air BnB; first overnight at Put-In-Bay; first Uber ride; first visit for me to this stadium to see the Indians (I'd attended one game back in the 70s at the old stadium). Those are not earth-shattering firsts, by any means, but still noteworthy for us.

We ended the month yesterday by celebrating our anniversary in Columbus for a fun date. We had dinner at Cracker Barrel, then saw Dark Passage at the Ohio Theater, and followed that up with a Jeni's Ice Cream cone and a walk in Schiller Park/German Village. Simple yet memorable fun.

Now what about July??

I am thinking of all sorts of things, but I truly should just rerun all my unfinished projects from the past couple of months. If I could get those completely checked off my list, I would be quite a happy quilter. We did draw a new number for our UFO challenge - the July number is 3. I will pull that out and show it to you soon.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

My Streak Must End

For five months, I have been knocking the UFOs out easy as pie. January - check. February - check. March - check. April - check. May - check.

June - no check. I am just going to go ahead and cry uncle. The Flag Day Farm panel that I bought ever so long ago, still awaits some magic to surround it.

I have trimmed the panel down to approximately 21.5" square. I have also made lots of units that I intend to add on. I can show you that I did DO some work, but not diligently enough to finish by month's end.

The first part I made was 4 strips of flying geese which I will attack directly to the center panel. I will use some random Minick and Simpson fabric to fill each corner on the flying geese row. Then I will attach a corner unit to each side from the fabric shown above stitched to the stars in the photo below.

I got to this step early in June, then I stopped working on Flag Day Farm in favor of some commission work that was pressing on me. And nothing more happened until just the past 3 or 4 days, when I worked on the units you see below.

I have a big stack of pinwheels, a big stack of HSTs, and a big stack of 4-patches ready to be set on point. All fabrics are from various Minick and Simpson lines that I've accumulated over the years. I think I will stop making additional units and just get on with  adding the surrounding rows unit by unit. Since I am making this up as I go, it's done when I say it's done, right?

So with all the best intentions, my June UFO will be a little late. But, hey, at least I have worked on it, making enough progress that I feel confident that I will actually continue and finish.

Total change of subject; did you know that today is our 38th anniversary? On this day back in 1979, I married my knight in shining armor. Here is a throwback picture from our dating days.

We are getting ready to go out for a night on the town. That sounds so very wild and carefree, but I assure you, we are about as lowkey as you can get. We will have dinner at Cracker Barrel, then go to downtown Columbus for a summer event sponsored by the Ohio Theater called Summer Movie series. This is where they feature old movies all summer long for very inexpensive admission. Tonight's feature is a Bogart-Bacall movie from 1947 called Dark Passage. After that we will walk through German Village to have an ice cream cone at Jeni's Ice Cream. Sounds romantic, doesn't it? All of these things were our "dates" back in our early years. I guess it's a tribute to those two young kids from 38 years ago. That's what an anniversary is all about, if you ask me.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

34 Years!

 

That's what DH and I are celebrating today! That would have been 1979; I'd just graduated from college one month prior, and did not yet have a teaching job. These 34 years have seen so many changes. I suppose that is true for all of us, though. We've had a pretty good run so far. Today we are going to Columbus for church and then to the Ohio Theater Summer Movie Series premier. Nothing elaborate, but I am looking forward to it!

Happy anniversary, Honey!

And now on with our regularly scheduled programming.

This has been one crazy, busy month! I am ready for a serious slow down! The week of quilt camp concluded and I have much to share.

Believe it or not, though, I have to take care of some blogging business first. This is the very last day of existence for Google Reader. I have procrastinated in dealing with this pending change. I have tried to read up on the impact. To me personally, it will make no difference at all.

However, to those readers of my blog who use Google Reader, this will make a huge difference! You won't find me anymore, if I don't do something!!!

I have enrolled in both Bloglovin' and Feedly. I think both seem user friendly, so take your pick.
I have posted buttons for both over on the side bar for your convenience.

Yesterday, I joined 3 friends for a trip to the Columbus Convention Center for the NQA Quilt Show. In addition to finishing the sharing of Quilt Camp, I will also have some beauties to share from NQA.

With all this craziness this month, I am looking forward to staying home more, sewing in my own space, and catching up on the things I want to post here.

Bear with me! It will be done!

Happy Quilting, Friends!