Hello July!

If one has traveled over 5000 miles in the last 9 days, she can be forgiven if she is a bit late in welcoming the new month, right?

So much happened in June, it might take me two posts to fully recap it all. With all the coronavirus madness out there, I really doubted that our trip would happen. We did it, though, and it was wonderful.

First, let me go over the regular stuff from before the trip with this first collage.

Top Row
We began the month fighting raccoons. We trapped 7 raccoons all of which were treated humanely and released in a distant, safe location. We spent a day early in the month in Mansfield visiting Kingwood Garden Center, and my first quilt top finish was Lady of the Lake.

Middle Row
We accomplished some significant outdoor improvements which all are highlighted in the middle row. We had a giant boulder moved out of our wooded area for an eventual landscape feature. Our front sidewalk is now cement, much easier to keep clean and safer for stepping up to the porch. Finally, cement was poured for a driveway apron. We love this addition.

Bottom Row

I love the star that I used for a tutorial here on the blog. I now need to come up with a way to use it. The next star is my sample for hand stitching while in the car on the trip. I have made several! The final picture is our official 41st anniversary picture - we are at my cousin's Montana mountain cabin. We were at the fire pit eating s'mores; our 40th was memorable, yet this one may have topped it.

The vacation collage contains 9 pictures that represent the highlights of our trip up to the last day of June. Here's the list:

1. Abilene, Kansas, the boyhood home of President Eisenhower.

2. Remainder of an old prairie homestead in western Kansas. Made me think of the book by Willa Cather, My Antonia.

3. Rocky cliff face in the Colorado Rockies.

4. Alien-looking landscape of southern Utah.

5. First clear glimpse of the Three Sisters Peaks in central Oregon.

6. DH and I posing at Crater Lake in southwest Oregon.

7. DH standing next to a redwood tree in northern California.

8. A scenic view of the Pacific Ocean from the Oregon coast highway.

9. The view from cousin Steve's remote mountain cabin in the mountains of Montana.

I plan to write more fully about our trip in an upcoming post. I hope I can do it justice. The sights were so incredibly breathtaking; I seriously doubt I know enough adjectives to properly describe the scenes.

One more day on the road and we'll be home; get right to work tidying the luggage and laundry, prepping food to take to two different holiday parties; getting groceries; and maybe visiting with our daughters, one of whom has moved to a new apartment. We will hit the ground running, for sure, when we get back home.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

June Wrap-Up

Good grief, I do believe I have spent this month playing and gallivanting. The June collage tells the truth.

Mostly, I believe I have the 9 photos in chronological order. First, the trip with the Frankfort girls to McArthur, Nelsonville and Belpre for a shopping outing. We even went to a shop just across the river from Belpre, but I don't even know the name of the town.  Second, we were surprised by niece Abby and her husband Stephen when having dinner at La Cascada, our favorite Mexican restaurant over in Hillsboro. They joined us and we had a blast with them. Third, Mom and Kevin pose at the base of the Perry Monument overlooking Lake Erie when we took her to Put-In-Bay.

In the middle row, we see the mansion at Louis Bromfield's Malabar Farm near Mansfield, OH. We had a lovely day touring the home and the farm. In the center, all my siblings met at a popular watering hole - again, in Hillsboro - along with our momma. What fun that was!!  And finally, I took the big plunge and actually quilted on the long arm. It went surprisingly well, and my goal for this next month is to do a real quilt. Yes. You heard me. A real quilt.

In the bottom row, one of about a thousand pictures I took at the Dayton Air Show which was absolutely amazing. The final act of the day was a spectacular performance by the Blue Angels, which is what is shown in this picture. Talk about precision! The middle picture in the bottom row is from atop the aforementioned Perry Monument at Put-In-Bay, where we went for a second trip, this time with my father-in-law and brother-in-law. The final picture is of the Ohio Theater in Columbus, where we saw two movies this month in their Summer Movie Series. The first was a 1940 film called The Shop Around the Corner, and the second was a 1960 film called The Apartment. Both were black and white. The summer series features old movies and the big draw for us, besides the gorgeous 1920s theater, is the affordable ticket price - $5. The movie series is in its 49th year, and we have been going for at least 35 of those years.

This may be the first end-of-month collage I have done that doesn't include a quilt picture. The long-arm picture and the shopping picture are the only ones even remotely quilting related.

Since I played so much in June, I am gearing up for an extraordinarily productive July. I have made some preliminary goals, and will share those soon. I have also looked back at the yearly goals I made back in January; it seems I am still on track with those, even though I have spent a month having fun away from the sewing room.

Now, I can't beat myself up too much, for there has been some activity on the sewing machine. I am working on Blockheads 2, and find myself doing two different versions. That has been fun. I will share some updates soon. I have made some mini quilts, too, so I can't claim total negligence, right?

Today is our 39th anniversary. We are doing absolutely nothing special today to mark the occasion. Mostly, this is because we have spent the whole month celebrating!! Ha!! You can click here to see the post from last year in which I remember the day.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Hello June!

Ah, the fresh promise of a new month! I get so stoked to restart each month and try to get more accomplished this month than last. I guess it's sorta' like a way of challenging myself. (Is that weird?)

The lily in this picture is in our garden, the first of our lilies to bloom. June's garden will be awash with lilies before too long - we have a lot of them, of all manner of varieties. It's my husband's "thing" and he does well with them.

I have yet to make my goals for the month. I am participating in a community yard-sale tomorrow - that has taken some time away from the sewing room, for sure. I might go ahead and do another yard sale the following Saturday, too.

We have stuff. Lots of stuff. And it feels pretty good clearing some of it out.

As the month progresses, I will report on the goals, the sewing, the yard saling, and who-knows-what-all.

Happy June and ...

Happy Quilting, Friends!