Summertime!

I can't believe it is almost July! We have been so busy but having a blast. We had the grandboys for four days when momma and papa went camping. The three boys kept us on our toes but we had a blast. This is Ezra and Judah riding the trike I rode as a child.

I also finished scanning thousands of photos for my parents. It was fun to revisit the past. This photo cracked up my dad. That is me in the photo and his attempt to grow grass at our first house. He used a spreader for the grass seed and didn't realize at the time that it was plugged hence the plugs of grass instead of a lush lawn.

I'm still quilting away and I really need to get outside and pull some weeds. They always seem to reappear. My grandfather would spend hours and hours in his garden while I sat and watched. He loved it and so does my daughter. I didn't inherit that gene.

Lot of Quilting Going On!

The quilting splurge started with a new daughter-in-law and continued with a baby due in the Fall. I hadn't made a quilt for over five years so I guess I was due. The photo above is a double Irish chain for our new daughter-in-law. She wanted red and loved the double Irish chain. It was so funny because that is the pattern I chose to make my first quilt way back in 1980 when I started quilting.

 

That was before I had a rotary cutter and I gave up because it was just too difficult for me to do it. I did take a lot of quilting classes and learned a lot. But when the rotary cutter was invented that changed my whole world and made quilting a whole lot easier.

        I never did make myself a double Irish chain so I thought it was a great time to remedy that.

This quilt has one of my favorite color combinations and will look great with the bojagi curtains I made.

 I was visiting my local quilt store, Bear Patch Quilting all the time and those naughty people have the walls covered with beautiful quilts.  What makes it naughty is they have kits so that you can make the same thing. The photo above is one of those kits I bought.

I became addicted to the quilt patterns by Madison Cottage Design. Their quilts are gorgeous and the instructions are easy to follow. You can also find kits online. The photo above is also a kit with the pattern from Madison Cottage.

I contacted my long-arm girl and she was booked until June. She emailed last week to see if I had any quilts ready for her and I dropped off a bunch. I can't wait to see what she does with them. I have three more left to do and I will be done for the foreseeable future. So if you want me, I'll be in my crafting room where the iron is hot and the sewing machine is humming.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts - Part 2

 

Abstract Art and Modernism were the next sections we visited. I've never been a big fan of either but it was still fun to look. I remember in grade school I went on a field trip to The Art Institute of Chicago. The only thing I remember is this plastic blue square made by a famous artist. I looked at it with the mind of a 11 - 12 year old and thought, really? This is art. I could have made it.

                            This one I didn't get at all. To me it was just a bunch of scribbles.

                                                                This guy was pretty cool.

                                   Then it was onto the furniture section. It was pretty cool.

                                                          Then to centuries gone by.

We had a great time and I wanted to eat lunch at The Wienery in Minneapolis. We found it easily but parking was another story. We could not find a place to park anywhere so we passed.

Tomorrow, I pick up the grandboys who will be spending four days with us while Mommy and Daddy go camping. I loaded up on food and I'm planning on taking them to the Red Balloon in St. Paul on Friday.