Destination - Fall !

If there's an arts and craft fair, fall can't be far behind. We didn't have to travel too far to find the Madison Chautauqua Festival. Of course, we took advantage of the cool morning and rode the Harley. Give him a destination, and he'll gladly take me there, just as long as we ride the motorcycle!

Of course there is always some good food at these festivals. This sign was too cute! And the pork chop sandwiches were good too.
In addition to the juried art fair, many locals set up tables on the sidewalks to sell their antiques, collectibles, crafts and just about anything. These ladies were selling a few of their antique dishes but had draped the tables with some beautiful quilts. I love the old houses in Madison. Many are surrounded by some pretty iron fences like this one.
If it wasn't for the big tour bus and the car parked in front of this church, I could have gotten a pretty picture of all the mums adorning the steps. Looks like fall to me! I did get a little project done today. I've decided that I need a new fall purse to carry so I found this pattern in the fall issue of Quilts and More. But never one to leave a recipe or a pattern alone, I made a few changes ;)
Speaking of magazines, have you seen that my favorite quilt shop (Among Friends) is listed as one of the top 10 quilt shops in the newest Quilt Sampler magazine? Check out page 46! Congratulations Wendy!
Wow, three posts this week. It's some kind of record for me lately! Hope you all are enjoying your fall days too.

Grandbaby Withdrawal

I'm suffering from a case of grandbaby withdrawal but I'll post just a few of the hundred or so photos I took last week.

The company D works for has an office in St. Louis (which is where son J also works) so he was able to load his briefcase, files and laptop in the new motorcycle trailer and work out of the MO office for a few days. We left last Sunday morning with friends M and R following us on their motorcycle as far as Leavenworth, IN for a great breakfast at the Overlook Restaurant. Here's a shot of the whole rig with a nice view of the Ohio River in the background. It's nice to have plenty of room to pack for a trip like this. Monday I sat with little J while mama J had a doctor's appointment then we spent the rest of the day shopping. Little J was a very patient little man. You've got to train them early, right?
Every store we entered, he had the ladies ooo-ing and aww-ing over him. But then, who couldn't resist this face?

They make a nice looking family. But I might be a little be biased :) J and J are going to be wonderful parents and little J is a very lucky little boy. I know they miss having family close by. It was nice to be able to spend a few days with them and I'm sure we'll get back again before too long. J starts back to work in a week but it sounds like they have a nice babysitter found. Though it's still going to be an adjustment for everyone, it will all work out fine. Little J is the youngest to straddle this Harley. But his Grandpa will have to wait several years before he can convince his parents to let him have a ride.
This is all for tonight. Happy Fall Everyone!

Cutie-Pie Time!

Where have I been, you asked?

Do I really need to answer that? I think this will explain.

More later!

Playing Tourist with the Cousins!

I've been playing tour guide and tourist with the K-State cousins this week. P and A live in the KC, Kansas area and are loyal football fans of their alma mater. D and I attended K-State also and although we don't follow college sports as much, we really enjoyed watching the K-State Wildcats play University of Louisville. Even though the game was scheduled for a Wednesday evening to avoid conflicts with the Ryder Cup Golf Tournament, our corner of the stadium was soon filled with purple clad K-State fans. Unfortunately K-State lost. But we had a great time and would probably have never had a reason to go to Papa John's Stadium for a game if it hadn't been for the K-State cousins! Thanks P and A! (Notice D's shirt? The Vista Drive-In was our favorite restaurant back in our college days! We still try to stop there when driving through Manhattan, Ks.)After a quick stop at the Louisville Slugger Factory tour, A and I left P to explore more of the the displays there while she and I went across the street to the Kentucky Arts and Crafts Gallery. We were fascinated by the collection of antique quilts belonging to Shelly Zegart. These are just a few but you can go to her website to see more. We also found a display of contemporary tapestries quite interesting.
Huber Farms and Winery is getting ready for the big fall season. They weren't quite ready, but we did find some nice pumpkins and gourds. These were the funniest looking ones here! Of course, no trip to Louisville is complete without a tour of Churchill Downs. They were getting ready here for a soiree in honor of the Ryder Cup. Luckily we got out of there before we had to pay $500 a person to party with the celebs!!
There were many places still dealing with the effects of Ike's wind storm. We found several intersections where the police or national guard were still directing traffic. And here in southern Indiana there are still lots of trees and limbs down. I guess we were lucky because we didn't even lose any shingles as many did. B had to deal with a loss of power at the restaurant where she's kitchen manager. They finally re-opened Thursday morning after losing thousands of dollars worth of food and business. But she and her staff worked their tails off to get every thing back in tip top shape!

This is all for tonight! Stay tuned for Grandbaby #1 photos! We're loading up the new little trailer and headed west to see little J (and J & J too of course!) for a couple of days. I can't wait to squeeze those fat little cheeks and see how much he's changed. He was all of six weeks old yesterday!

Getting Back on Track, Sort Of...

I guess I've been a bad blogger again this week. But I do have excuses - more about that later.

One thing I have been trying to work on this past week was my machine quilting skills. So like they say in the classes I've taken and the books that I've read, it takes practice, practice, practice. I've been practicing. Beamer has claimed my stack of practice "quilt sandwiches" as his new bed so all is not lost! I'm not sure when I'll master the art of stippling or shadowing or any other free-motion machine quilting skill but I've made some attempts and I'll continue to practice - but later this week! In the meantime, any advice from friendly quilters is requested. I finished piecing this table topper and started some straight line quilting. It sits in the waiting pile, until I decide if I'm brave enough to free-motion the center or borders.
One day last week, B came over to sew with me. It was nice of her share her day off with me and fun to share her new hobby! I was going to work on the above mentioned practicing but instead decided to use my charm pack of Pumpkins Gone Wild and use the pattern she brought to make the same wall hanging. It sits in the same waiting pile for a quilting decision. On Friday and Saturday, D and I hit the road to pick up our new trailer. It was manufactured near Champaign, IL by American Legend Motorcycle Trailers and painted to match our Harley. It is really nice! They did a great job matching the paint and design. We've got plenty of room to travel in style now and even room for me to actually do some serious fabric shopping while indulging DH's desire to ride! This isn't the greatest photo of yours truly but a good photo of the trailer. So just to make sure the trip was not only about the motorcycle and trailer, I just "happened" to remember the cute quilt shop that Sharon had blogged about in Greenwood, IN. The Back Door Quilt Shop certainly did not disappoint! I did my best to fill up the trailer but I knew how much stuff I had in the waiting pile at home. This shop is great and I will certainly be back! Looks like another road trip will be required.

Now that we have the trailer we will have to plan another extended trip. There will be one over to see Grandbaby #1 (and J & J too!) soon but other than that we're not sure where we might head.

We are expecting our K-State cousins this week but hope they will be understanding as to the state of this house. Because - now here is the excuse, though probably kind of lame - we were without power for about 24 hours. It finally came on late this morning but we were victims of remnants of Ike. This part of Southern Indiana and Kentucky survived about 3 hours of wind with speeds of over 50 mph and gusts up to 80 mph. Luckily, we had no damage here, but there are many, many trees down and lots of folks did have roof damage. Still, we are all thankful that we didn't have to suffer the full hurricane as the people in Southern Texas did. So now, I must get back to a little housekeeping and laundry (the washer was a victim of the lightning the week before, so B and N have let me use them as a laundromat!) and try to get back on track.

Hope everyone else survived our share of the storm okay. I've been tagged by Jo but I'll save those random facts about me for another post!

Thanks for stopping by!

Busy, Boggling, Beautiful - Pick One Adjective !

It has been a busy week! Especially for some one who has been away from the working world for a few years! But I did enjoy my hours helping Pat from Stitcher's Workshop at the EGA Seminar boutique. Although I know very little about fine embroidery and needlework, I can run a cash register and credit card machine! If you are looking for a terrific selection of threads, charts, beads and just about every stitcher's gadget, check out her website. Seeing all the merchandise that she brought to the seminar is almost mind boggling! It was amazing to watch women come into the boutique and spend hundreds of dollars and leave with a little bag of thread and not bat an eye! But that's what she (Pat) was there for and happy to provide!

These are just a few of the samples from the shop. Aren't they beautiful? I don't have the patience to do work like this. Of course I did come home with a few small projects, but I'm still working on the needlework project I got last year! Not to mention all the quilting projects that I'm itching to get back too!

One of the other ladies helping out had used her beading skills to make this beautiful creature. Almost too life-like, don't you think!

D's dad gets in on the act too. None of this would be possible if he didn't pack, load and transport ! In addition he makes a best selling line of stretcher bars in several different sizes.

The boutique closed down at noon on Friday, but then the real work began. It is a major project to tear down and load up, but he's got it under control ! Believe it or not, that entire room of inventory and display racks is now in the back of his trailer and pickup truck! With the help of the ladies who helped box, and D, N and B who helped load. Things were zipped up by 11:00 pm. The staff at the Convention center was not too helpful though, because although Pat was supposed to have the space until midnight, they rushed us out of there to set up for another event. We were actually out of the hall by 9:00 with everything on the loading dock. Obviously, everyone was tired and hungry and hot. But overall, I think they were happy with their success of this event and are now on their way home to Arkansas.
With our guests gone and most of our lightning repairs complete, today was a gorgeous day to be out enjoying the weather. What better way than a motorcycle ride to Nashville, Indiana! Hard to believe I hadn't been on the bike in almost two weeks! All the shops in Nashville were getting ready for fall and the cool temps today really made me think it couldn't be too far away.

We took a scenic ride up through Brown County State Park. This area will be beautiful in a few weeks when the color arrives. Fall is probably the busiest time for Nashville and the surrounding campgrounds and lodges. Sometime we should either bring the camper up here or rent a cabin.

Next week was supposed to have been a motorcycle trip to the Smokey Mountains, but one of our biking buddies is nursing a sore leg, so we postponed the ride. We have ordered a small trailer to pull behind the Harley so you can look forward to seeing photos of it once we go pick it up next weekend. I hope to do some sewing, quilting, crafting, stitching, anything crafty! this week. The week after that we are looking forward to my K-State cousins visiting and attending the K-State/UofL football game. That should be fun! Then after that, we will be going back to MO to see little J !! Can't wait to see how much he's grown! He will be one month old tomorrow. Happy Birthday Grandbaby #1! Love, Grammie and Grampa.

Variety - The Spice Of This Week

I'm not really becoming a slacker when it comes to blogging! I've just had an interesting and varied week so now I have something to actually write about. In fact, it will probably take me a couple of posts to catch up.

First of all, now that Jessica has received her giveaway surprise, I can let you all see what I made for her. Here is her Amy Butler Frenchy Bag made from A.B. fabrics. She says she loves it, so that makes me happy! I know I get lots of compliments on the one I carry but I think I might have to make another:) And here is another bag that I completed last week. This one went to daughter B and is another Amy Butler pattern but made from Anna Maria Horner Chocolate Lollipops fabrics. It is huge, perfect for all the extra stuff B takes to work sometimes; shoes, clothes, books etc. It was an easy pattern, but lots and lots of interfacing had to be applied.
And yes, I did make that peach pie!
We had house guests over this long holiday weekend! It's so nice to have family visit, even it means the grandkitty comes too!

Other family is in town also. My FIL and SMIL have brought pretty much her entire needlework shop to the EGA National Seminar which is being held in Louisville this week.

We all went downtown to help set up. But things were very organized and some of us helped more than others! Actually, he did contribute to the process, but he does look a little of place (and bored) doesn't he!

Of course, there was some dining out!

And I would be scolded if I didn't post a photo of this tasty dish. Paella from Mojitos!

But as to why there's been no blogging, here is the real culprit. We have been without internet service since a thunderstorm Friday night. When we arrived back home (after dining out, of course, at a different restaurant) we discovered that our home had been struck by lightning. Luckily, we had little damage, but did lose one television, our garage door opener, several GFI's, a bathroom exhaust fan and our cable/internet boxes. After the electrician replaced the vent, we realized how lucky we were!

I'll be back in a day or two with more about the EGA Boutique (a.k.a. Stitcher's Workshop) where I've been trying to help P by running a cash register. I know very little about stitching, but am learning a little bit more every day. These lady stitchers are just about as obsessed as quilters!

Have a great week!