Fortune Cookie says......

"Get away from home awhile to restore your energies"

 

I really need lots of energy this week...hope my fortune comes true!

Almost done and Saturday Sampler

I need to still sew my buttons on my witches' hats but the quilt is done! I'm very pleased with the quilting on this one. Lots of scaredy cats, bats, ghosts, new moons and witches.

 

Even though I live in a small town, we are lucky to have a very nice quilt shop in our midst. One of the ladies who works at the shop is also a pattern designer. These are a couple of her new patterns. Months before I moved here, I came over to attend a benefit auction for someone in the town. A quilt was auctioned off with a darling scarecrow in the center. It has been on my mind ever since I first saw it! It had been a previous BOM from the fabric store. There were no patterns left by the time I moved over so I have been asking Geralyn for another scarecrow pattern all these months. I have even searched online for something similar to what I saw to no avail. Nothing was quite like it. I was so happy to see this scarcrow on Saturday when I went to pick up my free BOM from the shop. Both patterns are made to be doorhangings and they are darling, let me tell you! Geralyn said she hopes to get more designs made like ones for Christmas and Valentine's Day. You can actually buy over the door quilt hangers that go with the quilts! If you look at her website, check out the Moose & Company pattern. It was last year's appliqued BOM! You paid $6 the first month and then the rest of the months were free if you brought back your finished block each month to the store. The shop also does a pieced BOM the same way.

 

Fruits of our labors

Well my lil' garden is still coming along. I am hoping we won't get a cold snap so my tomatoes can keep turning red. Pumpkins are looking good and a few are beginning to turn orange. Zucchini is still producing and I have actually been able to pick a few beans.

Here's a pic of what I picked Wednesday a.m. My plate says "Mama always said eat your veggies". To some seasoned gardeners, this probably looks silly but keep in mind that I have never had a real garden before. Even though they are few in numbers I love seeing even my little beans! I am even getting potatoes! Corn is next to be picked and then I think I will have had success with everything I planted this year.

 

Remember how I was gone all last week? I didn't pick these big guys because I didn't want to deal with them right before we left. Lookie how huge they grew! The little one is about the right size of what you would buy in the store. I love these lil' monsters!

 

Oh! Who am I kidding????

My name is Jana. I am a fabric addict.

Did you think that while on my travels last week that I wouldn't stop at a quilt shop every chance I got?!

I was excited when I searched online and found a shop right in the Amana Colonies. It had even been featured in the 2009 Spring edition of the magazine Quilt Sampler. This is Heritage Designs in Amana, Iowa. A nice, large shop filled with lots of batiks and Japanese fabrics.

 

Since the shop was filled with Lecien fabrics, I had to buy a few fat quarters. Also had to buy fat quarters of Metro Market. Love the retro feel and bright colors of the fabric.

Next stop was also in the Amana Colonies. Fern Hill. Oh my! What a shop! The bottom floor is filled with architectural antiques and flowers. Upstairs is where you find the fabric. Fern Hill is also home to artist, Stephanie Brandenburg. You can see her studio where she paints upstairs. While I was there, she was busy standing on a ladder trying to make sure some antique columns didn't come crashing down. They had a photo shoot the day before in the gardens outside and used some of the antiques in the pictures. From what I understood, their gardens have been featured in many magazines. Of course I had to buy some of her fabric after meeting her.

 

Stephanie's fabric is the grouping in the center of the picture.


By the time we finished exploring the Colonies, we were too late to go to Winterset and see the Fons and Porter shop again. We were there a few years ago and fell in love with the darling town square. Next time. So we headed onwards to Nebraska.

After a night's rest in Lincoln, headed west again. Let me tell you, I-80 is one long highway! I made sure we took a break in Cozad, NE because of a cute quilt shop I found last year on the same trip. Prairie Point Junction is a shop that was also featured in the 2005 Quilt Sampler.

 

On this stop, I found a couple of kits to buy and some sale fabric.

While at a truck stop filling up the truck with diesel, I found a map of Nebraska quilt shops. I was sneaky enough to "need" another break to get out of the truck when we reached Ogallala. Silver Thimble was crammed packed full of machines, threads and fabric. When I first walked in I was a bit disappointed since I didn't see alot of fabric but as I walked back to the end of the store, I found it hiding behind a book wall. It isn't a cutsy store, but if you are a quilter and live in the area, it would certainly serve you well.

I didn't get a picture of the store but here are my goodies. The owner was sweet enough to even let me be a frequent buyer for the day and let me pick out a fat quarter. See the sewing machine fabric in the middle? It was my gift for being such a good customer! As you can see, I bought a couple of patterns and fabric to go with them. I also found some backing for a quilt I am making for #1 grandson. And have you seen the fabric towards the back yet? I LOVE IT! So retro and funny! It's called Housework Whenever. The other piece of fabric has recipes on it. I might have to try them to see if they are any good. It is from Timeless Treasures.


So. Can you tell I have a problem? I love fabric! Always have. Even when I was a little girl I loved going to the fabric stores with my mom while she bought fabric. I just hope that some of this fabric from this trip actually ends up in projects and quilts! If not, it is still fun to touch and look at.

Oklahoma vs. BYU

Over the Labor Day weekend, we traveled down to Texas so we could watch BYU play Oklahoma in the new Texas Stadium! My honey and oldest son bleed blue for their beloved Cougars. We don't usually travel with the team to games but my son wanted to see the new stadium and since we use to live in Texas, we decided to go. The stadium cost over $1 Billion dollars to build. The replay screen cost over $4 million and is 7 stories tall! It is a massive stadium but even while you are there, it is hard to grasp how many people it holds or how huge it really is. The capacity is 100,000 people! Crazy!!!!

Oklahoma fans outnumbered the BYU fans by 5 to 1. BYU wasn't suppose to have a chance to win. Our team was suppose to be blown out of the water by 3rd ranking OK. What a fun shock we had when our team came back from behind and scored a touchdown to win the game! 14-13! Over 75,000 people were at the game and it amazed me to see how quickly the Sooners left the building.

Most of the Sooner fans were gracious with their loss that we talked too but we tried getting into the shuttle van after the game to go back to our hotel and was totally ignored by one woman wearing red (Sooner's colors). There was no way she was going to scoot over so we could get in the same shuttle as her. We just had to roll our eyes. Some people take football way too seriously.

 

I know. That doesn't look like a 7 story tall tv, does it?! It really is!

 

The clarity of the screen was amazing. It felt just like you were there. Oh wait. I was!

 

Final score! Yea Cougars!

 

A collage of pics I took while on the tour of the stadium.

We were only in Dallas for the weekend so didn't get to do much else than the game but we did head over to Ft. Worth to see the Stockyards. Not really my kind of place to be. There was a music festival going on and with it being Labor Day, it was a crowded place with lots of drinking and partying on the sidewalks. We were hoping to catch the show of the longhorns running down the street but we missed them by 15 minutes. We also aren't use to the humidity and heat anymore so we didn't stick around too long. At least I can now say we have been there.

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It happened again!

If you've been following me, you might remember this from last year. We'll we did it again!

Here's some pics of our week in Minnesota and Iowa....

Getting ready to get in the new truck for the trip to take it home. I've never ridden in a semi but I have to imagine the ride in one of those is alot more pleasant than riding in this thing. You feel every bump in the road. We had lots of stops so we could just get out of the truck and walk around. I have been having a sore neck for several weeks but on this trip we hit a bump and my whole head, neck and spine cracked enough to make the neck feel tons better! The Honey kept telling me that if the tank had been full, the ride would not have been so bumpy. Uhhhh....no thank you. I'll ride in a nice, new sewer truck but have no desire to see how one rides when it is full!

On this trip, we headed down south to the Amana Colonies in Iowa. Beautiful scenic area. I am still impressed with Iowa. I love seeing all the cornfields throughout the state. The Amana colonies are comprised of 7 little villages with some quaint old houses and stores. We went to the museum and were quite interested in how the Amanas were able to live communally for over 80 years in the area. The houses didn't have kitchens. You went to a communal kitchen to eat with your family. Women worked in the kitchens, gardens or the kindergarten. Men did the rest of the work. In some houses you lived with 2 or 3 other families. It was fascinating to hear how they lived.


We found one of the old cemeteries. When you died, you were laid in order of your death. You were not buried with your own family.

Have to show this pic. I found it funny that when we stopped to eat in Nebraska that the walls were filled with "bugs" or things crawling on the walls. Just the place you want to eat at...a place that caters to bugs! The waitress thought I liked the decor when she saw me snap a couple of pictures. The other pic showed a cat crawling down the wall to catch a fish! LOL! I love finding quirky things!

Bear Lake Parade of Homes

You will have to click on the picture to see the interesting things we found at this year's Parade of Homes at the lake. Last year's was so good with several extremely expensive and well decorated homes to look at. You never go to these parades with the thought of buying a home but we go to find new or clever ideas to put in our home. It was really helpful to go to these parades when we were building our home to get some great ideas.

This year's parade was disappointing. Most of the homes weren't professionally decorated as they are in years past. I think the builders are hurting but still wanted the show to go on. One home was decorated with the owner's trophy animals. It was a bit strange walking down a staircase with a crocodile staring at you. I didn't like it one bit.

The Honey LOVED the BYU murals at one of the homes. Guess what we are now getting on one of our cabin's walls? We are big fans of BYU football. Doesn't matter if they win or lose, we enjoy the college games. I guess our game room will now be a cougar den. It wasn't quite what I was picturing for the area but if it makes Honey happy....

I did like the colorful tile on the floor in one child's bathroom. It matched the grandchildren's bedroom. So cute and fun to have lots of twin beds all in one room when the whole family comes to the lake!

My favorite house was a craftsman style home. It had lots of crown molding and cabinets all through the house. Loved the bookcases that were lit in the living area.

We had fun being at the lake once again. Hard to believe August is almost done and summer is gone for another year.