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.

 

Little Prince

My finger still hurts from when I sewed it last week. Looking back, I probably should have gotten stitches so the cut would have closed properly and maybe not hurt as long as it has. With it being my index finger, it has been hard to sit at the sewing machine and sew much of anything.

I put this quilt off as long as I could so my finger could heal some more but finally yesterday I knew I really had to get going on it. I am using the same quilter that did Lil' Man's quilt and I need to get this quilt over there so I don't lose my place in line. Red Rooster in Logan does a wonderful job at quilting but they don't schedule you on a calendar. They put your info on a hanger and just hang it up and every day the hanger works its way to the front of the line. I put my hanger on the rack about 5 weeks ago.

So knowing I had my hanger moving forward, I couldn't decide what kind of quilt to make for this lil' guy that is coming into the world around Thanksgiving time. I have been intrigued with the disappearing 9-patch for awhile though so decided this was the time to make one. I don't always like making 9-patches though. Seems like some days all the seams match up and then other days I will have a mess on my hands. Thank goodness working on this quilt went smoothly. I will definitely make one of these again. Maybe a crooked one next time that I saw online.

You don't need to follow a pattern. Just cut your squares to whatever size you want them to be. Start sewing your squares in a row.

Here is one of my finished 9-patches. With this being a baby quilt, it didn't take long to get them all made.

I use this alot while I am sizing my squares. So much easier than trying to clean the mat with your hand.

Now the fun part of cutting the 9-patch into 4ths. Then you rearrange your new blocks however you want.

This is how I put my blocks back together.

For the last several days I have been craving French Onion Soup. I have an abundance of onions in my garden so I pulled several in the a.m., went onto the internet to find a recipe since I have never made this before, and then let it cook all day as I sewed. Oh my!!!! It was perfect and yummy! I'm sure it was better than usual since I was using my own onions in it. I felt like a proud mamma when I took my first taste.

And here is the finished top! Sometimes pieces just go together and boy! was I happy about that! My brain does not like math and I haven't figured out how to use the quilter's calculator yet so I wasn't too sure how to make my border come together correctly. I started at 3 1/2" but then I just felt I needed to change to 3 1/4". Boy! am I glad I listened to that voice in my head. It came out perfect! Yes. I am patting myself on the back. LOL!

Now to get the backing ready and off to the quilters it goes! I can hardly wait to snuggle the Little Prince in it. It is so exciting to have 2 grandbabies coming this year!

Junior Misses Quilt

Our first granddaughter will be here in just a few short weeks! I wasn't going to show this until I had mailed it but I am slow at putting my label on the back. Guess her parents can see it here first. I hope the lil' one will get lots of use out it. It certainly was made with lots of love from gramma. I can hardly wait to meet Junior Miss!