Day 148
Ummm, there is nothing like fresh baked bread from scratch. Yesterday I made some oatmeal bread that I hadn’t made in years. It isn’t hard to do but it is time consuming. It is so worth it because it is delicious and the house smelled heavenly. The recipe makes three loaves so I can freeze some. I use this bread for making a very special chicken salad sandwich that was featured at a Tea Room restaurant in Freeport, Illinois that closed its doors many years ago. They put out a cookbook of their recipes and I bought one. That chicken salad sandwich is hands down the tastiest sandwich I have ever eaten.
I found some fabric in my stash that matched some fabric I used in a baby quilt, so I thought I would get creative again and picked a block pattern that would showcase this pretty pink fabric. This block is called Souvenir.
Day 147, Oh what a day!
So this is what happens when you let some crazed quilters out of the coop after a long dry spell of no shop hopping. Major stash enhancement. First up was Material Girl in Crystal Lake. A nice shop with a pretty cool vibe in a nice town. I spent more money than anticipated(so what else is new). I tried to hold back because I knew that later we would be going to one of my all time favorite stores and I expected to find lots of interesting things there too. Right across the street from Material Girl is Benedicts La Strata where we had a lovely lunch. The website is undergoing a redesign right now so I won’t give the link.
After lunch we headed over to Pieceful Gathering in Fox River Grove. I can’t say enough about how much we all enjoyed our visit there. Such a great shop and all the ladies are so warm and friendly. One thing we really love about this shop is the snippets. These are small squares of fabric that are just the right size for making a small quilt block. The great thing about them is that they are $1.00 a piece and so you can grab a bunch to try and have lots of different ones on hand to mix and match. For someone like me who experiments with different blocks every day, they are perfect. They are also great for scrap quilts. Pieceful Gathering specializes in Civil War reproduction fabrics. I love all the warm, rich colors. I ended up spending twice as much there as I did at Material Girl. In fact we all spent more there. Rose came out on top yesterday for the most spent.
It was such a nice day out and we all had tons of fun. Next month starts the annual Northern Illinois Quilt Fest shop hop and it goes through August. Over 30 shops are participating this year. You get a passpost and that entitles you to a 15% discount on purchases. You must visit every shop within the three months to qualify for the grand prize. Last year Rose won the eastern region’s first prize of a $50 gift certificate at each of the stores, valued at $500.
So I guess this was the offical kick-off of the 2012 quilting season. There will be more shop hopping to do this summer for sure. Too much fun!!
The state block pattern for today is Maryland. I tried to get a little creative with color this time. I don’t quite know if this really works or not. I do like the pattern though.
Day 146
It was a very productive day in the sewing room. I even got a few things done outside and the day ended with a nice thunder shower. Today I am going to be rewarded for all the hard work I have been doing. My quilting buddies and I are having a girls day out. We are going to hit a couple of our favorite stores and have some lunch. I am looking forward to a nice lesiurely day of shopping and chatting. All the merchants just returned from the big quilt market so we’ll see what is new and exciting to check out.
The block pattern for today is Salt Lake City. I love all the fabrics in this one, especially the light blue print. It has such a nice antique feel to it. 
Day 145
It was a productive day. I got my tomatoes planted. There must be something to this planting by the moon cycles stuff because my lettuce patch looked so green and lush. I planted a few more things today. And the hubby made good progress on cleaning up the garage in preparation of the garage sale next weekend. I am so glad he has an extra day to help out this week.
I have been using the new iron and it seems to be working just fine. It is just going to have to get me by until they come up with something better.
The block of the day is 1904 Star. I whipped this one up at the last minute so I am glad I didn’t run into any problems. I like this one.
Day 144
Well, it does appear to me that some really strange things are happening in the Universe since the eclipse. I wonder if everyone else is feeling the same. I know that Rose and I have been having some sleeping difficulties. I didn’t get to sleep last night until it was daylight and the birds were singing.
I am usually pretty upbeat but suddenly some negative feelings have been surfacing. I’ll spare you the details right now but one thing that happened this week with the new diet/exercise program is that I have failed. I really tried to eat less and I made regular visits to the gym but I ended up gaining weight. Now this is the kind of thing that would make a person want to just give up. I am going to try and step it up even more and see what happens next week. I am determined but I really ought to be rewarded for hard work.
Today the block pattern is Susannah. I liked these fabrics together when I picked them out but now that I see them in this block I don’t like them that much.
Dy 143
Leo went home and it has been awfully quiet in the sewing room today. I am glad I don’t have a full time cat though. I guess I just don’t want to be bothered. That has been my dominate feeling since I have gotten older. That is why I have pretty much become a hermit. I do enjoy social activities when the time is right. I even like entertaining, but right now I am feeling like my house is not presentable enough to entertain. Not only is it getting harder to maintain, for various reasons, there are so many areas that are way overdue for some remodeling. The main thing on my mind right now is how much I would love to participate in the big garage sale event coming up the first week in June. I had one last year and moved a lot of stuff but this year I am wondering how come it doesn’t seem like I got rid of that much. I always end up taking several boxes away to Goodwill afterwards. I suppose if I had never gotten rid of anything over the past 30 years, like those pack rat people, I am sure I would not have any room to move around in this house. Having possessions has become much less important as I have gotten older. I rarely shop for fun these days, except for fabric of course. If I plan to do any kind of art quilting I have learned that no scrap is too small. Eventually I’ll just have to let some of it go. I still have too much fabric around here from my figure skating costuming days. Maybe I can make some swimsuits out of it. Hopefully I’ll have some grandkids someday that I can use it for.
The block for today is Tulip Lady Fingers. The background fabric is new. I love the pop of red in this one.
Day 142, Jandalberries
Ok, so I have started yet another project. This one is a table runner that I plan to hang in my entryway. I am doing this one because it will give me some more practice with wool applique. I have completed the three center blocks and am ready to do the applique. I am in the process of cutting out all the pieces. I purchased this one as a kit from Quilters General Store. I will be able to do the handwork whenever I go on trips in the car because these are portable. This will also be a good one to practice my machine quilting because it is a small project. I’ll keep you posted on my progress. You can see what the finished project will look like here.
