Time Flies

Tick, tock says the little old clock on the wall.  I wonder if time has flown by for this clock or if it drags a little sometimes?  

The Loose Threads – including myself - saw this great clock in Ruby’s Cafe in Ashby last week.  The clock hasn’t moved from the wall for years & years.  The bottom part has an ad for the local bank from years ago that rolled to a new message every few seconds.  Awesome!  And check out the retro sign below:

We Threads decided to start our day at Ruby’s for a bit of a bite of breakfast.  As a quilt group we are strangely all about the food.  :)  We were all terribly upset to learn that the homemade caramel rolls weren’t ready.  You sophisticated folk won’t understand this, you gotta be country – but the gal who was making the rolls used to be the person making those very same rolls at the Rothsay Truck Stop.  “Truck stop” doesn’t sound exactly like haute cuisine but I’m here to say that those rolls were famous for miles around.  People would get up dag-blame early on Sunday mornings just to get their hands on some rolls to take home.  Sometimes a person would be too late and was scared to go home empty handed.  I’ve heard.  I’m sorry if you never got a chance to enjoy one but I’m telling you it’s not too late – go to Ruby’s.  (unpaid advertisement- altho maybe if I show this to Ruby, I could get a free roll?)

OK, I’M SORRY!  I know I haven’t written.  I’m just like a kid at camp – I’ve been too busy enjoying summer to write.   Picture me laying on the grass under the old oak tree – just like Huck Finn - with knees bent and one leg crossed over the other while one foot swings up & down with the steady beat of an invisible metronome.   There’s a gentle breeze blowing while I’m reading “To Kill a Mockingbird” on my Kindle and sipping a cold lemonade with a handful of raspberries resting in it and condensation just dripping down the side.  It’s obviously 90 degrees and very humid (Minnesota), making it too hot for the flies to be serious about flying around annoying us – much.  Now & then I doze off until one of those flies works up the energy to fly over & tickle my nose.  My faithful dog is relaxing at my side, too hot to chase a stick and being almost perfect as always. 

I almost never stretch the truth so you can be sure that’s how it is. 

Now picture me in the garden, bent over at the waist until I say “Oh, my aching back” causing me to kneel on the ground until I say “Oh, my aching knees” - all the while sweat is dripping off my brow, down between “the girls”, gathering around the waistband of my too-tight pants and swatting mosquitoes.   (again, it’s Minnesota).  My faithful dog is running around chasing birds – STOP THAT – and taking a dip in the standing water in the ditch – STOP THAT - and tramping through my flowers – STOP THAT!!!  He’s being less than perfect as usual……….Go with whatever version of my story you prefer.

How much can I share today without you dozing off?  We’ll see.

L.T. (Loose Threads) met last week at CD’s house on the lake to sew & eat.  Yes, even after breakfast at Ruby’s.  We were to make miniature quilts for ourselves – assembly line fashion.  I told everyone the size of fabric to cut and how many to bring.  Time flew as we talked, laughed, talked, laughed, ate & sewed.  At the end of the day we had a “few” 4” blocks:

There were four 2” half-square triangles in each block.  Stay tuned as somebody should find time to put their blocks together.  Since I knew the plan, I made my quilt earlier with 2” blocks (four 1” half-squares):

 

You know I sew but am I good at it?  Not so much.  I may have gotten a little excited at finishing it up and forgot to notice if everything was going in the right direction.  Humility block. 

Altho, now that I think about it, I was also pretty excited while watching the Twin’s baseball game in which “my Joe”  got his 1,000th hit.  Now, if I had a prize I’d send it winging on it’s way to Donna in Texas who also happens to know about hit #1,000.    How did you know that & write to congratulate me?  I’ll be sure to pass that on to Joe.  Mr. Picket Fence & I were talking the other day – I’ll pause while you think about that --- but we’re just wondering if our  youngest son who is good at baseball, but not THAT good, could have been switched with Joe, thereby making him really “my Joe”.  The hospitals would have been about 200 miles apart  but still….it coulda happened I think.  And then the woman Joe calls “Mom” would be just a nobody and I’d hit the jackpot on Mother’s Day.  I love it!  Plus, think of the good seats we’d have at the ball games.  I suppose one might say I inhabit some sort of dream world, but it feels real to me.  I’m just sayin’.

Speaking of baseball, hubs and I ran into Dave Goltz the other day.  (He was honored a week or so ago as one of the 50 greatest Twins.  Way to go, Dave!!!  We so loved to watch him pitch back in the day.)  We had a nice visit and as we were walking away, I just had to slap myself upside my head.  WHY didn’t I tell him to say Hi to “my Joe”?????  AAAARRRGH!!!!!!!!  

Back to business.  A couple show & tells:

And this one has absolutely nothing to do with sewing – Jean does woodturning and this bowl is what she made with an ash burl:

Absolutely, positively beautiful!

Into every life a little rain must fall and if we’re lucky, after the rain we see the rainbow.  2 months shy of 2 years ago, my upper leg (femur) broke.  Now, after 3 surgeries and almost a month total of rehab, my wonderful surgeon in Minneapolis – who fixed the first surgical mess and who I believe is a surgical genius and really nice guy to boot– has told me that my bone has made a “solid” heal.    He was also the one who figured out why this bone broke and why my hip broke 5 years earlier.  I was taking Fosamax to PREVENT osteoporosis!  Yep.  An unnecessary drug which caused 2 broken bones.  Bones that just snapped without any trauma involved.  OK, that’s all I’m gonna say about that except that if you’re taking Fosamax, please speak to your Dr. about it.  Oh, and before you ask, I have normal bone density and I’m not yet 60.  Altho I won’t tell you how close I am……

A little of this and a little of that -

By my front door :

“The Sisterhood” gathered at Mrs. Farmhouse’s this summer.  I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, but Karen doesn’t really live in a farm house.  She lives on the lake in a beautiful house with a “farmhouse feel”?  It has absolutely nothing whatsoever in common with the farmhouse I grew up in…….I’m just sayin’.

 

Karen has wonderful taste and there’s always things at her house that we wish were at our own homes.  In fact, GB told us to distract Karen so she could sneak off with this:

Just because it didn’t work out, doesn’t mean that we don’t admire your initiative Gail!

Karen asked us to bring along “a golden oldie” that we still like.  Here are some:

 

Karen’s Bulls-eye

 

 

 

  

Kari Carr’s (New Leaf Stitches) fairly new design

 

 

 

 

  Penny’s cross stitch.  Many hours in the awesome little piece of art.

 

 

 

 

If I recall correctly, I think this one belonged to Gail (the cabinet thief).  Hand embroidered blocks, each one different.  It was so pretty.

 

 

This is a new one made from flannel that looks like wool.  A hand embroidered design between all the blocks.  Very, very nice.  A real he-man quilt.

This star quilt (Buggy Barn I think) is one that LL is making for a wedding gift. 

This is an oldie from Neecie.  I recall her making it to use on the table for a daughter's graduation.  I’ve always loved that one too!

 

I’m pretty sure that this one belongs to Ms. Neecie too.  This one goes way back…..

 

My SIL and I spent a week driving to Colorado.  Her son (all 6’5” of him) is going to college there. 

It’s long way from home Mike BUT, you’re only 1 1/2 hrs. from my daughter’s family.  Of course we stopped to visit them for a few days.  Here’s my granddaughter Miss O, dressed as The Black Widow! Boo.o.o.

 

Sorry, Ms. O, you’re too cute to be scary!

 

 

 

 

Auntie Jean knit

this cap for

Miss O while we were on the road:

 

 

 

 

Am I right?  She’s the cutest, smartest, kindest to animals girl in the world.  Unless you have grandkids then they can be the best in the world!  OK?

Are you a member of the Prairie Women’s Sewing Circle?  Farmhouse Woolens and Dry Goods is hosting this monthly club.  We had our 1st “circle” 2 weeks ago – and what fun we had!  I’m trying to lead the group, but honestly, the ladies are being unreasonable about wanting to “follow”!  I’ve tried bribes – threats – pouting – nothing works with this group.  It doesn’t help that I know most of these gals pretty well and they know what a ditz I am in real life.  What’s a girl gonna do?  I am what I am.

This is the 1st project in the club – the little red quilt - and they will ALL come back next month with their finished project!  Right, girls?  This is how Karen displayed it in the store.

So Mrs. Farmhouse says, why don’t we throw in a couple of our own designs as extra projects for them?  Good idea Karen.  But she felt I should come up with the ideas.  Sheesh.

Idea #1 was in keeping with Prairie Women who had to be really, really careful not to lose their thimble.  We made thimble keepers that have a coneflower stitched on the front with a button for the flower center.  I told you that in case you couldn’t figure out what it is.

Idea #2 was to offer a pattern for a journal cover to fit a 3-ring binder.  It’s made of wool with a little prairie cloth for stitchin’.

And on the inside are pockets on both front and back covers.

I have a very good recipe I want to share.  But I think I’ll save it for next time.  That’ll motivate me to write – maybe.  So, that’s all for today.  What do you mean, “that’s ALL? -  either the woman disappears from the face of the earth or else she won’t SHUT UP!”    Sorry on both counts.  I vow to try to be more like my dog – almost perfect……….

Hugs to all from

Ms. Faye