I'm a travelin' woman

Don and I've been traveling most of September on our first trip together to Europe.  Returned on the 25th but only now have I been able to organize some of the photos.  

Don and I flew to Sophia, Bulgaria on the 10th and were met by Jo, our Peace Corps daughter, at the airport.  I didn't realize how much I'd missed her until I saw her there and then the tears came and I couldn't stop hugging  her.  Wow!  I never expected that kind of reaction from me!   We spent 6 days in Bulgaria--a very beautiful country, BTW, with lots of mountains.  We met a lot of the Bulgarian people she knows and works with, even spending 2 nights in the rural village with the host family she lived with while she was in training.  Such warm and welcoming people to open their homes to us.  

Then the 3 of us flew to Munich to begin an adventure that had been arranged for us by ToEurope.  They arranged our transportation while in Germany as well as hotels for every night of the 6 or 7 days we spent in that country.  I could write a book about the trip, but I'll spare you and refrain.  I'll let these few pix serve the purpose, okay?

This is one of several medieval villages we stayed in--very charming.  I believe our hotel in this village was built as a home in 1536.  Everything in Europe is so much older than in the Midwest of the US--amazing!

 This is a pix of the Rila Monastery outside of Sophia, Bulgaria, one of 3 UNESCO World Heritage Sites that we were fortunate to visit.  Amazing murals covering every inch of surface.

This fantastic building is in Wurzburg Germany.  All of that "frosting" is stucco applied by hand three to four hundred years ago. Now it's a public library.

Everywhere in both Bulgaria and Germany were beautiful flowers in the window boxes as well as the gardens.  This building is in Munich.

Had to take a pix of the vineyards along the middle Rhein River, another UNESCO site.  And one of many castles along that stretch of the river.

We developed a very good habit on our trip--a daily coffee and cake stop!  I can't tell you how delectable the cakes and pastries were.  Melt in you mouth, truly!  I usually just sampled the cakes that Don and Jo bought and it was really hard to not scarf up the entire piece!  But I held myself back.  :-)

And of course, Don and I had to sample German beer.  Soooo good.  Lots of flavor but not so much alcohol as here in the States so we could drink the entire stein and not get wasted.  The German wine, however, is a different story!  Again, very flavorful but a higher alcohol content than I'm used to, so half a glass pretty much put me under the table. Yikes!

In this pix I look like I've drank more than my share of the beer and Don looks like he's fed up with this picture taking and wants to get back to drinking!

I had a wonderful time on the trip and what made it so good, I think, was that we were with our daughter after 18 months separation.  She'll be home in another 6 months and we'll all be happy to have her back. 

The trip was especially good since we never took the wrong train and got lost, had great hotels and found wonderful restaurants, and didn't lose any of our luggage on the flights!  Pretty good for the first time, huh?   Best of all, Don (the reluctant traveler) wants to go back in a couple of years.  Yea!

New table runner and more!

I can't believe how busy my life has become over the summer!  I never seem to have a minute where I can simply sit without thinking of the next task that has to be done. I thought life would slow down when I retired--all the time in the world to do what I like.  Hah!  That's a myth!

We went to Bayfield WI a couple of weeks ago to spend time with Don's old school mates. I made an Autumn themed table runner as a hostess gift and it looked so good, I decided to make a couple more to put in my Etsy shop which you can find here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/JollyRuby?ref=shop_name_search_sugg  

I designed this simple little thing and I really like the clean lines.  Makes the colors stand out more, I think.  

I stitched in the ditch in the center panel and did a cross hatch in the border.  If you want to see more of it, take a look at Jolly Ruby.

This afternoon, I have to do a bit of quilting to finish a gift for one of our hosts while we're in Bulgaria.  Yikes!  We leave Monday morning and I have a ton of things yet to do, including canning tomatoes, the most time-intensive job I know!  We'll be gone for 2 weeks, one in Bulgaria and one in Germany. Jo's taking us around Bulgaria and then we're all going to Germany together. I can't wait to see Jo-she's been gone for a year and a half and before that she spent a year in Texas. So I hardly know her anymore.

For now, I have lists of things that have to get done, so I'm going to get busy.  As soon as I get on the plane I'll start to relax.  Ciao!

Quilts for Bulgaria

September means summer has ended, in a way.  We still have warm days--Indian Summer if you will--and it still feels like summer but there's a chill in the air in the early morning and there's a dryness in the air that comes with Autumn, unlike the extreme humidity we have in the summer.  I love Autumn!  I suffer through the hot and humid days of summer, and daily give thanks for the swimming pool that feels soooo refreshing at the end of a hot day of doing house and garden chores.  When the air changes to the cool and dry air of Autumn, I know that, once again, I've survived another summer. To celebrate September, I even baked today--fresh peach crisp. Yummy!

Autumn means I get more excited about quilting again. I have been working on quilts all summer, but not as much as I do in the rest of the year. Somehow, it's hard to sit under a quilt sewing on binding when it's 95 degrees out and the humidity is nearly that high as well.  Know what I mean?  

Last Fall, my guild began a block exchange. The first block was Friendship Star done in Autumn colors.  I love making that star block and I must have made about 20 or so to enter in the exchange.  The way it works is that you get 1 chance to win for each block you contribute. Well,one of my 20 or so chances won the whole kit and caboodle! About 60 blocks all together!  And in my favorite Fall colors.  Jo had asked if I could make a couple of quilts to bring as gifts for people she works with in Bulgaria and I decided to use the Friendship Stars to make 2 quilted throws and here they are:  

This one has light stars on dark backgrounds so I used light fabric for sashing and borders and the other quilt has dark stars on light backgrounds and I used dark fabric for the sashings and borders.

I machine quilted them in similar freehand designs that look pretty good close up but I couldn't get a good picture of them with my camera, so just take my word for it.  :)

This table quilt is one I made to coordinate with a set of place mats. I used fabric that was printed with a variety of fruits--oranges, blueberries, grapes, cherries, and so forth--with a white on white contrast.  I just did a meander over the entire quilt  and I like how it turned out. EXCEPT. . . When I looked at the picture in my camera, I found my "humility block!"  Way too late to correct it!   I don't know how I missed it--must have been that the heat and humidity addled my brain and eyesight as well.

If you don't know about the humility block, it comes from the Amish, I believe, who deliberately make an error in their projects, so it's not perfect. Only God, they believe, is perfect. In my quilting, I never have to deliberately add a mistake--I make enough of them accidentally to keep me very humble!

Don and I will be leaving for Bulgaria and Germany in 9 days and the Friendship Star quilts will be going with us, along with all sorts of other things Jo wants us to bring.  I'm getting really excited to go on this trip!  I haven't seen Jo for 17 months except on Skype, and before that she was in Texas for nearly a year. She's my youngest child and I'd like to think that she's my baby, but she's the most independent of the 3 children.  After a week in Bulgaria, which Jo is arranging, the 3 of us will spend a week in Germany, traveling between Munich (Oktoberfest!!!!) and Frankfurt.  I can't wait! I'll try to take pictures but being in Germany during Oktoberfest may mean some more-than-usual out of focus pix!  But we'll be having a good time! 

I can't believe June and July are nearly gone! This summer has been really crazy!  But good crazy.  I've been super busy working, weeding the garden, camping with Lily, weeding, canning and freezing, working, weeding, visiting friends, weeding, and trying to find a minute here and there to relax and enjoy.

We don't have the terrible drought that much of the Midwest is having, but it's been super hot this summer. I usually run the AC between one and three days per summer, but we've already exceeded that goal this year.  And August is yet to begin.  

I have managed to sneak in some quilting projects on afternoons when it's too hot to be outside pulling weeds.  I made a set of fruity place mats for my Etsy store, Jolly Ruby, as well as a table runner similar to the table quilt I made earlier this summer. I love the bright colors of the fruits against the pure white in these place mats and I've begun a table quilt with the same fabrics.

This little runner I like because of the appliqued floral motifs.  I hope someone else likes it too.

I also have put together the two lap quilts I'll be taking to Bulgaria in September when Don and I visit our daughter. They are gifts for her host Mom and her language tutor. I"ll post pix when I get the quilting finished.

I HAVE been spending money on fabric. Don't tell Don how much--he wouldn't be happy if he knew.  I have enough fabric and patterns to keep me busy all winter and then some.  I can't wait to begin working on some of the new things I have, but I have to finish the Bulgarian tops first.

That's it.  See ya.

Ah, summer vacations

I've been at the lake in N MN for the past week, having a wonderful, relaxing time with the family. (For once, the "kids"--they're both in their 30's-- didn't get into a big fight. Yea!)  Now that we're home, the weeds in the garden are overwhelming!

Before we left, I finished a little table quilt, shown here.  I designed it myself and I think it looks pretty nice.

I listed it in my Etsy store (Jolly Ruby) tonight and I hope someone loves it as much as I do.

Speaking of Etsy, I made my first sale before we left and I was thrilled!  All proceeds go to the Jolly Ruby Fund, to assist low income disabled adults with unexpected expenses.

I also attended the school auction fundraiser where my queen sized quilt was auctioned off. I know that once an item is donated,the giver has no control over what happens, but I was seriously disappointed.  The auctioneer forgot to put it up for bid until he was reminded at the end of the evening.  Half the people had left and the rest had already spent a lot of money, so my quilt went for only $275.  I know it's for a good cause, but my heart just broke when I thought of the 60 some hours of work I put into this quilt.  Next year, I'll make something less intensive.  All in all, the auction brought in about $30,000, all of which goes to the school, and I'm very happy about that.

Now to get on to weeding and hopefully, some quilting as well.  Ah, summer!  Love it!

Favorite Things Friday

I've had a very leisurely morning since this is a day off for me.  My FTF for this week?  It's hard to pin it down. I think it's the feeling of time that I have today.  I had a great chat with my husband before he left for golfing. Read a couple of chapters in my latest novel and took time to do the crossword puzzle in yesterday's paper. I'm dressed and doing my blog work before I head for the garden to do some planting. After that I head to the garden center to spend a gift certificate Don got from his last school, and I'm going to get all the flowers needed for my pots and to fill in my perennial beds. Don't think I'll be doing any quilting today since we're leaving this evening to go to a symphony concert in Minneapolis this evening.

Both daughters called me this morning. Jo in Bulgaria to say she's had a great week and she got a great package from me today. For once, she liked all the things I put in the package, especially the pink and black headphones to wear while she's running at the gym. Tessa called to say she's finished the second interview for a job she really, really, really wants and she thinks she did well.  Fingers crossed she get an offer this afternoon.

I think my favorite thing is the sense of time I have today--time to do the things I need to do as well as the things I want to do. And no pressure to finish anything!

I've worn out my gloves!

I don't use quilt shop gloves when I'm machine quilting. Instead I bought a pair of cheap cotton gardening gloves that have black sticky dots on them.  I got them more than 7 years ago, I guess, and paid a buck for them.  About 2 years ago I wore holes in the thumbs and index fingers when I'd finished a big quilting project, so I stitched them up as best as I could. I mean, the rest of the glove was fine, so I couldn't throw them out! They cost money, doncha know?

Well, now I've really done it.  By the time I finished the last queen sized quilt I quilted, I'd worn holes in the patches on my gloves! I wasn't going to patch the patches!  After all, there's a limit to my frugality! I went to the same place, "Bargain Bill's," and of all the luck, they had more of my kind of glove and here's my brand new pair.  Don't you think they look "snazzy", as my 97 year old aunt used to say.

Because I'm so thrifty with my gloves, I indulged myself when I stopped at a quilt shop in a neighboring town the other day.  I got these bundles of fat quarters, one to make some patriotic place mats for the Fourth and other times, and the other to make something Christmasy with next fall.

The shop had a huge sale the day before I got there and they'd not had time to clear away all the sale things, so of course, I had to dig through them. I got a bunch of fat quarters for $1 each and two 1 yard cuts of the blue and yellow fabric for $5 each. Don't know what I'll do with these fabrics, but they'll look good in my stash until I need them.

And lastly, I bought yardage of chicken and egg fabrics!  I've never seen egg fabric before and the clerk said they'd had chicken wire fabric but it was sold out. :-(  These will go into a table runner and place mats either for me or for the Etsy store.  

So, with new gloves and more nice fabrics, I'm set to sew up a storm!  Gotta get downstairs to my sewing room and make some progress on my latest project.