Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Antique Quilt Parade

Greetings from Bowling Green, KY

For many years I have been a member of the Midwest Fabric Study Group whose primary purpose is the study of antique quilts and textiles.  I know, Middle Tennessee is not in the Midwest, nor is Bowling Green, for that matter. But since a few of us are members of both MFSG and either the Kentucky or Tennessee study group, we combined meetings this month to enjoy the special exhibit in the Richardson Quilt Gallery in The Kentucky Museum on the campus of Western Kentucky University.

In the special quilt exhibit hall, Kentucky Museum
Most of the quilts in the museum's collection were gifts of a single person.  The quilts on exhibit range from the 1820s to the 1970s.  The exhibit changes periodically.

From the collection of The Kentucky Museum
I especially like that they display many quilts on antique beds.

Pine Burr - collection of The Kentucky Museum

From the collection of the Kentucky Museum

I love the subtle colors and fabulous chintzes in this beauty.


We also were taken to the textile storage area to see additional quilts that were not on display.  What follows is a parade of some of the quilts and detail shots.

Supposedly over 6,000 one-inch squares in this fabulous beauty



To find a local study group near you go to http://www.quilthistory.com/study/.

House Update

and a little more pink

Adjustable beds showed up at our doorstep last Wednesday.
Of course, Mr. Lakeside had to try it out immediately!


Here's the bed dressed.

Exploding Pineapple
I clearly need to make a bigger quilt!  I guess this one will just become eye candy in this room.
Speaking of eye candy, take a look at the sexy lighting in here.


We have dimmable pot lights all over the house, too.  

Making a rare appearance on the lake ...


What you can't see is the guy is peddling!
I think the sail is just for looks.

Enough on the house ... I actually got a bit more sewing done in the last two days.

Yellow Loosey Goosey column is finished (oops, no pic).
And pink Loosey Goosey is under the needle.

Loosey Goosey in progress
I've found a really helpful You-Tube tutorial for those of you who have asked.
https://deb-tuckers-studio-180-design.myshopify.com/products/migrating-geese
I googled staggered flying geese. 
 In my case I am using 4-7/8" background squares and 5-1/4" geese squares to create a 6" wide strip of geese.  Hope this helps.

I also finished the first two blocks of my Wayward Transparency mini.

Block 1 Wayward Transparency
The color is WAY off in this photo.  It is really on the pink side of fuscia.

Well, that catches you up on Life on the Lake!

Saturday, May 26, 2018

Scrappy Saturday

Where did May go?

I know I'm not the only one feeling a day late and a dollar short when it comes to May.  Where did it go?  OK, don't answer that ...

Even though I've been moving and trying to keep up with two houses, I have managed a bit of Rainbow Scrap Challenge sewing.  The color for the month is pink/rose.

I have made all the geese for my Loosey Goosey column, but have only assembled this much.

Loosey Goosey - RSC May
I still have a bit of April's LG column to finish, also ...

And today I muddled my way through the Squared Away sampler block.

My May Squared Away Sampler Block
Mari's May block


I don't know what it is about half-square triangles ... I feel so dyslexic.  Of course I made it hard for myself by reversing the floral and solid fabrics shown in Mari's sample.    And I tried to economize my effort by piecing "units" which I ended up unsewing on more than one occasion.  Not my favorite block of the series, but it's done.





Reporting my progress with Angela at So Scrappy.

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Wildlife Wednesday

He's back!

Or maybe, still here.

Resident Slug
Actually, I think he was just enjoying the gorgeous morning sunrise.

Foggy Sunrise on Dartmoor
The clouds were unusually pink this morning ...


... reflecting in the still lake water.



Sunday, May 20, 2018

The Garden


Well, the photos finally appeared in my cloud downloads so I thought I'd give you a quick view of my garden.  Every day I discover new things to enjoy in our new yard.  Below is a quiet space, sadly in need of a good cleaning, also the location of the grinder pump -- not so romantic. 

My private space
I'm hoping to use this little fenced area for raising some herbs and vegetables, safe from the deer.  Notice the rhododendron, one of many in both the front and back yards.  I discovered some other little beauties in this enclosure, too.

Columbine?
I was thrilled to find the first iris bloom ...


... then discovered another variety along the basement wall.


The patio outside my sewing room has a great view of this huge rhody ...


and a bed of peonies ...


Most of them are an ordinary pink, but I especially love this pale beauty ...


I think there is a technical term for the fuzzy/frilly center.

This may be a bed of lily of the valley ...

Lily of the valley?
What do you think?  Maybe they will be in bloom by the time I get back to the house in the morning.  We've spent the weekend at House 1, packing.  No report yet on how the inspections went on Thursday and Friday.

Oh, I did drive up to Bowling Green, KY on Saturday to attend a meeting of the Midwest Fabric Study Group.  We got to see a great collection of antique quilts in the collection of the Western Kentucky University museum.  I'll show them in a separate post.

Have a great week, Y'all!

Thursday, May 17, 2018

A Note to My Friends

I haven't forgotten you

And I am keeping up with your blogs.

This moving thing, living between two houses, never knowing where something is has taken over my life, and will continue for at least the next four weeks.  I'm sorry I haven't stayed in touch, just wanted youall to know that things are fine, even great, and I hope I have a lot of fun things to show once I resolve some computer issues that won't download my pictures from the cloud.

The Foot.  It's as healed as it's going to get.  I'm wearing normal shoes without the brace and slowly starting to walk like a normal person.  I still take it easy on rough terrain; I was even able to do an hour of gardening this morning with no ill effects.

The Knee.  Not so good.  The cortisone shot has helped during the day but the ache wakes me up at night.  I'll return to the orthodoc at the end of this month to see what he suggests. I'm thinking a little physical therapy will do the trick.

Quilting.  I actually sewed on Tuesday with the quilt group I was invited to here on the Plateau.  Spent my day working on Loosey Goosey, my RSC project for this year.  I donated 17 quilt tops to the group for their encouragement quilts.  Also did a bit of stash enabling by taking another box of fabric for everyone to pick through.

House 2.  Is now our permanent residence, though we are a long way from being completely moved. We purchased new adjustable beds to be delivered next week.   And I spent Wednesday afternoon organizing my sewing room -- well, at least repositioning boxes close to their final resting place.  We had a visit from the Welcome Committee on Monday, Dinner at the Community Club quarterly welcome on Tuesday, and dinner with neighbors on both sides last night.  If the social scene remains this active, I may never find time to sew again!

I have been discovering new things in my garden every day.  We have some absolutely gorgeous peonies, the rhododendron are in full bloom, and the iris are finally making an appearance.  There is a bed of what appears to be lily of the valley (I'm hopeful) and the Knockout roses have started to bloom.

House 1.  This is the GREAT part.  We have an offer (after two weeks on the market).  But there are two inspections today and tomorrow that could kill the deal.  If it goes through we will be completely out of House 1 by June 16.  I'll keep you posted.

So that's Life on the Lake.

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Status Report

At least it's not dead

A very nice and informative repair guy showed up yesterday morning and spent several hours assessing the refrigerator situation.  The good news:  It's not dead.  The bad news: It will be several days for the parts to arrive.

I am so thankful that a second fridge came with the house.  Since Mr. Lakeside was on the road Monday, I had to pull the fridge away from the wall far enough to plug it in.  It worked! So I was able to salvage everything -- almost.  More on that as soon as I can get my photos to upload/download from the cloud.

Fearing the chicken would not take well to re-freezing, I popped the thawing chicken into a pan of shallow water and poached it.  We had it for dinner last night and we both lived to tell the tale.


Monday, May 7, 2018

Wildlife Wednesday

On Tuesday Monday

I just couldn't wait a day to relate Monday's experience!  Especially since the day began with a failing refrigerator and food thawing in the freezer. And a mountain of boxes to unpack and a kitchen to organize.  And me, alone, to deal with it all.

As I sipped my second -- or was it my third? -- cup of coffee I caught an image out of the corner of my eye, something bounding down toward the lake.


I'm assuming it was a juvenile male.  He first surveyed the lake from the moss-covered rock promentory but apparently it did not suit his purpose because he moved on to the new neighbor's yard.


At this point I'm figuring he was looking for a drink of water.


A mallard paddling in the lake seemed to attract his attention.  So he stepped lively down to the rocks.


The next thing I knew, he was heading across the lake.


There must have been a really attractive potential mate on the other side!


A Real Slug

On Saturday I posted that I had become a slug, moving slowly through my life.  
So, what shows up on our deck Sunday morning?


A REAL slug!!!

Now I know what SLOW really is.

Saturday, May 5, 2018

I've become a Slug

Time for a change

After being relatively inactive for seven weeks, I find I have become a slug.  I haven't done anything interesting enough to post about, haven't even touched a sewing machine in over two weeks.  Only managed a few stitches on my One Monthly Goal for April, though I did sneak in some stitching time in the van on our last trip up to House 2.

Stitching on the road
At least the yellow qualifies for April's RSC, but I missed my One Monthly Goal by one side.  My goal was to finish the binding by April 14, but the weather was threatening that day so I skipped the breakfast meeting where I intended to gift it so we could leave town ahead of the storms.

Arm-chair sewing companion
My arm-chair sewing companion fit nicely on the arm of my seat as I stitched away the miles. 

I have to tell you a "funny" story about the intended recipient of this quilt.  At an earlier WOC breakfast when I was giving away the second or third quilt she jokingly said, "Just how sick does one have to be to get a quilt?"  Well, I think she went a little overboard last week when she fell and cracked her cheekbone in three places!

The boot has been off for over two weeks.  I spent the interim in a brace.

Brace
The brace provides a surprising amount of support.  Getting a normal shoe on over it is challenging, however.  It is SO nice to be able to wear regular pants!  The only thing I could get over the boot was sweat pants.  Fortunately I had three pair so I could work some variety into my wardrobe, but I think those pants are destined for Goodwill.  I don't want to be reminded ever again of why I wore them!

Good news!  Yesterday the orthodoc gave me the green light to go braceless (except in situations where I know the ground will be uneven).  However, now it's the knee that is the problem 😒  He gave me a cortisone shot and it is already feeling better.

Better news!  House 1 got listed yesterday!  More on that later.