What I've been doing.

The last several weeks have been busy doing many things, but not much sewing. We took two short vacations - long weekends, really. The first was to the Charlevois, Mi. area where we stayed at Ron's sister's cottage. The first night daughter Kim and family stayed with us, arriving in a really bad storm. The next morning she, GD Tina, who is 5, and I spent 1/2 hour in a really cute quilt store right off the main drag. It was family owned, and grandpa told Tina he needed to start her own stash, so she must pick out a fat quarter that he gave her, put in a bag for her and everything. They were so sweet! I did pick up a few things there, but I forgot what they were. When we got out of the shop, we saw Ron sitting on the end of a park bench right off the sidewalk on the main drag. Next to him was 8-month-old Aidan in his stroller. They were watching the traffic and people go by. When Ron's head turned, Aidan's head turned. It was just too cute! Ron said if women came by and talked to Aidan he gave them a big old cheezy smile.
The other vacation we took was to Lafayette, Ind to visit my sister and husband. The guys golf and we do our thing. We visited garage sales, thrift shops, stores, went through some open houses, had long lunches - just generally had a very enjoyable, relaxing town. I picked up a large jigsaw puzzle - 750 pieces - from a garage sale. It was a Paul Landry print called "Aunt Martha's Autumn Heirloom". I just love the picture and wondered if prints were available. yes they are. $175 and $550. I think I'll just enjoy doing the puzzle each fall. We put much of it together there, and transferred it pretty well home again. I have it about 3/4 done.
One of the places we visited was a quilt shop in an old, old church in the country. They had fixed it up really cute and had some beautiful things out. They must really love civil war repros. 3/4 of the quilts and fabrics were in those colors and patterns. It was rather depressing, really. I saw a few Christmas things, a few baby things, a few 1930 repros, but no fall colors, nothing bright like Amy Butler. I was a little disappointed and didn't buy a thing.
My big find, though, was one afternoon working at the Thrift store. Sister Donna said two tubs of fabric came in during the afternoon, and we looked through it together. She isn't a quilter but does sew lots of things for her grandkids. We had soooo much fun! I came out of there with several things, much of it is pictured below. A few are now mixed in my fat quarter stash and are now anonymous. There were a few lengths of fabric:















And then there were all of these Laurel Burch prints. Some were fat quarters that hadn't been opened. I love them!

It makes me kind of sad to think of someone who loves fabrics and quilting and can no longer do it, or passed away and all these things were donated. Not too sad to buy them however. I also got 2 yards of 14 count aida cloth - all of this for $15. I'm still ecstatic!

I'm now working on a summer wall-hanging. I have another one 1/2 finished or so, then on to some fall things. My sewing group had it's first get-together yesterday. It was fun to reconnect.

You all have a great weekend and thinks for visiting my blog. Rhoda