Yes...it's really me!

Yes...it's really me.....posting something on my poor, neglected blog.  It is hard to believe I used to post every day when I began blogging.  Now, with Facebook, it seems much easier to keep in touch with folks there, but I am thinking I will attempt a once-a-week post here as a compromise.  So......here is my latest news.

Our area of Delaware was very lucky during that vicious storm named Sandy and so was my daughter's area of NJ......just a minor power flicker there but no loss of power or wind and water destruction.  I actually left the area the day before it hit and headed to the Amish area of PA with two other gals (Michelle and Kathy) for our annual quilting retreat.  The money we'd paid for the house rental was non-refundable at that point, but the owner of the rental house let us get in a day early for a reduced rate for that extra night.  There were to be 6 of us, but the other 3 never made it up there. First they couldn't come up on the planned arrival day as the storm was raging by that time and travel was difficult...and then because they had family members who were without power (and some even had to leave their homes and come stay with one of the gals).  It was unfortunate that they had to stay home but we understood why.  Our hometown in NJ is still without power....but some of our friends from the area have managed to let us know their homes weren't damaged.  The devastation in many areas of my home-state of NJ is just heartbreaking.  I pray for all who are faced with such ruin in their lives.

So......as for our retreat, one of the gals (Michelle) has done a very good post about it with nice photos and rather than repeat all of what she said, I am going to give you the link to her post and her photos at the end of this post.  I will add that I did a good bit of shopping...fabrics and also some Christmas shopping.  I also got a lot accomplished in the way of sewing......

I got the "flimsy" assembled for a cottage block swap in which I participated a couple of years back...

I also got fabric for binding two quilts...one that Michelle had finished quilting and returned to me on the retreat (will show photos when finished binding it...she did a beautiful job, as always, with the quilting)...and also the binding for a fall-themed quilt top I gave her to quilt.  That one was a "jelly roll race" quilt with a fall-fabric-pieced back.  I really like it a lot.

I also finally finished binding a set of quilted placemats.  I'd bought the already-quilted, reversible fabric a couple of years ago on a retreat and now have them done......the matching runner has its binding cut and will be finished this week. YAY, ME!!!  Here is what they look like....

One of the nights, I had Michelle show me some of the quilt photos she had on her laptop.  One thing led to another and she showed me a very easy, quick quilt that is a nice way to feature a "focus" fabric.  (She told me the name of the gal who provided the idea and I think her webpage is called Maryquilts.com)   I decided I wanted a winter-themed quilt done that way and chose the fabrics while on retreat AND completed the top in a few hours.  I am going to work on simple machine quilting of it myself since it's not huge.  It will be a wall hanging for the next couple of months although it is large enough to be a throw, also.  This shows part of it.........winter birds on snow-covered branches of holly. The brown fabric bands are pinecones.  I really love it!  (Might show up better if you click on it to enlarge it.)

We do a gift exchange on the retreat and I was lucky enough to get something Michelle made....a handy sewing tote with handles and loads of pockets inside as well as a zippered section on the front.  She filled it with candy and other goodies, but here is a photo of it with some sewing things inside it.  This will get a lot of use.

Here are some photos of things I bought on the retreat.....I didn't show photos of the Christmas gift items.....just some of the other "doo-dads" and the fabrics, of course.  The bear is a Jim Shore bear made by Boyd's bears.  It is cute, isn't it?  I think I need to give it an Amish name and will give that some thought today.  The 4-seasons' bird panel will be cut apart and made into 4 skinny, quilted wall-hangings.

 Okay...so click HERE for Michelle's post about the retreat as she did a better job of taking pictures during the week than I did.....but she didn't have one from our wine and cheese night (with a wine from a local winery there...which was very good).......so I'll post that one!  OH, yes...and one more photo of Michelle in a rocking chair on the front porch of the house while she waited to take a picture of one of the Amish buggies as it went by (which is posted on her blog).

The rental house....

I realized I didn't take many photos of the retreat house we rented two weeks ago...guess that's because the owners have many good shots of it online at the site from which we rented it.  This house is large.......5 regular bedrooms and 2 loft bedrooms....a front porch with rockers and an upstairs balcony......3 full bathrooms and a very nice yard with lots of seating and a fire pit that we didn't use but had intended to (just never got around to it).  THIS is the site that tells about the house for any who might be interested in it....would make a great spot for a large family vacation or for another group to do a quilters' retreat. (If you have a group that decides to rent it, tell them Pat and the gals from Delaware sent you!!! We don't get anything for a referral but at least they'd know we liked the house enough to recommend it.)  Here are a few photos I did take while there......(click to enlarge)....captions beneath each photo.

 

This was the view when pulling out of the driveway.  Many of the immediate neighbors are Amish families and an Amish lady next door had a very lovely gift shop with beautiful items she (and others) made.

 

The front porch of the house.....which we didn't use.  We were either busy sewing or shopping!!! I guess we need to stay there longer to make use of the firepit and the front porch.

 

Some Amish children walking home from school.  One of the Amish one-room schoolhouses was a few doors away from us.  I always love watching the schoolkids go by.......all carrying those lunch coolers now.  This road has a good bit of traffic, so the "lead" child wears a safety vest.  I also notice that she had the little guy carry HER lunch cooler, too!  Other years, I've not noticed any lead child doing that and I found it kind of funny to see.

Lots of projects......

Thanks to all who took the time to look at the many photos in my previous post.  It has become a fun part of the whole Amish quilt trip experience to report back to you on what was purchased and put into that "bottomless" Amish shopping bag!  lol    But...I don't want you to think all we did was shop. Actually, we crammed the shopping into a couple of very brief excursions and all were within about 15 minutes (or less) of our rental house.  Hours and hours were spent using the GO cutter and sewing.  (In fact, all of us ended up with backaches before the week was over from sitting at the kitchen table for so long....and some of us even switched out to some folding chairs that were more comfy than the kitchen chairs!  Not that we are getting old or anything, but.......)   Below are some photos of items that were made during the week.  NO photos of items that were started but not completed and there were also several of them that went home ready-to-finish.

The photos should enlarge if you click on them.  We made several rag rugs and several zipper bags that will be used as Christmas gifts.  This photo is a collection of some of what was made by all of us......in addition to the bags and rugs, there were rope hot pads, coasters, stars for a memorial quilt project being done on another blog, a small wall-hanging, placemats and runners.   Raggy squares for 3 raggy quilts were also cut on the GO and the gal who cut them has since assembled them when she returned home as well as a few more rag rugs cut but not sewn there.

The girls hard at work.....and the table is actually a little bit neater in this photo than it was at other times! 

A close up view of some of the projects seen above in the first photo.

Sherry with one of the rag rugs she made.  She also cut out two more with beautifully coordinated fabrics that will match her master bathroom/bedroom.

My rope hot pad close up.  It was my first attempt so it is a little messier than I'd like, but now that I have the hang of it, I'm sure I could get it neater if I made another one.     Oh....for those who asked about the wine in the last post and were not able to make out the name,  it was called Quilters' Delight and is made and marketed only in PA.  There was no way a group of quilters could walk out of the winery and NOT buy some of it with a name like that!!!

My bottomless Amish shopping bag.....

Those of you who have followed my blog for a couple of years know that I have this wonderful Amish-made shopping bag that I take on my annual quilting trip.  It always fits so many terrific goodies inside it....and my blog readers always look forward to seeing what it brings home each year. SO.....here is that post.  It is very photo-intensive (with each photo having a caption under it...and I think they might be clickable to view larger).  IF Blogger doesn't cooperate and let me post them all in one post (or won't let me get a caption underneath each photo if I have too many), I will have to split this up into two posts, but...let's see what happens.

This is a little jointed bear...made by a gal up in the Amish area who makes purses and other things to sell in shops.  This little guy needs a name, so all suggestions are welcomed.  He is sitting on the edge of the shopping bag, as you can see.

Oh, look...that nameless little bear popped into a second photo...sitting with some fabric and an interesting little book about Amish one-room schools.  One of the fabrics is a very nice polka-dotted 108" wide backing fabric that was only $10.95 a yard...a real buy!

I enjoy the nice Amish calendars I find in PA each year.  The photos for each month are very peaceful and I even save the calendars at the end of the year so I can continue to enjoy the photos.

Some batik fabrics....purchased to make a zippered bag which I'm hoping to make in the next day or two.

Oh, look...it's more fabric and some hand-quilting thread.

Last year I purchased a nice, wooden handmade 48" wide quilt hanger at one of the Amish shops.  I got a small one this  year. It is 14" wide and I can easily make some miniature wall-hangings for it...maybe one for each season or holiday?

What a surprise to find more fabric popped out of that shopping bag!

Here we have two cinnamon-scented mats (made by the Amish).  One is for me and one is a gift.  The little sign is a gift, too, for a young couple I know.

I didn't want to open the box and unwrap this as I might not get it wrapped properly again.  It is a gift for a friend who loves dachshunds. She and her husband are very kind and let us stay at their house during the Hurricane in August and when I saw this (it's a bank from Pottery Barn), I had to buy it for her, so....it squeezed itself into the shopping bag, too.

This is another gift for someone for Christmas...from the Pottery Barn outlet, also.  It is a 30-hour birch bark candle and a nice wooden pedestal.

 This looks very strange but it's the most fun piece of jewelry I've seen and I bought it for ME.  It's a "twistlet".  You can wear it many ways as a necklace and also use it as a bracelet or a scarf holder.  I think I will do an entire post on it sometime soon.  I wore it today as a necklace and got a lot of positive comments.  You can bend and twist it every which way...it's almost as much fun as playing with a toy!

This is an electric warmer that melts wax, scented tarts.  It has a pineapple design on it which you can see if you look closely.  My husband has already enjoyed using this in our house.

 Speaking of my husband, he loves the many wonderful Amish-made food items available at the Canning Company and from Kitchen Kettle Village near the house we rented...so I brought several items home for him.......relishes, pickles, jellies, salad dressings, brandied cherries...and I know I also bought a scone mix, but I somehow forgot to put that in view of the camera.

And here we have a large head of cabbage grown on an Amish farm (already cut up for cole slaw today) as well as some super-delicious raisin bread baked at the Bird-in-Hand Bakery and a nice hunk of homemade cheese purchased at one of the Amish farms.  I also got some homemade root beer there but drank it before I thought to take a picture of the bottle.  It is excellent!

 Gee..what is this that came out of the bag?  It looks to be a bottle of wine, but....is it empty?  Hmmmm....how did that happen?  Be sure to look at the name of the wine on the label and it might give you a clue about who emptied the bottle!

Now..this looks crazy but there is a story behind it.  I happen to like a lunch meat called Lebanon Bologna.  I know...I know...the stuff isn't good for me.  I rarely buy it here as the price is more than I wish to pay but one of the Amish markets (one that was seen in the movie Witness....Zimmerman's in the town of Intercourse) had it on sale for the amazing price of $2.99 a pound, so I bought two packages.  One will go in the freezer and one I have already been enjoying.     NOW......didn't that Amish shopping bag do a great job again this year?   Don't think all we did was shop, though.  We did a good bit of sewing and I'll do some posts soon to show you some more of our week of fun in PA.   Thanks for sticking with me for this long, photo-intensive post.  My blog readers are the best!  (OH...and please remember to suggest a name for my cute little bear!)

Soon.....very soon........

I know that some of you are anxiously awaiting my now-annual post showing what I managed to stuff into that Amish shopping bag during my 5-day quilting trip to the area of Lancaster, PA.   Well....in another day or two, I'll have that post ready.  The shopping bag did a marvelous job this year....just wait until you see how much it carried home for me!   (Be ready for a photo-intensive post!!!)   For now, this is just a photo of one of the Christmas gift quilts I made (all cut with my GO cutter) hanging on the front porch of the rental house.  I had it in mind to take some photos there of quilts on the fence, but the type of fence that was there didn't really lend itself to that......so we improvised.  Thanks, Kathy, for helping me with my quilt pictures!

One finished project.....

We are having a wonderful time on our quilting trip......very productive in both sewing AND shopping.  Here is one of my finishes....a small wall-hanging that will go on the wall in my kitchen when I return home.  Many more photos coming in a couple of days!

Off to the Amish quilt shops.......

Tomorrow (Monday) is the start of our 3rd annual quilting trip to the Lancaster, PA, area.  A small group of us gals rents a house for 4 nights and we shop and sew and eat and have a grand time! I wonder what I'll put in my Amish shopping bag this year?  (Those of you who follow my blog know that this bag always brings back an amazing array of pretty things, and I expect it will be no different this year!)

Retreat sewing project.....

Most of our time in the Amish area of PA was spent (as you have already seen) shopping the fabulous fabric shops in that area. BUT....we decided to have a sewing challenge. We were each to buy two fat quarters and then use my GO! cutter (which I'd brought with me) and those fat quarters to make something small....a candle mat....small table topper...pillow cover, etc. and cut the pieces with my GO! cutter and the dies I had there with me. I got up early the morning of our sewing day and doodled a few designs that could be made with the dies I had there. Oddly enough, three of the five of us chose the same design. (Of course, everyone could have designed their own, but two of them liked one of the designs I'd "doodled" and two did designs of their own.) Everyone loved the speed and accuracy of the GO! cutter! Here are photos of each gal's work. (Sorry that there are safety pins in many of them and batting sticking out....but they weren't yet quilted when I took the pictures.) You really need to double click on each photo to be able to appreciate the fabric choices!

Linda's (which is now a 16" pillow cover...gift for her daughter, I believe, as her daughter loves snowmen). Silly Linda was hiding here!
Prue's....which will be used in her new house (she is moving in another 10 days). Hers is also a pillow cover.Sherry's.....which looked super after quilting but I didn't get another photo of it. It is another pillow cover!Kathy's...not sewn together all the way here yet....but she tells me it is now finished and hers is a pillow cover, also.And mine....at first to be a candle mat but now will be a pillow cover, too. Notice the star point that looks like it's cut off (on the left). It actually is not cut off, but the red flower part of the yellow fabric SO closely matches the red background fabric that it just blends together at first glance. However, when you see it in person, it actually looks like the little flower is appliqued in place at the end of the point.....kind of neat-looking and you can see that if you double click on the photo. I didn't get as much of mine done that day as I was helping with the GO! cutter.....but I love the fabrics I chose and will finish it this weekend and buy a pillow form to "stuff" in this cover very soon and will enjoy this colorful addition to the pillows on my living room sofa.We had fun sewing together on this rainy day and then went out for a nice dinner together as it was our last night there. We have already booked a rental house for the same week next year. Yippee!!!! (A different house...owned by the same people.....but closer to two of the fabric stores......hmmmmmmmmm.....might be dangerous!!!)

Some photos near Lancaster, PA.....

These are a few of the photos I took last week when we were on our quilting/fabric shopping trip in the Amish area of PA.

I love to watch the Amish youngsters walk to and from their one-room school house (and I get teased by my quilting pals about that), BUT...this year I did manage to get a couple of photos of them from a distance. (Click on them once or twice to see the photos in greater detail.)Yes...they are each carrying a 6-pack cooler.......guess it's the best thing for the wonderful, big lunches I'm sure are made for them each morning.An Amish man taking his produce to be sold or maybe to be used at one of the many restaurants in the area that serve delicious dishes! Can you see how large the cabbages are in the back of the cart?A woman getting ready to open her shop one morning.Looks funny to see this in a "No Parking" area....but that just means no cars right there....horses and buggies are permitted. This was by the back entrance to Zook's Fabric Store.Also outside there, this lady was unloading her little ones from the buggy. Notice the little guy off to the left. He was doing his own thing and not listening too closely to his Mama or his sister! I think Mama might have been wiser to get him out of the buggy last...instead of first.But.....it all had a happy ending as Mama got all three of them shepherded into one of the shops before any cars came near to the little guy.Oh...and I had to stop by an Amish produce stand and get a large cabbage for my hubby like I did last year. Here is my granddaughter holding it. It was larger than a basketball and cost only $1.25 for the whole head. The stand was run on an honor system where I just put the money into an old coffee can that was on the countertop of the stand. There is something so appealing about the simplicity of that!We did spend a good part of one day working on a sewing project, so I will show those photos in my next post. I hope you enjoyed these glimpses of Amish life.