Traveling in June

I did a fair amount of traveling at the beginning of June.  School let out and maybe two days later we headed to San Diego.  My cousin had gotten married in April and they were having a reception. The reception was just a huge party in the park that was very casual.  It was great to just relax, hang out, eat, play games and not have to worry about being dressed up.  It was also a great time to stay with and visit my sister-in-law who conveniently lives in the burbs of San Diego.

The photo below is of:  my dad's wife, my dad, Aunt, and the groom and bride.

After we returned home, two days later my guild had a trip to Michigan State University to look at a quilt exhibit there (part of the Quilts and Human Rights exhibits).  We also had a chance to take a behind the scenes tour of their quilt storage.  The curator had pulled The Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue quilt for us to see.  It was really quite interesting (and some parts were a bit shocking and funny).

My friend and I had decided to make a road trip out of our travels since I needed to be in Indianapolis two days after the MSU trip.  So, we traveled to Toledo and made a stop at The Toledo Museum of Art.  I highly recommend a visit there if you are ever in the area - it's free and the parking is cheap!  Their collection is really great and they have a whole building dedicated to glass art, too.

From Toledo we traveled to Indianapolis.  I participated in the Indianapolis location National Kidney Walk in honor of my nephew.  My brother and his family, and some of my sister-in-law's family also participated.

On the way home, we stopped at the Albanese Candy Factory and Outlet Store in Merrillville, IN .  It smells like gummy bears, in the PARKING LOT!  You can also buy gummy bears by the flavor... I'm a cherry girl.  Need I say more?

It was a great time!  Although, after all of the traveling I was happy to be back home and sleeping in my own bed.

We Took a Vacation

In June, we took a trip.  I had a big "0" birthday and decided that I wanted to take a vacation trip to celebrate.

It just so happened that my SIL was traveling to Europe while we were on our vacation.  She wanted/needed a bag that she could carry cross body, having a zip at the top, and also having an outside zip pocket that she could stow her camera in.  I volunteered to make her a bag.  The bag I made is the Daytripper by Erin Erickson of Dog Under My Desk.  Erin doesn't pay me to promote her patterns, I just do because I like how they all turn out and find that they are really well written with tons of photos.  I have a lot of her patterns because I am always pleased with this one.  

Of course, I didn't really consider the cost of the materials when I told my SIL I would make it.  She told me she would pay for materials, but in my head I thought that I would already have most of them.  Nope, I ended up buying fabric and zippers and some interfacing, too.  The long and short of it is that this bag is not cheap to make ($50 in materials - unless you have some sort of wholesale connection or someone has gifted you with lots of fabrics and interfacing), but it has lots of room and comes together so nicely.  

Anyway, a pic of my SIL and her bag on vacation (which I put in the mail as I was driving out of town for my vacation… procrastinator, I am) :

My husband and I started our trip by heading to Lafayette, IN.  My uncle lives there and had been wanting us to visit.  So we visited for a bit and took him out to lunch.

Then, we headed to Indianapolis, IN.  We made a stop at Crimson Tate::Modern Quilter.  This shop is a.w.e.s.o.m.e!  There are no shops local to me that carry this much modern fabric.  I was in love from the moment I walked in.  If you're in that area and have the time, I highly recommend stopping.

We tried to go to another shop with car memorabilia, for my husband, but they have closed their doors since the last time that my husband was there.

Then it was on to Cincinnati, OH.  We stayed at a Hampton Inn, near the Cincinnati Zoo.  I wanted to mention it because the hotel was very nice!  Also, the employees seemed to just be so happy and like they truly enjoyed working there.  It struck me very positively.

We spent a day at the Cincinnati Zoo.  It was such a nice zoo.  Very pretty and nice to walk around.  We ended up at the giraffe area just as they were doing a thing… I don't know what they called it, but you could pay $1 and feed the selected giraffe a cracker.  We both did it, but didn't have the husband take a photo when I was feeding the giraffe.  It was fun and different.

Instead, you get a photo of me petting the tortoise!  We don't seem to get these closer encounters at the zoos in this area.

Once we left Cincinnati, we headed to Niagara Falls, ON.  (With an overnight stop on the way)

Niagara Falls was beautiful!!  If you have never been there, I would recommend adding it to your bucket list.  We took a tour that took us around to see some different sights and we did the boat tour where you get to go right up to the Falls (wearing the rain ponchos, of course).  Niagara Falls, ON has a great tourist bus system, too.  Make sure to take advantage of it if you travel to the Falls.  

When I came home, I sewed myself a bag.  This is the Snap Tote by bitterpurl, available to be purchased on Craftsy.  It didn't end up being as large as I imagined, based on the "tote" in the title, so I am carrying it as a purse.  (Granted, I should have payed attention to the measurements in the pattern before buying it… )  I made myself a little matching coin purse zippy wallet thing, too.

Since we've been home from vacation, not too much has been happening.  We had a bad storm last week, with a confirmed EF-1 tornado that touched down within miles of our home.  The bad part was, it was at 10-ish at night, so there was no real way to see what was coming… they set off the emergency sirens based on rotation viewed on the radar and it was only later that they were able to confirm a tornado, based on damage.  We ended up having no power for 40-ish hours (luckily, we have a generator that we used to run the refrigerator and deep freeze), and this puncture hole in the back of our garage.  We are so thankful that our home is in one piece and that we were able to stay safe. There were many trees around that that were just uprooted and tipped over, due in part to all of the rainy weather we had.

I'm hoping to be back to this space a little sooner the next time :)

It's Been a While....

I don't know that I've been so busy, but I sure haven't posted for a while!

I went on spring break.  We visited California... my SIL lives outside of San Diego and my aunt lives near Disneyland.

I went on a Segway tour of San Diego:

It really was a lot of fun and no one wrecked, either!  I decided that if I lived in a metro area, I'd have a Segway to ride around :)

I also went to a discount fabric shop by my aunt's house.  I had gone there two years ago, also.  I went a bit crazy....

Some of these pieces,  I already have a plan for and some I don't.... I've been wanting to get them organized with my other fabrics, but I wanted to take photos and share them, first.  Mainly, I just couldn't resist.  I think I ended up paying an average of about $4/yd for the fabrics and there are a few pieces that are even organic cotton.

What else have I been doing?  hmmm...  Well, I went on a quilt retreat weekend with the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild.  We went to a place in Racine, Wisconsin called the Siena Center.  I had a good time getting to know a bunch of the other guild members.  My friend, Emily, was kind enough to let me pick her up and ride along with me.  She thought that I was doing her a favor by giving her a ride to the retreat.  Really,  I was delighted because then I didn't have to arrive all by myself, especially since I've never been there before and didn't know the routine.  

I know there is so much more to tell, but I'm getting a bit foggy (it being all of 9:30 pm and all....).  I am counting down the days until the end of the school year, and I'm getting ready to write along list of all the things I would love to accomplish over the summer!  I probably won't get even half of them done, but it will at least give me some direction.

Catching Up...

There are so many things I need have wanted to blog about and just haven't managed to make the time.  So, in no particular order....

I made these baskets for my friend as part of her baby shower gift:

they doubled as centerpieces:

I'm still working on finishing the quilt that matches these baskets.  It's pieced and the back is sewn together, I just haven't managed to get it quilted yet. 

We took a trip to Las Vegas for my husband's birthday (not that we really need any excuses to visit Las Vegas):

I participated in a RATZ (Rapid And Tiny Zakka) swap.  This the first sewing swap I have participated in.  We made needlebooks.  The one I made turned out a bit wonky zakka :) 

I also participated in a modern art challenge with the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild. Each participant chose a small print of modern-ish art that they liked/represented them and also included a small (FQ or smaller) piece of fabric that represented their style. Then, we threw them in a clothes basket and drew another out.

This is the quilt that I made for my partner, inspired by this Charley Harper print.

This is the quilt that I received. You can see my inspiration art piece (Van Gogh) in the photo, although the print is upside down.

I love this quilt that Emily (no blog, but here is her flickr )made for me.  Don't mind the other quilts above that I didn't crop out, even though they are beautiful, too.

I think this pretty much catches me up on stuff that I wanted to say/show! 



Summerfest in Milwaukee

I know it is really hard to tell, but that figure standing to the right of the #1 post, with the microphone, that is Bon Jovi.

My husband and I went to Summerfest last Thursday, June 25th, to hear Bon Jovi perform. We had a great time, even if it was a bit hot. I even had a couple of adult beverages, which I almost never do (Leinenkugel Berry Weiss.... mmm...).

There was an opening band, yet when Bon Jovi came out to perform, they played for 2 hours! My husband was so happy because they played a lot of their older songs. The band seemed like they were just having such a good time out there...maybe because they are not actually on tour...so it's like getting extra credit or something.

We wanted to stay after Bon Jovi and hear some of the other bands. However, by the time that Bon Jovi finished and we made our way out of Marcus Amphitheater, we were just ready to head back to the hotel.

That was another experience.... our hotel was not in downtown Milwaukee because they were all booked. So, we couldn't just hop on the bus. We had to take a taxi from our hotel...and they were slow in coming. Then, we walked to one of the designated taxi areas after the concert and there were no taxis to be found! We ended up walking a couple blocks to a different street and luckily found a taxi.

The next day we went to the Milwaukee Zoo, which I will make another post about in a...well, soon.

Remember that Trip to Las Vegas?

This is a photo of us when we went to Las Vegas for that wedding. It was taken on the balcony of the Stardust Suite at the Orleans Hotel and Casino. Kinda nice, especially with the building/lights in the background. Just thought I would share.

Snowmobiling in Wisconsin

Thursday morning we drove to Wisconsin for 2 1/2 days of snowmobiling. Actually, I should say that Tim drove and I was a passenger. We went to a little town in Boulder Junction and stayed at a place called the Boulder Bear Motor Lodge. It was just a small scale hotel...nice, but not a ton of amenities.

This was only my third ever trip to go snowmobiling, but the first time we went to Wisconsin. Usually we got to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The first trip I ever took was disastrous for a number of reasons and would take too long to go back over them. The last trip, not as bad, but I forgot my contacts and couldn't wear my glasses under my helmet because they kept fogging up. I could see, but not so much, and that didn't make it as fun as it could have been.

This trip, I remembered my contacts, had my own helmet, and all was well on my part. We rented a snowmobile for me, similar to the one pictured in the photo above (and no, I did not drive around hanging off the side like the model). The first day and a half of riding were pretty much fine. The second full day was alternately crappy and okay. The snow was getting thin, bare and pretty dirty in some spots, which didn't make for good riding in those areas.

The thing I liked most about Wisconsin vs. Michigan is that there were more places to go along the routes (restaurants and such). The thing I didn't like is that a lot of the trails in WI follow with-in site of roads, which make it not quite so scenic. In Michigan the trails go through some national forest areas and such, making them much more scenic and peaceful.

Anyway, it was a good trip, but I am glad to be home and sleeping in my own bed tonight.