Home from vacation

Whew! Just home from vacation - 2012 driven miles - can you guess where I was? among other places? Yeppers, Winterset, Iowa, home of Fons and Porter. Naturally, I had to leave some cash in their shop. BTW this is a small shop and I had been told about it before visiting. It is not large at all. Winterset,Iowa is also John Wayne birthplace and also home of many covered bridges, and was featured in "Bridges of Madison County." It's a lovely small town, filled with interesting shops. I only stopped at the quilt shop.

I won't bore you (now) with my photos, but will post them soon, as I'm TIRED! Drove east across all of Nebraska, all of Iowa, across the Mississippi River into Illinois and up through Wisconsin, and back again. It was a good and safe trip, but we're glad to be home.

My poor hostas were NOT so lucky during a recent rain/hail storm. Honestly, I don't know why I even try, as they get hit every year!

I wasn't home 2 hours, until I was sewing on my strings. Also, family members gave/asked me for 3 more quilts. I'd better get busy!

What I did on my Vacation

Returning from an at-home vacation and a scenic drive through northern Colorado, I was so pleased to see this award given to me by Ruth at CountryLogCabin. Thank you, bunches. Now, one of the rules ... huh? RULES???? oh no, I'm dead!!! Everyone of the names in my side bar, as well as each of the bloggers who stop by my blog, or whose names are in my Bloglines (over 100) are also worthy of this award. Some days, each of you, have provided ME with some measure of inspiration, ideas, calm, wisdom, etc. I cannot possibly choose just a few!
When returning home, I resumed my Shirt Quilt, which called for a million flying geese. I am using the No Waste Flying Geese method, which calls for drawing lines but I decided the last step of 'drawing lines' could be eliminated by drawing the line ONCE on my machine bed, instead of on each of the many squares. I keep my eye on the corner of the square and that right line, drawn 1/4 inch from the center line. Saves me drawing on 100s of squares and the square is still sewn straight. Works for me, and the line eventually wears off.


I'm very pleased with this quilt, and have used all Mission Shirts as well as pieces left over from shirts I've made for my husband. He needs extra tall, and likes snaps on his shirts, so I've made most of his shirts. I especially like the randomness in the border. Again, thanks to Bonnie of www.quiltville.com for all her GREAT ideas! In my last post I mentioned her book was out -- well it's not quite out, it's 'almost' out, and not yet released. I'm already placed my order! Yeahhhh!

The lower photo (above) shows a closer view, where I've sewed on a shirt label -- it adds a lot to the character, and used several more in the project, including one that says "Handcrafted by Elaine Adair" ... you know, those labels we've ordered to put in our special gifts we made?

Our driving trip through Northern Colorado was lovely, fresh, beautiful! But we enountered a lot of rain and fog, which turned into 3-5 ft. of snow, making our planned drive to Estes Park impassable! Uhhhh, we flatlanders forgot about that!

The damage caused by the Pine Bark Beetle is devastating, destroying millions of acres of Pine Forests. Apparently, there is no reasonable solution, other than time.

You can figure why a quilter would love this rock formation photo. Looks like quilting lines to me!
We drove what is called the "Poudre Cache" route, starting from Ft. Collins, going west to Walden, around down to Granby, then hopefully through Rocky Mountain National Part to Estes Park (where we couldn't get to, due to snowfall). The last photo is just one I liked, especially the reflection in the mirror. This was going to Waldron, CO, a high plateau with many fields of hay, cattle, and FLAT.

After this vacation, I believe I've reached a new 'plateau' in my own life. The one where one must admit, "it's REALLY nice to sleep in one's own bed!"