Surfacing Again!

We're home from the Mayo Clinic and as Hubby says, he's got an extended warranty now on his transplants. It's such a long drive there, but the city is so welcoming and easy to get around in, and of course, the Mayo Clinic staff are just wonderful - ALL OF THEM! It doesn't hurt that there is fabulous fabric shopping to be had in the surrounds, either, is it?

We've been busy since we've returned, training Mayo, the puppy. She is a pretty smart little dog - or at least smarter than any other puppy I've ever had. She now know her name, can sit , come, potty and "watch me" on command. We're working on leash walking now, and sitting before going out or entering the door. She is such a little love bomb pup, too, and she just melts our hearts!

Here she is sleeping on the console of the car on the trip home with her lambchop toy:

I would say she has settled in quite nicely at her new home, wouldn't you?


If you remember, I attended a meeting of the Minnesota Quilt Guild when I was in the city, and here are a few of the vintage quilts that were shown.

I thought this border for a Dresden Plate was different, and I like it!

This Butterfly quilt has a nice border that I like, too!
This one is called Baby Bunting, but they don't know why. It's difficult to understand why, with all the points, isn't it?
Many Trips around the World reminds me of Bonnie Hunter.
I can't remember what the name of this pattern is, but isn't it just spectacular?


So today, I am working on the French Roses again. Since I didn't have all the blocks completed, I am making nine more blocks, then the borders and the backing. Hopefully, it will be able to go to the quilter tomorrow!

On the road

Well, here we are at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN for hubby's annual checkup. He sees the doctors, gets poked for blood and such and I sew! Such a deal! Actually, when we come north the car is packed mostly with my sewing machine and projects/ Some people are having stay-cations, while we are having a Mayo-cation!

The weather has been fabulous here, and we've been able to have the windows open. The other day while he went to the annual Transplant Picnic they sponsor, I took a little trip into Minneapolis/St. Paul. I visited the Textile Center first. It was well worth the trip. It just happened that while I was there, the Minnesota State Guild was having their meeting. I was privileged to get to see about 50 vintage quilts. Their speaker was from the Minnesota Quilt Project, and had SO much to share! Then I saw the Ikea exhibit, the Nothing New Exhibit, and a small exhibit about quilts with humor. They have a small shop there too, and of course, I helped out with taking a pair of hand knit socks home!

Next stop was The Fiber Studio. This shop is about 15 minutes away from The Textile Center, and is just so darned filled with fiber, I about had a fit! The owner was so nice, and since there wasn't anyone there for a while, we got to visit a bit. She showed me a technique I'd wanted to know about with silk roving and spray starch. Of course, when I left, I had a nice sack full of fun to take home with me and play with. If you are ever in the area, be sure to check this shop out!

My next stop was a quilt shop I will not name. When I was in the Textile Center if there was some other place/shop I should NOT miss while in the area. Well, this shop wasn't exactly in the area (actually 40 minutes further away from even driving back home) but they both extolled it's virtues so much, that I felt I shouldn't miss it. While it was in a cute setting (a refurbished railroad station), and the drive was nice, I was sorely disappointed. During the entire time I was there, there were only 2 other customers, and I was never greeted or spoken to at all. The fabrics were lovely, and some of the quilts on display were quite nice, but there was no "personality" to the shop. Do you know what I mean? I bought ONLY a spool of hot pink thread to work on a project I brought with me, so that gives you an idea of how uninspired I was in the shop. Oh well, maybe I hit it on the wrong day?

So today, I am going to finish up French Roses. THEN I am going to go to the Mill End with a 60% (!!!!!) off coupon and look for a border fabric. The most expensive fabric there is only $4.99 per yard to start with, and they have every maker except Moda. I usually stock up on a lot of fabric when I come here, but this year, I am only going to buy what I need.

And last, we went out to lunch Sunday and it was Puppy Daze. Can you guess what we did? We made the huge mistake of looking! When we leave here and start the drive south, we will stop and pick up our new baby, Mayo. She is a Cavachon, which is a mixed breed of a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and a Bichon Frise.



I guess Bonnie and Clyde will learn to live with her, but it will take some work to get her introduced to the family, I'm sure! She is four months old, and is almost house trained. I can hardly wait to take her home!

I'll have more pictures in the next post. I have a laptop with us,and I don't quite know how to get the pictures from the camera to the blog on this PC. I am so spoiled with my MAC at home, I forget the basics! I hope to post again tomorrow, so come back then!

A little bit of Everything!

It's been another busy week here at Quiltgranny's Shoe. I am still working on client quilts and trying to keep up with the garden as well as the routine house stuff and normal things of running a house.

SewCalGirl asked for pictures of my cats on my quilts. Well, I'm not sure if this one is what you want to see or not (grin), but here is Bonnie and Clyde (and me) asleep on the wedding ring quilt that is on my bed right now. Between the cats and the quilt, I certainly need a fan blowing on me at night!

Some of you might remember this quilt from a previous Amazing Babes birthday quilt last year. Ibby made all the blades, and the Babes sewed them together. She cut so many of them, we all ended up with enough to do our OWN quilts! LOL! I don't think Ibby's quilt is completed yet, but mine is, and so is Shirlee's. Here is Shirlee with her version.

Yesterday I made some wonderful zucchini bread from Quiltville Bonnie's recipe she shared with me several years ago (follows this post). I also made Rachael Ray's Spring Pie for dinner, and I felt like Julia Child with the wine. Some for the pie and some for me to drink while I was cooking! The pie is scrumptious, made with chicken with the potatoes on top with boursin cheese smashed into them! There are two pans of everything I made, since I sent some home to my son's house, too. Notice that I am wearing my apron from Cambria, too!

Recipes

Bonnie’s Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs

• 1 1/2 cups white sugar

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 cup vegetable oil

• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

• 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 1 (8 oz) can crushed pineapple, drained

• 2 cups grated zucchini

• 3 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

2. In a large bowl, mix oil, eggs, vanilla, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Blend in pineapple and zucchini. Stir flour mixture into zucchini mixture. Pour batter into two greased and floured 9 x 5 inch loaf pans.

3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour. Cool on wire racks.