travel

,

Spring Break - part 2 - Carlsbad

,

 We enjoyed getting out and seeing the sights around Carlsbad, NM. My brother-in-law took us to his secret pecos diamond hunting spot which thrilled P, our budding geologist.On the hottest day of our visit we toured the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The view below was from the parking lot at the caverns.On our last day my brother-in-law took us to more great spots with big views. The first stop was Sitting Bull Falls where miss P and her cousins played in the water.We had our picnic lunch there.The next stop was Dark Canyon. We were amused that my great niece read the sign as "Dark Canyon, LOOKOUT!"We hiked to Cottonwood Cave, a much less visited cave than the caverns.My brother-in-law knows all the best places to hike.We finished the day with a sunset view from "the rim" and late night star viewing from dark canyon.This really was a trip of big views. 

,

St. Joseph, Michigan in Winter

,

This weekend was a long holiday weekend for us. Both B and Miss P had Friday and Monday off. Friday we did some catching up on chores at home. Saturday, we had a tourist in our town day in Ann Arbor. We parked just north of town and walked in to Ann Arbor on a walking, jogging trail by the river. We walked up to the hospital and saw an amazing exhibit of paper cut snowflakes by Thomas Clark. Then we walked over to the Natural History Museum, for our fill of rocks and dinosaur bones. After our dinner in town I was exhausted. It is a lot harder to walk around town in subzero cold, wind, and snow than it is in warmer spring and summer weather.I have seen pictures of Michigan lighthouses covered in ice and icicles and have always wanted to see that in person. With the Saturday snowstorm and extreme cold temperatures we thought that this might be a great time to head over to the Lake Michigan and see what it was like.We went to St. Joseph to see the lighthouse yesterday afternoon. It was not dripping in icicles as I had hoped but the ice on the lake did not disappoint.The lighthouse is at the end of a long pier and the lake was frozen all the way out to the end. Where I was standing to take this picture was on a bit of an ice cliff. The usual beach line was far behind me.  The ice formations were quite impressive.I had my camera set for photography inside the museum in Ann Arbor so the first photos I took didn't turn out well but I did like the lighting on this one. After changing lenses for a wider view and adjusting the settings I did get some photos that I liked. I'm sorry the ones with the rainbow in the sky did not turn out. You will just have to trust me that they would have been GREAT!There was so much ice. B and Miss P are standing on a giant ice hill. The shoreline is far behind us.You could hear the creaking of the ice below us where it wasn't as thick. The ice formations around us were fascinating. The big dunes of ice were made of packed snow and broken pieces of ice. They looked a bit like ice concrete.Closer to the shoreline were giant balls of ice that had been trapped in the growing ice and snow.It was a beautiful sunset at the beach but one unlike any other beach sunset I have experienced before.We were remembering our visit to St. Joseph last summer when it was so hot. I was wearing long underwear, jeans, snowpants, two shirts and a sweater, winter coat, super boots, hat, scarf, and mittens and I was still cold.This morning we visited the lighthouse in Holland, MI. I'll post pictures of that tomorrow. 

,

Twenty Five Years

,

B and I took a little trip to celebrate our TWENTY FIFTH wedding anniversary!We left our truck on the mainland and took our bikes on the ferry to Kelleys Island in Lake Erie.

The island is small and we were able to ride our bikes all around and see the sites.
The glacial grooves were pretty impressive.
Our second day we took the bikes on a ferry from Kelleys Island to Bass Island. It was a bit more tourist oriented than we usually like but we enjoyed having a picnic lunch down at the campground on the south shore. We even saw a bald eagle there.
These photos were taken by the light house on Bass Island.
It was nice to have a wee bit of time away from the routine of home - and thanks to the boys for watching miss P while we were away.Now it's time to get everyone ready for the start of schools on Tuesday.

The Art Institute of Chicago

We are back from a quick trip to Chicago. This was the last weekend that the golden orb spider silk weaving would be on display. We picked up P from school on Friday and were on our way.I had forgotten how much there is to see at the Art Institute of Chicago.P and I spent a bit of time looking at the Thorne Rooms.There we are!We wandered around the museum for hours until we couldn't absorb any more. There was much that we didn't see. I guess we'll have to make another trip to Chicago one day!After a quick walk over to the lake we hopped back on the train to go back to the airport area where we had stayed the night and left our car for the day.Quick trips can be fun!

,

Big City Tours

,

Our trip south to Virginia included a few big east coast cities. The first was Boston. We stopped long enough to take a walk around Harvard and visit the Harvard Natural History Museum.My favorite exhibit there was the collection of glass flowers.Yes, these are pictures of flowers that are made of glass. "The models were created by father and son Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka, nineteenth century glass artisans who perfected their family craft. Their lineage of jewelers and glassmakers trace as far back as the fifteenth century." (from the Harvard Natural History Museum website.)They worked on the flowers from from 1887 to 1936. Truely incredible delicate creations all of glass. I also enjoyed some of the needlework like these molas.We also took a quick walk around the MIT campus which wins for "coolest building on a college campus".I wonder what you have to do to get this lab space.We also saw this sculpture on our MIT walk.From there we headed to Rhode Island. Because, well, none of us had ever been there before! (I think this means that Alaska is the only state I have not visited!) Next we drove through New York City, just because we could and stopped in Philadelphia.I hope you are not too bored with the details of our trip. We have been home a couple of days and are still dealing with the catch up at home. We have lots of garden stuff to do and the boys are packing and cleaning their rooms in preparation to move off to school later this week.It is wonderful to extend my vacation by sharing a bit of it with you.Stay tuned for a FACTORY TOUR tomorrow!

,

Maine - hiking in Camden Hills

,

Yesterday I told you about what was down hill from our campsite. Today we go up the hill.There are many trails in the park but we had limited time so we chose the trail to the highest point, of course.It was a steep climb and we were trying to make it to the top for a sunset view. Some of us got tired and waited at a spot near the top with a great view and a few wild blueberries while the boys dashed to the top.I let them take the camera so we could know what we missed.Beautiful. (Our view was similar just not from the very top.)You can see Camden there at the bottom. 

,

Maine - on the shore

,

While in Maine we camped at the Camden Hills State Park. Our campsite was a short walk from the shore.The Maine shore is very rocky.So. many. rocks.The rocks are great for climbingand skipping.I do love the places where water and land meet.I had a lot of fun taking photographs -over a thousand pictures of the trip!I'm just warning you that there might be a couple more posts on our vacation.  

,

Canada!

,

We have been traveling! Our trip started by driving east through Canada. We made a quick stop at Torontoand the bluffs just beyond.We were thrilled to leave the mosquitoes behind in Michigan and enjoyed a little wading at Sandbanks Provincial Park.We had lots of fun squishing the "seaweed" together and squeezing the water out to make balls to toss around. They were a lot like balls of felt but they fell apart again when they got wet.We stayed the night on Amherst Island and continued through Canada to Main. The scenery was lovely, especially in the "magic hour" light.We even saw a MOOSE cross the road just at dusk!Stay tuned for more from our trip. 

Instagram Photos

Narrow hand appliquéd bias strips. 1/16” quilting lines not going over the appliqué. I’m about a month in on the quilting and ALMOST finished. Whoop! Quilted with Invisalign on top and Decobob in the bobbin. Threads by @wo
This summer we watched my two oldest grand kids one day a week. Towards the end of the summer they started making projects on their own in the sewing room. They made lots of little projects from my scrap basket including pillow cases and tiny quilts
Here’s the layout with all but one block done. I’ll finish that last block when I get more of the baby poop green/mustard fabric. I put out the call and the internet provided! This top will be finished soon! This is a remake of an 1870s
I’m finally getting around to putting these stars together. I made the stars a few years ago and have been on the hunt for the perfect setting fabrics. These @carolynfriedlander prints are the perfect match for the 1800s reproduction prints in