Thursday, July 28, 2016

AQS in Syracuse







Although my quilts have been in several AQS exhibits, I've never attended one of their shows.

That was rectified with a trip to Syracuse with Jeanne, where we met up with two online friends from Canada.

From the left:  Helen Garland, Doris Lovadina-Lee, me, Jeanne Simpson.









My "Blueberry Green Teas" quilt is on the left, and the quilt on the right is "Carnival" by Robbi Joy Eklow.










Helen also had a quilt in the exhibit -- "Sign of Spring: PrimRose."












Of course, we spent a little time going through all the vendors, and I was very excited to find this John Deere fabric since it's not being produced any longer.  The vendor only had a few yards left on one bolt, and I grabbed them with visions of a quilt for a certain tractor-obsessed young nephew.



Friday, July 22, 2016

Quilting by the Lake

 
 
 













Quilting by the Lake is hosted by the Schweinfurth Art Center and held on the campus of Onondaga Community College in Syracuse.  Each summer they offer classes during the last two weeks of July, drawing participants from around the country and overseas.






This year Priscilla, Anne, and I went to QBL together and shared a suite in the dorms.


We took Carol Soderlund's class, "In The Thick Of It:  Working With Thickened Dyes." 


Carol had us create our own palette of colors in thickened dyes to use for the week.  We created lots of tools for mark making and printing.










Carol decorated this tote bag for the Friday night instructor's auction, a fund-raiser for the QBL scholarship fund.








Pat Pauly was one of the vendors on hand during the week.


















Thursday, July 14, 2016

Physical Therapy






My sore back led me  to seek out some physical therapy with Farley at the Thompson Health facility in Farmington. 

I don't know which patients get to use this "horse" but it looks like more fun than doing regular exercises!  It seems appropriate that this facility would have a horse with their close proximity to the Finger Lakes Race Track. 











The outside of the facility has great landscaping.

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Reunion Time




My high school classmates manage to get together pretty regularly.

Several of these gals meet for breakfast most Friday mornings, and this gathering included some of our out-of-state alums.







Once a year we gather at a local winery for our "reunion" and pose on the steps for our yearly photo.

 






Friday, July 8, 2016

Jelly Time



The strawberries have been very tasty this year, and it's been a challenge to not eat them all.  We managed to save out enough for a couple of batches of jelly to enjoy through the winter.

Flowers around the house







A few pictures of our flowers in June:

The first one is a lilly from our water garden that is out by the perennial gardens.










The rest of the photos are from around our deck.

In the last photo you can see that Millie is in one of her favorite spots, enjoying the shade and the flowers.




Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Garden produce




The first spinach seeds I planted didn't do very well, so I bought more seeds and tried again. 

It's been dry, so I started watering the garden, and couldn't believe how big the spinach grew.  That's a full-sized dinner plate that's holding the three leaves!



My hope was to harvest enough spinach to be able to put some in the freezer -- and I got my wish!



T





Our other "crops" -- the rows of pine trees we planted last fall -- are showing some problems.  A few of the trees have died, and a couple more are starting to get brown.  We'll have to see how they do through the summer and hope to replant in the fall.


Friday, July 1, 2016

The Adirondacks





No visit to our camp on Chase Lake in the Adirondacks is complete without  the following activities:



A Road Trip -- that crosses this lovely stream.  I don't know its name, but my parents called it "singing waters" and we used to eat picnic lunches there.



























Ice Cream Eating -- sometimes daily trips to  Good  Ol' Wishy's in Croghan are required  so that various flavors of ice cream can be sampled.















Sewing -- this trip included some jacket making, along with some Show & Tell.

Priscilla showed us a piece of Hardanger Crosswoven Embroidery.








And Genie showed us a quilt she's making, that is really set off with black and white in the sashing.