PNQE

 

 



The Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza was held in the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center September 14 - 17.

I didn't have the opportunity to attend, and was very pleased to find a ribbon on my quilt when it was returned to me.

"Pueblos" won a ribbon for Best Longarm Machine Workmanship.

Fall Flowers

 

Our perennial gardens are trimmed and looking "spiffy" under a beautiful sky.  The sundial casts an accurate pattern from the afternoon sun.



The Russian Sage  has prospered despite the lack of rain.  The horse pasture is visable in the background.


















The fall clematis provides a cover for a pergola at the center of the perennial display.














Another view of the clematis from the grassy lane near the grapes and raspberries.













The zebra grass hides a path to the Zen-inspired gazebo garden with its winding path with a stone bench and a lighthouse-like granite column.

Snapping Turtle

One of our large retention ponds has dried up and holds only some mud and an inhabitant from prehistoric ancestry.








The turtle lifts itself from a submerged unsatisfactory winter spot and heads across the lawns and pasture to a large multi-acre body of water on the west side of our property.

Millie

Millie (our feral cat) had an open wound on her back that needed help from the vet.  It was quite a job getting her into the kitty carrier, but the vet sedated her for treatment and Millie was still sleeping five hours later.

The vet said Millie had to stay in the house for at least five days, and since she's always stayed outside, we wondered how that was going to work!


We shouldn't have worried....  Just like a "real" cat, she pretty quickly made herself at home.

Sweet Corn

We haven't been growing our own sweet corn the last few years,  and have found wonderful corn at Morrisey Farms, just a short distance from our house.

It was so good this year, that we decided to put some in our freezer for the winter and bought a boxfull.

A Priscilla Visit

We were happy to have Priscilla here for a visit, but probably the happiest was Suki. 

Priscilla is one of Suki's most favorite people, and Suki spends as much time with her as she can.

Priscilla is winding down her vending activities and is selling out the rest of the special items she has brought back from her overseas travels.  She had a sale table at the first meeting of the Genesee Valley Quilt Club.








We went for dinner at Benucci's in Pittsford Plaza, and it was very good.  (We recommend the salmon!)








The flowers on both sides of the driveway in front of the restaurant were lovely.

Tomato sauce

Millie likes to go to the garden with me but choses to rest in the shade instead of helping.













With the extreme dry conditions, we've been watering the vegetable garden regularly, and the tomato plants have been producing a bumper crop.


After canning three large batches of sauce, we still had enough to give away several bushels of both regular and roma tomatoes. 

New Driveway

Most of our driveway and parking area in front of the house was original blacktop put down in the distant past.












We had patched and sealed it many times over the years.  The parking apron was added in the early 80's.











Also, the culvert at the road which carries water under the surface had collapsed and needed to be replaced.

We bit the bullet and dug up the old and replaced the material from the base to a new surface, along with replacing the drain pipe at the road.

Peeps and Divas Play Day

Our combined group of members of the Art Quilt People (Peeps) and the Quilt Divas gathered for a play day.  Thanks to Bev for hosting  and letting us take over her barn and lawn.

There was fabric painting, stamping, monoprinting, etc, along with a lot of discharging.

It's always fun to get ideas from watching what others are trying and to swap tools.

 

Peaches and Peppers

Canning and freezing season has started!

The peach crop was hurt by frost in the early spring, so good peaches are hard to get this season.   But we were lucky to get some beautiful Red Haven peaches from our regular source, and they're yummy!







Our pepper plants are starting to produce, and these are our first stuffed peppers for the freezer. 
They are especially appreciated when you don't feel like cooking and all you have to do is thaw them.

 

Flowers in August

The hot and dry conditions have been hard on the gardens, and we've postponed efforts to keep things weeded.




Here are a few things that are blooming:




The German statice is ready to be picked for drying.









The yarrow is also great for drying.

















MIllie likes to be in the garden as long as she can find a shady spot under the basil plants.














The deck flowers have been watered regularly and are doing well.

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.

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.

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.