Back from Minnesota...Greeley Gardens, and quilting

 I left on June 6th for my nephew Seth's wedding.  What a beautiful wedding, the arrangement above is one of the bouquets from the wedding.  The bride was stunning.  They are two of the nicest young people you would ever want to meet.
After the wedding my sister invited us to her new lake home up in mid Minnesota.  We stayed for almost a week.  My sister and her husband are the best hosts!

It was so nice to be with family again, as we are so scattered about the country.  This is their lake home where I had the pleasure of staying for a week of rest and relaxation, and allot of visiting!

 

Some of the highlights of the week, reading down by the lake. My favorite spot to read or enjoy the birds, and watching the jumping fish, whilst sipping a  glass of wine, and sometimes just listening to nature and the silence. 

 

Fishing, of course!  My nephew, a very funny individual, and a great fisherman to boot!

My sister and I went kayaking, but I did not get a picture of that.  Sandy has one, and if she sends it my way, I will add it to this post. We also played board games, sat around the fire, the mosquito hatch was not yet in full bloom, some swam and boated, tubed  and I don't know what else, as the younger folks stayed up to midnight almost every night.  I was dead tired around 9pm, which is later than I usually stay up.  I did brave it two nights however and stayed up to midnight. It took me two weeks when I returned home to recuperate.

Also, the neighbors had an estate sale!!!!Several of us walked over and bought a few treasures.  I will show you what I bought later on in this post.

We did a whole lot of sittin and rockin, with coffee in hand on the front porch.! Some had stayed up too late the night before.

 

Thank you Sandy and Kevin for the wonderful time at your lake home!!!!!! You will build many memories in this new house.

 

GREELEY GARDENS

Dennis and I went to the garden tour in Greeley, which is 22miles south of where we live.  Some of the gardens had local artists, painting a scene from the various gardens, that they then sold to the public.  They also had band members from the area high school, playing their string instruments.  What a peaceful way to enjoy the labors of the gardeners.  I will include some of the highlights of our garden tour. This first picture is of the artist through an old door that this gardener used to add architectural detail to the garden.

The gardens were all so spectacular, too many pictures to show.  But we had a great day, and we walked away with many good ideas for our garden at home.  This was us at the end of the tour.  The temperature was 100 degrees, might even had been 103 that day.  We are sitting in the shade, on the wooden back porch with the people who own this garden.  Well, I am ready for the next one! Not much life left in the old boy after temps like that!

 

 

SEWING ROOM

OK, now I will tell you all what I bought at that estate sale!  Another featherweight.  What a find.  It was born in the 1930's and is in mint condition.  Had the case  and accessories with it.  I had it mailed to my home in Nunn and it came in the same condition.  My dear brother Mike, bless his heart, mailed it for me as I could not due to having to be at the airport before the Fed Ex opened.  Well anyway, there is a story to this, Mike put the sewing machine in the back of his vehicle, and it was locked up tight.  In hot humid Minnesota.  When we opened up his car, it was like a blast of mildew smell.   I went on line to study what could be causing this smell.  Back in the 30's, the cases these sewing machines came in were made of, a black vinyl type material, but the glue they used was animal based, hence the smell.  I also read that the original wool felt pads underneath the sewing machines can also cause this odor.  I did find out that mine was the case.  The sewing machine is fine, I took it all apart and cleaned it up.  That's what is so much fun about these featherweights, is they are so interesting to dismantle, and put back together.  The case is in the garage, and a few days of UV light from the sun is supposed to take care of the odor. 

The machine on the left is the 1930's model, and the one on the right is the 1950's model. I guess I am going to have to get busy and sew another hoodie for my new machine.

Well, anyway, I have been working on a quilt as you go quilt.  You quilt each block as you make it, then assemble.  This way you have less bulk to work through your machine.  If you are not a quilter, you probably do not know what I am talking about. I used a wash out marker to mark where I was going to be doing my quilting, you can see some of it below.

 

 

More later.....................................................................................................