National Parks Adventures - part one

Jim & I decided to spend our thirtieth wedding anniversary in Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks. Two of his sisters and their husbands, Mary & Jim & Esther & Tim, went with us on the 6 day journey. We saw LOTS of animals and LOTS of geysers - animals I'd love to see more, geysers - hmmm, I think I've seen my fill!

Here are some pics of our animal sightings. Some were close:

These bison owned the road.

See the shadow of the first bison in the picture on the right? It walked right by my window after I hurriedly rolled it up. I'm not sure what good I thought that piece of safety glass was going to do - but it was better than the bisons horn being 6" from my face with NOTHING in between us! I was concentrating on getting the window rolled up so I missed the shot of it up close and personal - but that was ok with me!

This bison was close enough but then it decided to join us on the elevated walkway. Once again I was too freaked out to take an up close & personal picture . . . . but as my brother-in-law Tim said, I've seen the back end of a bison closer than I ever needed to!

This black bear was close enough. I was in the car. I don't have pictures of the young grizzly we saw about 10 feet away, I, unlike my husband, showed great intelligence and stayed in the car, while he and our brother-in-law Jim, jumped out to see it closer. Nope, the glimpse I got of it that close was close enough for me!

Riding around early a few mornings later, I saw what I thought was a roll of hay on the hillside and then I thought - wait a minute, that's the side of a mountain, they don't hay there. So I yelled to driver Jim Antos to stop and got out to look. Yup, the "hay roll" was really the back end of a huge grizzly. We were definitely as close to him as I wanted to get!

And then there were these strange animals - we think they were called Harley Americanus. They were sometimes single but most times in packs. Very strange with colorful dress! These animals were everywhere & seemed to be having the time of their lives. The six of us were happy in our Suburban not having to fend off bugs, wind, and most importantly - bears, bison, elk & anything else with four legs!

We did heed all the signs . . . .

Happy Independence Day!

Pinwheels!

I gathered up most of our patriotic merchandise & made up this display earlier this month. See the pinwheels? They're two 6" squares of fabric fused together with a stiff fusible web. Then you cut in about 3" from each corner into the middle. Bring the tip of every other corner into the middle of the square & glue - you have pinwheels!

I put mine on my good chopsticks but you should probably pin yours into a straw and then they will turn. I couldn't find straws and I wanted them in the display so the chopsticks are now histrory for eating utensils!

New Block of the Month Starts in July

This is our newest block of the month program starting in July. I saw this pattern & loved it! I really like the old fashioned aprons - I always forget to wear one, but I like to look at them. My Mom, grandmothers & all my great aunts used to wear them - my nana always had one on over her "house dress".

You can see the details of this block of the month by clicking here.

New Displays

I've been "fluffing" - a technical retail term! - the shop with displays. Here are some pictures.

A bake shop - for what else? Jelly Rolls, turnovers, layer cakes & honey buns + charm squares!

This is a close up of the beach display - everything you need for a day at the beach! A beach chair, some Salt Water Taffy, and get the HUGE Margarita glass!

Judy's been working on floral samples. Aren't they gorgeous?

Yes, it's official - we've gone purse/tote crazy!

Landscape Quilts

I really like landscape/pictorial quilts. Probably comes from being a frustrated artist - I do stick figures really well! I admire anyone who can draw, be it with paper or with thread & fabric. I have these great pictorial quilts in my head and have great plans for when I retire to actually get some out of my head & onto fabric!

In the meantime, I take pictures of those I like, with closeups of how the quilter/artist achieved a look. Here are a few that were hung at the NJ state quilt show last weekend.

This beach scene had the neatest waves. A shiny, organze fabric was couched on for the foam on the crests of the waves.

Another was this clipper ship with fuzzy yarn for foam & great details on the ship itself.

I love sunflowers so this one caught my eye just because of what it was. The center of the sunflower was completely beaded and looked just like seeds.

Then I noticed the dragonflies! They were beaded and their wings made out of a shiny tulle. Very neat!

The turtle was cool too and I think it's the one that won Viewer's Choice.

This lighthouse quilt has a story behind it - a poster of the painting was divided into four sections. Each section went to one quilter who copied that section in fabric, pieced, appliuqed and QUILTED it. THEN the top was put together! Really neat! I liked the wall hanging before Karen Dever told me the story, I liked it even better after the story!

NJ's State Show

We sponsor the state quilt guild's annual show and it's this weekend. Here are a couple of pictures of our booth. Tomorrow I'll take some pictures of the quilts - there are some GORGEOUS ones here!

If you're in the Edison, NJ area tomorrow - stop in!