Quick Trip to Shipshewana

 We decided to do a quick trip to Shipshewana while we were still able to travel.  
It was a fun day!  We ate a Jojo's pretzel (that neigher one of us should eat), shopped for lounge wear and slippers for me, bought some fabric (of course) and ate fry pies on the way home! 
 LOL  We did all the things.  
First stop was Jojo's.  
The BEST pretzels!

Gotta take a selfie or it didn't happen, right?

Obligatory horse and buggy photo.

My adorable lounge wear.

My new slippers

We were in the bulk food store and Chris asked me to look at a bag he had in his hands. 
 I SWEAR, it looked like a bag-o-maggots!  
EWWWWWWW. 

 Annnnd now you can't unsee it,  LOL  you're welcome!

These are the fabrics I bought too. 

 Some Essex yard dyed linen and some backgrounds plus the great rainbow low volume fabric.

I found a coat pattern and a marker.  The coat pattern is kind of a crap shoot since there were minimal measurements.  I was thinking that a quilted coat might be fun with this pattern.

I see a theme with this fabric, do you?  

It was a happy accident that they all coordinated.

Yoders had their Christmas and Halloween fabrics on sale and

 a line I have some of but wanted more of. 

 I did not have a list of the ones I have so didn't end up buying any.  

SAD!

Amazing fry pie on the way home!!

~XOP~

Visiting a Friend

 Yesterday Chris and I drove to Valparaiso, Indiana 

to visit a couple we have been friends with for over 35 years.  

Our friend, Jim, has been diagnosed with brain cancer. 

 Even though he has done radiation and is doing chemo the tumor is not changing. 

 We decided we wanted to be able to visit before we could not communicate with him.  

It was SO good to see him and his wife yesterday! 

 He is still in there and even though he was not able to say much I could see his eyes light up when we spoke with him. 

 He could still say yes and give me the thumbs up!  

I am very thankful we made the 3 1/2 hour drive for the visit! 

 We gave him a brown scapular (Google it if you want more information). 

 He happily put it on and hopefully will continue to wear it.

My amazing husband took the back roads and planned 2 quilt shop stops on the way there.  

The first shop was called Robin's Nest.  

I struggled a little to find something to buy (surprising right?). 

 I always feel like I should buy something when I stop into a shop though.

I did find this adorable, vintage bunny fabric.  

I had picked some up from a "garage sale" a long time ago. 

 It is one of my favorite vintage fabrics so I was thrilled about that! 

 It's hard to tell but the background is a light blue.

We continued on and stopped at a shop in Chesterton, IN. 

 It was called Sweet Stitches Quilt Shop.  What a beautiful shop!  It was a joy to shop there!

This is some of the loot I bought there.  

I needed this pink for a border for my 52 weeks block of the week quilt.

I could not walk away from these patterns either. 

 I am itching to start that cat one, but it has to wait.

If the day was not eventful enough, my car rolled over the 100,000 mile mark!

We got home around 9 PM and we were both so happy we went.

Please pray for our friend and his wife.  They will need all the prayers they can get.

~XOP~

Shop Hop Loot

 I told you I would take photos of the fabrics I bought on my shopping trips with my SIL. 

 I finally got around to taking photos.  

Most of these are already heading for specific projects too. 

 That makes me very happy!

The fabrics in this first picture are not heading to any specific project. 

 I found the "Marie" cat fabric on sale and got another discount for finishing the bolt. 

 I had not bought any of the new Tula True Colors and they had a charm pack. 

 Same for Line Work, and thought the peacock fabric was pretty cool. 

 I am DYING over the new Mod Meow and have shown incredible restraint in not buying up vast quantities of this line...yet.  

This is a panel with my state on it. 

 I think I will make a pillow cover or 2 out of this using the fireflies for a border. 

 I 'm pretty sure the camper needs a few Michigan pillows.

I have been working on a block of the week but got a bit behind when we were away.  

My colors are pink and gold and I needed backgound to finish the top.  

The gold stars on the cream will be the background.  

The shiny pink is going to be background for another pattern testing quilt.

This fabric is the prettiest! 

 My picture does NOT do this line justice.  

The fabrics are all shimmery.

I am not sure how these will be used but I will figure it out.  

They are so pretty! 

 Maybe in the sparrows quilt?

I am collecting some fabrics to use in a Moda Bakeshop project.

I have not found them all but I will get there.

Such pretty colors!

Might look great with the ones above.

So there you have it. 

 I guess I don't have immediate plans for all of the fabrics. 

 Just some of them. 

 I need to sew faster! 

 Still working on destashing so I can change out my fabrics.

  I will stop the destash posts while we are in NC as I won't have fabric with me there.

Have a great day!

~XOP~

Let's go Do Something

 Yesterday hubby wanted to go out somewhere and do "something".  

I suggested we go for a bike ride since it was already afternoon.  We went out for a 5 mile ride.  Then I worked in the garden.

I suggested we go to a little town about an hour away for today.  So this am we packed up some drinks and our hats, masks and hand sanitizer and headed for Mason.  We really enjoy going there and it is not too far away.  There are 2 quilt shops there.  One is inside Kean's General Store and it's one of my favorites.  They always seem to have fabrics I can only find online.  They did not disappoint today either.  I was able to score some Little Red by Meags and Me, some Beauty and the Beast by Jill Howath and some Scardy Cat by Jedi Craftgirl.  I also got the cutest Dear Stella Christmas fabric!

Just in case anyone is interested I took a photo of the Tula they had for sale at Kean's.

I'm sure you can call them and order if you see something you think you may need.

Keans was having a drawing and I got 30% off my next purchase.

Well, I saw this cute platter that I wanted for the camper, so we went and had lunch first.

Then we went back and I picked this beauty up!

.

Lunch was at the local food truck outside the Bad Beer Brewery.

I got a great pic of hubby eating his pork sandwich!

While walking around the downtown we saw some great painted rocks.

Which one is your favorite?

I, of course love the cat!  

I thought of my friend Paula when I took this photo.

It's funny, but when I first saw the rocks I thought, there should be a peacock one...and there was!

This was my favorite and also the largest.  Boulder sized!

I always enjoy seeing their court building.

It reminds me of one of the last outings we took my dad on and I took his photo here just like this.

Well, this got a bit long, so I will continue the rest of the trip tomorrow.

We went to Pinckney and stopped at Jennifer's Quilt shop.

I'm thinking you may want to see what I found there too!

~XOP~

Fall Camping

We went off camping last week

 (likely our last outing for the year).  

I packed up the boys and Chris got the camper.  

This is how Finny rode the entire way 

( almost 3 hours).

While Cole just relaxed in the passenger seat on "his" pillow.  

It is a half yard of fleece filled up with my teeny tiny scraps and 

batting cut offs that I can't use for anything.  

I thought you all might enjoy a few photos of our camper.

 I stepped out one day and saw my Sparty mat covered with fall leaves.  

Pretty photo!

In the previous photo you can see the pet tent set up sans the pets.

Here they are enjoying their tent while we enjoyed a campfire.

Chris seemed to like the great outdoors as much as the boys!

One afternoon we stopped at Tony's for Tacos.  SO GOOD

There is a fruit market close by that had amazing produce!

Cabbages and Cauliflowers bigger than my head!

The gourds and squash were all outside and looked so pretty.

No trip is complete without stopping at the Bittersweet Quilt Shop.

My haul.  

I ended up back there two more times for a friend that wanted more of the star print on the bottom.

If you need some too,  here is the selvage information.  Bittersweet no longer has any though.

The boys enjoy hanging out on the couch watching the birds and the leaves fall.

We also stopped at Northwoods (because of course we did) and I met up with Big Foot.

Finny likes to lay on the bed and ask for pets every time you walk toward the bathroom!

Chris set up my sewing table.

I managed to get all the blocks sewn for 2 Double Slice quilts!

And Finn thought it was a fine place to hang out.

 Cole just laid down next to me 

Until it was dinner time and the I got the stare down.

I think this pretty much sums up our extended weekend. 

It is going to be great when we can do this more often!

Is it retirement time yet?

10 more months! 

(but who's counting?)

~XOP~