A Little Trip

On Friday I went with my SIL and my husband to visit Shipshewana.  

If you have followed me at all you know that this is one of our favorite places to visit.  

I was hoping to pick up some Christmas fabric that I needed to finish the stockings I wanted to make.  We went to Lolly's and Yoders and NO luck!  Can you believe that??  

How are both shops about not to have what I need??  I

 chose the North Wood line by Kate Spain for the stockings.  

I am TOTALLY in love with this line of fabric.  My especial favorites are these two prints.

My heritage is Scandinavian and this line is so representative of that.

  I only took a couple of photos while we were in Shipshe.  

It was a cold overcast day and almost no one was there.  Perfect!  T

he only down side was that they don't make fry pies in the winter.  

WHAT???  No fry pies???  I was crushed.  

I did find these amazing fish chairs.  

Too bad the resin furniture is so expensive or this would have been my daughter's.

You can see how the sky looked on Friday.  Cool photo op though.

We started decorating the house on Saturday and on Sunday we got dumped on!  

This was my deck in the morning.

This was a peek into the back yard.

The view out the front door about 9pm.

This morning as I got on the bus to go to work, this was the parking lot.  We got about 10" last night.

So that catches you up on my doings.  

I did manage to make progress on the stockings 

but I can't show you until they are delivered to their new homes.  

How was your weekend?

~XOP~

Turkey Kind Of Weekend

There were several amazing things that happened at my house this weekend.  

The first was that my daughter had to take her turkey's for processing. 

Some of these birds were HUGE. 

My hubby went over to the farm around 6am to help her gather them up and load them in the truck

 to take to the processor.  

Just look at this beast of a turkey!

I was comfy at home and it began to snow.

Which was ok as I was watching the MSU vs OSU football game.  

I looked out again and we had many more inches!  It was the first snow of the year in Michigan.

I think we got over 10 inches!

Abbey loves the snow so she was thrilled!

Fatty McFatty put her ample girth over the heating register and thus made the entire house colder.  Hey, what did she care?  Her belly was toasty warm!

I watched the game and could not be more thrilled with the outcome!  

We beat the number 3 team in the nation!!!

GO STATE!

I decided to work on the label for the next wedding quilt while I was watching the game. 

 I made some good progress! 

 I actually managed to finish the embroidery, I just took this early into the game.

I have more to share but need to run, so more later.

~XOP~

A Wonderful Weekend Starting With Friday

I don't know about you but my weekend was fantastic!  (except for the drive home anyway)  

I got to spend the weekend with a friend at her cottage in Muskegon.  

She is right on lake Michigan!  

No kidding, you can see the lake from her house!!  

The house sits on a bluff and you have to take some pretty steep steps down to the lake 

but it is well worth it!

We went to the AQS show in Grand Rapids on Friday.  

I think we spent more time shopping at the show then looking at the quilts. 

 Quite honestly I found the show a little disappointing.  

There didn't seem to be as many quilts that stood out to me as at other shows.  

My favorites were not the judges favorites either (big surprise).  

I did enjoy the challenge section, especially the birds from a group of quilters in Ann Arbor.  

I especially loved this duck quilt.

My very favorite quilt from the show was one of fancy birds.  

It was called Fantasy Fowl by Jerre Reese of SC.

Here are some close ups too.

I think this purple one was my favorite!

I did take photos of lots of other quilts and will have them up on my Flickr account 

if you want to see them.

While at the vendors I found a few things.  A new iron.  Freestyle by Panasonic.  

The AQS booth had them for around half price!  

Too good a deal to pass up especially with the glowing recommendation of my good friend Debbie!  

I bought a new ironing board cover too but no pictures to share of that!

I got to demo the new Bernina long arm! 

 I really, really want this!!! 

 There are only 2 right now, one at Bernina USA and one at the show.  

It came with the table you see it sitting on.  

You can also get it with handles and the frame, but I don't have room for that right now.  

There was a show special and I was sorely tempted.  

All they were asking was for a deposit and the machines are not even out until April of next year.  

I told hubby that I bought it and it did not even faze him!!  

I think I need to keep him!!

In the end, with all the house expenses, I left it at the show. 

 I do see this in my future though.

DD2 and I were talking about rings recently and she informed me that she would like an emerald with diamonds surrounding it rather than a plain diamond someday, when she gets engaged. 

 I found this beauty while at the show too, it was an estate ring. 

 GORGEOUS! 

 It also stayed at the show.

This was the only fabric I purchased while at the show.  

I needed some more royals for my Kitty mini quilt swap quilt.  

These were just what I had in mind!

After all the walking around we were starving so went to the Blue Water Grill. 

 I had this lobster sandwich and some root chips with their dipping sauces.  

I would highly recommend this place for a great meal!

And because my friend Rebekah said so, we checked out Stitched-Studio  

A new quilt shop in Grand Rapids.

Cute shop and friendly people inside!

Lots of great modern fabrics too.

I was able to complete my Fox Field collection from this shop!

We then headed home and walked down to the beach. 

 It was kind of a gray day but lake Michigan is always beautiful!

I just had to dip my toes in the water!!

 We watched the sun set and it was a good reminder that life is good!

More about the weekend later!

~XOP~

Wordless Wednesday

~XOP~