Still here

I've been too busy to post, but will try to do so soon.  In the meantime, I'm posting this just to let you know I'm still alive and kicking!

A Touching Tribute

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Fall is my favorite time of year, especially for the colors:

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This morning my sister's family went with me to West Fork, Ark.  The Master Gardeners dedicated a statue at the Public Library there to my husband, John, and to another volunteer, Paul Libor; both had given long hours of work to the Library.  John spent many volunteer hours there helping them put in their beautiful landscaping.  

The statue is of an open book, with a poem about flowers printed on it.  The poem is called
 "Gossip in the Garden:"

Good Morning Glory,
What’s the Four O-clock news?
Johnny-jump-up lost his shoes.
Black eyed Susan has her eye on you!
And the Tulips want a kiss or two.
Iris just wants Rose to know,
Sweet William is her favourite beau.
Busy Lizzie took her Butcher’s broom
and chased the Cattails round the room.
Poor Weeping Willow isn’t feeling well,
and Hollyhocked her Chimney Bell.
Yesterday Daisy cut off Aaron’s Beard
Then whispered “Forget-me-not” in Elephant’s Ear.
Today a Texas Ranger knocked at my door,
Creeping Jenny found a Naked Lady lying on the floor.
Tomorrow who knows that gossip there’ll be,
The flowers are from such a large family.
Let’s talk again, soon. Good Day Lily.

 The statue is set in the front of the Library, in one of their rain gardens.

 The statue is lighted and has stepping stones leading to it. The following photos show some of the other landscape plants, including cannas, azaleas, bittersweet, Angels' Trumpets, beautyberry, and other perennials.

Jane Bryant of the Master Gardeners spoke of the two men and what they had meant to her and to the library.

About 30 people attended; a good showing for such a small town.

I thanked them for their tribute to my husband.  He would have been very pleased and honored.

My sister and I admiring the statue.

Afterwards there was a lovely reception in the Library Hall building next door.  It was formerly a church and is being redone into a historical museum.

I only wish John could have been there.  He would have loved it.

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Road Trip!!

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On Friday my sister and I took a day-long road trip to check out some of the quilt shops in the area. I like to visit shops within a few hours' drive so I at least know what they carry and what their prices are like.

We started out about 8:30 in the morning and returned at about 6:00 pm.  Sis and I are both quilters, so we both thoroughly enjoyed the trip.  We get along very well and I enjoy having the chance to spend extra time with her.

We first drove to a nearby town called Elkins.  The shop there is called Lonesome Pine Quilts and is in a building shaped like a red barn. It is actually located several miles past Elkins, between the communities of Durham and Crosses, AR. It is only open on Fridays and Saturdays.

  My sister is standing next to my pickup in front of the store.

  They have a great selection of fabrics at reasonable prices, somewhere between a discount store's prices and those of a large quilt shop. The shop samples on the walls were really pretty and well made.

  This old truck is inside, filled with rolls of batting and more samples. The store is much bigger and nicer than I expected from their website.

  The small classroom has their pattern and notion walls.  I bought a template for the L'il Twister blocks used in the samples on the table; Sis bought one of the patterns.

The fabric selection was actually very nice, and of good quality. We were very pleased with the shop, and even though it was almost an hour's drive away, I can see a return visit in our future!

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We then drove on into the small town of Alpena, AR.  Friends had told me about a shop called The Rag Barn, and I was anxious to see it.  I was not disappointed.

 The store is hidden around a curve in the road, and you could easily be past it before you realized it was there.  It is well marked, though! You see this side as you approach from the west.

 

  The entrance is on the east side of the building.  It is considerably smaller than the previous store.

  The entire south end of the store is filled with fabrics. The flat folds are more discount quality while the bolts are just a touch below high quality; still very acceptable to quilters.

  Although it doesn't have a large inventory, the fabric selection is pretty good.  Sis and I both came away with some gorgeous pieces.

The flat folds are bargain priced, and even the bolts were well under quilt shop prices.

(Don't get me wrong--I do advocate shopping at your local quilt shop if you have one, but some have exorbitant prices while others are more reasonable; and if you don't happen to have many local quilt shops, you are glad to get what you can.) The other end of the store is devoted to gift items and jewelry--both Sis and I bought some earrings for $1 a pair that are really pretty.

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As a side comment here--there is a definite difference between a "quilt shop" and a "quilt store." A quilt store sells mostly finished quilts; a quilt shop sells the supplies to make them yourself.  I do not like it when a quilt store labels itself as a quilt shop.  To me it is false advertising. Several of the "shops" we were intending to visit were actually "stores." Sorry, not interested.

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We then went looking for The Country Corner Quilt Shop. Online it is listed as being in Harrison, AR.  We drove there, looked for the shop, didn't find it, so we stopped for lunch, then stopped at a yard sale and asked for directions.  It turns out that this store is actually closer to Alpena than to Harrison.  We were headed back that way anyway. It is located down a side road, but was not hard to find once we knew where to look.

They really needed a sign like this back at the turnoff from the highway.

 

I didn't get any photos of the inside, unfortunately.  I had misplaced my camera inside the truck. Although the selection was fairly good, the prices were high-end.  I guess when you don't have much competition you can charge what you want.  There were several customers there, so it must fill its niche. We didn't buy any fabric, though I think Sis bought a pattern card here.

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Near the town of Green Forest we stopped at another yard sale, which was set up in front of McKee's Sewing Center, a New Home and Janome dealer.  We weren't going to go inside until we noticed a sign advertising Quilting Fabrics.  We were glad we changed our minds!

 It's obviously been here awhile, as the building is showing its age, but it is one of those places that seems to go on forever!  Just when we thought we'd seen it all, there would be one more room.

 

 There is a large selection of fabrics, notions, and patterns here, well worth a stop. 

 

  Prices were closer to high-end, but if you were looking for something special, prices were still within reason.

The man who was tending the store was very nice and friendly.  We didn't buy anything here, but it was well worth the time to look around.

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We continued west to Eureka Springs, which is a tourist area, very beautiful but very crowded. Our niece and her family just moved there, so we located her house and stopped in for a quick visit.  By that time we were getting tired and it was getting late, so we headed home.

It was a wonderful trip; in total I bought 3 items at yard sales; a FQ pack of fabrics, 2 pairs of earrings, a pattern, and a template.  All in all, a good day.

I wasn't in the market for fabric, since I have just spent a whole week going through my stash and organizing it into categories.  I have way more fabric than I should, but now I know which categories I need to work on to reduce their size.  My stash still fills one wall of my sewing room, and most of an upstairs closet in a guest room, but at least now I only have one bin marked "miscellaneous" instead of six.

  These categories are the ones I need to use or the ones I use the most. (My labels are crooked because they are index cards placed inside the bins.)

 These small bins hold the categories I have the least of, such as solids divided by color, stripes or dots, or categories like  "farm,"  "fish fabrics,"  or "monsters." 

The closet holds overflow--categories I don't use very often, like wool, Christmas, or Halloween. The large bins of single colors- red, blue, green-- and blenders, are bins I will be constantly getting into, but don't have room for downstairs in the sewing room.

So you can see what I mean.  I don't NEED any more fabric.  I intend to shop from here for the next year or two at least.  That doesn't mean I won't occasionally pick up a bargain piece somewhere--after all, you can't just pass up a good deal!

The same goes for books and patterns.  I have more than I will ever be able to use, but how can I know what I will want to be doing 5 years from now? 

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War Eagle Fair

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Last weekend I had several visitors, including my eldest sister, my nephew and his wife, and my niece.  My nephew also brought his 2 dogs, who were delightful.  We had a wonderful visit.

My niece, Carol, is only 3 years younger than me, and we grew up more like sisters.  She has visited often since my husband died, and I am so glad to have been able to grow closer to her.  She had to leave early because her daughter and son-in-law had come to visit her and were upset that she wasn't home.  When she got home she found out why--she's going to be a grandma!

Carol and I spent Saturday at the War Eagle Fair.  War Eagle Mill is located a few miles east of Rogers, Arkansas, and for many years has held semi-annual craft fairs which are now among the largest in the state.  There were actually 2 craft shows going on, one on either side of the river.

 Myself on the left, Carol on the right.

 The Mill, and the bridge crossing the river.  The bridge was alternatively pedestrian and vehicular. The river was high due to a rainy fall season.

 The mill wheel turning.  It is a functioning mill, and inside you can buy stone ground grains and baking mixes.  They have a website where you can buy them also.

 http://www.wareaglemill.com/gift-store/

 On one side of the river, the Sharp's craft show set up in small individual booths.  It was extremely crowded, but not as bad as the other side.

A close-up of the mill, along with the food vendors, which were set up all over the grounds.

 I didn't buy much, but a few things did catch my eye.  Prices were a bit high, though.  I love the sleeve treatment on this re-designed sweatshirt.

 The bird feeders and rain chains made of vintage glassware were really beautiful!  I heard someone say the bases of the feeders were chick feeders.

Carol really liked this "chandelier" made of a wire basket and electrical insulators.

Carol is into home canning, and bought this tin sign to hang in her kitchen.

 The other side of the river is the site of the actual War Eagle Craft Fair.  The exhibitors are located in these huge tents.

 My choice of lunch was a build it yourself taco salad. Carol had an Indian Fry Bread taco.

Chairs were at a premium, but we managed to find two and enjoy the view overlooking the river and the mill.

 

The weather was perfect and the trees were showing beautiful colors. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day, despite getting sore feet from all the walking!

One funny thing--when we had been there only a few minutes, I asked Carol to help me watch for a thumb piano, or Kalimba. She was unfamiliar with them, but agreed to keep her eyes open.  Unfortunately we didn't find any. 

 

People in the area were taking advantage of the unusual traffic load by setting up garage sales, yard sales, and craft booths along the highway for miles around.  We decided to stop at a few of these on the way home.  The people were friendly and interesting to talk to.  We were strolling around a small area of craft booths, when what should we happen upon but a guy selling thumb pianos!  I was thrilled, and purchased this one, simply for my own amusement.

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I had seen this mug in the Connecting Threads catalog, and really thought about buying one, but because of the price I decided I didn't actually need it.  The company had a contest on their website: http://www.connectingthreads.com

 To enter you had to show a photo of a work in progress.  I showed the photo below, of the patio door cover I had just finished that very day.  I won one of the mugs!  It came yesterday.  I love an oversized mug for my morning coffee.

 

I made this quilt to cover the door at night to "keep the dark out." But I think it is even more beautiful during the day when the sun shines through, making it look like stained glass. I'm really pleased with it. The pattern is by Susan Guzman for McCall's Quick Quilts, Oct/Nov. 2014, p. 8-10. She calls it "Makes Me Happy" and the name fits.  I enlarged it to fit the patio door.

I hope to have more photos to post next time, as I am planning a day road trip for this weekend.

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