dock decor

I have just returned from a weekend away at my friend, Debbie's, lake cabin near Chetek, WI.  We had such a good time and some fun memories.  I like to walk down the path and steps to the lake in the morning when I wake up, just to check on what's happening on the water.  The first morning, this is what greeted me---

Maybe a Northern Water snake?

Kind of stopped me in my tracks!  I ran back to get my camera and zoomed in to get a decent picture without venturing too close.  I have looked at some pictures and think it is a pretty common water snake, but the distinctive markings that would prove it are on the underside of the body.  No way was I going to be looking at the underside of that body!  We never saw him again out in the open, so I am hoping he found some other bit of lakeshore to call home.

We did some sewing, I was working on a new quilt that will be written as a pattern soon.  I enjoy writing up a few patterns, but have no intention of making it a career.  But something happened recently that involves my pattern, Hocus Pocus, that I designed and wrote back in 2009.  

Hocus Pocus

Much to my surprise, I found that this quilt is shown on the Timeless Treasures website.  It is a digital rendition using their batik fabrics, and really looks nice!  I guess it's a good form of advertisement for me, but very unexpected.  I'll be communicating with them to see if they like any more of my patterns!

full moon

Some things I've been working on:

above, a little flannel baby quilt from a kit that is very well aged, the pattern is out of print and the fabric is long gone, so I can't tell you much other than that it is pretty cute!

Also, a little quilt to donate to Quilts For Kids, one of 3 that I have put together this week.

Finished the binding on this, my own Tot Spot pattern. Some cute fabric that I had been saving for awhile, now it can be added to my reserve of baby quilts so I have one handy for the next baby occasion. Right now I have 3 upcoming little ones that will be needing a quilt.

These blocks below are the start of a new quilt that will be a sample and/or class at Bear Patch. I am making it from a group of Japanese Kinkame fabrics from a pattern called Civil War March from Yellow Creek Quilt Designs.

And tonight we are treated to a beautiful view from our window (it's too dang cold to go outside!)---

A beautiful Wisconsin moon--kind of looks like a giant wheel of cheese! Here in the land of beer and cheese, we are loving every minute! Even on my second visit to the local dentist yesterday. Note to self, in the future, do not have any dental work done within a month of travel. Yes, the temporary crown came off again yesterday, but this time I didn't have to try to put it back in place myself. Because this time, I swallowed it. Yup, down the hatch. But the dentist and her assistant were so nice, they gave me a replacement and so far, so good! Although I am kind of paranoid about loosening it again so I think it would be a good time to just go on a liquid diet!

an excellent Monday

All is well in Wisconsin, although we weathered a storm today with plenty of blowing snow. Mostly observed from the cozy warmth of our sewing condo, as we enjoyed hour after hour of cutting, stitching, movies, and some good food and beverage when needed. We do have to keep our strengthup!

We are staying at The Rushes at Baileys Harbor and loving it. We even have a garage! That make unloading our trailer so easy, we have experienced some much worse unloading scenarios in our travels. But before we got here Saturday, we made a stop at Primitive Gatherings in Menasha, WI. This is a great quilt shop with many samples and kits and patterns that were looking for a ride home with us! You can see our happy faces as proof that this was a good place to find!

Since getting ourselves settled in to our condo, we have been pulling together projects and ideas non-stop. One of the things we (all 3 of us in one way or another) are working on is a bunch of teeny 9-patch blocks that will eventually be joined into a quilt of some type. These are some of my squares:

Each little square is 1" when completed. So far, we have been making lots of little blocks and talking about ways to use them. We have used this book for inspiration.

Finished the binding on this quilt, which I have blogged about earlier and had quilted before leaving home. Other activities--3 little baby quilts for charity donation, pinwheel samples for teaching, prairie point samples for teaching and a flannel baby quilt.

Plus this morning I had to make time to become acquainted with a local dentist to have my temporary crown tuned up after my DIY dentistry activity yesterday. The crown came off, and since it was Sunday I made do with some dental adhesive purchased at Walgreen's until I could contact the dentist recommended by a woman working here. Turned out to be fairly easy to adjust so my jaw is not aching as badly, and with any luck it will stay put until the real deal gets installed in 2 weeks. Oh, the joys of maturity!

And speaking of maturity, my baby girl turns 31 today! How did that happen?!

I think you can see the Hansen lineage in this picture! Love to my beautiful girl!

on the road again

I showed you Deb's quilt a few days ago while it was on the quilting frame. I am happy to report that it is now off the frame and went home with Deb last night. Because of the challenging arrangement of blocks it took me a little while to come up with a design that would fit into the "wheel" of this wagonwheel block. I ended up doing a lot of these:

looping scrolls in varying sizes to fill in the spaces. Once I get into the rhythm they are hard to stop!

And today I am celebrating the start of a great vacation. This is my girlfriend getaway with Nancy and Leisl, great traveling partners. Here is some of my stuff in the staging area, waiting for final packing andthen loading into the official Stitchin' Trips trailer.

We headed east this morning, into the land of cheese, which can be a hard road for us lactose intolerants! We are staying in Appleton tonight, went out to see Country Strong for our evening entertainment and popcorn binge. Pretty good show, a few tears were shed. Our only real problem with the show was that the speaker system was not working well, bass notes were real buzzy, and for a show about country music singers that was not good.

I left my sewing room looking forlorn, but I think it will be looking much better when I return in a week. It started with a plan to hang my new design wall, a lovely gift from my precious husband, I was totally surprised that he had even remembered that I had shown him a picture once. Hanging it on the sewing room wall made the most sense to me so it would be within easy reach. That meant taking down some wall shelves and a lot of decor and misc. stuff pinned to the walls. That left one bare ugly wall with big holes from the shelving screws. This room was first painted blue when it was Dan's room. Then a few years later he changed to another room and this room became Julie's room, so we got really creative and sponge painted white over the blue. For a long time I wanted to repaint, but always felt overwhelmed by the thought of removing everything. But when I saw one wall was bare, I came to the conclusion that the time is now to get a clean coat of paint. So here are some recent photos of the collection of stuff that

is usually in my room, and the only things remaining are the wooden table and the gray metal cabinet. The rest I was able to remove to other temporary homes nearby. And then I bought paint and left town! Hoping that the good painting spirits will be present in my home (Bob) and feel free to get the job done! There will have to be a big reveal when I get home!

When I talked to Bob tonight he was mumbling something about emptying out the closet to remove the shelves and lay new flooring, I think he may have been delirious! I had intended to just cover it with plastic until the painting was done, but if flooring is changing that's a whole other ballgame! I'm a little afraid that if he has to actually handle and pack up all the stuff in there, he might start to wonder about my purchasing plan. I'm not sure he knows that there is no purchasing plan, I just plan to purchase whatever meets my needs!

This could be an interesting vacation!

several things

How's that song go? "We are the champions, we are the champions" or something like that! Yes, Bob played a tough round of golf Sunday, went into overtime, and came home with a big grin on his face! That's my guy!

This followed a perfect cabin weekend on Potato Lake (near Chetek, WI) with friends Bob and Debbie. Bonfire with s'mores, pontooning and fishing, reading, knitting, sitting by the lake, golfing, paddleboating, lots of laughs and plenty of good food. Just a couple highlights:

Also did a little nature study:

The spider was identified as a Nursery Web spider and it was larger than the ordinary spider but no one wanted to get close enough to stick their hand in the picture for some perspective. I'm guessing it was about 4-5" across the legs. Sitting on a nest of eggs, which is what really has Debbie creeped out because that means there will be more! Not sure what the mushroom is, but it sure was a bright yellow on top.

Brita's bridal shower platter is done just in time for Bob to take it with him on his drive out to CA. He leaves tomorrow for Colorado, spending time in Estes Park with Danny and planning to climb Long's Peak together. Then to Mammoth Lakes for a couple days with Dan before going to San Francisco where we will meet up for nephew Scott's wedding. Fun things happening!