Wide side trip

     Last weekend, a couple from our church asked us to go on a trip with them to the Amish country in Ohio. We didn't know them well, but took a chance. It is about 4 1/2 hours to the south west away. We stayed at a bed and breakfast alongside some Amish farms. Gets pretty dark out there.

Garden Gate Bed and Breakfast. Our room door facing on lower level.

Wonderful shed on the property

     My hope was to see quilts and vintage machines and maybe even bring a special one back. I did eat lots of delicious cheeses and saw a phenomenal selection of wood furniture, but not quilts or machines. I did find fabric, of course. 

One of the fabric stores I shopped at.

Parked outside the fabric store.

The town of Charm, fabric store just out of sight.

     I am not sure if it is funny or it is sad, but when I asked various Amish fabric store clerks where I could find vintage machines or people working on them, they said, "Oh, we don't use them anymore. We just sew on Berninas." They use solar panels for the electricity. I was struck dumb. I sew on vintage machines because of their superior stitches and they are on computerized Berninas? I was told the vintage machines may show up in thrift stores or barns. I found none in Antique Malls. Why is it any little old tool or tin is there, but the sewing machine, which revolutionized the home, is absent? Does it only bother me?
      Some other fun scenes, but no quilts.

Sign around corner from B & B, parking for a wedding

Horses parked, eating from hay wagons.

Behind buggy, is the manufacturing building where the wedding was held- 400 guests

Bargain store we visited. The scrapbook supplies were cheaper than with the coupon at Joann's

Farm still life

Kind of sums up the road size situation

 

Dreaming of sunflower fields

     Wait a minute, I wasn't dreaming. Just north of Buffalo, a farming family opened a sunflower field to the public. Sunflowers Of Sanborn N.Y  on Facebook is the official site, local TV coverage, https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/western-new-yorkers-flock-to-sunflower-field-in-sanborn_20180314092023237/1042866005 gives explanation for them. And the latest, the town they are in shut them down in some kind of Grinch moment. Unbelievable, the sunflowers and the letter from the town. The farmer family has grown crops there for years and with their own money, made a parking lot so people did not park on the street, does not charge an entrance fee, provided portapotties and sold some food (sales tax revenue for the town).
     When I first arrived and walked through the first field, I just wept. It was so gorgeous even though a lot of the flowers had gone to seed. It was absolutely magic. I have always been in love with sunflowers and painted and made quilts of them. Oh, how sad if they cannot do this anymore. 

Corn to the left, flowers to the right

The corn out to dry

Husband is 6'4", so you can see the flowers height

This was a three headed immense sunflower.

There were orange ones.

And red ones.

And fancy ones for you to cut bouquets.

Butterflies, oh my

     I adore butterflies. A friend's sister embroidered one panel for me that I made into a quilt, but am always looking to piece another one. Do not want to paper piece them. I would love to make one large one. I found this free pattern and have made 20 of these. I think they capture the variety of butterflies. Here are six of them. 
     Half of me wants to sew them in columns and rows and let the butterflies be. The other half wants to put them in a design that shows movement, but I don't know if that will fight with the colors and textures in the butterflies.
     I have to put all of them on the wall and try it out, but the floral 4 pattern black diamonds is up there waiting for borders.

All in except borders

     I sewed together the quilt that has disappointed. With the seam allowance the distance is closer between the black diamond points- it has improved slightly. I am thinking of putting a 2" border (finished) of the same white green grid fabric, a skinny black, and not sure for the last border. I auditioned floral squares and the same background again, just not sure how much more fabric/color/texture to throw at this. I don't want a floral border overwhelming the other florals. Undecided.

Closeup

 

Quick ADK visit

     Last weekend, we took a short break to drive to the Adirondacks, Old Forge, NY, (4 1/2 hrs.) because my daughter wanted to visit one last time before she starts back to teaching after her leave. The weather was fine (isn't always in September) and I also caught a guild show in the Old Forge Library- the first time this guild ever did a display. It was just 2 nights, but I sure love to visit there. We did a short hike to Lock and Dam, and I walked the stroller while my husband and daughter kayaked. The baby, Sidney, was so much fun.

My favorite coffee place

Small art quilt with experiments with rust on fabric

Blurry, but I just loved the composition and colors

 

Sometimes you don't get what you think

     Last April, I went to a quilt show and saw a quilt that inspired me. I took a photo and when I got home, I drafted out what I wanted. I was looking for floating floral squares anchored by a diamond. I never use black, but because the quilt I saw used it successfully, I used black, but made it scrappy blacks so it would not look all solid.  I made a sample block to see if I liked it. I made 4 samples to see how it looked together. Fine. The 30 blocks had lots of pieces with precision. I used the Accuquilt to cut the squares and triangles which works wonderfully- no trimmng, preciseness. I used the fork pins to hold the intersections and was satisfied with that. 
    Today, I put 25 of the done blocks on the wall to motivate me to finish the last row of five. When I stepped back, I was not happy. I seemed to have lost the floating quality. All I see is black diamonds, not the florals which I wanted to be the focus. I do not where I went wrong. Now, sadly, I am sewing the last five blocks to put on the wall. This was going to be a quilt for me, but now I am not liking it.

Diamond rainbow strips a wrap

     Months back, I cut and sewed the blocks for a Missouri Star Quilt pattern, called Cutting Corners. When I put it on the wall, I did not like the look. The strips go in different directions and it was annoying. I moved it and moved it around, and came up with this design, sewed it together. Quilted it last week, finally. Another striped binding, and it is done. The back is donated fabric. This will be a larger comfort quilt, I think bed size. It was fun.