Tote Bag

My best friend, Linda, gave me a fabric panel which would make up into a tote bag.

I went through my stash to find buttons and bias tape to trim the tote. Instead of quilting the bag I practices some embroidery stitching over the printed design.

I found some fat quarters in my stash which worked well for the lining.

I agree with the sayings printed on the back of the bag, especially #1 and #6.

There is a pocket on the front of the bag.

A Day in Fenton

Yesterday, my friends and I went to Fenton. Our first stop was the Heavenly Scent Herb Farm. The shop was painted to look like an old European building.



The gardens were magnificent.



This is Cheryl in front of some of the lush plants.



This is Dena and Linda under one of the many flower covered arbors.



The planting were so colorful.

I'm standing by a small pond and an unbelievably huge plant. I was told they feed the plants every time they water them, I guess that explains their size.

We went to lunch at a The French Laundry . The food was exceptional and the atmosphere unique. Of course, our last stop was a quilt shop, the Quilter's Garden . The shop had a lot of patterns I hadn't seem before and a great selection of batiks.

It was a very enjoyable trip, made better by the company of good friends.

New Finds

When Jenny was home she made us some cucumber salad. We really liked the flavor and I have made it a number of times. I added toasted sesame seeds and used less red pepper.



Jenny also noticed we had residents in the bird house, outside the bedroom window.



The mom bird was too quick for me to catch a good photo of her feeding the baby birds.



The last time I worked at our church's Mission Store, I found a cute vase. It looked hand crafted but it had a small "Made in Japan" label on the bottom. I think it was a great find for ten cents :)

Millington Quilt Show

The Quilt Club had a Quilt Show as part of the Millington Festival this past weekend. Here are some photos of the show.

Happy Birthday Linda!

Today is my best friend's birthday. Happy Birthday, Linda!



We celebrated Linda's birthday earlier this month. Part of my present to Linda was a pair of ladybug hot pads.



I used a paper pieced pattern I bought on Etsy. I haven't done much paper piecing so I think I wasted a lot of fabric. Making the pads was a good learning experience.



On the back of the hot pads, I used parts of a friendship sayings panel Linda and I found shopping in Shipshewana.




I decorated some snack size Hershey bars for dessert at our quilting buddies' birthday lunch for Linda.

Western Michigan Trip

We enjoyed having Jenny home for a week. During part of her visit, we took a mini vacation to the west part of the state. We did some wine tasting in the Paw Paw area. This a photo of Tom and Jenny in front of some grape vines.



In wine country, we also stopped a couple of chocolate shops. We tried the chocolate covered bacon...interesting flavor.



We stopped for an ice cream cone in South Haven. The life size blue cow on the roof caught my interest.



The weather was overcast but it didn't stop anyone from enjoying the Lake Michigan shore.



Since we were visiting quilt shops, Jenny found an interesting stop for Tom. We went to the Gilmore Car Museum, north of Kalamazoo. The antique cars are stored in restored historic barns. I had Jenny take my picture in front of an old potato truck. I grew up in potato country and worked on potato farms a couple of summers while in school.

Bird Panel

My friend, Dena gave me this beautiful panel. She knows I like birds and bright colors.



I used the center of the panel to make a wall hanging for our back entrance.



I put patchwork hearts on the corners using some of the bright colors in the panel.



I used invisible thread in the quilting. I haven't gotten the knack of free motion quilting so I drew my pattern on paper and sewed over the design. Not a great method, but it worked.




I used purple, red and blue Swarovski crystals to embellish some of the berries.

Two of the bird pictures and the border of the panel were made into a table runner.

This is the back of the table runner.

Thanks again, Dena :)