Miscellaneous Hodpodge!

We have been so busy this year I have not taken time to write here. This post will be some of the highlights!

Travel:  We wanted to go out of state each month for a trip, and so far we are meeting that goal!

January - San Diego, CA for the American Farm Bureau Annual Convention
February - Outer Banks, NC because we had never been there and did not want crowds of summer
March - Nashville, TN to see sister Carol and Earl, Mia, Tom and Diane were there as well
April - Gifford Pinchot State Park, PA when we went camping with all the kids and Joe and Diane
May - Fenton, MO to visit Mom and Dad and family. We were there for their 65th wedding anniversary and Mother's Day this year.
June - Edgewater, NJ and Manhattan, NY to see Earl and Mia and my college roommate Gail
July - Gettysburg, PA for the Vintage Base Ball Festival with Joel, Katie, Becky, Joe and Diane
August - ??

Last week's baseball game was the Brandywine Base Ball club of West Chester, PA. These teams play by 1864 rules, including equipment, (no gloves, different bats, etc.), uniforms, game rules, umpires (called an arbiter), etc.  Injuries to the hands are common!

Quilting finishes again

July was busy, but I did take a few days for quilting. I have a list of quilt/sewing projects that I want to make, and kitchen items are on there. I was able to start and finish two cardinal placemats this month, since I used them to practice machine quilting!

The second finish is my watercolor laptop quilt that will now be a tablecloth! It was started about ten years ago, and I knew I needed to do more machine quilting to ever get it done. While the top worked out well, the back is not ready for showing! I know this is one for me to keep, and it shows that I still need to do a lot more practicing on machine quilting. I do like it, however!!

Forty Years and Counting!

July 12, 1975 was our wedding day. It was a "cold day in July" that year! I am so blessed to have had these past 40 years with such a wonderful man - God truly did bring us together for life.

We typically have not given each other presents for anniversaries, birthdays, etc. This year we decided to do something special for us, however. We took off for a few days and did not leave the state! We headed to several places that we have been driving past, and always said "we need to stop there sometime". Knowing us, we do not easily stop when headed to a destination, so we made local places our destinations.

First stop was Agecroft Hall, in Richmond, VA. This is a reconstructed English Tudor house that was falling down over in England. In the late 1920s it was taken apart, pieces were salvaged, and put back together here in Richmond. While the entire house was not in good shape, Agecroft Hall shows the style and workmanship of old England.

                              

The next day we went to Colonial Heights, VA, and the Keystone Tractor Museum. Wayne had seen this place from I-95 and so it was his pick! Except for being hot (no air conditioning in there), it was really a neat place. The number of tractors was overwhelming, plus cars and trucks on display. The owner has hundreds of restored tractors and trucks (he owned a trucking company). However, we did not find our International 706!

After a stop in Farmville, where our daughter went to school at Longwood College (back then! Now it is Longwood University), we stopped in Appomattox, VA. Wayne had never been there, although I had taken our kids years ago when he was at a meeting in the area. 

 Charley's riverfront restaurant, meals from our past!

Appomattox, VA

On the way home the next day, we drove up the Blue Ridge Parkway - another first! We had been on Skyline Drive a few years ago, but never the Parkway.

Our last stop was at Cyrus McCormick's Farm in Raphine, VA. It is managed by Virginia Tech and a very low key stop. There was a good walk to a wetlands area, as well as the original mill on the farm and information about McCormick and his reaper.

We both agree that our travels this year have made us realize how much we have to see in our immediate area, as well as throughout the United States. 

A Quilting Finish!!!

It is hard to realize this year is almost half over and I have only posted one time! It is not because we have been bored, however. I will try to catch up in a future post, but today is celebrating not one, but two finishes for my quilting UFO challenge from Marti at 52 Quilts.

This first was not an UFO, but it is a completed quilting project. I found this pattern online and had to make it for my mother, whose first job was working at Singer Sewing Company in St. Louis, Missouri. Singer machines have always been special to us, much in the same way as International tractors are to others in my family.

I was also fortunate to deliver it in person, since we took a spring trip back to Missouri in May.

My second finish is this spring quilt, the fourth in a set of wall hangings depicting the four seasons. I did make my deadline - before the end of spring!!

Here are the others in the series - summer, fall, winter. It only took about five years!

Summer

Fall

Winter

I know the photos are not the best, but I am so glad to have the set finished that I rushed. One day I will take photography time!

Happy New Year! or Happy 2015 anyway!

It looks like time really ended for me back in August! I am not even going to try and go over the last 4 months! The things that I do  remember include the following.

In September I had arthroscopic knee surgery.  As soon as I recovered from that it was time for the Sprick Sibling reunion and we headed to Nashville, Tennessee. From there we were in St. Louis to visit my parents for a very short trip.

November brought home remodeling - we replaced all the carpet on the upper floor, which meant three bedrooms, the hallway, and the main steps. After preparing for the promised installation day, we learned that a guaranteed 72 hour installation is not guaranteed!! The carpet had to be ordered (not told to us at the store, and not mentioned on the label on the carpet sample which said "72 hour installation guaranteed"!

Then came December and all the holiday activities. In January we went to San Diego for the American Farm Bureau's annual convention.

Here are just a few photo highlights of the end of 2014.

This was one of our activities with the Sprick siblings.









During the carpet removal, we had all items out of the bedrooms upstairs - they wound up downstairs or in the bathrooms - where ever I could put stuff!!

Our December fun included taking our grandchildren on a tour of the Christmas lights in our area. We always like to see these tractors lit up, with the first one taking the role of Rudolph!
Then we were able to go to the Tuba Christmas concert at the shopping mall. Last year it was cancelled due to bad weather. It was really a great experience, made more enjoyable since we shared it with friends who are musical! He is a past high school band director and taught us about the tuba instrument family.