"What's Behind the Green Door?"

Are you old enough to remember that song.   I seem to recall that it was one of the songs used in Mr. and Mrs. Saltmarsh's dance class to teach us how to do the Swing.  Oh but that is a digression. . . . . .

Here is our new green door,

It really is a lovely color.

Off to the Fair

Today was our (usually) annual visit to the Western Washington State Fair.  It was a big departure, weather-wise, from last week and was even drizzling this morning.  But none of us melted and we had a delightful outing with 2 Grandmas and the 3 biggest Grands.

We did all the required: firetruck, petting farm, horses, goats, dogs, an Elephant "Ear" [with cinnamon and sugar].  The Puyallup pigs, born 5 days ago,

14 of those little ones

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone had 2 rides and then it was lunch time.  Phew - sitting down felt good.  On to check out the quilts (of course)

  It was very interesting to notice, this year, lots of green, although there didn't seem to be any one particular style shown.  I have to say, honestly, that I didn't have loads of favorites, but here are a few that I did think were very good.

We had a very fun day.

Mostly keeping out of trouble

This has been a really busy week with various appointments - can you believe that from a retired girl?  But I have also been keeping myself busy making lined drapes for my son and DIL's bedroom.  They turned out pretty well - not perfect but they will surely do the trick.

The "front" (top layer) is a sheer tan loose weave fabric - rather like fine quality burlap.  She is quite pleased so they are up and looking pretty OK.  Phew!  Tomorrow it's off to the Western Washington Fair with the 3 grands.  That should be fun.  More photos to follow.

Finishing

Finishing a couple of those projects that have been hanging around (for varying lengths of time) sure does feel good.  So just to encourage myself to keep at it, here are last week's finishes -

Table runner started by my friend Elaine M

Baby quilt for Nick and Wendy, expecting #1 in October (gender unknown)

And a small wrap for my little Miss "B" (Grand #4).  It turns out that her mom was given a large art print which, while by a different artist, is almost identical in its theme and animals.  This was made from some scraps from Becca (Stashbusters).  Later I found some more of this fabric, so will make a twin size cover (later)

"B" and her Nana at the soccer game.  Ain't it good?

Grandmotherly duties

Well, today was the first soccer game for the 8 1/2 y.o. grandson.  My own son played soccer for years and years - [I have stood on my share of cold, wet fields.]  But today it was close to 80` and we brought umbrellas to find a bit of shade.  Such a hoot - visions of the past.

Bumble-bee formation

But the first soccer player showed up with his little pea -so cute,

And her Nana had a little "hold" as well,

Small(ish) fabric purchase

As I told you, on Sunday we visited Gee Gee's Quilting in Yelm, WA.  Their website says they have over 15,000 bolts.  It is an amazing place and verges on overwhelming, except. . . . . . almost anything you could be looking for is likely to be there, if it is still being made.  And so, first fabric for new pillowcases for the Grands (it's incredible how much they LOVE their Nana-made pillowcases)

For the oldest (now 11 1/2 going on 27, somedays)

If you cannot tell, it is green with golden suns

For the 8 1/2 y.o.

and for the little princess, 4 1/2

And then, because it was there, to make something for the RVing club

And two for me.  The first is a M'Liss R. Hawley for In the Beginning (an older print), but I loved it,

And a brand new "neutral".  I loved it - with just a hint of blue and green.  Actually it is called "Baby Safari and those are giraffes and something else [???] but I'm convinced that it will be a marvelous blender for whenever I might need something really light,

So all together, I guess I added about 8 yards.  Not so bad, I guess when you figure that 4 of the 6 came from the sale room.

Lucky me!

I'm so very fortunate to be able to have the time and friends to enable another FABULOUS week-end.  We enjoyed great friends, delicious food and of course, the weather cooperated mightily.  The weather man predicted that our gorgeous weather would continue through the holiday week-end, and it did just that.  We arrived at our friend's on Friday afternoon.  Our time was filled with eating and games [Carcassone, Five Crowns and of course, Texas Hold 'Em], bike riding and even a little trip  to the quilt store.  So, some photos of our adventures,

The gathering of chairs on the left of the photo is around the fire circle.  We had campfires each brisk morning and again after supper.  The car port became the "clubhouse" where we played games and decorated RV shaped wooden cut-outs (supplied by one of the guests). [We all stayed in our RV's parked in various places around our hosts large property.]  Saturday morning we went on a bicycle ride on a Rails to Trails route.  (This used to be a railroad route, but the tracks have been removed and it has been paved for walking and biking.  Nothing motorized is allowed.)

Sunday morning we made a jaunt to Gee Gee's Quilting,

This unassuming looking place is simply overflowing with fabric (and crafts and books and kits and thread and and and and)  These photos are truly just a little 'slice' of the aisles inside.

Fabrics are beautifully organized by theme (I found soccer fabric for my grandson) or by type (30's or civil war repro's) or sort (I don't know how to label this) for example, in the picture in the middle above you can see all the 'fairy frost' type of fabrics on the right, on the left are the few solids.  There are asian fabrics, florals, stripes, dots, etc, etc.  It can be a bit overwhelming, but surely a "candy store" for some of us.  If it isn't here, I'm not sure that it is available anywhere.  Quite an outing.  I made a few purchases - much of it from the sale room.  [Photos in my next blog.]

That's Mt. Rainier peeking out from behind the trees.

Walking home after the BBQ supper at the neighbors.  Wow!