July Fun

Hot hot hot it has been here in the mid-Atlantic. This last week I have done little outside but the pool and my yard shows great documentation of that.   A bit of weeding and deadheading needed but it will have to wait.  As will the analyzation of the annoying Lantern Flies that seem to be everywhere. 

I had an invite to go for a long weekend in Pittsford, NY which just happens to be where Hobby House Needleworks is location.  There was a class at Hobby House the weekend we went.   A friend and I were not signed up for the class but a group of our friends were.   They had rented a large Air B & B and had room for us to crash with them for the weekend.    Always great fun being with members of your tribe.

On the ride up, we stopped at the Salt Museum in Liverpool just outside of Syracuse.  It was a self guide tour on Lake Onondaga.    It was a great place to stop, stretch our legs and take a walk around for an hour to spell us from the drive.   The local lore is that this Salt mining enterprise was instrumental in winning the Civil War......"the Union didn't defeat the South, we did by not providing them salt....."  It was a 5 1/2 - 6 hour drive and I was able to stitch quite a good little section on my hexagon quilt - pix next time.

Lake Onondaga

Life size display of the salt process.  Taking
water from the lake and boiling the water off
leaving the salt crystals.

We also stopped in Canadaqua, NY at Expressions in Needleart.   Another town filled with wonderful large homes and a bustling little main street.  The shop was well stocked and the owner was super nice.  If it were my local LNS, I wouldn’t be unhappy.

Now on to the town of Pittsford, NY.   What a charming area north of the Finger Lakes on the Erie Canal.   The houses were so adorable and the town so full of Victorian mansions and well kept yards.   Bunting was draped on more houses than not.   Great restaurants, great shops.   

Because I  had a trip  to Hobby House Needleworks in Pittsford NY and of course.....it was necessary to buy 'souvenirs' for my stash.  Both the needlework store and the wool shop were awesome.   The staff and owners were beyond nice and over and above helpful.   It was really like we were dealing with not only knowledgeable people but with long lost friends of the same mind!   

We went to the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY.  Built in 1905, what a beautiful house.   I learned the the work “Kodak”, which Eastman used to name his cameras and film, was nothing more than a made up word.   He wanted something easy to pronounce, something that would not be close to referring to anything else, something easy to spell.... so he made it up.  Eastman was a great philanthropist, having no wife or children, he donated his fortune to Rochester Institute Technology, MIT, Tuskegee University and Hampton University and other innumerable charitable causes.   He was a pioneer is work force benefits offering employees health insurance, disability, sick time, and more.   Upon his death, his entire estate was given to the University of Rochester.   

His house was gorgeous.     He built the house for his mother and himself.  Unfortunately his mother died only after living there two years.

Front Entrance

West Garden

Rock Garden at rear of property

The Dining Room Look at that work on the ceiling!

The Conservatory.    I would not have a problem sitting in this room with my stitching and a cup of coffee.  Or even in the evening with a glass of wine.

Well maybe the elephant over my shoulder could be troublesome.

Wood work detail everywhere was intricate and beautiful

The Billiard Room

Beautiful hand carved chest gifted to Eastman from a Russian Czar
for Eastman's advances in photography.


The Eastman Library


The Front Stairway


The ornate balusters 


From the landing above, a beautiful view of the Conservatory

The Living Room

Mrs. Eastman's Room

I don't believe this sampler was old but a sampler on the wall always catches my eye.

The home, while not as large as say Biltmore or others built in the late 1900th century, it was open and airy and was created for class and for comfort.   It was a different kind of opulence.  Can you imagine, Mr. Eastman has a central vac system installed when he built the home in 1905.  

Camera used on the lunar orbitor.

Now on to my Hobby House purchases.  I didn’t go too overboard with purchases but….. I have been in love with the Red Bird Sampler from Brenda Gervais for awhile so pattern, fabric and floss were obtained.   I really like the Quaker Christmas designed by Hobby House shop owner Kathy.  I also have wanted Theresa Venette's Red Sampler Book so that was added to the basket along with some nice white linen.  And you know we went to the shop three times and each time I felt I had to buy.   Having seen a presentation on Bristol Samplers from Claudia Dutcher, I picked up Erica Michael’s Bristol Sampler and Strawberries.   

   

On our last day, we spent the morning at Ontario’s Beach in Charlotte, NY.   A beautiful public park.  We walked the pier and sat on the beach.   Toes went into Lake Ontario but that water was COLD!   

From the pier

The sand, not so nice.   Ground shells.   I don't know how anyone walked without flip-flops.

1822 Lighthouse at the entrance to the Genesee River off Lake Ontario.

I've never seen such purple flowers on hostas.

So on to what I have been doing stitching-wise outside of galavanting to upstate New York.......  I managed to accomplish a mere 53 days without making a craft purchase and then......I got into a(another) quilt challenge with my sister and needed 7 one-yard coordinates.    Oy!  If not with these, surly would have been broken at Hobby House.  

I found these 30 fat quarters (7 and 1/2 yards) of retro fabrics on Etsy.  The project is from Gnome Angel in Australia and is 100 blocks in 100 days.  (surely you know I am laughing at myself because in reality this is just another start that may never be finished.    I don't know why I have such gusto at the start of a project and then.........is crash and burn on the interest)  

Our June EGA meeting was a blackwork patriotic piece.   Me in my infinite wisdom (not) to change things up decided I would stitch the pattern over one instead of as charts.  Well, I should know by now that designers know so much more than me.   I plan to stitch it a second time and at least I will be able to end up with an ornament as well as a piece large enough to frame or to make into a pillow.

  

For the i-Stitch Band Sampler, we are closing in on the end.  I have week 28 to do, and to print out Week 29 from last Friday and then print out the final week this upcoming Friday.   I may catch up, there are still 3 1/2 stitching days until Week 30 is published.

I helped teach a Christmas in July Class for EGA.   Look at these no-sew beauties stitchers were able to walk out with completed, or nearly completed.   No sewing, just a lot of folding and a ton of straight pins.

On to August!

Thanks for stopping by, keep smiling, keep safe and keep on stitching!

June Update

So far so good!  I have not bought any addition craft supplies, well that is not any purchases that are not totally justifiable.    And yes, Kathy, it is a pledge we make and remake to ourselves on a regular basis. 

I was in OCMD for the Air Show.   We were on the boardwalk just above the VIP tents so we had the best view!  

A trip to OCMD always includes a stop at Salty Yarns. I saw some things I liked and wanted but I resisted.   I did however buy a pair of cheaters which fall into the category of "needed to finish a current project".

That justification is not even a stretch! It is totally legit.  And I have to say, the real cheaters and not the 4 for $12 Amazon cheaters are nicer.   I'd been using 4.0's for some time and had started to  struggle with focusing.  These are 3.0's and  everything is crystal clear!  LOL  20 days and counting on the pledge to make no purchases.  I wonder how long I can keep this going……

March/April/lMay as well as September/October/November seem to be my busiest months.  At the beginning of the June I had a day at home, with no where to go and nothing pressing on my list.  Usual days when I have no where to go, I get up, put on garden clothes and head out side to dig and weed and transplant and then, quite frankly, collapse mid-afternoon sweaty and dirty from the lifting, lugging and  heat.    This particular Monday, I decided the yard and gardens would wait and I sat down to write out some cards, send out from checks (yes, I still write checks occasionally) balanced my checkbook (and yes, yet another archaic thing I do) did my report for my EGA meeting 4 days in advance rather than 30 minutes before the meeting and just generally sorted paper work on my desk.  By 10 a.m., I was done and felt great.   Those nagging tasks that niggle at the back corner of your brain, the ones I tend to put off because I’d rather have my hands in the dirt or holding a needle, were gone.    I don’t know why I make some tasks seem so tedious when if I actually just do them they are no big deal.   I think it is that retirement thing....I'll do it tomorrow.  Just like I used to tell me kids…"you have have the time if you take the time".  Pass the salt while I eat my words!

We have had some beautiful weather the beginning of June. Sunny but not hot.  It carried over through much of one week.   One such day I looked at my infamous to-do list and decided to start cutting the hundreds of 2 1/2 inch squares of holiday fabric I needed for an EGA class in July…and another marvel, not waiting until the week of to start the cutting.   Not wanting to miss the beautiful weather, I took everything outside to work.   It was a great thing to do.  Although more than once the wind did take a square or two and sailed them into the strawberry patch.  

I resolved by the end of the day that once day a week I would do no yard work, go no where, but rather work on something totally different, not necessarily on my to-do list and just maybe I wanted to do rather than something I felt like I had to do.  Mr. Wonderful suggested I take more than one day a week off.   Well let’s not get crazy here, I do have my lists.  He doesn’t understand how I never run out of things to do. Ahhhh, but life is so good.   Two and a half years retired and not bored yet.....just living the good life.

I watched the Queen’s Jubilee as I am sure many of your did.  Just love the Pomp and Circumstance.   And oh that Prince Louis!  Many of us have had a child like him!  He is going to be a scamp for sure.

I caught up on my Garden of Stitches SAL.  I am enjoying this piece but I have hit a wall for the time being.  

I am not necessarily enjoying these 23 rows of modified herringbone stitches.   It is not a quick section.    I will work on this next week and be sure to get my June assignment done before July starts.

I have let my i-Stitch Band Sampler slip behind.  Five or six weeks left until the end.  I'm hope to finish Week 22 today and work on Week 23 tomorrow.  I am done being bothered by not keeping pace with others.......enjoy the journey, it's not a race to see who gets done first.    (Hmmm, this philosophy has contributed to my tons of WIP's)

My band sampler may have slipped but I have almost doubled what I had done on my hexie quilt.  

I am not sure how big I am going to make it.   I will just continue to add to the right side until I say enough....I will not keep adding until I run out of hexies as that would make a Jolly Green Giant sized quilt.  I'd really like to set a goal of September to be done (total fantasy).   Because of the size I think I will pay to have this long-armed rather than me attempt it on my Husqvarna. 

I saw Top Gun Maverick - Awesome.   It was the perfect thing to do before going to the air show with the Thunderbirds in OCMD.  One of my favorite things was the use of the music from the original movie.   The music is so synonymous to Top Gun I would have been disappointed if it was not in the second movie.   

I am working on catching up on both guilds blog posts as well as the website of one.  One guild done/one almost done.  Talk about a niggling task that I put off.  I dread doing the website updates.  They are not needed frequently. It always seems once I learn to navigate the site, there is an upgrade to the platform and therefore the steps change!   But once I get into it, it is usually not as difficult as I imagined it to be before I started.  Just do it Robin!

On the same lines….just when I thought I would dedicate one morning each week to catch up on other blogs and make comments, there is a snafu, more commonly know as some kind of darned update.   Some blogs have a new comment form where I must ‘identify’ myself as "Not Anonymous" but when I do it, it only takes me in a loop.   Ugh!   After a few go ‘rounds, I donned my garden gloves and go sit in the dirt!  So Bloggers, don't despair, you are being read.   Receiving my comments is a whole other issue.

My son gifted me with something.   He has been pulling out the garden edging and the stones in his flower beds and wanted to know if I could use them….thought about half a minute and I had a plan.    I replaced the bricks lining the my garden path in my Back 40 project and dug in the edging and then laid the stone and various pavers and bricks to create a better path through the area.   See, one person’s trash is truly another person’s treasure.   Now I don't need to get out the weed wacker for the path, just a spritz here and there for any grass that comes up through the stones.  One of the things I like most about this area is that I have spent next to nothing on it.   I’ve bought a couple of wine bark bushes and a couple of cone flowers but for the most part the flowers are transplants or seed packs just tossed in to grow.  It is about 98% sweat equity!

And this would be why I don't accomplish as much stitching as I would like to.

Time to get some more stones from Rich's place.   I am babying Monday and Friday this week so I will have more than enough.   I'll keep going until I am done with the path or run out of stones and bricks, whichever comes first.   Got lemons, make lemonade.   Got stones and brick, make a walkway.  Just like stitching, slow and steady wins the race.

Looking ahead to Christmas (what!) it's only June!  There are five of us that are doing an Advent Exchange at Christmas and I have 19 or 20 of the necessary 24 already.  I need to start the ‘assembling process’, make the gift tags and even start to wrap them.  I think I have  this on my August to do list to start August 1st.   Five times 24 is 120 packages to wrap!!

Here’s to smooth sailing the rest of June, July and August.  These are not the Dog Days of Summer, but the Robin Days of Summer.  Much relaxing will be done, the pool water will warm up; this is the latest it has been before a first swim!  Last weekend it was in the upper 60's.   Beautiful weather, albeit not swimming weather.  And much stitching will be done and much enjoyment will be taken from looking about the yard at the results of my hard work in the spring time.   Oh, and yes, William has asked if he could come spend a week as Damma's now that school is out…watch out Damma!   

I'll leave you with some early morning photos of my yard walk.   This is one of my favorite times of the day to be in the garden, when the shadows are long, and the fragrances are strong.   Heck, who am I kidding, I'd prefer to be out here most of the time as is evidenced by breakfast, lunch and dinner on the deck.

Lavender is doing great.

My Dill AND my Hosta are shoulder height!  Probably supposed to do something with the dill, like trim it.....

In addition to strawberries, I have already harvested lettuce, peppers, cilantro and green beans.  Tomatoes are not yet ready.

Volunteer Foxglove and Black-Eyed Susans in my Back 40 area.

Orange cone flower I planted last fall.  Either he is a dwarf plant or he needs Miracle Gro!

My sentinel...Mr. Squirrel.     The colors in here were at a peak last week.....this is an area in need of thinning.

Even out front, the colors abound......not so much the rusty color of the dead azalea blooms.  I just transplants some of the Russian Sage yesterday into the Back 40.   It was being smothered by the shrubs growing over it and I thought, hmm, I know where I can put these!

Time to thin this bed out.   The coreopsis and Shasta Daisies have seen better days. And I'd really like to eliminate all the Spiderwort.   Believe me I have tried but the bugger just keeps coming back.  It does add a nice pop of color and then.....it just falls over and covers everything around it.   The Stella Doro lilies in the background have not yet blooms, but wait until the do......yellows and oranges all over the place!

Thanks for stopping by.   Keep safe and keep in stitching.

R