Longaberger Baskets

    We discovered that we were in Longaberger Basket country, so decided to check it out.  They have something called the Longaberger Homestead–which is a terrific facility.  There’s a beautiful visitor’s center, huge building filled with shops, a big barn that’s original to the property and, most interesting of all, the production facility!  It’s 22 acres under one roof!

There’s a fabulous cat walk that extends the entire length of the building with great interpretive panels.  We spent a long time walking along, watching the production below and reading the information.  

Of course we had to get our photos in a basket.  

Here’s the barn.  It houses sale items and a cafe where we had a great lunch.

Then we headed south to the Ohio River.  We passed several old barns that had remnant of Mail Pouch tobacco ads.

And even barns with quilt blocks on them!

I’ve been unfaithful to Poppy!

Yes, dear, sweet Poppy, shown here in happier times.

Today Bob and I were in Astoria and something very bright and shiny caught my eye.  Yes, another Airstream.  It beckoned to me, like a siren.  I thought, “What could a little closer look hurt,” so Bob turned the truck in the direction of this seductress.  

I wasn’t going to get out of the truck at first, but what could one little peek hurt?  I peered through the window in the door, and what should I see–and orange dinette!  Oh, you temptress!

Well, the next thing you know, the salesman was there with key in hand.  “Just have a look,” he said, as the sunlight glinted off his toothy smile and sparkled back in that shiny aluminum skin.  “The kitchen has all new appliances….”

And did I mention the Vista View Windows and no fake brown wood grain?  

Oh, Poppy, forgive me!

Morning found us near Orrville, Ohio, the home of Smuckers!  Well, who could resist that?

    They have a gorgeous facility, part museum, part gift shop, part restaurant.  We enjoyed it all.  The timeline was wonderful.  I didn’t know that the original Mr. Smucker started by making and selling apple butter.  Made me a bit nostalgic for my early Anna Lena days.  Many of you may not know that Anna Lena’s began as a gourmet cranberry products business!  But that’s another story!  

We did a little damage in the shop and enjoyed some sweets before we left.

    Then we headed south.  Once again, I loved the scenery.  There must be something in my genes that makes me loves farms, farmland and barns.  And I must say Bob was so good about turning around for photos!

    We went to a very interesting place called Historic Roscoe Village.  Who knew that in the late 1800′s two canals were dug from Lake Erie south to the Ohio River!  It was all about moving goods to market.  The canals were quite successful, and the towns that grew up along the canals prospered.  As the canals fell into disuse, the town deteriorated.  In the 1960′s, some people with great foresight decided to restore Roscoe Village and a stretch of the canal.  I loved all the old brick buildings.  

The canal boats were drawn by horses walking alongside the canal on a path.  There was a section of the path that is now a walking trail, and Bob and I walked about two miles.  Here I am sitting on the stonework left from one of the old locks.

It was a very warm day, and we were glad we were walking along by the water.  

Day two of our Ohio adventure found us smack in the middle of Amish country.  

I would love to show you all kinds of photos, but I did respect the Amish desire not to be photographed.  Suffice it to say that it was a wonderful experience.  Beautiful countryside, fertile farm fields and picturesque scenery.  

They’ve had a wet spring in Ohio, and the farmers are late getting the corn planted.  It was gorgeous while we were there, so there was lots of planting going on–both by the “English” and the Amish.  I did snap this one photo.

We also stopped at a fascinating place called Warthers.  Mr. Warther was a knife maker by trade, but a carver by hobby.  He created incredible carvings of stream locomotives and trains.  The detail is incredible.  In fact, I don’t have the words to describe them.  I think one of these would be a lifetime’s accomplishment, but there are dozens of them.  Some have as many as 10,000 pieces in them.  Mr. Warther could carve about 1000 pieces a month, so a 10,000 piece train would take about 10 months!  Oh, and that was just carving in the mornings and evenings, before and after work.  If I had that kind of dedication, think of the quilts I could make!

This is President Lincoln’s funeral train.

We stopped at a cheese factory and picked up some goodies and asked directions to a picnic spot.  It was down a few more country roads, and it was a beautiful setting.  And we had the whole place to ourselves!

Some shots of the park

And this was the view across the road.

Another day in paradise!

We interrupt this Ohio adventure for a quilt kit give-away!

This Red and White Delight quilt is featured on the cover of Quilts and More–and it uses my fabric!  The quilt was designed by Maebeth Oxenreider, and the folks at Q&M were nice enough to let me offer kits for the quilt on my web site.  One cool thing that Q&M does is show fabric requirements and cutting instructions for lap, twin, queen and king sizes.  There’s even a pillowcase kit!  Here’s the queen size – photo courtesy of Meredith Corp.

So, I thought it would be fun to give away a kit for a lap sized quilt.  It finishes 42″ x 52.”  I’ll include the magazine, of course, so you’ll have the pattern.  This give away is worth $46.98.  All you have to do is leave a comment and on June 8, I’ll use a random number generator to pick a winner.  Oh, and if you want a bigger size, you can apply the $$ toward a bigger one.  Hope you win!

Bob flew into Pittsburgh on the last day of Market, and early Monday morning, we headed for Ohio!  

Why Ohio, you might ask.  Why not!?!  We love to pick a state and explore.  We don’t have a plan except that we plan to stay off the freeways and out of the big cities.  We were greeted by rolling hills, deciduous forests (which are so different than our evergreen ones) and lots and lots of beautiful farm land.

I love barns, and look at this one that greeted us!

Here’s an oldie.  Check out the foundation.

And I loved this old log cabin and its location near a tiny creek.

This house fascinated me.  It was in a small town on a residential street.  All the houses looked similar with lapped siding.  But this one was being worked on and the siding had been removed to reveal that it was made from hand hewn logs!  I wonder if they all were?

I could tell we were going to like Ohio!

How great is this!?!

Last Christmas I did a little give-away here on my blog.  It was for a Twinkler like this one.

You might not be able to see in the photo, but there are three fabrics in the Twinkler–Blue Square Dance, Orange Square Dance and the print I call Hollywood.  The Twinkler was won by Judy in Sedro-Woolley.  

Well today in the mail, what should I get?  A most adorable pincushion/thread holder made by Judy.  She used the fabrics from the Twinkler.  She even used the rick rack that it was tied with.  

Don’t you love the friends you make quilting?  And they just seem to know what will touch your heart.  This is the second pincushion I’ve gotten in the mail–and they couldn’t be more perfect gifts, because I’d never make one for myself.  

Thank you, Judy.

Hey look–it’s me!

Well, it’s my name, anyway.  I can’t tell you how exciting it was the first time I saw my name on the selvage edge of a bolt of fabric.  That was a BIG day for me!  When my first fabric line came, my bbf Monica made a Market sample for me, and she very carefully trimmed the selvages and put them in a little bag for me.  I might not have thought of the on my own.  Thank you, Monica.  

About a year ago at Market, Kris from Cozy Cottage spotted something new at Market that she thought was hot–plastic cups with a piece of batting between the inside and outside layer.  The idea was that you’d make a mini quilt and personalize your cup.  I LOVED it.  I bought them for my girl gang–and I’d found the perfect thing to do with my selvages.  

But now, I have two more bins full of selvages.  I need to make something else.  I’ve been visiting Karen Griska’s blog.  She’s written a book about selvage quilts and has lots of inspirational photos on her blog.  

Another Inspiring Week

I had a ball at Quilt Market.  Just a few days before I left, I found out that I would be teaching a Take and Teach class, so I had to quickly cut some kits for the project I was teaching.

Market was in Pittsburgh, PA–quite a lovely city on three rivers.  

I got there a day early so I could go visit Karen Montgomery and her quilt shop, The Quilt Company.  

I shared a cab with Marti Michell and we enjoyed Karen’s shop and hospitality.

That evening I met up with friends from the Fabric Shop Network, a trade organization, and we took a dinner cruise.  Here I am with Debbie Welsh from Quilting Possibilities in Forked River, New Jersey.

It’s always fun to see the trade show floor start to take shape.  A LOT of work goes into setting up the booths.

But the most fun was seeing the Sweet Pea display in the Timeless Treasures booth!  The Sweet Pea Jumper, the Lollipop Quilt and the Baby Doll Quilt all looked adorable.

There was even a tuffet covered with the Wood Rose print yo-yo animals made from an Indygo Junction pattern.  

Bob came out of the last day of Market, and we spent a week vacationing.  Now it’s home and back to work getting the next fabric line ready!

aka a quilt in a hurry

Every year my dear friend Pat makes a quilt to donate as a fund raiser to a golf tournament.  The tournament is held in Minnesota and named for her brother.  And each year I quilt the quilt for her.  She gives me the top months in advance, but I always wait until the last minute to get it done.  This year was no different, but when I went to the quilt cupboard to get it the other day, it was nowhere to be found.  You can’t imagine the searching that has gone on–all to no avail.  So I made a distress call to Center Diamond and asked them to send me golf fabric and coordinates.  They had a large Alexander Henry print called Augusta.  I took all they had.  This quilt is the result.    I’m still heartsick about Pat’s quilt top.  My only hope is that it turns up and the quilt for next year is already to go–right on the quilt machine, that is!