Road Trip to Nebraska, Missouri - Part 2

Back-tracking in my story a bit, we had dinner at my friend's house in Lincoln, and she showed us these three wonderful quilts she has made recently. She loves little scrappiness. These are gorgeous quilts!

Back on the road from Nebraska to Missouri, the skies looked menacing, but luckily we only encountered a little rain; the changing skies were interesting to watch.

(They even have a man cave.)

Next day we hit Hamilton, Missouri to visit Missouri Star Quilt Company! What fun! First, it was a beautiful day, and second, the stores were so much fun! Each store carries a certain theme. For example, one is florals, one is batiks, one is called Penney's, as Hamilton is the birthplace of J.C. Penney of the department store fame. Almost every store along the main street is a Missouri Star Quilt store. We each dropped off quilts to be machine quilted and mailed back to us. And we indulged in procuring several lovely chunks of fabric. A fun day! I recommend it as a fun road trip for any quilter.

the obligatory selfie, and a sample of some of my purchases - these are for bindings


We ate at the Blue Sage Restaurant which was YUMMY! It's a high-end place with a real chef. The food was fabulous. We each ordered dessert and this was our reaction -- Cousin: "this is the best cheesecake I've had since London." Me: "this is the best chocolate cake I've had since Paris." Truly, it was delicious, and a great way to top off our little road trip... a short six-hour drive would get us back home. Whew! We were tired but happy.

Road Trip to Nebraska, Missouri - Part 1

Last week my cousin and I traveled to Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska where we visited two friends: one in Lincoln, one in Omaha. We hit some quilt shops and the Quilt Museum in Lincoln. The museum is really good; if you get a chance, go see it. They are working on rotating more exhibits through there so that people can go more often and see new displays. This is what we saw:

plus one more exhibit called Man-Made - quilts all made by male quilters.

Here are a few shots from the museum. I can't show you much, because my photos from inside turned out really bad, with the colors of the quilts very much off their true colors. This will give you an idea, however.

(the above blue one was part of the Blue Echoes exhibit. All of those were stupendous, made by a quilter from Japan.)

From these you might get an idea of my color distortion. In the above grouping, two and three are the same quilt. Bah! I'm so disappointed with the bad coloring in my photos. Even editing them didn't help much. The last photo in this grouping is from Gees Bend.

This one is from the Man-Made exhibit. It depicts a space station and includes a whole story about the people and their community in space. Very imaginative. My colors in this photo are also inaccurate.

This is a couple of shots showing the museum itself.

Above: quilt shop "Cosmic Cow" in Lincoln, my friend's place of employment, and the Little Free Library (LFL) outside her work building. I like to visit LFLs when I travel.

After visiting Omaha, we landed at our retreat center... the Carol Joy Holling Retreat Center. This is the building we stayed in. Isn't it beautiful? (This picture is taken from their website.)

Various shots taken during the retreat. I'm working on my words quilt! Some of you may remember that. I started it for my 60th birthday, with your help. I'm determined to finish it before my 64th birthday which is next fall.

above: a couple of LFLs in Lincoln, and interesting sky when we were on the road from Nebraska to Missouri. See the continuing saga in my Road Trip Part 2 post which is coming soon!

Friday Books: Still Going

I'm still reading The Nightingale and am enjoying it. However, I had a very busy week and didn't get to read much. I did get some time to read in this beautiful spot. Isn't it an idyllic reading place? It's at a retreat center in Nebraska. I was there on a quilt retreat with my cousin. We had a blast, and I'll report on the little road trip in my next post (tomorrow).

Friday Books: One Abandoned, One in Progress

I missed posting last week. I was out of town for my mother's 95th birthday, plus I didn't have a book to report on. I had started one that I thought I'd enjoy, but I found it a tad boring, so I gave up.

I am now reading Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. I am enjoying it so far, though I am barely into it. I am hoping to find some good reading time this weekend. Want to join me in reading Nightingale, and then we can discuss it together? How about it?

a child reads to a cat in an animal shelter - and melts my heart

A Small Zebra Quilt

Look at this cutie! It's about 12" x 12". I got the block on the free table at my guild. It had everything except the zebra on it, even the hand quilting with wonky x's. I thought it was pretty cute. It needed a little something, so I added the zebra, quilted it, bound it, and I will now enter it in our small quilt auction at my guild's store during the show.

I have found other little treasures on our free table over time. It's fun to see what I can do with a discarded piece of something; I always wonder who got rid of it, and why they thought it was no longer useful.

My Mom's 95th Birthday!

My mom is 95 years old! Her birthday was on Saturday. We had a big party. It was so much fun! Former neighbors came, relatives, friends from church, and friends from where she currently lives. I think Mom had a good time, and we three sisters surely did. Later in the evening, after Mom had a nap, and the rest of us cleaned up the party room (see my cousin's daughter gleefully vacuuming in high heels), a bunch of family members went out for dinner. That was fun, too.

This is Mom and her three daughters. Our brother couldn't come, unfortunately.

My mom has outlived all her siblings and her husband (our dad). She has four children, seven grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren with another one coming in July. She has seen a lot of changes in her life! She remembers, when she was five years old, they sold their horse (and she cried), because they had a car and no longer would need the horse and buggy. And now we're searching far into space and using computers with amazing powers! What a change in her world!

Catching Up to the 20th Century

That's right, folks. I'm catching up to the gadgets from the 1990s. I'm on the cutting edge.

Several years ago my SIL gave me a blender for Christmas. It has been here all this time, waiting for me to use it. To be honest, I tried, but it scared me -- so loud, and I thought for sure I was doing something wrong.

Finally I decided I wanted to make smoothies, so I pulled it out and shut my eyes, and turned it on. Voila! Smoothies! And my fear of the blender has vanished! Yay! I know there have been a zillion gadgets created since the blender, all much more efficient, smooth, quiet, etc. But I'm slow to take on the new stuff in some ways. So, today I'm celebrating the discovery of my blender and the ability to make smoothies.

This one is made with yogurt, strawberries, blackberries, milk and ice. I'm not sure I like blackberries in my smoothie. I'll have to keep trying different combinations. I'm nowhere near those modern green things that people drink. So far I'm still at the "it feels and tastes like an ice cream concoction" stage.

I can hardly wait for peaches to be in season!