Thursday Night on Main at Clear Lake always has a car show and tonite I drove Red and went along with Bob who drove his El Camino. (Bob is Mollie’s dad.)
At 7 pm the band starts playing and people dance in the street – couples, singles, kids, line dancers – anybody who wants to dance to 50’s and 60’s music with a little country thrown in. The band changes each week. The rest of us bring chairs and sit and watch the dancing and enjoy the music.
As we were all facing south we had no idea a storm was brewing to our north and west until suddenly the band announced they had started early because of possible bad weather and sure enough it was nearly on top of us. Can you imagine trying to get all those expensive collectible cars out of there?
Bob told me if I ran into hail to pull off on the shoulder – Farmer Tim, my insurance man, has told me he’d better not see me driving Red in bad weather! Ha!
The weather on the way home was terrifying – ominous clouds, constant lightning, and wind but I kept going and praying that it wouldn’t hail.
I made it home – here’s a picture of the sky.
Many people bring their dogs to Thursdays on Main and tonight I decided I’d take pictures of all of them and put them here on the blog. I don’t have them ready yet but I’ll post them tomorrow.
We’re off to Mayo tomorrow and Becky is coming to take care of the dogs – Hazel will be so happy to see her!
Glad you are safe! A cousin said there was “rotation” over Austin. I HATE tornadoes!!!! Can’t wait to see the Puppy Parade!!!
It reminds me of the old wizard of Oz in in this picture! Glad you all made it home safe!
Whoa, those are some scary clouds. Glad you got home ok. Did it hail? I hope farmer Tim’s crop made out ok too.
I enjoy when towns people come out to mingle on summer nights. Cheyenne use to block off streets, we would have square dancing, Battle of the Bands, mingle around looking for friends. Times have changed.
That weather looks ominous indeed. Hazel’s eyes in the picture make her look like a phantom! Live Lil Red. What a cute car.
Bobby in Md.
One of my cousins has lived in Clear Lake for several years. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, every Thursday night, Rapid City closes a couple streets downtown. There are bands, dancing, games, cops playing ball with the kids. Kids can run all over the place. Just lots of good stuff. On Monday nights the “Downtown Square” has a movie. People bring lawn chairs and kids are on blankets.
With all the fancy electronic stuff didn’t anybody get a storm alert?
Hope you get a good report in Rochester. Tomorrow my neighbor who broke her foot June 1 has an appointment to see if it is healing so they can remove the cast. She is sick and tired of trying to get around, plus she is a person who was always on the go! A VERY hard 2 1/2 months. NO driving.
Got the binding on Asher’s “I Spy” quilt and it turned out great, even if I do say it myself!! Now I’m working on the 2nd “I Spy” for their friend. Then I can mail them and another thing is off the list and out of the house that won’t come back.
The Central States starts tomorrow so we will be hearing music, especially if the wind is in the right direction. And I think I heard “they” are putting the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally attendence at about 500,000 people. That’s a passel.
In the meantime, be careful. Betty in Rapid City
Betty, when you make your I-spy quilts do you sew them all the same? I keep a tote of ornamental fabric and cut 3 1/2” squares from it and then do the square in a square technique on that square to make the block almost 6”. I love making them especially when we know of a child in need as they always turn out so colorful. I just wondered if you do it a certain way as I have seen rows of 5” squares, then a narrow row of solids breaking it up.
No, some layouts are similar, using 1 size pictures, whatever happens that I like. I’ve always used the same size blocks in each quilt. They are simple, not the hexigons – so far. I’m always on the lookout for different lay outs. Some can be very interesting. When fussy cutting, I start with 6″, then go down to 4 or 5″, 3 1/2 and 2 1/2 and end up with a scrap of fabric. I’ve been collecting neat fabrics for many years. Sometimes the picture is just so cute but not big enough, I’ll put a black frame around it to make it big enough. Using the same sized blocks may change as I have a piece of 2 1/2 blocks put together making a piece 20 X 20 from several years ago. My idea is to put plain fabric around it and make the next round of focus blocks 4 X 4, another plain round and then a round of 6 X 6. But that is still a forming idea????? We’ll have to see what happens! I usually use narrow sashing to set the focus blocks out so there is resting space. Alternating picture blocks with plain blocks works well, too. I’ll take pictures, front and back, and send them to you.
There is no rule, just get them to turn out and make a child smile. And imagination.
Years ago at the Honey Barn in Goldfield, I got laughing mice. It is just the cutest and I don’t waste an inch! And my aunt told me all about the Honey Barn, too.
I think that “I Spy with my little eye” was a game played with kids in the car to pass time. It wasn’t around when I was there. With these quilts we try to find all different animals, toys, just anything a kid would learn about. The imagination is the limit. It could be made for lap quilts for adults with flowers, machinery – anything an older person would love to remember.
And anything we quilters can come up in our imaginations.
Betty
Gee Betty thanks for all this helpful information on how you make yours. I never thought to collect machinery fabrics for a lap size charity quilt! I will now. Many times I use solids up to add around the blocks and add them for supplement blocks next to a busy block too. I won’t fuss doing the hexagon shape but find making the economy block relaxing to me. Like you say, the sky is the limit but I am so glad to have a new outlet to make them for as lap quilts for the nursing home in our village. And a reason to buy some different fabrics now too!!! Thanks for getting back to me.
That dark sky does look threatening. Glad you made it home before the hail started.
Is that Hazel with the big eyes or is it a different pet? Looks like a cat, actually.
Red is So cute, Mary, and so are you.
Mary, Nice pic of you and red. glad you made it home before the storm. Those clouds sure look like a nasty storm brewing. this week is our big fair, it is one of the largest in the Virginia. My husband antique tractors pulls each year. He came in second.
Carolyn b Shenandoah Valley VA
Did you have time to put your top up? Looks like a fun Thurs. night event. Not too hot to dance? Pretty sky.
When I was growing up in Iowa I remember scary skies like that each summer, usually in August. Glad you made it home safely with no damage to you or to Little Red. The last time I was in Iowa I saw evidence of that awful doracho, a kind of storm I’d never heard of before. Crops were just flattened to the ground! I love those smaller town events. We have those too in Stowe, VT where we live—car rallies, street dances, Fourth of July family celebrations with fireworks etc. It’s great for kids and families.
That sky looks scary. Did you get very bad weather after you got home? Too bad the weather put a damper on the party. Looked like fun. We had a family reunion last Saturday and, it rained the entire day. Fortunately, we come from hearty stock and everyone came, stayed all day and, a good time was had by all. Good luck at Mayo!
What fun! That is a fantastic pic of you and red! This time of year there are some scary storms out there! Glad you two made it home safe. I never did like driving in rain and storms, and even more so now that I’m older.
Hope all looks well at Mayo. Do let us know! Glad “red” didn’t get hailed on! We just had our roof replaced due to hail damage, almost all in our neighborhood are getting there’s replaced too! Loved the picture of you with red!!
Well that sky looks pretty ugly and scary. I too would want to high tail it home for safety. It’s funny how we all gravitate no matter what age to a car show because we can say we remember our dad buying a certain car and bringing it home or there are stories to tell about a car it seems.
Oh lucky Becky to get cuddles and kisses from Hazel and all the other loves you have there.
Now I am interested in the business behind you as I love seeing Main Street photos as we too are a small town with a Main Street and one traffic light. Is it a plant based food restaurant?
Good luck, hoping for a good report!
The picture of your yard and that ugly looking sky looks like a picture from the Wizard of Oz movie 🚴♀️🐕
Oh I’ve seen those clouds… once while we were at a Kstate football game (yes they made us leave the stadium and go out to your car or go into the basketball coliseum). Glad you made it home safely. Good Luck at Mayo-hope this is the good news we are praying for!
That sure is a scary looking sky! Glad you made it home safely. Hope you have a good trip to Mayo
Happy you n Red made it home safely! Looked like a good evening til the storm started to arrive!
About midnight 🕛 there was a tone out on the scanner for a new fire fairly close to us! My son is a volunteer Fire Chief so his Fire Station responded. Haven’t heard the cause of fire yet.
Pepper is still limping so will be seeing her veterinarian today!
What a great idea for residents to have enjoyment in the summertime, to have a car show each week, and the locals have a wonderful reason to get to gether and visit! We had that same storm earlier, we had some hail as well. Also nice rains as well! Seems there is always some bad with the good and vice versatile. What is an I spy quilt, I haven’t heard of this type of a project! Maybe an explanation could accompany photos of actual Quilts! The summer is speeding on by unfortunately.
Cynthia – we were all so afraid of it hailing but it didn’t. Got an inch of rain tho. An I Spy quilt is an assortment of small items found in quilt material – usually a novelty fabric. I’ve seen some cut out as hexagons but squares would be easier. The idea is to collect as many as you can and not have any repeats. Gives a kid something to look for in their quilt. There is not room to copy all the explanations on this blog – that’s what the internet is for. Saving, uploading, editing and posting the pictures is a lot – it will remain up to the reader to ask a question in the comments and the other reader or quilt maker to answer.
Cynthia, the Economy block is the one I use for my I Spy quilt (or square in a square sometimes called) and I saw the directions on making the block on the blog called Diary of a Quilter.com. It’s Amy Smart’s blog with excellent directions and photos to show how to make it. Some folks collect novelty fabrics and exchange with others to get varieties in their quilts. They are such fun to make.
It’s hard to imagine weather changing so quickly as you described. Here in San Francisco bay area, we have a day’s notice it seems.
Good photo of you and Red. Hoping for good news from Mayo.
Sounds like such a fun night out! Glad you were able to have a little fun and get home safely.
So glad you’re safe.