Mostly pictures in this blog post – starting with the church picnic.
The best meal anywhere – church potluck!!!
Four month old Griffen visited Sunday afternoon.
Somebody wanted to see my sewing room – I took these pictures just now – did not stop to clean up!
Looking to the right into the kitchen
Several readers asked if I lived in the house during the remodeling – yes, I did – I even gave piano lessons in the mess. Piano room and garage added later.
I found the Bone Appetit pattern – $5.00 and a SASE – for anyone who is interested.
This is my best bird feeder – in the middle of the yard so the squirrels can’t eat it all. It’s an old disc blade welded to a pole and stand.
Reader quilts:
Second quilt is leftovers from first quilt. Wow!
I cleaned the upstairs classroom today – we have two huge Goat Gazette holders and this one is open to a story by our friend Ursula and I know she still reads the blog! Remember this story, Ursula?
Sunflowers in the garden are beginning to fill AND I found 15 pumpkins!!!
And here’s my beautiful new sewing room in the days when I first moved into it. Hard to believe it’s the same room but just think of all the quilts this room has produced! Makes me tired.
I love your sewing room, it’s perfect, love the whole house, just perfect
Wonderful pictures! A clean sewing room is a room where no sewing happens!
I LOVE potlucks. It’s so fun to see and taste the different dishes that people bring. We have them monthly at our senior citizen center and the ladies make some of the best dishes and are always happy to share their recipes. My pet peeve is the ones that just bring something purchased at the store instead of spending a little time to make something. I understand if you are unable to cook but I have seen more of the younger people that just don’t want to take the time.
Griffen is a beautiful dog, his fur looks so soft.
You have certainly put alot of work and love into your home and it shows. I am so envious of your screened-in porch, I would live in that room.
Oh my I have serious sewing room and kitchen envy. My sewing room is the old front porch 9’x14’ and a galley kitchen. The house is well over 100 yrs old and was moved into the village from the farm. We’ve lived here for 40 yrs. It’s been a great family home, large yard and a block away from school. Nice selection of quilts today. Take care Mary.
I’m glad you didn’t stop to clean up before pictures!! I’m all about a little chaos in the sewing room—that’s creativity in progress!! Your house is lovely!! And I love that you have a room dedicated to your beautiful piano, too!!
Diane – how’s the cleaning/moving going?
Lovely trip down memory lane.
Mary, thanks so much for taking us on your house tour! You have done so much to make your vision happen. The piano room is lovely and your sewing is a fabric artist’s dream.
Love all the pictures….what fun to see the church potluck photos! And you did get some pumpkins after all!🎃🎃🎃
Thank you!
Vicki in Seattle
Vicki, what dynamic fabric for that border on your second quilt!!! Never seen it before. It sure is a striking quilt.
I’ve enjoyed seeing your home and sewing room. The remodeling and living in the remodel is quite a mess. We’ve had bathrooms and kitchens and upstairs remodeled and lived in the mess while it was ongoing. We haven’t added on though. Your sewing room looks like so much fun to play in.
I haven’t been to a potluck in years. It looks like fun.
And yes the quilt looks like a corn header on the combine.
Hi Mary, your sewing room looks as big as my granny flat, It’s a proper sewing room, where the magic happens as they say!The dog quilt is so cute,would be a good fund raiser for a rescue centre.Take care everyone, best wishes from Sandy
Great pictures today. I love the pictures of your sewing room. It looks like mine most of the time.
Last week a tour of the outside, this week, the inside. How fun. BUT, I don’t see much of a fabric stash. I love seeing others “stuff” …just love it, but where is the fabric?
Any potluck is good eats. Tonight we were going to have burgers and corn on the cob, well…I ran out of gas and had to fry them. They were good and the corn was yummy.
Jo – haha! Ok, that’s the next set of pictures – all the fabric is in the shop. And there’s a lot of it because I still like it. We had grilled burgers last night, too, and I always wonder when the tank will be empty!
I love your sewing room I bet you know where almost everything is . Whenever I clean up and put things away in my sewing room it seems I can’t find anything
Mary, I hate it when I clean. When I need something I have either put it somewhere where I can’t find it or I’ve donated it.
Martha – someone mentioned writing themselves a note about where they move things. If I clean up I’ll lose so much!
Love the quilt show today! Jeanie’s quilt is so pretty and summery! Your sewing room is perfect.
Mary, thanks for all the pictures. I will be sending off my request for the dog quilt. Thanks for finding it,.
Oh gosh, I do remember the photos in the Goat Gazette. Holly was the baby reindeer I helped raise when her mother rejected her. Even took her home with me so I could feed her every 3 hours through the night. Volunteering at the zoo was such a wonderful time in my life. Thanks for the reminder.
Ursula – oh, I’m so glad you saw the mention!! I did the same with Susannah and that’s what I wrote her book about – that whole process of raising a baby animal that the mother rejected. Glad you’re still out there, Ursula, and that I could bring back a sweet memory for you!
Your sewing room looks fantastic. Full of creativity and ideas in the making. Sometimes we have to put everything in a box, shake it up and dump it out and see what happens. Isn’t it great that our fabric brings such fun to us. Lots of colors and ideas, just overflowing.
We had Project Warmth today and it is great to see what everybody is making. So much of the fabric comes from the stashes of old ladies when they die. I know they would be so excited to see what we make out all of it. The quilts all go to charity. Don’t think we’ll ever get all of it used, but we’ll give it a good try.
Betty in Rapid City
The potluck looks like lots of fun, as well as a yummy meal. Your church is beautiful.
I love your big sewing room; you have so much cabinetry and storage. Thanks for the house tour; it is a wonderful home with that screened porch as a special treasure!
After finishing the 30’s baby quilt, I decided on my next project-a quick one. While visiting my niece, I saw a doll stroller amongst the other toys. Not all toddlers play with baby dolls; but apparently, our great niece is ready for a doll quilt. How fun!
thanks for the lovely photos of your home. what a wonderful place you have managed to make. your sewing area is marvelous. i loved seeing the photos sent by readers. what a great job, everyone. patti in florida
Patti,
Are you in an area safe from harm in Florida? It must be so hard to pack up and evacuate and pray you come back to your home. But rushing water is not easy to escape from. Hope you stay safe.
Mary, I’ve enjoyed all your pictures of your home inside and outside. Your sewing room is what I dream about. I think I’ve shared before about my second bedroom/sewing room. I’ve decided after I return home from my 2 month travels, I am seriously cleaning my basement and reclaiming that second bedroom upstairs for my sewing room.
I loved Griffen’s photo. Now that’s a dog full og energy!
Martha – I don’t blame you about moving your sewing space! You gotta have room to work – yes, Griffen is a gorgeous little ball of energy.
If your sewing room is clean than you would not be busy making quilts!
Hi Mary, Griffin & Finn are both beautiful babes. I love your sewing room. It’s awesome! I would love that much space to create in. My space is a tiny extra bedroom. Your home is beautiful. Thanks for sharing. It’s cooler here this morning. 59 degrees! and getting to 82. Perfect weather. Enjoy the day everyone!
Love the sewing room, and the fact that you left it “as is”. Most pictures we see of other’s rooms are perfecting cleaned and sort of staged when we all know they are usually in chaos! And yes, we all know where things are, most of the time.
Love the memory quilt. So sad.
I know how you feel about your sewing room. I plan to have a sign made for mine that says, “Can you believe it–I survived the explosion”
Love seeing of what’s real in your life Mary. No staging to make it look picture perfect for a photo. Plus when I clean now I have to write in a little notebook where I put that project and I am still searching where I put a charm pack I want to use. That Finn just cracks me up with his expression. Very nice quilts and I will have to remember to machine quilt on angle like Jeannie did on hers as I tend to do straight up and down lines on my charity quilts.
Our church picnic on Sunday was so much fun as we haven’t had one since 2019 due to Covid. Our kids didn’t have that cute bounce house like yours but a bucket of chalk to draw on the pavement and some big bubble wands. Our church pavilion is right next to a cornfield and I worried some child would wander off before we could see it as we had 6 kids all under 5 playing together. Our new minister is a young woman so I treasure these little ones of new families she is bringing in.
Kathy – I’m going to brag about our little kids – I always count them during children’s sermon and last Sunday there were 34 – sometimes there’s over 50. We have many new families with small children and I don’t know hardly any of them because of where I sit.
It IS something to brag about Mary! Kids are going to be the change we hope in this upside down world. I love seeing the little ones because soon enough parents sign them up for soccer, football, cheerleading, hockey, and off they go to games on weekends and we hardly see them till confirmation and then more sports and suddenly they are teens and return to get married. Can you tell I am sentimental today with how fast life goes.
And here’s a “joke” I’ve heard and retell often: How do you get bats out a church bell tower, upstairs, classroom, etc? CONFIRM THEM! You’ll never see them again.
Loved today’s pictures. Your home feels so welcoming and well lived in. Must admit I’m a little envious of the size of your sewing room. I manage to satisfy my hobby to a small bedroom but somehow the fabric is starting to overtake the space. Somewhere along the way I’ve managed to collect more than I am using. This year I have to sit on my hands at the annual quilt guild auction!
Pattie – If I had a quilt shop nearby I’d have more new fabric. We all love fabric!
Love the pictures! I absolutely love your sewing room!!!
The tie quilt is so VERY special. I hope it brings comfort to the family.
Wow! So great to see the sewing room then and now! The quilts shown were amazing!
What terrific pictures of your house, church picnic, and the quilts! Your sewing room is just wonderful!
It’s amazing how even without a dedicated space, we still can do a lot of sewing. I went from no dedicated space to a little, back to none a few times, and now have a small room packed to the brim. I’m afraid that no matter how much room I have, it gets filled up quickly and spills over. Between fabric and a growing collection of antique sewing machines (treadles and hand cranks), my whole house is filling. But what joy!
Thank you for sharing all these great pictures.
Church picnics are the best, everyone can just enjoy being with each other and to welcome those folks we don’t get to know. Many attend other service times. Your sewing space is wonderful, full of ideas and creativeness. I did not know that you gave piano lessons or that you had a Grand piano in your home. I loved seeing all those remodel pictures and the red truck is a gem. It has gotten cooler here in Wisc, nice to take a walk mid day.
Kim – when we first moved here I hung out my shingle for piano lessons and that’s how I got acquainted with Garner plus there were no piano teachers around – for awhile I had 25 students per week and of course they had to be scheduled between the hours of 4 – 8. I have been a church pianist for 65 years. Haha! And I don’t think I’m in any danger of being pushed out of my job. Nobody else will make the commitment.
So Mary…….you started playing the piano when you were 10 years old??? That is truly amazing. I hope your church appreciates you. We are so blessed in our small church to have a wonderful pianist, and we also have a middle aged man and another woman that can play as well. I appreciate singing with a piano and organ more than trying to sing with a praise team with all those instruments. I have been to some churches where the instruments are so loud you can’t even hear the person singing next to you. I’ll get off my soapbox now….sorry if I have offended anyone. (I’m from the old school)
Jeanine- I am old school, too, and I hate praise music. And yes, I grew up 1/2 mile from our tiny country church and I started playing when I was 10 because there wasn’t anyone else and my mom was determined I learn to play hymns. When I play hymns for our congregation now I never add any embellishments to the music either because singing a straight hymn is much easier with a piano playing it exactly as it’s written. It’s overwhelming to me when the church
is full and I’m playing for all those voices – it takes my breath away. I also gave piano lessons when I was in high school – every Saturday morning starting at 8 am. My mom baked cookies and the moms sat in the kitchen having coffee and cookies while their kid was having their lesson. Am I crazy or was it .35 per lesson? And that probably didn’t cover the price of the coffee and cookies! Haha!
It is definitely a working studio! Love it! Who wants to spend precious sew time keeping a working studio pristine just for a magazine pic?
Fran – when people post pictures and write detailed explanations of how their sewing room is so organized and they’ve just added these cupboards and those storage pieces, I know right away that they never sew anything. All they do is keep it perfect! They organize fabric carefully folded in tubs – it will never get out of the tub! On the other hand, if that’s what they enjoy most about quilting I say, you go, girl!
Even if seeing pictures of sewing room makes you tired? it is fortunate to have one, with tools and space all set up. You can walk in and begin where you left off or start a new quilt project.
Congratulations!
Thank you for opening your home up to us and sharing the photos of your sewing room. I love how it is still part of your living space but enough away from everything else that you can do your fun things there without having to pick up everything. Also having the windows for the natural lighting.
Dear Mary, I loved seeing your quilt room because mine is a twin!! Whenever I straighten it I lose something and have to mess it up again just to find the item. but I have to admit it’s nice to see my green cutting mat exposed to daylight now and then.
I have a request. I LOVE the rainbow quilt you posted ( under the bird feeder picture). There’s no name or place but I’d love to get that pattern. Can someone direct me? Do any of you sometimes see a quilt and it just calls to you…I really want to make it. thanks in advance. I start my day with a smile, a cup of coffee and your post.
Rickie in NV