Pointless Quilter

I've flown through Chicago one before and I've actually been to Minneapolis on a business trip but I wasn't able to go anywhere but to the offices and the hotel (and they did take me to the Great Mall of America), so I had truly never been to the midwest before.  My sister and her husband will be there for three years before they retire and move to Texas, so we decided we wanted to take my dad on a trip to his birth town and home before they move away.  So I was my dad's travel companion.  My sister from Seattle came too.  The first day we took it pretty easy.  We went a cheese and sausage market, then to a nice lunch and then took a river/lake cruise.  Here are few pictures from around the restaurant which was right on Lake Michigan. Here are some pictures from the cruise.  They had to raise I think 6 or 7 draw bridges for us to get to the lake. On the way home we had to try the famous Leon's Frozen Custard.  (It is ...

At Road to California 2015 I took Anita Shacklefords Coxcomb class.  This weekend I put the binding on my quilt.  She gifts you a little history of the coxcomb blocks and gives you  stencils to design your own.  This is my version. I spent a lot of time contemplating my quilting.  Well actually it hung in my closet for almost a year.  I was afraid I would ruin it when I quilted it.  I did pin it about 4 weeks ago after I marked it and for the first time ever I had a problem with some of my safety pins rusting.  The older pins.  We turned our swamp cooler on a couple weeks ago and there you go  Most of the spots are in the back, but there are two in the front.  I have been given a few ideas on how to remove the stains.  Wish me luck.   Me and two friends went to Cambria this weekend for a mini retreat.  It seems I didn't get a lot done but I did.  I got the binding on the Coxcomb quilt, I also mad...

We had to put our oldest dog Walter to sleep today.  He had been sick for a while and the last couple days wouldn't eat and whatever he did eat he pooped and puked out.  He was ready. We got Walter and his sister Duchess about 6 months after I lost my shadow dog Sparky.  Kelly and Jeff first came home with Duchess and she was so sad by herself they went back and got her brother Walter.  It's a good thing they did because Duchess was pretty much blind.  Vet said about 20% sight and she needed her seeing eye dog Walter.  Duchess passed away about 2 years ago.  Walter had been sad since.  He was always overweight because he loved food.  All the time.  He knew exactly what time to get up for breakfast, he would bark at snack times and he would bark for dinner.  He lived a good life even though he only had one eye for most of it.  (That was due to a golf ball accident in 2004.) RIP Walter.  We loved you so much.  I k...

The fourth of the five quilts I pinned a few weeks ago is done!  This one is very spring-y. This quilt was started this year at Road 2 CA quilt show where I took the Sew Kind of Wonderful Metro Rings class.  Helen Robinson was the instructor.  She is one of the 3 sisters who are Sew Kind of Wonderful.     I quilted it very traditionally with feathers.  It felt like it took forever but actually only a week.  One more quilt to quilt before I can piece again.  This next one will take some time.  It's marked but it will need a lot of fill stitches.   Thanks for looking.