Last Installment of the Mini Vacation (and Quilt Show and Tell)

Sunday morning arrived (after a night of interrupted sleep due to some noisy hotel neighbors.  We grabbed a quick breakfast and turned southward.  We stopped at a Hy-Vee for some grocery shopping (hey, we only have Walmart in Marshall), and then grabbed lunch at a cafe in Brookfield and made it home to see Willow.  She had been left out of her pen for the entire weekend and we wondered how she did.  She was there waiting happily to greet us.  We gave her a much needed bath and then she crashed on the couch.

So that pretty much ends our mini vacation!  I'll take a moment to show you some of my quilting projects.

This baby quilt is the first thing I quilted on my long arm and the flower wall hanging is the second. The baby quilt was an edge to edge daisy pantograph.  The flower has a little custom work and some free motion.  Notice the butterfly quilted into the upper left of the flower.

My Aunt Carol Ann received the flower for her 85th birthday.

This is a table topper that I did some custom work on.  And below is the first large quilt I quilted.  It was an edge to edge design of swirls.  I donated it to our guild's charity project.

And then I was in the mood for hearts.........

I quilted it with and edge to edge heart design and made it into a pillow.  This reminded David of Conversation Hearts.  He thought I should quilt words in all the hearts.  

 Close up of the quilting.  This has been mailed to my cousin for her birthday on the 25th.

Christi

Mini Vacation Part 3

 The Saga Continues............

Saturday morning dawned and we were off to visit a couple of quilt shops in Cedar Falls.  When we arrived at the first, we found it closed.  This was the second stop, Crazy to Quilt Shop.  

And inside.............

Full to the brim with many glorious aisles to explore.  And when you run out of display space........

Hang quilts on the ceiling.  When I pointed this out to the hubs, he said, "Don't get any ideas."  

Remember when I said that we learned that fabric prices increase the further north you go?  I didn't actually purchase anything here.  It was just fun to look!

We had thought to tour the John Deere plant/museum in Waterloo since Cedar Falls and Waterloo are basically one city, but it was closed.  So I had done some internet digging and found the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum which was OPEN!

The Five Sullivan Brothers had enlisted in the Navy after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and were all stationed together on the USS Juneau when it went down.  The museum features all Iowa Veterans from all wars.  It was well put together and we enjoyed it.

Here you can read about the Sullivan Brothers.

I turned the hubs loose with the tank.

There was also a science and technology museum attached.  We didn't spend as much time in it.  One can only appreciate so much in a museum.

And here is a Deere for my dear!

And what museum would be complete without some quilts!

And a sewing machine...........

Then we met up with my parents, and sister and brother-in-law for a late lunch before heading to.........

THE UNI DOME!

Plenty of room for social distancing!

This was Carter's first college meet and his first time competing in pole vault.  In fact, it was his first time going over the actual bar because they practice going over a bungy cord!

And he's over!

Not too sure about the leg form on some of these!

But look at the definition of the shoulder muscles.........wouldn't he be amazing with a rotary cutter and some fabric!

And he ran the 60 meters.

He told us the evening before that this was not his race and he would probably finish dead last.  He made the finals.........and then finished dead last in the finals.

And another time over the pole vault........the form is improving.

For those wondering about this past week's track meet where he competed in the heptathlon - 7 events - pole vault, shot put, long jump, high jump, 60 meters, 60 meter high hurdles, and 1000 meters - he finished second over all.  He won the high jump, and set personal records in the long jump and pole vault.  So pretty good start for the multi-athlete.

After the track meet, we all went over to my sister's friends home for supper.  Augie and Tonya graciously showed us around their home and large shop they are working on and fed us an amazing supper.  The hubs made sure I got her recipes!

Then it was back to the hotel where some very loud people woke us up at 2 am.  

Christi

Mini Vacation Part 2

So, the journey continued north to Conrad, Iowa.  Here Google led us to Hen & Chicks Studio, a quilt shop and retreat center.  I had participated in their online Christmas Bingo and December Stash Buster Challenge, so had a 40% off coupon to SPEND!!!

I will honestly say that after watching all the You Tube videos from Hen & Chicks, I thought it would be bigger.  The retreat center is upstairs and we got to take a peek, but no photos since there was a retreat going on.

It is a really cute shop though and the people are so enthusiastic.  It was fun to see them in person.

I made use of that coupon and picked up an assortment of really nice thread and a fun hen and chicks panel (which I sent to Aunt Judy!).

They were so helpful and gave us better directions to get to our next stop and told us to look for this sign along the way..........

Yes, "You're not dreamin', you're in Beaman, Iowa".  Beaman was not the destination, we just were told to look for this sign and turn.

Here it is, the ultimate destination............

Campbell Hall on the University of Northern Iowa campus in Cedar Falls.  Why?

To see this guy............. nephew, Carter Morton!  He was recruited for track and his first college track meet was the next day.  He showed us his dorm.

Not the neatest, but definitely not the messiest dorm room I've seen.

His collection of shoes...........I thought maybe they were for track.  Since he is doing the heptathlon and decathlon, he has several different shoes for the different events.  I was wrong.  These just go with his different outfits!

He is on Scooby Hall and Scooby is right outside his door.

We took him to dinner - his choice was Huhot, a Mongolian Grill.  We'd never been and really enjoyed the meal.  

We didn't keep him out late since he had a meet on Saturday.  This ends the adventures of the first day of our mini vacation.

Carter only competed in 3 events the next day as it was a small meet.  Yesterday and today, he is competing for the first time in a heptathlon.  He did high jump, long jump, shot put, and the 60 meters yesterday and sits in second place.  Today will be pole vault, 60 meter high hurdles, and the 1000 meters.

Our Saturday adventures including the track meet will follow in the next post.

Christi

Mini Vacation Part 1!

 When the last of the pigs left the farm on January 7th, I told The Hubs it was time for a vacation!  We left in the dark of the morning on January 8th and headed north.  I plugged our ultimate destination in the car GPS and then told google to "show quilt shops along the way"!  What an incredible way to use Google!

The first stop was B&B Creations in the tiny town of Tracy, IA.  It was a tiny town, and Google took us over some gravel roads (actually there wasn't much gravel, it was more like well-packed mud) to get there.  The place looked interesting? (not quite sure what word to use here).  

The door opened to reveal this, which put my mind at ease...........

There were lots of bolts of fabrics, none of which were brand new, but still a variety of good quality fabrics at very reasonable prices (we did discover that fabric prices increased the further north we traveled).  There was an old gentleman with a cane there and he was particularly taken with The Hubs and talked so much it was difficult to get a way.  I think his wife had owned the quilt shop and had passed away so he and his daughter ran it.  He assured me that he could cut and measure fabric.  I did make a small purchase of a panel I liked that will be a gift for someone.

Just up the road from Tracy was Pella, IA where we stopped at a DQ for a quick lunch.  We were pleased to be able to actually go inside and sit down to eat there.

And then we went to the center of town to find The Quilted Windmill.  I really enjoyed this shop.  I made several purchases for things I wanted needed!  Christmas was marked down and lots of flannels were on display.

And I love this display of Kim Diehl fabrics and quilts!  We talked to some interesting people there.  One couple was from northern Iowa and were heading to Missouri for a long weekend.  They gave us (mainly David) ideas for different museums to visit.

Then I walked The Hubs down the street to take a peek in the Jaarsma Bakery.  It smelled SO GOOD!

So after finding our way back to the car (we were still severely intoxicated from the bakery smells), I googled to find out where the Vermeer plant, museum, and visitors center was.  The Hubs was now fully vested in this vacation!

This was the really cute nativity display outside the building.  Unfortunately, it was closed to the public due to Covid, so we'll just have to go back.  The Quilted Windmill and Jaarsma Bakery definitely deserve another visit.  

Well, my support staff (Willow) just yawned, and snorted a little in her sleep.  So lest this post get too long and boring, I'll stop here for now and continue the trip into the next post.

Christi