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This is why we asked Will for more tables!

 Is anybody surprised that a week after getting home, not only am I just feeling normal again but my
studio is not unpacked?  Gosh!!  There it all sits in the middle of the room just waiting to get back to its proper place.  It really was a great class....exhausting...but great.  After spending 2 years isolating it was so odd to be around people for most of the day!

Back in the early 90s, Marc Adams had the vision to start a woodworking school in the middle of a cornfield ...

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Blacksmith Shop, John C. Campbell's Folk School

 

As my class date draws closer, it's got me thinking about how travel always seems to inspire my creative nature.  (Obviously, since we have traveled very little in the last two years and I feel all dried up inside.) It's the trips and the classes over the years that have been a driving force in keeping me sewing.  There is always something new to learn, places to explore, and people to meet.  

But right now I just have one little trip planned for this summer and it's located smack ...

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Can you believe I've been active online since 1998?  I've been writing this blog since June 2009.  22 years online....geesh... Honestly, I don't know where the time goes.  I knew the internet  was going to be a game-changer on how we communicate but really not nearly to what extent.  I remember learning how to communicate in my first chat room, joining my first online quilt group, making my first cyber best friend (Julia in AK by way of Nebraska).  I joined quilt block exchanges, millennial charm exchanges, round robins.  If it had to do with quilting ...

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Jennifer Reis stitching her latest piece

First of all, I want to apologize for taking a break from blogging.  I've have been having some health issues this summer which I think are finally behind me!  Still they didn't stop me from making the 11 hour trip to John C. Campbell Folk School.  After getting cancelled out of two - YES TWO! - classes in 2020, I wasn't going to miss this year.

This time, I was lucky enough to snag a spot in Jennifer Reis' Embellishment class.  We spent the week first learning (or refreshing) all sorts of hand ...

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Our family, including our daughter and Finn, spent the last week at a cottage up north.  We passed our days sitting on the dock or the screened porch, reading, doing a puzzle, going for walks and I also did some knitting.  I brought my new embroidery kit with me as well as a couple of knitting projects, but I did not even open the embroidery kit.  I was more in the mood to knit. The screened porch was the perfect place to knit--a nice breeze off the lake and no mosquitoes!

I was quite happy,  knitting away, and managed to ...

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My favorite thing to do during the fall is take a road trip.  The leaves  are at peak color and the air is crisp.  This year getting out of Erie for a bit was especially important since we never get out of Erie any more!  So I dragged my husband on a day trip to Zink's Fabric Outlet  and Lehman's Hardware in the Amish Country of Central Ohio.  Both are about 2.5 hrs from our house and it was a gorgeous day for a drive.

Zink's Outlet was on top of my bucket lists of places ...

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I finished the cross stitching on the bee this week and moved on to the wreath of flowers and hearts around the bee.  There is still some backstitching to do as well, but I will do that once I am done with the cross stitching.  I have not done any counted cross stitch in a while and I am enjoying this little project. 

In the knitting department, I finished the sheep baby washcloth and started a starfish cloth.  I am accumulating a pile of baby wash cloths to use as gifts when babies come along. The starfish cloth is actually ...

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This week I got an interesting letter from Nancy Hinds.  She will be my teacher during my upcoming vacation at John C. Campbell Folk School.  Last year was my first time there with me learning how to paint silk.  Although the class was great, I realized that all I wanted to do on my vacation was have a low maintenance pretty environment, eat well and sew.  So this year I chose to take the class that would do just that called.. Playful Piecing.  From the description, I knew that it would be lose enough for me to play ...

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We've all been to them.  Exhibits of  artist's work that we say interesting...and then move on to the refreshments.  Now that's not to say that their work is boring, it just doesn't reach you to your core.  Then you see someone's work and think ...OMGosh where has this been all my life.  With each new piece you take a little intake of breathe and start wondering how long can you just sit and stare at it before it gets creepy.  That's the nature of art....its uniqueness....the viewer's uniqueness.





I ...

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So I'm quite sure that most of you know that Washington DC is known for its expansion National Mall, majestic monuments and first class museums.  But did you know that the city is also home to some the best art museums in the country?  For our fall adventure, we decided to take a long weekend to visit these amazing galleries.  It turned out to be more low maintenance and affordable than you might think.

How???

Step 1.  Pick where you want to stay.  We stayed in Arlington, VA in the Ballston, MU area at the
Westin Arlington Gateway.  They ...

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