a trip to New Ulm....

We went up to New Ulm, Minnesota on Saturday. We were meeting up with my mom, three sisters and a brother-in-law. My mom grew up here. It is where Grandma and Grandpa lived. 

It was time to decorate graves. 

Ernest was mom's uncle. One of my sisters asked,

"What did he die from?"

Mom said, "Old age"

Silence for a minute. Then the math was worked out.

WAIT, he was only 56! Old age? We sisters are right around that age!

Really?

My mom starts laughing and tells us she doesn't remember for sure. Then we were told more Uncle Ernest stories. We listened to more stories at each grave.

We mostly watched. Mom would take a large screw driver and pound it in the ground. Then she would stick a small bouquet of artificial flowers at each stone. Nothing permanent. But enough to make it pretty for Memorial Weekend.

For as long as I can remember we always went over to this grave. It is a little boy who drowned when he was 6, back in the 1883. We leave a penny under his shoe. 

Next stop, The Sewing Seeds Co. featured in the most recent Quilt Sampler magazine. My intent was to buy a little bit more wool to add to what I have. Maybe even make the quilt they have in the magazine.

It is darn cute in person.

I bought the wool and was happy.

But then my youngest sister spots a quilt on the wall and falls in love.

It is soft browns, greens and pinks.

I study how it is made.

I think I could handle it.

They had one kit left. It was 30% off. She keeps saying how much she loves it.

So back to the counter to buy that too. It will be her 50th birthday quilt. I have about 2 years to make it for her.

And she LOVES it.

Then we went to Schell's Brewery. I had brought a quilt along to take pictures of. This quilt was also up in Duluth last year when it was just a top. It is well traveled already.

We walked around the gardens looking for a spot to drape it. This bench might work.

There was also a wedding party getting pictures taken. The groomsmen are standing on the steps of the house. When they were finished we headed up there.

I thought this troll looked like he was saying, "all this for a quilt picture?"

This one has rounded corners. I think this is how I will be doing binding from now on.

We weren't done here yet. After all it is a brewery and the biergarten was open.

This is where I got grumpy.

It was fun sitting here with my sisters.

It was fun seeing the peacock. His blue was gorgeous.

It was really cool when he opened his feathers and strutted around.

But I was ready to go.

My mom had stayed down in the car while we took pictures and drank beer. I finally walked back to the parking lot to talk with her! I was ready to go. Everyone else was happy.

Including tractor joe. I watched him walk back up to the window to buy another beer. 

What was he doing??

Stop! We need to be going!

And I got grumpier. I could see it was a HUGE mug of beer.

I could see my sisters shaking out their cups. I told my mom that it looks like they are going to share that last big mug of beer. And they did. They giggled away at their grumpy sister down in the parking lot. They were having a fine time drinking tractor joe's beer so he could have the mug.

In the end, I had to agree that the souvenir mug was a nice idea.  I like it.

We made one more stop before heading south.

More Schell's beer and the Leinenkugel's just sounded like it might be good.

I haven't tried it yet, so I don't know.

3 finished quilts.....

This is a disappearing pinwheel block made from 10 inch squares.

Last years jelly roll derby.

A t-shirt quilt. The flying geese were made using left over t-shirt pieces. 

All have rounded corners using bias binding. It is my new love.

blocks, blocks blocks....

I have 3 quilts finished with binding, but no photos yet. I tried something new to me. Using bias binding and rounding the corners. I like it. I took the left over binding at finally put some on a few potholders too!

I won these blocks last year at Block Lotto. I saw a layout similar to this and thought....

that is what I will do!

Then, I thought some more....

What if I put sashing between the blocks instead. It will be a nice way to use up some of the skinnier strips of black and white fabric around here. 

The Tula Pink Project...

(mini group through the guild using the 100 modern quilt blocks)

I got them out over the weekend.

These are the first 18. Some I love, some I don't.

The next 8 for the May meeting. Finished! We bumped it up to 8 a month. They are rather addicting. So I continued....

These are June's grouping. Number 53 didn't get done. I'm thinking about making them more arrow-like instead. But I boxed them all up again.

And they look way better in person.