Jennifer's Molas

This is our niece, Jennifer, shopping for fabric over the July 4th weekend for her three classes at the Mid-Appalachian Quilters Conference.

One of the classes involved making a quilt sampler comprised of four lopsided log cabin type blocks. Each block was to have a fussy-cut or embroidered fabric for its center, and Jenna decided to use small molas for her centers. These molas came from Priscilla's most recent trip to the San Blas Islands in Panama.

We cut strips of some colorful fabrics from the stash closet for her to use in class to coordinate with the molas.

Here are two of the completed blocks.... I think the finished sampler is going to be terrific!

Studio Activity

We had been prepared for the demise of this old cactus. It has been in this pot for more than 10 years and surprised us with the first flowers we can remember. It may still be on its last legs, but if so, it is going out in a blaze of glory!













Suki greets her friend, Barb Seils, who has large dogs as pets, and enjoys holding a small animal. Suki doesn't mind being held (at least not much!) for short periods of time before going about her business of the day.














Marcia's brother, Ken, took a wide-angle picture that shows much of the end of the studio that is attached to the house. Marcia is drawing fabric choices from her closet stashes to help sister-in-law Patty work on her in-progress quilt.

One of Marcia's Jet Trail quilts (#5) is spread on the table, and the next ones in progress are on the design walls.


Another wide-angle view of the opposite end of the studio featuring the large design wall at the western end of the room. Clicking on these two studio pictures will show more of the wonderful timberframe structure.

Visiting Fairport

Brother Ken, his wife Patty, and Bill on the canal path outside of Joey B's Restaurant. We took a walk after a full meal, as we were headed home for desert.
An older Fairport Main Street building that Ken remembers visiting many years ago as a child growing up in Macedon Center. It was an ice cream shop favored by his Dad, and still serves the same purpose. One of the charms of small towns is that some things never change.






New York State has earmarked incentives for communities to upgrade the canal-side properties. Fairport has done some of the most extensive renovations and has docking facilities and many places to "soak" up tourist dollars. The fourth boat on the right is based in Miami Beach and has come up the inland waterway to Western New York.





The other side of the canal features a pavilion with live music, an antique car show, more restaurants, and restored old buildings with the one on the right featuring a wonderful brick chimney. Even Palmyra, our town on the canal, has added a small marina and restaurant just off Main Street.

High School Class Reunion

I made it to my (45th!!) class reunion. Our class has had reunions most every 5 years. This one had lower attendance, which seems to have stemmed from the higher costs of travel. (We only had one classmate who drove from out of state. ) But all who made it had a great time.










Our dinner was at Micelli's in Macedon. This restaurant was orginally known as Turkey Town and was the site of our high school graduation party.






10% of our classmates have married each other. Their ranks were just joined by Rick and Jackie, who were married last weekend after having become reacquainted at our 35th reunion.









The highlight of the evening was lots of wonderful music by the Regals. The original Regals group was formed by 4 of our classmates when they were in high school. Mike and Rick and two of their friends entertained us with two terrific sets.

Raspberry Sauce

We have an old, but reliable, raspberry patch that produces far more berries in a short period than we can consume. One of Marcia's solutions to this happy "problem" is to prepare raspberry sauce.

Our double batch of sauce is prepared in a large pan with some crushed berries, some whole berries, liquid pectin, sugar, and corn syrup. Suki's food dish also sneaks into the picture at the lower left. After all, the kitty might get hungry at any time!!







The sauce is stored in an assortment of old jars and will be frozen until needed. This product is good on ice cream, pancakes, shortcake, or simply by the spoonful!!

Sewing Day

This is a wonderful quilt by Priscilla (-- her "miniature king-sized" quilt started in Pat Pauly's Slash and Burn class). We like everything about it -- color choices, placement and design, and quilting. We continue to pester her to enter it in an upper-level juried exhibition!










Here the jacket master is working on her desert jacket with the front and back panels on the wall behind her and the sleeves being worked on. A click on the picture will show the choices of pieced fabric used in the construction. Priscilla is also wearing a self-made (of course) top.

Beth spent the day working on her practice quilt for Ruth McDowell's class in September. She is coloring in fabric color choices on her completed template design. She proceeded to cut chosen fabrics and begin placement for her "water lilly" quilt.

Beth is wearing one of her newly-dyed t-shirts.





Inspector Suki is hard at work as she carefully examines boxes recently brought into the studio. She is a wonderful sentry and makes sure no contraband enters her domain.

Marcia hand sews a hanging sleeve on the Jet Trails #5 quilt to get it ready to go to the Tyler Art Gallery at SUNY Oswego for the exhibition, "A Personal Landscape: Contemporary Art Quilts." The exhibition dates are August 23 through October 19.

Busy Weekend

Inspector Suki is happiest when she can find a comfortable spot and settle down to watch human activity. Here she perches on a plastic bag (another favorite thing), atop one of Marcia's carrying cases and watches her parents work.

Bill was enlisted to help in the preparation of the annual mailing to advertisers in the Patchwork Newsletter, which is a monthly publication of the Genesee Valley Quilt Club. He realizes he should have more carefully examined the fine print in the marriage contract!!!
Marcia has printed labels for the mailing and applies these to the stuffed envelopes. We processed 200 letters for the solicitation.

As an appropriate reward, Marcia put together three large strawberry-rhubarb pies for Sunday sampling. We had transplanted three rhubarb plants in early spring, and they have produced a nice crop. We are glad to report that the project of changing fruit to dessert was a success!!

Painting ceilings

Painter Jim Deacon and his son Adam are here this week to paint ceilings and clean the paneling on the main floor of our house. Jim has done a lot of work for us over the years and has come out of "retirement" to help us once again.


The furniture is moved to the center of the room and covered with drop cloths preparatory to treatment. Marcia washed the floor around the rugs, and we are much cleaner.

The house was built by Marcia's parents in 1969, and we purchased the property in 1979. To the best of our memory, the ceilings have not been painted previously. Probably once every 40 years is not over-doing it!!





We packed items from all the shelves and dressers in various boxes as we moved from room to room. Inspector Suki both enjoyed and suffered the event. She did not like her normal routine altered, but carefully checked out every box and change in placement of her usual objects. She will be pleased when life returns to normal.

Jennifer's Visit

In the middle of our shopping trip to Penn Yan, we stopped for lunch (Bill's favorite part of the trip) at the Essenhaus. This is a Mennonite-themed restaurant north of the village and features many choices of hearty, filling food with good desserts (we avoided this temptation!).
Uncle Bill and Jennifer pause after lunch before moving on to the next store. Jen is a high school counselor in Virginia and deals with students with special needs as her case load. Her parents, Bill's brother Jim and wife Doreen, live in Geneseo.










The entrance to Weaver's Country Store leads into a large two-story addition to their home, which is a gift shop filled with local crafts, baked goods, and quilts and quilting supplies. It is a family-owned and run business (as are all the stores and services in the area) and Mrs. Weaver and one of her several daughters were on duty.






Jen is a beginning quilter, and she and Aunt Marcia consult on appropriate selections for her next projects. She is preparing for three classes at Mid-Appalachian Quilters workshops with several ideas in mind.

She "shopped" at Marcia's studio last night for molas and coordinating fabrics for one of the projects, and finished acquiring fabrics for the other two projects today.

We always enjoy her visits!!

Veggie Garden

Each year we battle various critters who invade our plantings. We have placed metal hoops over a row of string beans, topped with bird nettings, and have put down appropriately placed stones to hold the netting. This usually works and gives the plants room to grow.

Here Marcia plants a new row of green and yellow beans. They should produce a second crop in late August or early September.




The summer squash are coming along nicely. Marcia works on cleaning weeds around the yellow variety, and in the foreground, the green zuchinni wait for help as they emerge from the weeds.








Our tomatoes and peppers are making progress. Bill goes after the weeds on either side of the caged rows. We planted some extra tomatoes as some of the first effort didn't look healthy. In the background to the left is this year's outstanding failure. We had almost zero percent germination of our super-sweet sweet corn. Fortunately, we have some supply of last year's crop in the freezer!

Summer Flowers

Our orchids have been moved to their summer home on the south-facing porch on the main floor of the house. Their long-lasting blooms have survived the change and continue to delight.








This one was a gift from our "daughter" Monica, and we enjoy pleasant thoughts of her each time we pass by. All the plants enjoy the heat and humidity of the summer on the porch.














Our outdoor oval gardens come into flower. Self-sown larkspur plants provide height, and the ageratum and alysum begin to fill in along the edge. If you click on the picture, you will see a few orange strawflowers. Overall, these did not do well, but some developing statice will add to our dried-flower collection.






This is a close-up of one orchid speciman. The veins give the plant an organic look, and the stamen shows the pink and white to attract passing insects. This is a good example of the intoxicating beauty and the strong visual appeal of such plants. And it easily displays the evidence of how many people respond with respect and devotion!