Back in the Swing of Things

We returned from our week at the Squash House on Sunday. What a busy week - we worked a lot in the garden, around the house and rather than fly fish in 90-100 degree heat, we scouted out a lot of new places to fish when it cools off. I made a promise to myself not to post until I got caught up reading my bloglines and I finally am! I'm amazed at all the wonderful summer projects I'm seeing in blogworld!

Friday we learned of a quilt show that was taking place through the weekend in Milton-Freewater, OR. I decided to take a quick drive down there on Saturday and have a look. The first place on the list was what I thought to be a quilt shop, but no, it was a little hole-in-the-wall alterations business. I walked in the door, didn't see anyone around, but heard a machine running toward the back. When I got to the source of the sound, I found a very elderly woman sewing away and managed to startle the dickens out of her! Once she calmed down (whew!) we had a lovely, very long chat. I asked her where the quilts were and she explained each of 6 shops had a quilt. It was so dark in her shop that I couldn't see the quilt hanging right next to where we were standing way at the back of the shop! This quilt below was made entirely from scraps and really well done!

She then told me to go next door for another quilt in a local artist's gallery. The very nice proprieter came out to greet me from her apartment in the rear and another very long chat ensued! I was beginning to think I was the only one to visit these stores. And by the time I left, I didn't dare visit the rest for fear I would be keeping the poor shop owners company all day! This quilt below is a mystery quilt. I liked them both a lot!
The 4th of July festivities went on all day Sunday at the park a block and a half from the Squash House. We walked down early in the day - it was going to be another near 100 degree day! The first thing we came across was the local quilt guild's raffle quilt - yes, we bought tickets!
Here is a photo of the community band that played on and off all day long!
This is the bandstand which celebrates it's 100th birthday on the 9th!
What a treat this was below....the community theater gave us a preview of their upcoming production of Grease! It was really crowded - I took a lot of photos, but this was the only one that wasn't squeezed between lots of people!
Finally, yesterday's mail brought Denise Sheehan's new book "A Graceful Garden" that I won recently on her blog! This is a beautiful book - wonderfully photographed and filled with gorgeous projects! I'll be spending a lot of time wrapped around these pages! Thanks, Denise!