I Feel....

another mat coming on. I found a picture online of Trinity, Nfld., and I think it might be the inspiration for my next mat. There are some salt boxes, and some flat top houses, and a couple of boats but what really intrigues me is the green/brown mix of the closer hill and the inner pond and then the far hills and ocean. I'll cut the houses down to about 4, with maybe one of the boats. This coming week is supposed to be much cooler so I think I'll start playing with the dyes, and make a pattern for the mat. I'm also going to finish the scrap star mat. I realized I forgot to post pics the other day so here is one now. I have a bit more done now but Sio has the camera with her and she spent the night over at Chris and Richards so this is the next most recent.

Catching Up

I haven't blogged in a really long time. It's been pretty much the same things as I always do. We were fishing a lot til the weather turned really hot; John had almost a week off because they were slow at work. He took vacation days and we fished almost every day; mostly at Blackwell, but we tried Deep Quarry Lake too. It was right after a front though, so there wasn't much happening. I finally caught a couple of northern which was pretty exciting, and a smallmouth in the Fox River in Batavia. We are planning on going to Bass Lake as soon as the weather turns cooler again, maybe Sunday. It's been really nasty the last couple of days, in the 90's.
I've been working on various projects, too. I'm about 2/3rd's of the way done with the star scrap mat. I really do like this mat. I will be listing it in my Etsy store in a couple of weeks. I also made a couple of purses, a pair of random patch shorts, and a really cute top that I don't have any pics of yet. The string star quilt has become my take with project since all the squares and triangles are being set in by hand and it's taking a pretty long time. John and I need a bigger quilt NOW, we're fighting over the little one a lot, so I am in the middle of another quilt made from some homespuns I had a lot of recycled fabrics from other things. I'm sashing it with a white cotton sheet from the resale shop and I'm going to back it with a flannel sheet, again from the resale shop. It will be tied rather than quilted.
My garden is doing well, too, although between the rain and then the heat I can't keep up with the weeding. I've had a problem with something eating my beans so I went over to Pioneer Feed in Villa Park to talk to someone over there. I hadn't seen what was eating them, but after I described what was going on the man who was working knew exactly what it was and what to do about it. He recommended some stuff to sprinkle on the leaves. I tried it and it worked for awhile, but the bugs seem to be back again now so i put some more on yesterday. I love Pioneer Feed, those guys always give great advice. We had a salad fro dinner the other night made with fresh lettuce I picked earlier in the day, and I've had some strawberries too. My tomaoteos are big and have blossoms, and so do the cucumbers. The cabbage is forming heads, and the peas are growing nicely too. All the herbs are doing pretty well except the basil and the savory. They aren't dying, but they aren't looking really great either. Anyway, I am getting tomato cages this weekend, and mulch to at least put down between the plants to keep some of the weeds down.

Hoochie Coochie Man

Here's the video I took of Tahoe Sky Hoochie Coochie Man. Again the sound is not very good, plus the bouncing around is me kind of dancing a bit. This is not the main singer, this is the drummer singing.




We also did some fishing today; John caught 5 bass and I caught 3 and a crappie. We're picking Chris up at 6 and heading back out unless it rains.

Tahoe Sky

Chris' band, Tahoe Sky had their debut today at the Palatine Harley Davidson dealership's open house. Conditions were not very good; it rained a bit, it was windy, and really cold, and they stopped playing after two hours. However the two hours they did play they kicked ass! They played a couple Eric Clapton songs, a couple of blues tunes, some Allman Brothers, some other stuff and a couple of original songs. I don't know everyone in the band yet, just Chris and Ricky. I got some video, and here's a bit from an original song called Union Road. I got Ricky and Chris's solos in this bit. Were going to have to get a video recorder so we can get whole shows. The sound is pretty bad with just a regular camera.

More Northern

John, Sio and I went to Blackwell again on Sunday, and John caught another northern. I still haven't caught one, and I really want to. We both caught bass, and I caught a little crappie. The weather has turned pretty cold for this time of year so we haven't been back out there. I was hoping to get back out there today when John gets home, but I don't think we will. Our heat just kicked on! In June!


Black Forest Theater did their last performance at the Peter Jones Gallery on Saturday, and Sio and I went. I have to say that I enjoyed this more than almost anything else I've seen of Jimmys stuff. They did almost all music, and showed a film that was done by the lake. It was really good, especially a song that I think was called Inner Light.


I got another two squares finished on the scrap mat. Melissa and Sio both didn't like the stars so I took them out except for one. Melissa thought leaving one would add some interest. If I decide I don't like it I'll take it out too. I was looking forward to sitting outside and spending the afternoon hooking but it's too cold. I get a lot more done outside, the table is the right level to prop the frame on. I'm working on a quilting project today, I have several in process. I was thinking of sewing the string stars into a throw quilt, but I don't have enough of anything to use for sashing.

I also got all the plants planted. I have quite the herb garden this year, in addition to all the flowers and veggies. I planted basil, rosemary, sage, savory, lemon verbena, chamomille, thyme, lavender and mint. The savory isn't looking too good, but everything else is fine. I have so many lettuce seedlings! I also got a watermelon this year; I just bought one vine. Sio wanted eggplant, so we have those, as well as tomatoes, peppers, cucmbers, cabbage, pickles, peas and beans. Not all of the beans came up so I am going to plant a few more. The strawberries are looking really good this year, too. And I planted flowers in the front for the first time since we came here. The front flower bed section needed a lot of dirt, so we filled it up and I planted petunias, two types of pansies, moss roses and a couple of geraniums. I sowed a lot of wild flower seeds in the back so I hope they all come up, too. I wanted to get some lilies of the valley to put in under the pine tree, but I haven't seen any.