Estate Quilts

Just look at these old beauties!!  Crazy Quilt and Churn Dash lovingly made of the most beautiful vintage fabrics.   Found them at an estate sale this weekend and love them dearly.  Flung them over my loft railing and they are so pretty there in the summer light. 

Desert Bloom

The Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix is all in bloom right now.  We don't think to visit the desert this time of year when spirea and peonies are popping in Michigan.  But I just spent a lovely week with my daughter in Arizona.  We visited the DBG and I took lots and lots of photos.... it was gorgeous!  Thought I'd share a few here. 

Another Quilt

Here is a wonderfully shabby nine-patch quilt I found at a yard sale this weekend.  It is such a pretty old thing, I had to share it.

Quilt Barn Trail

On one of our lovely peninsulas jutting out into Lake Michigan is the "Quilt Barn Trail."  There are ten quilt barns on the trail although there are many more historic barns on Old Mission peninsula.  Many volunteers came forth to help construct, paint, and install the quilt squares on the ten barns.  Each quilt design has special significance to the family and history of the farm.  A tour map is available.  Recently I came across a couple of these barns and thought you might enjoy seeing them.

The saltbox barn above is decorated with a Windmill quilt design with a cluster of cherries in the center.   The barn sits high on a windy hill and the family raises cherries.

The white barn below was built in 1870.  The quilt square is a modified Bear Paw pattern taken from a family heirloom quilt.

NATIONAL CHERRY CAPITAL !

Yes, I live in the National Cherry Capital and we get very excited about our cherries.  Thought you'd enjoy seeing the orchards in bloom this spring.  First the sweet cherries bloom followed by the tarts, or pie cherries.  They nearly always bloom around Mother's Day and an excursion through the orchards is a must.  Many of us grow up here picking cherries as a summer job or working in the canneries.  Dried cherries are a relatively new product and are wonderful to use as you would raisins or cranberries.  They are fantastic covered in chocolate!

Happy Mother's Day to All

Patchwork quilts bring back memories for many of us.  I found this partially assembled quilt top at an estate sale recently.  5~1/2" square 4-patches .... 85 of them!  They were a bit musty and I didn't want to launder them and have them ravel or shrink so I pinned them out on the clothesline on a windy afternoon.  Don't they look like prayer flags?  

Here's a photo of them placed on a bed... I know I will never put them together and I cannot bear to see anything like this lost, so I put them in my Etsy shoppe.  Someone's mother began this project and I hope a daughter finishes it.  A bit sentimental today.

Hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day complete with brunches, bouquets, dog walks and phone calls to and from loved ones.