Kick’in off the start of the season…

I had a long, great day yesterday…Kick’n off the start of the season…

As we are getting the outside of the Lake house ready for Summer, we added in a little fun too!  It doesn’t take much does it…I thoroughly enjoyed watching the kids play in between, cleaning lawn furniture, wiping down every surface, planting pots, hauling out all the seat cushions…watching Nick finish up his 32 yards of mulching…

Jake and his friend Tyler went on a kayak cruise…Tyler was also a football player if you couldn’t tell…so it was nice for Nick to see him again…and reminisce about the old days when Nick was coaching with Tyler’s Dad, Brad. (who was the head coach and is no longer with us) I can’t believe they can remember details of each play, each game and all that…it’s crazy.

This was hands down the funiest thing to watch yesterday…Little Man teaching O Bug how to play in the sprinkler…I could not pick only one photo for this…so suffer through them all for me please….Kickin off the season/LIsa Bongean Top US Quilt Blogger Kickin off the season/LIsa Bongean Top US Quilt Blogger

Kickin off the season/LIsa Bongean Top US Quilt Blogger Kickin off the season/LIsa Bongean Top US Quilt Blogger Kickin off the season/LIsa Bongean Top US Quilt Blogger Kickin off the season/LIsa Bongean Top US Quilt Blogger Kickin off the season/LIsa Bongean Top US Quilt Blogger Kickin off the season/LIsa Bongean Top US Quilt Blogger Kickin off the season/LIsa Bongean Top US Quilt Blogger Kickin off the season/LIsa Bongean Top US Quilt Blogger Kickin off the season/LIsa Bongean Top US Quilt BloggerIt was only about mid 60’s but…we have hot water in our garage…so warm sprinkler at Mimi & Papa’s!!!

American Staffordshire Terrier/Lisa Bongean
I hope the dog days of summer come soon and linger on….
the fisherman…and his baby.
Wiouwash Trial 5/16/2020
Wiouwash Trail     5/16/2020

After the kids all left, we cleaned up the dishes and off I went on a evening bike ride on my favorite trail…14 miles in less than an hour…not too bad, now if I could take the time to do that everyday!!! I wonder why I feel like I don’t deserve to do this everyday…hmm maybe I can do two things everyday…

Nick was waiting for me to come home…my new plants look great….and when those daffodils and tulips are gone, hopefully those hydrangeas, petunias, and alyssum will be much bigger!  Nick’s mulch job makes my flowers look so much better!

Kickin off the season/LIsa Bongean Top US Quilt BloggerIt’s been a good weekend…and today I will spend time stitching while watching it slow rain all day…Glad I got those plants in!  Take care of yourselves…Time to stitch.

 

Nothing like being home…

I am happily spending time at home….Nick, Jake, Lauren, Jace and I took the boat out today for lunch…Nicks first adventure in the boat after his surgery….Yay!

The garden is producing…and the flowers are blooming…I love picking something from the garden and then making something from it right away…lisa bongean

Jalapeno & banana peppers…hope these turn out, I have not done this before…I will be using them for nachos, chili, on hot dogs…and so on…4 Pint Jars…2 just Jalapeno’s and 2 mixed with banana peppers.lisa bongeanWe are working on the yard…and it is looking nice!!!lisa bongean

I hope this morning glory starts to bloom soon…its getting taller…pretty soon it will make this ugle telephone pole that no one in the world wants to admit that it is theirs…Ma Bell must have put it up years ago, but no one will come remove it…so I had to make it look as pretty as I can…for now.Lisa bongeanthe pond-less water fall...

I pond-less water feature…is so nice…IMG_4061the baskets on each side of the stairs… Nick did a great job of keeping them alive…

lisa bongeanLance’s tree continues to do well…just when it is going to look amazing it will be time to dig it up and bring it in for the winter, it is the red-hibiscus (he gave me for Mother’s Day and we’ve kept it alive all these years, I say we because if it weren’t for AL this would not be here, and I am grateful it is)…..this bed is starting to fill in a little more…

img_4067.jpgCukes from the garden for tonights baked pork chops with brown rice…IMG_4068

then the next dilemma…what to do with these?  Anyone have a great recipe for green peppers besides stuffing them?  I do not care for stuffed green peppers with hamberger and the tomatoe thing…I am going to try doing chicken, rice and pepperjack cheese…I’ll let you now how that turns out…but anyone got anything for me to try?  You can message me on FB or leave it here in the comments…but that zuccinni is going to be mixed with lemon and made into a quick bread with a glaze on top…but if you have something “great” I’d appreciate it if you could share it!!!  Hope you are having a great weekend…I need to start fusing my shapes for Twighlight Garden Finishing kits…then I will have to have a cutting marathon…I’ll post some pics..tomorrow.

LB

 

It’s time…

It’s time to start blogging again…Since Quilt market and before I’ve been in a “funk” for lack of a good word…I think it is because my world had too much going on and that had to be done and my sewing room was a complete MESS!!!  When that happens I cannot function properly…so on Thursday I stayed home and sorted through the carnage of what was once my beautiful sewing studio..and have sifted, sorted, organized my way back to the calm that it should be…and now I can begin again…now I can start sewing again…Are you like this or can you stitch in the eye of the storm?Piecing 1/2″ x 1″ finished Flying Geese units…to these 20 2″ finishd star blocks…in just a short time…

Also…had some “little man” time…introduced him to his first “margarita”…I also found the time to get the garden planted with some annuals…flea market find…perfect old cart…

notice the new “barn quilt”

can’t wait to see them grow…

Inside I have a few things I have not ever shown you…my “anchor collection” in the lower outdoor living porch…the photo is taken through the window screen so it appears fuzzy…but I spend a lot of time in this room Spring through Fall…

then…I placed this tulip quilt near the front foyer…Theresa’s Tulips is the pattern…Next up…I’m on my way to CANADA to Lindsay ONT, which is 1 1/2 hours NE of Toronto.  This is my first time to Canada!!! I am super excited for these ladies love Primitive Gatherings and have supported me all through the years… I have met them at our WI store, our retreat house “The Gathering” where some of them have stayed, in CA at our store and at the Needle Arts seminar at the Grand Hotel in MI in May when I teach there and at quilt shows.  I especially love them because they are so similar to myself…we talk pretty much the same way and we live a life of lots of cold weather…the also means we get lots of quilting done!!! So if you live near Toronto…come see me next week…contact Chrissy Altelaar on FB messenger to see if you can come!

 

 

 

staycation is almost over…

I have to admit…it was pretty hard not working…I had to even walkout of my room a couple of times because I promised myself and my family I would not work for a week…I might have woken up a little early some days and just visited my room…watched a little Netflix and stitched something that was not a work project…but during the day…it was real easy to ignore it…I had a blast!

We had people over, I got to spend time on the lake…kayaking, jet skiing, boating and swimming…we had an emergency room visit…”little man” received 4 stitches in his right eye last Saturday…and Nick and I went for a long 212 mile motorcycle ride, and we planted more things in the garden…what a great 10days…

Thanks to all who came out to spend time with us this week…it was awesome!!

motorcycle selfie…

You had to take a pic with the pink hog…

Late in the day…the sun is in the west…

Jeter enjoying the comfy chair at the party on the 4th…he’s showing us all how to relax and enjoy the party…

The water trampoline that never made it in the water…Jace and Aylee

I know one should never post a pic of of yourself in a bathing suit but…it’s really about “little man” and how much fun we had…and someday I will want this photo….

Papa…playing in the water too- being the “motor”boat!!!

broken bird bath…so why not plant some succulents in it and cover the manhole cover!!!

view from my kayak…real peaceful on the lake in the morning…

Mimi…washed all Daddy’s and his bothers’ legos and now they are ready to play with…on his little table.

Jace loves the boat…he always wants to drive…that’s real good because someday he will be driving Papa and Mimi around…

The best cupcake decorator EVER!!! he just giggled…

 

Griffin…eating some red, white and blue stuff….what a little stud…

The party…lots of food

every part of our outdoor living was used…so amazing…still can’t believe how cool it is…we had a fire…made s’mores…and then Nick & Beau shot off fireworks from the dock to end the night…perfect end to a great day…

“little man” and his Momma…

found some cool spheres for my table…

hydrangeas are starting to bloom…bought the blue one for the patio…but it did not like it there…had to hide it in the front…in almost full shade…

Meet Hootie…are newest pet…his wings move up and down and he swings forward and back with the wind!

I hope you enjoyed seeing a little part of my “staycation!!!

Now I bet we all have some blocks to stitch!!!  Happy Summer…LB

Is it Summer yet?

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Just thought I would send out a post and tell you all what going on…First…Its fun to see the college kids come back to work…JJ, Dominic and Abbey are helping the warehouse girls…Lynn, Sherrie, Rose, Rose(foxy) and Robin get all these SBOW’s ready…They all freak out that I don’t have it ready yet!!! Then magically in a couple of days I can have 12 blocks drawn, 2 stitched with sashings 3 more fused and all 15 of the FREEBIES fused and 2 stitched, the Freebie is called “To Plant a Flower…”all the threads picked out and now I can concentrate on stitching…oh wait…Row by Row?…Ok..got that drawn…Wisconsin Shop Hop, Amy pieced this for us…I just wrote directions and Val is quilting, can’t wait to show this off…all coming soon….its really non stop!!!!

I decided I would spend sometime in the evenings in my garden, which I have been neglecting for a couple of years, but not this year!…photos of gardens today and a photo bomber…I also have had a bad bad cough and sore throat that kicked my butt earlier this week…Much better today…thank GOD it is getting better…there is no time to not feel good.IMG_2527IMG_2525IMG_2520IMG_2523IMG_2519IMG_2510IMG_2524IMG_2522IMG_2517IMG_2509IMG_2518IMG_2513IMG_2507IMG_2516IMG_2512IMG_2511IMG_2505IMG_2504IMG_2503

Day 8…Needful Things…

 

12 Days of Christmas 8WOW…the days go fast..I’m working on the new store and working on these posts…traveling to and from the store, eat dinner and a watch a movie maybe and then fall asleep…do it again the next day!  Just trying to get the most done while I am here… I go back home tomorrow.  I want to THANK everyone for the great comments yesterday…I actually read them all because they all get sent to my phone…and I have to delete them…but I read them first, so thanks again for making me feel good while I slave away painting and running around trying to get all the things done..painting 15 ft. walls…painting cabinets…locks changed, business license, utilities all lined up…signage…carpenter instructions for checkout and more shelving…IIMG_1327‘m sure I forget half of what we all did…here is peek at the store BEFORE we did anything…I didn’t take quite the same view, but here is the what it looks like painted.  I added this last picture because you can’t really tell the paint color in the second one…anyone guess the color?  paperbag!IMG_1342IMG_1330

Now back to the NEEDFUL thing of the day…

CGRGE1Day 8’s needful thing is…the Creative Grid Stripology ruler.  This ruler was new at Spring Market but I did not get a chance to use it until I had the perfect quilt to TEST it on…Snowman Gatherings 2 (coming to stores in MAY-can’t post quilt until the 30th)has an 80 block quilt SNOW DANCE that is made by cutting 4 widths and then sub cutting all into 2″ strips…I stacked layered and cut 8 blocks at a time…it was a breeze…the ruler never moved and it was so easy and mindless and accurate…I probably cut my usual cutting time in HALF because of this ruler.  I am a fast cutter to begin with and who wants to spend lots of time cutting out a quilt when we can be stitching instead…so saving time cutting is valuable to me.  lisabongena Here is my whole quilt cut up…I made 2 sets of 4 blocks to test for accuracy.  There are 8 blocks in a baggie….2 darks and 1 light make 8 blocks.  I didn’t have anytime to stitch these but I was ready just in case….There are many features to this ruler and I want to you see them ALL so you need to view this You Tube video by Gudrun Erla (the strip queen) for all the awesome details about this ruler  STRIPOLOGY RULER VIDEO 

This ruler is regular priced at $54.95…on sale for $44.00.  Here is the shopping link if you NEED it.  STRIPOLOGY RULER

PS…this is no June Taylor strip ruler…WAY… IMPROVED!!!

Now what do you have to do to win this???

Lets do this…I’m in a good mood because a bunch of you stuck up for PG on Facebook yesterday to some people who were all crabby about not getting their orders yet from the Christmas Gathering…sometimes during holidays designers take off and when we order we don’t get things in right away…or other things…don’t they realize we are not holding their orders on purpose? WE want them to get them asap???…but this year the girls got half the orders out in a week and I think the last of them went out today…I’m not going to say how many orders there were cause you wouldn’t believe me…My girls busted their rumps!!! Organizing, ordering, and picking and shipping!!  So because I didn’t have to stick up for my girls and you guys did it for me…Were going to give 2 of these away…one to someone who purchases it and one to someone random who probably didn’t!!! If you are not going to purchase it now…leave me some silly comment…make me laugh while I’m waiting in airports today.   PSS You won’t see the FB post…I think they removed it…it was two persons trying to commiserating together…life is too short to complain about your quilting order…THANKS FB FRIENDS!!

one more thing…do you know they plant poinsettias in the GROUND in California???? They are perfect too…I love it!!! Next time I come back it will be for a month hopefully the sun will shine…it was good working weather though…See you California…will be back in January, for a month!

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