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While driving home from the farmer’s market in Ft. Atkinson a few weeks ago, Mike and I followed some signs to a barn sale. We found a beautiful old barn filled with treasures galore. When we stepped inside the ladies running the sale were very welcoming. There were oodles of interesting items and a lot of variety. Furniture, jewelry, barn boards, tools, toys, sewing items, and a whole lot more. And the prices were reasonable.

In one of the small rooms at the end of the barn I noticed a large, lovely framed photograph of a bride. There was something familiar about her.

On the other side of the room I discovered a large framed photo of the barn I was standing in, with the family name Spangler.

This brought back memories of my friend Diane, a very talented quilter who used to take my classes in Watertown. I heard she had passed away a few years ago, and I was quite sure she lived on Hwy Y near Johnson Creek. And… one of the women who greeted us resembled her. So I went back to the front table and asked her if she was related to Diane Spangler. Not only was she Diane’s daughter Lynn, but we had actually met years before at WCTC where we were both teaching. What a small world! That was when Lynn said that when she first saw me she thought I looked familiar too. She introduced me to her sister Amy and we had a wonderful conversation. I actually know their brother Mike too, since I own 2 of his Tracey’s Tables!

Lynn showed me the family tree charts that were hanging in the room with the photographs and I learned that the farm had been in the family for 5 generations.

Note the stack of vintage ironing boards. I have one that I’ve used as a sideboard in my dining room for years.

I asked them about the sale. They said that they had moved back into the family homestead a few years ago and began going through Diane’s things. She had many nice vintage items and they didn’t want to have a simple garage sale. Then Lynn was given the responsibility for handling the estates of two different friends who had passed away, one of which was quite a collector (bordering on horder). They decided to have a Homestead Barn Sale and knew they had enough to run it all Summer long, as they continued to go through the estates.

I asked them if they had a schedule and this is what they sent me:

Our 2021 sale weekend schedule is set as follows:
June 10-13
June 24-27
July 15-18
July 29-August 1
August 12-15
August 26-29
September 9-12
September 23-26
September 30-October 3

We will be open for all sales on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays; 9 am to 5 pm Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and 9 am to 4 pm on Sundays.

We are located 1 mile south of Johnson Creek, just past Rob’s Motorsports. You can also find your way to our sale from Highway 18 near the former St. Coletta campus just east of Jefferson. Watch for the big pink signage. Our address is N5761 County Road Y, Johnson Creek. Sometimes GPS likes the street address as N5761 C-r Y better.

Please PULL INTO THE DRIVEWAY to park. Park on the grass if needed. Safety is of utmost importance. Don’t leave your pet in the car. Bring a leash. We usually add new items daily and definitely add new items for each sale. Come see what’s new at The Homestead Barn.

Koda (our 5 month old puppy) liked their dog friendly attitude! We went back this past weekend to take a few more photos (and buy a few more treasures).

Everything was neat and well organized. Lynn confided that her mom would be pleased to have her things displayed with this much love, and would have hated a jumbled rummage sale. Here are just a few of the treasures I brought home:

The book is a bridal shower gift. When I saw santa peeking out of the bottom of the jar of red buttons, I couldn’t resist it. The Sunbonnet Sue needle case will be a wonderful addition to my collection. There are actually 6 plates that coordinate but don’t match. And… don’t miss my new $3 ring. Very unique — and they had a lot of jewelry.

If you live in southeastern Wisconsin, I highly recommend taking a ride out in the country to visit Lynn and Amy. If you do, please let them know you heard about it here 😊.

It’s been a while since Mike and I have done any traveling, but this past week we put an end to that. Mike traveled all over the world as a corporate pilot and, since he retired, he doesn’t want to go anywhere… unless he has a good enough reason.

Well, we lost our dog Annabelle in 2019.

She was a Belgian Sheepdog, and one of only a few breeds I’m not allergic to, so it took some time to find another one. The puppy we found was in Ohio and that was all the reason we needed! We both had been wanting to visit the full sized Noah’s Ark and Creation Museum near Cincinnati. We decided it was worth driving a few hours out of our way – and we are so glad we did!

You may be asking now “what does this have to do with quilting?” Just hold on a little longer and you’ll see.

The Ark Encounter was the first spot on our agenda and it did not disappoint!

It opened to the public in 2019 and Answers in Genesis strove to make it as accurate to the Bible as possible. We learned so much and it was amazing!

The Bible states that the Ark had only one door and this symbolizes Jesus as the only way to salvation!

They have a small, but lovely zoo on the property, along with a Virtual Reality ride that was a blast! For more information please click here!

The next day we went to the Ark’s sister attraction, the Creation Museum, and it was fascinating also.

The exhibits and programs were wonderful plus – there were quilts in both main stairwells!

They were beautiful, and the one with circles was incredibly intricate! Click here for the story of the quilts and their maker.

We enjoyed all the exhibits, presentations, and the 4D Planetarium show.

The next day we picked up the puppy near Akron, and headed home.

It was a whirlwind adventure and we are so blessed. The next phase is housetraining our new little boy … while coming up with a name 🤪. I don’t know why it seems so hard this time. After seeing him do you have any suggestions?

I have been missing real live quilt shows terribly. Virtual shows are ok, but I think a great majority of the fun of a show is sharing it with others. That’s why I was so excited when I received a “call for entries” from Mary Beth at the Walls of Wittenberg in central Wisconsin. The email stated that they felt they could follow all the pandemic guidelines – and still host a show. WooHoo! I shared this info with the ThreadBenders and we were able to enter our Colored by Emotions challenge quilts in Wittenberg. They were completed in early 2020 and never had the chance to be seen “in the cloth”. A few of us also entered our Octabulous quilts from last year’s challenge.

Mike and I drove up to Wittenberg this past week to drop the quilts off. I’ve had quilts in the WOW Space before and absolutely love this charming small town in central Wisconsin. In order to show off it’s beauty and bring in visitors, Wittenberg has been covered with beautiful murals. If you zoom in on the sign below you’ll get the idea 😊:

The W.O.W gallery has this mural on the back of it’s building:

I posted a few of the other murals back in 2012, but I can’t resist sharing a few more, like the veterinary clinic:

the hardware store:

the firehouse:

the post office (which I learned was painted by Mary Beth’s daughter!):

a Main Street Law Office:

and a garage on the main drag:

There were plenty more and each one was an amazing work of art. They added brightness to a very gray day… and that was all before even entering the W.O.W. Gallery!

The show will be open on Saturdays and Sundays through February 8th, from 11 – 3.

And here’s a sneak peek of some of the quilts in the show:

And they can all be seen “up close and personal”! What a wonderful destination – and a great reason to go for a ride!

In August I posted about a wonderful getaway with my friends. We had such a good time Laura decided to host another one.

I’ve been so craving the company of quilting friends and this weekend has been such a blessing. We’ve stitched,

enjoyed great food at the retreat center (prepared by the participants – these are just the snacks!),

As well as a delicious lunch on the shores of Lake Wisconsin.

We did a bit of shopping in the quaint town of Lodi,

and stitched some more. I put together a quilt from a bag of donated fabrics I picked up at guild. Thanks for the pattern Jo! It’s turning into a lovely charity quilt.

I also had a blast making Christmas table toppers as gifts for dear friends.

We laughed a lot (during our white elephant gift exchange – I think Cathy likes the dachsund planter I found for her at an antique store 😊!),

took in beautiful scenery on frozen Lake Wisconsin,

and out our back door.

Quilting friends are the best! Thank you Laura, Cathy, April and Jo, for a delightful weekend!

Since I posted about traveling in my mind last week, I’m excited to share that I actually, physically went somewhere this past week!

Last year my friend Laura discovered a beautiful quilt retreat center in Poynette, WI. Early last Spring she planned a weekend retreat for this past weekend and, even though a few of our group had to cancel for various reasons, Laura, April and I are very glad we made the trip!

As I packed up the car my sweet husband made sure all was well for my hour long drive (I loved that it wasn’t very far from home).

I didn’t realize how ready I was for some new surroundings – and time with friends, and Cattail Retreat didn’t disappoint.

The accommodations were very comfortable, and the sewing room was perfect.

With only 3 of us we were able to spread out and get some serious (😁) sewing done.

We took turns making meals, but breakfasts were on our own. I especially loved spending some morning time in the second floor porch.

My first project got it’s start as blocks made by a dear lady in my guild. Carole was a very giving member who passed away last year. Her husband donated much of her quilting stuff to Patched Lives, saying the proceeds were to be used by our charity quilts committee. Many of us purchased fabric and UFOs from her collection, and are finishing them as charity quilts. I bought these beautiful star blocks and pieced them into a lap-sized quilt. A double donation! Once that top was together – on the left – I began a scrap quilt for myself (right):

This scrappy green quilt will eventually be king sized. I was inspired by one made by my friend Lori. The blocks are paper pieced rectangles, and I’m using green scraps, with a few surprises thrown in to add excitement.

I ended up using pages from an old phone book for the foundation, and cut strips of various widths from my scraps.

These blocks are fun, easy, and I’m actually using up some of my bin of scraps! Thanks Lori!

I highly recommend spending time with quilting friends – it is great for our mental health. Click here to learn more about Cattail Retreat.

If you’d rather stay closer to the Milwaukee area, I have two friends who have recently opened wonderful quilt retreat centers.

Mom’s Place

Lou has remade her mother’s home in New Berlin, WI, into a lovely place for quilters to relax, stitch, and spend time together.

Click here to learn more about Mom’s Place!

Tall Pines Retreat

Laure and Hans have renovated this beautiful home in Mukwonago, WI. They’ve made it into the perfect spot for quilters, or any crafters to spend time together doing what they love.

Click here to learn more about Tall Pines Retreat.

No matter where you are, I hope you are finding time to escape into our wonderful world of quilting with friends.

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This is a follow-up email I received from Carol after my post about barn blocks.

“WNCQG sub group did a program in January 2020.  These were very easy.  Precut plywood from Lowes that was primed on all sides and edges.
 (24” x 24”) Then we marked and painted with outdoor paint.  My husband made the frame and I will paint it the same red.
Hope this helps.“

She certainly did a great job! Thanks Carol!

I typically write about some aspect of quilting and sewing in my weekly blog posts, but I hope you’ll find this topic interesting too, since we all like to eat! Enjoy!

I am a somewhat adventurous eater and I was looking forward to experiencing food in Japan. The one thing I was warned about ahead of time was that there wouldn’t be many green vegetables – and I found this to be surprisingly true. A few floral shoots of broccoli snuck into dinner one night, but that was not the norm.

Aside from the salad bars on the American portion of the breakfast buffets, the majority of meals revolved around seafood, rice, tofu, noodles and salt. Although Daikon radishes and cabbage were pretty easy to find.

We went to a sushi making class during the trip. It was more of a stage production than an actual cooking class, but it was fun. What we made was pretty, and much of it was tasty – even if most of the seafood was raw (the rice is hiding underneath each item):

Eating in restaurants was an interesting experience. There was plastic food outside all of them and it was made to look exactly like what was on their menu.

I found out later that it’s a multi-million dollar industry in Japan, and it did make choosing our dinner a little easier (even if we didn’t know what we were ordering because the descriptions were all in Japanese). If you’d like to learn more about the plastic food industry in Japan click here.

One night a few of us decided to have dinner at the Tempura restaurant on the top floor of our hotel. The view was beautiful and the meal very interesting. Everything is deep fried while you watch, at high heat and in a very light batter. The chef began by showing us a wooden box filled with all the foods he would be preparing, and the presentation was a lovely part of the meal.

The first item he prepared for us was prawns. He showed us the large, beautiful prawns: heads, tails and all; cut off the heads, and cooked the rest to perfection. He put two of them into my boat shaped dish and I lifted them off with my chopsticks, dipped them in salt (no cocktail sauce), and enjoyed. Then he did the same thing with the prawn heads!

I looked with wide eyes at Vicki, who was seated next to me. She said – “when in Japan” and popped one in her mouth!

So I did the same. It was crunchy, and I ate them both. We all enjoyed the meal very much.

Besides seafood and rice, there were many restaurants that served chicken and pork. It was often deep fried, served with noodles and quite yummy.

The night we stayed at the resort near Mt. Fugi we were served an amazing multi-course dinner. The presentation and unique dishes were a highlight:

An amazing meal and surprisingly filling!

While traveling from place to place I would get the munchies. Potato chips were not easy to find, and when we did the only choices were wasabi or shrimp flavor (I’m afraid they must be an acquired taste):

We purchased Bento Boxes for lunch on the bullet train. It was very compact. The two boxes stacked and were topped with the beautiful cardboard lid.

Many people in Japan commute long distances each day and these boxed lunches are extremely popular. Mine was delicious!

I’m going to end this post on a sweet note. We noticed many different flavors of KitKat candy bars all over the country. It turns out that KitKat is pronounced similarly to the Japanese phrase for “you will surely succeed”. So the Japanese people began gifting them to friends prior to athletic contests or academic tests. They became so popular that the Nestle company decided to fill the need and make a variety of them. The most unusual was Yuzu fruit/Matcha tea (not my favorite).

It was a fun souvenir to bring home to the kids.

I truly enjoyed the culinary experience, but I must admit I was ready for a hamburger with a big dish of asparagus when I returned.

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In a comment last week, Laurie asked about the project I Roketsu dyed. I chose a dragonfly design on a t-shirt.

I finished in a short amount of time and the teacher made a comment through Izumi that I should add one to the back shoulder. I love it!

I love it. Now if it will just warm up enough outside to wear it.