Happy Memorial Day from Kentucky

Wayne and I are spending the weekend here at home...and it's a much needed weekend without any travel plans. We are roasting a turkey on the grill, potato salad is made, and Andi and Dennis are coming over for dinner later.

Wayne has been busy this week mowing the yard. With rains in between mowing spells, it's been hard to keep up with it.

Tuffy thinks it's a good day for a nap....

.........And he settled in to take one on the back porch.

Today I took my camera out to shoot some photos of our hydrangea bushes - they are in full bloom now.

Love those bright blue flowering heads on them.

And the lilies we bought for Socks are all in full bloom. Don't they look like someone painted them? They are exactly that rosy color with the dark red splotches. There are about ten stalks on each plant this year.

Wishing you all a safe holiday weekend.

And Happy Birthday to my sister Marcia!

Wayne and Bonnie

Bonnie Browning Appearing Now on www.TheQuiltShow.com

Hello:
My program #609 is now appearing on http://www.thequiltshow/ with Alex Anderson & Ricky Tims. They asked me to put together a group of photos of some of my quilts and other projects. Hope you enjoy seeing what keeps me busy when I'm not working on AQS Quilt Shows. Many of the quilts and projects have patterns in my books; other are just fun projects that I've made. If you want to order my latest book, Borders & Finishing Touches 2, which was featured on the show, you can order it from the shop at TheQuiltShow.com or from the American Quilter's Society.

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Update on the Eagles

Wow, you won't believe how fast eagles grow. Here are some photos that show you their size when they were first born...and where they are today. These images are from the Decorah Eagle Cam near the Fish Hatchery in Decorah, Iowa.

April 7, two eaglets had hatched.

April 10, all three eaglets have now hatched

May 1, feeding time by both female and male eagles

May 4, taking a nap - every day the adult eagles redo the nest,

shredding cornstalks for bedding

May 4, some family time - check out those feathers on the oldest eaglet, changing from down to feathers; boy they eat a lot of fish

May 4, they tend to lay in a pile - one adult is always nearby

May 6, what are these big feet for...they are very wobbly when they try to walk

May 6, wings work...now if I only knew what to do with them

In less than one month, they have grown from just being hatched to this size. Amazing, and what fun to watch via the Decorah Eagle Cam. You can watch too, here is the link: http://www.luther.edu/eaglecam/stream/

Beautiful Irises...and More

The house next door has been sold and the new owners are a couple that just loves flowers. We are so glad because for years we enjoyed all of the beautiful flowers that Lorraine Ingram cared for in her yard.

After I broke a belt on the lawn mower...so I couldn't mow like I had planned, I did a little weed-whacking with the trimmer. When I was thoroughly covered in dirt and whatever else I kicked up with the trimmer, Wayne suggested that we go over so I could meet the new neighbors. I washed my face and arms, and grabbed my camera because the irises are blooming and I wouldn't miss this opportunity to take a few photos.

I thought you all would enjoy seeing these beauties too.

Hope you enjoyed this bouquet of flowers. Remember your Mother on Mother's Day. We hope our Mothers enjoy the real flowers that are on their way.

Bonnie's New Sewing Machine...well, Old Sewing Machine

I have a new sewing machine. Well, it is new to me. When I was a little girl, one year for Christmas I received a hand crank sewing machine...and I still have that machine. Here it is:

And it is a little bit rusty...but then, so am I.

Recently someone on Facebook was talking about the "big" hand crank old sewing machines. I joined the discussion and said I was looking for one of those machines because I wanted to make a lamp out of it...and that I didn't care whether it worked or nor. Diann Becker from PA saw my comment and told me she had one and that she would bring it on the bus to Lancaster if I wanted it. Of course, I said, "Yes, please bring it with you." And she did. Thanks, Diann. And here it is:

It is a Frister & Rossmann hand crank machine, made in Germany. From the serial number, it looks to date between 1896 and 1914. So now that I owned this machine, I needed to find out more. We know that in  
1846 Elias Howe invented and patented the first automatic sewing machine for practical operation.

Frister & Rossmann started life near Berlin, Germany, in 1864. The two business partners, Gustav Rossmann and Robert Frister had started their sewing machine business by copying existing machines such as the American Wheeler & Wilson and Willcox & Gibbs under licence from the original manufacturers. Their first sewing machine, the A1 was simply a Wheeler & Wilson clone machine. However its success was unsurpassed, hardly changing for around 50 years. For decades Frister & Rossmann were the largest producers of sewing machines in Germany. By the early 1880s they had made a staggering quarter of a million machines, and by 1903 the great company had produced over one million machines.
 
Frister & Rossmann machines are known world wide, and similar models are better known in Australia and New Zealand as The Globe, and in America as Jaguar and Kenmore machines. Frister & Rossmann continues to hold it place amongst the premier sewing machine names in Great Britain.
(Frister & Rossman Info Source: http://www.sewalot.com/frister_rossmann.htm)

You can see from the photo I shot of the machine, it also has a box of attachments, some bobbins (good thing because they are very strange looking), several feet, and the instruction manual.
 
Now curious as to what kind of working it order it might be in, I took the machine on Saturday to Keith English of English's Sew & Vac here in Paducah. His motto on TV is that they "sell the best and service the rest." So we'll see if it works when I get it back. Keith said his granddaughter says he can fix anything. Now that is putting the pressure on. : )
 
Think I still will make into a lamp, but will put a wooden base under it to run the fixings for the lamp so the machine can be removed if I should want to take it to a demonstration some time. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it is good running order. What a fun new machine I have - and it remains to be seen if it will actually sew or live out its life as a lamp!