Congratulations, Marilyn!! The wool applique looks beautiful, and the quilt is lovely, too...you really do merit those ribbons! Well done!

The vegetables and herbs look so fresh and delicious...I used to have a big garden here, but finally got discouraged after a couple years' crop failures. Maybe I will try a small patch next summer. I sure loved being able to go out in the yard and get (don't swoon, ladies) a sweet, garden-fresh tomato, warm from the sun and bursting with juice!

When I first moved here, there was a nearby county fair; but they now have discontinued it . It was the real thing, like yours sounds: big buildings full of lovely goats and rabbits and prize chickens and such, cattle and horses too, and veggies, jam, cakes and pies, quilts, and all sorts of handicrafts. I sure miss it!

Congratulations Marilyn on your wins!

Barb

Ritzy, please say those snakes are supposed to be snacks.

ritzy wrote: I'm a bit concerned about your snakes! What we have found here in UK works well is to use chocolate digestives with roasted marshmallows, because the chocolate bars over here are much thicker and don't melt so quickly from the hot marshmallow. This variant has been thoroughly tested by Izzy and passes her quality assurance criteria

Yeh smashing family time. Glow in the dark bowling sounds a hoot

Marilyn--well done on the fair entries. You are just a bit to far for me to consider dinner at you house.

Just returned for a truly blessed time. My son-in-law rented a house on property that has a stocked pond, a swimming pool and a lovely garden. He then proceeded to invite us all there. So, ten of the eleven of us showed up--that would be my children, their spouses and the grands, and Loren and I. He also provided the food for dinner and oldest daughter did the breakfast(who knew she could wake up that early in the morning?). Dear hubby and I had it easy--stuff to make "s'mores" and a gallon container of ice-cream with toppings. For those of you who may not know about s'mores it is a snake made at a bon fire. It has chocolate, charred marshmallow and graham crackers. When you put the hot marshmallow on the chocolate, the chocolate melts and you basically have a sandwich.

The fishing was great and just being able to watch my family interact with each other was wonderful. This is the first vacation we have had as a family since the girls grew up and had children. Coy, the grandson from the portrait quilt, got up early every morning to take his gram on the boat to fish. Two granddaughter played games with me until I couldn't stand it anymore and Eli wanted to watch the Russian cartoon "Masha and the Bear" on my computer. The only time I could get any attention from him is if I were trying to check in here--then it was Masha time. Lots of swimming was done and we played glow in the dark bowling. I will do a blog with pictures soon. The oldest daughter has three jobs so getting her to be with us was wonderful--her husband and kids didn't know how to react having so much time with her(you could tell the girls were starved for her attention).

I was hoping you'd offer Marilyn

idaho wrote:
As Rita's mum would say 'do it yourself, Pat'

BTW...I do think a block swap with houses, like we did/do with Muggies would be fun ! Maybe some one could write it up?
a fun project over winter...postage wouldn't be too much as blocks will fold up , etc. I really like the idea of having something
of every ones' work.....

:shock: :shock: :shock: OMG! Over the top..or what? How many techs. is that ??

Just because we talked about houses of this thread, and Marilyn might need a new house in which to cook for all of us, and we all just hit the lottery, check the link to Sarah's latest....

http://www.sarahvedelerdesigns.com/blog/2014/08/05/introducing-its-sterling-life-berkeley-square/

Renata wrote:

Ya..You're far enough north...climate prob'ly better for cool crops ...spring was just not cooperative this yr for
greens and the kohlrabi didn't germinate well, so sparse ! blues we planted don't seem to like us too well !