Finishing Up Here and There

While my in-laws were visiting we took them to Mainz, Germany one weekend. It is a nice little town outside of Frankfurt that hubby and I go to several times a year, as business often takes him to Frankfurt. We showed them our favorite things to do in Mainz, which I have talked about before, but we also did a day trip to Oppenheim, a town know for wine making. There is a gorgeous cathedral there, St. Catherine's. This church has some of the most impressive stained glass windows I have ever seen...and I have seen a lot in the past three years. One of my photos from my iPhone actually came out great!

Very impressive pipe organ.

We did a tour of some underground, man-made caves all underneath the city. Unfortunately we were not able to get into an English speaking tour and the German one was tortuous...too much time spent standing in one place listing to a language we didn't understand. My husband had done the English tour before...note to all...don't go if you don't speak the language. One tunnel looked like another. We recovered quickly by having a quick bite to eat as we sipped on some local Riesling wine. It was excellent. 

Lots of gorgeous planters...I might replicate this one. It's a series of stacked metal containers with just enough spacing between each one for some soil and plants.

Yesterday my husband wanted to run into his office for an hour or two so I was deposited at the  IKEA. As usual...I saw something I wanted right away and they were out of them. I thought this large ladder-like stand would be good for a variety of situations...quilt rack...holiday decoration holder...oh well. I will save this photo in case I want my handyman to make me one.

There was a bushel of Bernese Mountain Dog plush toys on hand. I resisted and didn't buy any.

Plugging away on my Bucilla projects. Still working on the satin stitching for a wall hanging and have also started an ornament to go with the Bowling Santa stocking.

EQ7 had me a bit stumped when I was working on my Paris Flower block. I switched from the "easy draw," to the "patch draw" in the block side of the program. I learned how to use it last spring but it took a little bit of review. The advantage with the patch draw is you can duplicate shapes in the block and move them around very easily. It is a good way to ensure uniform sizes when working with the same shapes at different angles. I am finally ready to make a sample block. One, 2  1/2-inch Bali pop  strip won't be enough fabric to make a flower block so I have to decide if  I will go totally scrappy or controlled scrappy.