What we did instead of quilting...

Hi everybody!  Well I've come back from being ... not here.   I'm just in time to say "Oh my, where did July go?!" I sure missed you all and I'm glad for you to see me, I gar-ron-tee!  Is everybody enjoying the Olympics?  Go team!!  :O)

Yesterday was a berry berry good day for Renea, Pat, Charlene, and me to take a little trip to pick blackberries at Butler's Orchard in Germantown, Md.  The thunder was rumbling and the lightning was flashing, but that didn't stop us - we were quilters on a mission!

After we checked in at the farm market we took a roller coaster ride around dozens of curves, through about a million potholes, past several rusted out mystery machines to the berry fields.  We were trying to figure out what the machines were and how they were used once upon a time.  I believe the one above is a tractor, but there was one Charlene swore looked like a gigantic juicer or veggie peeler.  Who can know...



I think somebody was having a good time!

 The picking was really good for blackberries - they were falling off the bushes if you bumped them!  Pat filled this container in just a few minutes, and she wasn't even in the "prime" picking area.  The blueberries weren't so great, though ... we caught them at the end of the picking season and Renea picked just enough to eat on the spot.  She couldn't get her raspberries either; soon as we drove to that field it started raining, so we ran for it!  We really should have held our ground though; it was only a little 4-1/2 minute shower, what my mama used to call a sun shower.

Back in their farm market they had a lot of interesting non-produce stuff to look at, doesn't Pat do a great job sampling the lotions?  She might have a new career as a hand model!  Along with the  blackberries we got bell peppers, cantaloupes (yum!), peaches (double yum!), zuchini, all kinds of tomatoes, and jam. 

There was a children's tour group there at the farm, with a cameraman from Montgomery County television getting footage for Montgomery Plants (Grows??).  He took a lot of footage inside the store, including a very lonnnng shot of my shopping cart and another lonnnng shot of us driving away in my car.  As we were getting in the car I did an elegant lady-like wave and said "buh-bye!!"  So stay tuned, you might see us on TV in a month or so if I get the link.

After all that berry picking and curiosity shoppihg, Renea headed on home *sigh*.  Charlene, Pat and I refueled at the Old Country Buffet, then we scooted up the Pike to Capitol Quilts to see what we could see.  I'm glad to report I was very good and only drooled, but Pat and Charlene couldn't resist the Australian and Kaffe Fasset prints.  There were some really gorgeous class samples hanging on the walls, you can see a few of them in the backgrounds.

While Charlene and Pat were doing their thing, Deb (a fellow guild member) dropped in "to get a spool of thread" - yeah right!


It was a great day, as usual... there's just something about doing non-quilty things with other quilters, specially when you're retired!   Felicia, we wish you could have been with us! 

Well that's all for now, sew forth and sew on til later!