Pray For Our Troops

It was with a jolt that I saw today's date on a blog this morning. September 11...may we never forget.

Seven years ago, I was sitting at the computer, typing blithely away, when the phone rang. It was my husband telling me to turn on the news: the radio, the TV, it didn't matter. It was 6:30am, and the world had changed. The whole world was sent reeling, forever.

Several months ago, my friend Sharon asked me to "test sew" a pattern for her. I avoid wonder-under if possible, so I was her ideal guinea pig. I put the top together, and eventually quilted most of it.

God is good.

I had some free time on Tuesday, so I finished the quilting. Yesterday I bound and sleeved it. I even snapped a picture, not having a clue of today's date. My only planned post this morning was a fluff-piece about the county fair...which I will get to after this.

But for now, I'll lay this time aside to pass along a request: Please

Pray For Our Troops
pattern by Sharon L. Schlotzhauer
sewn by Suzanne Kistler
September 10, 2008

If you are interested in buying the pattern, leave a comment with contact information. I'll pass it along to Sharon, and hopefully get you in touch with one another. And I guess I'll leave it at that...

More Travel Pictures

Most of this new set of pictures are courtesy of Adam. He thought it great fun to snap pictures of me snapping pictures. Yes, I do have a picture of myself and the flash as my camera went off. I have quite a number of them!!!


On our first day in Berlin, we walked, and walked, and walked. It was a walking marathon. We were in search of Fruehstueck. (That would be breakfast for you non-German speakers.) Daniel was just beginning to grumble and mumble when we came across Humboldt University. Pete also got really excited, and I hadn't a clue why. He was excited because this is (or used to be) the Vet School.

Daniel was more impressed that this was where Max Planck (renowned Physicist) taught. See? He was REALLY jazzed. ;)


By Friday, the novelty of Berlin had worn off. Either that, or we were worn out. Or perhaps it was a bit of both. Adam took this of Pete and me, waiting for the Bahn...


Saturday's trip to Miltenberg was delightful. What a change from the concrete and construction of Berlin!!! Isn't this building front cute?!! Look how big it is! I'm the little person in white, in the bottom right corner...

After a mid-day snack, we hiked up to see the Mildenburg Castle. I've already shown you pictures of the view, but I didn't have a picture of the hike...(and once we got to the landing, there was a tower to climb...)

Here we are, on our walk back to town. Even the alleys are cute in Miltenberg...

On Sunday, we drove to Esslingen. Here is Pete (our driver extraordinaire) preparing to get back on the Autobahn. Even the pavement on the turnout is quaint. Don't you just love it?

Here's a view of Esslingen. See how the hills are covered with vineyards? I'm assuming they're for making wine, not table grapes, but I could be wrong. Everything about the place was scenic.

Finally, here I am looking forward to digging into a plate full of Schwabisch roast beef. We didn't eat very often (usually 2 meals, or a snack and a meal), so when we had the opportunity to EAT, we took advantage of it.


I think that's about it for pictures from Germany, unless I run across more that I want to share. In retrospect, I'm very glad we went. It was exhausting, but it was a nice break from our valley heat. And it was good to see how they live on the other side of the world. It's given me a new appreciation for just how good we have it here. I no longer take things for granted, that's for sure!!!

Travel Pouch

A few days before we left for Germany, I had suggestions from multiple persons to bring some sort of travel pouch. It needed to be small enough to wear under a sweater, but large enough to carry my passport, credit cards, cash and whatever.

After looking at a couple of pictures, I whipped this together the day before we left. I grabbed some leftover blocks from my 2005 Hoffman Challenge, and I was in business.


I built in two pockets. I kept my passport and maps and itinerary, etc., in the larger pocket, and my cash, such as I had, in the smaller. Man those euros slip through the fingers!! A nice strip of velcro held it closed.


Here I am, in Berlin, modeling the pouch. It was EXTREMELY useful, and I think it will become my quilt-show pouch. I usually haul around my purse, but who needs a purse at a quilt show? This will be perfect for any future day-long adventures...

More Fun

I don't think I've blogged about this yet.

Have you seen the new "Quilt It for Christmas" from the editors of Quilter's Newsletter? It hit the stands on August 19, which was in between recovering from my dad's birthday bash and preparing to head to Germany...


Anyhoo, if you open to page 58, you see this lovely, and on 59, they give you instructions for creating a Double 4 patch of your own, just in time for Christmas.

Why do I draw this to your attention? Why because this is my quilt. yep. It's one of 5 that I made for Christmas in 2006. That one's mine, here's what happened to the other 4.

It was a very quiltie Christmas, indeed...

Just Plain Fun!

Sometimes quilting for hire is tedious, sometimes it's stressful, sometimes I don't want to do it, but sometimes? It's just plain fun!!!

Today was definitely a Fun day, with a capital F. It really helps that the quilt is so bright and cheery. Look at the happy flower fabric - it just makes you want to smile. (you can click on the photo to embiggen...)


Happy flower fabric calls for 'happy sunshine' quilting, so that's just what it got, along with some vines weaving up the diagonal.

And finally, here's a peek at the back. It's cute too! I LOVE it when a quilt sings, "Quilt me thusly!" and then is happy with the result. Happy quilt, happy quilter. Hopefully it's owner will be happy too...


And speaking of happy and having fun, look at this guy!

This is Malcolm, our INDOOR-ONLY cat. He's declawed, he's neurotic, he's paranoid, and he's jealous. He's spent too much time watching the little guys romp around outside enjoying themselves, so he stalked out there to join the party. His idea of fun is rolling in flower debris. Our son tried to pick him up, Malcolm hissed. He wanted to roll, roll, roll in ze flowers...

When he was done, he didn't even notice the flower dust all along his side. Silly Malcolm. Who would have guessed that you were a party animal?

Hoffman Challenge 2008

Just as we were preparing to leave for Germany, the Rocky Mountain Quilt Show was held in Colorado. This was the official unveiling of the entire 2008 Hoffman Challenge traveling collection. I couldn't be there, but my friend Sharon was, along with her camera. It's always fascinating to see what the various entrants have done with the challenge fabric. Here are a couple of pictures, courtesy of Sharon.

Sharon L. Schlotzhauer
with her fan-tastic quilt "Fan-ciful"
winner of
Best Machine Workmanship, Mixed Technique

Here she is again, this time with "Window of Tradition." It looks okay, doesn't it?

And here it is, up close. You can barely see it, hanging black on black. oops. But it does look like a window in the darkness...

I guess there were questions as to why I used that vivid orange for the ring. ummm. I thought it would pop? How's that? ;)

Also, there was a question about the quilting thread. I used black for the interior of the design, and red violet for the quilting in the black. That way all the stitches showed: if I'm going to hand quilt, I want you to know it. ;)

More Pictures!

In the last post, I told you that we were on the 13th floor of the Ostel. This is the view out of one of the windows. See the spire in the background? That's a TV station located in Alexanderplatz. It can be seen from anywhere in Berlin. By looking for it, we could judge in which direction our accommodations lay...

I think I mentioned that Berlin is a big city. Germany charges 19% tax on EVERYTHING. Four percent of that goes to rebuilding the East. Everywhere we went, there was construction. This is what it looks like as you approach the Brandenberg Gate from the East, walking down Unter den Linden. It's historic, but it's not very pretty.

Miltenberg was a tremendous contrast to Berlin. I think I amused my cousin when I pulled out my camera. This is the first time I've ever seen a live "wild" swan. I HAD to get a picture!!


She says they are everywhere, and that they are mean and a nuisance. Maybe so, but now I've actually seen the inspiration for The Ugly Duckling. I know, I'm easily amused...

This picture was taken from the courtyard of the castle in Miltenberg.


This picture was taken from the castle's tower.


The views from the castle in Heidelberg were probably even more spectacular, but it was a rainy foggy day...




Finally, I was struck by the contrasting steeples in Esslingen. This church had one spire,


This one had two. Do you think they noticed that they don't exactly "match"?


I'm really surprised to discover that I spent most of my time in Esslingen soaking up the atmosphere. I have very few pictures. Thankfully both my husband and one son were pretty active with their cameras. I haven't seen their pictures yet, but surely they have some of Esslingen, don't they?

Finally, I just had to share this picture with you. It was taken a few minutes after 4am, as we waited for the taxi-that-never-appeared. They didn't look nearly this happy as the clock approached 4:30am and the streets remained deserted. Not good when you have a 6am flight from an airport 25 minutes away...


But God is good, and He sent us a taxi. It could only carry 4 of us, and we were a family of 5. We left the boys behind - yes, on the deserted streets of early morning East Berlin - trusting our taxi driver to call his dispatcher and send them a second cab. He spoke enough English and I spoke enough German that we were able to communicate. It all worked out. We are home. God bless America! ;)

There and Back Again

Let's just say up front that I am not cut out for travel. I don't enjoy sitting for long periods of time, I hesitate when confronted with the unknown, and I much prefer familiar surroundings. Our trip had none of the above. Believe me, this was a test, in more ways than one. If I were to choose, I would choose God's creation over man's, every time. But our primary destination was Berlin, and there is little there to indicate God's presence at all...

Over the course of the week, I took more than 270 pictures, but I'll spare you the details. Instead, I'll try to hit some highlights...

This is where we stayed while in Berlin. It is called the Ostel, and it boasts "authentic East German flair." It is East of where the wall stood, and it didn't take much to convince me.


We were located in a corner apartment, on the 13th floor. Yes, I said the 13th floor. This is the first time I've ever been on a 13th floor - I didn't know they made them. ;)

We arrived in Berlin on Tuesday, 8/26. On Wednesday, someone turned 50. We won't name names (he doesn't want anyone to know), but I did take pictures. He seems to be handling it pretty well...

The primary reason we went to Berlin was to see the opening of the Arthur Szyk exhibit at the Deutsches Historisches Museum. Arthur Szyk was a Polish Jew, who used his artistic talents to fight a propaganda war against Nazism. His work is amazing. I spent some time examining his work. He was a man whose faith was his passion, a man who used ALL of his talents on behalf of his people. His body of work is remarkable, and 60 years later it still stirs great emotion. I am very glad we were able to be at the opening of this historic exhibit.

On Thursday, it rained. Check out our friends. They came to visit as we were eating breakfast.


After four days in Berlin, we flew to Frankfurt. There, we rented a car, and drove to visit my cousin in Rodgau. We specifically told them we had five people, and luggage. "No problem." ummm...Are you sure?


The drive was worth it, as we visited Cousin Cathy. She and her husband Juergen took us to Miltenberg, where we saw the Germany I'd imagined from my youth.

We hiked up to the castle ruins...



And were rewarded with a spectacular view of the town...


They were having some sort of festival (see the ferris wheel?), and as we were eating dinner, some of the parade participants came marching past our dinner table...

On Sunday, we piled into the car and drove to Esslingen, the town where my grandfather spent his boyhood days. Perhaps if you click on the photo, you can see the name of the town in the manhole cover. I thought these were pretty cool...


The next day was spent in Heidelberg, where the kids were impressed with the size of the wine casks in the castle. Yes, that little man in front of the keg is our son - the one who barely fit in the BMW. This is one VERY LARGE cask!!!


I'm thinking wood was used for important things like storing wine. Why waste it on things like doors? This is the same son, same castle...The people must have been a tad smaller than we are, eh?

I really should post more pictures, but we're supposed to leave for a dinner engagement in a few minutes. I'm not ready. Jet lag has me in its clutches, and we were up at the ridiculously early hour of 4:30am this morning. How we're supposed to be alert and interactive for a dinner party is beyond me, but hey, I'll give it a shot.

I'll leave you with this last picture of one of the Heidelberg lions. These guys cracked me up. Every one of them was different, and more than one of them bore a striking resemblance to the lion in The Wizard of Oz. Don't you just love the way he's rolling his eyes?

So. We are back, and I am glad to be back. I love my life: it's peaceful, slow-paced, and quiet...just the way I like it! Being away for a week truly helps me to appreciate how good I've got it. May I never take it for granted!!!!