The JAM 2022, or known as the Joy, Alyssa and Marge, tour left bright and early this morning from my hometown of Forest Lake, Minnesota to travel the state and participate in the Quilt Minnesota Shop Hop.
Three generations, making memories together.
Our first stop was Country Loft which is my mom's local quilt shop.
The Metro area has multiple buses going around these next two days and there was one here already this morning. Be sure to check out their Placemats.
Next stop we headed down memory lane to Affinity for Quilts in White Bear Lake. Memory Lane for me since I student taught in the area and my wedding reception was held here in this cute little town.
My mom loved the hand work that was featured in this shop.
Buttermilk Basin was our next shop and Alyssa and I had met the owner, Stacy West at the St. Cloud Quilt Show. We were greeted, however, by a familiar face.
Theresa was our greeter and one of our Pine Cone Peeps. It was so nice to see her at the front door. Oh my, I was in trouble.....wool, wool and more beautiful wool.
Next stop, Twin Cities Quilting. Another bus and another familiar face.
Tammy and friends were on the bus and her mom was an avid quilter and Tammy has been finishing her mom's UFO's and finding her own creative direction.
Next stop, Quilt Cove. What a nice little tucked in the corner shop. A Passport helper was tucked in the corner and there was color all around us. I forgot to take a picture here.
Quilter's Haven in Rosemount was our next destination. Although I did not capture them, we knew Deb and the owner Jean.
Table runners were the theme for us here.
Wildlower Quilt Co was an unexpected, colorful, flower filled metro shop with another bus full of fun taking in the beautiful samples and complimentary coffee.
This was our final shop in the Metro area and we received a really nice sized Vinyl Zipper pouch to organize all of our goodies.
The Quilting Grounds in Norwood Young America was our final destination and the beginning of another section for us. We were greeted by a couple of really lovely ladies sitting outside the shop enjoying the day.
Inside however, Jodi and Stacey greeted us with complimentary coffee that really hit the spot. Earlier this spring I met Jodi in Rochester at Pine Needles and it was truly delightful to see on of the featured quilts from the spring shop hop in person hanging.
It was a bit of a challenge to fit us all in the photo but we truly enjoyed our visit to the Quilting Grounds. Lovely samples and people all around.
We have traveled half way to our next destination and are spending the night in Hutchinson. My aunt and cousin will join us this evening for a little review of the treasures we have found. If you follow us on the Marcia & Joy Show, this is the aunt with a 101 uses of pantyhose :)
Alyssa navigated the metro area like a pro, my mom prepared and packed the lunch and the supper. We have covered all the food groups today and will finish off with a nice glass of wine and some truffles when the rest of our JJAMR tour (pronounced 'jammer') arrives. They can not travel with us but I am thankful they are taking time to join us this evening. They are part of our scrapbooking posse along that gather each February to make more memories.
Tomorrow we head north and east for more adventures.
Happy Sewing, Joy
Dress up...I was all about it in my younger days. You may not know, but Tom and Marcia had a little square dancing phase, and it worked out great for me. My dress up bin was overflowing with poofy skirts! A few even with bells attached for extra special flare. I adored dressing up and had all the fixins at home and at my grandma's house as well. I am also quite guilty of being a Barbie girl. Hours on end were spent dressing up Barbie dolls. I inherited the Barbie clothes that my mom made when she was young so that dress up closet was busting at the seams as well. Fun fact...Marcia's Barbie was not a Barbie. Bonus points to anyone that can name her doll in the comments! :) I truly cannot remember what her doll was called, so I need your help.
Last night, the fam came over for Father's Day supper. My daughter says to me, "Oh my gosh, Mom. Did you dress up your chickens?" Yes...yes, I did.
Before you judge, it's only partially because they look so darn cute in their mini-skirts. My rooster, Brewster, has been getting a little aggressive with the girls and the feathers on their backs.
See the poor gal on the right? I must dress her up in a skirt after work tonight.
I just simply couldn't have 1/2 naked ladies running all around my yard. What's a Barbie girl to do? I resolved to consult the interwebs. We All Sew answered my call: https://weallsew.com/how-to-make-a-chicken-apron-or-hen-saddle/
I got to sewing immediately. Before I even knew what happened, a dozen hen aprons were ready to roll. They were like potato chips, and I was an unstoppable chicken seamstress force.
Of course, I matched the elastic to each one, but you can't even see it under their wings. Still...I KNOW they are color-coordinated and highly fashionable.
I have really enjoyed the spring and being able to tie up the dogs and let the chickens run free. We adopted a puppy from Paws and Claws last spring, and we are still working on the anti-chicken murdering behaviors...that's a blog for another day.
They love to cut loose and run really super fast and fly for just as long as they can (which isn't much,) and I just can't look away! My hostas look like crap and most of the seeds I planted they dug up, but hey, a chicken's got to eat and scratch so I'm getting over it. That's the good stuff, and I'm one happy girl that it's warm outside.
Piece Out!
Suzie
We are ready to load and roll to St. Cloud for the Minnesota Quilt Show. 
It has been a few funny years to say the least. The last quilt show that we were at in person was here in town. We had the full line of BERNINA domestic machines there, BERNINA longarms and we supplied 770 Quilter's Edition machines in a classroom and sew much more. It was our first year and we learned quite a lot about setting up at a convention center. We were still in our old location and boy did we have fun! Some of you parked at the shop and road the shuttle over and others parked down town. The best part, there were all of you there to stop by and say hi!
Last year, we were also a part of the Minnesota Quilt Show and we represented the BERNINA domestic machines only. Gosh, we had a lot of fun too but it was a totally different experience as it was all virtual. Thanks to all of you that tuned in and said Hi! I wish I had taken a photo of my studio with the complex filming set up and all the BERNINAS! What a dream that was. We came to you LIVE each hour via Facebook and later we posted our broadcast on YouTube.
Fast forward to this year. We are representing the BERNINA longarms in St. Cloud, MN from June 16-18. The planning began last fall and we are ready. All of the machines and accessories have arrived. Kendra and Tom have been busy assembling and testing everything and we are boxed up and ready to load.
This morning Tom backed the trailer up to the loading dock and the heavens opened up and it rained and rained and rained some more. Suzie is soaked and our loading dock is stuck in the down position but our excitement can not be dampened. We moved the truck out to let the storms roll through just in the nick of time to allow the Fed Ex truck to deliver two pallets full of new chairs. There is never a dull moment around here. We are so thankful for the loading dock area and our large classroom to stage all of these boxes and machines.
The skies have cleared and we are going to try again. Be sure to stop in the shop and test drive the floor models and see which suits your needs. All of our demo models are available to purchase and if you would prefer a brand new one, we would be happy to order one for you. There is of course special pricing, bundles of goodies, 60 month zero percent financing, extra promotional savings from BERNINA and sew much more. All we need is for your to reserve the machine of your dreams. In addition to the longarms, we do have some in store only promos on the domestic machines.
Our booth will be the first you see from the main entrance at the St. Cloud Convention center. Be sure to stop in and see how we "Measure Up." If you can't make it to St. Cloud, stop into the store and see what we have been sewing, check out the new cute gift items and play on all of the machines.
I won't be joining Marcia this week for the Marcia & Joy show but be sure to tune in at 1:00 on Wednesday for the next clue and more inspiration because she plans to do the show solo this week.
See you Soon! Joy
Can you believe that summer vacation is finally here? I don't know about you, but this last year has just flown by in the blink of an eye! This last weekend we kicked off our summer vacation with my daughter Brynnli's dance recital and my daughter Kilyn's High School graduation! 
So now that these girls will have a little bit of time off of school, they will have a chance to catch up on some of their sewing projects. Kilyn has been working on a couple of t-shirt quilts and Brynnli is going to work on the Flower power boxed quilt kit. I am also hoping to catch up on a few of my owning quilting projects! But of course, now that we finally have some nice weather, I really would like to get outside to enjoy some of that sunshine! Maybe I should just move a sewing machine?! What kind of sewing projects are you hoping to complete this summe?
See you soon,
Kendra
Bad news first. My bees did not survive the winter. Good news second. I got to harvest the honey/wax and order some more bees. My new package of bees arrived a couple of weeks ago, and they (like so many of us) are ready for some warmer weather!
I had never harvested honey or beeswax before so I thought maybe my quilting friends would enjoy a sneak peek into the messy process.
Here is my hive. The bottom blue part is where the queen resides and all of the action happens. The top green one is just for honey storage.
This is a frame full of capped honey. I'm a little biased, but I think it's pretty beautiful and remarkable.
Once you scrape the cap away, look at what comes pouring out. Sweet, golden deliciousness!
Then, we put it in the double strainer and wait and wait and wait. (This is a good time to begin cleaning up some of the stickiness.)
After much patience and sticky everything, this is how much honey I ended up with. These bees were new last spring, so they did an awesome job! They say that to produce 1 pound of honey, 2 million flowers must be visited. Busy bees indeed!
Then, time to jar it up for friends and family.
Pretty cool, huh? That was the easy part! Many of you know that Marcia has been getting into making soap. She "NEEDS" beeswax. OK, I think to myself...shouldn't be too much trouble. One day dawn until dusk, 3 changes of clothes, and one super sticky kitchen later, and she has her precious beeswax. Here's how that went.
You start with collecting all the honeycomb...the good, bad, and the ugly. I had a 5 gallon bucket full.
Add water and melt it down in a double boiler.
As it cools, the wax rises to the top, and the yuck and guck to the bottom. Three times I went through this process of melting and cooling to end up with this measly cake of wax for Marcia's soap-making.
The honey harvest was pretty fun, cool, and enjoyable. The wax...not sure if she is worth it. What do you guys think? I guess we will see how the soap turns out!
Stay tuned for more adventures in beekeeping.
Piece out,
Suzie
