An American Homestead: The Seiberling Mansion

Kokomo, Indiana

There is nothing I like more than spending the

day rambling around an old historic house.  Today

we traveled about an hour from our home to Kokomo,

Indiana to visit the Seiberling Mansion.

The house was built in 1890 for industrialist Monroe

Seiberling.  Seiberling came to Kokomo during the 

gas boom and the house was built at a cost of $50,000,

a fortune at that time.   The style is a combination of 

Neo Jacobean (Queen Anne), Romanesque Revival and 

it is striking.  

The foyer has beautiful wood carvings and a 

lovely staircase.  There are windows made of

opalescent glass and you can see holes in many

of the mirrors from vandals of the past shooting

BB guns at them.

The music room has an old pump organ and

at Christmas they have someone come in to 

play it.

An old victrola also in the music room.

I love the attention to detail in older homes, every

piece of hardware is decorative, even the door hinges

and this door bell.

The master bedroom is on the second floor in

the front of the house.  The windows are curved

glass, Mr. Seiberling owned a glass company and

they were specially made.  It is a bright, nice sized

 room without being like the humongous master 

bedrooms of today's McMansions.

I love the idea of a bed warmer.

I am always intrigued by children's rooms.  I find the old 

toys and books to be so imaginative and fun.

I loved the old sled and the skooter made for ice,

I have never seen one of them before.

There are many rooms in the house including a lovely

dining room but the photos were too dark to show.  Since 

this is the home of the county historical society, many of

the rooms are given over to displays of history of the county.

Worth a visit!

The Morning Sun

I love to walk around my garden in the 

early morning.  The dappled sunlight that

comes through the branches of the trees is

so soft and gentle and it makes the flowers

look especially beautiful.

\

I am determined to enjoy the little things

in life more this summer.  The past two

summers flew by in a blur and I don't want 

that to happen again.

I have crossed off a few major things on

the to do list.  Quilt Market has come and

gone and I sent in the first draft of my 

second book (a week early!).  I still have

projects and samples to make for the book

but I feel I'm on track with everything there.

So now I have time to breathe and well,

time to stop and smell the roses.  I look

forward to spending time with my family.

We meet up at 9 every night and spend a 

few hours together, I want to hang out with

my friends, I want to take field trips to nearby

places that I don't get a chance to visit because

I'm usually too busy.

I want to have time to notice the details,

like how those stamens are loaded with

pollen.  That plant will be a bee fest later

today.

The peonies are beginning to burst.  I gathered

up a bundle to bring inside because they smell

so delicious.

This guy was saying, nope, too early, I'm

not ready to unfurl my petals, I'm still sleeping.

I arranged a vase of blooms to enjoy

inside.  Remember to have time to live!

Book Signing at International Quilt Market

I am about to fall into my pillows and go to Dreamland

but I wanted to post this about an exciting thing that

I did today.

Today was my book signing at the C&T Publishing booth 

at International Quilt Market.  I got to meet so many

wonderful people from all over the US and Canada.

And this was the line ~ the line ~ it was so exciting.

I had so much fun I was disappointed when it was over...

Now it's sleepy time!

I'm on Pat Sloans' Radio Show Today

Today at 4pm Eastern Time I will be on 

American Patchwork & Quilting Radio

hosted by Pat Sloan.  We will be talking 

about my book, design and life!

You can listen here:

http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/magazines-more/quilting-podcast

The Summer of Home ~ Happy Birthday Mr. Wonderful

Rain had been predicted for today but it turned 

out to be a beautiful Spring day so we decided to

take advantage of the lovely weather and head out.

Late last night Brennan came home from

college for the summer and he joined Mr.

Wonderful and I for a day out to celebrate

Mr. W's birthday.  We went to a few local

Farmer's Markets.

It is so early in the season, there was little

produce available, only some asparagus and

rhubarb.  But there were many other vendors,

we got some citronella solid perfume to try to

help keep the mosquitoes off our skin, some 

local honey, homemade dog biscuits, a baking 

mix and a lavender bergamot orange goat's

milk soap that I look forward to using tomorrow.

I guess it's true that goats will try to 

eat anything.

We then went out for a lovely lunch at

our favorite Mediterranean restaurant 

and Mr. W was surprised with a birthday

baklava dessert.

Wonderful got a new grill for his birthday.

We had to fire it up for dinner.

We dined on the deck, we had Adana kebabs,

veggie kebabs and Shepherd's salad.

And finished the night with cake, singing

and presents at G&T's.

It was a perfect day at our American Homestead.

We miss you Katie!!!!

Mark Your Calendars!

Mark your calendars for Monday, May 12 at 4pm.

I'll be the guest of Pat Sloan, the host of American 

Patchwork & Quilting Radio.

You can listen here:

http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/magazines-more/quilting-podcast

We'll be talking about my book, inspiration, 

quilting techniques and the Summer of Home.

Please join us.  I'll be the first guest that day

so tune in early.

Orioles at Avalon!

This is one of those amazing things that happen 

in my life ~ little things that let me know I am

taking the right path.

Each summer I decide on a theme for the season,

things like the Summer of Pie or the Summer of Fun.

This year I am calling the Summer of Home.

Our kids will be home this summer, BB will be arrive

next weekend and KK leaves for Spain next week but 

will come home to spend the summer with us in June.

KK starts her Senior year next year and BB plans to 

be studying abroad so this may be the last summer

 we will all be together at home before they head out

to their own apartments and beyond.

The past two summers have flown by, I have done 

nothing but work and though it has all been very

exciting, I need a bit more balance in my life.  I want

to enjoy my home and my gardens and have time to

watch the birds in my yard.

Mr. Wonderful was headed out to the home improvement

store this afternoon and I asked him to pick up a few 

thistle feeders because we love our finches.  I then said

we should think about getting an Oriole feeder this year

because I'd love to be able to attract Orioles, which we 

have never seen in our yard in the 20 years we have

lived here.

I went up to the kitchen to get a photo of the

Irish Tea Bread I made today.

I spotted a Cardinal at the platform feeder in the

crab apple tree and had to take a picture.

As I was looking through the view finder of

the camera I saw a flash of orange and thought 

it must be a Robin.  Then I looked out into the 

back of the yard and saw the brilliant flash of

orange that belongs to a Baltimore Oriole.

At first I thought I was going a bit nuts since I

had just had the Oriole feeder conversation within

the last hour.  But no, it really was a Baltimore 

Oriole ~ in my yard!

The only other time I have ever seen an Oriole was

back in June of 1996.  I wrote it down in my birding 

book.  We had friends that lived about 30 minutes 

from us and Orioles spent the summer on their 

acreage.

Mr. Oriole was thirsty and stopped for a 

drink in the birdbath by the lilac.

Someone is saying stop hogging the feeder

Mr. Cardinal!

There were five Baltimore Orioles all together

though I could only get three of them in the

picture at one time.

I called my sister and she could see them from 

her deck, after they flew into the woods, my sister

got her bird song book and we kept playing the

call for the Oriole and they would answer back.

It was so much fun!

I have definitely taken this as a sign that this 

Summer is perfect for the Summer of Home...

Three's A Charm

I was thrilled to have my block included in

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Vol.9.

It was extra exciting to see my quilt using the block 

had been included in the Designer's Gallery.

But it wasn't until I had a chance to sit down and

savor all of the magazine that I discovered my block

 had been used in a quilt in the Block Tester's Gallery.

What fun!  Look for it on page 90!