Weekend at Sally's Part I

I drove to my dear friend, Sally's home in Watervliet, MI Wednesday afternoon for the long holiday weekend. I hit a lot of traffic from Dempsey through Jackson in Chicago. Caught the Skyway and breezed through the rest of the trip. Got to Sally's in time to celebrate her birthday with Amy and Jerry. We had a yummy dinner in Coloma and returned to Sally's where shortly afterwards Amy and Jerry went their separate ways back to Illinois. I'm glad I made it in time for dinner as it is always fun to see Amy and Jerry.



Thursday we hit the road. Stopped at an antique store in Watervliet and several stores in Benton Harbor. One was a great dollar store and the other a health food store. I wanted Sally to candle my ears that night. However, before these stores we found 2 quilt stores.


Carol's Cozy Cottage is outside of Benton Harbor, really in the country. It is even down a dirt road. It is very cute on the outside. However, it is small and she doesn't have a large selection of fabric at all. Maybe 30-50 bolts? She seems to cater to her church group or other church groups. But, it was nice and Carol is very friendly. I bought something to hand stitch while at Sally's and Sally bought a cute tea place mat kit. More on this in my next post.







Next we found Loving Stitches in Stevensville (?), MI. And, we found Holly - the awesome owner. Not only is it a quilt store, but Holly has a perfectly charming English cottage garden that people are free to explore and enjoy. Sally and I were amazed at the wandering paths and all of the different flowers.

Holly in front of her shop





When Sally and I walked into Holly's store there was a very young girl there, maybe 14 or 15, who Holly said was her daughter, Heather. I was surprised as Holly has over a dozen kits she made up for sale and all have been sewn and most were machine quilted by Heather. Also, on several of these quilts there was some with beautiful applique work, also done by either Holly or Heather. Sally and I oohed and ahhed over these samples. Holly has a very nice variety of fabrics, too.
Sally and me in Holly's garden



We got to talking with Holly (who is a lovely person) and in the course of conversation she showed us pictures of Heather quilting at age 5. In the photo album was a picture of a young woman on her wedding day. Turns out the young woman is Heather! Holly, with a twinkle in her eye, asked us how old we thought she was . I said 35-37 and Sally quickly agreed. I looked a little closer at her and thought to myself, "Well, maybe 42 at the most." Ha! Holly is 62! Yes, SIXTY-TWO. Sal and I were flabbergasted. Truthfully, this woman doesn't look older than 42 max. She has beautiful long blonde hair - all natural. And, Heather? Not a young teenager, but 25 years old and married!



Of course Sal and I asked Holly her secret to looking to young and beautiful. Holly said she never smoked, never drinks anything but milk, water, and fruit juices, eats healthy, loves to be outside, loves to golf and she keeps herself busy. She also has a great outlook on life, which is very evident.



Sally and I asked her about guilds and classes for Sally and Holly told us about a quilting guild and a group that meets at a nearby library.





When we got home Sally made us a wonderful dinner (she is just a great cook). We worked on my little lady project and later cut out all of the pieces for Sally's tea place mat.



It was a great day.

Plaque in Holly's garden