With Christmas Red and Snow White -

Some red and white piecing has been going on!

Well, maybe the tan ones are dirty snow? LOL!

All of our snow is gone after this weekend's round of heavy rain, and a few days of temps in the 50s.  I hope that is the last I see of that white stuff for a while.

My favorite size of half-square triangle just happens to be the Bonus Unit size –measuring 2’’ and finishing at 1 1/2’’.  It’s the PERFECT size for loads of triangle punch.  They are not too big, not too small, and easily made with 2’’ strips from the Scrap User’s System so it is easy to pull in loads of variety – the more the merrier!

I had stitched these on a previous round of night time sewing, but they’ve sat for a while as my evenings have been hijacked of late.

My promise to myself of studio time meant that I could move on to my next step – simply sew these to neutral 2’’ squares.  I have a plan – but it’s a slow growing one.

Still – any step forward, no matter how slow is still measurable progress, right?

Read More»

Quilting Mends the Soul -

This quilt dates back to …well, quite a while ago.

It was from my love of blended quilts phase.  Florals and busy backgrounds with some stripes, plaids and other parts pieced together strippy fashion for ME as the only female in a house full of men-folk.

This was long before quilt patterns and book writing and magazine columns and world wide travel for teaching and lecturing.  Times were so much simpler then.

Though, as I really examine what was going on in my life during the making of this quilt I am brought back to the time when both of my boys (one in middle school and the other in high school) were both suspended on the SAME DAY from two different schools for two different offenses and I didn’t think I could survive being a parent either!

Read More»

Mystery Monday Link-Up, Part 4!

It’s another Mystery Monday, can you believe it?

It seems the time between each PART release on Friday and our Link-Ups on Monday are getting closer and closer together – just where does the in between time go?

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and found some time in between the holiday hubbub for some baking, some visiting, for some reflecting on Christmases past, and was able to squeeze even just a little bit of sewing time in!

My favorite part of the weekend was popping in at odd moments to check out our #quiltvillemystery and #goodfortunequilt tags on Instagram, as well as thumbing through the feed in my Quiltville’s Open Studio group on Facebook and see what YOU were doing!  The excitement is building with how all of this is going to fit together, and it brings me so much joy.

We gave you FIVE options on how to do Part 4.  Which one did you choose?

Read More»

Orange You Glad it’s ORANGE?!

These are Mona’s Part 4 units for Good Fortune!

I am just so tickled that she is sewing along with us this year – and just as excited to be waiting for FRIDAY to arrive, printing clues, digging into fabrics and having a blast.

She’s been leary before – afraid to be overwhelmed, and finished her On Ringo Lake after the reveal because she wasn’t sure she could keep up.  But this year?  No Holds Barred, Baby!

If you were to come look at my stash, you would see that I have LESS Orange than anything else. 

Read More»

Need a Little Christmas, Right This Very Minute -

Last night’s #viewfrommyhoop!

It was a wonderful quiet evening of hand quilting on Jason’s hexie quilt – the main red/green Christmas decor hanging out in my living room right now!

Stitching happened to Mowgli on Netflix followed by a round of Blue Bloods accompanied by popcorn on the stove – there is NOT a packet of microwave popcorn to be found in this house.  Once you’ve made real popcorn, there is no going back.

Read More»

Good Fortune, Part 4!

Welcome back, Oh Mystery Quilters!

Click HERE for Printer-Friendly PDF.

I am beyond thrilled at the staggering number of new participants we have this year! And I can’t believe we are already up to Part 4 – but the fun isn’t over yet!

Hang on to your scraps, my friends – it’s about to get REALLY FUN around here!

I took the photo of this fruit tree when we went to see the Terracotta Warriors in Xian in October of 2017.  Our guide, Charlie told us we were so fortunate to be visiting China in October – it was the Golden Season.  

And as I spied this fruit laden tree framed against the blue blue sky, I just KNEW these colors were going to play in our mystery somehow.  I didn’t go as light as that sky with my own blues, but some of you have from the photos I’ve seen, and oh it makes me SMILE!

Read More»

Deliveries, And the 12th of NEVER! (And a Winner!)

See this package?

It was dropped ON THE DOORSTEP last night by the USPS.

See that stamp in the corner?  This is when I was using up the last of my Net-Stamps for first class postage a year ago.

Evidently – Yours Truly, in a mail-order-induced-zombie-state-of-automation, stuck a US stamp on a package needing to arrive in South Africa which evidently wouldn't, couldn't and didn’t get there with first class domestic postage.

Well, DUH!  Hanlie Van Zyl, if you are reading this – do you remember this lost shipment?  We thought her package was gone-forever-never-to-be-found and I sent a second one – and it turns out that this one never left the good ole USA.

Read More»

Mona’s Odd Angles!

Mona doesn’t have odd angles – but her runner does!

This is the valentine runner that Mona quilted a few weeks ago. She had no idea when she was designing this that it was going to require a tiny bit of an adjustment when applying binding since the corners were roughly 60 degree instead of 45 degree.

And since I was teaching HER how to do it, I thought this might be a good way to share a couple of hints with you just in case you want to bind something with odd corners.

Read More»

Chasing My Tail!

Silly Out and About Lunch Selfie!

Celebrating with Rick and Mona!

And I am wearing the lampshade on my head! LOL!

These are the faces of three very happy friends who met up for a round of antique mall wandering and lunch out to celebrate the closing of the North Carolina cabin ---happily in the hands of new owners who will love it as much as we did.  In fact, I’m wondering if they were up there for the snowpocalypse that befell this corner of North Carolina, Virginia and beyond and how they fared.

Read More»