All the Way to Wytheville!

Wytheville, Virginia isn’t that far from the cabin in Mouth of Wilson – if you are a crow flying!

However, if you are a van on the road, followed by a friend driving her car behind you and taking winding back roads you may as well slow down, enjoy the scenery and take it easy.  The 58 miles is going to take you a while, but it’s worth the drive!

Isn’t this the cutest downtown?  I love driving through Wytheville, they’ve done a great job of keeping their main street stores in good condition.  I love it when buildings are bustling and busy, not sitting forlorn and vacant.

We had ONE location on our radar –but our parking spaces were down the street, and who can resist this photo:

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Drawing for the August Quilty Box Winner!

Someone is going to be ONE QUILTY BOX richer in just a few moments!

Hi, everyone – I made it home from the cabin late this afternoon.  Irene and I made a detour through Wytheville to hit Sew What Fabrics & Batiks Etc. as well as enjoy a fun lunch out at the 1776 Log House restaurant.

Wytheville is an easy one hour drive from the cabin, all on scenic back roads and the views were wonderful! 

The shopping wasn’t too bad either, and I’ll be sharing that in tomorrow morning’s post.

From Wytheville we went our separate ways: Irene heading north to Charleston, WV and on home from there to Louisville, and I went south on 77 –with another pit stop made in Fancy Gap for the first time stopping at the Pottery & Fabric Outlet.  I needed more time!

And that traffic heading NORTH?  I was glad I was going the other way -- I-77 was a nightmare in that lane. Could it be all of the eclipse lookers headed home?

But before I run away on that tangent, let’s get back to the fun at hand.

Our AUGUST Quilty Box Gift-Away!



Speaking of batiks!  YUMMY!



And all of these other goodies too!

This box was curated by SusanClaire Mayfield at GourmetQuilter.com!  She has been quilting since the 1970s and was encouraged to sew as a child by her mom even before then.  When asked to teach at a local quilting store, SusanClaire decided to prepare her own patterns for the class.  The designs and patterns were popular and quilters asked for more – and so the pattern designing began.

SusanClaire has many designs now and her own studio in New Zealand and loves it!

With 4099 entries, the Random Number Generator went LOW!

Who is 195?

Dora Ezzell!

Congrats, Dora!  This Quilty Box will be coming your way as soon as you get me your mailing address.  I’ve sent you an email – just waiting for your reply.

Thanks again for participating, everyone!  And even more thanks to the folks at Quilty Box for providing these boxes for us to give to you. 

Be watching for our September box next month!

What is a Quilty Box?
Here are some highlights to keep in mind:

Quilty Box is a monthly subscription box of fun quilting supplies. We offer plans from $44-48/mo.

5% of the profits of multi-month subscriptions are donated to Quilts for Kids - a non-profit which donates quilts for children in need

Each month we have 4 or more products (fabric, patterns, thread, or notions)

Our retail value of the products in the box is always more than $60

We will be using the hashtags #QuiltyBox and #GetQuilty

Your support is appreciated. If you have any questions or comments don't hesitate to contact me.
Get Quilty!
Patrick Claytor, CEO
Quilty Box
Subscribe today at www.QuiltyBox.com!

I LOVE that 5% of the proceeds goes to Quilts for Kids!  We get a happy Quilty Box in the mail, and the kids get more quilts to cover them with love. It's a win/win every way you look at it.

My view tonight!

I walked into my basement studio after nearly a week away to find that the floor was STILL covered with quilt blocks.  Oh, yeah.  String Snowball & Nine Patch quilt on the “Design Floor” from last Wednesday’s Quilt-Cam!  I’ve got a lot of work to do at this computer, and the blocks are in the way of my desk chair, so I’m spending the evening just webbing the top together so I can sit at my desk tomorrow without rolling over blocks.

Call the midwife was just finished – looking for something new to binge on. What’s in your Netflix queue??  Give me something good!

Have a lovely evening, everyone!

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Eclipse- the Day After!

Outside on the deck for lunch at the time the eclipse was set to begin.

It was a beautiful afternoon, but the sun was shining through fluffy banks of cloud cover and I just wasn’t sure we were going to get anything.

Still, it was fun to watch a bit of TV reporting, and live website updating on just what was being seen around the country.

Last night we watched the Weather Channel feed, and to hear how bad the traffic was as folks were crawling home from South Carolina and through Georgia made me glad to just be where I am stitching away with my friend, and celebrating what eclipse there was in Southwest Virginia from the comfort of my deck!

“See anything yet?”

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A Bit of Time Out!

Let’s face it -

As quilters, no matter how much we love endless days of sewing, there is only so much time you can sit in front of a machine putting the pieces through before you’ve just got to get up and get a break.

And break we did.  About 4pm yesterday.

There is not a lot of industry in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia – but we have a couple of conveniences that our place on Buck Mountain didn’t have – including the cutest General store on all of route 58!

AND.  They have a walk up ice cream window.

And beautiful views along  Big Wilson Creek.

Let’s go!

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Friends & Visitors!

And then one day….a bear just walks into the yard in broad daylight.

WHAT?!?

We were not here at the time, we have a couple of trail cams set up to catch the deer, squirrels, raccoons and other critters that come through.  We love seeing them.

This guy was TOTALLY unsuspected!

We had told there was ONE BEAR in the area – Barbara from down the lane and across the street had mentioned that one day she was just sitting on her front porch, and here he came…meandering up the road right in front of our mail boxes.

We were shocked when we reviewed the photos from the trail cams to see this guy.

There were several photos of him…..some of him just “hanging out” and dozing in the sun, or sitting there just looking around on his big ole bear bottom.

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Just a Few Bumps on the Road!

Mountain Bound!

I love it when I travel up I-77 heading north and get my first glimpse of the Blue Ridge Mountains ahead of me.

My heart smiles.  My stress leaves.

I’ve got plans for the weekend, a friend coming from Kentucky to cabin retreat with me and time to relax and stitch and chat and laugh and catch up.

And I’m making good time – I did all of the grocery shopping after the post office run and then doubled back to get Sadie before leaving so she would not be left in a hot car.

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August Quilty Box Gift-Away!!

Hello from Quiltvilla, Virginia!

So much to share – what a day yesterday was!

But I think I’ll save “most” of that nitty gritty and jump right into THIS excitement because Irene and I have a bunch of sewing to do and time is wasting!

The August Quilty Box was waiting for me upon my return home from Minnesota and I couldn’t be more thrilled with the goodies in side.

What is a Quilty Box?

Here are some highlights to keep in mind:

• Quilty Box is a monthly subscription box of fun quilting supplies. We offer plans from $44-48/mo.
• 5% of the profits of multi-month subscriptions are donated to Quilts for Kids - a non-profit which donates quilts for children in need
• Each month we have 4 or more products (fabric, patterns, thread, or notions)
• Our retail value of the products in the box is always more than $60
• We will be using the hashtags #QuiltyBox and #GetQuilty

Read More»

Quilt-Cam Night! 8/16/2017

Quilt-Cam happened last night!

It was a last minute decision as I realized part way through the day that The Hubster would be away at tennis, and my to-do list was manageable enough that we could squeeze it in.

And we had the perfect project at hand.  Or perhaps I should say ON THE FLOOR.

I’ve tried demonstrating quilt top “Webbing” by still photograph, but until you see it in action, it sometimes doesn’t make sense to folks.

I’m a visual learner.  I get it!

So I got down on the design floor with my pieces and we did it via Facebook live on my Quiltville Facebook page!

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Abundant Chaska Show & Share!

Meet Lois.

Several years ago, in 2011 I wrote during a past visit to Minnesota about where I went to elementary school through 2nd grade, where we lived when I was little, just walking down memory lane.

Fast forward to the next summer and while I was doing a book signing during the quilt show at the park in Sister’s Oregon, I was approached by this lovely lady and asked a few questions!

“When did you attend kindergarten at Groveland school?” She asked me inquisitively.

I was born in 1962, so I would have been 5 in 1967, so I would have started kindergarten about then.

“Do you remember who your kindergarten teacher was?”  Ummmm…..I was 5.  I don’t remember.  Try as hard as I might, I don’t remember.

It turns out that there were only 2 kindergarten teachers during the years that I was attending Groveland elementary school.  And Lois was one of the teachers.  She could have been mine!  She could have been the teacher next door as well, but as the classes combined for group activities, it’s safe to say that she taught me when I was 5.

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