I headed out yesterday morning – a van full of boxes and quilts – ready for a road trip up from North Carolina, up through Virginia, across a tiny corner of West Virginia and barely part of Maryland – and finally – Pennsylvania!
It’s a drive I know well – but it’s been a few years sine I’ve taught in Hershey and I was looking forward to reconnecting with those I haven’t seen in a few years.
And – of course, I had further motives – I-81 takes me right past Verona, and my favorite antique mall of all time.
It’s a heading off to Hershey, Pennsylvania day!
Quilt Odyssey awaits – and I firmly believe that Quilting and Chocolate go together, so I am ready for lamp posts shaped like Hershey Kisses, and shampoo, soap, conditioner and lotion with a chocolate-y aroma as well! BRING IT!
And as always – a day that I leave town is the perfect day to throw a fun Gift-Away up on the blog.
Quilty Box has done a great job of providing a VARIETY of projects that will get even the most “set in their ways” quilter a push to expand their horizons with something new, and this month’s box curated by none other than Yoko Saito of Japan is no exception!
This is your one quilty photo of what has been going on here – both behind the scenes and in front of them!
I’m packing up for my big trip to Hershey, and I also used my Sunday home to prepare for what is going on in AUGUST in Pennsylvania as well!
There is a Surprise class on the horizon, and handouts needed to be written.
I’m excited about this one – so excited that I have a surprise for those who are unable to attend this class as well – just wait – it’s coming!
As I unpack the rest of my gear from last week’s Michigan adventure – washing the clothes and basically putting them back in my suitcase with a few other additional items (Three workshop days plus a lecture in Hershey!) I came across some of the fun items from this trip:
It was another crazy travel day on Saturday – the kind that you just shake your head, and go with the flow because everything is out of your control.
And if there is nothing you can do about it, just look at it as another “sit and stitch” activity.
And I did!
The binding was sewn down, the hanging sleeve sewn down, the label – sewn down.
I think I like this finishing of small projects thing – It felt like I was sewing with the wind as I turned corner after corner in rapid succession, because those sides were not so long.
And the project fit in my lap, didn’t drape on the floor.
As Jean and I walked around the Brown Trout Festival area, I noticed this tailgating party of “Good Ol’ Boys” And had to get a photo of their team shirts.
Uff Da Fishing Team! Oh, my – you are NOT in North Carolina Anymore!
My inner Minnesotan was smiling.
I was thinking of “Grumpy Old Men” movies and throwing myself right in to small town festival life.
How fun this was to feel a PART of things while I was in Alpena, Michigan.
Uff Da, indeed!
While we were fishing for JUST the right scraps to go together in our Wonky Wishes blocks, there is another kind of fishing going down in Alpena, Michigan – and this is SERIOUS stuff, folks!
From what I understand, the Brown Trout Festival is in its 44th year, and I got to wear the commemorative tee shirt! Thanks, Jean!
Gosh, I love this – small town festivals and all that goes with it from music and dancing under the big tent, to people watching, the anticipation of the fishing that starts TODAY -
While all of this is going on in town around us, there was NOTHING fishy about our quilty fun held in the big meeting room at the Holiday Inn Express in Alpena.
My early morning flight to Detroit -
The sky was just a mix of magic and clouds.
There is something special about greeting the day just before dawn, and watching the sky reveal itself to the day.
And I was excited – going somewhere I’d never been before, to a town I’d never heard of and really wasn’t sure of its exact location.
I’ve been many places in Michigan before, but in a state that is a peninsula, with water all around, it’s easy to get a bit confused.
So I asked my friend Tim – just where IS Alpena.
Asking a Michigander where something is, always resorts in a flurry of hand signals. Up comes the hand, and the other hand points to where on the hand this place is.
I’ve never seen any other state do it. Maybe someday I’ll have the Michigan hand-jive down too!
Tim said “It’s close to the tip of the index finger!”
And I found this photo:
Facebook marketplace is proving to be dangerous – in a very good way!
It’s even easier than Craigslist, less dodgy, and allows you to peek at the profile of the person whose items are up for sale.
And it’s right at my fingertips.
TWIN BEDS has been my search item for the past few months, and on Monday, I found an ad that I’d been hoping to find -
Not just one, but TWO vintage white metal beds – HOORAY for room number FIVE!
The only problem? They were in Lenoir, NC – which is not far from Wilkesboro, NC, but quite a haul from where I am in Wallburg.
Still. What was the chance that I was going to find two beds in one location, just what I needed at an absolutely fabulous price?
I started up a conversation with the seller, and a plan was hatched.
I would meet with her realtor at the home of her parent's empty-and-up-for-sale house at 6pm last night after my last 4pm post office run.
What I didn't count on was that it would rain and storm from the time I hit Wilkesboro!
Of COURSE it would rain. That's just the way things are.
There is a reason I usually choose to use cornerstones with sashing in a quilt.
The cornerstones are a way to keep everything aligned from row to row – a check point of where things need to meet, nest, and match up keeping the rows above and the rows below in line with each other.
But with some designs – as in the attic window setting I’m using for my Diamond Tile blocks – sashing without cornerstones must happen.
And for the effect to be right – intersections need to be just right.
This is my little trick for making sure that the process is mostly painless, if not exactly pin-less.
