Pennsylvania Road Trip!

I left for Pennsylvania on the wee small hours of Wednesday morning --- Up at 5am, out the door by 5:30 am! More and more I’m liking getting an earlier start. I have always been a morning person, and when you have a 9 hour drive ahead of you, it doesn’t feel so bad to get there by 3pm instead of 6 pm. I know that it is the SAME amount of hours, but believe me…you feel like you just have so much more day left that way, rather than just check into the hotel and go straight to bed after dinner from being exhausted after driving so far!

However, upon hitting West Virginia on my way up I-81, Things came to a complete stand still!

I slowed down as the tail lights in front of me were all blaring red…and we crawled to a complete and utter STOP. And we parked there, on the interstate, in miles and miles of traffic due to a wreck up ahead. Someone said it was a 10 car pile up—I have no idea if that is the case or not, but the traffic was stopped in BOTH directions, and they were using the opposite lanes of traffic to bring in the emergency vehicles –and there were several helicopters ((News or Life Flight? I don’t know??)) and my heart was sick for the people who were involved.

And we were stuck there! With the price of gas skyrocketing (( I watched it climb another 20+ cents in the time span of about an hour here yesterday afternoon while I was out for a power walk!)) people turned off their cars, and their trucks and rolled windows down. Some started to even mill around and talk to their “neighbors”.

I don’t know if you can tell from the above picture, but the traffic goes on for miles in front of me, around that bend.

And miles BEHIND me! See those guys in the median? They had a football and were throwing passes to occupy the time. I was glad I had my phone. I checked email, I checked face book. I seriously wished that I had hit the last rest stop I had passed!

That silver Saturn? That’s the Quiltville Mobile! And I am not sitting in it! I am sitting on a rock in the shade, just watching people and enjoying the beautiful weather—we CAN make the most out of every bad situation, can’t we?

We sat for an hour, and just when I thought I would have to resort to the call of the bushes, we started to move ---Exciting stuff being a traveling circuit quilter, isn’t it?

I had a lot of fun meeting everyone at the lecture on Wednesday evening…..and we ALMOST found ourselves having the trunkshow from our TRUNKS! The church where we were meeting was locked up tight, and no one could be reached to come open it! Quilters are always ready for everything, and it was a nice enough evening I think we could have pulled off a quilty tailgate party in the parking lot if we had to!

Some other ladies and a girlscout troop showed up, and we were let in, and set down to business.

DO YOU SEE THE SIZE OF THIS SPOOL OF THREAD?!? They really believe in gifting big here in PA! I had a huge laugh over this! LOL! I’ll have to put a date on the inside and see just how long it takes me to use it! Thank you ladies for bringing me laughter and friendship, and I know not only your HEARTS are big….and yes, we now now that that infamous saying also applies to quilters – SIZE DOES MATTER!

Yesterday we had a really fun and full Virginia Bound workshop ---and though we started out in the pounding rain as a thunderstorm moved through in the early morning hours, we sewed and sewed and sewed, and by the time we were done, the sun was out in it’s full spring glory!

		Virginia Bound Workshop, Middletown PA 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

You have to check out the tiny 4” block quarters that make an 8” star! TOO CUTE!!

And I also have to confess – the ONE thing on my must do list for my time in PA has been accomplished!

Yes, I succumbed to the call of the Harrisburg style cheesesteak! OH GOODNESS! Messy, saucy, cheesy goodness! It’s a good thing that I’ve spent the past two mornings up early and on the elliptical trainer here at the hotel, and since yesterday afternoon was so lovely, the running shoes went back on my feet and I got another 3 miles in before dinner – just because!

Today? RETAIL THERAPY! I’m headed for a bit of Zooks & Sauders and whatever other antique mall trouble I can get myself into!

Enjoy your Friday, Everyone!

Backings, Backings, Backings!

Dig dig dig! Pull fabric off the shelves, audition, discard for one reason or the other, and dig dig dig some more!

This is the usual process of picking borders, binding, sashing, setting triangles, and BACKING fabrics for any quilt that comes my way. You should see the DISCARD pile! ((And yes, much to my dismay, I have much to refold it all and put it away all over again~~))

Well, Let’s see what we can get RID of shall we? Because…some of these fabrics have been around long before the millennium fabric we have been laughing about was even a pre-conceived notion!

Here’s a pic of the backing I just threw together! and I think it turned out pretty whacky fun! What better for a scrap quilt backing than something scrappy?

Now this doesn’t look too bad from far away….And it’s not really laying here straight, but you get the idea. Remember when aqua and peach were the “in” thing back in the late 80’s to mid 90s?? Oh yes…I remember wall paper borders that looked much like the fabric on the left! Want a close up??!

Kind of an art deco thing….almost celtic too? I can’t decide, but I do know that it needed to GO somewhere…

I don’t know WHEN this piece entered my stash and I have no idea if it is aqua cow spots? or aqua giraffe spots! Or paint blotches? Which one sounds more sophisticated?!

Now THIS one…is hilarious, and some how I ended up with like 3 yards of it? All I can think is it must have been either

1. Gifted! ((With no return address of course!))
2. Cheap!
3. Too ugly to pass up!

The only thing I regret about using this fabric is that I didn’t use it ALL until it was GONE! I’m afraid, it will show up again in something else down the road…should I be ashamed?!

I used the gifted “Hopscotch” blocks to add some interest, and to get them out of the orphan box as well. There were not enough to make a quilt, they were all different sizes from each other because they were made by many people, and I would have had to make more to make anything out of them…so this way…..it’s a happy weird combo that makes me smile~~ Maybe simply because I am getting away with something I shouldn’t, but mostly because it definitely breaks rules, guidelines and boundaries…..FUN!

Wanna join me in the whacky-backing making? I dare you...dig into the stash, the orphan blocks, the old, the outdated, the ugly...let me know what you come up with!

Home Renovations!

Sometimes it isn’t something you WANT to do…..sometimes you just HAVE to do it.

Off of our dining room, is a little bonus room that was added as an extra family area in the somewhat distant past. When we were moving in, there were problems during the inspection with the leaky areas around the sky lights. Money was spent to correct these-supposedly- but after our warranty ran out and these were still leaky, we tried drastic measures to get it to stop.

“DANG SKYLIGHTS!” was an often heard exclamation around our house, any time it rained.

And then the sheetrock from the ceiling began to crack and fall.

This is the year we get RID of the sky lights – they were never installed right in the first place, and we really don’t want them. At the same time, we are replacing the roof. It’s going to be red metal! And I’m excited about it…our cottage will look much MORE like a cottage in the woods by the time we are done, and for those of you who said “oh, it will be too noisy when it rains!” Never fear – We are hearty stock! We lived in a single wide mobile home for the first 10 years of our marriage, and by the time we got a “real” house, I really MISSED hearing the rain on the roof!

Having a metal roof will also help tree debris from STAYING on the roof…my mom and step dad live up in Idaho and their house has a metal roof also, helping to rid roof of the copious amounts of snow they receive during the snow season. We don’t get THAT much snow, but knowing it is not sitting up there soaking in to anything or creating extra weight where it doesn’t need to be is another bonus.

While I was gone to NY & CT, DH and Jeff started to do the demolition of the old ceiling inside, and boy, am I glad they did. This picture has way too much backlighting from the back yard to see well, but the demolition is in progress!

The plywood will ALL have to be replaced…and the insulation was BLACK with mold. BAD SKYLIGHTS! BAD! I’m so glad to see them GOING AWAY!

The work on this should be started in the next week or two. There will be a lot of pounding and hammering and nailing and hanging more sheetrock…..I am looking forward to the next time we get a rain storm, and I don’t have to worry about placing buckets strategically around this room!

The thing that makes me maddest? That company that did the orignal fixing – they never removed the sheetrock from the ceiling to find out just WHERE the leaking was coming from. They assumed it was all fixable from the roof side….but they never really investigated just where it was coming from and where, and so none of the repairs they made did ANYTHING.

This room is usually DH’s office and indoor bike trainer riding room. Needless to say, all THAT stuff is now pulled out and is clogging the living room, the dining room, and some of it has been moved down to the basement. I’d like to get it all back where it goes, and soon!

There is a Shiny Green Button~~~

In my left side bar!

Yes, Down there, down below the profile stuff—See it?

We have a blog tour coming up! Quiltmaker Magazine’s 100 blocks, Vol 3 Blog tour begins May 2nd, and goes through May 6th! Save the date of Wednesday, May 4th, because that is MY day for the blog tour!

And Look what came in the mail the other day!! **EXCITEMENT!!**

I’ll be giving away TWO signed copies if you come back on May 4th and leave a comment on that day’s post! You won’t want to miss this issue…it’s SUPER!

Do I dare give you a sneak preview?! Just a wee one? I love this block, and will be posting a complete quilt layout on May 4th!

With the anticipation building, I was tickled when a box arrived in yesterday’s mail:

A mug with ALL the blocks! ((Yes, it almost matches my one from the previous issue, if I keep this up ((which I intend to!)) I’ll have a whole set after several more issues! And these huge buttons make GREAT coasters. Now I’ve got two!

Can you find my block, right there in the center?! The crew at Quiltmaker has done such a splendid job of putting yet another terrific issue of 100 blocks at our fingertips!

Things are gearing up here for my road trip to Pennsylvania. The car is “mostly” packed – I’ve got a few things for my suitcase in the wash, and I’ve been running between errands and other must-do’s ((Had a great meeting with my bee last night! Thanks gals!)) and trying to figure out what to do for borders on the cruise quilt. It’s still on the floor. I’d like to get it OFF the floor and clean up the studio so it is nice and tidy for my return home! This is a short trip, luckily, I’ll be heading home on Sunday.

It’s a beautiful North Carolina Tuesday Morning – Time to get busy!

When All Else Fails….

Take A Hike!!

Yesterday afternoon, though we probably decided to do this too much into the middle of the day, forgetting that it was 80 something out there, DH an I took a 7.12 mile hike around Salem Lake!

The green balloon you see is the starting/ending point, the numbers in circles are mile markers...how accurate they are, I'm not sure! But I did use the GPS and "map my fitness" on my iphone, and from what I can tell, it tracks the route/mileage pretty well!

It was a beautiful day, and let’s face it, after yesterday’s emotional outburst, we both needed a bit of nature to cool our jets. Being outside amongst the trees and water does have a calming effect. Hearing birds, and seeing big buzzing things being busy with their own joie de vivre does seem to calm jangled nerves and allow you to slow down and ponder and work things out.

Doesn’t this trail look inviting?! It really smelled good out there, even though there were many sneezes through the day, the pollen is in full force out there!

However, this looks more like an Australian scene than one from Winston Salem, NC! They are rebuilding the dam for Salem Lake, and water levels are SO LOW…the sun is baking the revealed mud into interesting patterns, and the turtles and such have had to find a way to move further in from the tree line, to the center of the lake where there is still “some” water.

Let’s just say that after the hour and 50 minutes it took us to hike the 7.12 miles, we were starving and headed straight out for dinner. Which meant no cooking for me. And I was FINE with that! After that, long Sunday afternoon naps were indulged in, and the day progressed slowly without any further conflict.

And I sewed!

I’ve got the “cruise” project, alas still nameless, all the way to “just add borders” stage! What those borders will be is still a mystery to me. I’m letting it percolate a bit, but I’m liking it so far! And there will be options…to make it bigger, to make it smaller, to make the project your OWN, not a “kit kit” where everything is the same. We are calling what I am kitting a “Starter Kit!” And fabrics can be added, subtracted, replaced, traded for and personalized. I’m much happier than I was.

I want to thank everyone for the words of wisdom and encouragement. You know, sometimes the best medicine is just knowing you are listening. Sometimes we can’t FIX things, but just knowing that there are listening ears out there really and truly helps. Today is another day. We try again. And we try and we try and we never give up.

I’m meeting up with Karen and Lisa for an Indian lunch at Nawab at 11:30. Oooooo! Nothing is better than lunch out with GFs on a Monday!

Have a great day y’all!