Pictures, Pictures!~

As things from the trip to Oregon settle in, there are more pictures that are exchanged via email with messages like “Love this one of you two!” “Thought you all looked so cute in this one!” “Sending these to you as well!”

And I’m happy to share them here, because they DID turn out so cute, and we had such a great time ((Are you tired of hearing all about it yet?))

I love this picture of Tonya and me in front of one of the Gees Bend quilts at the Stitchin’ Post! It’s just such a Tonya quilt to begin with…..it makes a great backdrop don’t you think?

I'm so proud of Tonya! Her book and quilts made with its inspiration are hanging all over the inside of the Stitchin Post! Way to go, Ton!

And this one….what is a Sisters Photo Op, without the wonderful old style buildings in the background? ((I'm already missing that blue blue Oregon blue sky!))

Yeah, and that’s my dorky hip bag! ((Thanks to Brit friends, I learned long ago NOT to call it a fanny pack!! LOL!)) I know it looks like I’m wearing a seat belt…but..I travel light! All it holds is my wallet, a chapstick, and an extra crystal light packet for my water--Fashion stops below the NECK as far as I am concerned ;c)

We only had a couple of hours to wander together and catch up because Ton’s caravan was headed back toward Seattle in short order---but we made the most of the time we had together and it was great seeing her in person again!

I also love this one of Lori, Randy and I in front of Randy’s “Sisters 9 patch” quilt! She was with me that first year that I saw the antique red and yellow top that sparked the desire to make that quilt as a leader/ender project in the first place. And it was SO FUNNY – I didn’t recognize it as HER quilt…I said “Oh look, SOMEONE made a Sisters 9 patch like the one in my book” LOL. It wasn’t until I read this label…..that…well…DUH!!

It was a very DUH moment, and I have to admit --- the older I get, the more frequent they become. You just have to laugh at yourself to get through it you know? A LOT!

Don’t we look blissfully quilted-out? This is one that Randy took….I don’t remember which day, but we were definitely high on quilt overload! And Lori, I’m still laughing at that bunch of lavender just hanging by the thread…it looks like it is floating in mid air…goofy!!!

Amazon Deal of the Day–More Than Just Books!

When it comes to holidays and such, I like to give my kids and my dad Amazon gift cards. That way they can always choose what they want, and there is lots more than just books or music on Amazon.

One thing I order all the time is my Good Earth Original tea---I can’t get it here in NC, but if I order it on Amazon ((Using the Christmas gift card that usually comes from some member of my family, most thankfully!))and I order $25.00 worth…it ships free! This usually means that I am ordering 6 boxes at a time, and that’s fine with me. I hate to run out! I can usually add the tea to my order to get my BOOK order to reach that $25.00 free shipping amount --- or visa versa!

Today while looking on Amazon’s Deal of the Day I saw that the Lipton ice tea mixes are 44% off. That’s quite a bit!

When I travel, I always keep an empty water bottle, and I like to add the ice tea mix, or crystal light packs to my water.

One of my faves is on sale! it’s the Energize blueberry pomegranate in the individual serving packs!

You get 6 boxes of 10 individual servings…for $11.00 That’s $1.83 per box, or 18.3 cents for each serving. Way cheaper than the price of bottled water! And if I get $25.00 worth, it will ship free. Win/win!

The mandarin mango at the top of the page comes in a 12 box package....so you get 120 servings for 18.3 cents each. Yep, that's a lot of tea! But it helps keep me hydrated because I am not much of a "plain water" drinker...I like my life with flavor!

There is a thing where you can sign up for monthly delivery, and save an additional 15%, but I don’t know if I need that much tea on hand.

There are lots of flavors – you can check it out here!

These are just things that I like, and I thought I’d pass the info on to you…no affiliation, yada yada yada, the regular disclaimers apply!

Feet On The Ground!

So here I am, Saturday afternoon --- and I’m HOME ALONE!

I almost don’t know what to do with myself! ((Please note that I said ALMOST!))

Actually it’s more of……there are so many things that I could do, would want to do, that I have a hard time choosing.

Yesterday’s flights were hectic, but I made ALL of my connections, and my luggage made it too. Yep! the pic you see to the left is my poor road weary luggage! It sure felt strange traveling without the quilt bags--- I kept thinking I was leaving something behind!

Yesterday was full of close calls. I had 20 minutes until boarding time when I landed in Denver….run run run run run! When I got to Washington Dulles, it was the same thing…30 minutes til boarding…run run run up an escalator, down an escalator, over another passageway, down another escalator, wait for the train ((HURRY HURRY, TRAIN!!)) and MORE escalators. Is there an airport that has MORE escalators and run arounds than Dulles? I don’t think I’ve experienced one!

When I got home……I put a little plan in motion that I’d been thinking of since I left Greensboro a week ago Thursday. Do you remember me telling you about Horace, the shoe shine guy at the Greensboro airport? And how nice it is to know him by name, and he always has a smile on his face, and loves to chat when I am waiting for my flights out? ((And it's not just ME --- he knows EVERYONE by name!))

Well, this time as I was waiting to board my flight for Greensboro ((That left over 2 hours late, so I had lots of time on my hands!)) Horace saw me walking by and said “Well, Miss Bonnie --- where are you off to THIS time? I haven’t seen you in a while!” Isn’t it nice when someone knows you by name? I explained that my last few flights had gone out around 6am, before the time he opens his booth…..and my return flights had also been late. And I’d had a few flights that brought me into the other terminal side, so I didn’t go past where his stand is.

I told him that on occasions where I had passed by late, that I’d thought of dropping him a note just to say hi! He got a big kick out of that, and this week, I put a plan in motion. I told him next time I passed his booth I would leave him a hello from me.

I picked up a fun postcard in Sisters -----wrote a message on the back, and tucked it into his work box! I know it is the weekend, and he won’t find it til Monday, but he said that no one ever “bothers” his stuff --- so I’m hoping it is still there when he starts work on Monday. He has been shining shoes at the Greensboro airport for over 20 years. Can you imagine?

I had a huge smile on my face as I left that note --- I wonder how many people he has a positive influence on, and doesn’t even know it? It makes a HUGE difference when people take the time to know your name. I know because of this that I really REALLY try memorizing who is who in my classes…at least while I’m there. I want to know people by their names. I’m pretty good at faces --- so I’m always working at putting the names to the faces and keeping them there.

Today DH is off taking Jeff’s car back to him in Columbia, and bringing my old Saturn back up. I just did NOT feel like going on a 6 hour round trip drive today. Do you blame me? I just want to be home! It was chore enough to go out to the grocery store so there was FOOD in this house. That’s enough errands for one day!

I’m working on a pieced back for the quilt for the German magazine….pics to follow! Enjoy the rest of your Saturday!

Midnight Edition–Free Kindle Book!

Hello! I’m home! And the house is quiet because everyone is sleeping but ME. The ole body clock, dontcha know --- it says it’s only 9:30pm, not 12:30 am..so what’s a girl to do?

Catch up on her browsing, and her emails and everything else….while trying to get sleepy!

I just found this little mystery that I think will be a good edition to my kindle…

County Line by Bill Cameron

Book Description:

When the steadfast Ruby Jane Whittaker drops out of sight, dogged ex-cop Skin Kadash sets out to discover what drove the woman he loves to leave her life behind so suddenly and without explanation. The discovery of a dead man in her apartment followed by an attack from a mysterious stalker leads Skin first to California, then across the country on a desperate journey deep into Ruby Jane’s haunted past—and toward an explosive confrontation which will determine if either has a future.

I just downloaded it, and it was still free for me, but be sure to check the price before you click purchase, just in case it is NOT free anymore!

I plan on sleeping in a bit, unpacking a bit, catching up a bit ---enjoy your weekend everyone!

Fly Away Home ---

This morning I am on my way back to North Carolina. It’s been a wonderful trip to Oregon--- relaxing and productive at the same time!

But as they say, Home is where the Heart is --- and I can only be away from home so long until home is the only place that I want to be.

I saw this little picture of North Carolina with a heart smack dab in the middle, and I had to save it….that heart is awful close to where Winston Salem is on the map! North Carolina, I'm coming home to you! ((Yes, this is where you can cue in James Taylor singing "In my mind, I'm going to Carolina....."

We spent our last day sewing in the morning --- running errands in the afternoon, ending the day with a drive back out to Sisters to pick up Randy and Claire’s quilts from the show. We attended a “volunteer appreciation soiree” out at Black Butte, a thanks for all those who volunteered their time for the show. Randy had put in some hours opening boxes and getting quilts ready to be hung --- and I got to go as her guest!

We stopped and took some pics on the way ---the mountains were magnificently surrounded by clouds today, so very surreal looking!

Can you see them coming up through the car windshield??

The clouds appeared to be lit from above. It was really a beautiful evening. However, the clouds make it hard to tell what IS clouds, and what is snow capped mountains.

Can you see them now?? It was like the clouds were coming in like a slow motion wave, ready to just cover everything…

Until next year, beautiful Oregon! There is something really special about this place.

So what got done today?

I trimmed up a whole bunch of these……

And only have THIS to show for it! Someone once asked me ((OK, lots of someones….and OFTEN!)) what is the smallest size I keep. THESE are NOT THEM!! I even know there is a selvage craze going on out there, but I haven’t convinced myself that I need to save those either. I mean, some of them are neat ----but I must be a crazy woman to want to start to save something else too! This pile of “shavings” from squaring up was the last of my mess. After this was done, it was clean up time. ((Oh sad face!! ))

As I write this post, everything is packed and ready to go ----we are off to the airport early, and the next time you hear from me I’ll be home!

A Little of This, A Little of That --

I hate to even think that my time in Sunriver is winding down. In retrospect, I’ve accomplished a lot while I’ve been here, but still wish I could have done more!

A bit of a stomach bug has slowed me down a bit, but maybe I needed some slowing down? We were going to go to a music in the park thing last night, but I begged out. I just didn’t feel up to it. And the temps haven’t been exactly WARM either! After 5pm temps quickly drop to quite chilly. It would have been cold in the park, and we still had sewing to do!

As it was, we enjoyed sitting around the gas fire pit on the patio --- YES, it was TURNED ON! ((Is it REALLY July?!))--- and soaking up some of the peaceful nature from where we sat.

These pics of the Deschutes River are from our walk yesterday. Isn’t it peaceful? But even though I feel faraway – All it takes is a phone call to pull me back to reality! Takin’ care of business happens --- Even on a power walk along the river! Randy snapped this pic while we stopped so I could talk!

In the center of the pic, there IS a snow capped mountain hiding – but it looks like a cloud in the picture! I love seeing mountains covered with snow in freaking JULY!! We are headed back to Sisters this afternoon and I’ll see if I can get Randy to stop and let me take some better pics. :c)

Up the river, down the river, the view is vast and awe striking.

I just love this place!

So what have I been working on while I’ve been here? Well MYSTERY stuff for one! And I can’t show you that, can I? But there has been some of this:

and there has been a lot of this:

And copious amounts of THIS:

ENDLESS CHAIN PRESSING! :cD I’m an assembly line girl. I will work one step until all of that unit for the quilt is done, and then I move to the next. We talked a bit about it while we were all here. Randy is a “do a bit of this, do a bit of that, see how it will look together, and go back and do some more” kind of girl….I guess I already know what it’s going to be in my mind, and I Just keep going. It takes a long time before I have enough to show progress, but when it comes together, it comes together fast! ((FINALLY!)) It’s just me pushing it through until done.

And NO --- these three things are NOT from the same project!

But ONE of the projects just gifted me 600 bonus triangles! NOW what am I going to do with THESE?!

I’m sure I’ll think of something!

But until it is time to pack it up and go home – I plan on doing some more of THIS:

Just stretching out like a cat in the sunny spot on the floor….admiring Randy’s great newly finished quilt top! BLISS!

Cheddar Bow-Ties!! 2011 Leader/Ender Challenge!

Every year there is at least ONE quilt that we ALL fall in love with.

This year it was a bowtie using a cheddar solid as a background. Do I have to remind you of how much I love solid cheddar? When I look at antique quilts, those with solid cheddar in them are the ones that jump out at me and straight into my heart.

We decided that this year we would use this quilt as a Leader/Ender project --- not to be completed by this time next year necessarily,but to at least show how far we could get in a year if we used these pieces strictly as leaders and enders in between the seams of other lines of chain piecing on current projects.

This was my first glimpse of this lovely quilt hanging over one of the racks in the antique quilt booth. Did you spy it in the slide show the other day on my post of the antique quilts?

Here it is spread out a bit better….I love that there are no borders, it is just bound with a terrific old indigo blue!

Would you like to join us in the 2011 Bow Tie Challenge? There are no rules, no deadlines, no finished size, no muss no fuss. Basically, all you have to do is cut the pieces ahead of time, keep them by your machine, and when you are in the need of a leader/ender, you’ll use the bow tie pieces and watch them grow in number until this time next year!

Click HERE for printer friendly version!

To get started:

Directions make 3" finished bow tie blocks!

From cheddar background cut: (2) 2” squares.

From bow tie fabric cut: (2) 2” squares and (2) 1-1/4” squares!

((I know 1-1/4” is a strange size,and not one that I keep on hand, so I am cutting all my “sets” for the bow ties from my drawer of 2” strips. I can get the pieces for one bow tie block out of a 2" X 7” strip with 1/2” left over for squaring/trimming!))

Lay the (2) 1-1/4” squares on top of the (2) 2” cheddar background squares as shown….You are going to sew those on the diagonal as for snowball corners!

You don’t have to trim the excess, but I do. These bow ties are going to finish at 3” square, and you don’t want a lot of bulk where these seams are going to come together. I just aim for an approximate 1/4” with my scissors and snip!

The sew the connector units to the bow tie squares in four patch fashion! Press the seams toward the unpieced bow tie squares. Sew the two halves together, and you have ONE bow tie completed!

It takes FIVE seams to complete each bow tie block. So every time you need a leader/ender --- just know that you ARE building something and these ties will add up in no time!

While Lori was working on her Triple Irish Chain quilt this weekend…she was able to complete THESE in no time at all:

Isn’t this going to be fun! I can hardly wait to get home and into my 2” scrap bin to start kitting some of these up. I want to use up a lot of recycled plaids and stripes too.

Out comes the 5 yard piece of solid cheddar I’ve been hoarding!

Lori wants to continue to do hers with cheddar prints, and I’m a solid cheddar girl, so we’ll see how different these look as they take shape!

Randy, getting in on some camera action too! Oh we have had just the BEST time this year!! And this crazy woman is already making 2" finished ((YES FINISHED at 2"!!)) bow ties as HER leader/ender project. Be watching her blog for updates!

Are you game? Let’s do it!

So What Did She Buy?!

Every year I tell myself that I don’t NEED to BUY another quilt…seriously. Where can I put another one? Isn’t enough enough? It’s like adopting kittens, but at least I don’t need to feed them. What will I do with them in the long run? I have no idea --- have one heck of a yard sale at some point I guess, or flood ebay with listings?

I figure they will live with me as long as I need them to live with me. As long as they give me inspiration and add to my life, I’ll rotate them out and enjoy them.

Do I feel guilty about the price? Not really. Most of the ones I buy are on the cheap side, under $100, and I can’t hardly buy good running shoes for much less than that.

My purchases usually stick to the "antique quilt or top" category -- But look! This little quilt is NOT an antique!

There was a booth selling small quilts, and the money was going for scholarships. I spied this one that Kristin made, and snatched it up right away. JUST LOVE IT! Thanks so much, Kristin! It is going live in my studio, I am so happy with this!

I also bought THIS beauty:

I just fell in love with the pattern of this "Jack in the pulpit" variation and the fabrics in it. The sashings look brown, but they were once upon a time green. You can tell when you look close.

One of the things we do when we get home is spread our goodies on Randy's bed for close inspection! I'll let Lori and Randy show their own, so check their blogs for updates.

Some of the fabrics in this quilt are pretty cheesy and loosely woven, but the piecing is pretty dang good! The date on it says circa 1900, but there are fabrics much older than that in this quilt. And that’s how it would be if anyone were dating my scrap quilts 100 years from now. Just this week I was sewing a 30 year old piece of calico I bought in 1981 into a quilt. It’s easy to see how a quilt can contain many decades of wonderful fabrics.

Jack In The Pulpit, Sisters, OR 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

You can click the above to see close ups of my favorite blocks! This quilt NEEDS a bath. And I’ll probably do a soak in the tub with orvis soap when I get it back home just to see if I can help lift some of that old age and plain ole dirty musty-ness out of it.

The backing is homespun! And you can really see the quilting detail on the back side:

It’s a very nice piece of history, an unusual block design, great quilting, and I will love having it around!

I also found this top, for the way too cheap price of $30.00:

The spools are adorable, even if they are plenty lumpy! At some point it looks like someone has added extra blocks to turn this into a top. The fabrics added seem to be from the 1980s. That includes the green border……which may or may NOT need to be removed for me to like it. Maybe it’s growing on me, or maybe it just doesn’t look THAT bad in this picture…but I think I might change it to something else. The other fabrics in the quilt are much older..there are 1930s and 40s and possibly some 50s in here.

I love these giant green polka dots! This block reminds me a lot of the spool block I did for Quiltmaker Magazine a couple months back…only…I wimped out and did NOT use the set in Y seam method. ((Or as I call it the W-H-Y seam method!!))

Isn’t this wild 1940s red FUN! Many of the blocks were hand pieced, and then set together by machine.

Loved this block with the funky stripes too…..and here you can see a bit of that 1980s green border. What do you think? Does it need to go?!

This is a top that is sturdy enough to machine quilt up nice and cute and actually USE it on a bed…so that’s my plan for it.

There were a few other quilts seen around town, here and there that didn’t make it into my previous slide show….so just to re-wet your whistle:

		More Antique Quilts, Sisters 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I wished I could take them ALL home, really --- but just like cats, where would I put them!? Still-- aren’t photos just grea for inspiration?

Best of all, it was fun to share in the excitement with friends who feel the same way about them as I do. It’s infectious!

I already can’t wait for next year…..do you think this quilt will be back again?! We’ll have to wait and find out!