-----We Interrupt Your Programming -----

Do you know that it just hit me that Thursday is the last day of MAY?!

TIME DOES FLY!

This means that the first Saturday of June is THIS SATURDAY!?

I have not had a chance to get anything ready for Yard Sale Saturday. I might be able to round up a few things, but I need a show of hands for those who are counting on it.

If I don’t get enough response I’m voting that we call it OFF for the summer months, and resume again in September.

Please leave your thoughts below!

Let me know if you were planning on doing it --- or if you think waiting to September is a good idea so we can tend to other stuff for a few months!

Afternoon Edition: Free Kindle Book!

I know, I should be sewing --- but I had some computer time to deal with, and TADA!! We have FINISHED all the edits for the next book!

DONE! DONE! DONE!

It’s been a huge long process since I started writing the manuscript last year, got it mostly written during the month of December and have been working on it back and forth for MONTHS. Now we are just waiting on a cover, and I hope to have that in the next couple of weeks. When we have that, I’ll start pre-orders!

It was that approving of the final edition of the resources page, the very last thing in the book that had me sitting at the computer.

I’m late for things that revolved around Memorial Day – I had a busy weekend with family and friends and that is right where I needed to be.

That doesn’t mean that I didn’t keep the reason for this holiday at the forefront of my heart. My grandfather on my dad’s side spent WWII shipboard as a navy man. I have an uncle that served in Viet Nam, and two brothers who were also Navy.

So as I browsed and came upon this freebie – It drew me right in:

Why Aren't You Sweet Like Me?, by Carrie Nyman, is free in the Kindle store, courtesy of publisher Sunbury Press.

Book Description
A young couple, Camille "Honey" Shaughnessy and Don Shepard fall in love on the eve of World War II. As America enters the war, and Don is pressured into the service by his father, the two newlyweds struggle to maintain contact. Don becomes a hero, saving the lives of his comrades, but will he make it home alive?

"Why Aren't You Sweet Like Me?" is a novel based on the actual love letters exchanged between the author's grandparents.

It was still free when I downloaded it, but double check before clicking that it still is for you as prices can change without notice.

Now --- off to those sampler blocks that have been waiting!

Aurifil in the Inbox!

I came home to a whole pile of mail after being gone 10 days.

Some of it good, some of it bad ((BILLS!)) and some of it -----I had no clue what it was until I opened the box!

A couple of weeks ago my friend Pat Sloan had asked me to send her the number of the color of Aurifil thread that I’ve been using on my hexi quilt. I guess she saw that the volume was WAY DOWN on my spool – in fact I was close to running out!

Imagine my surprise when I opened up the box this MORNING ((Yes, I was double bad and left all mail for AFTER the long holiday weekend!)) and found a 6 pack of my favorite thread!

((It's # 2902 -- a grey/green))

Thank you Pat! And thanks too to Alex Vironelli and Aurifil for making this quilter very happy on a random Tuesday after a long holiday weekend!

How’s your Tuesday going?

I’ve got a chiropractor appt in about an hour – I’ve got to run to the post office yet again, and then I hope to sew this afternoon. There are oodles of blocks to catch up on from Randy’s Sow Along!

A Day With Friends!

What a full Monday! First a friend over for a quilting session, and then a hike through historic Bethabara before heading over to Muriel’s for our monthly bee meeting. It was non stop, go –go –go all day!

I had a blast with Lisa and Shelby over yesterday ----

Even with the often “out-picking” of stitches when we just could not get placement right. The first time it was because I had enlarged a pattern to a scale we “thought” we wanted, but the pattern already had really tall rows, and it extended beyond the capacity of the machine to stitch it in the allowable area given…so all that had to be picked out – and then…well…

Operator error all the way around! we decided that the left side of the quilt was cursed..LOL

But we beat it into submission and this is the quilt as it came off the machine!

It turned out so nice, in spite of my bad spacing and stopping and starting and oops, that end of the border got folded over -----and we had a great time!

I’ve lived Near Winston Salem for almost 4.5 years now. And you would think that being the history loving kind of girl that I am that I would have searched out every nook and cranny of old Salem kind of history that there is around here, and it’s just not been so. There are still secrets left to be discovered and uncovered. When Lisa said that she and Nane were going hiking before our bee meeting, and did I want to come too – my first thought was “5:30pm?! How HOT is it going to be?!” But I can sweat like the best of them in good company, and I decided it would be worth it ----after all it was only 86 degrees and about 86% humidity to go with it!

The trail starts out fully paved…we crossed under the highway and began our way down the green belt.

There had been a lot of flooding due to recent heavy rains and that was still evident ---

crossed a creek on a rickety bridge that looked like it had floated away in the flood and found itself lodged against a tree --- and we began to climb to higher ground ---This is called, “Who needs a stair master, baby?!”

We found ourselves at the back side entrance to a very special cemetery.

You can read more about Bethabara park HERE.

Bethabara is the 1753 site of the First Moravian settlement in North Carolina.

When I first visited old Salem and learned a bit about the Moravian tradition, it was interesting to me that men and women are not buried side by side, but men in one section, and women in another.

A bit about “God’s Acre” with the help of Wikipedia:

Moravians believe strongly in equality, even in death; therefore, every stone in a God's Acre is a recumbent stone with the same proportions and made of the same material so that no one person stands out among the stones. The Communion of Saints is continued even on the graveyard as it reflects the continuity of the congregation. In addition, the deceased are buried by choir; to the Moravians, these were the living groups into which the Congregation was originally divided to meet the needs of the members according to their age and station in life. Originally men and women sat in their choir groups in church at worship. The burial by choir in God's Acre also reflects the way the members of the congregation sat as a worshipping community so that visually and symbolically the Congregation continues in the graveyard.

Along with being separated by gender, there are also sections for people of different age and marital status. The typical configuration has sections for infant girls and infant boys, girls and boys, single men and single women, and married men and married women. The deceased are buried in their section in the order they have died. Smaller God's Acres may combine the infant and children sections. Some larger God's Acres, such as the one for the Salem Congregation in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, may also have separate sections for those who are cremated, as their remains take up less space than those who are buried with their bodies intact. This section is also organized by choir.

We walked the rows, of men, of women of children –and pondered their lives – what it must have been like to be among the first settlers in North Carolina in the 1700s.

Annaros Schmidt, denat 1759

Anna Maria Opizan –died the same year she was born.

((As a mother who buried her own infant daughter –this really tugs at my soul.))

H Martin Kalberlan was born in Norway in 1722

When the Moravians settled the area, they called the place Wachovia --

More Wiki:

The name "Wachovia" is the Latin form of the German "die Wachau." "Die Wachau" was chosen as the name of the North Carolina Moravian tract, to honor Count Zinzendorf, Moravian patron and bishop whose family estate was located in the Wachau region northwest of Vienna, along the Danube River between the towns of Melk and Krems. The Moravians most likely felt that the landscape in the back country of North Carolina, with its nearby mountains, local waterways including the Dan River, the Yadkin River, Town Fork Creek and three forks of Muddy Creek, and its fertile land with abundant forest, resembled the Wachau region in central Europe.

At some point, the born and died descriptions were in English, instead of German.

Sara G. Fogle

This stone belongs to the first Moravian Missionary to Greenland in the 1700s.

This large pillar marker is next to his headstone.

The style of the letters on Gottlieb Strehle’s marker caught my eye.

Born 1756 in Pennsylvania, Departed in 1818 in Bethabara.

Anna Catherine

It’s the aged 54 y’rs, 8 mo’s & 16 da’s that has me a bit pondersome.

That is awful close to my own age. What was her life like? Was she happy? It says “in Memory of Our Dear Mother” She is listed with two last names, is the first one her maiden name, or – was she twice married in her life time? Don’t you wish you knew?

It was just a very humbling walk through a very sacred space ---and I was glad for the time out to wander freely this historic spot.

On our way back to our cars so we could make it to our Bee meeting ((Albeit all sweaty and panting!)) we came across this little traveler trying to get from one side of the path to the other ----Hello, little turtle! Thank you for sharing your beautiful walk with us!

The three day weekend is now over, life gets back to normal and errands and to-do list are to be resumed as soon as I hit send on this!

Happy Tuesday, Everyone!

iPhone-o-gram! Quilting up a storm!

Or that might be unquilting up a storm.

We've had a dickens of a time getting the row spacing right--there has been much picking out and whining!

We are on a roll now. We hope to get this wedding quilt done today!

Time Out in Boone!

Boone, NC is a busy little place, especially on a 3 day holiday weekend when the weather is glorious.

Of course there is hiking up Grandfather Mountain, or fishing on one of the many beautiful streams in the area. There is white water rafting and bicycle riding. We saw lots of couples on Harleys just out enjoying the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains ---and there were shoppers and browsers galore!

Some places were closed on Sunday, but some were in full swing. There was an antique mall that we passed on our way through Boone, and I had mentioned that I’d like to stop on our way back just in case – just for a “look see” ---

I was afraid I was going to hear moaning and grumbling from the driver’s seat, but miracle of all miracles, I did NOT!

You see, DH has never wandered an antique mall with me before, not ever. And I can understand why ----on the flip side, it would be like me having to spend gobs of time being completely bored in a bicycle shop, or a golf shop. I completely get it, really I do!

Mention to me that we are stopping at "Dicks Sporting Goods" for just a minute, and you will hear ME moan and groan from the passenger seat!

As soon as we entered the mall, THIS was displayed in the entry! There were oodles of people, and it was hung on this big rustic branch ((They do a LOT of stick/branch furnishings in Boone!)) and I couldn’t get it down….but oh, it’s a “Cut Glass Dish” pattern!

Looks like it’s had quite a bit of sun fading – that is the SAME sashing fabric throughout – it’s just really faded in parts. Maybe the deep dark red area was up against a wall or tucked under or something? Love the primitive fan quilting on this one! I’m guessing it’s from right around 1900. Mourning prints. Yummy! ((I bet the words “mourning” and “yummy” really are not supposed to be used together…LOL!))

We rounded a corner to find this poly double-knit beauty. The piecing on it was very nice! But MAN, this puppy is HEAVY! It makes me think of all the poly pant suits that my step-grandma wore ---

A beautiful drunkard’s path in solid aqua and cream. Beautifully done. See the cable quilting in the border? Oh, I LOVE cables! It’s very hard to guess the era on a quilt made with solids, but I do know this color of aqua ((It’s not the Nile green of the 1930s)) was popular in the 1950s. Any other guessers out there?

A very stringy star with a HUGE table cloth check as alternate diamonds…..doesn’t it make you want to pack up a picnic and go enjoy the day down by the creek?

I spied this folded quilt on a shelf and got all excited!

Not only was there ONE on the shelf, but a matched pair! I couldn’t see breaking up a matched pair of quilts – so I left them both

1960s and early 1970s calicoes! And I so love that bright green path!

How many of us remember having school dresses made out of these prints?!

Amidst all the planned ones, are some very fun, über scrappy ones! I love that hex on the upper left with the purple and green in it.

The fabrics were just SO SO great! Hello to my early childhood memories!

Some quilts were just simply very humble….blue feedsacks, and melon/green square in a square blocks. Thick batting, big fans, quilted quickly for winter warmth --

And some quilts…OH BOY!

Some quilts just have such BIG problems that it will NEVER QUILT OUT! LOL!!!! The fabrics in this one were great --- left overs from skirts and dresses and other household sewing – see all the gingham checks? LOVE THOSE!

BUNCHES of PROBLEMS!! LOL!!

I love seeing these ---they make my worst mistakes look not so bad ;c)

THIS one was my favorite of all. Carpenters star in 1950s fabrics – oh, this was so cool! But the price was more than I was willing to pay, so I’ll have to make my own. I loved how some of the prints resembled grandpas pajamas or boxer shorts…and I do love how the red/gold center stars tie everything together. There WILL be one of these in my future..

There were some primitive woolie things too ---I wish I knew the history behind this one! And no, that cat is NOT real --- ;c)

What also amazed me is this:

This is like my bridal shower from 1981 on those shelves!

I remember all those orange, avacado, brown containers! And that pickle keeper on the far left middle shelf. Was your wedding sponsored by tupperware too? LOL!

((Once you put pickles in there, you could never get the pickle smell out of the plastic!))

Loved the old cards of buttons….

And no, this beautiful 301 did not come home with me – already have 2 of them ;c)

((Besides, DH was in tow, remember?!))

The most precious of all…was watching DH with this stack of books, and remembering that HE had these as a child. His mom has been gone since December 1983. And all of those memories of her reading to him when he was little came flooding back.

Childhood memories are priceless.

And he will probably shoot me for posting this…..if you don’t hear from me after this, send a search party!

All in all it was a fabulous day to getaway to the mountains. I hope we do it again soon!

Today Lisa is coming over to load her Tshirt quilt on the machine – we plan to get up to a lot of fun over here in the Basement – it’s been too long since she has been over ----

Happy Memorial Day, Everyone!

iPhone-o-Gram! Binding Time!

I'm attaching the binding to Florabunda. Finally.

I have a collection of walking feet--and what drives me nuts is that every one is a different width.

In the past I had used the edge of my walking foot with the screw on seam guide and a 2 1/4" binding strip on my Bernie 1080.

The newer Bernies have a wider foot so my strip was too narrow unless I needle over on the Activa 145.

I have 2 different widths of walking feet for vintage low shank machines.

I think I just found the one to do the job---it fits Joe Cool and the binding is underway!