Old Man River Quiltfest, Day 4!

This was last evening when day was DONE.

Hot hot, Mississippi Hot – humid, and gorgeously green.  That’s the price you pay – and it’s good for your skin, don’t you know?

I was told that I couldn’t leave Vicksburg without a trip to see the iconic bridges – one for the railway, one for cars, crossing the mighty Mississippi to Louisiana.

And we did it.  We drove across the bridge to put my toes on the Louisiana side, took the first exit and came back to Mississippi.

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Emerald City–Vicksburg Style!

Old Man River Quiltfest – Day 3!

Do you see how gorgeous this Emerald City block is in PURPLE?! (Pattern from my book String Frenzy)

That is the one thing that thrills me the most – when folks take my quilt designs and interpret them in their own color and fabric choices, making their project more of a reflection of THEM, than of me.

Besides, there is no way that I could possibly make this quilt in all of the wonderful color plans I’ve seen it in as finishes have started cropping up over the past few months.

It’s a two color quilt – so choose your favorites!  Or, as Connie and I talked about last night – do your “Dark” areas in Scrappy Everything, keeping the neutrals (or grey, or yellow, or whatever you envision) as your background.  It would be FABULOUS!

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Old Man River Quiltfest, Day 2!

Cutting it up with the Quilt Girls in Vicksburg!

Serpentine Web quilt from my book String Frenzy-

The hours fly by so fast and furious – and we are filling them to the brim with fun and laughter -

At the beginning of the class day I love to ask who my newbies are.  Who is a first timer to one of my workshops – and then, who has NEVER made a string quilt before.  And the hands come waving – these brave souls about to throw themselves into a scrappy adventure destined to open their eyes to new experiences when it comes to quilting.

This is the part of their quilting journey that can change the direction of EVERYTHING – as the saying goes – Once you go scrappy, there’s no turning back!

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Old Man River Quiltfest, Day 1!

Illinois Central, Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railway Depot

Built in 1907.

As excited as I am about the quilting going on in Vicksburg (and believe me, there is LOTS of quilting going on!) I am thrilled to also be experiencing a glimpse into the amazing history of this town.

You can’t miss the old railroad depot right along the mighty Mississippi River.  It’s now a museum, and while we won’t have time to visit inside due to our workshop hours, I can just imagine what this was like in the early 20th century – the coming and going of trails connecting the rest of the country to this corner of Mississippi.

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Just Get Me to Vicksburg!

Three girls on a road trip from Jackson to Vicksburg!

(This photo comes later in the story – so hang on!)

It was an easy day of travel – the only moment of panic being waiting for a gate at the farthest corner of the A terminal to open in Atlanta so our Greensboro plane had a place to pull into – all the while my flight to Jackson was getting ready to board clear at the far end of the C terminal.

Run, Bonnie run!  See Bonnie run…It ain’t pretty!  But I got there, no thanks to those meandering folks with their faces clearly not on where they are going, but down into their cell phones instead. Text walkers.  GAH!

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Quiltmaker Sept/Oct ‘19 Gift-Away!

Autumn is right around the corner!

And since I am on my way to Mississippi today, I thought this would be the perfect time to share with you just what is found in the September/October 2019 issue of Quiltmaker, and throw in a little give-away at the same time!

i can feel it on the horizon, that imminent change of seasons.  Can you?

Are you getting a feel for things that turn from green to gold to orange and rust?  Beautiful shades of red and brown?

Cooler temperatures also bring on the desire to dig in to projects, getting things ready for the holidays that come on the heels of the first nod to fall.

Below are a few of my favorites from this issue:

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Sunday Quilt Display, and a Crazy Cattle Call!

Mona’s finishes – over the porch rail!

Good Monday morning, everyone!

Let me just say that I am happy that I am getting this far this morning.  Living this remotely and having our internet for Quiltville Inn and the Quiltville Post Office sometimes presents interesting moments of “Oh, seriously?  You’ve got to be kidding!  How slow can it go?!”  And those visions of waiting for dial-up to make it’s molasses connection circa 1990 something comes screaming back.

Oh yeah.  That’s what it was like back then.  And it is now.  And then you kick yourself in the keester, be grateful that you have any kind of connection at all, and just go do something else while photos are taking their own sweet time uploading – and that YouTube video you want to process?  Just come back 2 hours later because it says it’s going to take 80 minutes to process.

So let’s distract ourselves with how GORGEOUS Mona’s quilts are!  This is one happy girl, and we had the best time!

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Saturday Quilting–Still Going Strong!

It’s been a long arm marathon of a week!

Not only have I been able to quilt a couple of my own quilts since returning from Hershey (And get borders on another!) and help get Kim’s sampler quilted and trimmed, ready for binding – but we have completed THREE of Mona’s!

I love hearing the stories of her plans for her quilts.  Her Texas Tumbleweed was up for quilting yesterday, and is destined for her cousin and her cousin’s hubby.  Quilts are such a labor of love and to see and feel everything that goes into them, and the plans to quilt it, bind it, and gift it away to folks that are important in Mona’s life lets me know that she has not only developed skills as a quilter – but the HEART of a quilter as well!

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A Girl’s Day Sewin’!

Oh, Beanie!

You are the cutest photo bomber!

I am having SUCH a great time with the placemats for Quiltville Inn made from license plates so lovingly gifted to me over the past many years.

Mixing these cute plates with my love of string piecing – I can hardly wait until I have enough of these made that I can load them ALL up into the long arm in one fell swoop and quilt them all.

Can you see that I’ve already prepped the binding for each one as well? 

I’ve got some fun gifted florals that Nancy gave me in Pennsylvania a couple weeks ago, and I think I’m going to use those as backings.  So much fun.

While I’ve been working on these – Mona has been busy at the long arm, and Martha even stopped by with her knitting so we had a very full and fun Friday – this Quiltville Post office has been full  this week with all of the laughter, conversation and busy activity that I dreamed it would have.

Dreams DO come true!

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