Gathering Happy Thoughts…

Kitting in the wee small hours helps me think and process.

There were many smiles while cutting up these wee scraps.  Spring is getting closer.  I can feel it.  Yes, we had extreme cold (For us in the south, anyway where 20 degrees is considered bitter here!) and we have weeks yet to go until spring is official, but every day is one day closer.

The retreaters started departing two by two just before lunch time.  When I arrived in the morning, luggage and sewing bins were already on the back porch and being loaded into wagons to transport to awaiting cars.

I have genuinely had the best time, and I was sad to see everyone leave so soon!  How fast can these days fly by?

Some stayed for lunch so they’d have full bellies for the 5 hour drive home to Augusta, Georgia.

And before I knew it -

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Just a Bit of Retreat Hooky!

Aren’t these gals the cutest???

Angie and Pat have been stitching up a storm, and we both agreed that making a red and white Double Irish Chain quilt with ONLY TWO FABRICS is the perfect retreat project.

You can sew and sew and sew and not get fabrics out of order or upside down as they are solids.

You have friends to talk to, laugh with, and grab snacks with.

Sewing a two-fabric quilt in the company of friends keeps you moving forward, instead of winding up stuffing it into a bag due to complete and utter boredom.

But it is going to be SO WONDERFUL when she is done – it’s going to be a king size monstrosity fit for a queen.  It’s going to be the perfect quilt to show of wonderful quilting textures, and it is going to look fabulous on the bed.

And it will have all of these retreat memories sewn right into it!

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A Valentine’s Day of Fabric Play! (Pattern Sale!)

Bright and sunny, but oh so chilly!

We gathered on the front porch at Quiltville Inn as late afternoon sun moved to this side of the house, hoping to warm our faces and avoid shadows and breezes!

What is a Valentine’s Day without heart antennas for all?  Can I just say how thrilled I am with how HAPPY everyone is?

Oh, there have been some minor things – like the front door knob falling off.  (Lock-tite has been applied, we will see how it goes now!) A towel hook on the back of the downstairs bath door was requested – frankly it never entered my mind!  The other baths have hooks. This one didn’t because it had never been a full bath before.

The dining room rug STILL doesn’t want to lay flat and we will be looking into alternatives, but for now – that spot at the back edge? Just know that it is there and be careful until we can do something about it.

Just LITTLE things!

And the food – oh, my goodness!  I never thought that my diet would be in danger from all of the invites to enjoy meals and goodies!  Believe me, I’m not complaining – I’m just going to have to step up my walking routine and get more active – but temps need to climb a bit higher first!

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New Kids on the Quiltville Block!

Things in your Organizing World are about to get more QUILTY!

There are a couple of things we have had going on behind the scenes that I haven’t talked about, because I didn’t know when they would finally show up on my door step after many months of waiting!

These two little spiral bound babies may be small in size at only 5’’ x 7’’ but they will make your life SO MUCH BETTER!

Why would you need a hand written password keeper?  Because not all things in life are safe in digital.

Take for instance the password keeper -

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All Those Loose Ends!

Yesterday was Cleaning Crew day at Quiltville Inn!

And the story behind FINDING these folks is one that still gives me chills.  And the story kept running through my mind as I let them do their thing at the retreat house next door while I trimmed the Cairdeas quilt and sat down to apply a binding, SO grateful that the feed-dogs fix of the evening before had this machine purring like a proverbial kitten.

Or more like Dresden and his audible deep purr from his perch in the flyers box on my counter top while observing everything I was doing!

He loves that box.  Of all the bins and boxes, this one is his favorite.  Crazy boy!

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Bound, Binding and Ready to Bind! (And Instant Pot Recipe!)

Moving this one to the completely done pile!

The “Jack’s Delight” blocks were SO much fun to make.  Have you tried them yet?

I used a selection of recycled fabrics paired with a great variety of favorite neutrals from my Scrap User’s System.  The center squares  in the blocks were also pulled from my pre-cut scrap drawers and I had a wonderful time deciding which fabrics were going to play together in each block.

Those sashings?  They also made a huge dent in my stash of shirt fabric strips.

What really adds to the texture of the whole quilt are the block corner triangles and the cornerstones, all from scraps of Essex linen left from cutting quilt kits for my Quiltville Travelers.  I needed a way to put those margins of fabric to good use, and they do here.  The combination of the Essex linen and the recycled fabrics brings an “instantly vintage” feel to the whole.

This is also why I decided on plain wider sashings and cornerstones.  It just needed a classic setting so the blocks could show themselves off and be the main focus.

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Out & About Road Trip.

What do you see when you look at this photo?

The first thing that most say is “Oh, how sad.”  I agree!  I would love to see this place as it was when it was new.  Fresh coats of paint, shiny metal roof, chimneys wafting smoke as fires warmed the rooms inside.

I like to envision the sounds of voices.  Conversations. Laughter.  Children playing.  Weddings, births, funerals.  Christmas.  Easter.  Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.

Perhaps a dog running in the yard, and a mama cat with new baby kittens mewing from under the porch.  Life.

My friend Martha has the twin to this house.  Or quadruplet? It seems there were 4 identical homes built by one family in the area – and the houses are not all that close to each other so you’d never know it.

I guess you only had to settle on one set of house plans that way!

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From That Project to This One -

This was under my needle yesterday.

The “Green Irish Thing” (Yet to receive official name and shown in yesterday’s post) is begging to be completed.  And it will be. Soon.

But yesterday’s agenda necessitated spending a bunch of time between Quiltville Inn and my Quiltville Post Office.  I remembered right away to pull the green and neutral 1 1/2’’ strips from the Scrap User’s System drawers and put them in my van so I wouldn’t forget for evening sewing time.

I have plans this morning to play hooky with my friend Martha.  We are heading out to go look at a treadle machine she is interested in, and that meant getting all mail order caught up yesterday so it can just be dropped off this morning on my way to meet her.

And I had Andrea and her hubby come from Yadkin Valley Quilts in Elkin, NC come up in the afternoon to tour the inn and to make plans for the retreat the shop is hosting in April. 

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A Little Bit of Irish Luck!

This happened yesterday!

As temperatures remained well below the freezing point, and snow fell silently in the finest crystals possible, I gave up every idea of going to the Quiltville Post Office to do some long arm quilting and declared it a stay in and stay warm kind of sew day.

I could have easily just dug right into the Sugar Loaf block kits that are waiting for me in a basket next to my machine, but another deadline crept into view the closer we get to March.

March is going to be VERY busy for me – I’ve got two back-to-back sessions to teach at Empty Spools Seminar in Asilomar, California.  There are retreats also scheduled at Quiltville Inn, so deadline quilts need to be pushed forward a bit.

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