The Quiet In Between -

This was where I sat yesterday - late March - the grass possibly a bit damper than I thought it would be, but it was okay - all dried in time.

It was early afternoon, and I had gone back and forth from QPO studio to the inn next door to flip another couple of loads of laundry from washer to dryer and start new loads - 

I love grabbing the loads of sheets fresh and warm from the dryer and taking them upstairs to just place on beds.  No making  of beds right away - I have friend Martha coming to help do that today -

So the sheets just rest in piles on each bed, waiting to be tended to while we chat.

But back to yesterday afternoon - the white daffies are now blooming on the edge of the yard closer to the old woolen mill. Soon the hillside will be covered with flowers beyond where they stand.

There is a rule around here - no mowing or weed-eating of wildflowers until they are DONE!

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Over The Rail, Take Two!

It's March!

What else can we say?  One minute it is bright blue and sunny, but the wind is crazy wild, and the next minute it is cloudy and gray with the wind moving those clouds across the sky with speed that seems only possible in movies with special effects.

Whatever the case - it took us two tries on two days to get decent photos of all of the gorgeous quilts displayed by Irene's Sewciologists -

Don't believe me? Here is what happened on the sunny warm, blustery day:

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Afternoon Spring Sunshine!

Eight of us out and about!

That meant it took two cars to get us here - and that's really exciting for me to have so many willing and raring to go on a road hike up Roundhouse Road.

Some were new - first time Quiltville Inn retreaters and first tie walking up one of our favorite leg stretches in these parts.  

Some were happy to be back again, experiencing all of the emerging signs of spring, both sight and sound.

Here everyone is straddling the state line at the sign - one foot in Allegany County, NC and the other in Grayson County, VA.

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Tula Adventures.

This little story would have been better portrayed by Lucy and Ethel - it's that comedic!

We got the live trap set up on the porch by the kitchen door at the inn after dinner was done and we were heading home.

Yes- that is a depression glass relish dish in the back - we needed something for water and the food bowl took up most of the space so I needed something skinny.

A towel on top to provide some privacy, a crate on top of that to keep the wind from blowing it away -

The rocking chair pulled close next to it to keep the towel in place on the trap side - so it wouldn't flip up during the wind gusts either.

It looks like it would work - it should work?

But what we didn't expect was who it would catch first!

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Where Wild Ponies Roam -

It's that time of year!

The temperatures were up there toward 70 - but let me tell you, the wind was gusty and cold so you'd never guess it was "technically" that warm.

Still - a couple of adventurous retreaters and I headed up to Grayson Highlands for my first Appalachian Trail hike since June of 2022.

Could the foot/ankle handle it?

YES!  Although I'm a bit stiff this morning, there has been no pain/swelling.  Hooray!

As for the ponies - we weren't sure we would see any, and these two new retreaters had never been up here before so I was quite surprised when we spotted our first one, just off the trail!

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That String Star Project -

More time for blue string triangles!

String quilting makes a mess.  It just does.  There is a lot of digging and pulling and sorting - searching for the right fabric to go next to the one I've already sewn in place.

I want the fabrics to still contrast a bit with each other, to enhance each other when laid side-by-side.

Each fabric deserves a place to shine so I try to put a tone-on-tone next to a busy print so two busy prints next to each other don't just morph into a blob of busy-ness.

I'm sure you get my drift!

The job at hand? To do enough string piecing to get the triangle pieces I need to continue to build rows on this project that had reached just short of half-way done and then stalled.

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