More Pie, Please!

I love pumpkin pie! I adore pumpkin pie! Is there anything else that smells better baking? I don't think so. Something about the spicy cinnamon-y goodness filling the air and I'm a goner.

In my house, left-over pumpkin pie is considered the perfect breakfast food! It has pumpkin which is a vegetable, right? It has eggs, and milk....which are wholesome, right? There ya go! Left-over pie...I've got my sights set on you!

Today was a lovely laid-back affair with plenty of food, plenty of Nap Time after. I love Nap Time ALMOST as much as I love Pie Time...and I got BOTH! Pie time came after WALK TIME..which came after Nap time...it's a Trifecta of Perfection!



This is what it looked like on my walk about 4:45 this afternoon post-nap. It was kind of drizzly, but not really cold, and I was amazed at how much things have changed since I left for Maryland about 10 days ago. Enough rain and wind has come through that the trees are now mostly bare with just a few stubborn ones hanging on to the leaves that remain. While I was gone last week, a doozer of a storm rolled through and took out two big trees in our front yard. They fell across the driveway with a crash, and there was much chain-sawing the next morning to enable the cars to get up the driveway and out onto the road.



Sadie and I walked and walked, and then when I doubled back for another loop, she cut back to the house and left me to finish on my own! Silly dog! As I walked I noticed things....houses with full driveways, signaling to passers-by that a lot of extended family had gathered there to share the warmth of the holiday. Nice. Some houses had fires going in their fireplaces. I could smell the wonderful wood smoke and I had to giggle to myself ((Okay people, it's probably still over 50 degrees here, and you are burning wood?)) that temperature has little to do with it, it's all about Ambiance!

Someone was BBQ'ing what smelled like ribs off their back deck. ((Hey, it IS North Carolina! We can be thankful for ribs too!))

Further down the street I could smell someone's laundry....you know, that smell of "downy" from the drier vent on the air? Work never stops for a busy mom. It might be a holiday and day off for everyone else, but the MOMS just keep it going....cooking, cleaning, laundry, dishes, planning what is next for the crowd...

I walked until dark in the misty not-quite-rain that was hanging low, and came back in for my much longed for pie. This getting dark at 5:30 is for the birds, but I kind of like the settling in feeling of winter evenings too...the slower pace.

On the Quilty Front:



The multi-decade quilt is quilted! And as I quilted it, I kept finding OTHER blocks that became my new favorites just for the quirkiness they presented!



I chose a panto by Hermoine Agee of Lorien Quilting called "Country Garden". It was perfect! I wanted something leafy/viney because of the many floral fabrics in the quilt, but not something over-done. It still needed to fit the time period and feel of the quilt....

My first thought of course was BAPTIST FANS! But...come on...it's a busy busy quilt, nothing is going to really show anyway, and why not have some fun with the quilting texture?



This block is also one of my new faves! Look at that adorable shirting!



And this one!

I want to thank everyone who posted with their expertise regarding the time period of these fabrics! My good friend Mary Koval, quilt historian and textile-expert-extraordiare left me a post on my face book!



This just tickles me so much! But I tell you, I had the jitters when the machine quilted through that 1870's patch of fabric. I kept telling myself.."IT'S JUST FABRIC, IT'S JUST FABRIC" But you know... :c/ It's a very OLD fabric! Still. It's in good shape, and the top was machine pieced.



It's not a Paducah quilt museum piece. It's a utility quilt. It deserves to be finished. I don't have time to hand quilt everything, nor do I want to. Seeing this machine quilted and finished and preserved so we can enjoy it makes me happy.



This is also one of my faves....see that rectangle pieced every which way?! The patches are not even cut on grain. They are cut however the template would fit on the scraps of fabric. Weeeee! Today I'm grateful for this maverick quilter who made this top...even unfinished...so that I could have it in my life!

The turkey carcass has been simmering in the crock pot. It's time for ME to get back to the kitchen and separate the meat from the bones, strain the broth, and set it in the fridge to separate the fat as it cools for tomorrow's soup!

And then I'm coming back down to the studio to put the binding on the Fungly Thanksgiving Churndash!