Hit the Road, Bonnie!

Shamu is loaded to the gills.

I’ve got a full tank of gas and a whole day to get me to Columbia, MD!

What kind of adventures can I stir up today? 

I am in the mood for some antique mall haunts.

I want to walk down aisles laden with “STUFF”.  I want to see what there is to see…..both the best thing, and the worst most ridiculous thing are always fun to search for.

((Sometimes the silly stuff really makes my day!))

I’ve packed a featherweight and a couple of projects for evening time sewing.  I’ll be gone a week, so there should be some opportunities for stitching in there.

Audio books are at the ready for my long drive.  I’ve got my kindle in case I am just too tired to sew at night and just want to lose myself between the digital pages of a book.

This is the time of year I love – when the world awakens and all turns green.  Trees are flowering all over the place in North Carolina and I am expecting the same up through Virginia and into Maryland.  I’ve packed my lunch, and perhaps I’ll find a lovely park or rest area with picnic tables to enjoy some outsidedness.  I long to be OUTSIDE.


Yesterday Mona was up early, ready and raring to go on loading her second quilt, a couch snuggly string quilt, into the long arm.

Ironing the backing fabric.  Isn’t this adorable?!

Vintage Machines!!

Mona IS a Quilt Diva in the making!  See her there?

Clipping threads and making sure everything is ready to roll.

Aren’t these scraps fun??

If you haven’t yet tried string quilting, click the Free Patterns tab at the top of the blog for my String Quilting Primer.  Lots of inspiration there, and hopefully you will find yourself not scared anymore, and ready to dig in and begin.

Mona did use phone book paper foundations for these blocks.  We let the size of the phone book dictate what size of blocks we would have.  These finish at 7”.  Set your stitch length to 1.5 on a digital machine, about 14 –16 stitches per inch on a vintage machine.  Remove the paper after squaring the blocks.  There is no need to sew the entire quilt together with paper still in the blocks – who wants to pick that out of the seam allowance?  Yucky!

Just coming off the machine – a Happy Mona!

Lovely!

Using a large square ruler to square the corners and trim the sides before binding.

So cute with that backing fabric!

Trimmed and ready for binding!

She was able to get the binding on before heading back up to the mountains late yesterday afternoon.  I got a text last evening that she has already finished the hand stitching on one long side of the quilt she finished on Monday!  Powerhouse, I tell ya!  It is so fun and so rewarding to show someone how it’s done, and have them just blow forward in eagerness to learn with no fear and no reservations.  No worrying about “Does this go with this?” “Can I put this next to this?”  NO RULES!  No preconceived notions on having to use one fabric line from one designer or manufacturer to make a quilt….ultimate freedom of expression.

Joy!

I am out the door…I’ll catch you from Maryland later!  Have a super Wednesday, everyone!

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