Time to QUILT!

Upon leaving the dentist yesterday, I phoned my mom, giving her the same line we were so proud of as kids after visiting the dentist: “Look, mama!  NO CAVITIES!”

We giggled together, and she said that her dad, my grandpa, and also the first dentist I ever knew would have been “So proud of his granddaughter!”.

Grandpa is the one that taught me to never fear the dentist, they only want to help.  And that numb is my friend – when needed!

My semi-annual checkup and cleaning always brings my grandpa close to my heart.  Oh, how I miss him!

I passed this barn on my way and had to stop and take a photo!

These guys were not impressed!

Grandpa was so on my heart as I drove the hour and a half it takes to get to the cabin that after hanging up with mom, I called my Aunt Joy, who has also been on my mind a lot lately.  We had a good good talk, and we are brainstorming having her, my mom and my Aunt Gail, the three musketeers who came on the July Alaskan Cruise with me, plan a trip to come stay with me at the cabin – this one or the next one –in as NEAR future as we can plan it.

And this is also for all of you who helped to make my cousin Bethany's dream come true as she heads off on a mission trip to Aruba in January:

I cannot believe the amount of support from you all, so amazing! My entire trip is covered and the extra will be able to go directly to the charity to help buy food, leashes and medicine for the animals. My heart is overflowing ️ please let all your followers and friends know how truly grateful I am for all of their support and kind words.

Thank you thank you thank you for everything you have done to make this possible!

Getting dark and rainy!

I love when I finally get close enough that I can see the mountains rise in the distance.  The winter solstice can not come soon enough for me.  I loathe this dark early thing –and I don’t like driving in it. To make matters worse, it started pouring just outside of Wilkesboro.  We need the rain.  I am grateful for the rain.  I just don’t like to be driving in it.

CABIN SEWING TIME!!

My body was stronger than my will last night.  I sewed ONE seam joining row 1 and 2 together.  And then realized that I didn’t have ANY quarter-square triangle sets cut for this years on-going Hourglass Leader & Ender Challenge.  I need GREEN/NETRUAL sets.  My attention turned to pulling out some green and neutral 2’’ strips and cutting pairs so they are ready to go (if you look close, they are in this photo just below the purple handled scissors on the machine bed.)

Guess what came out to play??

My Essential Triangle Tool to the rescue! I need to cut QUARTER square triangles, but here I am using the red lines for the half –square triangles first to make good use of the normally wasted ends so I can save them in a usable size for another project down the road.  Those triangles will finish at 1 1/2’’ which is I size I use a lot, so they go into a baggie marked with the size and saved for later. So nice to be able to do this with ONE RULER, not TWO as I used to do!

Ready to cut a matched pair!

If you stack your fabrics, neutral and color with right sides together you can cut these in matched pairs that are ready to feed through the machine.  This means less handling, and quicker sewing of pairs!  Here I’m using the quarter-square triangle markings – the green lines!

Cutting down my strip set to get what I can.

when I reached the end of the strip set and couldn’t get any more quarter-square triangle pairs, I switched back to the red lines and trimmed that last bit as a half-square triangle and set it aside in the baggie with the others from the beginning of the strip set.  Total strip annihilation with NO WASTE and ONE RULER!

Today I’m ready to finish assembling the pumpkin quilt center.  I’m thinking of border ideas in my brain as I do so –nothing has gelled yet.  But it will.

Oh, and while all of this was going on I was being supervised --

Through the back side if Sadie’s eyelids!

This morning’s view after our walk.

There is still a lot of rusty-red color in the mountains.  This was before the sun really came out to shine, and right now it is gloriously crisp with a bright blue sky and those russet colors are just amazing.

I’m staying until Tuesday.  I plan to sew my brains out.  I need to use this time to fill my creative need BEFORE that huge load of Essential Triangle Tools arrives in a couple of weeks.  Once that happens, I’ll get back to business, but for now –this is where you will find me.

Just a reminder – if you planned on linking up in our Mystery Monday Link-UP, Part 1  Go check out the entries HERE!  There are 133 participants to date!

The link-up closes at midnight tonight Eastern time, but we will start another one next Monday, so if you miss the deadline, no fear, you can link up in just a few days.

Quiltville Quote of the Day!

I set in this morning to bring a little bit of holiday cheer to my surroundings. This photo is a close-up of a hexie table runner made by my mom. I taught her how to do English paper piecing and she has never looked back!

On it sits a winter themed floral arrangement in a vintage treadle sewing machine drawer. Other items that mean a lot to me are being placed around and it touches my heart to realize that most of them have been made by the hands of those I love.

There is a definite need to be creative within the human spirit. The things we make with our hands we also make with our hearts!

Happy THURSDAY everyone!  Who is ready for TOMORROW!?

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