Home for a Day!

Picture perfect driving home from the cabin!


This was yesterday afternoon about 3pm, just across the state line from Virginia into North Carolina. 

I absolutely love coming up over the rise and seeing this stretched before me on my way to Sparta.  And then on to Elkin…finally making my way to I-77 and then to highway 421 and on to I-40 that takes me home.

I don’t enjoy the interstates nearly as much as I love the back roads and two-lane highways.  And the winding ones?  I was laughing as stuff was sliding around in the back of the van which was mostly empty.  Since our move, we’ve left the second row of seats out of the van to haul more “STUFF”.  Let’s just say it was good that I didn’t have watermelons or bowling balls back there because they would have played bumper pool with every curve.

Memorial Day was very low key.  While I kept the reason for the holiday close to heart, I counted my blessings that I am here and able to do every day ordinary chores thanks to the sacrifice so many gave.

As I drove home I was touched by the American flags that flew in front of humble houses along the country roads, and even hit a remnant of what WAS the Memorial Day parade in Sparta. The classic cars and old firetrucks and other vehicles were slowing traffic down to a crawl as I passed businesses in the old down town area festooned with Americana in celebration.

I smiled at an old guy walking his dog – the dog had a patriotic bandana around its neck.  These small country towns in the backwoods of nearly nowhere stand American Proud.

I came home solo – Sadie and The Hubster are staying an extra day to meet up with the electrician for help with the fan wiring.  It’s going to be a big job to get those “haunted” fans switched out.  One look at the box behind the switch plate let us know that things are so confuzzled in there that we don’t want to tackle it on our own.  Some things are just NOT plug & play!

But there were some things we DID take care of ourselves this weekend.  Finishing touches that have been waiting the past couple of months for their turn to be hung:

Quilts were finally hung behind beds upstairs!

I made this quilt around 2003.  It doesn’t have a name.  It was before I made patterns available to the public.  My blog didn’t start until 2005 and though I had a few scrap quilt patterns available on my website before then, this wasn’t one of them.  Florabunda from the Free Patterns tab is on the bed, along with a beloved gifted Grandmother’s Flower Garden.

Log cabin Quilt behind this bed!

The log cabin blocks are paper pieced and mini in size.  There is no pattern available for this one either as it is also from the “before publication” phase of my life.  On the bed is Lady of Lake Erie, a pattern I had in Quiltmaker Magazine early early on.  At the foot of the bed is Lozenges from the Free Patterns tab, a previous Leader & Ender challenge.

Loft rearrange!

The Hubster sometimes works remotely.  Work is never done for either of us, and let’s just say I got tired of having two computer monitors on the dining area table at all times.  We moved furniture around at my suggestion and took the IKEA table/desk from my downstairs studio and put it p here for his work space.  It’s a good trade off!  The only thing is that the ceiling fan up here doesn’t have a light fixture and it’s kind of limited on light up here. 

We found out with the great room ceiling fan that you simply can not add a light fixture if there is no 3rd wire for you to hook it to.  Hence the electrician that is coming by today.  I NEED LIGHT!  I want to have not only the fans changed out in the dining and great room areas, but to install a light fixture to this fan up here if possible.  It depends on what wires are already present.  And it’s not a sheet rock ceiling that would be easy to pull new wires through.  We are talking about pine ceilings with no crawl space.

I cleaned!

One of the honey-dos was mounting the sound bar beneath the TV, and moving the Singer 15-91 and cabinet from the upstairs now-office-area to where the computer desk/table was.  It’s a good switch.

Pictures added!

I found these canvases at Walmart and they just embody how I think and feel.  Live your life without regrets. (Which also means making wise choices!) And Life is a Journey, NOT A RACE!

The rug adds a nice touch of color breaking up the overwhelming pine.

As this is a walk-out basement, the walls are partially underground.  They are also solid pine, making hiding wires a bit of a challenge.  Maybe I’ll hang a quilt beneath the TV to partially hide those wires?  Or just give up and not care?

Last night’s stitching adventure.

I am down to some pretty tough pending deadlines.  I counted the quilts I have done for the next book down the pipeline and I’m 3 short.  3 nearly bed sized quilts short. Two are in progress, but I need to make FASTER progress!  I sat down to work on these string snowballs, and give a bit of a workout to my 1961 Singer 328k, a machine I don’t sew on often.

Love the hammered finish!

Her serial # ES313577 gives her a commission date of January 27, 1961 (She was 1 year old when I was born!) and there are 40,000 machines of this model in the same range of serial numbers from this date.  INCREDIBLE amount of machines. Can you imagine 40,000 machines lined up end to end?

I was thinking of re-homing her, but she is SO sweet.  I love that “frog eye” lamp.  The drop-in class 66 bobbins mean she holds a lot of thread and the needle is threaded front to back.  She does zig-zag and fancy stitches via cams. (That I’ve never played with.) I’ve used her for zig-zagging batting scraps together, but because she is a zig-zag machine her feed dogs are a bit wider than I like for patchwork piecing.  But we got along just great last night while making these blocks!

I’ve decided that she is indeed a keeper.

This morning’s trim up of last night’s piecing.

Today there is a long list of things to get done so I can get to the dentist in the morning and hit the road for Kentucky as soon as I’m done there.

I’ve been asked about Quilt-Cam, but it’s going to have to happen after Kentucky!

I’m also remembering the last time I stayed at Irene’s house and how bad the phone connection was, so be patient with me if posts don’t come – I know I’ve said it before and we’ve been lucky, but since I’m staying with my friend instead of at a hotel, my connection may not be great. 

Quiltville Quote of the Day!

Today I start here. Vintage nine patch quilt shared by Cathy Boo.

Make it a good Tuesday, everyone!

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