Happy LAST day of February, everyone! You won’t believe this – but yesterday I saw blooming trees in my immediate surroundings, amazing to me since they were not blooming when I drove home from Virginia on Sunday night. Well, I take that back. It was dark, I could not SEE anything blooming whether they were nor not – so it surprised me last evening when Jeff and I drove out for dinner to see all of these trees blooming with white! LOVELY! It’s coming. Spring is really coming. And that makes this day the perfect day to celebrate with a bit-later-than-usual February Quilty Box Gift-Away.
It was a perfect evening for a bit of Quilt-Cam time in Facebook Live last night! All of the mail order went out like clock work, thanks to my handy helper Jeff! I honestly don’t know what I would do without him working for me part time. I’d love to make it full time – but we would need MORE for him to do. He is my all-things-techie guy as well. So glad to have him as part of Quiltville. The best part of Quilt-Cam is seeing what photos YOU have to share with me – of projects, of new grandbabies upon baby quilts, of new sewing spaces, or reorganization of what you have, and all of the excitement of what comes forth when hanging with one’s TRIBE. We get each other. We understand. It’s such a comfortable supportive place to be! We also started something NEW last night.
You knew I couldn’t stop, didn’t you? I was 10 red string blocks short on the one project I was counting on working on. The other “On the Go” project was packed and ready to fly to California on Wednesday. What else is a girl to do but keep going? So is it still a legitimate Leader & Ender project if I am using block parts to build more blocks while building rows? I think so! As long as one unit is being left under the presser foot at all times, you are Leader & Endering – right? At any rate – This was the project before me and I didn’t want to leave the cabin without a finish.
There is nothing that makes me happier than an abundant display of Quiltville quilts during a workshop or guild meeting. We ALL know the hours that go into just one finished quilt project. When you see dozens and dozens come in on ONE day –it takes my breath away! This tells me two things – or maybe more. 1. WE CRAVE THE CREATIVE PROCESS! 2. We are not afraid of color – or small pieces. Okay, and how about this one – when we see what others bring, we are inspired and lifted and on fire to do MORE of what we love. When we are creating beauty, we are restoring our souls. Can you feel it?
Did you think I had forgotten? No! But I did adjust the drawing day just a bit because I ended up driving to the cabin, arriving on Thursday night too late to do it. I simply thought Saturday Morning would be a good WEEKEND kind of way to celebrate. I have finished reading my own copy of Margaret Goes Modern by Frances O’Roak Dowell, and I know you are going to love this one too. In fact, I got a message from Frances stating “Within 24 hours of your posting it, sales of both of my books skyrocketed. I'm so thrilled and so appreciative.” THANK YOU for purchasing this book, and for sharing your love of it with others. The little things we do may seem insignificant, but you are making someone’s dream come true, one book at a time. And we want to KEEP her writing! Remember we are drawing for THREE lucky winners, all to receive a signed copy of Margaret Goes Modern from Frances herself. Whoowhooo! Our of 3,157 entries I have drawn:
Hurry, hurry! The visitor’s center was closing at 5pm, and we needed some information and a walking map before lock-up time. We almost didn’t make it, the 4 of us stopping in our tracks on the curve of the drive, hands over hearts as we watched the park service representative carefully and respectfully lower the flag from the pole in front of us, a reminder of what this place is, and was in the past. A battlefield of horrific carnage, Union against Confederate in the war between the states that changed the direction of this country forever. The gentleman behind the counter, beginning his close down and lock up process was happy to stop his activities, answer some questions and send us on our way out the back door for some exploring.
I do believe it is completely possible to squeeze in as much quilting in a 4 hour afternoon workshop session as it is a 6 hour full day workshop with lunch served in the middle. ABSOLUTELY possible if the ‘powers that be” whip up a wonderful buffet spread of salad and sandwich fixings, fruit, veggies and dip, and some yummy dessert items to grab and go as we sew. It was a Graze and Stitch day – perfect while we worked on building a whole village of cute little houses from our scraps. Students were encouraged to come with kits already cut and prepared for easy and quick house construction. (Yes, once again – how did we EVER live without zip lock baggies? I am the baggie queen!) We worked these houses a bit out of order, starting with the chimney section as it is the most crucial with the most seams per section. If your seam allowance is a bit off, you won’t reach the 8’’ unit measurement and everything gets shaky from there. I loved hearing whoops and cheers as one by one, all of my stitchers stitched, measured, adjusted their seams so that they were reaching that 8’’ long unit size!
Break out the bunny ears - Workshop selfies made much more fun with Snapchat filters! Hahaha! This was Jennifer’s idea, and I knew I loved her the moment she did this to our photo. How can you NOT smile at someone wearing a bunny nose and fuzzy ears? The only thing missing was twitching whiskers. It’s more fun than a hall of mirrors. At least these ears don’t make me look fat! And it was fun and silly all day long with the Virginia Star Quilters of Fredericksburg, Virginia. It was February 20th – and it reached 75 blissful degrees outside. My only regret? We were sewing INSIDE instead of outside!
My buddy Kevin, the mastermind behind this terrific event in Bedford, Virginia! A talented and full-of-life quilter in his own right, he chaired this event, being the contact person for all of the emails coming from all over the state of Virginia and beyond, including Arkansas and Kansas! In case you are wondering about our very stylish hand dyed one-of-a-kind shirts, Kevin does these himself. I fell in love with the mono-print shirt I’m wearing, and when he told me how the process was completed, one step at a time, taking more than 48 hours to complete all the steps, I knew I had to have it. Don’t we all just love our quilt-wear? I also love how we blended in to Kevin’s On Ringo Lake quilt, done in Mardi Gras colors, and therefore called Bourbon Street! Or was it Midnight on Bourbon Street? I’ve likely butchered it, but I’m sure he will correct me. Thanks again for the 3 years of planning, my friend! We pulled it off with flying colors – and scraps! Hooray!
Afternoon crowd on a beautiful sunshine filled Sunday! I was just tickled with the turn out in Bedford, and when the audience is as interactive and into it as this one, we had some great laughs going, interesting interaction with questions from the audience, and a whole lot of down-home Virginia quilty good times! Starting a 1pm, left me the morning to take at a more leisurely pace. Emails cleared out of the inbox. phone calls answered. ducks all placed in a row for future venues coming up quickly. And with still more than a hour to go before I had to leave Lynchburg for Bedford, about a 1/2 hour drive - I was able to do some more of this:
This kind of a crazy fun day was had by all as we met together in Bedford, Virginia for a day of what could be described as “Death by Triangles!” LOL! Small, yes – but tiny, no! And these are easy to sew being cut from matched pairs of strips, ready to sew. Short seams make the process fast and nearly painless. You’ll find Scrap Crystals in my book MORE Adventures with Leaders & Enders. And yes, there are 96 pieces in each 12’’ block. But who’s counting? Tasks like this are always less tedious when we are sewing with friends – or Sisters! Or mothers and daughters! Of course you can’t see the family resemblance with these two at all, right? So NOT obvious! I see Pat & Jeanette and instantly break into strains of “Sisters, Sisters – there were never such devoted sisters….” I LOVED SEEING THEM!
It’s been a number of years since I’ve been to Lynchburg, but this little city holds so much charm, right in the heart of Virginia. A college town, with Liberty University at the forefront at its center (and thereby explaining all of the crazy traffic at all hours!) it is also a town with a lot of interesting history behind it. And some really NICE independent businesses in the downtown area as well –of course mixed right in with the “strip mall of usuals” that you’ll find along the main drag. I can get to Target or Dick’s Sporting Goods anywhere. I didn’t need to go there. I headed downtown.
I’m off to Virginia today! Just a mere 2 1/2 hour drive up the road. Shall we see how long it can take me and how many antique mall stops I can throw in for good measure? It’s just a “GET THERE” day, and of all of the road trip states in the union, Virginia is LOVELY to drive through. We are still mid-February, and things aren’t really ready to turn green yet, but it is coming. Open road, audio book, beautiful scenery and plenty of stops on my way. I’ll be hitting the road as soon as some “must do’s” happen this morning. I thought this would be the PERFECT time to let you in on some really good reading with a new release by one of my favorite quilty authors, Frances O’Roark Dowell!
I don’t remember when I spent the last Valentine’s Day home, either! It makes me think of the good old classic movie “Holiday Inn” a favorite around the Hunter Household. While Holiday Inn sets its premise on being ONLY open on Holidays, leaving the rest of the year for Bing Crosby to sing “Lazy, I wanna be lazy….” I think that blocking off the holidays on ones calendar if possible and making them special for yourself, is definitely a gift! I know it doesn’t always work out that way, but this was nice! And to set the theme for the day, I set in to some theme sewing as soon as I was back from my valentine morning visit to the doc and my yearly poke, prod, question and check out of check up activities.
Just way too cool! That’s the first thing that comes to mind when trying to describe what it was like yesterday morning, getting ready to go to work like “Normal Folks” telling my family to have a good day as I headed out the door – “I’ll be home by dinner!” And I was! Yesterday’s Smith Mountain Morning workshop from my book Scraps & Shirttails II hosted by the Forsyth Piecers & Quilters of Winston Salem, NC was GRAND! And so was the space. The church where they meet has a huge community hall with room to spread out. The lighting was great, there was a kitchen facility – but most of all it was filled with happy quilters ready to dig in and learn the ins and outs of specialty rulers for half-square triangles, quarter square triangles, and tri-recs units!
I had a wonderful time presenting to a large crowd of close to 200 quilters last night in Winston Salem, North Carolina – My home town! We scheduled these dates about 4 years ago. I never thought they’d arrive, but they did. We penciled these dates in to the first opening I had on my schedule at that time – when things were crazily booked that far out. (As much as 5 years out at one point.) It was some time around there that I really started to think about things, realizing that NO ONE knows what they will be doing 4 to 5 years down the road and I needed to leave a light on at the end of the tunnel. As of this month I have lived here for 10 years. 10 years and I barely know a handful of people, and the ladies you see waving here are the first group that welcomed me when we were just barely starting to house hunt in the Winston Salem area. Thanks for coming out, ladies! I think I was more nervous presenting locally than I am when across the country. These are my home team. If I bomb, I’ll never live it down here! LOL!
Quilt-Camhappened yesterday! via Facebook Live on my Quiltville Facebook Page! It was so nice to take some time out on Sunday, mid-afternoon and just put the pieces through the machine. I heard from several who were also taking time out from the Olympics to watch along and share what they were working on. And of course you know how I love it when the vintage machines come out to play. Even better when they are operated by your adorable grandkids – start them young, let them have fun! This photo came in from Chris of her friend’s granddaughter on the hand crank. SO SWEET!
And the Show & Share came and inspired all! While never formally announced, yet always anticipated – if you come to one of my workshops, PLEASE bring anything that you want to share with others. We do a fun a quick show & share at the end of our lunch break, giving us a chance to know each other just a bit better, and it was WONDERFUL since we had folks join us from as far away as south Georgia (Nearly Florida!) Myrtle Beach, Charleston and all around. I love to see what you’ve been making! Isn’t this Santa Fe String Star from String Fling just gorgeous?
One can NOT go on a long road trip and not plan strategic places to stop, stretch the legs, use the facilities, and find some goodies in the process! We all laughed during my time in Anderson ,SC – when asked “How long was your drive?” The answer was – 4 hours, but it took me 8. HA! When it is only a day to GET THERE, we can take as long as it takes. In this case….until the shops closed at 5pm which ended my wandering and put me on a beeline from Greenville to Anderson in time for dinner. Solo road trips – I LOVE THEM! I can listen to audio books all the way, sing in the car as long as I want to my 70s Pandora channel, grab a quick late lunch at Taco Bell (Because eating crunchy tacos while driving is not car friendly!) and search for the next place to stop. My Waze app is very used to the “Antique Mall Near Me” search prompt!
Spring is around the corner. Just there…just out of reach, but it’s coming! Can you feel it? Even walking through the grocery store I see it in the brightly wrapped containers of potted bulbs, eager to bloom. I can feel it in the seasonally changing displays in clothing departments of stores, or the home and garden section readying itself for the onslaught of purchasers ready to put this winter behind and BRING ON SPRING! It certainly felt that way in Anderson, South Carolina over the past couple of days. It’s only a 4 to 5 hour drive down the road from my home near Winston-Salem, North Carolina (Even if it took me 8 hours door to door due to 3 antique mall stops and a break at Mary Jo’s Cloth Store in Gastonia, NC on my way!) Yesterday when leaving the workshop location and starting my journey home, it was 61+ OH YES OH YES OH YES! Only – I was driving northeast, and as I made my way with the sun setting behind me, I watched the temps drop degree by degree….Oh, come on Spring! I am so ready for you!
Mothers & daughters. Sisters & cousins. Long time friends on a 6 hour road trip to Anderson, South Carolina from WAY SOUTH Georgia.. We had it all in yesterday’s workshop with the Prickly Fingers Quilt Guild and friends! And yes, it was pouring buckets outside – but we were inside the beautiful Anderson County library in a big and brightly lit beautiful space just sewing away to our heart’s content. Isn’t there just something that touches your heart when mother’s & daughters come and sew together, building memories? It just tugs all of my heartstrings at once, in all of the right ways.
Did you think I’d forgotten?? I’ve been home since late late Friday night (well, okay – technically early early Saturday morning) and I didn’t post the fabulous quilts that were brought to our workshop and lecture events while visiting the three Florida guilds. It’s been one scheduled post after another and since Monday was our last Link-Up day for On Ringo Lake (Have you checked the shares there?!) and since Jeff really DID deserve his own post yesterdayall about the gifted machine, Show and share falls to TODAY! And it will be worth the wait, I promise you! Florida is a land of many wonders, including MANY great quilt shops. You know what they say about the heat of a Florida summer? It’s a “reverse winter.” Too hot to be out, so quilters stay in and sew. There is beautiful sunshine outside the comfort of the air-conditioning! But the best part? Unlike snow, you don’t have to shovel it. Just deal with a hurricane aftermath every once in a while. Isn’t Terri’s On Ringo Lake GORGEOUS?! It was wonderful to see the many finishes popping up all over the place.
This happened on Saturday. With the new postal increases and changes, it was also time to change some things in our mail order processing at home. Oh, it’s still taking place between the stock room which is off the Hubster’s office and the dining room table, but now that Jeff is working for me part-time, we needed this to flow a bit better. We’ve got it down to a system! And the new Zebra thermal printer spits out mailing labels complete with tracking info at a rapid fire pace – no more printing on plain paper, folding and taping it to the package. Whoowhooo! It’s the little things, and from the way I look at it – a continuation of the 56 days of Birthday Celebration! And it continues, there is more! Upon picking me up at the airport Friday night, my sweet son was so pleased with himself that he could hardly contain his excitement, nor keep his secret until we got home. “I have something for you.” “Oh, really? What is it?” “It’s in the basement!” He scarcely gave me time to bring in the bags (It was nearing 1am by this time we crossed the threshold) before we were clambering down the basement stairs and into my studio.
I am just blown away at the wonderful inventive On Ringo Lake finishes that are happening from all over this wonderful world of ours.
I LOVE to see you your vision.
I love it when you use my designs as a jumping off spot and let your own creative muse direct you to the finish you see dancing in your head.
I am honored and humbled that you have walked this exciting mystery journey with me for yet another year, and I hope there will be many, many to come!
If you are on Instagram, I hope you have been following along with our hash tags #onringolakequilt and #quiltvillemystery. There is a “new” feature in instagram that allows you to keep up with the other posts using these tags, and they appear right in your news feed, so instead of trying to remember to click a hash tag to see what else has been posted, BAM! There they are! And I have gotten to know so many of you and follow along with what you are doing because you are in my feed by hash tag default. Love it!
I haven’t stopped smiling since I arrived in Ocala, Florida on Thursday afternoon. You see, I spent a remarkable few hours (not long enough!) in possession of a very special featherweight sewing machine. Not that the machine itself was out-of-the-ordinary by any means. It wasn’t rare, or even in exceptional condition, the decals in the front having been worn off through years of sewing. So what made it so special? Read on, my friends, read on!
Quilters Pumping Iron!! And don’t they look like they are having a fun time of it? One of the dreaded events always looming in the background as a traveling teacher, and guilds who use churches for their meetings and workshop locations is the probably inevitability of cancelation of their space due to a funeral. In all of my years of traveling and teaching this way (Nearly 12 years!) it has NEVER happened. Until Ocala.
And we did it again! The Lake County Quilters of Mt Dora, Florida ALSO chose Talkin’ Turkey from String Fling for their 2nd workshop day, and I couldn’t be more happy to share my love of string piecing and working with specialty rulers like the Essential Triangle Tool with a nicer group of ladies! I think the fact that we had also had this class with the Racing Fingers Quilters in Daytona just a couple days previous, and photos were showing what a great time we were having and an effect on this class as well. These quilters were just as ready to fire up their machines and let the scraps fly!
We made it through! January is a thing of the past! These “Ary” months, the ones that end in ARY – January, February, are things barely tolerated by my warm weather loving soul. One more Ary month to go, and we are home free! And February is a SHORT ONE, making up for the extra day in January. With the coming of February, also comes the retirement of On Ringo Lake as a mystery-of-many-parts and the offering of the pattern in digital form in the Quiltville Store. After many many requests over the past mystery retirements, I am listening to your wants and this year our digital download includes EVERYTHING from our mystery parts, in a more coherent format. (Not scrambled to keep you guessing!) All of the hints, helps, tips & tricks are there including the optional ways to do each unit, just as it was presented while the On Ringo Lake mystery was running here on the blog. Learn to fine tune your scrap quilt piecing through the use of specialty rulers and optional assembly methods! This 20-page full color in-depth workshop is an easy to read and follow PDF booklet full of hints, helps, tips & tricks with many photos to guide you through each step. Discover your own place On Ringo Lake! Everything previously presented during our Quiltville 'On Ringo Lake' Mystery is included in this printable booklet. You won't miss a thing!
