A Head Start to Louisville!

This is it.

This is the completed hexagon medallion for Jeff.

The funny thing is, and I am sure you see it too if you look at it this way – those big star points?  Don’t they look like dog faces?  Sadie faces? 

It wasn’t what I intended, I wanted them to be kind of “heart” shaped, but instead it looks like dog eyes and noses.

Happy accident?  We got Sadie when Jeff was in high school.  She’s been a huge part of our lives over the past 12 years, so perhaps this is a way of keeping her with us for always, too.

Something I need to let everyone know about:

Time out for August!

Due to extensive teaching and lecturing travel, including the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England and important family obligations - orders placed after July 30th, 2018 will not be shipped until AFTER Labor Day, September 3rd 2018.

Thank you for your patience and understanding!

You may still place an order, it will be filled and shipped after September 3rd.

Because I appreciate your support and your patience so much I am putting all digital patterns in the Quiltville Store at 50% off through September 3rd. Use Coupon Code AUG2018 at purchase to redeem discount. Code must be used at time of purchase. Do not forget. No exceptions - no refunds.

I return from England on the 16th. I am flying to Arizona to be with my brother on the 17th, returning the 21st. I will have one day to pack and head up to Pennsylvania.

Somehow we will make this work!

Thank you for your patience!

So yesterday?  It was a good thing I took that hexie quilt top photo BEFORE heading to Durham/Raleigh to meet up with Pepper Cory and transfer the book library from her van to mine –

Man, oh ,man, a lotta books in the van!

We played “Find our parking spot” in front of Nordstroms – 

“I’m in a gray van, parked near the trees.”  

“I’m in the blue van parked at the corner of the building by the trees.”  

“Which trees??”  LOL!

Books transferred and deciding we were hungry, we trundled over (in both vans) to Maggiano’s for a bite of late lunch, celebrating her hubby Rod’s birthday.  So great to meet him in person as well!

But by the time we left the restaurant it was coming down in BUCKETS.  And Rod, the chivalrous guy that he is, plodded off through the downpour to retrieve their van, pick Pepper and I up from where we were staying dry beneath a shop awning and took me back to my car where we headed our separate ways.  They, heading east toward Beaufort, and me west – back to Wallburg where a plan was hatching in my head with each passing mile.

And the rain continued.  Click to play:

A post shared by Bonnie K Hunter (@quiltville_bonnie) on Jul 31, 2018 at 2:05pm PDT

I was able to load up everything that Carrie brought to me from my van load transfer to her truck in Hershey.

Holy box load of STUFF!

Katie had brought 3 sewing machines, pots & pans and other household housewarming gifts to Hershey.  THANK YOU!

I’ve been asked by many if we are going to have machines on hand for those who don’t want to travel with machines.  YES.  Machines will be available for rent, but on a limited availability basis.  I don’t have room to house (nor want to keep up with the maintenance on in spare time.  Spare time? What’s that!?) 16 machines for people to use.  There will be a few.

There were other gifts by wonderful open-hearted quilters as well.  A treadle machine was pony expressed from one quilter to another when they found I was going to be in Hershey.  It’s going to find its way upstairs in one of the landings if it doesn’t come to rest as a bedside table in a bedroom.  We shall see!

Square bread plate.

Also in the van unseen in this photo (besides the stuff going to Kentucky with me) is a beautiful set of china that belonged to Carrie’s great aunt. Seating for 36.  YES!  36!

What’s a girl to do with this kind of china gift?  Find a china hutch!  whoowhooo!  I’ll be on the look out as things are coming together in the dining room.

Now we know that china with a silver rim can’t go in the microwave, and should likely not go in the dishwasher – so there are plain white stoneware every day plates for those who want to use those – but these are SO PRETTY!

The other round plates, bowls, serving pieces, coffee cups and saucers, everything else – is all wrapped and packed in boxes.

But what I am so giddy about? The turquoise of the plates matches the ceiling of the front porch right outside the dining room window.

The china will be in the dining room for “display” but I will gladly welcome guests to use it because things like this SHOULD be used, not just stored in boxes.  Let’s make some memories.  

And if we have to hand wash?  No big deal -

Fill that big farmhouse kitchen sink up with some hot sudsy water and let each person swish and rinse their own.  what’s so hard about that?

Table for 8 DWARFED in this dining room!

There is stuff everywhere.  The table and chairs match the other set we have that will soon come over to join this one.  seating for 16 with loads of room to spare.  Yes.  China hutch.  Gotta find the right one!

And I think that wall next to the door way leading to the den is going to be all book cases for Pepper’s books.

All the stuff you see in the doorway of the den is kitchen stuff waiting to be put away as soon as we touch-up paint the kitchen cupboards this winter.  It’s a winter inside job.

Ahhhhh!

Well, I did it.  I actually slept here last night.  No ghosts.  No nothing, just the sound of cicadas, crickets and other chirping critters in the darkness beyond the window.  And the a/c as it kicked on and off.

This morning I even managed a shower in the clawfoot tub – still managed to get water EVERYWHERE even with shower curtains surrounding the whole thing.

As cut as claw foot tubs are – they are NOT practical or safe.  It’s a bit tricky stepping down to climb out with wet feet.

No, these tubs are going to be replaced by walk in showers.

And because I got water all over the floor and had to mop it up with my bath towel, I ran my first load of laundry here as well.  I think we’ll be keeping that as a guest laundry for retreaters, and plan on putting big commercial sized units in the shop.  This little front loader is going to take forever if we are using it to wash 16 sets of sheets and towels, etc.

It was a good quick visit!

But I’m now on my way to Kentucky as soon as this posts and I can throw myself back in the car.

Oh, and this is a test of another sort.  To see if I can connect the laptop to the wifi we are beaming over from the post office and actually get this to post in a reasonable amount of upload time.

There may not be enough juice to stream Netflix here – but retreaters CAN use wifi for email, Facebook and other social media, and WiFi calling if their phones support it.  Facebook messenger is also a good WiFi app for calling folks when regular cellular service is not available.

I think we’ve got it covered!

Quiltville Quote of the Day!

Vintage nine-patch quilt found in Verona, Virginia.

Plays on words always make me smile and this one comes with meaning!

Have a great Wednesday, everyone!