Where Leaf Peepers Roam -

Riding “shotgun” on the way back from town -

35 mph in a 55!

If the sky had been blue and the sun had been shining instead of this constant drizzle of rain we’ve had for days on end – you’d see the yellows, golds and some oranges in a more brilliant light.

This is “Leaf Peeper Season”, where all the city folk from Charlotte, Greensboro, and beyond wind their way up toward the mountains for a glimpse of autumn splendor.

And if I didn’t have frozen goods in the truck needing to make it to the freezer ASAP I wouldn’t have minded! 

It’s an Autumn Appalachian Traffic Jam!

It hit me when we arrived at the gate that by the time I am back up here for Thanksgiving (Two more teaching events this year, and no time to come back up in between them!) all color will be done and gone.  I will have missed the “peak” of the season.

Waiting for that gate to open.

My own color from the porch -

Already with the thinning of the leaves I can see surrounding ridges.

I recorded a little panoramic video just to give you an idea of what I see from the porch as of yesterday.  When I come back – it will be different! (And I will get another video for you then as well.)

Click to play:

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A post shared by Bonnie K Hunter (@quiltville_bonnie) on Oct 27, 2018 at 8:23am PDT

My yesterday, other than the short drive to town to pick up some things – was spent at the machine working hard on some “behind the scenes projects.”  Other than that foray to town I never left the sewing room other than to fix lunch or dinner – and it wasn’t until 8pm last night that I finally reached this point:

Stay stitching the edges until borders can be added.

This is just a quick peek at a project that has been years in the making.  The basket blocks are from a previous Addicted to Scraps column – I’ve loved making them, digging into my hoard of charm squares for the basket bases and using bonus triangles and others for the smaller half-square triangle units.  It was the setting that stumped me.  I wanted something a bit different, and I think I finally achieved it!

Now I’m stuck on what to do for borders- but I know that will come too.  I just didn’t have the stash up here to do it -

One of the comments that came through instagram last night was:

Do you feel this way about your stash?

My answer:

And this goes right along with our Quiltville Mystery happening soon – very soon. (3 more sleeps until colors are released! YAY!) 

My theory – People get hung up on buying only one designer’s fabric lines.  Or one style of fabric genre. And they all match.  It’s like the manufacturer saved their specific dye lot, and it doesn’t matter when their fabric was released – they are all the same.  Same scale, same feel, same colors very little variation.  

It’s like the designers are pigeon-holed into only sewing from that range of colors and fabrics and style for the rest of their lives, vowing never to change.  Not ever.

And if all you do is gravitate toward one style of fabrics be it Civil War era, 1930s, modern whatever – then your quilt will not have enough variety to make it as interesting as you might want it to be.

So love your designers – but venture farther a field.  Throw it all in.  Play with color families, but don’t make them designer or manufacturer specific. 

The photo above includes fabrics from the 70s, 80s, 90s, early 2000s, and current 2018!  That’s what I love about scrap quilts.  It all goes in.  There is a place for everything to play from 1970s calicoes to recycled shirts to batik and beyond. The more the very much merrier.

Expand your stash!  Gather variety from where you can.  Enjoy the treasure hunt and mix it all in.

What’s really funny is that my friend Martha whom I met with earlier this week at her farm was talking about this UFO project she had with the Christopher Columbus Discovery anniversary fabric in it, the one that said 1492-1992  and I said “Yes, I have that one – I just sewed with it the other day!” And I was able to pick up my phone and show her photos of these blocks.  She cracked up, was highly amused, but also extremely intrigued.

If you look closely at the photo – top basket block, it’s the neutral triangle right above the center aqua plaid triangle.  Also found in the bottom basket block, next to the black triangle. 

Hey, it’s a neutral text print!  What is old is new again! 

Next up on deck!

I started sewing these Little Monkey blocks from the free patterns tab at the top of the blog during a Quilt-Cam segment many moons ago.  I re-discovered the bag with many of the sets ready to sew.  I love these!  They are so easy and come from short strip sets and little scraps.  There is nothing cuter than a small churn dash.

Not sure what they will be yet, and I need another project like a hole in the head since I’ve got the Halloween Chain & Hourglass blocks kitted up and ready to go to West Virginia this week – but I just can’t resist.  Have you checked out the Little Monkey pattern?

It’s a heading home day.  Sunday Leaf Peeper driving all the way, I am sure.

I’m planning on heading out right after lunch – a few days at home ahead.

Quiltville Quote of the Day.

Vintage Quilt found in Salem, VA.

My life will never be totally neat and clean, and neither will my studio!

Create beauty through chaos!

Have a wonderful, restful Sunday everyone!