Take a Deep Breath and PAWS!

This was my yesterday morning.

After a busy and bustling long weekend with the Sisters of the Stash, I spent a calming day with machine, fabric, thread – and DRESDEN!

I think he missed me – or was put out by my in-and-out comings and goings over the past several days as no matter where I turned yesterday, he was there – in my face!

I had “attempted” to quilt this topper when we first moved the long arm machine to the Quiltville Post Office back in May.  (Has it been that long already? YES!)

And I promptly screwed up the quilting in the border, and had to remove the borders (rather than pick out the heinous quilting which would have been a worse job) with the intent to apply new.

New didn’t happen until yesterday.

I’m not in your way, am I?

Can’t you just measure around me?

I’m just holding it down for you while you grab that 4th side from the cutting board!

Seriously – how could anyone resist that face- and you should have heard the purring going on through the whole thing. 

We are this far – and it only took ALL DAY to reach half way!

Or almost all day anyway!

This topper was made with a handful of orphan blocks left from my early 2000’s reproduction phase.  I had made a couple more blocks to bring the total to 16.

I bordered them with left-over four-patches from our Checkerboard Rails Leader & Ender Challenge, and then added a couple extra borders to bring it to size.

Even the backing is not a pretty piece – but better in the quilt than in the stash. 

My thoughts for this one?  Just a pretty topper on one of the porch tables at Quiltville Inn – I can envision a pitcher of ice tea and a collection of glasses with this topper adding a colorful touch as we enjoy the cool shade of the porch and the out doors during the summer months.

Not all quilts need to be show stoppers to be wonderful!

Guy on a scooter stopped in front of the QPO!

Motorcyclists have started appearing in singles, pairs and groups as the weather PROMISES to turn more spring like over the next couple of weeks.  We ALMOST hit 60 yesterday – today we won’t leave the 40’s.  But it’s coming!

Still, it was funny to see this guy scootering up and stopping to get something out of the storage space beneath his seat – and off he went again.  Blue Ridge Parkway bound, perhaps?

The Hubster would laugh and say “Real men don’t ride scooters.”  LOL!

This happened just before evening time!

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I went with Martha to pick up her new treadle machine?

Well, the machine head is still with Lester the fix-it guy – but I told her I had a spare head of the same model (different decals, but that doesn’t matter!) and I would set her up so she could practice and be ready for when her machine head comes home.

This is my model 66 Red Eye – and she is glad for some attention!

We popped her into Martha’s treadle cabinet, attached the belt and got her going.

First on paper – no thread.  This is a great lesson in how to keep the hand wheel moving forward and not backward away from you, which will break the thread if you are really sewing.

After enough paper practice, we threaded her up and set her practicing on some fabric strips, just over and over and over.  Click to Play:

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A post shared by Bonnie K Hunter (@quiltville_bonnie) on Mar 4, 2020 at 2:50pm PST

And when she was ready – we set her to string piecing some 6’’ blocks!

There she goes!

By the time I left – she had the hang of it!

Sewing long strip sets is easy.  Starting and stopping and starting again with smaller pieces is the challenge – String blocks will teach you that!

By last night – this is what was texted to me:

She’s got a good start on it!

We used newsprint as she didn’t have a phone book on hand for foundation paper.  I can solve that issue!

I also have more strings than I know what to do with so I’ll be filling a basket for her to play with.

Another quilter down the treadle machine string block rabbit hole?  Welcome to the club, Martha!

This morning I am excited to welcome a new batch of Quilters to Quiltville Inn!

Rebecca is the group-mom for a group of  group-less singles who have banded together to form their own group! Rebecca is from near by West Virginia, and what is amazing is that she has family ties to this area, so she is anxious to visit the courthouse to find records, and check out the cemeteries in the area to see if she can locate the resting places of those who have passed long ago.  I would love to wander those cemeteries with her.

One of our ladies is flying in from ALASKA!  Many of the group arrived yesterday afternoon and are staying near by so they will be ready to arrive at Quiltville Inn this morning.

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

Family is everything. Home means the world to me.

I hope this group of Quiltvillians will feel at home over the next few days while stitching away at their home away from home!

It’s Thursday – what will you do with yours?