The FIRST of two hexie quilt tops I made – one for each son?
The English Paper Piecing was an easy travel project – and traveled with me in my busy bag any time I went anywhere at any time.
My plan was to have two completely hand sewn quilts to leave the boys as their legacy.
When we were still mostly residing in North Carolina, this quilt was always at hand-quilting ready for evening stitching there, and then when we would come up to the cabin “just for the weekend” there would be another hand stitching project in a hoop waiting for me here.
Now we are not much ever THERE, but mostly full time HERE. Which is about as accurate as I can get at this point.
All current binding jobs completed, and the oak leaf hand quilting project currently stashed at Quiltville Inn for my lunch break stitching there, and needing a project last evening, I brought this one out last night.
I LOVE hand work of any kind at night. I know me. I know how I relax. I also know that if I don’t have something in my hands, I close my eyes and miss whatever program we were watching as sleep comes quickly!
It’s going to be lovely working on a holiday colored quilt through the holidays this year. I don’t see any bindings in my near future – I’m caught up for a while!
Yesterday our temps didn’t even reach into the 60s, but it was a beautiful crisp and clear autumn day – some Quiltville Inn guests and I chose the warmest part of the day, around 2pm, to stretch our legs.
I love showing visitors some of the more scenic parts of our county.
It’s looking like autumn down along the New River. We had chosen to hike Round House road close by the inn, saving our trip to Grayson Highlands and the Appalachian Trail for today which is supposed to be warmer and less windy.
Where are you going, Wooly Bear?
Most people in the Midwest or New England have heard at one time or another that if you want a forecast for the upcoming winter that you should just look for a woolly bear (black at both ends and a reddish brown or rust colored in the middle) or fuzzy bear caterpillar.
Yet another name for this caterpillar is the Hedgehog Caterpillar, because it curls into a tight bristly ball and “plays dead” when picked up or disturbed.
Whatever name they go by, they are often found in the autumn after they have left their food plants in search of a dark and sheltered spot where they can hibernate for the winter.
According to folklore, the amount of black on the woolly bear in autumn varies proportionately with the severity of the coming winter in the locality where the caterpillar is found.
The longer the woolly bear's black bands, the longer, colder, snowier, and more severe the winter will be. Similarly, the wider the middle brown band is associated with a milder upcoming winter.
The position of the longest dark bands supposedly indicates which part of winter will be coldest or hardest.
If the head end of the caterpillar is dark, the beginning of winter will be severe. If the tail end is dark, the end of winter will be cold.
In addition, the woolly bear caterpillar has 13 segments to its body, which traditional forecasters say correspond to the 13 weeks of winter.
As with most folklore, there are 2 other versions to this story. The first one says that the woolly bear caterpillar's coat will indicate the upcoming winter's severity. So, if its coat is very woolly, it will be a cold winter.
The final version deals with the woolly bear caterpillar's direction of travel. It is said that woolly bears crawling south are trying to escape the cold winter conditions of the north.
On the other hand, woolly bear's crawling on a northward path would indicate a mild winter. This guy was headed EAST! I have no idea what that indicates. LOL!
Why did the Woolly Bear cross the road? Click to Play:
I would love to think we have a milder winter ahead, but other local folklore say the number of foggy mornings in the fall corresponds with snow storms in the winter and we could get socked in! If so, that hexie quilt may see a lot of stitching happening this winter!
Bad hair selfie, while Lola performs cat balancing tricks!
Audiobooks and Podcasts – such a great way to spend some sewing time!
She knows just what to do when it comes to getting attention!
This was just after our windy walk along the river. I love how she wants to oversee just what I’m stitching.
This is the other excitement that happened close to 5pm yesterday.
Our property includes Quiltville Inn and the QPO, and next to the QPO is the old falling down general store - corner of it seen on the left. (Yes, it really needs to be torn down.)
The General store at the T intersection makes that stop a fairly blind stop, and highway 58 comes screaming across and folks don’t slow down to the 35mph speed limit.
Up past the inn is a blind mountain curve – and as folks round that curve at high speeds, not slowing down, more than one turning car has been hit by someone screaming by.
I would love it if the state would offer to bulldoze the general store to make that a much safer corner for everyone!
No one was hurt, but fire trucks and police, and then the flat bed wrecker hauler that came blocked that intersection for quite a while and I ended up giving up and going the long way round to get home in time to start dinner.
Quiltville Quote of the Day -
But seriously no, I don't need more fabric. I need the gift of time to sew it all up!
However you spend your Saturday - take the time to thank those who encourage you to take the time to do what you love!
20 comments:
No matter the folklore the winter will surprise you. I tend to take it one day at a time either way. Your walks are beautiful and I enjoy the short videos. The wooly worm gave me a smile this morning. Lola has adjusted so well to Quilt Lady cat life. She seems to be a very loving cat.
Consider contacting the state about the demolition of the general store, they may not initiate but you could get a positive response.
Never heard them called wooly beArs - we called them wooly boogers 🤣🤪
I just want you to know Bonnie, how much I look forward to your daily blog. I get to see a bit of Virginia again and find your posts to be most interesting and entertaining. My grown children and young grandchildren live in Virginia and I haven't seen them since last summer.
"But seriously no, I don't need more fabric. I need the gift of time to sew it all up!....However you spend your Saturday - take the time to thank those who encourage you to take the time to do what you love!"
Amen, Bonnie!
Happy to hear you had guests at the Inn! Hand stitching at night is a joy to me also. Can't explain why it is so therapeutic but it just is. Yes, yes, yes to today's quote. :)
Susan
I love all the vintage quilts at the end of the blog. Thanks for sharing!
I do live in the Midwest but that's way more info about the Wooly caterpillar than I've ever heard. Yikes, I just need to quilt more!!
I never heard the second and third interpretations of the wooly worm, so I found that interesting. Thanks for sharing. No matter what color that wooly worm is winter will be here before we know it. Ugh!
Maybe the town fathers could look around to see if there's spare YIELD sign to put in that intersection? Guessing no one thinks there's enough traffic to warrant a sign?
I love how cats always manage to get right up to the back of furniture so they can oversee our projects. Isn't it a good thing Zoey hasn't decided to try that!!!!! ♥
How lovely to see your hand quilted hexie project again... it will be the perfect quilt to work on as we approach the Christmas season!
I love your hair and your stylist! And I am sew excited that you're working on the mother ship. That's such a beautiful quilt. Hugs from Alabama.
Mom always said 100 days after fog there will be rain or some precipitation. Most times it was true. Love your blog and patterns!
I have an oak tree on the side of my mobile home. The tree has been dropping acorns by the big flower pot load. To me that is telling the squirrels to stock up cause it is going to be a bad winter. I hope my guage is wrong in the observation, but so far I have 4 big flower pots full of acorns with more to come off the tree!!!!
Love your comments at the end of the blog but I think it should have read "attention, affection, fabric and chocolate" but maybe in a different order.
Thank you for the fun you bring into everyone's life.
as always, your blog makes a bright start to my day. Tho I miss quiltcam and the vids of retreat/workshop adventures and show-n-tells, I accept that times sure do change what is possible to do. You still manage to share your enthusiasm for this craft we share, and help me keep focused on creativity while being housebound
cute, cute haircut! And thanks for the tip about the free audiobooks on YouTube. I’m a regular YouTuber but did not know about the audiobooks for adults.
My long arm is THERE and I’m mostly HERE, so there’s lots of piecing but not so much quilting, and it’s easy to keep up with binding. As a matter of fact, I’ve been knitting mittens and socks lol.
For audio books that I can take with, I use Chirp. They have a ton of books on sale for $3.99 or less with those books changing frequently. I got "The President is Missing" by James Patterson and Bill Clinton for $3.99!
So interesting to hear about those woolly bears, never heard any of those tales before.
Love that you got to spend some time out hiking with your Quiltville in guests.
I’m also delighted to see your hexie quilt again, I was wondering how it was doing. Your always so busy and have such interesting things to show us, thank you.
Stay safe
Love and quilty hugs
Anne xxx
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