April 2021 Quilty Box Gift-Away!

It's a Kaffe Fassett box full of dotty goodness!

What a fun way to send April 2021 on its way as we welcome in May tomorrow!

The wide variety of dot fabrics in Kaffe's fabric lines have always caught my eye and imagination -

And in this box you will find the perfect selection of dotted bliss to make a lovely table runner (or skinny banner for a wall) inside the April 2021 Quilty Box!

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Fire Pits, Pink Moons, Goodbyes & Quilt Cam!

Let fire pit season begin!

Which means that bug season will not be far behind.  But something stirs inside me, bringing up memories of childhood, girl's camp and camp fires when I hear the crackle of the fire - and of course find that camp fire smoke in my eyes, smelling it in my hair and on my clothes for hours into the evening.

This is what summers were made for, am I right?

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Creeping Down the Creeper Trail!

Seven on the Creeper Trail!  My first foray of the season - and the best break in the weather that we could have asked for.

Two days previous we needed parkas, hats, gloves, with morning temps hovering around 28f.

Monday on the trail?  70!  Leaves are appearing everywhere.  Dogwoods and redbuds were blooming all along our route.

17 miles from White Top Station down to Damascus - and we did it!

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And The Sun Came Out!

Good morning, everyone!

I'm typing from the comfort of my little Postmaster's desk at the Quiltville Post Office Studio this morning.

The Texas Gals planned on a prompt 7am departure time, so instead of taking care of morning things at home and then coming over by 9am or so - I flip flopped things.

Goodbyes are HARD!  We have had such a wonderful time over the past week.  

And as I told them - Let's not say goodbye - let's just say Until Next Time!

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Quilts Off the Porch! (in the Rain!)

There was just NEVER a break in the weather on Saturday - drizzle, wind, cold temps - Come on, April! Where are you?

At one point, the rain did stop enough - barely enough - for us to get some photos over the porch rail.

At least with the cloud cover - there was less glare and shadow issues, right?

As the Quilt Sisters hail from Texas - and were with me the week that Frolic  became an inspiration in my mind due to a photo op amidst the Texas Blue Bonnets along the side of the highway - it is extra special that a bouquet of Frolic quilts came to grace beds and the porch rail at Quiltville Inn.

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Quilters on the MOVE!

You can't sit & sew ALL of the time -

You've got to get out and MOVE!

Needless to say - our lovely spring weather in Southwestern Virginia has NOT been giving the best warm welcome to this group!

I think they've had 3 seasons in one.  We've definitely had WINTER with temps as low as 28 f with sleet and spitting snow, not to mention high winds.

We've had grey skies and threatening rain. (Which hasn't happened yet but may today.)

And yesterday afternoon, even though skies were not blue, we got out to stretch our legs.

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Power? We've Got Power!

I'm still poking along on these.

It's hard to make much progress at all when you are thinking in the realm of nearly 400 of something -

I'm feeling like the kid whose mom is threatening "Clean that room or there will be no supper!"

And the kid looks at the mess feeling that there is no way to tackle that mountain of monotony.

I am on corner number FOUR on these nearly100 sashings - it has been a trim, sew, press, trim, sew, press, trim sew, press activity.  But I'm getting there!

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Power Outage Delays and Round About Town!

Yesterday's Lunch Bunch!

If you read yesterday's post about the scheduled power outage to replace a dangerously leaning pole - and my plans to take everyone over to Jefferson for a round of antique mall wandering and lunch out - 

TWO out of THREE of these things happened!

The antique mall was a blast.  the lunch out with friends was wonderful.

The power outage however - NEVER HAPPENED!

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Shine a Little Light -

Quiltville Inn view from Wilson Creek!

Quiltville Inn is once again full with the sounds of machines, laughter, chatter, yummy smells coming from the kitchen (hooray new gas range!) and all is "nearly" right in our world.

This wonderful group of ladies arrived after much long travel - driving from Arkansas, Texas and Kentucky.

Some had not seen each other for years.

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Happy 3rd Anniversary, Quiltville Inn!

Spring Fever in Full Swing!

The big tree with the mini yellow dogwood blossoms (until someone tells me the correct name otherwise!) is blooming in front of Quiltville Inn.

THIS beautiful effort by this ancient tree is the official sign of spring's arrival for me here in Southwestern Virginia.

Sure, there have been daffodils, forsythia, Bradford pears and others blooming - but THIS!

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The Washing of "The Jane"

This was the view from my chair over the weekend.

The chair became my comfort spot while I rested through the after effects of Moderna #2.

Friday afternoon upon returning home I got this crazy notion to NEST - see Saturday's post of spice cabinet clean out! 

This also lead me to finally jumping in and washing the Jane Stickle quilt that had been hanging in the basement studio at the Wallburg house for the past 13 years.

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Where the Pretty Things Bloom

Thursday was road trip day.

A mid-afternoon appointment in Winston gave me plenty of time for a new audio book as I drove my way down beyond the Blue Ridge parkway to Wilkesboro, and further into the piedmont where allergy season is in full swing!

After two hours where "the pretty things bloom" it felt like my eyes were blinking sand!  Oh yay! Spring!

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Catching Rainbows Pattern Release & Gift-Away!

It's a rainbow explosion of fun in the Quiltville Studios today as we release the printable PDF pattern for my Catching Rainbows quilt!

Are you as excited as I am?

I have heard from many who have been pulling and setting fabric color families aside for weeks - I suspect this weekend will be a flurry of color for many as you dive in!

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Rollin' With the Changes

It's inevitable!

Nothing stays the same.

The only constant is change.

And we've got to roll with them if we want to keep moving forward.

Sometimes these changes come and I embrace them. Sometimes changes come and they tie me knots and throw me for a loop and a standstill.

This one is not a biggie  - but it will affect many of you so we are going to put this out here at the top of the blog so you can keep following with only a few adjustments being needed.

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This is a Test, This is Only a Test

Follow my blog with Bloglovin 

I got a little message from Feedburner this afternoon.

They are discontinuing the service of emailing blog posts to followers. The service from Feedburner will end in July.

It's SAD for me, because I know many of you come by simply because you found the teaser post in your email.

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And the Obsession Grows -

I made 7 more Cabin Corners blocks yesterday.

This project was just an idea - a pipe dream - a possibility - a nudge - okay, a SHOVE into sewing up the remains left from my Rockabilly Swing quilt which I do have to say is much more fun than simply throwing everything into some random bin to deal with later.

If there re more scraps on hand - just keep sewing!

The center of the blocks really do use the small pieces - but when it gets to the larger pieces, I've been digging into strings.

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Step Outs, Patterns & Ponies!

This was on my agenda yesterday.

The crazy thing is that I KNOW I took step out photos while I was making the blocks for the quilt - but months pass, I checked the file folder where I've been stashing everything, and they are nowhere to be found.

Not on my phone, not my computer, not in google photos - 

And it's kind of a good thing really.

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Weekends and Wanna-dos!

I am back to hand quilting on the Eternal Hexie quilt.

Well sort of.

It's kind of hard to move and maneuver the hoop once these two have settled into their own version of "Pet Tetris" on top of me.

It's about this time that the thimble goes back in its little metal tin along with the quilting thread, needles, seam ripper, a few pins and a needle threader.

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Binding to the Finish!

It is the BEST feeling when those last binding stitches go in!

And there are miles of binding stitches in this quilt - 

To recap: The top originally measured 108.5" x 114.5" before quilting. ⁣

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After quilting with the shrink up it now measures 105" x 111." 

That's 3" of shrink top to bottom and side to side that will likely shrink more after washing and drying.

(I envision commercial laundromats for this job in my future - it's too big for a home machine.)
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I quilted with Hobbs 80/20. 

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And On To The Next...

I have a big baggie of bonus triangles.

This bag was a gift from someone - I'm not sure if it came in the mail, or if it was handed over with love while teaching a workshop or giving a lecture.

Maybe it was sent my way with tongue-in-cheek as if to say "HERE!  YOU do something with this!"

They are fairly small - I believe they are about the size that comes from trimming stitch & flip corners on the diagonal after sewing.  Maybe from 2 1/2'' squares?

They are already right-sides-together - so - GAME ON!

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Out and About with the Ponies!

Someone spent some time stacking these rocks near the Appalachian Trail as it runs through Grayson Highlands State Park, not far from the cabin.

How long will it stand before it topples?  And why did someone build it?

It doesn't matter - it was a "hello, I was here!" moment to whomever left it.

Yesterday's abundant sunshine and high temps in the 70s led me to ask a couple of friends if they wanted to hike up and see the ponies.

With a resounding yes, we grabbed up Zoey and headed out.

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Green, Green - It's Green They Say -

I had a lovely little drive on my "outings day" to take care of some much needed things.

And there couldn't have been a better day for a drive than this gorgeous April Tuesday.

It's like someone somewhere flipped a switch.

Less than a week ago we had snow falling (Last Thursday I believe)

We had crazy hail and torrential rain - morning temps hovering around 18f.  CRAZYTOWN weather.

But yesterday?

The green is back!  YAY!

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Cats on the Quilts!

Quilts and/or fabric are CAT MAGNETS!

And while some folks are "Oh, the cat hair!" (And I get it - folks are allergic - true) I just grin and accept it as every other kind of dirty thing in our lives from dust to pollen to laundry to dishes to dirt being tracked up the stairs -

In some ways, I get what the cats feel and why they do what they do.

Is there anything better than petting the fabric?  Than snuggling down into a newly completed quilt?  or even a well washed, well worn to shreds older version?

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Easter Weekend: Sunshine & Stitches.

We decided yesterday to take a bit of a drive - maybe an hour away, and just see how things were "springing up" at Hungry Mother State Park outside of Marion, VA.

This beautiful place with trails surrounding the lake gets really packed with people during the summer months.

They have a "beach" that is popular for families - though I  have a feeling it stayed pretty empty and :socially distant" during the summer 2020 season.

With the weird weather we've been having over the past month including snow just before the weekend, the warm sunshine was such a gift!

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Down the Mountain, and Back Up Again!

The quilting continues on the Snail's Trail -

My time was cut a bit short yesterday by a little trip back down the mountain to Jonesville, NC - moving help for Ashlyn and Jeff being offered up freely.

For independent kids - isn't it wonderful when they finally cave and accept the physical help that is being offered when it comes to big things like moving house? 

Besides, I got a chance to see Casden, and got a big kick out of him being SO proud of his new room and showing me where his toys and puzzles were, and where he is now putting this or that.  So much fun!

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Let the Quilting Begin!

Something this whirly and swirly deserves quilting of the same kind.

I love that this block pattern is also known by many other names, including Virginia Reel - as it does remind me of couples spinning on a dance floor, moving in unison formation -

Can you see the colorful dresses swirling?  

The jury is still out on what I will title this "use everything" scrappy quilt - but Dizzy Izzy as the quilting is the perfect match of motion and texture.

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Hopes, Dreams, & First Homes.

I am emotionally wiped out.  Completely.

In every good way possible - I think the older I get the more it takes to recover from things like moving house.  Or helping someone ELSE move house to start their new lives in a new place.

We left the mountain at about 9am yesterday - and didn't return until dinner time was later than it should be, and all of us agreed that pancakes, bacon and eggs would be a feast fit for a king after the run around of the day.

I took photos of this gorgeous blooming Bradford pear when we stopped to do one of the many "must do's" that happen with moving.  While things were being taken care of inside the establishment, I walked Zoey outside hoping she would take care of some business of her own after 1 1/2 hours in the car.

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