Memorial Day & More!

Just about the time the rhododendrons start to droop and petals fall, the mountain laurel takes over - 

And they are ALL OVER THE PLACE on our property - I just adore their little cupped shape and the darker pink markings on their petals.

It has been a colder Memorial Day weekend than I remember - it never got past the 50's yesterday, and this morning it was 39 when I woke up.  Supposedly we will be seeing that temp go up - but WOW.  I had to turn the HEAT on!

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When the Quilting is Done and the Binding Begins...

This happened yesterday. And quite quickly I might add!

My plan with the quilting for Butterfly Kisses included the thought that I didn't want the machine quilting to be any more dense than if I were choosing to hand quilt it.

I love all over textures, and I wanted it simple.  No leaves, no flowers, no feathers.  Just something SIMPLE that made the texture stand out.

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Borders It Is! (And FREE SHIPPING!)

I am the last one to just decide to slap plain borders on a quilt just to make it bigger and call it done.

But that is exactly what I did yesterday!

I have hemmed and hawed (Just what is hawed, anyway?) over the need for borders on this project, and just what I would do since I first started cutting into my solid scraps to make it.

It all came to the happy decision of YES yesterday afternoon.

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May 2021 Quilty Box Gift-Away!

Oh, the colors of a blooming summer!

This gorgeous Quilty Box arrived on my doorstep and I can't wait to share it with you!

With the arrival of warm temperatures I am thinking of flowing flowery sundresses, of sun tea refracting the sunlight through a gallon jar onto the warm concrete patio from when I was a child -

(Where is that jar - I need to make some sun tea TODAY!)

Of the "outdoor" patio furniture with floral patterned cushions my granny had on her "piazza" with the scent of geraniums blooming in a multitude of clay pots. I love how geraniums bring back the scents of my childhood summers.

It's all captured in this month's Quilty Box!!

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Quilts Over the Porch Rail! *Join Us!*

We were dodging rain drops yesterday afternoon!

You could feel it - even in the morning air - that rain was coming.  The air just felt heavy, a bit humid - and oh do we NEED a good drenching rain.

In between the 2pm burst and the 5pm downpour we were able to gather those who had quilts to share on the porch and took turns for individual photos and group shots as well.

As I often say to myself when playing photographer - this porch was MADE for hanging quilts!

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Sunscreen, Bug Spray and Away We Go!

It looks like summer is here to stay in these parts!  

With yesterday's high of 82 - it was the perfect day to break away from the sewing machines and drive over to Damascus, grab some bikes, load up on the shuttle and head to White Top Station where we road 17 miles (Mostly downhill! YAY!) and enjoyed being OUTSIDE!

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Weekend Sewing, Midnight Bears (and a Basket Toss Drawing!)

There are always some projects that will grow slowly along side the others that are more rapid-fire-get-out-of-here.

The crazy sunburn that I gifted myself with on Friday's hike plagued me through the weekend.  What a dummy I was to forget my hat AND the sunscreen.  It was a great reminder of what I need to implement through the rest of the oncoming summer months as a fair-haired, pale-skinned, blue-eyed girl.

All those memories of childhood sunburns came flooding back.

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Up and Up and Up They Went!

What was supposed to be a moderate hike to see the wild ponies at Grayson Highlands State Park turned into MORE of an adventure than any of us bargained for!

It's common to ask hikers coming down the trail if they had seen any wild ponies out further up the trail in the direction we were heading.  

We saw MORE pony action than I have ever seen in my 4 years of living here - but we had to go further afield to experience the splendor - including 3 new foals! (And a marriage proposal!)

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Just Me and a Few of My Quilty Friends!

In life there are no guarantees, only opportunities and what we do with them… 

Seize the moment and embrace the opportunities! You will be grateful you did.

And we ARE!  The May Quiltvillians from my Quiltville’s Open Studio Facebook group are in the house!

Several of these ladies I am meeting for the first time.  They are meeting each other for the first time off-line.

Throw in some really GORGEOUS weather and we've got a week of fun, friendship, quilting and more ahead.

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When Quilt Friends Come Calling!

Meet Mary and Caroline!

Two fabulous quilters from Florida who come up fairly regularly to stay out near Blowing Rock, NC - and I was lucky enough to have them (And their fun loving photo taking hubbies) come on by Quiltville Inn to take photos of their Quiltville finishes over the porch rail!

The weather was finally getting nice enough that we could sit in the rocking chairs on the front porch and enjoy each other's company for a bit!

One of the hubbies even brought his drone so that he could get some good sky view videos and photos of our beautiful mountain terrain.  It was a great break in the middle of my day!

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Where Weed Whackers Don't Reach! (And Mile High Quilt Piles!)

Such an interesting discussion about wildflowers and "rules" about what is invasive, or noxious or what -

Yesterday before I headed on my drive to Wallburg, I had to stop by Quiltville Inn to do a couple of things - and as I walked back to my car, I spied a whole mess of Dames Rocket growing beyond the fence off of our property.

YES! The lavender and new spring green is such a lovely sight. I'm glad that I'll be seeing this for a while longer yet.

My mountain lilacs are beginning to bloom!

We have a whole huge hedge of these at the parking area at the cabin - and I can't wait until their delicious scent fills the air.

And yes - the rhododendron in front of the inn is popping its blossoms too - just in time for our next group to arrive this afternoon!

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Color On Color!

This happened yesterday!

With the old-style kitchen timer ticking away the minutes so I'd know when to run next door to switch out laundry loads from washer to dryer to folding table - I played layout games with the stack of blocks that have been growing over the past few weeks.

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Get Some Outdoors!

Evening was just falling as we brought the chairs around the fire pit - a highlight of retreats during the warmer months at Quiltville Inn.

Oh, the conversations that happen!  Laughing so hard your belly hurts - it's so good, right?

We also moved the citronella tikis around - warmer evenings ahead also mean bug season!

I can hardly wait to see the lightning bugs buzzing around the trees. But the biting things - they need to stay away.

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Where Wildflowers Grow!

Thursday afternoon the drizzle had stopped long enough for me to grab a handful of the Muddy Creek Misfits and head out for a leg stretch to see what had grown in the past couple of weeks.

We all agreed - elevation and location make a huge difference when it comes to things like the very late arrival of spring in these parts.

Here we are at Mid-May and trees are just FINALLY getting their leaves.

100 miles away, they've been full blown for weeks.

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Basket Toss PDF Pattern & Gift-Away!

Happy Friday, Quiltvillians!

As promised, my newest printable PDF pattern Basket Toss is now available in the digital pattern section of the  Quiltville Store!

I LOVED making the baskets blocks for this quilt.

Even more fun was deciding on the whirling twirling way in which they are set together.

Everything about this quilt screams MAY BASKETS to me!

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Scrappy and Stringy All Over!

Sometimes I get so focused on what is going on in my own corner of the world - I forget that folks are busy doing AMAZING quilty things in their own areas!

I received the following email from Petra in Victoria, South Australia sharing what she and her quilty mates have been up to!

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Keep the Scrappy Goodness Coming!

We finally had a half-way decent and non-gusty day for some quilt photography!

You know how it goes - too much light and everything gets to looking washed out.

Not enough light and everything is grey and drab and dark.

Too much wind and "Woah, Toto! I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!"

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All on a Monday in May -

The Quilters of the Night packed it all up and headed back to Ohio yesterday -

I was so sad to see them leave!

Most of their time here the weather was so yucky - windy, drizzly, cold and wet.  No hikes happened.  No walks happened.  It was just - well - the PERFECT SEWING WEEKEND!

We did manage to enjoy a great Mother's Day brunch on the porch on Sunday - but other than that the back porch proved to be a bit of a wind tunnel and not so fun.  But I'm glad we tried!

The time we did enjoy out there was wonderful, and a promise of summer to come.

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Mother's Day 2021 in the Books!

Binding corners are being turned!

But it isn't easy to make any progress around here -

It's a whole round of "Hurry up and stitch before your lap is full!"

And I might get about 18'' sewn down before...

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Creativity Within!

One of the things I really love to see (Besides the smiling faces, talking voices and loud laughter!) is the abundant creativity that flourishes when quilters (and knitters!) gather to spend a few days away from the world.

They have plotted and planned.  The have dreamed dreams, they have cut and kitted up, and packed as carefully as possible -

And once they start creating and sewing there is no stopping them!

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Porch Gatherings and Scrappy Red Bindings!

The Quilters of the Night are enjoying the early evening sunshine as they dine alfresco on the back porch at Quiltville Inn!

This is what this porch was made for - and I admit - it was hard to say goodnight and head on home to my own abode at the end of the day.

While our weather was chilly with drizzle on Wednesday afternoon when they started arriving, yesterday afternoon was lovely with sun and gentle breezes.

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Repair Guys, Cows, Flowers & Quilts! (And a Gift-Away!)

This has been my day since 7:30 this morning!

The post is going live a bit later than normal - simply because sometimes LIFE just gets in the way.

The good news is - that text coming in last evening that said "between 8an and 5pm tomorrow" (Don't you hate those huge windows - it makes it impossible to plan your own day!) turned out that we were the first appointment of the day today.

I got a text at 7:30 am this morning just as I was heading to the laptop to write today's post that he would be there within the 1/2 hour.

which meant - blog writing got set aside and I hopped into the van and headed on over.

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Joy, Frustration & A Quilty Box Winner!

This round of happiness came together yesterday.

It's a 10 year old (at least) UFO, folks!

Another conquer thanks to Covid - my UFO bins are SERIOUSLY diminished, and I have changed up the original plans that had projects languishing due to being bored and side-tracked.

My original plan was to do EVERYTHING with Civil War reproduction fabrics (Or at least things that read "old fashioned") but I was bored out of my gourd.

Last fall/winter I pulled the blocks out again determined to do "SOMETHING" with them, and the first something was to spice up the mix by adding in favorite scraps - be they modern, novelty, bright, and a whole round of WOW happened for me.

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A Bit of Barn Quilt Love!

What measures 48'' x 48'' and holds ENDLESS QUILTY FRIEND LOVE?

A barn quilt painted with the star design from our Frolic mystery quilt!

I am thrilled beyond measure that the Texas Girls would not only think of such a thing - but MAKE such a thing - and then personally drive it all the way to Virginia.

It's big, bold, and beautiful!

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Quilt Showing & Sharing with the Scrappy Sisters!

This was the view over the porch rail as evening fell on Saturday -

The sun on the western side of the porch was perfect, and gave all passers-by quite the show!

So many beautiful quilts were brought by the ladies, and it was wonderful to see each one -including many Grassy Creek mystery finishes!  WONDERFUL!

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Straits of Mackinac with the Scrappy Sisters!

The Scrappy Sisters are in the house!

They arrived in an entourage of cars on Wednesday afternoon and we've been enjoying each other's company over the past few days!

While groups usually bring many many projects to work on individually - this group made a decision that they would choose one of my workshops and spend the entirety of their time here working on it together!

Straits of Mackinac from String Frenzy is being created in 12 different ways by 12 different quilters - and it is so exciting to see a workshop situation once again!

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