Three To Choose From -

Yesterday was for finishing up the inventorying of everything in the Quiltville Store.

Most everything has a piece count in the store and automatically keeps track of how many widgets and whatsits I have, but there are some items that have to be counted manually.  Or at least by the case.

It's a high tech process.  

Which means, I am counting while on the phone with the Quiltville CFO (The Hubster) and he is entering numbers on the spreadsheet while I call them out to him item by item.  It works.  LOL!

Big case lots of things are stored on shelves in the climate controlled garage -paper items can't be subjected to too much humidity or pages curl, and that is why the garage is not only greatly insulated, but heated and kept at a certain humidity which also protects any fabric items from getting musty.

It was while I was counting boxes that I spied a corner of just what might be the another long term UFO pressed up against the inside of a fairly clear plastic tub.

Yep.  Untouched since 2009 as I recall.

What remains?  The right side vine applique is only basted in place and not appliqued down yet.

There are some other flowers to be added to the upper left corner, and a couple of scattered other pieces to fill in the spaces around my initials.

See - just raw edge basted.  Not done.

And I know why this languished.

2008 was the release of Scraps & Shirttails.  My traveling and teaching life was kicking off in a very big way and hauling this quilt top around was just not a great idea for an on-the-go project.

Hexies took over.

I'm thinking this is one to be finished, and one that I'll enjoy hand quilting in the evenings.

I learned to do the free hand lettering from my friend Tonya Ricucci, author of the book Word Play Quilts. 

This fabulous book went out of print way before its time, but is still available in Ebook format, and is currently on sale for a whopping $8.31 through Martingale HERE.

Every quilting library NEEDS this book.  If you are lucky enough to have a hardcopy, hold on to it.  If you can find one at a reasonable price, purchase it. If the best you can do is get it in Ebook format, grab it.

After I finish the border quilting and binding on my Oak Leaf quilt - I think I'm pulling this one into the line up.

Yes, there is still Jeff's hexies to consider - but I'm just not ready to face that one yet.

While pulling that one from the bin, I uncovered a couple other unquilted tops:

My late 1990s Amish phase.

I wanted to hand quilt this because of the texture thing.  Sold quilts really look amazing when hand quilted.  

Sold quilts look really FLAT until that quilting texture brings them to life.

But I don't know if I want to invest the time into this one yet.  It was an Amish phase.  It passed kind of quickly! LOL!

Sampler - also early 2000s.

By the look of these two tops, it also appears that I had a big border cornerstone phase going on. LOL!

This was also the era of trying to replicate things as close to an original antique as closely as possible, even going so far as to take a magnifying glass to a photo and trying to decipher if I had fabric close enough to the original to duplicate it.

That phase didn't last long past my "Nearly Insane" quilt finish either.

And through it all, Lola kept the red scraps from flying out of the bin.  LOL!

All of those scraps hanging over the long arm roller bar are now put away, and the red bin is back in its place.

I have a sew day today with my friend Martha who has a couple of quilt tops of her own to turn into quilts.  I'm so excited!

I've been wanting her to come for the longest time, and I think we are both caught up with stuff enough that a play day or two (or three?!) in the studio is perfect.

The creek view off the porch at Quiltville Inn.

It's still cold.  The snow lingers.  There may be more headed our way this weekend.

But I am counting down - 2 weeks from tomorrow Quiltville Inn welcomes her first guests of 2022!

This son of mine is 32 today!

Happy birthday, Jeff!  We are so proud of you and love you so much!

It's hard to believe it's been 32 years since he came into our lives.

Plans are firming up for a Friday evening birthday celebration for us both - yes, including cake.

Oh, and yes - the book you saw on my new Kindle Paperwhite yesterday is The Sewing Machine which is available for Kindle currently at only $1.08.  Bargain.  It's a cute story and I'm enjoying it!

One Week Remaining!

The introductory price for Cherry Crunch is marked 25% off in the digital pattern section of the Quiltville Store.  No coupon needed!  Price reduction good through 1/31/22.

I have placed some OTHER Winter themed patterns ALSO at 25% off with no coupon required!

Forever Mine PDF pattern includes the runner too!

On sale at 25% off through 2/13/22

Warm Hands, Warm Heart & Winter Blues are both 25% off through 1/31/22.

If this is your first time downloading digital patterns from my store to a computer click HERE.

If you intend to download to an iPhone/iPad click HERE.

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

Thoughts on keeping pretty!

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Kaleidoscope quilt in blue and yellow made by me somewhere around 2003.

Have a lovely Tuesday, everyone!