This was the scene yesterday as I arrived at Quiltville Inn to check on Susan's Retreat group and see how they fared for their first night!
It's a good sign when folks are already sewing - in jammies - after 9am!
Meanwhile - it POURED outside. It had poured all night long. It rained off and on throughout yesterday and rained through the night last night.
But the quilters are inside, warm and dry!
In fact, I loved hearing that they found the sound of rain on the tin roof soothing, and great for deep sleeping after a long traveling day.
Baskets of small scraps are becoming Rockabilly Swing and I love seeing the fabrics that are coming together in each one.
Paper piecing is a great retreat project - Just bring the scraps and the foundations and sew the day away.
Beautiful top finish made with chisel shapes!
Log cabins happening on this design wall!
More foundation paper piecing - isn't this gorgeous!
Celtic Solstice is also coming together!
These colors remind me of daffodils and jonquils.
Hurry up flowers, we are waiting for you!
Stars from one of Pat Sloan's books.
I love the dots!
Sweet baby quilt underway.
Aren't the stripes fun?
Oh, I spy some string piecing in orange!
(And I love the 301!)
Virginia Bound from Scraps & Shirttails -
being worked on in here in Virginia!
Of course, you know it's not all just sewing - there are plenty of treats too, and these were too beautiful not to share:
Aren't they pretty?
Almost too pretty to eat!
ALMOST!
I took a little time off yesterday to get a much needed haircut. I had missed the last TWO! So things were kind of shaggy around here.
Isn't it amazing how a haircut can make you feel so much better?
I threw myself into things that needed to be done on a daily basis.
Mail order.
Picking up more supplies for the inn.
Visiting with the ladies.
But in the back of my mind, the horrific events of Russia blatantly invading Ukraine played over again and again and again.
I didn't sew last night - not at the machine anyway. I couldn't find the peace of mind to sit with it.
Those poor people. War is so evil.
I woke up in my own warm bed this morning - but I know many people there did not.
I am seriously afraid for our world, and yet there is nothing that I as a 60 year old quilter in the middle of nowhere Virginia can do about it but watch and pray and cry.
The rain that falls outside - it's as if my whole world is crying over this situation.
Be kind to those you come in contact with today, strangers, family or friends. All of our emotions are pulled tight right now.
I'm headed over to the inn for brunch. It's time to find happy where we can. Love each other the best we can.
I've been asked for treadle demonstrations. I think that can happen.
What do you have in store for your Friday?
Did you enter this yet? TODAY IS THE LAST DAY!
Rhododendron Trail has been retired from the blog, has been completely unscrambled and rewritten into PDF Pattern Booklet Format and is available for download in the digital pattern section of the Quiltville Store!
I've kept all of the hints, tips, tricks and optional methods in - the full 8 week run of instruction is now in an easier to read and understand format!
I know you've been waiting for this one!
Cabin Corners is also available!!
Wondering what to do with all of those precious small saved pieces?
Stitch up a riot of rainbow color accented with red and give it all (including the kitchen sink) a fabulous place to land!
This is a foundation paper pieced pattern with 16 pages of full instruction, and many full color photos to help you on your way to sewing up the scrap stash.
Quilt Size: 84’’ X 96’’
Yes there are introductory pricing discounts, and even a Rhododendron Trail Cabin Corners Bundle!
The bundle is a limited time offer only available through 2/28/22 so hurry!
Some of my blocks in progress!
I'll be drawing for 2 winners who will each receive that Rhododendron Trail Cabin Corners Bundle AND a Color Aplenty fabric roll from Cotton to Quilts!
Head on over to that Gift-Away Post and get your entry in. We'll draw for our two winners TOMORROW Saturday, February 26, 2022.
Quiltville Quote of the Day -
I've come to realize that what people say to you and think of you is more a reflection of them than of you.
It's a waste of time to try to set other people straight, silence is often the best answer.
Old Tobacco Road was an early Quiltville Mystery. Free pattern found under the Free Patterns tab at the top of the blog - down at the bottom of the page where first mysteries live.
Today, just do what you can.
If you can't make yourself sew (kind of where I am right now) that is okay -
Just do what you can.
Lovely quilts coming together at the retreat! Thank you for sharing your thoughts today, Bonnie. Heartsick, simply heartsick is the closest I can come to expressing how I feel about the debacle in Ukraine. I'm sewing for Lutheran World Relief today in hopes that one of our quilts will bring peace and comfort to someone suffering. Your reflections on the words of others is so true. Let us be people who offer kind words and encouragement.
ReplyDeleteWonderful projects being made! And those cookies are works of art too!
ReplyDeleteMake Happy happen whereever you are. I feel your sadness, it's not a Sew day for me inth e PNW. Bitter chill in the air. 10° on my thermometer outside. Wishing I could cuddle up and read on days like this. Quilty cookies are sew fun!
ReplyDeleteI saw a re-post on FB from the President of the Ukrainian Quilt Association asking quilters everywhere for prayers (not quilts). Over 9400 have responded.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the new variety of quilts at the Inn.
Love seeing all the new quilts at the inn. And I guess I missed Rockabilly Swing pattern release last summer! Oh my gosh! Must buy.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bonnie, I'm comforted by your words today. Yesterday I kept telling myself, "just do the best you can". I was trying to calm myself and trying not to beat myself up over things I can't control. You spread a lot of love and joy to the world, and trust me, it helps! A lot!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed people's comments yesterday about dogs running deer and it triggered my memory... at some point my dogs figured out they could never catch deer, and their chases became shorter. More perfunctory, just a little fun without the intensity and then back home. 😊
ReplyDeleteMy cats are that way with birds. They've figured out that if they give chase the birds just fly away so they mostly just sit and watch them.
DeleteMy kind of peeps who sew in their jammies! Enjoy ladies.
ReplyDeleteThe red white and blue quilt is "Jagged X," a free pattern from Donna Jordan. Your retreater simplified the borders and doing that would probably help me get mine finished. Mine is half done from before COVID got bad. "Squirrel!" got me and I moved on to other exciting things. I should make it a leader and ender and get it finished because it does make a beautiful quilt.
ReplyDeleteDear Bonnie, would you please put some of that excess rain in your store? I'd like to order up a case or two.
ReplyDeleteJust kidding, of course, but we really are extremely dry where I am and some rain would be so welcome here. Enjoyed seeing the retreaters' progress and lovely projects.
Today I took care of the 12 inches of fresh snow and wondered if some of the people in Kiev are relatives 20 times removed? My family came from that area some time before WW2 and but there is no one left alive that can help me with information. They came to Canada and wanted to forget the old country. But you are right Bonnie, the whole situation as made me afraid for them and afraid for how much worse it can get.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful blocks from the retreat, my sewing mojo has been locking recently. Partly due to my husbands illness,for Christmas he got me a new semi professional sewing machine which I still need to unbox. My problems seem so small to those of the victims of the dreadful invasion by Russia, all my prayers go out to the people of Ukraine
ReplyDeleteWonderful project execution! I guess the cookies won't last long, if they taste as good as they look !
ReplyDeleteI know about people who have nothing to do, but complain. I just tell
ReplyDeletethem "I feel sorry for you. Hope you have a better day tomorrow"
Here's what you can do as a 60-year old -- you can VOTE, you can follow the news from reputable news sources, you can join your local political party to learn how to help other people vote, and you can donate $$ (even small amounts) to help good people win offices in your district or town or state. Please don't feel helpless when things rotate out of control -- there ARE many things you can do! PS Enough lecture, I really enjoy your blog.
ReplyDeleteWell said and I totally agree.
DeleteIf you getting too much rain send some out to California.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if someone could post the source of those marvelous cookies. I googled Christmas Custom Cookies, TN, from information on the stickers in the photos. Nothing comes up. They are absolutely amazing!! And what a wonderful, relaxed place to feel comfortable enough to sew in jammies.
ReplyDeleteKatie, it says "Christina's Custom Cookies", not Christmas. Hope that helps!
DeletePouring rain here in eastern Australia too. Woke up to emergency updates and evacuation notices for many areas in Ipswich, Queensland as the Brisbane River is rising and the dam has to release water. We have had 20 inches in the past 2 days.
ReplyDeleteI am lucky to be high and dry but my memory calls back to the last flood in 2011....devastating. And the rain keeps coming and is not forecast to stop for another week.
My heart too, is torn for Ukraine and Europe and I am so angry at Putin. How dare he play with countries and people like they are just toys. I turn to God, prayer and my sewing to find some peace and to keep my hands busy.