All Day Friday!

Welcome to the weekend, everyone!

This was yesterday's lunch on the porch - I love being out and enjoying the porch with the quilters and as we hit nearly mid-August I am counting down the weeks we have left before it is once again too cold to enjoy our time out here.

But not yet.  Not for a while.  We've got a good couple of months ahead at least!

And while all the good eats are happening - Tula is no fool!  She knows just how to place herself smack dab in the middle of the pillar shade.  Good girl!

Back inside there is so much colorful creativity happening!

We'll be doing out "over the porch rail" photos today and tops are getting borders so they'll be ready.

Another 6 pointed star has joined the design wall!

Across the way more colors are being joined here.  I believe this is a pattern by Krista Moser.

Exploding heart with a black background - lovely!

These tress will be beaded and given as gifts.

There is a riot of happy scrappy diamonds happening here!

This is an extra sweet moment happening here.

Jill lost her mom in the past year, and inherited her mom's Roll Roll Cotton Boll (pattern found in String Fling.) She has decided she needs to finish it - only she wasn't sure where her mom had left off and we had to go through the bunches of baggies and try to find out what went where.

Thanks to the help of the diagrams in the book we were able to see - and start to put things together.

And then we got to a point where she was short on both the half-square triangles that go around the blocks (No more of that same red/neutral!) and the green used as the cornerstones.

I invited her over to dig through my stash to see if we had something close - and we did on all three accounts.  Not the same fabrics, but three that would blend very well so she could keep going and get this quilt to top status.

NEW block -

The original red/neutral/green are in the center churn dash - the red/neutral green in the outside round of half-square triangles and cornerstones are the new fabrics added in.

We think they blend in just fine and it adds to the story of the quilt's journey.

Blocks are ready to set together with string blocks next!

It might not be completely done by over-the-porch-rail time this afternoon, but it will be so much closer than it was before she dug into it!

In my world I'm here.

It's slow going - and there was one strip set I had completely wrong as far as color placement goes so I now have more than 100 segments that are set aside - I'll likely take them apart and rearrange them to use elsewhere, but GAH!

I'm loving this project - It is challenging me. And I know browns might not be high on everyone's list, but any color could be substituted.

I'm getting that Sapa, Vietnam vibe though - so I'll keep going!

And in other exciting down-on-the-farm news -

We've been watching and waiting for Martha's cow Betsy to calf for what seems like months overdue.  LOL!

This is why she was so huge - She brought twins into the world yesterday evening.

One black one, one red one - both with white faces and adorable markings.

Mama and babes are doing fine and we are planning a visit to see them tomorrow afternoon.

Life is good!

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

I read this yesterday, and it struck me as the reason for everything we do creatively!

⁣

From “Quilts in America” by Patsy & Myron Orlofsky, 1974:⁣

⁣

“She used a needle as often. as easily as a telephone; it was her duty, her comfort, her companion, her mode of self-expression. ⁣

⁣

And when she undertook a project of great magnitude, she was not just passing time or doing a bit of show-off needlework, she was making a statement about herself; about her skill, her patience, her ability to endure endless days of hard work and tedium for the sake of the pattern of the whole, and ultimately of her sense of her own value as a human being.” ⁣

Beth Gutcheon, from The Perfect Patchwork Primer, 1973⁣

⁣

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone-

⁣

Go express yourself with needle and thread!