Sew Much Going On!

My days are filled with big and little things - and sometimes those little things add up to things of great importance in the whole scheme of things so I try not to overlook those.

This whole week has been one of playing "whack-a-mole" with the to-do list.

No sooner had I crossed one thing off my list, then another would pop up in its place.

My mom used to call this kind of week "stomping out fires."  Yep.

Do you see that quilt hoop above and where it is?  

I finished the hand quilting on my Amishy Baskets quilt last night around 9pm while indulging in New Amsterdam on Netflix.

Done.  It's done!  

It was dark out, and I had to shine the task light to get this photo, pretty much washing it out - but you can see how I worked until I had only this small section in the center to fill in with random fans.

The full photos would have to wait until this morning.  There was no good lighting to take decent photos last night.

Even Mable couldn't bother to be moved.  LOL.

But this morning.  It's done!

The morning sunlight is dappling on the left border - it's not a discoloration.

I love the texture of the free-hand fans!

Sometimes I ask myself why I bothered to hand quilt - it took MONTHS of evening stitching when I could have machine quilted this in a few hours.

I think it's the process.  It's a great way to unwind and relax in the evening.

I'm ADHD enough that I can't sit and watch TV without some kind of stitching in my hands - and if I'm going to sit there anyway, I may as well be stitching on something - right?  RIGHT!?

Bottom corner.

The question is - now what?  I have hexies at hand - and I need to kit up some more for my long flights to Poland and Italy.

But I think I'll be searching for something else long term that I can hand quilt.

(Speaking of which - there are new tours for 2024 and 2025 up on my Craftours Page! EXCITING! Come with me!)

Another putting out fires moment - 

I  had the coolest experience Wednesday.    - I scheduled a renewal of my Global Entry interview by Zoom!

⁣The interview took less than 5 minutes and I am good to go. 

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I love how technology has changed some things, and this saved me a 5-hour round trip to Charlotte Airport for an in-person interview.

Mind you this was while I was still on a fast for my blood draw and labs that I ran off to right after the zoom interview. I'm getting good at whack-a-mole!

Shortly after the blood draw (and finally downing some quick breakfast) neighbor Cindy brought her sister Janice over with her Chilhowie quilt to hang over the porch rail for a photo to send home to her friends in North Pole Alaska, Gorgeous finish!

The funny thing is that I met Janice while I was teaching up in Fairbanks, and met Cindy when she and her hubby purchased property nearby just this spring!

I love knowing there are more local quilters to call neighbors and friends.

Selfies after a quick fun lunch at the local Corner Market.

Enjoy your 2 weeks here in our beautiful corner of the Blue Ridge, Janice!

Like I said - the whole week has been whack-a-mole.

Later that afternoon, the August2.0 Quiltvillians began to arrive.

Here they are enjoying the porch Thursday morning for brunch!

Thursday morning was also my blog post for the Round Fabric Art Bowls book release and gift-away.  Did you enter yet??

And whack-a-mole continued with hair cut day yesterday followed by:

An August stop at Scoops!

I figured after this week that Martha and I deserved it.  

This little place is on the highway between Mt. Airy NC and Sparta NC and we drive past it on haircut days - the sad thing for us is that we have one more appointment with Shauna at the end of September and then she is retiring.  

Of course we wish her the best in her new upcoming adventures, but we've now got to find a new hairstylist that we like (Hopefully closer to home) and what will we do without our Scoops fix?

While over in Mt. Airy we also stopped at Martha's mom's to fix some computer issues, went out to lunch, dropped her mom off at the automotive place to pick up her truck, and then on to the haircuts.

Whack-a-mole!

What an incredible Pattern Release Day!

Of course, the biggest to-do for me this week was getting out the PDF pattern for Morning Glories and getting the Gift-Away post underway.

Guys! I think we've hit this one out of the ball park.

I am so thrilled with the response, so much so that I had to restock Etsy before the store "ran out" (Because even though it is a PDF digital file you still have to put in a stock number.)

Thank you so much!

The PDF pattern for Morning Glories is currently 25% off through 8/31/23 in both the Quiltville Store and the Quiltville Etsy Pattern Shop.

The finished quilt measures 84'' X 84''.

No coupon code is needed, but if you are purchasing paper or notions and wish to save the 15% you do need to use the code NOTIONS at checkout in the Quiltville Store.  The Etsy shop ONLY carries the PDF patterns, not merchandise.

Did you enter the Gift-Away?

I'll be drawing for TWO winners on Thursday, 8/31/23 and each will receive a Morning Glories PDF pattern from me AND:

A Facets of Green Color Roll from  Cotton to Quilts!

And please be sure to check out her neutral rolls as well - all the fun fabrics are in there!

If you haven't yet, get your entry in on the Gift-Away Post.

I'm already seeing blocks being posted on social media - so exciting!

If you are sharing your Morning Glories progress, please remember to use hashtags #quiltville and #morninggloriesquilt so I can find you!

I think that's it? Is that enough? Holy Moly what a week - I'm so glad to be at the weekend!

I still need to tackle the Cat in the Flowers kits for my Poland and Italy travelers - I'll be doing those over the weekend.  Actually that sounds like a nice and easy thing to ease me through the weekend.

What plans do you have?

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

Give all the love you can - and don't keep score!

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Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!