Old Town! The PDF Pattern Booklet Gift-Away!

Happy February 3rd!
It's Monday, and it's one month since our Old Town Mystery reveal.
You know what that means?  I've spent oodles (such a favorite word) of time unscrambling, rewriting and getting Old Town ready in PDF booklet form for those who didn't participate along with us.
This also means that all parts and PDFs have been retired from the blog and my website.
If you missed out on the mystery this year, no worries - It's all presented to you here in a much more cohesive non-confusing format. The directions are straight forward and still contain all of the optional construction methods and all of the other hints, tricks and helps I presented all throughout our mystery time together.

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Found Upon My Doorstep!

Look what arrived when no one was looking!

My elusive missing suitcase made it home from Australia - everything intact just the way I left it.

Stuffed to the brim - everything rolled tightly and packed like sardines.

When checking in at Alice Springs for our return flights home I was a bit on edge that I would be overweight and I was already making plans on what I could quickly extract from within and stash in my backpack for the flights home....

I was one kilo UNDER!!  Whooowhooo!  And then the thought of....you mean :I could have crammed in 4 more fat quarters?" crossed my mind and I immediately regretted what I had left behind at the fabric store. LOL.

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A Moment of Peace & Piecing

When my brain seems to be whirling out or control and thoughts creep to the dark side of despair and I'm feeling a bit helpless over things like plane crashes and other humanitarian crises -

Sometimes the only thing I can do to move forward is to sit behind the machine and do some simple piecing.

In the case of yesterday and the aftermath of a commercial airplane being hit by a blackhawk helicopter over DC - this was my result.

I'm thinking of the families affected on both sides of this accident.

Nothing like this happens on purpose - of course not.  Could it have been avoided? Likely. 

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Field of Lights!

As darkness falls and Uluru is thrown into silhouette, Field of Light illuminates. 

As far as the eye can see gentle rhythms of color light up the desert.

This was our last evening in Yulara, after a long hot afternoon of our close up and personal discovery of the sights, sounds, and sacred sites around Uluru.

Uluru is a sacred site in Australia, and the surrounding area is protected as Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. The Anangu people, who are the traditional owners of the land, are dedicated to preserving Uluru and the park.

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Hi Honey, I'm Home!

Hi!
I guess that is the simplest way to start.
I returned home last evening - it's been more than 3 weeks since I have sat here to write a blog post - other than the one for the release of our Huka Falls Gift-Away which I think went greatly unnoticed because I wasn't home to promote it at all!

We'll recap that more later.
Most of all I want to scream out just how glad I am to be home.

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Huka Falls Gift-Away!

G'day from Australia!

Yes, this post has been *mostly* written ahead so all I had to make were a few edits during my time here and set it to go live -

This is our first pattern release of 2025 and I'm so excited to be releasing Huka Falls one year after viewing this magnificent destination in New Zealand just a year ago.

If you've never heard of Huka Falls - you need to see it!

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Ice, Snow & Bugging Out!

It's All Fun & Games -

Until it looks like continuing ice and snow could make it extremely difficult to make it to the airport in time safely tomorrow morning.

So guess who is bugging out and getting a hotel room near the airport in Kingsport TN so there isn't so much worry and fretting over the drive to the airport tomorrow?

Me. Which means there is packing in hyer-drive going on over here currently.

I thought I'd have today and this evening to pull everything together.

Turns out I only have this morning.

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Snow Day Sew Day Ahead!

Good morning, friends!

I'm starting off this post with a bit of studio clean up while I watch the snow fall beyond the QPO window.

Just look at these two finishes hanging off the long arm rail - it makes me smiley all over!

Old Town on the left, and Huka Falls on the right.

And yes, that's a bucket of your gifted aqua strings behind the take up roller just barely peeking out.

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New Year's Day Things : Some Quilting, Some Hard.

January 2nd and reality sets in.
Festivities are over - and yes, Christmas decor is already put away and I am diving into the 5 days remaining before I leave for Los Angeles on the 7th and meet up with my Craftours group on the 8th as we make our way to Australia!
That means there will be little time for quilting over the next several days as I get all my ducks in a row and ready to fly.
However...there was time yesterday to finish this ONE LONG SEAM that joined the diagonal row I shared in yesterday's post that was half finished from New Year's Eve jammie sewing and tv binge watching.

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Quilting The New Year In -

What? You didn't think I'd actually go OUT on New Year's Eve, did you?  

Don't you know me better than that by now?

I think the last time I stayed up until midnight to wish the new year in was when I was.....wait, was it? 

I do believe it was the first New Year's as a married couple.  When 1981 was turning over to 1982.

And even then I found it hard and wanted nothing more to be in my PJ's curled up on the couch watching something on TV (Not that ball drop thing.....that's way boring!) and heading to bed by 10:30.

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