Richmond Express Adventures!

This was the *Beginning* of the unloading of suitcases, sewing machines, fabric bins, grocery items and more that began to fill the back porch at the inn yesterday afternoon as the Richmond Express gals made their way across Virginia for their yearly week of quilt retreat!

Look closely toward the garage door and you will see supervisor Tula Tallulah Lou grabbing a bit of tree shade as it falls across the walkway - keeping her eye on all of the goings on.

Yesterday was absolutely lovely, so instead of desk time - I spent my day washing down and making the porch ready for spring time visitors.

It's going to be great to be able to socialize out here again!

It was also time to change out the decor a bit - and I needed something heavy enough that wouldn't blow away with the wind that comes through.

These ceramic pots with little plastic ferns will do the trick I think.

Plus they will be easy to hose off if they get dusty.

Besides - I could find two that matched.  Why is it whenever I like something but need two - I can only ever find ONE? I grabbed these in January and have had them waiting to be put out.

It's a good thing they never need watering or they'd be dead already.

Though it was a no-sew day, I did add the three blocks from yesterday on top of my log cabin block pile.

That's a lot of sewing that has happened here!

Last evening I turned another corner and am now headed down the 4th side of the second round in.

I may be a tortoise when it comes to hand quilting, but it gets there - one hoopful at a time.

This also slows me down!

We are celebrating Hubster Dave's 65th birthday (on the 16th!) in a bit of a spread out way.

He is scheduled for hand surgery tomorrow morning (the 14th) at 6am in Hickory, NC - two hours away.

Which means that we will be leaving the house before 4 am to get him to the surgery center in time for this surgery happening 2 days before his birthday

Needless to say - there will not be a blog post tomorrow - I'll be on my way with him.  We will catch up on Saturday.

But in the meantime since he won't be able to use his right hand for quite a while, we had birthday brownies and ice cream.  Yum!  I'll take good chewy brownies over birthday cake any day.

Ivy couldn't be bothered to even care.

And our evening did not stop there.  I had gone to bed about 9:30, worn out from the day and fell nearly instantly into a deep sleep only to be awakened a bit after 10pm by Hubster Dave who had just received a text that the power was out at the inn.

I got up, got dressed, and headed over to see that the generator had indeed kicked in and to let the ladies know what was going on.

The text said that linemen were already on the scene and that power should be restored before midnight.

I let myself in the back door...everyone was upstairs in jammies getting ready for bed and we had a little impromptu "state of the retreat" address there in the upstairs landing.

Yes, the generator is running.  Power to the house is fine.  Just go about things as normal, everything works. And the generator will automatically stop when the power is restored.

We headed back home and I went right back to bed.

This morning I found out the power came back on less than 1/2 hour after I left the ladies!

Emergency averted - but I am so glad that we got the Generac for the inn. So glad.

I don't know what caused the outage, but I'm glad it was short lived and didn't affect many people.

Welcome to rural Virginia, Richmond ladies!

There have been so many wonderful finishes happening in our Quiltville's Open Studio Group on Facebook!  This is Kim's version of En Provence.

Absolutely stunning!

Beautiful finish, Kim!

It does my heart and soul so much good to see such beautiful quilts being made by you.  Keep it coming!

This is also currently going on!

Bloom in Stitches!

Simple embroidery of tulip blooms surrounded by a border of patchwork tulips! It’s feeling like spring already! Full color photos and graphics. Optional construction methods.

Quilt Size:20’’ X 20’’

Introductory pricing:  Bloom is currently marked 25% off in the Quiltville Store, Sal6e price good through 3/16/25.

Save 15% of rulers, notions and tools using coupon code NOTIONS.  Put in the code on your shopping cart page BEFORE You click to your payment so discount can be applied before you check out.

And yes - there is a Gift-Away! Get your entry in on That  Post.

I'll be drawing for three winners on SATURDAY 3/15/25 who will each receive a Bloom PDF pattern from me.

And we'll catch up with what we miss tomorrow then!

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

This is my plan for today. And every day. 

How about you?

Have a terrific Thursday, everyone!