Memorial Day 2025

  

Memorial Day is one of those holidays that sets my own cognitive dissonance into overdrive within my soul.
I always had a hard time as a child understanding why BBQs and picnics and long holiday weekends to head to the nearest amusement park could happen alongside holding space for family and friends who had lost loved ones in war.
"We celebrate their sacrifice for our freedoms" I was told as a child.
Okay - but isn't there a solemnity to that?
"But they'd want us to be happy and not mourn and enjoy our lives - that's what they fought and gave their lives for."
Okay.
But in my young mind it always felt like I was dancing on someone's grief.
I'm grateful for those who have their all. I just want to make space for that gratitude. And I'll be doing that today.
I'm sharing at the top of this post my Ohio Stars and Rails quilt that I started in the aftermath of 9/11/2001.  It's an oldie but a goodie.  And yes, the pattern is still found under the Free Patterns tab.
I moved things I had placed on my website to the blog tab in June of 2005 when the blog was started. We are coming up on that 20 year blog-iversary, and that freaks me out to no end.
At any rate - there is no PDF copy for Ohio Stars & Rails - it was the old format before PDFs were a thing.  It's a print friendly html page. Not accessible by mobile device.  My, has technology changed.
It has standard rotary cutting instructions, no specialty rulers and I think you can tell from the not-high-res-24-year-old photo that I hand quilted it with Baptist Fans.
It just felt like "Memorial Day" to me, so I thought I'd put it here.
20 years of blogging as of next week?  I have no words (Except that here I am being wordy.)

And as this is Memorial Day, I thought I'd share a bit of where I've walked with my thoughts over the weekend.
I wish I could share the babbling of this creek. This place centers my soul.  This place listens to my heart.

The wild roses have burst into bloom and they are cascading everywehre.

And they have the most delicious fragrance -

The heart shaped petals are so lovely.

I was surrounded by the headiness of nature.

They are blooming everywhere along both sides of the holler.

Right on time. Almost June.

Over the fence along this side of the winding creek.

And up against the fence as I said hello to the lazy cows.

Rain started in the wee small hours last night - it's going to continue through the next couple of days.

A soft drenching kind of late spring/early summer rain.  I love to listen to it drip off of the tree leaves and eaves, and work its way down the rain chains at the corners of the cabin's front porch.

There will be no hikes for at least a couple of days. Too wet. Too muddy.

This was my weekend focus.

I'm up to somewhere between 150 -160 but need many, many more.

This will continue today.

And it has made such a dent in my shirt strings that I've had to dig in and cut more neutral shirt parts into strings to complete the neutral side.  And that's okay - we do what we have to do to get the job done.

I'm even throwing in some "regular" off-the-bolt neutral strings in if they blend well with the others.  Things like plaids, dots, stripes and some shirting type prints.

It's FABRIC. So in it goes.

Evening Stitching continues.

This project feels endless, but I keep stitching.  I added all of these neutrals last night over the span of about 3 hours.

There is likely one more evening session of neutral hexies to surround the center motif, and then it will be surrounded by aqua hexies to finish it off, set it aside and start the next one.

Adding the aqua hexies is likely to take another two evenings.

I look at this as an exercise in patience. And I'm thinking of all of those other Grandmother's Flower Garden quilts that were made during the 1920's - 1940s.  I'm wondering if those makers felt the same way I did.  That they have just this amount of evening time to unwind and get some stitches in after the busyness of the day.

Of all of those quiltmakers who didn't make "That Many" quilts in rapid-fire fashion the way we tend to church them out today because it just "TOOK THAT LONG" to make ONE.

Today is the last day to enter our Summer Picnic PDF pattern gift-away!

Did you get your entry in on that post? 

We'll draw for our 2 winners TOMORROW, 5/27/25.

The PDF pattern for Summer Picnic is currently 25% off in the Quiltville Store through Saturday 5/31/25. No coupon needed.

Stars For The Win!

Stars and Scraps were meant for each other! Create this stunning star quilt in scrappy plaids from recycled shirts or with your own stash yardage. Piecing options, full color photos and graphics and many tips for easy piecing pleasure included.

Quilt Size: 72’’ X 72’’

I'll be drawing for two lucky winners who will each win a Summer Picnic PDF pattern from me and a Paw Paw's Shirts fabric roll from  Cotton to Quilts.

The Paw Paw's Shirts roll is so cute and will enhance your own fabric stash!

On this Memorial Day: It's the last day for the Quilter's of the Night retreat.  They are making beautiful things!

With the constant rain we may not get over-the-porch-rail photos accomplished, but I'll have more design wall photos to share tomorrow.

And today will just be a slower-paced day here as we hold reverence for those who gave their ultimate sacrifice not even realizing just who they were making this sacrifice for.

They had no idea of the things we would be facing today at this period in time. They just gave their all without question.

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

In memory of those who gave their all and died for our freedoms.

We thank you with all of our hearts.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone -