How did we spend our 4th?
With a taco bar, watermelon, brownies & ice cream and cut throat rounds of Mexican Train dominoes until it was late enough to go sit around the fire pit and just enjoy the fireflies with our neighbor friends.
Our gathering was set to begin at 3pm, which gave me several hours to decide what I was going to do with the pieced backing for my so-called "Flame Azalea" quilt (as I haven't come up with another name yet and that's what I keep going back to.)
How old is your oldest stash?
There was a large piece of this...and I'm guessing it is 1980s? It's not pink. It's not peach. It's somewhere in between, and that seems to be a color family I had more of than I thought?
At any rate...this is what I have ended up with in the latest cobbling of older stash into backings:
This will do!
The wider and narrower viny print on either side of the center panel are actually backing margins from an earlier quilt. It was a print that wouldn't work well cut up into smaller pieces so I had left it whole (And forgotten about it in the garage stash!) and even the lengths were perfect requiring no further piecing. The coloring here is fairly accurate.
These colors below are not accurate:
So happy that even these older, lesser loved fabrics have found a worthy place to land.
It will all work somehow.
I got this far before it was time to get home, clean up and head out to our friend's place.
And over the porch rail drive by!
Johanna had contacted me a couple of weeks ahead of the holiday weekend to let me know that she and her hubby would be in the area, and could they come by for a photo op??
Of course!!
Isn't her Old Town in Christmas fabrics just the cutest thing?? I loved seeing it up close!
She even got to meet Tula Lou!
From here they were headed over to ride the Virginia Creeper Trail from Damascus to Abingdon...and their summer adventure continues finally winding them up in Connecticut. It sounds like quite the road trip!
Thanks for stopping by, Johanna - it was wonderful to see you!
As for the rest of this long holiday weekend?
Maybe some cat naps?
And maybe I'll get that Flame Azalea loaded into the machine and choose a quilting design?
This evening we are going to a cookout at our auto mechanic's place. He's invited all of his clients and their families and it sounds like a great way to get to know more people in our little community.
That starts at 5pm.
I'll see what kind of trouble I can dig myself into between now and then.
How about your own holiday weekend?
This also showed up in my inbox yesterday!
I have some wonderful tours coming up including Morocco in January 2026, Romania in June 2026 and India in September of 2026!
Craftours is offering $250 off any 2026 tour booked now through 8/1/25.
Whether you're dreaming of exploring cultural landmarks, discovering new crafts, or having a unique travel experience, now is the perfect time to plan your next adventure.
I can't wait to travel and explore new places with you!
Quiltville Quote of the Day -
I'm filing this one under "Things unlikely to change."
Besides, we are enjoying a long holiday weekend exhale.
It does NOT include housework or dusting!
Enjoy your weekend, everyone!
Oh, we love playing Dominoes!
ReplyDeleteYour backings are always so pretty.
Very inspirational.
I took apart my new to me machine and cleaned and oiled everything.
She just gleams. Can't wait to sew with her but hubby needs to refinish and re wire her cabinet first.
Have a wonderful day 🌹
Blessings 💞 🙏
So glad you had a good 4th. Tonight's gathering sounds fun too. Love the Drive by over the Porch Quilt. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. I'm resting up to next week.
ReplyDeletealmost done emptying boxes after a recent move, would love to play with one of my machines this weekend!
ReplyDeleteVery fun backing Bonnie!
ReplyDeleteJohanna's Christmas Old Town is really cute.
Love the Quote of the Day :-)
I'm off to cook up some more dog food for my finicky diva of a dog. I cooked up a large batch last week (65 days worth) and I made the mistake of adding some chicken liver with the boneless thighs I was grinding up. Once I had it cooked, portioned and in the freezer, I started her on this latest batch. She turned up her nose at the food, I mean geez, I only added about 1/2 lb of chicken liver to 15 lbs of thigh meat. So, this morning I purchased another 10 lbs of thigh meat and some spinach (I still have plenty of carrots, apples and rice). I'd better get started or I'll never get back to my original plan to start piecing. It's always something with that darn dog. But that last batch of food is sure as heck fire going to be mixed in with the new batch, little by little. But you know, since it's all human grade food, I might just add some salt to one portion and see if I might make a meal or 2 out of it for myself. Though I'm not fond of chicken liver either.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the picture at the top of this post, I wondered what it was. To me, it looked like the image used of Mr. Electric in electric company ads. Thanks for all that you share. Cindy E.
ReplyDeleteHow about "Crowned Azalea"? or "Azalea Wreath"? Love the pattern. Kathy
ReplyDelete