What About That Hexie Quilt?

First things first!  My website is back up and running.  YAY.  That is all.

Questions have come regarding that forever hexie quilt I've been working on for more than 6 years.

Oh, believe me - it's still in the background, but it hasn't made much of an appearance because the progress is slow, repetitive, and I thought - of little interest until I reach another big moment on it.

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In The Binding Basket!

I finished the binding on the String Rings quilt - but due to certain circumstances I have not been able to get a full out finished photo -

The first circumstance being the weather. It was barely above freezing by afternoon yesterday - and I spent the day flipping laundry and taking care of things...

All while discovering a water leak coming from the kitchen (underneath the dishwasher) that had been leaking into the cellar. ACCCCKKK!

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B.A.D. Bee Over The Rail!

With incoming snow and high winds, we opted for our Over-The-Porch Rail photo shoot on Saturday - and would you look at that sunshine?

Temps were in the low 60s, we were out in shirt sleeves - who could guess what would be coming in on Sunday night?

Yesterday (Monday morning) I woke up to 14 degrees. Brrrr!  We made the right choice of doing this earlier in the retreat.

Add to that that the ladies were checking out yesterday morning (one of these years we will get them to stay until Tuesday, but some still had to go to work!) and we made the right choice.

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Sewing, Snowing & Blowing!

Happy Monday, everyone!

In all honesty, the Quilting Quarters were the happiest place to be as our weather went from Fake Spring back to winter in the course of  one day.

There is snow and wind as of last evening - and it is supposed to continue through the day.  But the quilters are not skipping a beat!

Who needs to be outside when we've got all of this going on inside?

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Full On Quilting Weekend Ahead!

With each year that passes (I can't believe we are in Quiltville Inn Season Seven already!) there are things that need to be replaced, refreshed and redone.

And let's face it, after a couple of big quilts (Man, I love big quilts but it's been a lot!) and after Mystery Season is over I like to have something that I can see done in a flash.

Or a bit more than a flash, but still less than a big quilt kind of job.

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B.A.D.Bee In The House!

They're Baaaaacccckkkk!

It's been a long two years.

Last February we had to postpone their retreat due to a really bad ice storm that rolled through on their week to be here.

February is always iffy, but it comes with the caveat (and understanding) of either full refund should weather shut us down, or just move their dates to the next year with one free night added in as interest paid!

I'm so happy they are back!

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What Beast To Bind!

After getting Quiltville Inn ready for the arrival of the B.A.D. Bee quilters I was able to grab some time to get the binding on the String Rings quilt.

Red for the win!

I tried several colors that would have worked from green to purple to blue to black, but red was the one that seemed to tie everything together, so red it is.

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Quilting Up String Rings!

This happened!

And yes we have a name - because nothing else sat as right with me as String Rings did.  

It is what it is.  

Even if they are more octagon shaped than completely round, you can't help but see the rings when you look at the whole quilt, spread out for all to see.

I loaded it, chose a pattern, and got her quilted!

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First 2026 Over The Rail!

Who would guess a week ago we were still plowing snow hoping to clear the drive and the parking lot before these lovely ladies showed up for retreat?

Some snow still remains in places where the "sun don't shine!" but little by little things are looking up.

(Yeah, don't tell me about this next incoming weekend - winter may have its last hurrah yet.)

We were a smaller group, but mighty and they got a lot done!

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On Valentine's Weekend!

I got to spend Valentine's Weekend with the February Quiltvillians!

The last retreat I was here for was in October just before heading out to Vancouver, Washington in the aftermath of Jason's surgery.  Then on to my Dad's in Arizona. I missed the only November retreat we schedule due to the looming holiday season.

And December? I missed that one too as I was in Germany and Austria.

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Lupine & Laughter PDF Pattern Gift-Away!

Happy Valentin'es Day!
I thought there would be no better day to kick off the newly re-written PDF pattern booklet of Lupine & Laughter than today. And yes, there is a Gift-Away!
All of the parts have been unscrambled and presented in a coherent compilation with all of the helps, hints, tips and tricks included in one volume.
I have loved sharing our yearly Quiltville Winter Mystery with you, every step along the way.

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Borders, Borders, Borders!

Can you see what is happening here?

If it's not perfectly clear, I've got the one big long border length I made face down on the machine bed and I am stay-stitching down both sides of the border length to anchor all of those seams and also preventing any stretch.

Piano key borders are like accordions...they really do have a lot of give, so stitching down either side just shy of 1/4'' from the edge will help with all of that.

And doing it back-side-up allows me to manage which way the seams need to go so they don't go flipping on the feed dogs.

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More To The Story -

After Hazel Grey had been hanging around for several days - we noticed something else.

There were two littles coming out from under the old general store - 

OH NO!

How many more were there? 

Hence the nightmares of invading cat colonies started disrupting my sleep.

Were they born under the general store? Or was Hazel dumped with these babies by someone who didn't want them?

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How Could I Not?

She came meowing. To the backdoor of the QPO studio.

I opened the door, asked her what she wanted, and she walked right in like she owned the place.

I sat in my chair, she jumped into my lap and immediately started making biscuits.

I said "Okay, then." and I grabbed Tula's brush and started to brush her fur and the purring got louder.

She head bumps.  She rubs.  She "makes muffins" as my son used to call it when he was little because he couldn't remember the word "biscuits."

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Things Are Ramping Up!

This is the snow & ice curtain hanging off of the side porch at Quiltville Inn.
The ice is SO THICK!
I took this photo before son Jeff grabbed a porch chair and used it to break the ice off where it was hanging below the gutters.
We protected the top of the Generac by placing a palette on top of it to divert any falling ice and protect it from any direct hits.

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A Place For Every Scrap!

As I relished in my sewing time in the basement studio over the weekend, I was also crossing my fingers and my toes that this would be the LAST of the iced-in-snowed-in weekends we would have with this winter.

Enough is enough. Retreats start this week.

We've got to have some sunshine and a bit of warmth to melt the snow pack that is still covering the yard and the back parking lot at the inn.

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Bursts of Color!

We took a walk through Lowes yesterday after my appointment with the dermatologist.

No matter how much snow there is outside I saw the hope of incoming spring making an appearance around every corner.

Blooming orchids!

Bags of potting soil, bird feeders, they've even put the lawn mowers out front.

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Plowing The Snowcrete!

I took this photo of Hubster Dave on his big red tractor yesterday afternoon.

We'd already been to the inn and back - I had to put an industrial heater to blow hot air at the compressor for the sewing room split unit.  It was frozen up and encased in ice - all of which had slid off the roof and surrounded the unit.

This spring a little shelter thing will be made to keep falling snow off the unit!

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What's Sewing On?!

Questions, questions and more questions!

I've received more comments to please share what those block parts I kitted up were going to turn into.

SOMETHING SIMPLE!

I can't resist a simple sawtooth star, and they work up so wonderfully in scraps!

The one thing I'm not used to is having one common fabric as the background and I'm having a hard time staying focused.

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Cats of Marrakech! (And Virginia!)

Wasn't there a movie somewhere where the cats were space aliens, and more intelligent than humans and they were plotting to rule the world?
Or was that just my imagination?
I remember while visiting Egypt that the cats were everywhere and revered.  Fed.  Vaccinated. Taken care of by EVERYONE.
I saw the same thing happening in Marrakech.
And this cat loving mama enjoyed every one I saw.  From Marketplace to Mosque - the world is being run by cats.

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Still So Much Snow!

Things have not been thawing out -

Virginia has been frozen and snow-covered for what feels like forever at this point, and here we go into February!

Retreats are scheduled to start on February 11th - so please, Mr. Sun - shine down some warmth over here so we can thaw out the parking areas and clear the walkways and get everything ready!

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It's Still Here!

The snow and the ice is still here.

More snow on top of the ice.

I had so many asking me "What about Flash???" that I thought I better take some photos as proof of life.

We are still parking at the bottom of our drive-hill, and using either the RZR with chains on, or the 4WD pickup with chains on to shuttle us to the bottom where the Subaru is parked because that's the only way of navigating our drive.

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