Star of Maghrib - A Quiltville Winter Mystery!

Welcome to our yearly Quiltville Winter Mystery!

Pack your bags and prepare your fabrics.

We are embarking on a creative journey to a land where ancient artistry meets the midnight sky - Morocco!

The Maghrib is a region in Northwest Africa comprised of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania, and the territory of Western Sahara.

In this year's mystery we will stitch a beautiful quilt inspired by Marrakesh, Morocco - Al-Maghrib—meaning: "The place where the sun sets." 

We pronounce it MAG-rib.

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We're On A Countdown!

Those of you who are my age may remember that One Hit Wonder song with the lyrics that went:

"It's the FINAL COUNTDOWN...." Da da da da....Da da da da da .....

And now you've got your ear worm for the day because this is the song that keeps going through my head on an endless loop as we get things ready for tomorrow.

Bit by bit, everything is falling into place, and then overnight I feel the need to make a change, and back to the text writing I go. 

Today, after our workshop session, and before I leave for the chiropractor - that PDF will be ready and we'll be all systems go for our Halloween release of this year's Quiltville Winter Mystery Intro post.

I hope!

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These Crazy Days!

I'm going to start this post with Flash right here.

Something amazing has happened.

I never thought it would!

If you will remember, Flash has been with us a bit over a year and a half now. I think? You know, time flies around here.

It was JUST this spring when he finally learned how to control his tail and gave it a full and upright "up periscope!" that even let us know that he in fact, yes in deedy, is a he.

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Another Retreat In The Books!

It was a bit brisk in the morning when we stepped out to grab a group pohoto -

Some had to leave early, and our group mom was switching out mid retreat to attend grandkid events! 

It was a revolving door of quilters and quilt projects and it just added to the happy chaos.

The October Quiltvillians retreat also put us on the countdown to the end of the season.

They were our "Three retreats to go!" group!

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Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin'!

Yesterday was just the most beautiful day, through and through.

I found 2 willing hikers to head up to Grayson Highlands in search of ponies.  (All the while my head was saying "please be there! please be there!")

Autumn colors still surround us, and that bright blue sky and the abundant sunshine somehow made the beautiful reds, golds, and oranges just that much brighter.  More intense.

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Weekend Quilt Warriors

Project after project after project!

The October Quiltvillians have so much quilting going on - some even burning way past the midnight oil to get the job done.

Check out Kimi's Waterford top - It's DONE! 

I love seeing this so much!

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Off To A Grand Start!

The dining room is full -

The porch tables are empty.

While there is sunshine in the afternoons back there to be enjoyed as long as it lasts, it's safe to say that meal times have all been moved inside.

And walking into the clatter of forks on plates, bursts of laughter and so much chatter is also a heartwarming thing when I come through the front door.

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A Bit of This, A Bit Of That -

How can it be Friday already? Where did this week go?

Tuesday and Wednesday went poof with family time.

Thursday? The October Quiltvillians were just getting started, and projects were already appearing on design walls.

And after getting some mail order out and checking my to-do list - I found I had some time to put together some more kite blocks.

I'm sticking with the layout I'm already going with, but there are so many things you can do with a one-patch quilt!  Somewhere...there has to be kite graph paper out there. Isn't there?

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Time Out With Family!

It feels like at least 4 days since I sat down to write a post.  I only missed yesterday!

But boy, did we cram in a lot of togetherness time in that 24 hour period.

It was priceless, and much needed and I'm so glad my sister Joy, her husband Mark and my niece Emory came to see us.

We live about the farthest away from family as any of us do and folks just do not make it "out east" that often.

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All Quilted Out!

I waved the Brown Bird Bee off this morning - cars packed with all of the quilting things they brought for a Wednesday to Tuesday fun filled retreat!

And while there has been frost on the grass the past couple of mornings, the afternoons have been lovely and we were able to get everyone on the porch for photo taking - even if sweaters and sweatshirts were required.

It's that bi-polar time of year. Cold in the mornings, lovely in the afternoons.  Dressing in layers, and welcoming hot beverages to warm our hands!

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Festival! PDF Pattern Gift-Away!

Happy Monday, folks!

We had our first frost over the weekend, and it looks like our warm fall is making its way out of here.

There is still some color left on the trees, but I know it won't last too much longer - 

But let's keep the warm and cozy going with a new PDF pattern release and a Gift-Away!

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Friday In A Nutshell -

Five Rows Down!
On a day where I drove nearly 2 hours one way to pic up my new glasses at Costco in Winston-Salem, I was still able to get a bit of sewing in.
Not much, but I still see progress, and I'm thrilled with how this traditional design is coming along.
I also chose the alternate route to travel giving me more views of the gorgeous autumn splendor as I worked my way down from the mountains to the piedmont.
I think we are at peak color now, or close to it, and with last night's bit of storm and wind, it's falling.

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All On A Brown Bird Thursday!

Mark this date.  Or yesterday's date as that is when I took this photo.

And today, too - as the temperature won't be that much different but tomorrow we will have highs in the 40s.

We've got to soak up as much porch time as possible!

I was invited to a yummy lunch on the porch yesterday and there was no way I was going to say no. 

Mid-October porch time is just awesome!

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Tulip Swirl Check In!

October is our quarter-year check-in on our one year long Leader & Ender challenge!

This year's challenge is called Tulip Swirl and I know many of you were off to a great start on it.

When it comes to Leader & Ender challenges, I kind of poke along building units on the side and it is usually sometime after January when I finally have enough units to start thinking about layouts.

The one thing to remember about Leader & Ender challenges is that it is not a race. Take your time. Build units on the side in between the lines of chain piecing on your main projects, and just see what you can build over time.

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Obsessed or Infatuated?

I've been on a mission to find out as much as I can find out about the different names of my current Vintage Rose Star project.

That led me to looking up the Oxford Union Old Library (built in 1857 by architect Benjamin Woodward.)  This library is a masterwork of Victorian Gothic architecture, originally built as the society's debating chamber before becoming a library.

Why don't we have libraries like this?!

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Little Time To Sew -

My biggest fear when it comes to writing daily?

Nothing to post about!

And maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Because how can I really write about a morning spent finishing up laundry, folding towel baskets, covering pressing stations, cleaning out fridges and the dishwasher and making 12 beds as if it will hold anyone's interest?

Sometimes that's all a morning can give me.  Not so interesting, but constant.

There is a sense of security in that constant!

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Great Quilting Weather!

I snapped this photo yesterday afternoon after the rain had stopped.

It had come in torrents and buckets overnight.

The rain gauge showed 5.7 inches of rain had fallen during this "event."  We need it so badly, so I wasn't complaining. I was just happy that it slowed down to a bare mist by the time the Muddy Creek Misfits were packing up around 10am yesterday.

This weekend flew by so fast!  And due to the weather, we opted for no over-the-porch-rail photos.

Sometimes we get them, sometimes we don't.

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Change Of Seasons -

This seems to happen overnight.

We've had some beautiful days , temps high 70s f pushing 80 - one day at 84 which felt somehow surreal considering it is nearing mid October -

But summer eventually does come to an end.

I looked out the sliding glass door to see that daylight seemed a bit more golden and stepped out onto the front porch to look at the trees.

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All The Goings On!

First things first - this is DONE DONE DONE!

And I love it to bits.

I am thrilled with the fabric usage, though it didn't use as much of the small stuff as I thought it would.

I love the way the stars look more "light than dark" because I alternated neutral strips with colored strips in the piecing. Same with the string piano key border.  

And that is how they are able to stand out so well against the green/red backgrounds.

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NEXT!!

I don't know about you, but there are these quilty muse voices that come around every once in a while (Because hearing them constantly would mean I was definitely a bit crazy?) daring me to stop whatever I'm doing and make good use of some aspect of the Scrap User's System that has been neglected for a while.

This is such a place.  My scrap squares drawer.

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A Bit Of Out & About -

I got out of Dodge yesterday.

The objective?  To get myself to Costco in Winston-Salem (100 miles away) and get my glasses ordered up with new prescription.

Of course, an excursion like this becomes a plan to do all of the things and hit all of the places I could and still be back by dinner time.

Costco, Indian Market, 4 2nd hand stores and an antique mall happened before I met up with Dave and friends for dinner!

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Hurry, Before It Rains!

Saturday afternoon, in between rounds of intermittent rain predicted for all dal long?

Would we be able to get this done before the next cloud burst?

And what about our over the porch rail photos?  Would we be rained out?

I checked the weather app on my phone.

I checked it again.

I checked it and rechecked it all through the day and finally....a break in the weather between 3pm and 5pm that could just make it work.

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Making The Most Of Porch Time!

It's definitely autumn.

But it's still been nice enough out on the porch to make the most of porch time while we can still have porch time.

Oh, how I hate to see porch time go!

This was the scene I arrived to on Saturday morning - Project Linus Metrolina ladies crocheting, enjoying coffee and conversation and making items for children in need.

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Hiking & Shopping Kind of Day!

We left the retreat mostly empty on Friday morning.

Half the ladies went to hit up the quilt shops.

Five of us went to get some steps in down Bear Branch road.

The weekend forecast showed rain moving on in, but Friday promised to be glorious.

We needed to be out in it!

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Kicking Off October!

Project Linus Metrolina is in the house and sewing up a storm!

I'm so excited to have these ladies from not-too-far-off Charlotte NC and surrounding areas up here for their first retreat.

They came ready to sew for a wonderful cause.

Nationally Project Linus has delivered over 10 million blankets to kids in need since its inception in 1995.

The Mecklenburg County Chapter of North Carolina was formed in February 2023 and delivered 1,001 blankets that year.

In January of 2024 they decided to expand their reach from just Mecklenburg County into the surrounding Counties of Union, Cabarrus, Gaston NC and York SC and starting in 2025 has officially known as the Metrolina Chapter!

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Hello, October!

Well, lookie here!  We've got a border!

I had to make some changes to what I originally thought was going to happen, but I am happy with how the whole feel of the borders turned out.

I wanted to keep the same unit that was in the corners of the string stars and just carry them out to the border - but it was going to take some math to make the corner turning just right.

That's where the inner border came into play.  Plan the outer border first, get it to turn where you want, and then build up the quilt center to fit the outer border with the inner border.

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