Wild & Goosey Time with Quiltmaker!

The May/June issue of Quiltmaker Magazine with my Wild & Goosey paper pieced blocks is just about to hit the news stands!

And don't forget that this issue includes Part 2 of my Lazy Sunday mystery!

I know you’ve been waiting for it ---and so have I.

I started piecing these little  "Wild & Goosey" gems while on the road a few years ago – and slowly my collection of blocks is growing.

It was a lot of  fun to include the cut off triangles and crumbs from students projects, gathered and gleaned at the end of class -- to include their scraps with mine!

I went through the archives to see just WHEN I started piecing them…and I found this photo of my beloved Magenta Featherweight, may she rest in pieces:

WAHHHHH!

This was the stack I was trimming up when we were first renting a cabin in the Western North Carolina Mountains to see if that is where we wanted to end up ---My stack has sat since the leader/ender spools took over!

My basket is full!  It’s time to remove some papers and make a quilt!

Here is the block I sent into Quiltmaker!

Sample quilt layout!  Whoowhoo!

Be watching for the magazine – that is where you are going to find the foundation piecing template.  You can find the directions for the sample layout on the Quiltmaker Magazine site HERE!

And I’ve linked everything to the Addicted To Scraps tab at the top of the blog for future reference!

Happy Goose-ing! And as we all know very well:

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A Stop at the Depot!

Tuesday, after Jason headed southward home to Columbia, South Carolina –I looked at my watch and decided to “Detour to the Depot” ---

The Depot at Gibson Mill in Concord, NC is “sort of” on my way home ---and if you have the desire to wander and explore, this is the place!

Be prepared to spend a lot of time.

The Depot really IS an old mill – and is the largest antique mall in the whole of the south with over 550 booths and covers over 88,000 square feet.

MECCA!!

Upon arriving --- this was my first glimpse down just one aisle:

WHERE. TO. START?!

I walked all the way to one end, and then began to thread my way across this vast space ---cool!  The photos I took are in no particular order.  Just kind of the way I came across things.  In my wanderings there are certain things I keep an eye out for ---and I’m sure you could have guessed:

Quilts, quilt tops and quilt blocks

Sewing baskets and Sewing Notions

Vintage machines –including toys, treadles and tails!

kitchen items

tins with advertising – especially toiletries and medicinal tins

And anything from “MY” childhood that should not be in an antique mall in the first place, because I am just NOT THAT OLD!

Take a walk with me:

Lovely string quilt, pieced quickly, batted thickly, and tied for extra warmth!

Vintage Sew Master toy machine – too spendy for my blood!

Ocean Waves variation – LOVE LOVE LOVE!

Did she not have enough blocks to make the quilt big enough? SO added sashing, cornerstones and borders? Or….did she run out of red?  LOOK:

One of these things is not like the others!

Were these earlier blocks finished by someone else later? And just one more block was needed?  I love the bottom block on the right…flipped the other way ---one of THESE things is not like the others either!  I just love this about antique quilts…spontaneity, with make-do attitude.  This really makes for an interesting quilt, much more so than if it had been pieced perfectly all matched and “RIGHT”.

I hurried over here – and walked away.

Both of these machines, though they look “Vintage” are actually Chinese reproductions.  There is no serial number plate at the bottom of the pillar as with vintage machines.  Learn and know what to look for ---the one on the right had 15C as its model number.  The C means it was manufactured in China.

Now This one is Real!

The serial number gives it a manufacture date of 1938.

Old New Home, cabinet in bad shape ---machine frozen solid.

$200.00 ---too pricey!

Man People Cave!

What a great idea – there are comfy chairs and couches – just hand the man the remote and keep shopping!

Simple bow-ties on a ladder – I love how these are placed in rows!

Sweet fabrics from 1900!  But this has been quilted later – it has poly batting in it.

Cute quilting though! And I love the navy/yellow/pink combo!

ANOTHER Black side 127!  I swear they made gobs of these!

Hanging Baskets from an old bed spring?  Won’t work in my house, but was cool here!

OH! LOVE!!

But left it – $1,000.00.  Not even on a good lottery day!

Now this I love more!  Little 9 patches in windmill blocks…FUNKY fabrics!

Would those plaids and stripes and color combos drive you nuts?

I LOVE IT!!

One more machine – a Universal. With certificates of ownership!

I had to fight the urge to remove the PIN RAG--

1955!

If you see a machine with a bit of cloth on its neck like this….check the decals underneath. Often times they are obliterated by pin scratches otherwise known as “pin rash”.  Do not do this to your machines!

The only thing that came home with me was a vintage iron.  And it’s still in the bag, and I haven’t tried it yet – but it was worth a long wander for the inspiration and surrounding myself with things I love – the thrill of the hunt! You never know what you can find.

Today is not going to be so fun.  Tax time you know? Which means I have an appointment at the bank to move some stuff around --- I can see myself sitting in the bank lobby for hours waiting for someone to shuffle me into their little glass walled cubicle-office.  I’ve never sewn hexies in a bank before….but they are coming with me!

From there, Shamu needs an oil change, tire rotation and since we are headed back to the mountains for more property hunting tomorrow, it has to be done – of course—TODAY. More hexie sewing time!

Glamorous? Nope!  But must get it done!

And just to leave you with a smile:

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March 27th Quilt-Cam!

March 27th.  I have no idea how it is the 27th already – there are huge holes in my calendar that’s for sure!

This is Arlo!  You may have seen his picture before on a previous Quilt Cam post.  He’s the sweet puppy who owns Liz ---and I posted about his positive/negative tin counterpart on one of the posts from Portland last week!

Arlo is not quite sure what to think of the white-on-black version of himself!  FUNNY!

Liz writes:

I only wish I had caught a picture of him last night looking thru the storm door at Winston sitting on the porch among all the bags, machines and assorted stuff. The look on Arlo's face was truly puzzled. He couldn't tell if he was real or not.

You can tell that Liz has barely arrived home from Portland – her luggage is still by the door!

Come to think of it, my luggage is still by the door too…..it’s not going anywhere.  I fly out again on Monday!

Since arriving home, I’ve been putting the treadle-pedal-to-the-metal and working on my Sister’s Choice blocks.  Time is getting away from me, and I where I thought it wouldn’t take long to come up with 42 blocks…it’s hard when you don’t have concentrated time to just really…well….CONCENTRATE on it! 

I am currently at 23.  MORE than half way!!  *Oh Happy Happy Dance!*  And that’s what I’ll be working on tonight.

Click the arrow below to watch me live streaming if you are here at 9pm Eastern on March, 27th.  If it’s after that – guess what? You are watching the archived version.  Isn’t that sweet?

Let’s get this scrappy night going!

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Stop The Slippage!

I just returned from a fun lunch with my friend Mary – who has moved from about an hour’s drive from me, to closer! Only about 15 miles!

We are kind of in opposite directions from town, but there are places half way in between that we can meet for lunch ---PERFECT!  It was fun to catch up and we promised to get together more often.

Doesn’t life go like this for you?

“I was going to call you, but thought you’d be busy.”

“I know you’ve been traveling.”

“I know you are busy in your longarm business with customer quilts and it’s close to the holidays”

In my book there is no such thing as “Pestering a friend!” sometimes the suggestion of lunch is just the seed we need to put some time aside, and if there isn’t an email or text or phone call saying “Hey, let’s get together” it is too easy to fill the day and the week and the month with other “must do’s”  and the friend time never shows up at the top of the list.

If you have a friend you haven’t seen in a while – don’t be afraid they are too busy to hear from you!  You might just be the breath of fresh air and the push and the shove that they need to take some time for themselves in their otherwise busy crazy life.  I think we were that to each other today.

SO where does the title of this post come into play?

I had some students show me a very cool thing in Portland – and after lunch today I trotted over to CVS to pick up some Nexcare banadage tape.

It has a very rubbery waffle-y texture ---it’s clear ---and it helps keep rulers from slipping!

Bandage tape!  REALLY!

I should have guessed this would be a 3M product!

3M also makes the re-stickable strips I consider the Best Seam-Guide Ever!

If you look close here you can see a square of the tape on the backside of my ruler – I can easily still read the numbers through the tape…let’s give it a try!

I give this a complete thumbs up!  It didn’t drag on the fabric like sand paper dots do….and it kept the fabric from shifting while I was cutting.  Give it a try – I think you’ll like it!

Still planning on Quilt-Cam at 9pm Eastern.  Catch you then!

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