While I Was Away....

Spring crept in!

One of the wonders of moving to a new place in winter is finding out what actually comes up in the spring and where!





Temps are not reflecting that it is spring yet, that is for sure! This is the latest spring arrival I can remember since living "south". It's also the earliest easter most of us will EVER see because of the way the calendar works. Something like, Easter won't be this early again until those of us reading this message are long gone to kingdom come? Interesting......(but still cold!)

Buddy is still hobbling around with his leg in a cast. He is getting around quite well right now,but still,he is limited to where he can and can't go. While he was out doing business, I brought the camera to snap some pics of what is blooming here!

You can't miss the daffodils! They are big and yellow and springing up in the front flower beds! I need to get in there and clean the leaves out from around them. Daffys are alwais the first thing I think of when I think of spring and I an so happy to have these!

Also along the side of the driveway, I discovered grape hyacinths coming up..SO CUTE!

And look at this bush! I don't know what kind of bush this is,but the blossoms are like snow flakes.

When I lived "north" Forsythia was always the first sign of spring there. It bloomed long before tulips could even think about opening up.

And look! I have a pink blooming tree of some sort! *LOL* Oh, I loved Lucy's pink tree in Holland, and now I have one of my OWN! (Lucy, is your's ready to bloom yet? or is it too early?)


I also wandered down by the creek, Sadie at my side (Buddy gave up and was plopped on the lawn closer to the house just observing us) and took some pics.

The creek bed is DEEP....but according to our realtor who also lives in this "four brooks" area, has never overflowed that he can remember in 30 years or so. And it is quite a slope UP to the house, a long distance, so I am not in danger of studio flooding.

I just love having this nature all around me!

Last night I ventured out and drove to Durham/Chapel Hill NC for a guild meeting with the Durham Orange Quilter's Guild! I met up with a bunch of ladies at a place called "Squids" for dinner, and it was FABULOUS! I had a seafood Fla Diavolo. Scrumptious...and I swear to you they had the best hot hushpuppies I have ever had. And they kept bringing more! Seriously, if they rolled these in cinnamon/sugar they could have been dessert, they were that good.

The have a terrific guild with so many talented ladies. Show and tell went on and on. I will be doing three workshops there at the end of July, and really looking forward to getting to know these ladies better!

So what's on the agenda now that I'm home for almost a couple weeks?

Drivers License Test (WRITTEN! ACKKKK!)
License Plates/Registration
Change Bank Info (gotta put the new address on all the accounts)
GET HAIR CUT!

These are the most pressing things for me today. And then I get to come home and work on customer quilts for a while, and head back into Downtown Winston Salem for choir practice. Being Easter Week, there is lots of music to rehearse! Oh, did I forget to mention that I auditioned for the choir at St Pauls? What better way to meet people than to just join in? That and quilting is all I really need to get me situated in a community.

Other than that, I've got a quilt for the book that needs a border...and I've got THREE quilts for the book that need quilting! That should keep me busy over the next couple weeks along with catching up with customer quilts. They've all been so patient with me through this move.

Oh...and Jeff just asked if he came with me to run the errands, if we could go to the Chinese Buffet place by the bank for lunch. Smart kid. He is learning how to work his mama into a free lunch out! *LOL*

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Email Shenanigans!

Is it a St Paddy's Day Prank?!?!

Okay, so I AM wearing green,but that doesn't seem to matter. My email isn't working! It isn't coming in from my server, and if I send OUT..it never gets to where it is supposed to go. So..I'm switching email addresses until it is FIXED! You can now reach me at my alternate address of Quiltville@Yahoo.com

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The Mysterious NEXT MYSTERY!

I've been getting mail asking for more specifics on the next Mystery! I originially said I was going to start posting it on April 1st. I know that is looking closer!

You know, I moved just ONE MONTH ago? It was Feb 11th when the moving van dumped everything on my door step. That one month anniversary passed a few days ago, and it occurred to me that out of that one month...I've spent 2 weeks of that time out on the road teaching!

So I know you are anxious for more info. I've got the Mystery quilt designed. I've got it broken down into units, how many of what, etc. I've got part of it made so I can show you samples. I am figuring yardage, because if I go by what EQ says...you need more than 25 yards for a 70X90 quilt top! *LOL* So I'm cutting pieces myself to see how many of what I can get out of a yard, and going from there.

Parts of this quilt are scrappy. Parts of it aren't, so there will be yardage you can find hopefully in your stash. I want you to shop your stashes FIRST. That is the challenge!

For now, I will tell you that you need approx 1.5 yard of assorted (meaning every color as long as it reads dark) dark 2" strips, any length. Because it is a scrappy unit, the number of strips you may need may vary depending on how many sub-units you can get from the length of your scrap strip.

To go with the 1.5 yards of assorted dark 2' strips, you need the same amount (approx 1.5 yard) of 2" light strips.

If you don't have enough strips, you can start culling through your FQs and scraps, pulling out things to cut into 2" strips. Throw in some un-loved pieces. Throw in some "ehhhhh" stuff that is okay, but you are tired of seeing it laying around. Throw in something that is just NOT your style that somehow crept into your stash. Try to get a good variety of colors, as in....everything but the kitchen sink!

That should be enough to get you started. In about a week, I'll have the rest of the yardage figured and will post that.

This quilt uses the EZ angle ruler. Many of you will have this from our last mystery, but if you don't have one, you can get one HERE!

I will also include the "traditional" rotary cutting directions for any parts that require a specific ruler, but believe me, this ruler is terrific!

Bear with me...I have many irons in the fire right now! I guess part of the Mystery is not knowing when I'll be able to post the next clue! *LOL*

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This Leprechaun is HOME!

SO...another week has gone by! What have you all been up to while I've been gallavanting around? :cD

I'd love to thank the guilds in Aiken, Santee/Elloree, and Augusta for hosting me this past week! I had a wonderful time. Everywhere I stayed a new friendship was made, or an old one was deepened and strengthened, and I thank you all!





Yesterday's class for the Virginia Bound quilt workshop was the icing on the cake. We had 26 (or was it 27? I lost count!) quilters attending, and since it was a string type scrap class, we had mess everywhere!! It was so fun....I'd walk by and the ladies would be digging into their piles...I'd come back around and the piles seem to have grown even bigger as they continued to dig and FLUFF up their scraps. We had quite the laugh about it.

This class starts with instruction for drafting your own block! So not everyone was working on the same block size. That also made the class fun. Now that the ladies know how to do it, they can draft the block in any size they want for any project they want it to fit.

Everyone had different color/fabric choices they were working on, and it made for some interesting blocks. We had christmas fabrics with a gold background, we had christmas fabrics with a cream background, we had blue/cream.....purples/blues/teals against pastels, we had purples against green, green against cream, brights against black, plaids against shirtings, orientals against creams, you name it, we had every color combo under the sun and they were fabulous!





The facility was great too. Lots of light and lots of room to spread out. Lunch was provided, the best chicken strips, and I'm not kidding you.

We finished up about 4pm and I hit the road right then anxious to get back to Winston Salem. It was a 4 1/2 hour drive from Augusta all the way home, and a good part of it was through black nasty thunderstorms, but I knew coming north that I'd work my way out of the way of this storm system, so I kept going. I just wanted to be home and sleep in my own bed.






Thursday and Friday nights were fun and special for me, as I got to stay with my son & his significant other :c) It was the first time I got to see their place since they moved in, and we had a really good time. They are fixing their place up so cute and homey. Jason was even spending time in the yard on friday, and that tickled me. When he was growing up he would grumble and moan about having to do yard work, and here he is working on their place! I'm proud of both he and Kim for how hard they are working to make this house a home for the two of them.

I've got lots of packing and organizing to do. Tomorrow night I'm doing a trunkshow/lecture in Durham NC! At least it is closer to home. I'm meeting the gals from that guild for dinner which should be fun. It's just a quick evening thing.

I have a June 2nd deadline for my book, AND...I got a call from my Editor while I was away! I am so excited about this book project. You'll just have to bear with me if posts aren't as frequent while I buckle down and make this dream come true!

For those wanting to participate in the next mystery..that is still ON. I just need a couple weeks to get everything together so I will be posting the fabric requirements on April 1st! And we'll go from there.....

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